April 1, 2024
Thank you for joining the Better Together Newsletter! This bi-weekly newsletter is dedicated to sharing insights into applied sport psychology and science-based tools that can aid us as sport psychology professionals in helping athletes, teams, and coaches enhance their performance and well-being. The goal is to deliver actionable insights in a concise and engaging format, making it easy for you to apply them in your work in sports.
When working in applied sport psychology, we are not only working with athletes and teams. We are also assisting coaches in coping with their emotions during training and competition, reflecting on their time and energy management to prevent negative consequences for their mental health, or supporting them in developing their leadership styles.
Another key aspect that we focus on is one of the most obvious topics: helping them improve their relationship with their athletes.
Some time ago, I was working with a coach in an individual sport, and he told me that he had the feeling that he wasn’t able to get through to some athletes in his training group. While it wasn’t a problem for him to connect with some, it was difficult with others. Not only did he have the impression that this might impair the effectiveness of training, but also in competition, and his goal was to change this.
Together, we sat down and thought about the different aspects that are part of the coach-athlete relationship. Obviously, we discussed the 4C’s model, but we also looked a bit further than that.
Today, I would like to share a program with you that has been created in the USA to help coaches build high-performing coach-athlete relationships and what I learned from it. Maybe it can also help you in your work with your coaches and assist them in getting better at what they are doing.
So: Let’s get better together…
Numerous national Olympic committees have established leadership programs to enhance coaches’ abilities in working with athletes, staff, and guiding teams towards sporting success. One such initiative is the National Team Coach Leadership Education Program (NTCLEP) by the United States Olympic Committee (USOC).
In a 2018 article, Phil Ferrar and his colleagues detail the development of a coach-athlete relationship education seminar and its impact on participating coaches and their athletes’ development.
The USOC partnered with an external company from the UK called The People Academy, which consists of former Olympic athletes and coaches, as well as experts from the corporate world who focus their work on the four dimensions: self-awareness (“…actively developing knowledge of your own behavior, habits, feelings, beliefs, mindset, attitudes, motives, desires, and values”), people acuity (“…deliberately bringing attention to other people’s perspective and feelings”), agility (“…consciously adjust behavior to improve effectiveness in situations and relationships”), and self-management (“…conscious adjustment of behaviors, impulses, and reactions when they are unhelpful to the situation or person that is being dealt with”).
When considering these dimensions, it becomes clear that all of them can be found in the literature and thus serve as the foundation for evidence-based approaches. Initially, people acuity wasn’t entirely clear to me, but upon examining their understanding here, it can be referred to as emotional intelligence.
The seminar itself has been carefully designed and incorporates a range of learning techniques, such as group activities, readings, reflective exercises, and individual assignments. Its structure is geared towards actively engaging coaches through discussions, problem-solving tasks, and, notably, the exchange of personal anecdotes. Through the integration of these methods, the seminar ensures that its content is closely aligned with the practical experiences of coaches, facilitating rich engagement and effective learning. Additionally, all participants are encouraged to engage in reflective practice throughout the program and to share observations with their facilitators and fellow coaches.
Moreover, the program not only utilizes workshops to help coaches improve their relationships with their athletes but also offers individual 1:1 coaching sessions and group coaching for 4-5 coaches.
By employing such a comprehensive approach, I am convinced that coaches are guided over a longer period of time and are thus able to reflect on what they have learned, apply it on a day-to-day basis, and be held accountable by their fellow coaches in the program. I believe that working on a specific topic over an extended period with others is one of the most important factors for effecting change and assisting coaches in creating more effective and trusting relationships with their athletes.
The article provides evidence of this through two examples from coaches who participated in the program and were willing to share the impact the educational program had on them. Here, the authors present both qualitative and quantitative data illustrating how the seminar positively influenced the coaches individually and its impact on individual athletes, from both the coach and their athletes’ perspectives.
Examining how this training altered trait emotional intelligence in one of the coaches underscores the effectiveness of the program (Table 1 on p. 65!). Additionally, various athletes also share their perspectives on how the long-term training influenced their coaches, highlighting the benefits of the program for the coach, the coach-athlete relationship, and ultimately the athlete. Plus, the Quote of the Week that I shared above is from the article provided here and reflects the experience of Guy Krüger, who was the National Team Coach for Archery USA during his participation in the program.
Furthermore, I wholeheartedly agree with the final statement in the article: “It is clear that this type of coach-athlete relationship coach education programming has strong potential to positively affect coaches, athletes, sport stakeholders, and team culture.”
When working with coaches, we can have a significant impact—not only directly on the coaches themselves but also indirectly on the athletes they work with. Let’s consider how programs can be created that prioritize coaches first, and through their personal development, also benefit their athletes. By doing so, we might also be able to have a larger impact on the dominant cultures in various sports and thus have a chance to change the system step by step.
Partnerships with Chuck Norris aren’t about collaboration; they’re about witnessing miracles.
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