Abstract

RAIMUNDI, María Julia; SARRIES, Sofía; CORTI, Juan Facundo  and  CELSI, Ignacio. The perception of youth volleyball and basketball coaches of contents of precompetitive and halftime talks. CPD [online]. 2021, vol.21, n.3, pp.139-155.  Epub May 23, 2022. ISSN 1989-5879.

The present study aims to explore the perception of coaches on the contents of pre-competition and halftime talks using a mixed-methods approach. Participants were 21 youth basketball and volleyball coaches (u15, u17 and u19), mostly males (n = 20), from Buenos Aires (Argentina). Individual and semi-structured interviews were conducted to the coaches and through Grounded Theory the information collected was subjected to a qualitative analysis with program Atlas.Ti 7.5. Coaches highlight five relevant aspects of the contents in pre-competition and halftime talks: strategic, psychological, communicational, variables that influence the choice of content and specific halftime content. Analyzing the primary documents, significant quotes were associated with each category. The most mentioned category (i.e. greater frequency in data) was 'Strategic aspects', while 'Psychological aspects' were placed secondly. An association analysis was carried out to study the prevalence of the categories emerged from the analysis based on the sport, branch, and category. The results of this study provide clarity regarding which are the most valued contents for coaches to spread in these specific moments of interaction and which strategies they use to communicate them. Taking this information into account will be crucial to develop meaningful psychological strategies that enhance coaches' resources to cope with the demands of these specific situations.

Keywords : Self-perceptions; Verbal Behavior; Competitions; Coach; Youth Sport.

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