Transcript
NARRATOR
Resilience in athletes has become the subject of discussion in the field of sport over recent years. But less discussed is the subject of resilience in coaches. Mustafa Sarkar and Nathan Hilton's research with Olympic medal winning swimming coaches looked at some of the factors and psychological qualities that can protect coaches from the potential negative effects of stressors.
The design of the study enabled researchers to understand how a number of protective factors could buffer the coaches from pressure and stressors. They identified six protective factors.
DR MUSTAFA SARKAR (Associate Professor in Sport and Performance Psychology, Nottingham Trent University):
In terms of the protective factors, the first protective factor was progressive coaching. And this referred to coaches' ability to evaluate stresses and pressures in a positive fashion. And specifically around some of their positive personality characteristics around being proactive, being quite conscientious, and also being quite optimistic in nature.
NARRATOR
As well as the ability to evaluate the stresses, the coaches discussed building support networks around themselves.
DR MUSTAFA SARKAR
Coaches talks about having other coaches within their support network, and using those coaches as mentors in terms of their own personal and professional development. Coaches also talked about the importance of family and friends in terms of being able to provide that sense of perspective.
And I guess in relation to social support and coaches' support in particular, it was a combination of what we might call perceived support, so the perception that support is available to them. But also the idea that the receipt of support in terms of coaches believing that they were actually getting the social support.
So in relation to that particular protective factor, it was a combination of a variety of people within their social support network that provided that role of the perception of support, but also the receipt of support as well.
NARRATOR
Having a good support network was valued by the coaches, but there was also an emphasis on their own ability to create a balanced approach to their coaching role, and to maintain a work–life balance.
DR MUSTAFA SARKAR
In terms of the third protective factor, this referred to work–life balance. And this is where coaches talked about the importance of having a balance between their day to day coaching, kind of, practises, but also being to be able to do things outside of the work context in terms of outside interests and activities.
And coaches were very clear to articulate the fact that balance suggests that it a kind of a 50-50 split, whereas it was more about creating a harmony between work and life. And that harmony didn't necessarily need to be a 50-50 split, but just making sure that coaching wasn't everything that they were doing and that they were able to maintain a sense of perspective and being able to have an outlook and detach outside of work by doing other types of activities, such as volunteering.
NARRATOR
Connected to the coach managing their own work–life balance was the reported importance of their working environment.
DR MUSTAFA SARKAR
The fourth protective factor refers to coaches talking about the importance of a secure working environment. And this was about creating a daily work environment that enabled coaches to perform under pressure and also attain success at the highest level. In particular, it was about confidence in the role. It was also about managing some of the insecurities of that work environment and controlling some of that self-doubt.
But also as coaches, being able to direct the working environment in terms of directing how the organisation and how that particular club could operate in terms of that work environment.
NARRATOR
Coaching at an Olympic games brings prestige, and winning at Olympic level is the goal of many coaches. However, the research highlighted the importance of balancing the motivation of this type of success with an enjoyment of the role.
DR MUSTAFA SARKAR
So the fifth protective factor referred to as durable motivation. And durable motivation refers to coaches' ability to sustain motivation over a period of time. And coaches talked about the importance and blend between intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation.
Intrinsic motivation referring to coaches being motivated for enjoyment, for value, for learning purposes. And extrinsic motivation referring to coaches talking about being motivated to win Olympic medals, for prestige purposes, for example. And coaches articulated that for motivation to be sustained over a period of time, there needs to be a balance between both intrinsic and extrinsic motives.
They also suggested that if coaches were just purely extrinsically motivated, for example, just wanting to be in the job purely for extrinsic reasons such as winning Olympic medals then their resilience levels would be impacted if they didn't also have some of those intrinsic motives to kind of combine with them.
NARRATOR
Reflection and evaluation are an important part of a coach's tool kit. The research found that effective use of these tools could be used to support the coaches in their role.
DR MUSTAFA SARKAR
The sixth protective factor refers to effective decision-making. And this is where coaches talked about the importance of self-analysing, reflecting, and making effective decisions under pressure. Coaches also talked in relation to this protective factor. Coaches talked about the importance of experience and learning. Taking the time to actually understand the decisions that they were making. Taking the time to understand what went right, what didn't go so well, and then being able to reflect on that to make better decisions in the future.
NARRATOR
These six protective factors can play a role in protecting a coach from the potential negative effects of stressors that they experience. But how could this information be used to inform coaching practise?
DR MUSTAFA SARKAR
I think in terms of the practical implications in relation to the protective factors, I think it's probably twofold. Firstly, in relation to coach education. It's about being firstly aware of the protective factors that coaches already have and what they need to do to improve some of these protective factors.
But also secondly, I think it's important to understand which particular protective factors match best with the particular stressors they might be experiencing. So as an example, one of the pressures that coaches talked about in this study was coach wellbeing. Now are there certain protective factors? For example, the coaches support network, that might be a better protective factor to mitigate some of the coach personal wellbeing versus, for example, having a secure work environment and effective decision-making which might be better for the stress that was identified in terms of directing a sport organisation.
So I think it's really important that coaches and coach education talk about and think about the match between protective factors and stresses. At the organisational level, so I think that's, for me, at the coach education level. I think national governing bodies and organisations also need to think about from a protective factors point of view about how they can help coaches, both in terms of support network.
Is there a system in place, for example, that coaches can benefit from mentors? And I think that can be done at the organisational level. I think as well, creating that secure working environment. There's only so much coaches can do in relation to managing sometimes what's considered to be quite unsecure working environments.
So working with organisations to create better and more secure working environments, because that will obviously impact that durable motivation. But also working with coaches at the organisational level to help them better their decision-making. So I think from a practical implications point of view, I think there are certain things that can be done at coach education level, but also there are certain things that needs to be done at the organisational level as well.