"Success of Coach Athlete Relationships (Canadian Olympic Study)"

By Bo Hanson - 4x Olympian, Coaching Consultant & Director of Athlete Assessments

Many studies have been conducted on the impact of the quality of the coach athlete relationship on an athlete’s ultimate performance.  One of the most recent and compelling studies has been conducted and written by Penny Wurthner.  The study was funded by the “Own The Podium” initiative of the Canadian Olympic Committee.  As stated in the study, “Own the Podium is a national sport technical initiative designed to help Canada’s winter athletes win the most medals at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games and to place in the top three nations (gold medal count) at the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games.”

This research was undertaken after the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, China. The purpose of the study was to identify the factors contributing to a successful and in some cases, unsuccessful performance from both the coach and athlete’s perspectives.

The study consisted of interviewing 27 Olympic and Paralympic athletes and 30 coaches. These interviews were then analyzed and five key themes emerged. These themes are outlined below.

1. Athlete self-awareness
2. Strong coach–athlete relationship
3. Optimal training environment
4. Strong financial and human resources support system
5. Excellent management of the Olympic environment (primarily by the coach and athlete, often with help from the high performance director and consultants in sport psychology and exercise physiology.)

Of these five critical themes, the strong coach athlete relationship was viewed as the most crucial factor in winning an Olympic Medal or producing a personal best performance.  Within the interviews, each of the 27 athletes, elaborated on how they developed a strong relationship with their coach and how their coach created a productive environment for them to be successful in.

Below are verbatim comments the athletes made about the role and relationship with their respective coaches.

“We had the best coach, with a great deal of international experience. He was skilled technically, but he kept it simple.”

“My coach is like a mentor to me. We have a good relationship, and are open to learning from each other.”

“We have complete confidence in our coach.”

“With my coach, we knew exactly what I needed, physically, technically, mentally—our motto was ‘Execute excellence.”

“I have a great coach.”

“The key pieces of success were a very good coach and very good training as a result of good coaching and a good support team.”

In the study, due to the emergence of the coach athlete relationship being a crucial factor in successful results, the interviewer began to study this further by interviewing some of the best national women coaches in Canada.

The coaches and athletes who took part in this round of interviews were:

• Xiuli Wang, national long track speed skating coach, a former Olympic speed skater for China, and a two-time Olympic coach for Canada.
• Clara Hughes, winner of two bronze medals at the 1996 Olympic Games, the 5000m bronze medal at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games, and a gold medal in the 5000m and silver medal in Team Pursuit at the 2006 Olympic Winter Games
• Melody Davidson, national women’s ice hockey coach.
• Hayley Wickenheiser, a silver medalist at the 1998 Olympic Winter Games and gold medalist at the 2002 and 2006 Olympic Winter Games
• Yi Hua Li, national diving coach and former Olympic diver for China
• Émilie Heymans, the winner of silver and bronze medals in 10m synchro at the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games and the 10m silver medalist at the 2008 Olympic Games.

In addition, expanding the dialogue slightly, the researcher also spoke with Elaine Dagg-Jackson, national women’s coach for the Canadian Curling Association and coach at the 2006 Olympic Winter Games, about how she created effective relationships with the 16 coaches and teams who are currently part of the national program.

During the interviews, the coaches elaborated on how their attention is on creating strong coach athlete relationships.  After all, each coach has already proven to the sporting world to have exceptional technical skills and sports specific knowledge about tactics and training methodology. What became a determining factor was that they also spoke at length about the importance of communication and trust. 

A number of the athletes also spoke of the open-mindedness of their coaches and their willingness to listen to what they each needed and thought.  They pointed out that their coaches were also open-minded in the sense of being willing to bring other experts into the team, and that they cared for them not just as athletes but as individuals.

The following is a direct quote from the article originally written by Penny Wurthner about her interview with Xiuli Wang and Clara Hughes”

Xiuli:  “At the time of meeting Clara, I was still just an Olympic Oval coach, and she came to me asking for technical help. We worked well together really quickly. She was very fit and she had lots of sport experience and, of course, success with medals in Olympic cycling, but now she was changing sports. She needed help with skating technically well. She was asking lots of technical questions, but they were the right questions…  I was straight with her. I told her the truth, and I got on the ice with her to show her how to skate well.”  Xiuli felt that they worked very hard but she also thought that the difficulties were eased because Clara was already an accomplished athlete; she knew how to work hard and she was more than willing to do so.  Xiuli:  “So many Canadian athletes need to be told six things that they are doing right before you can tell them what they need to work on, and with Clara I didn’t need to do that—she was ready to work.”
Clara told me that when she made her decision to try to make the national speed skating team, she was placed at first with the national team, but she felt that she was not getting the technical help she needed. “I knew what it took to be successful. I demand a lot from myself and of other people, and what Xiuli said made sense to me—she had the ability to teach me the technique—and that is what I needed. She was so calm, and so patient with me—she pushed me too, but she had the patience to teach me. She would say, ‘This is going to take time; let’s see what we can do.’ After seven weeks of training, I made the national team, and after 16 months I had an Olympic bronze medal. I wanted to keep Xiuli as my coach, and I had to fight for that. Xiuli and I have done this together. She is such a great competitor, so motivated herself, so hungry, it makes me look at myself. Her ability to articulate technique is incredible, and she has a big heart. I never feel alone. I share my successes with her.”

