The Development of Coaching Competencies for Tennis Coaches in Tennis Clubs in Thailand

Abstract

The purposes of this research were 1) to examine the components of coaching competencies among tennis coaches in tennis clubs in Thailand, and 2) to develop a coaching competency framework for tennis coaches in tennis clubs in Thailand. A mixed-methods research design was employed. In the qualitative phase, in-depth interviews were conducted with five experts who were selected through purposive sampling, and the data were analyzed using inductive analysis. In the quantitative phase, data were collected through a questionnaire administered to 420 tennis coaches, who were selected using simple random sampling. The data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis with the Maximum Likelihood (ML) method.

The results revealed that the coaching competencies of tennis coaches in tennis clubs in Thailand comprised eight components with 42 indicators: 1) Knowledge (KL) with 7 indicators, 2) Skills (SK) with 7 indicators, 3) Interpersonal Relationships (RL) with 4 indicators, 4) Behavior (BH) with 6 indicators, 5) Attitude (AT) with 4 indicators, 6) Psychology (PS) with 5 indicators, 7) Communication (CM) with 5 indicators, and 8) Innovation and Digital Literacy (IN) with 4 indicators. The model demonstrated good construct validity and fit with the empirical data, as indicated by the following goodness of fit statistics: relative Chi-square was 1.13, Chi-square (χ²) was 902.94, degrees of freedom (df) was 801, the goodness of fit index (GFI) and the adjusted good ness of fit index (AGFI) were 0.91 and 0.90 respectively, the normal fit index (NFI) was 0.98, the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) was 0.017, and standardized RMR was 0.039. Therefore, the proposed model was found to be consistent with the empirical data, supporting the main research hypothesis.