An exploratory examination of the effects of coaches' pre-game speeches on athletes' perceptions of self-efficacy and emotion.

Abstract

This study sought to explore the influence of the pre-game speech on athlete perceptions of self-efficacy and emotions. Participants included 151 competitive soccer players (M age = 14.21 years, SD = 1.85) and their 10 male coaches (Mage = 32.78 years, SD = 8.56). Athletes completed a survey before and after the coach's speech to assess self-efficacy and felt emotions. A repeated measures regression did not show an overall increase in self-efficacy. However, the amount of information perceived in the pre-game speech predicted self-efficacy variation. Functional emotions also varied over time with the amount of information again predicting this variation. The results of this study indicate that coaches have the potential to impact athletes ' efficacy and emotion prior to competition through a pre-game speech.