The Relationship between Coaching Competency, Coach-Athlete Relationship, Players Commitment and Team Performance on Higher League Football Clubs in Ethiopia: Exploring the impact of coaching competency and coach-athlete relationship on team performance in Ethiopian higher league football clubs

Abstract

The main objective of this research , to analysis about the relationship between coaching competency, coach-athlete relationship, team performance and very important player’s commitment on higher league clubs in Ethiopia. The total numbers of football clubs are 32. The clubs has be divided into two divisions (division A=16 clubs and division B=16 clubs). From the two division clubs, six clubs each (n=12) were selected by application of stratified random sampling techniques. In each football clubs, there are 25 players (n=400). From the total of 25 players in each club, 13 players randomly selected. Quantitative research approach correlation design was used. Besides, for order to collect the necessary data, a standard questionnaire as a major data collection method used. The questionnaire was adapted from the Coaching Competency Scale (CCS), Coach-Athlete Relationship Maintenance (CARM) and sport commitment (SC). The items 24, 28 and 25 respectively, and rated on five-point agreement Likert scale. Pilot test conducted to check whether it works in the Ethiopian context and questionnaire focus on the application of the item, feasibility and adequacy of items explained in the objective of the study. The questionnaire reliability was determined using Cronbach’s alpha for confirmation of the internal consistency of the scale and between items on each factor. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 25.0. Both descriptive and inferential statistics, 1 sample t-test, Pearson product moment correlation and multiple linear regressions used to analyze the data. The results of the study were revealed that the mean value of coaching competency (3.57), Coach-athlete relationship (3.42) and Players commitment (3.7) was significantly higher than the mean test value. Finding of the research that Ethiopian league football clubs coaching competency, relationship in team members and coach and players’ commitment seems above average by football players as perceived. The finding of one sample t-test indicated that the mean value of team performance (41.50) was significantly lower than the mean test value. This result shows that team performance is below average. The Pearson correlation coefficient value demonstrated that there was statistically significant positive correlation between coaching competency and team performance (r = .492, p < 0.01),coach-athlete relationship and team performance (r = .484, p < 0.01) and players’ commitment and team performance (r = .347, p < 0.01). Regression analysis value showed that there is a significant contribution of the variables to team performance F (3,152) = 23.314, P < 0.001. But the contribution of players’ commitment to team performance was found to be not statistically significant. Thus, Ethiopian higher league football club coaches should be given great consideration to develop the coaching competency and coach-athlete relationship rather than players’ commitment.