Topics: Motivational Climate, Youth Athletes
Impacted domains: Coaches, Leadership, and Athletes
Researchers: Ronald E. Smith, Frank L. Smoll, and Sean P. Cumming
Universities: University of Washington
Intro
When athletes can’t perform, sporting and coaching culture often says it’s because of the athletes themselves.
But what if you, as the coach, are responsible for their lack of performance?
Usually, coaches get defensive.
“They don’t have it.”
“They don’t have the grit to be at this level or be great at this.”
What these takes often miss, though, is that the environments that coaches and leadership build can impact how athletes feel when they’re competing.
Poor coaching climates can create performance anxiety—which is linked to athletic burnout and also increased physical injury risk. If the environment feels threatening, athletes spend more time worrying about how coaches will react to mistakes rather than focusing on performing.
To assess the impacts of coaching behaviors, Smith et al. (2007) ran an interesting study. They educated coaches on building a mastery coaching climate and compared outcomes with coaches who did not receive this education.
What did they find?
The intervention reduced the incidence of performance anxiety in athletes of coaches who received it.
Mastery vs Ego Climates
Before we get to it, it’s important to understand how motivational climates are defined in sport and performance psychology:
Mastery climates: success is defined by self-improvement, maximum effort, and persistence. Mistakes in these climates are viewed as valuable feedback and learning opportunities. These types of climates are associated with lower levels of anxiety and can help reduce it.
Ego climates: success is defined by social comparisons and outperforming others. “Did you do better than your opponent or the person who’s fighting for your spot?” More skilled players often receive more attention. Mistakes are met with harsh criticism and conjectures that athletes are failing. This environment heightens what’s called “evaluation apprehension.” In other words, athletes feel that failure will lead to social rejection.
💡 Reflection point: how do you interact with your athletes when they make mistakes?
The “Mastery Approach to Coaching”
Smith et al. tested a 75-minute educational workshop called Mastery Approach to Coaching (MAC). The intervention focused on two major pillars:
First: teach coaches to increase positive reinforcement and build mistake-contingent encouragement. In other words, coaches were taught to encourage athletes especially when they made mistakes and to reward the effort or intention verbally or affirm athletes especially when they made mistakes. Specifically, they were urged to avoid mistake-contingent punishment (chewing out athletes when they made errors).
Second: helping athletes see that success was multifaceted. Coaches were encouraged to help athletes set personalized goals and define as “giving maximum effort and becoming the best one can be,” rather than winning or outcomes.
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Editorialized line: you might be rolling your eyes here. “Oh this guy is saying that we should teach our athletes that everything is sunshine and rainbows and that winning does not matter. That’s definitely not what I’m highlighting in the research. Rather, coaches should be careful about the messaging they create for their athletes. If you can get your athletes to perform their bets more consistently and bring their most skilled version every time they compete, surely you can see how that will result in an increased likelihood of winning?
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To reinforce the Mastery Approach to Coaching, coaches received a manual titled Coaches Who Never Lose and were asked to use self-monitoring forms after practices to track how often they provided reinforcement and encouragement.
These were coaches of community basketball programs.
What did researchers find?
The results were fascinating. In the control group (coaches who received no training on building a mastery climate), athlete anxiety actually increased as the season progressed.
Taken from Smith et al. (2007)
On the other hand, athletes playing for MAC-trained coaches showed significant decreases in somatic anxiety, worry, and total anxiety scores. Performance anxiety was measured using the Sport Anxiety Scale-2 (SAS-2).
Limitations
Before we get to the results and what you can learn and apply from this research, it’s important to consider the following limitations:
Athletes measured in Smith et al. were youth athletes; aged 10–14. These findings may not generalize to different populations. (That being said, the impact of motivational climates on all levels of athletes and performers is a replicated finding in sport and performance psychology.
The motivational climate was only measured once at the end of the study. We don’t know how it developed and progressed throughout the season.
Key takeaways for your coaching
Encourage mastery: As competitive pressures increase throughout a season (getting close to play offs), a mastery climate created by coaches can act as a protective influence from the spike in anxiety that might occur
It’s important how you react to mistakes: how you react to mistakes can either cause the athlete to not want to engage in those behaviors again or keep persisting. Meaning, if they’re working on executing a new skill, if you react negatively to them not performing it, they might be less likely to try it in match and pressure situations. When athletes make a mistake, it is an excellent opportunity to encourage them and build your relationship with them.
Brief workshops and interventions can work: You don’t need week-long coaching retreats to change behaviors and impact your teams positively. A 75-minute evidence-based workshop, combined with simple, self-monitoring forms was enough to create significant improvements in athletes’ performance anxiety.
The bottom line
You, as the coach and someone in a leadership position, have more impact on your athletes “nerves” than you think. By shifting your focus from “beating others” and social comparison to “beating your previous best performance,” and “continually building your skillset,” you can create an environment more conducive to high performance.
Write back if you have any questions. Just hit reply.
Reference
Smith, R. E., Smoll, F. L., & Cumming, S. P. (2007). Effects of a motivational climate intervention for coaches on young athletes’ sport performance anxiety. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 29(1), 39–59
