Knowledge and attitudes of sports coaches with regard to doping and counteracting doping in sport

Background. The aim of the study was to establish the attitudes and knowledge of sports coaches with reference to doping and anti-doping policies. Material and methods. The study included 100 coaches representing 11 disciplines. They filled in an anonymous questionnaire assessing their knowledge of and attitudes toward doping. Results. The coaches’ overall anti-doping attitude is positive and quite strong (M = 4.55, SD = 0.65). The strongest partial attitude was toward sanctions for breaking anti-doping rules (M = 5.35, SD = 0.91), the weakest – toward the possibility of succeeding without doping (M = 3.92, SD = 1.35). In the three categories of knowledge items, the percentage of correct responses were similar: 54.17% for athletes’ rights and duties, 53.57% for doping control procedures, and 53.33% for banned performance-enhancing drugs. The main sources of information for coaches were the Internet and television. Conclusions. The anti-doping attitudes of coaches are positive but it seems necessary to increase their knowledge, especially with planned educational programs