For this blog, I want to specifically focus on one of the most seldom discussed areas of sports psychology: the mental performance of the coach.

All to often the athlete is the focus of any psychological intervention. Yet, while psychological skills training is highly important for athletes, the complex and dynamic interplay between them and the coach in threat scenarios suggests that it is also imperative that the coach be able to manage themselves as well. ⠀
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If you coach or work with other coaches, how often to you discuss and explore your own psychological performance, strategies and skills? Also ask yourself how often you've seen a coach at a competition, so anxious that they actually become part of the problem for an athlete?

In a next step, I'll be sharing some of my thoughts and experiences plus, some of the major mistakes I've made in the past.

Emotional Contagion

As coaches it's important that we realise that one of the biggest potential factors effecting our athletes could be us.
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Our own emotions, if unmanaged can manifest into behaviours that effect others. This is known as emotional contagion, a situation where one person's emotional state triggers a similar response in others. As we reflect on some of "threat" scenarios, such as uncertainty, attention, challenge and struggle, they are all elements of the performance environment and just because you are a coach, it doesn't mean they don't effect you also.⠀

I learnt this the hard way at the 2016 World Youth Championships in Guangzhou, China. In the isolation warm up area I was nervous, anxious and stressed. I know the athlete I was working with could make the final if all went as planned. So when they made a few technical mistakes on a boulder we made up, my emotions overwhelmed me. "You should have just done this! Why didn't you do this? etc". My eyes wide, harsh tone and confrontational body language. The athlete rightly told me to "pi** off your stressing me out".

It shouldn't come as a surprise that as coaches we should also work on our mental game. Our behaviours, emotions and actions can all impact on our athletes. We therefore must learn to self regulate, increase self awareness and identify emotional triggers to reappraise thoughts. In summary follow the same process, just like a climber would. We are a coaching athlete and we have to perform too. ⠀

Keep and Open Mind

I've been fortunate enough to share time with some incredibly knowledgeable coaches and sports psychologists. Most of the topics we've covered this past week have come from seminars, conversations and interactions I've had with them and I'm the first to admit there is still so much more to learn. ⠀

The better we understand ourselves, our own beliefs and behaviours, the better we can support others. And the better we understand our subject, the more solutions present themselves. ⠀

So I challenge you all to stay curious. Read books, watch videos, have conversations and above all, ask questions. Remember that you too are an athlete. Train like one! 🧠⠀
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I would like to thank Madeleine from Climbing Psychology for all the great conversations over the years and for driving our sport forward in this area. I hope there are many more to conversations to come and thank you for the privilege of the take over for the past week.

Tom Greenall is an innovative, driven and transformative competition climbing coach from Great Britain and currently head coach of the GB climbing team. Over the past few years he has been a driving force behind the development of climbing coaching in the UK. 

Widely recognised for being a highly motivated and collaborative coaching professional, Tom has a grounded "process focussed but outcome aware" approach to high performance programming.

Tom is a strategic thinker with a challenging focus.

 His approach is heavily influenced by the constraints based learning and is always striving to create training environments that integrate risk and challenge with support and curiosity.

If you have any questions for Tom or us, leave us a message here!