Basically, when the term “deaf” is used (Friend 2006), people who are deaf and hard of hearing are referred (Hindley, 1997). “The loss of hearing”, however, is the inability to perceive the speech and the acoustic information of the environmental sounds. This inability affects the developmental stages in proportions, regarding its severity, type and the time it happened (Quinsland, 1993). Generally, the deaf are defined as socially underdeveloped because of their lack of communication skills. Because of their inabilities of social communication, their interaction with their families, teachers and trainers are also limited (Antia, 1985; Antia, Kreimeyer, Eldredge 1993).

Participating in sports activities is very important among the deaf community. This benefits the participants not just physically but also personally (Stewart, 1991). For many deaf adults, participating in a sports activity is an important way to socialize (Stewart & Ellis, 2005). The majority of the trainers working with the deaf athletes participating in national or international sports activities, and the referees in these contests are normal people. The trainer should be a social knowledgably expert in his/her field, and an example of a person who directs, trains, prepares, and leads the athletes according to their talents by combining his/her theoretical information and experience (Silva & Steven 2002), with the strategy and motivation properties (Simpson, 1984). Deaf students’ perceptions and attitudes about these concepts have always been an issue of concern.

Every action and decision taken by a trainer is based on the good of the athlete, which increase the chance of a winning by the athlete or the team (Martens, 1998). This motivation of winning sometimes causes trainers to move beyond codes of conduct and exaggerate the feeling of winning. We must especially know that after the match is lost, the manner of the trainer is closely watched by the deaf players.

Athletes expect their trainers to do their best in organizing entertainments, field trips, free time activities, and provide the equipment for the sporting events, choosing room-mates in organizations like preparation camps or tournaments (Konter, 1995). These are very important issues especially in sports organizations involving deaf athletes.

The organization this study was conducted was an annual organization. All deaf schools in Turkey participate in it gathering in a city and compete with each other. Almost everybody working in sports organizations for the deaf are deaf as well. However, the trainers and physical education teachers training the teams participating in hearing impaired organizations consist of normally hearing people.

In this conservative community, it is known that the majority of the trainers are criticized and evaluated by the athletes. And herein, this study is done in order to know and analyze how this silent majority evaluates their trainers.

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