SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE AS AN INDICATOR OF A COACH’S PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCE

Abstract

The purpose of the research is to study the role of social intelligence as a professional competency among coaches. In our research, we observed that the ability to predict behavior and situations, which is associated with the number of successful athletes trained, remains relatively stable with an increase in work experience. However, there is a decline in overall verbal comprehension and social intelligence indicators. Based on these results, it can be concluded that coaches’ professional competence is largely determined by their ability to predict situations and behavior, as well as their understanding of non-verbal signals. Interestingly, an increase in work experience negatively impacts the understanding of verbal signals and the overall social intelligence indicator. Several key findings emerge based on theoretical analysis and the study conducted with the coaches. Firstly, the coaches show an average level of overall social intelligence, in the first and second subtests, which assess understanding of non-verbal signals and social situation analysis, showing results that are more distinct. The significant positive correlations between these subtests, the general social intelligence indicator and the number of athletes achieving sports success, suggest that coaches with better-developed social intelligence abilities in predicting situations and understanding non-verbal signals have a greater impact on athletes' sport success. Furthermore, negative or unreliable correlations were found between the length of service of coaches and indicators of social intelligence. This implies that the ability to predict behavior and situations, associated with successful athletes, remains relatively stable over time, while indicators of verbal understanding and overall social intelligence tend to decline with increased length of service. Therefore, seeing the influence of coaches' social intelligence on athletes' performance and the decline in social intelligence with increasing experience, it is crucial to provide ongoing social intelligence training for coaches. This will help to maintain and enhance their social intelligence skills, ultimately benefiting the athletic performance of their athletes.