As an Internal Family Systems therapist, I’ve come to appreciate and recognise the benefits of seeing problems and challenges not in isolation but through a systems lens. From a systems perspective, we understand that athletes are not just a product of their own abilities but are deeply influenced by their environment and the people around them. Therefore, while it’s important to focus on athletes, it’s just as critical to examine those in their orbit, particularly their coaches, to ensure that the environments in which they train are supportive, not sabotaging. Are these environments fostering their potential, or are they contributing additional burdens to their already difficult challenges?
Recognising Coaches as Carers
In recognition of National Carers Week, we celebrate those who provide essential support to others, often in challenging circumstances. Coaches are not unlike carers—they play vital roles in the lives of athletes, helping them reach their potential. In fact, it’s hard to find an athlete who wouldn’t credit their success to their support team, especially their coach. This article will focus on the critical importance of coaches in elite sports, but I don’t intend to neglect the role of parents either. By taking an IFS-informed approach, I hope to demonstrate that to truly help athletes, we need to place more emphasis on those around them as well.
The Role of Coaches in Psychological Safety
In the high-pressure world of elite sports, psychological safety is essential for enhancing performance and satisfaction. Athletes thrive when they feel safe to take risks, make mistakes, and express themselves without fear of judgment or punishment. However, creating this environment isn’t solely the responsibility of the athletes—coaches play a critical role.
Why we might not be investing as much in Psychological Safety and coaches
While the importance of psychological safety in fostering performance and well-being is clear, it’s also important to acknowledge the barriers that prevent its full implementation in high-performance sports environments.
One of the key reasons we may not be focusing enough on psychological safety is that it’s challenging to apply this concept in high-pressure sports. Research by Taylor, Collins, and Ashford (2022) highlights several barriers that make psychological safety difficult to implement.
First, there’s confusion about what psychological safety means in the sports world. While the concept works well in business settings, there is a lack of clarity on how it translates to high-performance sports, which makes it harder for teams and organisations to adopt it in a meaningful way.
Second, psychological safety doesn’t always fit with the demands of elite sports. Coaches and athletes face real-world consequences, like losing funding or not being selected for the team, if they don’t perform. This makes it difficult to create an environment where athletes feel safe to make mistakes or take risks.
Finally, high-performance sports often focus on results over well-being. Coaches are judged based on their teams’ success, which creates immense pressure and can push psychological safety to the back burner. The drive for winning can make it harder for organisations to invest in creating safe spaces for both coaches and athletes.
When Psychological Safety is absent
Nevertheless, the recent case of Volleyball Australia case offers a vivid and painful example of what can happen when psychological safety is absent. Players from the Australian women’s indoor volleyball team described training in an “atmosphere of fear and control”, where they were subjected to verbal and physical abuse, body shaming, and coercive control. According to one player, “Training became punishment,” with athletes enduring humiliation, isolation, and excessive penalties. Injured players were belittled as ‘weak,’ ‘pathetic,’ and ‘useless’, and some were pushed to the point of hyperventilation and vomiting during drills. The trauma was so severe that some athletes have been diagnosed with PTSD, with one player hospitalised multiple times in the years since.
This case highlights the devastating consequences of neglecting the mental health and well-being of athletes but also coaches. Coaches under immense pressure to deliver results can adopt harmful practices when they lack the emotional awareness and tools to recognise the damage they are doing. The damage isn’t only to the athletes but also to the integrity of the sport itself.
The Real Challenges Faced by Coaches
Coaches in elite sports face immense daily pressures. One study found that 41.2% of elite-level coaches and high-performance support staff met the criteria for probable mental health disorders. Additionally, 13.9% reported high to very high psychological distress, 41.8% reported potential risky alcohol consumption, and 17.7% experienced moderate to severe sleep disturbance. These mental health challenges were often linked to dissatisfaction with social support and poor work-life balance. Coaches, like athletes, face similar levels of mental health symptoms, underscoring the need for better mental health screening and tailored support systems within the high-performance sports environment.
