What makes a great coach? Quality Coaching Behaviours: Part II

Welcome back to Part Two of our "What Makes a Great Coach?" mini-series, where we extract key information from Professor Andrea J Becker's research paper entitled "Quality Coaching Behaviours” to give you the insight without the hassle. If you haven't yet read Part One we recommend doing so in order to fully understand the coaching concepts outlined in this post.

Part Two in this mini-series will examine a further 3 coaching behaviours that make a great coach, these are being: supportive, individualised and fair.

#2 - Supportive
The second coaching trait found in Becker's research shows that great coaches demonstrate support for their athletes. One of the tips for being a supportive coach, is to show "encouragement, care, empathy and understanding" towards your players (Becker 2012; Bloom et al. 1997; Gould et al. 2007).

Regardless of whether or not a player is suffering on the field or off the field, Becker's analysis finds that a great coach should be there for their players when they are needed. This can be done in a number of ways; be it through giving a player that extra push, offering a shoulder to lean on, being a positive voice, giving a different perspective or simply patting them on the back (Becker 2012).

Small gestures make a big difference.

What many people don't realise is that aside from family, a players football coach could be the only other adult role model in their life. Whilst coaches don't get into coaching to serve this purpose, it can be an inevitable role which they may take on as a result. How a coach reacts and helps their players is entirely up to them but this research suggests that in being supportive you can really get to know your players and develop trust and respect on both sides. Becker's research suggests that "a number of great coaches have stressed the importance of understanding their athletes" highlighting just how important it is to connect with them on a human level.

When highlighting Steve Harrison's - an experienced professional football coach - views on being a supportive coach he said "he must know his athletes as individuals and view the world from their perspective in order to get the best out of them" (Becker 2012: Jones et al. 2003: 226). Having said this, Becker says there is no research out there comparing the empathetic abilities of successful and less successful coaches, therefore it cannot be assumed that great coaches are better at understanding and empathizing with their athletes.

On the other hand, research literature has found evidence which suggests coaches are both "incapable and unaware of detecting and interpreting their players' thoughts and emotions" (Becker 2012; Lorimer and Jowett 2009). Obviously taken out of context this is an incredibly difficult thing to do even if you are a psychologist, but it is even worse when coaches consciously disregard this part of the coaching process because they only want their players to perform well and don't care about how they actually feel. In acting this way, it is entirely possible that this will negatively affect players psychological states and subsequent on field performance (Becker 2012; Jowett 2003; Thelwell et al. 2008).

It doesn't have to be that way though!

By taking time to understand this and make small changes in their actions, a coach can show the correct support their players need. Simply spending time observing, interacting with and getting to know their players will help establish a relationship (Becker 2012; Lorimer and Jowett 2009, 2010).

Demonstrating unconditional support
Providing this support unconditionally is paramount on your journey to becoming a great coach. Perhaps you are asking yourself what exactly does this mean and how do I do it? This argument centres around the idea of showing you care no matter the player's behaviours or performances.

In short, if you are genuine in your support, player's will perform in the moment and focus on winning as opposed to thinking about gaining your approval.

The key thing to remember is to offer unconditional support based on who they are as people as opposed to what they do as players and in turn research shows this will allow them to focus more on things they can control (giving their best) rather than things they cannot (what the coach thinks of them).

#3 - Individualised
Individual treatment
Everyone is different, that's a fact of life. Especially in football, coaches should be aware that no single player is the same, both in their playing style and their personality. As a coach, a major challenge is to lead a team made up of an array of different characters. Becker stresses that coaches need to be aware of their "players' goals, communication styles, motivational orientations, levels of commitment and more" (Becker 2012; Gould et al. 2002; Pensgaard and Roberts 2002). You may wonder why one player responds positively to your management style and another negatively. This has everything to do with understanding each individual player and their personalities. While one player may thrive on a coach shouting orders at them, another might find it demeaning. It is therefore important for coaches to understand that 'individualising their treatment' towards different players will reap huge benefits for not only the player and coach but the team as a whole.

Becker's research finds that a lot of literature refers to the importance of providing individualised treatment, "particularly when setting goals and expectations, preparing for competition, giving feedback and motivating effort" (Becker 2012; Côté and Sedgwick 2003; Pensgaard and Roberts 2002; Vallée and Bloom 2005; Wang and Goldfine 2007). In showing an interest in individual players, a coach is sending a message that they are "not only worthy of attention, but also valued as an important member of the team" (Becker 2012; Becker and Wrisberg 2008; Voight and Carroll 2006); Wrisberg 1987).

Evidently, there will be many coaches out there questioning how it is possible to be so individualised given an obvious lack of contact time when it comes to grassroots football. However giving individualised treatment doesn't have to take long at all, in a week of training you have more than enough time to take a moment and show your empathetic side to every player. If you think back to behaviour #2 of being a supportive coach and in particular "through giving a player that extra push, offering a shoulder to lean on, being a positive voice, giving a different perspective or simply patting them on the back" (Becker 2012). You can see that all these small actions can be ways of showing your support. In turn using some of these in may help you create this individual rapport with the player.

#4 - Fair
Being a fair coach to everyone can be one of the hardest parts of coaching. What one player may construe as normal, another might see as favouritism. Whilst it has been proven that many coaches "exhibit behaviours solely according to their perceptions of athletes' performance capabilities" (Becker 2012; Markland and Martinek 1988; Solomon et al. 1998; Solomon et al. 1996) the fact it is true doesn't mean it is necessary.

As a coach, having favourites can cause more bad than good. Firstly, it can cause negative feelings and hinders development in players who are perceived to be less talented. This ultimately causes them to devalue themselves as players and their psychological state is damaged as a consequence. It is a vicious cycle as a player who feels undervalued by their coach begins to lose confidence, in losing confidence their performances are likely to fall and in return this reinforces a coaches initial beliefs of viewing them as lesser to other players (Becker 2012; Solomon 2001; Wilson and Stevens 2007).

This is a major issue in grassroots football whereby all players are at different stages of growth both physically and emotionally, therefore it can be easy for coaches to choose favourites (Becker 2012; Haubenstricker and Seefeldt 2002).

Secondly, being an unfair coach is problematic as it negatively affects team cohesion. When a player feels that someone else is getting preferential treatment, they can experience jealousy and sometimes resentment towards their teammates. Ultimately, this social tension builds up and in the worst case scenarios can lead to decreased team performances. As a result of such actions, coaches can unknowingly compromise their own ultimate ambition of winning (Becker 2012; Kamphoff et al. 2005; Turman 2003).

In a study conducted by Becker and Wrisberg in 2008 whereby they examined the behaviours of a professional basketball coach, their findings showed that whilst the coach clearly viewed some of their players as having more talent, there was no bias towards their treatment of such players. Therefore the research derived that instead of favouring only the best players, the great coaches are able to "make a conscious effort to provide fair amounts of treatment to all of their players" (Becker 2012; Becker 2009; Gallimore and Tharp 2004; Segrave and Ciancio 1990; Voight and Carroll 2006).
Finally, to round off this behavioural quality and part two in our mini-series I will leave you with this quote:

"Being fair is not about treating athletes equally, but rather investing a comparable amount of time and energy in each and every one of them so that they feel equally valued" (Becker 2012; Dieffenbach et al. 1999)

Finally…

We are not saying that as a coach you have to take all of this onboard, if you only take one small piece of information away from this that is all we can hope for. We are however hopeful that these pieces are useful and insightful. Check back next week for our third and final instalment of this mini-series where we will look at the last three quality coaching behaviours found by Becker's research; appropriate, clear and consistent.