![]() | Feature: Selected Sport and Physical Education Career Opportunities | No.52 January 2008 |
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![]() | Feature: Selected Sport and Physical Education Career Opportunities | No.52 January 2008 |
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The Problem: High Coach Turnover = Low Performance
For the past three winter Olympic Games, entire coaching staffs have
changed in some sports, ensuring a lack of coaching continuity from
one Games to the next Olympic Winter Games. An important factor in many
of these changes is the inability of many of our coaches to lead a balanced
and healthy life. Some coaches have told us that it becomes a choice
between a marriage and coaching. Other coaches have said that they cannot
tolerate the time away from their children. Finally, some coaches have
stopped coaching because the constant performance stress was changing
them in ways they did not like.
Given the high turnover rates, the ability of coaches to be happy,
healthy and balanced is more than some psychologist’s touchy-feely
ideal. After talking to coaches in many sports, I discovered that this
is a serious performance issue for professional, college and Olympic
Sport coaches. Unhappy, unhealthy and unbalanced coaches either burn
out or leave coaching. Coaches who maintain some semblance of a balanced
life are better performers. Sports organisations that retain personnel
perform better than organisations that have to start from scratch every
year. Developing excellent coaches is impossible if the coaches keep
changing. Leading Factors in Coach Imbalances: Culture & Personality
The “more is better” culture of elite sport – The
culture of elite sport today is a major factor leading to coaching imbalances.
In virtually every high-pressure coaching situation, there is a belief
that working harder is the solution to every performance problem. This
issue is not unique to coaching, as hard work is also the bottom-line
in business today, from computer software designers pulling regular
all-nighters, to salespeople flying half-a-million miles a year.
In business, however, organisations are finding the limits to hard
work, the downside of turnover and the point at which working harder
equals lower performance. The culture of sport is definitely lagging
behind business in the awareness that hard work is necessary but working
beyond sustainable limits is counter-productive.
In sport, we know that pushing athletes in training is absolutely necessary
for them to gain strength, speed, endurance and sport skills. We also
know that these gains are lost if we do not allow enough recovery. The
literature is so convincing that researchers are starting to use the
new term “under-recovered” instead of the more familiar
term “over–trained.” If athletes have the time and
techniques for recovery, training can be incredibly intense. As a coach
preparing for World Championships told me, “Athletes in the best
shape are also the most vulnerable, so recovery is the number one performance
issue.”
The workaholic coaching personality – In addition to the culture
of sport, the personality of coaches also plays a part in unbalanced
lives. At the national team level, a remarkable number of coaches are
workaholics and perfectionists. Many of our best coaches tell the same
story – as athletes, they made up for a lack of pure talent with
intelligence and hard work. These athlete and coach traits were rewarded.
If you have been rewarded all your life for working harder than others,
the response to overwhelming workloads is often, “Bring it on!
I can take it.”
Ironically, blindly adopting the normal productive workaholic strategy
tends to backfire at the most important and stressful competitions.
At events such as the Olympic Games, the perfectionist, workaholic coach
can become a stress-ridden, emotional liability to his/her athletes.
When coach-athlete communication is most important, the overstressed,
overworked and under-recovered coach sends the message, “Don’t
add to my workload, and don’t talk to me unless it is good news.”
These are the coaches who later say, “If only I had known she
was anxious, I could have reassured her.” Three Ways to Build a Balanced Coaching Life
Is your coaching culture producing the best results? How good do you
want to be?
Reprinted with permission from Olympic Coach e-zine
(Spring, 2007). Olympic Coach is a free service of the United States
Olympic Committee to subscribe go to http://coaching.usolympicteam.com/coaching/ksub.nsf
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