Measuring Outcomes of Swimmers' Non-Regulation during Practice: Relationships between Self-Report, Coaches' Judgments, and Video-Observation

The purpose of this investigation was to further validate measures for three behavioral items that coaches claimed to reflect outcomes of non-regulation by swimmers during training. Measures for 33 competitive swimmers were collected for behaviors that reflected a lack of motivation to comply with a coach's full training volume prescription in (1) warm-up, and in the (2) remaining workout, as well for (3) the off-task durations of swimmers in warm-up. Measures were collected concurrently via self-report and video-observation at nine practices across five weeks of training. Coaches rated swimmers for levels of (a) on-task behavior in warm-up, and (b) initiative, motivation and discipline in the workout. Self-reported and observed measures were separately contrasted with low and high motivation groups, based on coach ratings. Results showed that when coaches rated swimmers low on self-regulated behaviors the swimmers had in fact completed less of the prescribed swim volume. Likewise, swimmers who spent a lot of time out-of-stroke in warm-up were not self-regulated, according to coach ratings. In a supplementary analysis, self-reported measures for missed volume during warm-up were contrasted with veridical measures obtained by video observation for a sub-set of 16 swimmers. Findings indicated that self-report at the end of workout was inaccurate and/or biased due to distorted memory processes and self-presentation influences. Discussion focused on the future use of valid and observable measures representing outcomes of non-regulation in applied sport intervention research.