Abstract des Autors

The article is based on an empirical study in which there was a focus on coaching behaviors and the coaching atmosphere through observation. This was done from the viewpoint of a favorable environment for children's growth. A total of 128 coaching sessions were analyzed using systematic observation and a scale developed for assessing the coaching event. Active, passive, responsive, and humanistic cluster variables were formulated from the scales. The instruments proved to be psychometrically adequate and they provided a lot of information from different aspects about coaches as educators. The results indicate that youth sport coaches can be regarded to be primarily subject oriented rather than human-relations oriented. Children did not have a great role in decision making, nor did they take part in activities demanding personal initiative. There were few occasions during the coaching events which displayed activities that were considered essential for developing initiative and cooperation. The age and experience of the coaches as well as the age and competition level of athletes correlated negatively with humanistic coaching. As the level of competition rose, the responsive component of coaching also decreased. Coach training did not appear to be effective in bringing about changes in the educational elements of coaching behavior. Verf.-Referat