Motivation and Coaching Style Within Collegiate Athletes: An Intervention-Based Approach

Athlete motivation related to coaching style are important concepts in athletic performance and may determine overall success within team sports. Research has identified relationships between collegiate players’ motivational orientations and coaching style. It has been suggested that athletes who maintain a more intrinsically based motivational orientation favor long-term engagement and self-determined behaviors as opposed to extrinsic motivational strategies. Coupled with this notion, Mageau and Vallerand (2003) proposed that an autonomy-supportive coaching style directly influences the degree to which an athlete embodies characteristics associated with intrinsic motivation. However, it is not well understood how an intervention designed to improve coaching characteristics towards a more autonomy-supportive style will influence athlete motivation over a period of time. Therefore, this study proposes to investigate motivational differences in athletes at selected times during the competitive season and following an intervention designed to improve coaching style that embodies autonomy-supportive characteristics