Attribution of Athletic Expertise by College Coaches

Abstract

The goals of the study were to identify the factors that college coaches associate with athletic achievement and to test deliberate practice theory predictions for practice relevance, effort, and pleasure. Swimming, tennis, and volleyball coaches from Division I and Division III schools rank ordered 15 attributes that contribute to successful athletic achievement. They also rated the relevance, effort, and pleasure of 7 athletic and 7 everyday events for improving athletic achievement. The rank orders showed that the coaches primarily attributed athletic achievement to innate talent, intrinsic motivation, and effort while factors such as accumulated practice and type of the practice received lower rankings. Findings for practice effort were consistent with deliberate practice theory while the relevance and pleasure findings were mixed. Several explanations for successful athletic achievement, other than talent, are discussed.