From Athlete Assessments’ perspective on Athlete Centered Coaching, this coach athlete relationship is a great example of how a coach was able to display several of the four different coaching styles.  In particular, Coach Xiuli showed how to be Directive in address the skill deficiencies naturally apparent in an athlete changing sports.   As well, Coach Xiuli showed an excellent example of the Sharing style of coaching by creating an environment where the athlete feels they can ask questions within a framework of two-way, open communication.  Finally, the Inspiring style of coach is demonstrated by the comments the Clara makes about Xiuli having a big heart and being supportive of her at all times.  Rarely does a coach do the different styles of coaching so well.  Almost always, when they do get these styles working for the athlete at the right time and place, it creates a great coach athlete relationship as the athlete feels their needs are being met.  This in turn makes the athlete feel valued, unique and important.

The next interview conducted, as Penny Wurthner writes, was between Melody Davidson and Hayley Wickenheiser.  Melody is a team coach and as such discusses some of the impacts of how she builds individual relationships with her players.

 “In a team sport, it is always a work in progress, and the challenge is that each athlete needs something different. My personal challenge, as a coach, is that I am internally motivated, and that can lead to frustration for me, especially when an athlete does not appear motivated or is not working hard. Perhaps that is why Hayley and I work so well together; I have known her since she was 12, and we are very similar. It’s ‘Let’s get the job done.’ We are comfortable with each other; she can come to me with suggestions. We talk about the game.” According to Mel, communication is key, but, she said, “It is hard for me. I know myself well and I am not a big people person, but I work on it each day. I set up meetings with each athlete, I allow them to speak first, I make sure I am around, available, I try to pay attention to body language, and I make sure I say something to each player on the ice. I can be blunt, honest, but I really do care. I want each player to get better. I tell them, ‘Make our selection decisions very difficult.’”
Hayley said that her relationship with Mel “is all about mutual respect. I admire her passion and dedication to the game. She knows the game; she loves the game; she is giving it everything she has—you respect that. And she values my opinion. I have been in the program for 16 years, I am mature, and I can get her attention. We have the same goal. When I bring issues to the table, she is not hard-headed. She doesn’t have much ego. She listens, she says she will look at it, or she gives me her reasons for not changing something. We are both good at letting it go; sometimes we simply agree to disagree. But she is always open and receptive, if you show you are accountable and professional. And she is very organized.” Interestingly, Hayley felt that Mel was good at communicating. “She is good at communicating the ‘why’. Women want to know why, or they tend to jump to conclusions, and Mel is good at answering that. But coaches have a tough job; we, as athletes, want to know that the coach has control. It’s a fine line.”

Again, from an Athlete Centered Coaching perspective this relationship is one where the coach is adaptable to the needs of the athlete.  The coach’s coaching style varied from being able to be directive when required, to sharing with a questioning, listening approach and two-way communication, to inspiring with encouragement and praise.  It is also a great example of how to coach individuals within a team structure.  Each individual is given personal attention by way of one-on-one meetings where they are encouraged to do the talking first.  Finally, Coach Davidson demonstrates excellent self-awareness when she refers to the fact she is not naturally people oriented and communication focused.  Yet this is something she adapts to and works more to be because she knows it to be critical to her athlete’s success.

In Penny’s original article three other coach athlete relationships are examined. These relationships share similar qualities to the ones already discussed.  However, I would like to add a simple leadership and relationship building factor to add to the coach’s thinking.

If a coach is to develop a strong coach athlete relationship, they are to develop a firm emotional contract with their athletes.  An emotional contract is a bond developed by mutual trust and respect for each other.  This type of bond is relational in nature, that is, it based on expectations of values and beliefs held by both the coach and the athlete.  Basically, if the coach says to their athlete, “complete this workout, then you have finished the session” yet after completing the workout the coach reneges the statement, then they are fundamentally damaging the development of the emotional contract.  That is a simple example.  It gets more complex but is often related to coaches and athletes being honest with each other, acting based on aligned values and behaviors.

It is this strong emotional contract, which I believe sets the foundation for creating a strong coach athlete relationship.

In conclusion, it can clearly be seen how each of the five factors contribute to a successful performance.  Coaches are to have excellent technical skills and knowledge of their sport.  This is a given for Olympic coaches.  But as the original article authored by Penny Wurthner states, “Is it enough? I would strongly argue that it is not. Competitive sport, particularly at the world and Olympic levels, is so emotional and competitive that athletes also need a coach to support them and care about them, both as athletes and as individuals. And that is what these coaches do. They care about the athletes they coach.”

Underpinning these wonderful coach athlete relationships is skilful communication.  This equates to being able to ask effective learning oriented questions coupled with excellent empathic listening skills.  As athletes mature in their experience, they too become very knowledgeable about their sport.  Even sometimes surpassing their coach. However, effective coaches embrace this maturation of their athletes and partner with them.  When the athlete requires a direct style of coaching, effective coaches know when to deliver this and provide honest feedback and input in order to enhance their athlete’s performance.  Almost always however, the coach does not use the directive style approach in the first instance as Athlete Centered Coaches recognize the importance of engaging the athlete’s own thinking prior to being given the answers to their problems.  When this is done well, an even stronger bond and strengthening of the emotional contract is created.

If you would like a copy of the original study discussed in this article, please contact us with this request.

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