Emotional intelligence is an important and popular concept within coaching. This
randomised controlled trial investigated the short-term impact of coaching using
emotional intelligence on three factors related to performance in athletes: anxiety
self-efficacy and team identification. Twenty high-performance netball players were
divided into coaching and control groups. The coaching group completed the Bar-On
EQ-i to produce emotional intelligence profiles that formed the basis of the solutionfocused
coaching session. Coaching improved self-efficacy and anxiety but not team
identification. There was no change in the control group. Self-efficacy and anxiety are
directly linked to scales on the EQ-i whereas team identification is not directly linked.
The findings indicate that solution-focused coaching using emotional intelligence is
effective but only when a direct link is identified between a particular component of
emotional intelligence and a particular outcome.