Motivational climate and goal orientations as predictors of perceptions of improvement, satisfaction and coach ratings among tennis players.

One purpose of this work was to study the relationship of goal orientations and the perceived motivational climate created by the coach in relation to 219 competitive Spanish tennis players': a) perceived improvement in different facets of the game, b) satisfaction with their competitive results, overall level of play, and coach, and c) ratings of their coach. The second purpose was to examine whether the dependent variables were best predicted by the perceived situationally emphasized goal structure created by the coach and/or the athletes' dispositional goal perspective. Intermediate (N=70), advanced (N=124), and professional (N=25) level players completed Spanish versions of the TEOSQ and the PMCSQ-2 and items assessing perceived improvement specific to tennis, satisfaction and coach ratings. The results were consistent with the tenets of goal perspective theory and provide further support for the promotion of a task involving atmosphere in sport.