The influence of the coach's pedagogical communication style on the psychological climate and athletic performance in ski racing groups

Abstract

The abstract explores the influence of the coach's pedagogical communication style on the psychological climate and athletic performance in ski racing groups, substantiating the relevance through increased youth involvement and at the same time a high dropout rate, where interpersonal factors play an important role in the coach-athlete dyad and in the team. The aim of the work is to quantify the links between communication styles (authoritarian, democratic, liberal), climate parameters (cohesion, relationship satisfaction, conflict) and performance, as well as to build a predictive model for practical use. The longitudinal study (three seasons, 2020-2023) involved 24 coaches and 312 athletes aged 15-19 from Siberia and the Urals; style was diagnosed using coach's questionnaires, anonymous assessments of athletes and expert judgments; climate was assessed by sociometry, scales of atmosphere and interpersonal relationships; performance was aggregated into an Index of sports progress, which included the dynamics of personal records, stability of performances, prizes and confirmation of ranks. It has been established that the democratic style creates the most favorable climate (higher cohesion and satisfaction, lower conflict), which translates into better and more stable results.; groups with a democratic style demonstrate the maximum values of integral progress and the proportion of athletes who improve personal records, while the authoritarian style is accompanied by polarization within the team, and the liberal style is accompanied by disorganization. An interaction with sports qualifications was found: the negative effect of authoritarianism is sharply enhanced in highly qualified athletes, while the democratic style retains universal effectiveness. The constructed regression model showed high predictive power, explaining a significant proportion of the variability of sports progress through the expression of a democratic style and the level of cohesion; the mechanisms of direct influence (awareness, participation in decision-making) and indirect effect through climate are discussed. Practical recommendations include the development of coaches' communication and facilitation skills, regular climate diagnostics, and style adaptation as athletes' skills grow; limitations relate to regional sampling and the need to expand well-being metrics.