A recently written article by Magic Academy’s Russell Earnshaw offered personal support and reflection for some of my recent discussions with coaches across various sports. I have been fortunate to catch up and chat to coaches within different sports recently, looking at how their practices and methodologies have changed as a result of the COVID break. Many also discussed how THEY have changed as a person as well as a coach; I questioned whether they have greater levels of understanding, empathy and appreciation for fellow coaches and their athletes. Many coaches answered and discussed their concerns of the lost experience and traction in their coaching journey which promoted me to ask myself and others; what’s more important; time and experience in various sporting or high performance atmospheres or understanding who you are and be adaptable to cultivate your craft based on your player’s needs?

During this COVID isolation time, I like many have been able to further look into areas of research and articles to gain further ideas and perspective around new areas of interest. One of these areas is the concept of ecological dynamics in sports settings, an area widely discussed and written about during this period which I wanted to look into a bit deeper. Being a novice around the subject, I wanted to talk to coaches around the ideas and framework and largely found many other coaches were fairly new to the concepts and terminologies around the area which promoted me to consider and start writing “How does ecologicial dynamics translate or look like to grassroot coaches?”

This article highlights the complexity of coaching, not solely due to the dynamic nature of sports participation and development yet the added, layered intricacies of individual motivations and cultural influences. The challenge of successful coaching is acknowledging social interactive dilemmas within individual and team goal setting and development, offering suitable scenarios and choices with all members’ involvement whilst acknowledging the uniqueness of every individual and collaboratively dealing with social and sport matters as opposed to eradicating them.

Throughout watching the excellent doco-series of “The Last Dance”, I always had the nagging question to myself of how critical Phil Jackson was and what steps did he take in creating the ideal atmospheres (or controlling Jordan’s high expectations of others) for the group as a whole to excel? The further we get into “The Last Dance,” the more we learn that Jackson was not only an X’s and O’s coach, but he also had a high level of emotional intelligence, which put him ahead of his time. From Jordan wanting to be “the guy,” or Pippen wanting to sit out, to Rodman wanting a 48-hour “vacation,” Jackson had a true understanding of the team and the individuals within it. Most coaches in this situation probably could not have handled all the twists and turns that Jackson faced.

Past research regards the “actions of coaches as (possibly) the most critical motivational influences within sport setting” and therefore, coaching should be recognised as an educational dynamic relationship, where the coach can satisfy player’s goals and development but both sides have an investment of will capital, where human initiative and intentionality are both dedicated to show commitment towards goals and relationships. But with all the various needs of athletes and limitations of time, resources and abilities of coaches and their developers, could a formula be proposed for getting the coaching ballance right??

I wanted to reflect on my recent pieces of writing combined with some posts and podcasts I have listened to this week. I’ve listened to a couple of great podcasts last weekend, The Talent Equation where Stuart, Mark Bennett and Alan Keane talked of how they’re focusing on the term “need centred” or “needs led coaching” as opposed to “athlete centred”; this was followed by the Flying Coach Podcast where coaching greats Steve Kerr and Pete Carroll, both of whom I have written about before, discuss what’s really important to coaching great teams and how you need to be comfortable in yourself to serve your players in an authoritative manner. So, while I’ve addressed and believe in the importance of how coaching techniques and certainly the importance of coach-athlete relationships have increased with our new age players, alongside how being aware of your athletes should structure and shape your practice design and coaching methodologies, are we able to recognise what athlete centred coaching looks like and are we able to develop connection, understanding and care to offer players what they need throughout their sporting journey?