Abstract

The International literature within the domain of Sport Psychology has recently stressed the importance of trainers and coaches on athletic performance, on the basis of what industrial and organizational psychology had discovered some decades before with the tradition of research on leadership. In particular, sport coaches’ behaviour and attitudes seem to have a deep influence on athletes’ performance and wellbeing; a special attention has been given to variables such as sport types (individual vs team), athletes’ age and experience (Smith et al., 1977; 1979; 1983). The role of gender has been investigated rarely and only in the most recent literature there is some space dedicated to such an issue (research works by Chelledurai and collegues). The present study has two different aims: on one hand to validate in the Italian context the Coaching Behaviour Questionnaire developed by Martin and Barnes (1999) and, on second step, to investigate if gender plays a particular role in the mental representation of the ideal sport coach. The theoretical framework we will make reference to is constituted primarily by the sport psychology literature. The paper presents in critical way the main results of research.