Adapting Style: Tyrants OUT
Gareth Southgate, England’s Manager and Head Coach, shares insight into his coaching style as the 2018 World Cup comes to a close.
His method and approach inspires a new direction in coaching—one that values the person behind the athlete.
The Guardian captures the remarks of both Southgate, and Sport Psychologist Michael Caulfield:
“The era of hard-talking, tyrannical managers (coaches) is over – both on and off the pitch. ‘Football, which I love and work in, is really bad at talking,’ says Caulfield. ‘It does instructing and telling off but it doesn’t do talking and listening and empathy that well. It sounds a bit fluffy but that’s the world in which we now live, and the world in which these players have grown up.’
Southgate, he says, realized early in his coaching career that instilling fear wasn’t going to work. ‘We all need a telling-off now and then – and he’s good at that, by the way – but you’ll get far more from putting your faith in people than you will anything else. People had this lazy opinion that he’s too ‘nice’ and they see kindness as weakness, but it’s the most unbelievable strength if you use it in the right way.’ ”
Sport tradition has long idolized the tyrannical ‘coach.' Consequently, in many college and high school stadiums, this kind of coach still exists. Yet, times have changed and so methods must adapt accordingly. Wellness in sport extends beyond physical strength; mental wellbeing must be appreciated and fostered. If England Football can find success in treating players with kindness and respect, it’s proof that tyranny isn’t a formula for success, but rather an old habit dying out.
It’s time to redefine what success in athletic coaching looks like.
Players are people first. It is imperative we treat them as such.
Positive Practice
- In your sport institution, how are athletes treated? How does the coaching style affect the athletes' growth and development? Do you recognize a need for any change?
- Be a change maker. How do you define wellbeing?