How to "water your crops" in high performance sports environments

I wanted to share and write about a couple of interesting articles I shared via LinkedIn and Twitter a couple of weeks ago from different sports and different sides of the globe. I’ll start with a fascinating interview and article from former AUSCycling Chairman, Duncan Murray, who offered a very honest review of how he feels high-performance sport is being approached, in cycling and more broadly across Olympic sports, and how he feels we are failing to meet the ethical responsibility we have to nurture people with exceptional talents. Murray is reported as stating:

When you look under the hood, the reality is they care materially more about sporting performance than the long-term life trajectory of their athletes…Sporting organisations – whether they be a motor racing team or a footy club or an NSO like AusCycling – owe the young people who are in their custody for the good part of a decade to invest their time, energy, intellect and balance sheets into setting them up for life.

Winning medals is no longer enough; We are in the 21st century, for god’s sake. The culture of sport needs to change; what is our purpose, what is the full cost, what are the metrics of success?

The core, philosophical cancer in high-performance sport at the moment is that a myopic focus rather than balance is the key to success

One of my favourite quotes amongst the reports; Most high-performance programs are harvesters rather than farmers,…There isn’t a successful farmer in the world who just rocks up once a year and cuts the wheat”. He argues what I have previously discussed and strongly believe; an investment in understanding your athletes as a whole person will ultimately give you a greater “rate of return for investment” and a more sustainable program to use and reflect on Murray’s corporate like philosophies. Sporting organisations need to investigate and better understand all layers of personality and recognise their players as a whole person as opposed to solely a sporting performer. This leads me onto another interview which caught my attention; former Aston Villa assistant coach and England international player John Terry offered an honest reflection on some of this time at the EPL club. In an interview in Nov 2021, he’s quoted as saying:

I won't name the player but at Aston Villa, working under Dean [Smith], who thinks about the players constantly and the lads love him, we were trying and I wasn't happy with one particular player. I kind of dug him out and had a one-on-one. I said to the gaffer, 'I'm not happy' and he said, 'Okay, film training and explain it to him' - which I did.

I sat him down and basically went mad at him and said it's not good enough - you're not even in the team and that's not going to get you in the team. We had a little debate and the next day I told the manager. He was like, 'Have you asked him about his family life?'.

It didn't even enter my head at all. The next morning I text him and told him to get in early and we'll have a bit of breakfast. It was during COVID, his family were away - he hadn't seen his mum and dad and he'd just had a baby.

I just learnt so much under Dean for those little bits. We ended up giving him a day off so he could spend time with his family. After that he came back and he was a new player, fighting back to get into the team and again, it's man-management.

The Chelsea and England legend Terry had been used to a very different style of management in his generation but is quoted as believing a "soft side" is needed because of all the pressure on players. While I appreciate his honesty and self reflection around how he was managing his players, these comments again highlight the gaps within playing and coaching. For the record, I believe the term “soft skills” should be banned from coach education; understanding your players, their identity and establishing points of connection is just GOOD COACHING PRACTICE! As I’ve written in my most current research paper:

Acknowledging that social and cultural forces exert a strong impact on the content, timing, and player’s articulation of characteristic adaptations such as personal strivings, it might be beneficial for coaches…to be more aware of (player’s) personal strivings or goals to better understand their internal narrative identity and desired cultural demands or encouragement expected to effectively develop their life story.

Combining the two articles, what the main points or areas of concern? Do all HP programs ignore effective relationships, slash and capitalise on their crops as quickly as possible as opposed to investing in relationships, understanding our athletes and watering our most important resource; our people?? What steps can we start with to develop strong connections with our athletes, seeing them as people, not solely as players and over coming the “win at all costs” mentalities mentioned by Murray and Terry?

The main aspects of influential and successful coach-athlete relationships revolve around ideals such as mutual trust, respect, support, cooperation, communication and understanding of each other and impact of each other within the relationship. Both performance enhancement and psychological well-being is deeply engrained within the coach-athlete relationship; for example, studies have shown that athlete satisfaction is related to the degree to which athletes understand their role and responsibilities within interactive sports teams. (Eys, 2007). Coaches need to acknowledge and recognise the effects of positive, interdependent relationships, which are dynamic and interlinked with cognition, feelings and behaviours to achieve common recognised goals (Jowett, 2007). Therefore, a coach’s ability to acknowledge and develop positive interpersonal connections, driven by interpersonal skills and united sense of purpose and achievement, can offer solid base for positive relationships and learning atmospheres.

Quality coaching responds to the need for collaboration between coach and players in navigating social interactions in the sporting context; this includes identifying and understanding differences between individual and team goal setting, offering suitable scenarios and choices with all members’ involvement, and collaboratively dealing with matters as opposed to eradicating them. Past research by Mageau and Vallerand describe the actions of coaches as important motivational influences within sport settings or environments (Mageau, 2003). Coaching should be recognised as a dynamic relationship, in which the coach can assist player’s goal achievement and development but both sides have an investment of will capital, where human initiative and intentionality are both dedicated to show commitment towards goals and relationships. The role of a performance coach for athletes entering the investment stage (variable between sports yet usually late teens or early adults) is highly important and understanding athlete’s motivations shall have positive impact on learning and development relationship of athletes of this stage. Coaches like Terry can “prepare athletes for consistent high-level competitive performance” (Côté, 2009) through effective tactics such as integration of professional, interpersonal, and intrapersonal knowledge and developing player’s specific competence, confidence, connection, and character needs on regular basis; this can and should include understanding other elements of player’s identity as opposed to solely their sporting motivations.

Understanding motivation is necessary to investigate why athletes play and sustain their engagement or drop-out from sport. 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. Coaching environments are contexts in which coaches can nurture psychological need satisfaction and subsequent internal motivation to enhance both performance and well-being (Amorose, 2007; Mallett, 2005). Satisfying these basic needs is said to “foster self-determined motivation” (Hollembeak, 2005) and has been associated with higher self-esteem and lower anxiety through greater engagement (Deci, 2001). Athletes or players are then better placed in developing intrinsically defined motivation in the pursuit of their sporting goals. Basic needs satisfaction also results in positive psychological consequences such as adaptive coping strategies for personal development and flow experiences, ideal for player development and both consequences required for specialising adolescent athletes as part of personal development (Lonsdale, 2009).

Addressing the John Terry scenario, when athletes’ psychological needs are not satisfied and indeed thwarted, externally regulated motivations (controlling coach behaviours) are likely to lead to less adaptive outcomes in how players think, feel, and act (Bartholomew et al. 2009; 2011). For example, often overlooked symptoms of burnout, such as reduced sense of accomplishment and devaluation of sport may be exacerbated by behaviours or environments where athletes experience low levels of need satisfaction or perceive their basic needs to be chronically frustrated by controlling coach behaviours (Bartholomew, 2011). 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 et al., 1996).

Looking at the articles and research around these ideas, which do you want to be; a farmer or a harvester? Considering Murray’s and Terry’s comments, we should 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, and how this varies from individual. Work on empathetic relationships and 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….