Maximizing the Player Coach Relationship

A coach can be the most influential person in your life outside of your parents. When looking back at the most influential people in your life outside of your parents, you are most likely going to remember a teacher or a coach. In school players typically spend more time with coaches than individual teachers. The coach can be a primary caregiver. He or she can provide security, safety and emotional support. The athlete/coach relationship is also a performance factor that can be more important than all other factors. When the athlete/coach relationship is maximized, athletes feel more comfortable pushing their boundaries, taking risks to improve performance, and giving 100% effort. In 2019 my company SETS Consulting did a study in conjunction with Stanford University. We interviewed 98 male and female professional and collegiate athletes that had all played under championship coaches. In the survey the athletes' answers were virtually unanimous across different sports and for both genders. The primary conclusion was that the most important factor in maximizing the athlete's performance was not what the coach did. It was how the coach did it. Styles of Coaching So what were the factors that went into that? Our research showed the...