When we, as coaches, read about sport psychology in our courses, we tend to approach like “ah, this is obvious, this sounds logical” and to reduce sport psychology to a set of techniques, how can we support coaches to take the “next step” and understand the importance of psychology more and grow in this area?
A lot of focus is placed on skills such as goal setting, visualisation, etc, but these are more readily accessible skills, which can be picked up from a variety of places and people and incorporated into a coaching scenario. However, this is not what differentiates the higher level coaching skills with regard to psychology. The key is that coaches learn to understand themselves fully as a first step, and then work on their relationship with others. The coaches have to understand themselves ‘warts and all’, their own internal dynamics, their strengths and weaknesses with regard to their knowledge and experience; their interactions with others; their own and the athletes’ motivations; their own perceptions and points of view and that they too have blind spots. It’s important to accept the reality of a situation and that it is not always how one wants it to be.
For many coaches it can be seen as a sign of weakness to admit or show areas where they are less strong, i.e. they don’t know something or have a specific way of dealing with a situation. A common approach is to operate with bravado and signify that the coach is always right and always knows best. However this rarely works for the athlete and indeed for the coach in the long run - athletes see the weaknesses through the bravado anyway. Whilst it might be counter-intuitive, showing some vulnerability and admitting and accepting that as a coach one is also human and that there will be moments of weaknesses and not knowing, it is hugely beneficial. A coach showing vulnerability, engenders trust and helps to build an authentic relationship with athletes. A coach who can proceed from a position of not knowing is more open to new learning. Coaches who know everything are not open to learning, they see themselves as experts and consequently miss wonderful learning opportunities in their interaction with their athletes.
To support a coach to grow in this way it is usually best that they have an external objective person to help with this, possibly a Sports Psychologist or well-trained coach mentor, who can provide helpful objective feedback in a kind, compassionate, non-judgemental way. A good example being that the coach says a specific statement, with an implied meaning, but the body language gives a different message or at least a perception of a different message. An athlete seeing this may be confused and unsure of which message to trust - this could lead to a break-down in communication and trust or general confusion about messages received. If an external observer can give this feedback then this can help the coach learn, adapt and grow, but the coach needs to be open to the feedback. An external observer can also be an athlete or other members of the coaching team. A positive way to think about getting feedback that you don’t agree with or understand is to keep an open mind, accept the criticism graciously and with appreciation. Once the message has landed for you, consider how that feedback could be useful, maybe it is highlighting a blind spot you are not aware of as a coach/person. At first, this can be hard for a coach to accept, but with time it can actually become an enjoyable, exciting and enlightening experience.
The next key area for coaches to develop is their understanding of healthy relationships and effective communication. For example, initially a coach may be working with a young athlete and the relationship is similar to a parent – child relationship, but as the athlete gets older, at some point the relationship needs to become more adult to adult, and equal. Eventually the athlete may be the driving force in the relationship and use the coach more as a consultant, rather than the coach dictating everything that happens. An example: consider who better understands the realities of how to train and act as an Olympic champion, is it the person who has achieved that accolade and is still racing, or a coach who may never have operated at that level? Clearly, at this stage, it is the athlete that brings this knowledge and experience to the table whilst the coach brings his/her sport specific and relevant coaching expertise.
The key for a coach is to develop self-awareness and awareness of their interactions with others, and not to have a fixed vision of how they believe things should be. Through practising Mindfulness one can: cultivate awareness; learn to be more present in each moment in interacting with the athletes; learn to be more accepting of the things out of one’s control and wisely focus on the things that one can control.
For both athletes and coaches, how can we encourage a “freedom of making mistakes” so that the learning process can be more effective?
From a coaches perspective this follows on from the previous question. Firstly, everyone makes mistakes, it is o.k. Being aware that mistakes happen and also aware of the feelings surrounding making mistakes and how that can make you as a coach feel is a good starting point. If you have experiences when you were younger that making mistakes was bad and a parent, teacher or coach punished you for it, or just gave the impression it was bad to make mistakes then your reaction (e.g. shame, anger, annoyance) when mistakes happen makes sense. The mistake itself is not a good or a bad thing, it is how you choose to perceive it, it is just a situation that has occurred. If you respond to this situation with an awareness of how you are reacting, but also choose to see it as an opportunity to learn, then it can become very positive. The key is to reflect on the process and learn from the mistakes. Failure to profit from mistakes can eventually lead to a negative outcome.
The atmosphere for a training camp or environment is usually set up by a coach, and so it is vitally important how a coach sees the concept of making a mistake as a learning opportunity. If they see it as a bad thing or a learning opportunity it will usually show in their actions and body language even if they say something different, so the coach may have to work upon themselves first to think of problems and mistakes as an opportunity. The next thing is for the coach to explain and role model this behaviour to the athletes. In an example from a cycling coach, a young female athlete often tried to make a breakaway at the end of a road race and tried to win in that manner. Usually, they would be caught by the pack and finish well down the field. The first time this happened the parent reached the athlete first and berated them for messing up and it had been a waste of time to come to the race and finish last. The coach however disagreed. The next time it happened, the coach made a point of getting to the athlete first and then as soon as the parent was close enough to hear, s/he praised the athlete for being brave, taking a chance to win, even though it didn’t pay off and made the athlete feel good about it. The coach then asked the athlete why s/he thought it didn’t work and what would work better next time. Together they came up with a change in tactics to make the break on a hill, and it paid dividends the next time. If the athlete just listened to the parent and was afraid of losing/ making mistakes there was no opportunity to learn and grow. The coach recognised that this was a key learning point for the athlete and there were many positives to trying the breakaways. They then spent time and energy setting the athlete at ease so s/he felt ok about taking a risk and trying new approaches. Over time s/he became very skilled at making breakaways and increased the success rate significantly. Behind the scenes, the coach also spent time explaining these concepts and ideas to the parents so they could slowly influence the parent to support the athlete in the right way.
