The effects of video feedback on coaches’ behaviour and the coach-athlete relationship

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of video feedback on coaches’ nonverbal behaviour, and its relation with their athletes’ anxiety and perception of the coaches’ behaviour and emotions. One experimental group was composed by 45 athletes and four coaches, and one control group by 58 athletes and five coaches. The tools were one Coaching Behaviour Assessment System (CBAS), one Coaching Behaviour Questionnaire (CBQ), and the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2). The participants responded to the questionnaires twice having two months in between. The coaches’ behaviour in competition was recorded. During the intervention, each coach received a frequency table with the a comparison of his and his team’s answers, and saw a video of their behaviour. Repeated measures ANOVA’s showed that athletes of the experimental group became significantly less anxious and that they perceived their coaches significantly more positively than athletes of the control group. The self-perception of coaches of the experimental group improved significantly more, compared to the self-perception of coaches of the control group. One-way ANOVA’s showed that goalkeepers in both conditions were significantly more anxious in the pretest and perceived their coaches less positively than field athletes in both pre- and posttest. It is concluded that an intervention using video feedback might have positive effects on the anxiety level and coach perception among athletes, and on the self-perception of coaches. It is also concluded that goalkeepers perceived their coach less positively and were more anxious compared to field athletes.