HP Sport and the battle between high standards and psychological safety
/As we reach over quarter the way through 2024 and excited to be growing into a new research project and extending my research into HP age grade athletes, I’m continuing to investigate further into why they make the decisions they make or choose their committed sport and invest in dedicated practice. Reading further into where is the balance between what athletes bring in terms of traits and motivations against what we offer in our coaching practices and HP environments, a growing story in NRL and rugby league world and pockets of my reading seem to merge an interesting Venn diagram cross section.
Psychological safety in sports is not a new concept yet seems to keep getting ignored or overlooked in many corners of HP sport. In 2021, I was lucky to present and write about conversations with 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. These presentations and discussions came 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. 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, Canterbury Bulldogs forward Jackson Topine has launched legal proceedings against the club after claiming he was formed to endure “unlawful corporal punishment” for being late to training. The 22-year-old’s legal team claims its client was subjected to “assault” and “humiliation” which ultimately led to him taking mental health leave. Topine was reportedly forced to wrestle every member of the Bulldogs squad because he arrived late to training, with Canterbury’s Head of Performance, Travis Touma inciting the punishment. The rising star, who had played 16 NRL games at the time, was forced to endure “shark bait” with “30 to 35” of his teammates watching on after they were called back to the wrestling mats. The events occurred on July 18 2023, and according to the statement lodged to the courts, Topine suffered “psychiatric injury, deprivation of liberty, humiliation, indignity, physical exhaustion, physical discomfort, anxiety, embarrassment and fear” after the session. It is claimed teammates tried to help Topine but were told by Touma things like “Don’t let him up. If he’s down, jump on him straight away!” ... and “don’t congratulate him or help him. He deserved that. He was f..king late.”
When the story broke last season, Ciraldo defended the training methods used by the club, saying:
We’ve gone through a range of different ways of talking about holding standards. Some of that’s been monetary related, some of it’s been spinning a wheel and then some of that’s been trying to find ways to change behaviours. The reality is we need to change behaviours here, and I think we’ve done a good job of that throughout the season. And I feel really sorry for the fans that we are where we are.
Before I drive into the research, I want to reiterate I LOVE and support HP Sports environments. I enjoy the high dedication and efforts for high rewards set in these environments and understand that these settings cannot be for every member of sports teams or organisations and is why I continue to be passionate about research into high performance sports teams and organisations. I recognise and acknowledge Ciraldo’s comments that they are using a range of methods for holding or withholding standards and expectations but identifying and understanding the important pillar of wellbeing standing as tall as performance. Important building blocks in both these pillars include coach athlete relationships, understanding each and every athlete as an individual and their goals or motivations to be involved in the sport and how we can support and care for players as people and not solely numbers in squads or organisations.
While investigations are continuing, Topine’s reports as experiencing psychiatric injury, deprivation of liberty, humiliation, indignity, physical exhaustion, physical discomfort, anxiety, embarrassment and fear all point towards lack of psychological safety in this sporting environment. 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 Bulldog’s adopted coaching styles and behavioural management.
What ideas could Ciraldo and co introduce or develop to help create a psychologically safe environment while holding desired standards? Canterbury 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. There was an opportunity to adopt and follow this when players attempted to interject and assist Topine yet was overruled by Bulldog coaches.
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.
What can develop if we ignore development of effective relationships? 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. These ideas are supported by research by Coakley identified burnout as a social problem, rooted in the organisation of HP sport and teams itself (Coakley, 1992). Crane (2015) states from his research that “the two most dominant factors related to dropout were participants’ perceptions of their physical or sport competence and their enjoyment of sport” (Crane & Temple, 2015). Katrien Fransen’s research also 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 Canterbury’s suggested coaching practices in reports. Relating to effective relationships, understanding cooperation and responsiveness in coach athlete relationships could ultimately prevent athlete burnout, dropout or at least create and develop psychologically safe practices.
Reading the reports plus reviewing the research, let’s question and consider what ideas can we develop as coaches to try and bring the research to life, better understand our athletes and create HP practices whilst emotionally supporting our players:
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 NRL champs but can also grow our next gen coaches, sponsors or supporters from positive interactions also.
As coaches or leaders within our sports environments and organisations, 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 whilst upholding the high standards wanted and needed for HP Sport. Know your players, know their story, know their context and then put it into practice….