Excited at the start of a new year means the start of new research project as am keen to extend my research into HP age grade athletes and investigate further into why they make the decisions they make or choose their committed sport and invest in dedicated practice. With this in mind, I wanted remind myself around different ideas for athlete development and engagement, this article looking at the importance of effective relationships between coach and athlete, drawing upon ideas from sport specific research and personal experiences.

This week saw the end of an era with 3 very senior, highly successful coaches calling time on their current careers with their respective teams. First, it was announced on Wednesday that long-time Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll would be moving into an advisory role instead of staying on the sidelines for his 15th season. Then, three hours later, legendary college football coach Nick Saban announced his retirement after 17 seasons at Alabama. Now, for the first time in 24 years, the New England Patriots will be looking for a new coach, as team owner Robert Kraft and Bill Belichick agreed to part ways. Both Carroll and Saban seemingly turning the page on their coaching careers, Belichick still reportedly has gas in the tank despite being one year younger than his counterparts; however, it was comments in their press conferences that caught my ear.

Starting with Carroll, he had a very emotional and heartfelt thank you to his wife for her love and support throughout his tenure at the Seahawks yet it was comments referring to his sons which made me consider the importance of open and honest relationships in HP sport. Carroll, on thanking his sons, Brennan and Nate, who have been part of the Seahawks coaching staff throughout the last couple of years, said:

They would be the ones that would give me all the crap about what I was doing wrong, what I was screwing up. They were harsh and their critiques were rash and the whole thing...it was perfect.
Because they needed that loyalty and they were the epitome of it for me. And so, I'll forever be grateful. They know…But I don't mind saying it to you because its hard to be that deeply loyal. It's hard to tell people what they don't want to hear and what they need to hear. And, it's rare having people around you to do that, particularly when you get this kind of position. And it's so necessary to do well and to do right.

Later the same week, in College American football, Alabama's Nick Saban, who has won more college football national championships than any coach in the modern era, announced his retirement on Wednesday. Saban compiled a 297-71-1 (.806) collegiate coaching record, including a 206-29 (.877) mark in Tuscaloosa. His teams won a combined 11 SEC titles, going 11-1 in SEC Championship Games, including nine at Alabama (9-1 record) and two at LSU (2-0 mark). He also won 15 games with the Dolphins in 2005-06.

In Saban's six national championship seasons at Alabama, his teams went 21-2 against top-10 opponents, and, since 2008, the Crimson Tide was 37-15 overall against top-10 teams. Alabama was also ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press Poll for at least one week for 15 straight years (2008-22), which broke the record of seven established by Miami (1986-92).

Saban coached four Heisman Trophy winners, joining Notre Dame's Frank Leahy for the most in college football history. He is the only coach to ever coach Heisman Trophy winners at three different positions (RB, WR, QB). The Alabama program had just six individual national award winners when Saban arrived on campus, but Crimson Tide players have secured 60 national awards since 2008. However, again it was his comments towards the relationships developed and held during his time coaching at Alabama that stood out for me:

We have enjoyed every minute of our 17 years being the head coach at Alabama as well as becoming a part of the Tuscaloosa community. It is not just about how many games we won and lost, but it's about the legacy and how we went about it. We always tried to do it the right way. The goal was always to help players create more value for their future, be the best player they could be and be more successful in life because they were part of the program. Hopefully, we have done that, and we will always consider Alabama our home.

Finally, on Thursday in the same week, The New England Patriots announced that the team has mutually parted ways with long-time head coach and general manager Bill Belichick. As the Patriots head coach since 2000, Belichick led the team to six Super Bowls. He counted 333 wins, including the playoffs, and ranked second all time in the NFL’s 104-season history, trailing only Hall of Famer Don Shula’s 347. During his press conference, he started by acknowledging Robert Kraft, the team’s franchise owner:

It's an amazing opportunity, received tremendous support. We had a vision of building a championship football team here. That's exceeded my wildest dreams and expectations, the amount of success that we were able to achieve together through a lot of hard work and the contributions of so many people. I'm very proud of that, and I'll always have those great memories.
And of course, after Robert, thanks to the assistant coaches. I've had so many great coaches here. They've made my job so much easier. It's a long list, but the amount of work, preparation and diligence that they do, every one of them – I say this about the players, and the coaches, regardless of how long they were here, how many years they were here, how many years they coached, what their position was – it was a great team effort and everybody put everything they had into it. That's why we were successful. The coaches, the support staff, it's an amazing staff here that's supported me in every way. All the scouting and all of the football support people – from equipment and training, security, video, operations and so forth, right down the line, dining room – it's all first class.
Of course, a great deal of thanks and appreciation to the players. Players win games in the NFL, and I've been very, very fortunate to coach some of the greatest players that have ever played. Some of the greatest players that have ever played for the Patriots, some of them are in the Hall of Fame, and many more are going. Again, regardless of how long the players were or weren't here, what their role was, or how many games they played, or even if they didn't win championships, I respect the way the players come to work here on a daily basis. All of them, and I have coached well over 1,000. Their ability to work, prepare, train in the weight room, train their bodies, rehearse over and over again, and do things right to be successful to win. I have so much respect for all the players, and certainly we've had many that have been here for a long time and had great contributions. Too many to name at this time, but a great thanks to the players.

Three successful and inspirational coaches in their sport and have had long term impact with their respective teams, all referring to the importance of effective and meaningful relationships being a keystone for their success. What can coaches in other sports take from these comments? Let’s start by questioning what are effective relationships and how can they be developed in sport? In HP or professional sport, how important or how much impact can these personal and effective relationships have? Surely it should be more about successful relationships and improvement of the individual as a person than 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 and all mentioned by coaches Carroll, Saban and Belichick.

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 benefits from having engaged athletes and staff in their programs as described by coaches Carroll, Saban and Belichick, research suggests that investment in these types of relationships can prevent athlete burnout, which is a real and current threat in HP sport. 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, areas all highlighted by the coaches in their final press conferences towards their fellow coaches as an example. Relating to effective relationships, understanding cooperation and responsiveness in coach athlete relationships could ultimately prevent athlete (and coach) 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 coaches Carroll, Saban and Belichick in their finals comments was how they developed an environment of psychological safety in their respective teams. 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; yes, the mentioned coaches were known as intense and highly driven yet all were clear and concise for their expectations and seemingly appreciated efforts made and personal sacrifices in HP sport.

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.

Considering the comments made by coaches Carroll, Saban and Belichick, 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 is 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 many sports start a new season with the turn of the calendar year, 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….

Coaches Blog

End of an era reminds us of the importance of relationships within HP sport