As 2021 draws to a close, one of my personal highlights was being invited to present to Gymnastics AUS HP coaches as part of their Academy program. I was able to discuss the importance of effective relationships between coach and athlete, drawing upon ideas from sport specific research and personal experiences. Coming off the back of a Human Rights investigation where some of the findings included “current coaching practices create a risk of abuse and harm to athletes” and “A focus on ’winning-at-all-costs’ and an acceptance of negative and abusive coaching behaviours has resulted in the silencing of the athlete voice and an increased risk of abuse and harm with significant short and long term impacts to gymnasts”, there was a release of the Change the Routine Report in May 2021. In this, GA made a formal acknowledgement and unreserved apology to all athletes and family members who had experienced any form of abuse while participating in the sport. But for many people, Gymnastics Australia acknowledges that this is not enough. Drawing on best practice experience for restorative engagement, the Scheme will provide a forum where individuals can be heard, acknowledged, and provided with a personal apology. It was awesome to be a part of an organisation’s growth and shift in mindset in being a part of the coach education conducted this year; however, recent reports from another sport have really showed us what NOT to do.

Earlier this month, the Jacksonville Jaguars have fired Urban Meyer in his first season as coach after just 13 games and two wins. It ends a tumultuous era following an accumulation of mishaps including reports of Meyer kicking his kicker at practice. Reports have also come out about him belittling assistant coaches about their resumés. In a subsequent postgame press conference, he threatened to fire the leakers. Coming back to Meyer’s most recent off-field indiscretion, former Jaguars kicker Josh Lambo launched accusations earlier on Thursday of Meyers kicking him at practice in August. Lambo made the allegations in an interview with the Tampa Bay Times. First, he detailed how Meyer did not refer to specialists by name and also discussed the physical abuse:

“It was ‘Kicker, Punter, Long snapper…Or S***bag, Dips*** or whatever the hell it was.
I’m in a lunge position. Left leg forward, right leg back… Urban Meyer, while I’m in that stretch position, comes up to me and says, ‘Hey Dips***, make your f***ing kicks!’ And kicks me in the leg.

While Coach Meyer cannot be surprised by the choice and actions taken by NFL franchise, I wanted to discuss the ideas, research and my opinion towards the importance and impact effective relationships between coach and athletes can have. What are effective relationships and how can they be developed in sport? In HP or professional sport, how important or how much impact can effective relationships have? Surely it should be more about successful relationships, focusing on athlete development and “winning”….?? Let’s have a look what the research shows us…

Effective relationships include positive coaching behaviours such as understanding, honesty, acceptance, responsiveness, friendliness, cooperation, respect and positive regard. Successful relationships are different to effective relationships as these are seen as relationships which have reached a level of normative performance in sport. Therefore, unsuccessful yet effective relationships shall have positive outcomes for athlete and coach in terms of psychological health and well being yet not necessarily performance. Sadly for Meyer, he really missed out on both areas…

There is 4 main areas to focus on to develop close and effective relationships found in research developed over many years by Prof Sophia Jowett.

Closeness: This addresses and reflects on the emotional tone expressed when describing relationships. Areas around developing this include interpersonal liking, trust, respect, appreciation
Coordination: Cognitive part of the relationships; looking at sharing a common frame of reference such as shared goals, beliefs, values and expectations. For this to develop, coaches need to display and receive open and honest communication
Complementary: This area looks at the behaviours within the relationship. It addresses the type of interactions and resources for developing athletic relationships, finding other ways to connect with your gymnasts as opposed to solely practice or performance environments
Commitment: The motivation, passion and investment in relationship; whether the coach athlete are in sync. Think we can all identify the negative effects if the levels of commitment are misaligned, using comments made from Coach Meyer to players and other coaches.

I hear the grumbles from certain corners around elite players or high performance that these ideas are great but some coaches still want to focus on normative success; so, can we as coaches create a successful relationship as well as effective relationship? Again, Jowett’s research found that having strong C’s creates a mastery focus or intrinsic motivation within athletes as opposed to a performance avoidance attitude. Therefore, to have self motivated, engaged and committed athletes, addressing, developing and reviewing your C’s as a coach shall ultimately keep our sportsmen and women involved in the sport for as long as possible.

