Coaching Styles and Their Relationship to Athletic Performance Among High-Level Basketball Players in Hunan Province

This study examines the relationship between coaching styles and the athletic performance of high-level basketball players in Hunan Province, China. Driven by the 'Healthy China 2030' strategy, there is a growing need to understand the athletic outcome of coaching influence. While previous researches have categorized coaching styles, little is known about the empirical evidence for the direct impact on the performance. Therefore, this study aims to fill this gap by utilizing the sample of 246 players and 83 coaches from 15 universities. Data are collected by using the Sports Leadership Scale (LSS) and the Sports Performance Perception Scale, the result demonstrates that the regression equation – Athletic Performance =1.500+0.156 (Rewards) + 0.326 (Social Support) + 0.105 (Authoritative) + 0.363 (Democratic) + 0.288 (Training). The findings reveal that the coaches predominantly use a reward and a praise style, a significant positive correlation exists between the coaching style and the player performance. Specifically, democratic behavior shows the strongest correlation with high athletic performance (r = 0.407, P < 0.01). A subsequent regression analysis confirms this and demonstrates that democratic coaching has the most significant predictive effect on performance (β = 0.363, P < 0.05), with the five coaching dimensions collectively explaining 25.9% of the variance. In addition, the study concludes that a democratic coaching style is the most influential in enhancing athletic performance, providing a clear recommendation for coaches to adopt an athlete-centered approach in training and further development.