Wiedza i postawy trenerów w zakresie dopingu i przeciwdziałania temu zjawisku w sporcie

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.