Sportsmanship Development Strategies for Coaches of University Athletes in South-South of Nigeria

Abstract

Sportsmanship has become an important aspect of the sport through which individuals can mirror the moral life of athletes. Studies show that most University athletes do not possess the right sportsmanship spirit in sports. This study was set forth to determine sportsmanship development strategies that can be utilized by sports coaches for improvement of athlete’s sportsmanship in the south – south region of Nigeria. Forty-six university coaches constituted population and were all used for the study. The Research & Development design was adapted to identify strategies for developing sportsmanship of university athletes’ in the Niger Delta.  Two instruments were self-designed: one for identification of unsportsmanlike traits and sportsmanship strategies and the other for matching strategies against unsportsmanlike traits identified among athletes. The Cronbach alpha was used to determine the reliability index of the UASDSQ instruments. The sportsmanship improvement strategies yielded a reliability index of 0.85.  The item mean was computed and used to select character development strategies. The simple percentage was used to determine the result of cross-matched items. University coaches completed the questionnaires which were done on two different occasions separately. The results show that coaches identified the following strategies amongst others: circulation of sportsmanship guidelines to athletes, athletes should watch sportsmanship training videos, use of sportsmanship rating scales to determine athlete’s sportsmanship, and university sports councils should organize campus-wide campaigns to demonstrate acceptable play spirit in the sport.  It was concluded that sportsmanship strategies were needed to stem poor sportsmanship in university sports. Amongst others, it is recommended that sportsmanship should be an important issue in University sport and sportsmanship of university athletes should be determined by sports councils.

Keywords: Sportsmanship, Athletes, Development.