Olympic Coach Challenges

The countdown continues!

We are continuing to extract key lessons from what goes on “behind the scenes” as athletes and teams are on their final Olympic approach.? From the perspective of someone who’s been there.

It could be argued that coaches have the hardest role of all at the Games.? A short list of things they typically have to manage in these last few weeks before the Games:

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·????? Individualized Mental and Emotional Support.? From encouragement to confidence building to resetting expectations for the athlete nursing the injury that everyone had hoped would have settled by now..but hasn’t.

·????? Logistics and Coordination.? Managing training, rest, meals, working with the sport science support team

·????? Communication.? The hub between athletes, sport administration, and Olympic organizers.? The media conduit.

·????? Strategy and Tactics.

·????? Compliance and Ethics.

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All this against the backdrop of the biggest competition...and biggest world sport party there is.

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Never mind that, due to the increased scale and scope of the Games, what passes for “business as usual” at any other competition gets thrown out the window.? To be effective, coaches must get comfortable with having less control and adjusting on the fly to new situations...at the very moment when their natural response to uncertainty is to want, well, certainty.

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This natural urge for control can undermine even experienced coaches.

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As a result, coaches can succumb, just like athletes, to the temptation to do more rather than less, just because it’s the Olympics.? This is the coach who starts to overcoach in an understandable but unhelpful attempt to make sure no stone is unturned to help the athlete.?

This temptation violates the rule to “dance with what brung you” and is almost always counterproductive.? Having seen athletes being overcoached in this way, subjected to rapid-fire directives, I will later ask them what they took away from the experience.?

Not only do they rarely recall anything that was said, what they do take away was a visceral sense of their coaches’ nervousness. And how that undermined their own confidence.

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Just like athletes who want to believe that if they bring their best performance to the day, they will win, coaches can suffer from a miscalculation of their own power.? This can lead to an over-focusing on elements beyond their control, like the weather, the media, or outcomes.

?Understandable, but not useful in judging one’s personal coaching performance.? The key question that coaches should always ask is, am I behaving in a way that increases the probability for optimal performance from my athletes? This helps to refocus effort back to what IS in any coaches' control - their own actions.

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Coaching, like leadership, is contagious.? The degree to which coaches can manage their own inner and outer game matters. Their emotional response to stress and pressure directly influences their decision-making, clarity of thought, and the quality of their relationships with those they coach and interact with.?

For the nervous coach, this requires excellent and proactive self-management skills that become embedded well before the Olympics.

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How do these ideas play out in your world?

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Are you aware of your personal stress signature, how you act when the pressure is on, or you are tired?

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What actions do you take to manage your own stress such that you remain effective in how you work with and lead others?

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My business is helping leaders and teams make the most of all their high-performance moments.? If you are interested in ways to do this better, let’s connect!