A comparative study of the athlete's motivation as perceived by the coach and athlete

The subjects were eight volleyball players, eight swimmers, and their two respective coaches from The University of Tennessee, Knoxville. All sixteen athletes were female and both coaches were male. The athletes were administered the Athletic Motivation Inventory by the experimenter. The coaches took the test for each of their eight athletes at their own convenience. They were asked to interpret and answer the questions as they thought the particular athlete would.

Test results were obtained from the Institute for the Study of Athletic Motivation in San Jose, California. Results gave percentile scores for the eleven traits that were measured.

The coaches' mean score was compared to the athletes' mean score for each trait. A one-way analysis of variance was the statistical measure used to compare the scores.

Results indicated a statistically significant difference between the coaches' and athletes' scores on only the desire trait. It was concluded that the two coaches were relatively successful in assessing their athletes' level of motivation.