Demystifying Mental Toughness 183 Sports Coaching: How Being Compassionate Can Help Your Athletes Perform Better
Supportive coaching is shown to be effective in having a positive influence on an athlete's development, particularly when athletes are unsure of themselves, are less confident and lack mental toughness.
Feel free to check out today's solo episode where I discuss compassion, mental toughness and high performance to help with the development of sports coaches and to improve the experience for athletes.
Key Learning Points
- High performing teams such as The Lionesses recognise showing compassion is hugely beneficial to individuals and the team as a whole.
- Fear cultures and giving out "tough love" are thing of the past in miliary circles.
- In elite sport top coaches are well educated and are aware of the need to balance support and challenge with their players.
- Compassion can help us feel safe and protected leaving us better able to learn and develop.
- Sarina Weigman's response to Lauren James' red card in a recent World Cup match versus Nigeria is a classic example of compassionate coaching.
- As a coach how do you naturally respond to difficulties or mistakes?
- Dr Kristin Neff has many helpful resources on compassion.
- Google Professor Sophia Jowett's work on the coach-athlete relationship and the relationship with performance and well-being.
Connect with David Charlton
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Relevant Podcast Episodes to Help Sports Coaches
Ep039: John Fletcher – How to Develop Fearless Athletes
Ep123: Richard Dorney MBE – Supporting People: What Can You Learn About Resilience From The Military
Ep180: David Charlton - How To Work With Team Units To Improve Culture In Teams
Ep181:David Charlton - How to Improve Teamwork using a 4Cs Mental Toughness Approach
Ep182: Doug Strycharczyk - An Introduction to Mental Toughness and Psychological Safety #BITESIZE
Other Relevant Resources to Upskill Sports Coaches
Blog – 5 Ways to Create a Psychological Safe Sporting Environment
Blog – Mental Health Guidance For Coaches When Supporting Athletes
Blog: How Coaches Can Help Athletes Deal with Mistakes
Dr Kristin Neff's Work on Compassion
Cath Bishop - Compassion can produce better performance – just look at the Lionesses