Research summary · Youth development
Supportive coaching and feeling competent accompany greater practice enjoyment
Fifty Norwegian female handball players, averaging 14.6 years old, completed brief questionnaires around 11–12 practices over four weeks. A multilevel Bayesian model examined within-player links between perceived coaching behaviours, psychological needs and enjoyment during the same session.
- Publication year
- 2026
- First published online
- Publication type
- Four-week repeated-measures observational study
- Journal
- Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology
- Population / context
- Adolescent girls' handball · Coaching environment
What the publication reports
Players reported more enjoyment in sessions where they perceived more supportive and fewer need-thwarting coaching behaviours. Of autonomy, competence and relatedness, only satisfaction of the competence need was associated with enjoyment in this analysis.
Limits and interpretation
Same-session self-reports cannot determine whether coaching perceptions caused enjoyment or vice versa. The sample covers one age range, sex and sport, and no coaching intervention was tested. Null associations for other needs do not establish that those needs are unimportant.
Read the source
Consult the original record for the full author list, methods, references, funding and competing-interest disclosures.
Youth Sport Players' Enjoyment in Team Practice Sessions: The Daily Impact of Coaches and Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction
Original publication / indexed recordPMID: 42716499DOI: 10.1123/jsep.2025-0306Reader discussion
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