In most cases sports wise, a coach’s expectations on an athlete often turns into a self-fulfilling prophesy. This is so in that when an athlete conforms to a coach’s tactics and methods of training, he/she is sure to develop athletically. Coaches often decide the coaching method to use on an athlete based on the athlete’s previous records of their performance and their fitness. When a coach believes in the ability of an athlete, more often than not, the athlete tends to outshine the rest because the coach puts in a lot of effort into bringing out the full potential of the athlete and to also prove his instincts right. This means that the chosen athlete is more likely to improve their skill because he/she is treated favorably than his/her counterparts in that, the most promising athletes are usually given more assistance and encouragement as opposed to the athletes that are not considered stronger by the coach. This means that the athlete will automatically perform better thus fulfilling the coach’s perception of his ability (self-fulfilling prophesy)
On the other hand, when a coach’s perception on the ability of an athlete is low, it negatively affects the attitude of the athlete and this consequently discourages the athlete’s behavior which in essence reduces the athlete’s overall performance. This is because since the coach has low expectations of the athlete, the athlete tends to think that his/her input is not as important as those of the athletes that the coach considers highly.
In conclusion, a coach’s perception or expectation of an athlete generally has either a positive or negative influence in the athlete’s performance. This is true in the sense that the coach will always act according to his perception of the athlete’s ability which in turn makes the athlete act in accordance to the coach’s perception thus the self-fulfilling prophesy.