Competencies of The First and Second Division Track and Field Coaches

Purpose: Competency is a term that is used in management in order to show the required skills which the managers should have to successfully administrate different organizations The purpose of this investigation was to identify and compare the competencies needed by track and field coaches of the first and second division in Greece. Materials and methods: For the collection of the data, we used an instrument validated by a sample of 349 track and field coaches of all divisions. The final sample of the study was 156 track and field coaches of first and 212 coaches of second division, selected randomly. Findings: Exploratory factor analysis revealed five factors that explained the 63.811 of total variance of variables. The Cronbach-alpha of the questionnaire was 0.89, while the sub-scale reliabilities for the five factors ranged from: 0.819 to 0.755. Results: Further analysis between the groups showed that: (a) there was a significant difference in the field management technique factor (F=5.909, p<0.016), and (b) in the biology factor (F= 6.849, p<0.009). No significant differences were observed in the other factors. The Multivariate Analysis of Variance, between the factors and the groups with selected variables such as age, years of experience, kind of degree and training specialization, revealed no significant differences between the first and second division subjects. Conclusion: The findings of our study indicated that both first and second division track and field coaches realize the importance of necessary competencies, which were grouped in sport science factor in order to manage athletes and to organize a sporting event.