AASP Newsletter - July 2019

Tammy Sheehy

Tammy Sheehy, PhD, Central Virginia Community College

As mental performance consultants (MPCs), it is our mission to help our clients enhance their performance, holistic well-being, and social functioning (AASP, 2016). Although we typically include coaches in the discussion of ‘clients’ in AASP and other sport psychology organizations internationally, most often, coaches are either seen as a conduit for athletes to gain access to our services; or, coaches are learning how to facilitate sport psychology skills and techniques with their athletes. Very rarely, we focus on helping coaches themselves to develop skills to enhance their own performance and well-being (Longshore & Sachs, 2015). 

For those who coach, particularly in high-performance contexts, the sheer volume of stress can negatively affect performance and well-being if coping strategies are not developed and utilized. These coaches face many of the same stressors their athletes face in the sporting environment, including – among many others – managing personal recovery, public pressure to perform, and job insecurity. In the context of those performance stressors that coaches experience, we examined high-performance coaches’ perceptions regarding motivation, experienced benefits, and barriers associated with using an MPC to help improve their own performance. Eight high-performance coaches (female n = 2, male n = 6) each participated in two individual semi-structured interviews. These individuals earned their primary income coaching and coached athletes who competed nationally and internationally.

Results showed that, for the majority of coaches, their own performance work with an MPC began informally after bringing in the MPC for their athletes. The development of a personal performance relationship occurred over time through building trust and confidence in the MPC’s work with their team, being brought into the practice of sport psychology through previous exposure to the field (e.g., attended sport psychology workshops), and realizing the opportunity they had to utilize the MPC for their own growth and development as a coach. 

Coaches described a number of benefits they gained from working with their MPC, including:

•  enhanced reflection practices, 
• developing perspective on work and home-life balance (e.g., the need to engage in more home-life activities),
• receiving constructive feedback about their coaching,
• managing arousal (this included managing energy levels throughout practice and competition, and managing emotions),
• improved decision-making practices (e.g., feeling more confident in their decisions),
• increased understanding of others’ behavior (so that they could respond to the behavior in adaptive ways),
• engaging in mindful actions (such as being deliberate about words said to athletes and the media), and
• developing a valued friendship with the MPC.

Barriers to using an MPC included finances, access to the MPC consistently throughout the season, the fear of others perceiving the coach as “weak” for using a MPC, and the athlete-focus of programs, which dissuades coaches from using the MPC as that person is viewed as an “athlete resource” by the governing body.

The potential value in MPCs helping coaches to improve their performance is promising due to the high level of contact time with coaches and the opportunity to build trusting relationships over time. The coaches in this study expressed several skills they gained that helped them navigate their coaching more successfully. However, the barriers identified by these coaches need to be addressed for applied work to become more mainstream with this population. In particular, most coaches did not feel support from their governing organization for using the MPC for their own development as it was viewed as a resource only for the athletes to improve their performance (most coaches did not inform their governing bodies that they were utilizing the MPC in such a way). 

Therefore, we, as MPCs should attempt to market our services in a way that emphasizes the coach as a client and the importance of developing skills to manage stress and improve performance with these sport leaders. It is also important to be aware of and actively avoid ethical dilemmas that may develop in dual-role relationships (working with athletes and coaches simultaneously). MPCs should meet with their coach clients in the beginning of their work together to clarify boundaries and expectations of confidentiality in order to build a professional relationship of trust (Sharp & Hodge, 2013).

Note: A full manuscript of this research has been accepted to The Sport Psychologist and has advanced online publication (doi/10.1123/tsp.2018-0061) but no volume or issue yet.

References

Association for Applied Sport Psychology. (2016). Appendix 2: Sport psychology job task analysis and draft test specifications. Retrieved from http://www.appliedsportpsych.org/site/assets/files/27999/jtareportfinal012116.pdf

Longshore, K. & Sachs, M. (2015). Mindfulness training for coaches: A mixed-method exploratory study. Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology, 9, 116-137. doi: 10.1123/jcsp.2014-0038

Sharp, L-A. & Hodge, K. (2013). Effective sport psychology consulting relationships: Two coach case studies. The Sport Psychologist, 27, 313-324. doi: 10.1123/tsp.27.4.313