Browsing by Author "Järvenpää, Jori"

The requirements of junior sport coaching have changed during the last two decades. Coach is expected not only to teach the sport but to educate and have influence on junior athletes' qualities comprehensively. The expectations of social education in junior coaching are more important especially in team sports. Primary school teacher has pedagogical, educational and group organizing skills because of his training and work experience. The purpose of this study is to examine how junior athletes evaluate the educational coaching skills of their coach who has the primary school teacher's degree. The definition of the educational coaching is based on the master's thesis of Harjunen & Pihlainen (2008). The research was done during the spring 2016 as a quantitative survey to those 14-21-year-old floorball junior players (n = 122) whose coaches have primary school teacher's degrees. The questionnaire used in this study was developed by Harjunen & Pihlainen in the above-mentioned master's thesis. The differences between means and the independent variables affecting them were analyzed by using the SPSS program. From the junior players' point of view coaches that had primary school teachers' degrees were generally very good at educational coaching. Especially they evaluated highly coaches' skills at 1) developing individuals, 2) planning the training, 3) supporting players to train independently and 4) having one-on-one discussions with the players. The youngest players in this study were more negative in their views than the older players who, on the other hand, underlined coaches skills to develop individuals. Views about coach's skills were more positive if player had been playing for a number of years, but the longer player had been under one coach's influence more negative the views changed. Junior player's parents' possible teacher background or junior player's own interest in teacher's profession didn't have significant influence on their views in this study.