Influence of formal and non-formal training on coaching style

Coaches have different profiles or orientations when it comes to their professional activity, depending on the contextual variables surrounding athletic training sessions, the personal characteristics of the coach and the educational process the coach has completed. The goal of this study was to determine how training/education (formal and non-formal) determines the direction that a coach may take in the performance of coaching functions. Three-hundred and thirty-four Spanish coaches of team handball (86.5% males and 13.2% females) an average of 32.30+/-8.9 years of age participated in this study. The study was descriptive and inferential and used a survey to determine coach profiles and education. Through the Coach Orientation Questionnaire, six coach profiles with optimal validity and reliability (alpha>.70) were found. Six factors emerged from the exploratory factorial analysis: orientation towards group work, technological orientation, innovative orientation, orientation towards dialogue, directive orientation and social climate orientation. The results indicated that the initial education of coaches is very heterogeneous, because coaches utilize diverse educational processes: federation-sponsored training, occupational training and university studies. Higher initial training/education seems to be related with features that are very desirable in a coach: orientation towards teamwork, technological orientation, innovative orientation and social climate orientation. Statistical analysis verified that determinants such as experience as a player, general academic and athletic education, continuing education and coaching experience were telling in the adoption of some coaching profiles.