Burnout at the base level: Are we creating environments for coaches to explore and grow?

Last week, I was fortunate to be part fortunate to be part of Sport and Mental Health forum as part of Australia wide Mental Health month. In line with the National Mental Health Month's theme this year on 'Mental Health: Post Pandemic Recovery Challenges and Resilience', the Mental Health Foundation Australia has planned a Sport and Mental Health Forum. The forum focused on crucial periods for managing mental wellbeing in sport, including aspiring to transition into elite sport, dealing with external pressures, transitioning out of the activity and the limelight and building understanding for coaches and parents. One of the side topics discussed was the mental wellbeing of coaches, a somewhat overlooked subject in many sports. While even my research addresses and focuses on the motivations and engagement of athletes, an area of increasing awareness and concern is the wellbeing of coaches, looking at causation of burnout or mental fatigue from being involved in HP sport.

Some discussions from experienced people in the field again brought some of these ideas to the fore; Jay Carter’s podcast discussion with Stuart Armstrong on Talking Performance podcast and author of the Tough Stuff (which addresses this subject in detail), Cody Royle’s Twitter thread, addressing examples of this area. Starting with Jay and Stu’s chat, they touch upon the load of volunteer coaches post pandemic. Something that is undervalued is the mental load and lack of resources supporting volunteer coaches which is making many consider coaching post pandemic; their discussion made me reflect that even my current concluding research is focused on the engagement and understanding the motivations of HP athletes. However, with time to reflect, I questioned are we as coaches being offered or offering psychologically safe environments where we can express ourselves, show emotional awareness to see and display skills such as humility and gratitude while having the support and freedom to grow and develop? Cody Royle, author of The Tough Stuff which discusses his and HP coaches mental, emotional and physical toll for coaching at the highest level, also shared a Twitter thread recently talking about coach burnout. Using examples from Australia (Chris Scott from AFL), USA (Doc Rivers from NBA) and UK (Arsene Wenger from Premier League soccer/football), the examples address the health implications of taking on some of the biggest jobs in their sport and the isolation it can lead to; however, can we recognise burnout symptoms at a grassroots level or create an atmosphere where our huge volume of volunteer coaches can feel seen and heard??

Looking at athlete centred research, we all understand the physical implications of physical exhaustion to burnout yet this is a small piece of the puzzle; researchers such as Maslach and Fransen propose the burnout syndrome consists of three central characteristics: emotional exhaustion, reduced accomplishment and depersonalization (Maslach, 1982). In sport settings, burnout has been found to result from “chronically frustrated or unfulfilled basic psychological needs” (Cresswell, 2006), with reduced accomplishment and devaluation featuring most prominently. Devaluation to sport, regarded as “perhaps most cognitive of burnout dimensions” (Lemyre, 2006), has strong links to lack of autonomy (such as feelings of choice and self-directedness in sport development) and competence (perceptions of effectiveness in sport or team). In research conducted in 2020, Fransen found that ideas such as shared leadership, allowing people feel, think and behave as members of the same team, supporting each other building team confidence, cohesion, performance outcomes and team learning reduced burnout symptoms of involved athletes. But how does this relate to coaches of all ages and grades?

Drawing upon research by Gustafsson (2007), findings from team sport athletes showed higher burnout scores (compared to individual athletes) based on emotional and physical exhaustion and devaluation of coach and co-athletes, while displaying no substantial correlation between training volume and burnout scores. Therefore, like written by Royle previously, the emotional support and perceived efficacy in sport are areas programs and sport organisations can assist for prolonged involvement, retention, and engagement of coaches, which can be enhanced by understanding of what coaches value and why. Intrinsic motivation is not the only path to lower levels of burnout. Lonsdale’s (2009) research found autonomous extrinsic motivations, such as integrated or identified regulators, also resulted in lower levels of athlete burnout. Applying to this conversation, if coaches are able to express a sense of themselves or achieve outcomes that they value personally, it may be possible to increase engagement in sports or reduce levels of burnout or dropout for our coaching volunteers or even high performance coaches.