One of the main challenges is managing the emotional burden of their athletes’ performance. Coaches often tie their personal well-being to the success of their athletes, which creates a cycle of emotional highs and lows. When athletes struggle, coaches can feel personally responsible, which can lead to burnout and emotional fatigue.
The constant pressure to succeed is another challenge. In competitive sports, failure is not an option, and coaches must maintain resilience while helping their athletes rebound from setbacks. The high-stakes environment leaves little room for recovery, and coaches are expected to remain steady even when they are emotionally drained.
Coaches must also juggle organisational responsibilities, including managing teams, staff, and logistics, while handling interpersonal conflicts within the team. Studies show that these stressors often overlap, creating a high-pressure atmosphere where emotional well-being is frequently neglected. A meta-synthesis of qualitative research on coaches’ stress and well-being found that the constant organisational and emotional demands lead to chronic stress, which, if left unmanaged, results in emotional exhaustion, burnout, and health-related issues.
Additionally, coaches experience intense emotional strain due to performance outcomes, often exacerbating feelings of personal failure. Research on world-class coaches reveals that they regularly encounter physical symptoms of stress, such as sleeplessness and illness, while struggling with self-doubt and frustration. The inability to separate personal and professional identities contributes to poor work-life balance, further aggravating stress and impacting both their well-being and team dynamics.
The blurred line between personal and professional life is another issue. Many coaches struggle to separate their personal identity from their professional role, leading to poor work-life balance. The extreme emotional investment in their athletes can lead to over-identification with success and failure, making it difficult to take time for self-care.
Key Recommendations to Support Coaches
Supporting coaches effectively requires a multifaceted approach that addresses their psychological well-being, professional development, and job security. Here are the primary recommendations for how sporting organisations can better support their coaches:
1. Provide Individualised Psychological Support
Organisations should offer confidential, individualised psychological support for coaches. This can be provided by either offering incentives for coaches to seek psychological support or by directly funding mental health services that coaches can access at their discretion. The key is to ensure that this support is confidential, giving coaches a safe space to work on their personal challenges, stressors, and emotional well-being.
From an IFS lens, coaches, like athletes, are influenced by their own internal systems. Coaches carry their own parts—aspects of themselves that may drive them to succeed or fear failure. Without support, these parts can lead coaches to project their unresolved emotions onto their athletes. In the Volleyball Australia case, it’s likely that coaches had parts that pushed them to criticise, overtrain and dismiss athlete concerns due to domineering and perfectionistic parts that may have been trying to achieve performance outcomes and targets without considering the damage they were inflicting.
An IFS approach with coaches involves helping them understand their own parts and how those parts affect their coaching style. By addressing these parts, coaches can learn to lead from their Self—a calm, compassionate, and centered part of themselves. This allows them to create environments where athletes feel safe and supported. Self-led coaching, informed by IFS, encourages self-reflection, assertive communication, and setting healthy boundaries.
2. Mental Health Literacy and Psychoeducation as Part of Coaching Accreditation
Mental health literacy and psychological education is integral to the coaching accreditation process. This training equips coaches with the knowledge and skills to recognise and address mental health challenges in both themselves and their athletes. The modules should cover:
Self-reflective practices: Encouraging self-awareness and emotional regulation.
Mindfulness: Helping coaches manage stress and stay present.
Assertive communication and interpersonal skills: Navigating difficult conversations and setting boundaries.
Relationship boundaries and staying within competence: Knowing when to seek external support and maintaining professional boundaries.
Self-care and work-life balance: Supporting coaches in managing their own well-being and work-life separation.
Decision-making under pressure: Offering strategies for making and standing by tough decisions.
Managing difficult athletes: Teaching how to work with athletes who present challenging dynamics and knowing when to step away.
Embedding this training into the accreditation process ensures that coaches are not only skilled in performance coaching but are also equipped with the mental health knowledge necessary for their role.
3. Develop Peer Mentorship Networks
A strong peer mentorship program is essential for creating a network of support among coaches. This program should connect experienced coaches with those newer to the profession, providing them with a resource for guidance, emotional support, and shared experience.
