Topics: Leadership, Coaching,
Impacted domains: All athletes and performers
Researchers: Emily J. Dargue-Fox, Mustafa Sarkar, Sarah H. Mallinson-Howard, Laura C. Healya , Julie P. Johnston
“I expect perfection”
Imagine the finals of a high-level league. A 17-year-old midfielder attempts a difficult pass but the ball is intercepted. Their eyes flit over to the coach to gauge their reaction, and sure enough, they’re furiously pacing up and down the sideline. The mistake results in the opposition eventually scoring a goal. After the match, the athlete gets the “cold shoulder.” Not a word is said to the athlete. Instead the coach berates everyone about how they were not “flawless” and how he doubts any of them, based on today, will reach their professional playing dreams.
This is not “tough coaching.” This is basis of a “perfectionistic climate.”
What is a “perfectionistic” climates?
This refers to the social and sporting environment where athletes and performers perceive that their performances must be “perfect”—and that anything less than perfect is unacceptable. It’s created by cues in the environment e.g.: how the coach reacts to errors, and the goals that are set.
Roughly speaking, this climate is built on 5 core components:
Expectation: Demanding perfect performance all the time
Criticism: Harshly judging. Even the smallest mistakes.
Control: Using punishment or withholding rewards for imperfect play.
Conditional Regard: Making the athlete feel "worthy" and engaged with only when they succeed.
Anxiousness: The coach appearing nervous or worried that things won’t go perfectly.
You may be familiar with the idea of an ego-involving climate—where performers feel that the focus is on normative comparisons (In other words, rankings, standings, win-loss records, etc.). A perfectionist climate is harsher and more extreme in that it encourages rigid, sometimes unrealistic expectation and an unrelenting flawlessness.
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Dangers of a controlling conditional regard
Conditional regard is when a coach uses their approval, support, and friendliness as a “carrot” to enforce performance.
This type of approach manifests in immature behaviors from coaches. Behaviors such as being warm and friendly when an athlete performs perfectly, but withholds that affection and attention when the athlete fails to meet those impossible standards.
This may lead performers to internalize these behaviors into ideas such as “I need to be perfect all the time.”
What did researchers find?
Researchers studied 678 youth athletes competing at the county level and above. Dargue-Fox et al. (2026) found that a perceived perfectionistic climate had significant negative consequences for athletes’ psychological experiences. The data revealed that as a perception of a perfectionistic climate increased:
Fear of failure also increased
Resilience fell
Psychological wellbeing declined
Trait perfectionism—or the idea that athletes start to develop “Socially Prescribed Perfectionism”—increased
A summary of findings from Dargue-Fox et al. (2026)
Editorialized line: A correlation matrix, like above, tells us the relationship between variables. Just reply to this email or—leave a comment on the online version—if you want me to break it down for you.
Limitations
Before we get to how to apply this information, it’s important to understand the limits of this research:
Cross-sectional: it captures a snapshot in time.
Self-report measures: which are subject to responder biases.
Of course: correlation does not equal causation. While there were strong associations of “perfectionistic climates” with fear of failure, reduced resilience, and reduced wellbeing, we can say that this relationship is causal.
Best practices: what to do instead in your coaching
To build high quality performance without sacrificing wellbeing, the recommendations are to shift toward an autonomy-supportive and mastery-focused environment. Big words, sure, but this is what it means in practice:
Normalize mistakes: frame errors as a normal and necessary part of skill development and learning.
Process-oriented feedback: don’t criticize outcomes! Provide constructive, process-oriented feedback which highlights and rewards persistence.
Set realistic standards: be honest with standards and expectations for performance… rather than demanding play free from errors.
Avoid emotionally manipulative behaviors such as “the cold shoulder:” athletes should not think your support and respect is purely based on their performances and what they bring to matches, games, and events. Make your support and regard non-conditional.
Encourage autonomy: think about your coaching behaviors and actions. Do you take away choice to punish athletes? Do you never take onboard feedback from players? You could be draining their motivation, too.
Work with qualified and credentialed professionals: consult with mental performance consultants and sport psychologists on how to improve coaching dynamics and player relationships. Engaged and motivated players may perform better than those who are not.
Your final takeaway
If your belief is that being relentless, never accepting mistakes, and being a “perfectionist,” is what makes you a great coach, this research disagrees. On the contrary, this type of environment is linked to reduced resilience and worsening psychological well-being.
Back to that 17-year-old we started with. Imagine instead of feeling neglected because he made a mistake, he was supported and counseled by coaching staff. He was given the opportunity to review film, assess why he made that decision, and understand better options. Coaches assisted with improving his tactical decision-making skills and mental performance staff assisted with managing intense moments. How would he develop compared to the version of him which was berated and made to feel like a failure?
Reference
Dargue-Fox, E. J., Mallinson-Howard, S. H., Healy, L. C., Johnston, J. P., & Sarkar, M. (2026). Relationships between perceived perfectionistic climate, perfectionism, resilience, fear of failure, and psychological wellbeing in youth athletes. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 85. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2026.103131
