How do you create your version of Disneyland in your coaching environment?
/As the AFL world spotlight shines on Adelaide this weekend for the inaugural Gather Round, excitement shall be at an all time high for many players and fans. However, not many teams are showing as much enjoyment on the field as Collingwood Football Club. Before their loss to Brisbane last week, it was commented on how much fun and exciting footy the players in black and white were displaying.
After they defeated fellow AFL heavyweights, Richmond FC, five-time All-Australian Garry Lyon noted the massive smiles on the faces of every player. Brownlow Medallist Nathan Buckley – who coached a lot of those Pies players – pointed out those same smiles were blatant when the players emerged from the race before the first bounce.
Yes, winning games helps. But the infectious energy and positive vibes at Collingwood after three rounds are impossible to ignore. Triple All-Australian Nick Dal Santo said:
People often say Disneyland is the happiest place on earth … But the happiest place on earth Monday to Friday is Collingwood’s headquarters – and then on Saturday’s or Sunday’s or Friday nights, it’s the MCG when the Pies are playing. Their balance between attack and defence — the way they celebrate and embrace and the challenge of both getting the ball off the opposition, then try and ram it right back down their throat and score — it is a thing of beauty at the moment.
Star Magpies recruit Tom Mitchell post-game said “enjoyment” was a major theme among the playing group. And Collingwood head coach McRae was driving it, encouraging his troops to play with a no-fear attitude.
Fly (McRea) probably leads by example. He wants us to make mistakes…There’s no pressure to go out there and make mistakes – he encourages them. It just lightens the anxiety and the mood within the group because we know we’re going to make them at some point and we almost laugh about it and move on to the next contest.
McRae’s ex-Brisbane teammate Jonathan Brown said the Magpies coach’s style was identical to how he approached footy as a player:
It helps when its authentic from the leader. That’s ‘Fly’s’ personality. He’s a fun, loving guy who‘s a very close, very caring, very connected person. He coaches that way. He was big on that when he first started the role that he wanted to be authentic. He has coached to his personality – and I think that shines through with the players.
Rounding out the comments and reviews, what did coach McRea have to say for the start of the season himself?:
We live in a growth mindset. I’d like to think our best days are tomorrow. Why would we put a ceiling on ourselves or look for perfection? It’s a word I actually don’t like, trying to be ‘perfect’, because it means you’re finished.
There’s a lot to take in here as coaches; enjoyment in a HP environment…who would have thought??!! However, there’s some key messages from these comments such as explaining and understanding the importance of a growth mindset, creating an environment of honesty, openness and fun and most importantly, coaches being genuine, coaching to their personality and true selves with the importance of building strong relationships with their athletes to tie all these points together in a socially dynamic situation.
Galinsky and Maddux’s research to sporting context recognises that “taking perspective of (player) produced both greater joint gains and profitable individual outcomes”. In a sports context, this would be seen as close and meaningful coach-athlete relationships, regular player involvement in decision making processes with honest and accurate goal attainment for all involved, something former coach Nathan Buckley recognised post game:
The connection among this group has been established for a number of years … but Craig McRae’s nature is even a stronger fit for this Collingwood group and has taken them to another level again, especially taking away the anxiety to make mistakes.
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 recognized goals (Jowett, 2007). Therefore, coaches like McRea’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.
The challenge of successful coaching is acknowledging social interactive dilemmas within individual and team goal setting and development, 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 regards the “actions of coaches as (possibly) the most critical motivational influences within sport setting”, creating a fun yet challenging environment which he is apparently doing based on comments from players and commentators alike. Coaching should be recognized as an educational dynamic relationship, where the coach can satisfy player’s goals 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 performance coaches such as McRea for professional, HP athletes is highly important; coaches are “preparing 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.
Sports coaches of athletes should act as pedagogues and adopt comprehensive and holistic roles in the moral development of their athletes through their adopted and shared practices, languages and beliefs. If coaches are to develop knowledgeable athletes, capable of performing learned tasks when under pressure while allowed to make mistakes and have fun in HP environments like described by Mitchell, I believe this shall require bidirectional transfer of knowledge or total ownership by athletes of their development, with support from the coaches as “more capable other”. Kidman’s research (2001) addressed ideas such as coaches developing player’s complex skills and tactical knowledge through encouraging abstract thought processes by asking high order questions, which require athletes to apply, analyse and synthesize information. This style of leadership has the coach steering as opposed to controlling decisions and actions, encouraging player discovery through evolutionary planning and organizing of tasks whilst keeping sight of overall objectives and showing empathy to get the best from the athletes. Coaches acting as orchestrators whilst attempting to create a successful pedagogic setting requires coordination of activities to investigate, monitor and respond with honesty to players. This may require some transparency from coaches to offer rationale for processes. It may also require negotiation of processes with players to meet individual and collective performance measures of those being coached whilst matching evolving circumstances for learning and development against attempting keeping sight of overall objectives.
Coaches like McRea need to engage on a significant and sincere level and teach our athletes or leaders to do likewise. In sport specific research, Chan and Mallett recognised that high performing coaches require additional skills including ability to facilitate functioning leader-follower relationships, revolving around emotional intelligence and empathy, beyond the standard technical and tactical skills (Chan, 2011). Jowett’s research into coach-athlete relationships looked at the interrelated emotions and behaviours captured through constructs of commitment, closeness and complimentary, tied in later studies with coordination (Jowett, 2004). In this sports research, commitment within coach-athlete relationships is recognised as intention to maintain a loyal, long term relationship while showing closeness as mutual trust, respect and appreciation for roles played in partnership. The coach’s and athlete’s ability to have mutual relatedness, common ground in beliefs and actions while having stress-free interpersonal behaviours displays coordination and complimentary aspects for successful coach-athlete relationships.
So how do we as coaches create our own Disneyland in our own sports?? We need to reflect and build our interpersonal skills to allow us 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.