Impact of Coach Athlete Relationship on Performance of Long Distance Runners in Selected Oromia Athletics Clubs

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of coach athlete relationship on long distance runner’s athlete performance in selected Oromia Athletics clubs. Triangulation design Cross sectional study design was employed. The population of the study were selected from four clubs. From four clubs108 athletes’ long distance events and 17 coaches were totally selected by availability sampling technique. The instrument of data collection used for this study was standard questionnaires and semi structured interviews. SPSS version 23 was used for statistical analysis of the data. Descriptive statistics such as percent, and frequency for demography of athletes and coaches while mean, standard deviation, skewness and kurtosis were used to analyze the current performance of athletes. Inferential statistics whereas, linear regression was used to analyze the impact of the 3C’s of coach athlete’s relationship on athlete performance The average performance of the four club’s female athlete is 32.6944 minutes, the dispersion from mean is 1.01937, it is (-.117) negatively skewed, and kurtosis is 0.250, this indicates a distribution that is too flat. Average time of male athlete is 29.72 minute. SD dispersion from mean is 1.30705 with skewness of 1.460; and Kurtosis is 3.169, (distribution of mesokurtic). Commitment of coach athlete relationship has an impact on performance of long-distance runners in selected Oromia athletics clubs has regression of 26.4% variance for female and 45% for male. Coaches-athlete closeness has significant impact on performance of long-distance runners in selected Oromia athletics clubs and it has a frequency of 50.9% difference for females and 37.2% for males. Complementarities revealed that interpreter variable explained by 20.45% for female performance and it has insignificant relations; however, on variable explained by 29.9% variance with significant relationships. Majority of Coaches are applying closeness, commitment and complementarities effectively to increase performance of their athlete by increasing their relation with their athlete; even if minorities are not always practice in the 3C’s effectively.