Author(s): CARMAN LEUNG, K.M., DUDA, J.L., SHI, Y., YIP, H.D., Institution: THE EDUCATION UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG, Country: HONG KONG, Abstract-ID: 959

Introduction
Motivational climates are arguably to generate diverse outcomes in terms of youth players’ psychological states as well as actual behaviors during sport participations. These outcomes can be explained by the theory of empowering coaching, reflecting the coach-created motivational climates which are characterized as either empowering or disempowering (Duda et al., 2017). To date, limited studies have examined the perceptions of Hong Kong sport coaches regarding the coaching environments they created. The present study aimed to examine perceptions of coaches regarding motivational climates, specifically what they witness of their players’ participation attitudes and behaviors under empowering or disempowering climates and what elements can be associated with motivated and demotivated themes.
Methods
A semi-structured interview guide based on the Empowering Coaching Theory of Duda et al. (2017) was designed for adaptation to the local context. A total of 30 coaches with an age range from 19 to 63 years old (M=35.5; SD=11.94) were recruited. They were stratified by sex (50% male and 50% female) and coaching experience (60% with over six years and 33.3% with less than five years of coaching experience). Coaches were asked to recall their experience in carrying out specific coaching strategies that they thought were effective or ineffective in motivating young players, as well as young sport participants’ attitudes and behaviors that they have coached during the training and competition. A six-step thematic analysis procedure was performed to process the data.
Results
With respect to the motivation and experiences of youth players during sport participation, eight themes were identified, namely (a) hunger to achieve more, (b) commitment, (c) team cohesion, (d) expectations regarding excellence, (e) lifelong progression were recognized as optimally motivated attributes reflecting an empowering climate, while (f) passive coping, (g) fear of being a liability, and (h) discouragement from further development were recognized as demotivated attributes reflecting a disempowering climate.
Discussion
The results revealed that players who were motivated and had experience in empowering climates exhibited empowered characteristics, including autonomy support, task involvement, and social support, whereas the attitudes and behaviors of demotivated players tended to exhibit psychological need thwarting features, such as ego involvement and controlling behaviors. This study embraces the Empowering Coaching Theory as the theoretical framework to produce contributions to the theoretical literature, which extends our understanding of the attributes that can reflect specific coach-created motivational climates.

Duda, J. L., Appleton, P. R., Stebbings, J., & Balaguer, I. (2017). Towards more empowering
and less disempowering environments in youth sport: Theory to evidenced-based practice. In Sport psychology for young athletes (pp. 81-93). Routledge.