The power of coaches’ emotions: A case study on how coaches’ facial expressions impact performance of young female synchronized ice-skaters

Objectives: The present study aimed to investigate the impact of coaches’ pleasant and unpleasant facial expressionson affects and team performance of young elite female synchronized ice-skaters.Methods: Initially, the coach provided a neutral explanation of the exercise, which was followed by the athletes’execution. The ice-skaters then received either pleasant or unpleasant feedback from the coach, completed twoquestionnaires, and performed the exercise again. The study involved two familiar and two unfamiliar coaches.Results: Coaches’ pleasant expressions increased athletes’ arousal/hedonic tone and positive affect, whilecoaches’ unpleasant expressions heightened athletes’ negative affect. Moreover, participants significantly performedbetter after receiving an unpleasant facial expression by the coach. Receiving pleasant/unpleasantfeedback from a familiar or unfamiliar coach did not have a significant impact on team pre- and post-feedbackperformance.Conclusions: The findings suggest that coaches’ facial expressions impacted athletes’ positive/negative affect, andthat, under specific circumstances, receiving unpleasant feedback from the coach can improve teamperformance.