Developing World Class Coaches With a Head for Heights

That desire was burning bright at the 2019 UK Coaching Conference, when British Athletics’ former Director of Coaching delivered his personalised framework for developing an exceptional all-round coaching workforce.

Golden nuggets were in ample supply at Loughborough University, and the best thing about this Gold Rush was that there was no need to go digging for them.

It was a compelling keynote, weaving passion and personality with knowledge and wisdom, gleaned from a lifetime of personal experience and accomplishment.

Sagacious soundbites tripped off the tongue with such ease because the speaker knew them to be true – having long practiced what he now preaches, being the man who coached THE MAN, two-time Olympic decathlon gold medallist Daley Thompson – and the presentation was made more memorable for the rousing delivery style and charismatic stage presence of one of the country’s preeminent sports coaches and coach mentors.

Other people can’t dream your dreams for you

Frank’s first piece of solid gold advice: To be a world-class coach in your field, you must be world class at your three Rs.

Clearly, we are not talking Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. Each R stands for Responsibility. 

The first responsibility, says Frank, is for your own performance as a coach – what he terms the pursuit of professional performance excellence.

The second responsibility is for your own development. Yes, of course there are certain things you can be taught in life – the science and the principles of coaching; innovative training methods; effective techniques and tactics; the tools of the trade if you will – “but you can only learn the art of coaching.

That means you cannot relinquish your responsibility for learning by delegating the role to others. 

As Frank puts it: “Other people can’t dream your dreams for you and they can’t realise them for you. Only you can do those things. [I tell people that] I can be there for you, I can be the wind beneath your wings when you need me to be, but only you know whether you’re ahead of the game or behind the game; whether you’ve got it right or not got it right.”

The third responsibility is to act on the fact that you owe it to future generations of coaches to pass on your knowledge.

Inactivity epidemic and a parity of esteem

To fully grasp the importance of developing world class coaches from beginner level through to elite level, it is first necessary to consider the wider social context.

Sadly, the outlook for our children and our children’s children in terms of their health and well-being is ominous.

Just 17% of children and young people are now meeting the Chief Medical Officer’s guidelines of more than 60 minutes’ physical activity every day. A third of all children are not even managing 30 minutes.

The generation of children in primary school now are the least active they have been in 30 years and they are the first generation in a long time who will die before their parents through being inactive. 

It is imperative that the industry is singing from the same hymn sheet when it comes to formulating coach development strategies. There is no room for error as the coaching workforce looks to build strong, positive and long-lasting connections with physical activity among our children.

And key to this, says Frank, is creating a “parity of esteem” within the coaching community and dismantling the existing notion that there is a hierarchy amongst coaches.

“We need coaches who are world class at delivering on the participation side just as we need coaches who are world class on the performance side. They are different territories but is one more important than the other? Absolutely not!”

More advice to value

There is a key element in the journey to becoming a world class coach that coaches and coach developers tend to undervalue. The clue is in that very word. They undervalue the development of values, both in themselves and in those they coach. 

According to Frank, it is a component of coaching that is strictly non-negotiable.

And yet, he asks, how often do coaches discuss behavioural values with their participants? 

“We don’t seem to find the time. But remember, we are supposed to be developing people for sport and through sport. It’s our duty.”

If coaches are to succeed in their holistic coaching objectives and develop the whole child – mentally and socially, as well as technically and tactically, to achieve the social, behavioural, educational and health outcomes they strive for – then coaches must keep the development of these values front of mind.

These values can be honed by creating an optimal environment that exposes people to opportunities for learning.

This involves having the courage to ask the people you coach to take ownership, so they learn when and how to use their skills, the importance of making their own decisions and the implications of those decisions.

“We have to be sure, of course, that we’ve taken ownership of the process that supports them to take ownership.”

The person behind the performer

If the role of developing values and behaviours is non-negotiable, then another feature intrinsic to the success of any personal development framework is understanding the notion of relationships and behaviours.

The maxim that coaches should be coaching the person first and the sport second is becoming more widely, if not yet universally, accepted.

And to further assist coaches and developers on their journey to becoming masters of their trade and to climb to the top of their own personal mountains, Frank has a further nugget up his sleeve. 

You remember the ‘three Rs’. Well, here are Frank’s ‘four Rs’ – a model for purposeful development.

1. Reason – Why are you here? Why are you doing what you are doing?
2. Reality – Who’s involved, what’s happening and how does it have to happen if you are to deliver on that reason you are here?
3. Reflection – What did you learn from today and how are you going to do things differently and better next time? and crucially…
4. Response – What will you do on Monday morning because of what you have learnt today?

Start small, aim high and embrace a learning culture

“Also, if you don’t have candour, you cannot have accountability. You have to know if you are getting it wrong. Not everything that you need to hear in life professionally is what you want to hear personally.”

And if, in the fullness of time, you do manage to scale the mountain and reach the pinnacle of your profession, a final request from Frank: “For goodness sake send the elevator back down for other people to come up, so we can make it even better for the next generation.”

A few days after the conference, jam-packed with great learning, thought-provoking speakers and innovative workshops, Frank got back in touch with the UK Coaching team to pass on his congratulations:

His own inspirational keynote will certainly help coaches in their quest. It contained enough soundbites and takeaways to satisfy the appetite of those “knowledge-hungry coaches” he talks of as well as set a high benchmark for future conferences and coach development seminars. 

“You can’t have a winning culture if it’s not founded upon a learning culture,” said Frank in his keynote summary.

I doubt you will find many, if any, who attended the UK Coaching Conference who would disagree with those words… or any of his others for that matter!