Developing coaching strategies to enhance Singaporean athletes’ competency motivations

Abstract

The environment fostered by a coach can be an extremely important variable in an athlete’s or team’s drive towards success. Choices about whether perceived competence is seen as predominantly self-referenced, task-mastery oriented, other-referenced or performance-avoidance oriented are very important. Also, the extent to which the coach nourishes group-oriented or individual-oriented competence motivation in team sports is important. This study set out to analyse questions regarding competence motivations in the elite sporting landscape of Singapore. The results suggest that four basic competence needs should be considered highly by coaches in this context. In both team and individual sports, the following are important: the development of an athlete’s feelings of self-worth through awareness of competence; athletes should be reminded that they are perceived as competent by other competing athletes; and coaches should make explicit that athletes are competent and that the spectators of a match are enjoying their play. The final basic competence relates solely to team sports: the importance of the team’s performance or competence above all else. It is hoped that findings from this study might be useful to coaches and transferable to other Asian contexts.