Peer mentorship helps coaches recognise that they are not alone in facing the daily pressures of their profession. Through these networks, coaches can access tailored, practical advice from peers who have faced similar challenges, allowing them to manage their own well-being more effectively and fostering a sense of community and collaboration within the coaching profession.
4. Restructure Coaching Contracts to Improve Job Security
Coaches often operate under contracts that are heavily tied to performance outcomes, creating pressure to prioritise winning over athlete well-being. This can lead to environments where athletes are pushed beyond safe limits, with coaches fearing for their jobs if results are not immediately achieved.
Organisations should restructure coaching contracts to emphasise job security and include non-performance-based incentives. Contracts should have clauses that protect coaches from job loss or demotion when they prioritise athlete safety and psychological well-being. Additionally, coaches should be recognised and rewarded for creating psychologically safe environments, building strong relationships with athletes, and supporting their long-term well-being.
These recommendations offer a comprehensive approach to supporting coaches, addressing their mental health, professional development, and job security. By providing psychological support, embedding mental health literacy into the coaching process, fostering peer mentorship, and restructuring contracts, organisations can create environments where both coaches and athletes thrive.
Concluding Remarks
In conclusion, to truly elevate elite athlete performance, we must shift our focus to the well-being and development of their coaches. Coaches are pivotal figures, shaping not only athletic success but also the psychological safety and resilience of their athletes. By supporting coaches with mental health resources, fostering peer networks, and creating job security that prioritises athlete well-being over outcomes, we can build healthier, more sustainable environments in sport. The future of high-performance sport demands that we care as much for those who guide athletes as we do for the athletes themselves.
References
For further reading on this topic please explore the articles below
Thelwell, R. C., Wagstaff, C. R. D., Rayner, A., Chapman, M., & Barker, J. (2017). Exploring athletes’ perceptions of coach stress in elite sport environments. Journal of Sports Sciences, 35(1), 44-55. https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2016.1154979
Pilkington, V., Rice, S. M., Walton, C. C., Gwyther, K., Olive, L., Butterworth, M., Clements, M., Cross, G., & Purcell, R. (2022). Prevalence and Correlates of Mental Health Symptoms and Well-Being Among Elite Sport Coaches and High-Performance Support Staff. Sports Medicine - Open, 8(1), 89. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40798-022-00479-y
Purcell, R., Pilkington, V., Carberry, S., Reid, D., Gwyther, K., Hall, K., Deacon, A., Manon, R., Walton, C. C., & Rice, S. (2022). An Evidence-Informed Framework to Promote Mental Wellbeing in Elite Sport [Conceptual Analysis]. Frontiers in Psychology, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.780359
Frost, J., Walton, C. C., Purcell, R., & Rice, S. M. (2023). Supporting The Mental Health Of Elite-Level Coaches Through Early Intervention. Arthrosc Sports Med Rehabil, 5(4), 100734. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asmr.2023.04.017
Jowett, S., Do Nascimento-Júnior, J. R. A., Zhao, C., & Gosai, J. (2023). Creating the conditions for psychological safety and its impact on quality coach-athlete relationships. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 65, 102363. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2022.102363
Simpson, R. A. C., Didymus, F. F., & Williams, T. L. (2023). Interpersonal psychological well-being among coach-athlete-sport psychology practitioner triads. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 67, 102435. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2023.102435
Alexander, D., Bloom, G. A., Bentzen, M., & Kenttä, G. (2024). Exploring the experiences and perceptions of coaches, athletes, and integrated support teams towards the management of three national Paralympic teams. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 71, 102588. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2023.102588
Simpson, R. A. C., Didymus, F. F., & Williams, T. L. (2024). Organizational stress and well-being in competitive sport: a systematic review. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 17(1), 116-144. https://doi.org/10.1080/1750984X.2021.1975305
Walton, C. C., Purcell, R., Pilkington, V., Hall, K., Kenttä, G., Vella, S., & Rice, S. M. (2024). Psychological Safety for Mental Health in Elite Sport: A Theoretically Informed Model. Sports Medicine, 54(3), 557-564. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-023-01912-2
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