What is DISC?
DISC is one of the world’s most widely used behavioral assessments, helping people build self-awareness, understand their strengths, motivators, and communication styles.
But what exactly is DISC, and how does it apply in sport?
At Athlete Assessments, we specialize in DISC for athletes, coaches, and sports professionals to improve performance, team culture, and leadership.
Athlete Assessments Created The Only DISC Behavior Profiling Tool That Is Purpose Built for Sport.
Understanding the Four Quadrants of the DISC Model
DISC is a simple four-quandrant model that measures degrees of behavior. It stands for Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientious.
The axes of the model represent commonailities and differences between the four primary styles.
The X-axis represents an individual’s pace and directness. The Y-axis represents an individual’s openness and orientation toward tasks or people.
The Four Primary Styles of DISC
C
Conscientious
This Conscientious Style measures the degree to which you follow rules, systems, and processes. High C’s are rule driven, detailed, systematic, formal, and fact focused. Low C’s are unstructured, random, fearless, and defiant.
D
DOMINANCE
This Dominance Style measures how directly you approach issues and problems. High D’s are decisive, assertive, demanding, daring and challenging. Low D’s are contemplative, restrained, and conservative.
S
steadiness
This Steadiness Style measures how your pace manifests in behavior. High S’s are patient, accepting, supportive, calming, and relationship-orientated. Low S’s are spontaneous, active, change-orientated, and impatient.
I
Influence
This Influence Style measures your level of interactivity with your environment, and is often described as an extroversion / introversion scale. High I’s are outgoing, optimistic, talkative, and enthusiastic. Low I’s are introspective, quiet, reflective, and reserved.
William Moulton Marston
In the early 1920’s, an American psychologist named William Moulton Marston developed a theory to explain people’s emotional responses. In order to test his theories, Marston needed some way of measuring the behavioral styles he was trying to describe.
Evolution of the DISC Profile
Modern applications of DISC
Since it was first developed, DISC Profiling has been heavily used in business for decades and tailored to sport by Athlete Assessments back in 2007.
Athlete Assessments was founded by Bo Hanson, four-time Australian Olympian and three-time Olympic bronze medal winner in rowing. Prior to retiring from his competitive career in 2004, Bo became an expert in DISC behavioral theory and application. At that time, DISC Profiling was most relevant to those in the business world. While it was useful to Bo as an athlete, he observed that it wasn’t designed to meet the specific needs of sport.
Working with a team of passionate experts including sports coaches, IT developers and other DISC accredited professionals, Bo developed the AthleteDISC Profile and founded Athlete Assessments in 2007. In doing this, Athlete Assessments gave athletes around the world the first sports-specific version of DISC Behavioral Profiling.
Athlete Assessments’ DISC Profiles use proven techniques based on decades of behavioral research and are created and used specifically for sport. There are three different types of DISC Profiles, one specifically for coaches (the CoachDISC Profile), athletes (the AthleteDISC Profile) and sports administrators and other professionals (the Sports ManagerDISC Profile).
Over the last two decades, Athlete Assessments has continued to innovate and extend on their portfolio of services and products available.
4 things You Need to KNow about DISC Profiling
#1
DISC Profiling Focuses on Behavior
Which is how someone prefers to act and what they do, rather than who they are (personality traits). Behavior is flexible and observable, while personality is not. We never ask an athlete to change their personality, but coaches constantly ask athletes to adjust their technique or what they do.
#2
DISC Profiling is Based on a Four-Quadrant Model
The simple four-quadrant model is critical in sport as it allows coaches, athletes and sports professionals to quickly understand, remember and use. Yet, you can also delve much deeper into its theory and application to truly master this area of expertise, which is what the Athlete Assessments’ DISC Profiles specifically do.
#3
There is no right or wrong DISC profile
We have profiled many of the world’s best and see no pattern for who is more or less successful based on their DISC Profile. What’s most important is how you apply this in sport. Read more about DISC Methodology here.
#4
Your aim is never to 'improve' your DISC Profile
Instead, the focus is on developing self-awareness, knowing what works for you and what doesn’t, and ultimately knowing what behaviors will produce the best results as an individual and when working in a team. This is the key to high-performance, coaching and leadership. Learn more about the importance of profiling in sport.
How DOES DISC work?
Athlete Assessments’ DISC Profiles use proven techniques based on decades of behavioral research and are created and used specifically for sport. Each assessment provides a DISC Profile Report based on the results of a 12-minute survey.
Why is DISC different from Other Assessments?
Compared to tools like MBTI, DISC is more simple, highly practical, and directly linked to behavior rather than personality traits. Behavior is changeable whereas personality is not. This makes DISC especially effective for sport, where adaptability, clear communication, role clarity, and performance under pressure are essential.
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Designed for Sport |
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Role-Specific Versions |
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Sport-Relevant Language |
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Used by NCAA Programs |
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Embedded in Athlete Leadership Development |
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Includes Team Reports |
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Includes Tailored Online Learning Platforms |
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Available free for Division I Programs (70 athlete and 30 coach per academic year, per school) |
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Available for all divisions and sports, with no restrictions on the number of profiles your school can purchase |
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Option to include a series of tailored consultations to help you get the most out of the process |
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Ability to purchase DISC Assessments year on year, with no limitations |
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Tailored and sport-specific DISC Accreditation Training available |
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A dedicated team providing full support and administration |
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Athlete Assessments' sport-specific profiles (AthleteDISC, CoachDISC, and Sports ManagerDISC) translate DISC insights into practical strategies for the sporting world. Allowing teams and individuals to improve communication and reduce conflict, enhance self-awareness and leadership skills, build stronger, more resilient team cultures, and increase performance consistency in high pressure situations.
Trusted by Leaders in Sport
Athlete Assessments DISC Profiles are trusted by Coaches, Mental Performance Consultants, University Programs, Athlete Developers, and Professional, Olympic, State, National and US College Teams and Organizations.
find out more about Sport Specific DISC Profiles
Whether you're coaching a team, supporting student-athlete, coach, or staff development, or working one-on-one with high performers as a mental performance consultant or advisor, you need DISC tools that reflect the reality of sport.
Explore how we tailor the application of our sport-specific DISC Profiles to your work:
For Coaches and Teams
Lead with impact. Build stronger teams.
Use DISC to understand your athletes, tailor your coaching, and unlock greater performance and cohesion.
Our Elite Team Program includes DISC Profiling and a series of consultations to ensure you get the most out of your investment, and apply DISC to what’s most important to your team.
For Student-Athlete Leadership Developers
Develop confident, self-aware leaders on and off the field.
Integrate DISC into your leadership programs to create a consistent language for growth and team contribution.
Our Athlete Leadership Program empowers student-athletes to lead with greater self-awareness, team insight, and accountability. With a combination of online learning, live workshops, and practical application.
For Mental Performance Consultants and Sport Psychologists
Enhance your toolkit with actionable behavioral insights.
Use DISC to improve self-awareness, team communication, and how those you work with perform under pressure.
For University Academic Programs
Are you a Professor or Program Director in Sport Management, Coaching, or other sport-related disciplines looking to prepare your students for success?
Athlete Assessments’ Academic University Partnership Programs provides university programs with DISC Profiling and additional resources for their students to build a solid foundation to successfully commence and build their careers in the sports industry.
