A Conversation on #GreatCoaching with Mel Marshall – Part 2
Inspiring Story by Blake Richardson
In the second instalment of our interview with Great Britain swimming coach Mel Marshall, she discusses her leadership style, how to push athletes out of their comfort zone without compromising on their welfare and calls for greater support and protection for coaches
Since transitioning into coaching following her retirement from swimming, Mel Marshall’s motivation has been to support others to reach their full potential in the sport – showing the same hunger to succeed in her new role as she did in her previous life as a seasoned British international.
“I get to live my dream every day; my athletes are a true privilege,” she told host Claire Baldwin on collecting her Lifetime Achievement Award at the BT Sport Action Woman Awards 2019.
Unquestionably, she has helped hundreds of swimmers live their dreams too, thanks to the personal values and guiding principles she holds so dear and which underpin her coaching practice – and which was a principal theme of the first article.
Creating an inspiring working environment that allows everyone to perform at their best, whatever their level of ability – built upon mutual respect, common purpose and enjoyment of the sport – comes with its challenges, of course.
Below, Mel explores some of the valuable lessons she has learnt on her journey which have helped her overcome these challenges and emerge as a guiding light for the next generation of young dreamers. These include a young boy aged 12 by the name of Adam Peaty who, under her care, tutelage and direction, has risen to become an Olympic, World and European gold medallist and world record-holder.
Without a doubt. Whenever there’s a problem, it’s always the coach’s fault, isn’t it? I do challenge people and believe there should be more protection for coaches, because we have to deliver some difficult messages and sometimes they can be interpreted in different ways. It can be a frightening landscape as a coach at times and so it is important to ensure that the coach’s voice is heard.
“For one decision or one interpretation taken out of context, you can be instantly ruined. If somebody ever took something I did out of context and then that had a big impact, I really don’t know what I would do, because you never really get that reputation back.”
“I think it’s all about how you deliver the message. It has to be a non-personal message.
“You wouldn’t send someone up a mountain without the right equipment. Sometimes there are things that athletes must do, or respond to, to make sure that physically, and mentally, they have the right equipment, and that’s the world that we work in.”
I do think in this modern-day age, in this current climate, as a coach you have to lay out what is required to move to the next level, and some of the pain they may feel as part of that, and do they want to do it or not? It has to be a consenting journey.
“What I mean by that is, if I know Adam has to fast for a period of time to get down to the right body composition; or he has to sleep for two hours here; or he has to lift this weight in the gym – all those physical demands that are placed on him – then if we go up another level, I will explain what this experience is going to be like and ask him if he wants to do it.
“If the answer is ‘yes’, then you have invited that challenge and are leading those demands, rather than it being a case of ‘you’ve got to do this, or else…’ That’s just not going to wash anymore, and rightly so.”
“I’d call it front, side and back leadership. So, when he was a young boy I was stood at the front of him. You know, providing education, regular messages, autocratic coaching. Then when he got a bit older and he was a bit more experienced, then I would say I was stood at the side of him. I had questions: do you think we should go this way? What are your thoughts? Now I feel that I stand back, and I just observe and I intervene when I need to intervene, and provide him with advice if he wants it.”
“It’s like, where do you go when you’ve scaled Everest a number of times? For mountaineers, they might strive to do it faster, or climb a different route. It’s the same in sport. There is always another pinnacle. You can always get faster; break more world records; win more gold medals. And yes, those expectations can be incredibly emotionally stressful for the coach as well.”
“Because everyone is looking at Adam, as the go-to man, to get even better we have to deliver that performance. The emotional stress that comes with that is huge.
My job is to make sure that he feels he is enjoying it and enjoying the journey and that he is progressing. I’m the goalie in the background. You defend him from the things that will stop him from doing that.
“When you work with someone who is taking on the world and doing something that’s better than has ever been done before, in history, the evolution for you as a coach is constant. It’s fast and it’s never-ending. It sounds weird, but I’m almost looking forward to the next young swimmer who is going to walk through my door and who may go on a similar path to him, because all the decisions I’ll be making I’ll have experience of, while this time through with Adam, while I’ve got some experience of course, nobody has ever done what we have, so everything is like, ‘this could work, so let’s take a measured decision’.”
“I think what we’ve got is a very well-oiled system and an individualised prescription that is tailored to maximise the marginal gains that are required in elite sport. Wow, did I just say that unrehearsed!
So, there is an analysis team, a physiology team, a nutritional team and then there’s the leadership team, and we’re all on the same page. But the key thing is that we’re all reading off the same book, in terms of when we’re influencing and supporting Adam. We’re aligned in the direction we are travelling.”
“Definitely. Some of the key learning experiences that I’ve had over the last five years have come from other sports. I was lucky enough to go on UK Sport’s Elite Coaching Apprenticeship Programme (ECAP) for emerging high performance coaches, comprising a mixed cohort from other sports. Then more recently, last year, I finished the Elite Programme from UK Sport [with the aim to enhance and develop current world-class coaches working in British sport].
“Gareth Southgate fom football, Paula Dunn and Barry Fudge from British Athletics, Steve Borthwick from England Rugby, now at Leicester, Peter Sheppard from rowing, Tony Zummack from curling.”
“I’ve learned so much about the people element of coaching from moving outside the confines of my own sport. I also did a leadership project as part of the final pass-out qualification on that course and I interviewed 24 leaders: four women from sport and four men from sport; four women from outside of sport and four men; and four female and four male entrepreneurs.
I managed to get a face-to-face interview with Sir Alex Ferguson, Eddie Jones, Dame Katherine Grainger, Baroness Sue Campbell, and I learned so much about what it is to be a leader and what it is to illuminate human beings by spending an hour and a half to two hours with those people. And not one word of swimming or technical knowledge of swimming was discussed. It was all about people and human beings.”
“A whole collection of people. In sport, I really admire the people I mentioned above, and people like Professor Damian Hughes, who is so clever and relatable, and the things he says make perfect sense.
“But the thing for me is, while I do get inspired by sport, I get more inspired by people who have faced their own personal challenges.
I had a best friend called Daniel, who had a serious form of muscular dystrophy. He was told he was only going to live to 12. He sadly passed away last year, aged 37. His parents are the most inspirational people I have come across, and so was Daniel, because what they did, in the most difficult of circumstances, was create the most positive of experiences.
“He didn’t miss out on a thing. He met Rihanna, he went backstage with the Backstreet Boys, he went to every Tottenham game, and they just made this amazing life for him. That’s what inspires me, people who are really up against it and come out on the other side and have a positive experience.”
“The first thing is, I would offer more security for coaches and more protection. Because in the current climate, we need to be protected.
But also, back to coaching being all about people. Everyone is coaching every single day, whether you are a parent, a teacher, or whichever industry you are in where you engage and interact with people – you are using coaching principles because you are projecting, you are role modelling, you are communicating, you are talking, you are influencing.
“So, I just think we should utilise sports coaches much more across a wider range of sectors, because coaches are experts in people.”
Part 1: 'I'm a Community Coach at Heart'
In the opening article, Mel discusses her coaching philosophy, the importance of developing your soft skills and examples of the transformative power of coaching.
200,000+ Coaches, One Community
Join UK Coaching Club today for free, and gain free access to expert coaching guides, insightful videos, practical tools, and resources like Coaching Conversations and Duty to Care. Everything you need to grow and thrive as a coach all in one place.
Join the Club