ABSTRACT
The manifestations of emotions go hand in hand with sport and, as a result, have the ability to permeate sporting performance. Emotional intelligence (EI) is broadly defined as the individual responses to intrapersonal or interpersonal emotional information and incorporates the identification, expression, understanding, and regulation of one’s own and others’ emotions. Trait EI is considered a personality trait rather than a cognitive ability and involves self-perceptions that embrace the subjective nature of emotion. Trait EI encompasses dispositions that are emotionally related, thus causing tendencies to behave in a predetermined manner in emotional situations, and this makes it an interesting trait to examine within the sporting context. The aforementioned results suggest an important role of the intrapersonal dimensions of trait EI for coaches, particularly those that, at least in part, pertain to the awareness of and ability to regulate their emotions, such as emotionality and self-control.
