In the diploma work we focused on the impact of the coach-athlete relationship on motivation in alpine skiing, as we are convinced that this relationship is crucial for the success in competitions and has impact also on the quality of coaching. We were interested in coach-athlete relationship and how nowadays this relationship affects the athlete's motivation and persistence in alpine skiing. The measuring instrument was a self-administered questionnaire containing 40 questions and the answers were evaluated on a 5-point Likert scale. The subjects were Alpine skiers aged between 18 and 25, who have been skiing for more than 10 years and are competitively active. 109 competitors from 17 different ski clubs and sports clubs were asked. We tested four hypotheses. We have found that the coach-athlete relationship affects the athlete's motivation and that for athlete; coach is one of the main reasons for persisting in the sport. We noticed that there is a connection between different coaching techniques and the athlete's motivation. Competitors are more motivated when coaches use motivational speech, consult with an athlete about an important decision, accept and respect criticism, promise a reward, or give positive feedback. We concluded that in case of a bad coach-athlete relationship, women athletes are, on average, less susceptible to persisting in alpine skiing, also for women athletes trusting a coach is more important than for men athletes. We also observed differences in coaching techniques between older and younger athletes. While coaching younger athletes, coaches use more motivational speeches and penalize them if they do not follow the instructions, as a contrast while coaching older athletes, coaches focus more on open communication between coach and athlete and take feedback from athletes to adjust coaching.
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