Examination of coaching efficacy perception levels of coaches in the public service

Assuming that coaches in the public service have an essential role in the development of the country's sport, the efficacy or efficacy perception levels of these coaches are considered important. In addition, due to the lack of research on this subject, this study aimed to examine the efficacy perception levels of coaches in the public service in terms of variables such as gender, sport type, coaching certificate level, sports and coaching experiences. 324 coaches from each region of Turkey who have at least a second-level coaching certificate voluntarily participated in this research. In this study, the coaching efficacy scale, which was developed by Feltz et al. and updated by Myers et al. (2005), and adapted into Turkish by Unutulmaz and Gençer (2017) was used, as a data collection tool. In addition, a personal information form was used developed by the researcher. Data collection was carried out via a connection created over the internet network. The sub-dimensions of the scale and the general total scores of the variables of gender, sport type, and athletic experiences were analyzed with the independent two-sample t-test, and the variables of coaching document levels were analyzed with the one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) test. The efficacy perception levels of the coaches were 84.6% for general efficacy, 84.3% for motivation efficacy, 85.6% for technical efficacy, 81.2% for game strategy efficacy, 88.3% for character-building efficacy, and 82.5% for physical conditioning efficacy. There was no statistically significant difference between individual and team sports coaches in the perception of the general coaching efficacy and its sub-dimension. However, there were significant differences in general coaching efficacy and all its sub-dimensions between the levels in terms of coaching certification levels (p<0.05). Regarding gender type, there was only a significant difference in physical condition efficacy, where men coaches had a higher efficacy perception than women coaches (p<0.05). In addition, the game strategy efficacy perception levels of the coaches with sports experience were significantly higher than those without sports experience (p<0.05). The present study reveals that the participants' belief in their competence in coaching efficacy is at a high level. In addition, it can be concluded that there are no significant differences related to these variables when the physical conditioning efficacy of male coaches and the perception levels of game strategy efficacy of coaches with athletic experience are ignored. Another result of this research is that coaching certification levels have an impact on coaches' perceptions of coaching efficacy and that coaches with higher coaching certification have a significantly higher belief in their competencies. Keywords: Coaching efficacy, Sport type, Coaching certificate, Gender. September, 2022; 47 Pages