The Coach as Architect and Performer
What separates good coaches from great ones when the pressure is on? A recent presentation, based on a four year project with the Australian Institute of Sport, interviewed twelve highly successful Australian coaches and eight of their athletes to uncover the behaviours that help athletes perform to their potential in high stakes international competitions.
The findings were organised into two themes. The coach as an Architect and Sculptor of the performance environment, and the coach as a Performer in their own right. Below is a breakdown of the twelve key behaviours identified and how to apply them in practice.
Themes: Architect and Sculptor • Performer
Theme 1: The Coach as an Architect and Sculptor
Great coaches design environments where athletes can thrive and continually reshape that environment to get the best from people. This extends beyond physical training to wellbeing and healthy personal development.
Tap the tiles below to read more about each behaviour
1. Provide clear expectations
Athletes need to know exactly what is expected. This includes standards for training such as punctuality, competition readiness and focus, plus non sport areas such as nutrition, sleep and personal development. Expectations should be challenging yet achievable, explicitly agreed upon, and consistently modelled by you.
2. Scaffold learning tasks
Build confidence by increasing task difficulty gradually so athletes are always stretching just beyond their current reach. Provide constructive informational feedback and acknowledge progress. Remind athletes how they are improving to build competence and self belief.
3. Encourage voice and choice
Create partnership by inviting and genuinely listening to athlete input. Maintain boundaries while offering choices in areas such as performance reviews or planning. This sense of agency fosters initiative, internal motivation and problem solving under pressure. One coach found that increasing athlete autonomy led to greater engagement and unexpected success.
4. Explain the why
Explain the rationale for drills, programme design and competition choices. When athletes understand why they are doing something they engage more deeply and effectively.
5. Build mutual trust and care
Show empathy and care for athletes as individuals. This was a central theme among highly successful coaches. Care should be mutual with athletes feeling comfortable caring for the coach. Aim for connection and collaboration that extends to the support team.
6. Be assertive, genuine and succinct
How you communicate matters. At major events many coaches over coach due to their own anxiety which can transfer to the athlete through emotional contagion. Practise being precise and succinct and learn when to speak and when to stay quiet.
Theme 2: The Coach as a Performer
How you perform as a coach directly impacts athlete success. Reflect on how your behaviours shift between daily training and high pressure competitions.
Tap the tiles below to read more about each behaviour
7. Be consistently composed
Strive to be calm and consistent in your demeanour even if you do not feel calm inside. Verbal and non verbal cues matter. Any emotional display should be intentional and used to help the athlete perform.
8. Manage emotional interference
High level competition brings emotional triggers from officiating to unexpected challenges. Develop the self awareness to notice these triggers and manage your response so you stay focused on what matters and communicate effectively.
9. Maintain focus on the present
In pressure moments the mind can drift to past failures or future consequences such as job security. Athletes notice when you are not present. Practise mindfulness to bring attention back to the here and now which is where you can make a difference.
10. Know when to zoom in and zoom out
Great coaching involves shifting perspective. Know when to focus on micro details and when to step back for the wider context. Ask: what am I seeing and what am I not seeing that is important
11. Be meticulously prepared but adaptable
Thorough preparation builds confidence. Plan contingencies and simulate competition scenarios in training. From transport delays to missing kit, thinking through problems in advance allows you to respond and adapt when stressors appear.
12. Be consistent and predictable
Athletes thrive on consistency. They need to know which version of their coach will arrive each day. Predictability builds trust and confidence. Your behaviour at championships should match how you act in daily training.
Apply this in your coaching
The key to growth is focused and deliberate effort. Do not try to change everything at once. Pick one behaviour to work on across a season.
- Self assess. Rate yourself on each behaviour in training and competition.
- Seek feedback. Ask athletes for ratings. Use anonymous tools or a trusted third party if helpful.
- Find a wingman. Ask a critical friend or mentor to observe and support you in the heat of competition.
Slide to rate each behaviour in training and competition. Scores save locally in your browser.
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By developing these behaviours you can become a better architect of the environment and a more effective performer, which helps athletes achieve their best.