What can develop if we ignore development of effective relationships? Apart from the obvious abuse mentioned in Meyer’s report and the investigation completed around Gymnastics AUS, athlete burnout is a real risk and concern, amongst other areas. Burnout isn’t solely physical exhaustion; it also is a result of emotional exhaustion, which can come from multiple factors including reduced sense of accomplishment and devaluation of sport. Katrien Fransen’s research found burnout symptoms can be reduced by fostering a sense of shared identification and making people feel and behave as members of the same team, something lacking in Meyer’s coaching practices in comments towards his fellow coaches as an example. Relating to effective relationships, understanding cooperation and responsiveness in coach athlete relationships could ultimately prevent athlete burnout.

Coaches could develop demotivated athletes as a result of ignoring the investment into effective relationships. There is research to suggest the importance of the quality of relationships has a direct correlation to athlete motivation but what is strong self-motivation in a sport environment? Basic psychological needs theory (BPNT; Deci & Ryan, 1985) is one of the sub theories within self-determination theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 1985). Autonomy (self-determination), relatedness (belonging), and competence (mastery) are the espoused universal needs (BPNT within SDT) that underpin why we do what we do. Self-determination theory, which is a popular framework for understanding motivational processes and outcomes (players’ cognitions, affect, and behaviours), is a social-cognitive and organismic theory of motivation and personality development that focuses on the social factors that influence different forms of motivation through influencing perceptions of these universal psychological needs. Some ideas around each of these areas are listed below for better understanding for coaches:

Autonomy: sense of control or ability to make your own decisions; examples include allowing players to make decisions around training environments or practice design
Competency: sense of achievement or growth in environment or areas meaningful to athletes;
Relatedness: Sense of connection or close, meaningful relationships with others

Another area highlighted by Gymnastics AUS investigation and “Athlete A” documentary is the idea of lack of psychological safety in sports environments. Psychological safety is a lack of belief from team members that they are safe for interpersonal risk taking for fear of being ridiculed, punished or rejected Ineffective relationships are due to lack of respect or acceptance, even intimidation or humiliation effecting athlete wellbeing, areas highlighted from reports around Meyer’s coaching styles. What ideas could we introduce or develop to help create a psychologically safe environment? We could start by adopting a transformational leadership style, which helps develop effective relationships by focusing on positive developmental relationships. This leadership style (which can also be seen as shared leadership) is defined as where a leader works with teams or followers beyond their immediate self-interests to identify needed change, creating a vision to guide the change through influence, inspiration, and executing the change in tandem with committed members of a group. Again, research shows that this style of leadership reduces conflict, increased learning and develops a psychologically safe environment. The positive relationship properties in 3+1 C’s will offer high levels of team or group cohesion; again, Jowett’s research showed social cohesion, which is the degree to which members like each other, has more relation to performance markers than task cohesion (team being cooperative to achieve a common goal). Basically, understanding and acknowledging fellow coaches and players has more correlation to performance than understanding what technical and tactical elements could make up elite performance.

Reading the reports around Meyer’s controlling and abusive techniques plus drawing upon ideas shared with Gymnastics AUS coaches, what ideas can we develop as coaches to try and bring the research to life?

Be aware of the elements of 3+1 C’s such as closeness and sharing common frame of mind and ideas. Ask questions (click on this link to a cheat sheet) to try and get in sync with athletes and understanding what is important to them
Not understanding yet acknowledging the technical aspects of each of your sports, we as coaches still need to offer connection before direction. We are dealing people first and athletes second so they need to understand that our feedback and focus is coming from a compassionate place as opposed to authoritarian position
One of my favourite line for coaches; They don’t care what you know until they know that you care: Athletes of all ages will test your boundaries yet are just testing your connection and compassion towards them.
Coach leadership behaviours will determine the quality of relationships. I believe the lowest standards you accept or expect is the highest you’ll get and that includes your coaching and connecting actions. Display and reward the behaviours you want to see from your players and you shall strengthen your relationships through authentic actions and language.
Remember, you are in a position of privilege; coaching s a luxury not all are entitled to do and you should invest in these relationships as are critical influences for getting athletes or players of all ages to get involved and remain involved in sport in some capacity. Building effective relationships can build our next Olympic champs but can also grow our next gen coaches, sponsors or supporters from positive interactions also.

As this year draws to a close, we should take some time to reflect and build our interpersonal skills to allow us to take time in future to better know and understand our athletes to gain a holistic view of involved players. The art of coaching is knowing how and when to communicate to build on our relationships, and how this varies from individual. Work on empathetic and meaningful relationships by having a better understanding of your athletes or players as this will allow you to modify your environment or approaches for greater impact and understanding. Know your players, know their story, know their context and then put it into practice….

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The importance of effective relationships in HP sport