ABSTRACT: The researcher sought to compare the leadership styles and coaching behaviors of high school and collegiate head wrestling coaches, and the dynamic changes throughout the course of the wrestling season based on the perception of their student-athletes and the coaches' self-perceived leadership styles. The purpose of the current study was to compare the coaching behaviors and leadership styles of high school and Division III collegiate head wrestling coaches across three different points in time throughout the wrestling season (pre, mid, post). The Coaching Behavior Scale for Sport (CBS-S) was administered to high school and collegiate student-athletes three times throughout the season. The self-perceived version of the Leadership Scale for Sport (LSS) was administered one time to high school and collegiate head wrestling coaches. Qualitative measures in the form of one open-ended question was administered to student--athletes at each of the three time points throughout the season, and two open-ended questions were administered to the head wrestling coaches one time simultaneous to the LSS. Results of the LSS selfperceived version showed no significant main effects in leadership strategies between high school and collegiate head wrestling coaches. Significant differences throughout the course of the season were indicated on the CBS-S in the subscales of goal setting, positive rapport, physical training and conditioning, and mental preparation. Goal setting and positive rapport increased for both groups from the preseason to midseason, and then leveled off from the midseason to postseason. Physical training and conditioning, and mental preparation increased gradually throughout the season. Significant difference between groups existed on the CBS-S in the subscales of technical skills and competition strategies. Based on the perceptions of the student-athletes on the CBS-S scores, high school head coaches scored high on the subscales of technical skills and competition strategies when compared to collegiate coaches. The results of the open-ended questions indicated that according to the student-athlete perceptions, and self-perceptions of the head coaches, high school and collegiate head coaches displayed many similarities in some leadership and coaching behaviors, most notably training, technique and practices, but also had notable differences in leadership and coaching behaviors, most notably, individual instruction, support, tapering, management and organization, and recruiting and retention. Responses of open-ended questions as perceived by the student-athletes also indicated that difference in the dynamic changes throughout the course of the season occur between high school and collegiate wrestling coaches, most notably the amount of support provided to studentathletes and the usage of sport psychology strategies used.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship and difference between how NCAA Division I, team sport student-athletes perceive their own leadership behaviors and how their head coaches perceive the same student-athletes' leadership behaviors. In addition, further analysis examined perceptions between student-athletes and head coaches based on the student-athletes' gender and academic year in school. The study included 121 NCAA Division I, team sport student-athletes and their respective head coaches from two institutions in the Midwest. One of the institutions was a medium sized, four-year, co-educational private university and the second was a large sized, four-year, coeducational public university. The first research question examined the demographic profile of the collegiate student-athletes participating in this study. The second research question studied the relationship between how NCAA Division I student-athletes perceived themselves demonstrating the Five Practices of Exemplary Student Leadership (Kouzes & Posner, 2008; Kouzes & Posner, 2013; Kouzes & Posner, 2014) and their respective head coaches' perceptions of these behaviors. Using Pearson product-moment correlation, three significant relationships existed between student-athletes and their head coaches for Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, and Enable Others to Act. The third research question undertook paired samples t-tests to investigate the difference between how NCAA Division I student-athletes perceived themselves as demonstrating the Five Practices of Exemplary Student Leadership (Kouzes & Posner, 2008; Kouzes & Posner, 2013; Kouzes & Posner, 2014) and how their respective head coaches perceived them demonstrating these behaviors. Paired samples t-tests revealed significant differences between student-athletes and head coaches for each practice, Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act, and Encourage the Heart. The fourth research question explored the difference between how NCAA Division I female and NCAA Division I male student-athletes perceived themselves as demonstrating the Five Practices of Exemplary Student Leadership (Kouzes & Posner, 2008; Kouzes & Posner, 2013; Kouzes & Posner, 2014) and how their respective head coaches perceived them demonstrating these behaviors. The researcher used ANOVAs and paired samples t-tests to analyze the question. ANOVAs revealed statistically significant differences for the practices of Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act, and Encourage the Heart. Paired samples t-tests revealed statistically significant differences for both genders with all Five Practices of Exemplary Student Leadership. The final question studied the difference between how NCAA Division I student athletes, by academic year in school, perceived themselves as demonstrating the Five Practices of Exemplary Student Leadership (Kouzes & Posner, 2008; Kouzes & Posner, 2013; Kouzes & Posner, 2014) and how their respective head coaches perceived them demonstrating these behaviors. Similar to the fourth question, the researcher used ANOVAs and paired samples t-tests to analyze the data. ANOVAs revealed seven significant differences for four of the practices, Model the Way, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act, and Encourage the Heart. In addition, paired samples t-tests showed differences in 18 out of a possible 20 cases involving academic year in school and The Five Practices of Exemplary Student Leadership. In conclusion, scores between student-athletes and coaches for Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, and Enable Others to Act showed a small, positive relationship; therefore, as student-athletes' scores increased so did their head coaches' scores. ANOVAs revealed significant mean differences in scores between female student athletes and their respective head coaches to male student-athletes and their head coaches. For all five practices, paired samples t-tests showed that the difference between mean student-athletes scores and mean head coaches scores were significant and that gender was not a differentiator when comparing scores for the practices. The independent variable with the most influence was academic year in school. Six-of-the-seven significant findings revealed smaller mean differences in scores between the upper-level student-athletes and coaches compared to lower-level student-athletes and coaches. Finally, significant differences existed in 18 of 20 possible cases comparing the mean scores of student-athletes to their head coaches for the Five Practices of Exemplary Student Leadership when examining student-athlete academic year in school.

The researcher sought out to analyze the perceived leadership style of a collegiate coach for an elite level collegiate volleyball program, and how athletes within that program perceive those behaviors. The purpose of the current study was to compare the self-perceived leadership behaviors of a head coach at the collegiate level and compare this self-perception to the athlete’s perception of the coach’s behaviors and leadership style. The Coaching Behavior Score for Sport (CBS-S) was administered to the collegiate student-athletes and support staff members once the season was completed. The self-perceived survey of the Leadership Scale for Sport (LSS) was administered once to only the Head Coach after the season was completed. Results from the LSS showed higher scores in Training and Instruction and Positive Feedback. Results also showed lower scores in Democratic Behavior and Autocratic behavior. The subgroup which was scored around average was Social Support. Results from the CBS-S showed significant scores confirming the coach’s self-perception of leadership in the subscale groups of physical training and conditioning, technical skills, and competitive strategies. The results from the CBS-S and LSS offered a unique finding where the Head Coach the lower end scores in the subgroups Democratic and Autocratic behavior, the CBS-S results showed how the participants perceived the Head Coach higher in the subscale groups Personal Rapport, Goal Setting, and Mental Preparation. These results provide insight into a leader who can achieve a high level of task-oriented behaviors while also being perceived to be athlete oriented.

This study compared various leadership behaviors associated with the Revised Leadership Scale for Sport with the degree of success among collegiate football coaches. The six leadership behaviors that were studied were training and instruction, democratic, autocratic, situational consideration, social support, and positive feedback. Each of these leadership behaviors were shown to be related to the theoretical underpinnings of transformational leadership. All collegiate head football coaches (n = 709) from each division were surveyed. Only head coaches with at least two years of collegiate head coaching experience (n = 139) were included in the final analysis. Autocratic behavior, through bivariate correlations and independent t-tests were found to be inversely proportional to the degree of success among collegiate football coaches; however, the level of competition, through multiple one-way ANOVAs, did not make a difference in the behaviors of successful coaches.