The interplay between coaches’ passion, perceived motivational climate, and feeling states in youth ice hockey players

This study examined the relationships between coaches’ types of passion (harmonious and obsessive), coaches’ own feeling states, players’ perceptions of the coach-created motivational climates, and players’ performance-related feeling states. It was hypothesized that coaches’ harmonious and obsessive passion for coaching would have differing interpersonal outcomes influencing players’ perceptions of the coach-created motivational climates and their own feeling states. Participants were 171 U16 – U20 ice hockey players and their 25 coaches involved at highest and second-tier levels. Coaches completed measures assessing their passion for coaching and feeling states, while players reported their perceptions of the coach-created motivational climate and their own feeling states. A path model with team-clustered standard errors revealed that empowering motivational climates were positively associated with players’ functional feeling states. Contrary to expectations, coaches’ harmonious passion was not significantly associated with empowering climates. Moreover, in contrast to theoretical predictions, a direct negative association was observed between coaches’ obsessive passion and players’ dysfunctional states. These findings contribute to the growing body of literature on the psychosocial factors underlying players’ feeling states, highlighting the potential relevance of coaches’ passion and feeling states for players’ experiences.