So, what can we do to help encourage innovative and aspiring coaches as they explore new ways for self fulfilment and collective engagement? Cliff Mallett explained that “intrinsically motivated behaviours involve genuine interest and enjoyment in pursuing particular activities with natural tendency to seek unique challenges, explore and learn” (Clifford J. Mallett, 2005). Research by Gould and colleagues (1996) suggested that coaches should cultivate personal involvement with players, offer two way communication, utilise player input and understand player’s feelings so as to enhance player engagement and motivation whilst reducing symptoms of burnout including depersonalisation towards their sport (Gould, Tuffey, Udry, & Loehr, 1996). We need to set up systems or make it a priority to better understand our coaches; they like our athletes are not solely driven by the scoreboard and understanding what they are interested in before training or after the final whistle shall help us as organisations offer coaches scope and freedom to utilise skills or drive from other areas of their lives.

Moving onto having the right environments for coaches to grow and develop, let’s look at a well discussed area highlighting what not to do! Psychological safety is about removing fear from human interaction and replacing it with respectful and accepting behaviours. Psychologically safe environments in sport (and all walks of life) have been identified as group environments where there is a shared belief that team members are safe to take interpersonal risk without fear of being ridiculed, punished or rejected. Again, drawing upon athlete centred research, Prof Sophia Jowett and others investigated and found that coaches whom attended athletes concerns and needs, empowering and inspiring athletes to achieve more and encouraged to work towards their identified goals created psychologically safe environments, aided and supported by connected, stable and cooperative relationships. Negatively, the lack of these quality relationships can weaken interpersonal relationships and even augment exploitation, intimidation and humiliation in interactions which can effect the involved athlete’s wellbeing. Using these ideas as a guide, are we as program leaders or coach educators offering communities of practice within our clubs or environments to encourage connected, stable and cooperative relationships? All too often, we see a highly critical culture, unwilling to share ideas or collaborate to enhance the group’s engagement, focused on technical and tactical elements of our sport which can occasionally (and sadly) result in intimidation and humiliation towards other coaches and players alike.

Looking at understanding or creating psychologically safe environments, there could be a seemingly obvious juggle between balancing performance markers and being a caring and considerate coach or program leader. However, when investigating social and task cohesion between sporting team members, Jowett (2003) found a stronger relationship between social cohesion (which is the degree to which team members like each other) to performance markers than task cohesion (cooperation to common goals). This research supports the importance of creating a psychologically safe environment in HP sport, to both allow and encourage interpersonal risk taking for well being and subsequently creating an environment to encourage and enhance performance improvements. These points tied together with the fact that understanding, cooperative and collaborative relationships can help reduce burnout symptoms shows the importance of quality relationships for athlete and/or coach wellbeing. The best predictor of positive developmental experiences are transformational behaviours, usually between coach and athlete but would also be the case between coach to coach or coach to administrators; these ideas include individual consideration, articulating a vision and individualised support. To gain these ideas as sporting organisations or supporting HP teams, I believe it is achieved and built on by understanding your coaches as a person, supporting them and communicating to them, openly and regularly.

During the podcast, Armstrong mentioned the term “need centred” or “needs led coaching” as opposed to “athlete centred”, something I have written about previously. The concept looks at how coaches can respond to the needs of athletes, combining structure for team cohesion with the freedom and support to explore capabilities and make mistakes to promote learning. However, we need to allow for the ability to create “need centred” environments for coaches also. While coaches should design practice and develop learning environments which are reflective to the identified goals of the players and their current capabilities, it needs to be an environment where coaches explore their ideas, test their capabilities and work towards inherently important goals for the coach as an individual as well as the group as a whole. If sporting organisations create this sense of psychological safety or make their leaders more aware of burnout symptoms, you can expect to see higher levels of engagement, increased motivation to tackle difficult problems, more learning and development opportunities, all leading to ultimately better performance by our coaches. Let’s stop burnout from the bottom up and support coaches of all ages and levels. I encourage you to discuss with leaders of your sport or clubs the ideas of shared leadership, how can you encourage people to feel, think and behave as members of the same team, while supporting each other building team confidence & cohesion.