The sideline behaviour of coaches at children’s team sports games

Objectives: This study aimed to establish the prevalence, pattern and nature of coaches' verbal behaviour at children's (ages 6-12 years) team sports events. The study draws upon the motivational model presented by Mageau and Vallerand (2003) to examine the influence of global (gender), contextual (sport related), and social (athlete gender) factors on coach comments. Design: A cross-sectional observational study of coaches stratified across four team sports: Rugby Union, Netball, Association Football and Touch Rugby. Method: The Observation Instrument at Sports Events was used to categorise covertly recorded verbal comments made by coaches at organised team sports games. Results: Overall, 10,697 comments were recorded at 72 games at a rate of 3.71 comments/minute; 35.4% were categorised as positive, 21.6% as negative, and 43.0% as neutral. Significant differences in negative comments were identified between sport (