Coaching Philosophy: Make your Coaching Matter

Developing a coaching philosophy

The real art lies in how you transmit your philosophy through your programme’s DNA.

Successful coaches don’t hold their philosophy in their head, they take the time to write it down, shape it and share. They can then live it, breathe it, teach it, and use coaching conversations to develop it as they create a strong and shared culture within their environment.

Sharing your philosophy with coaching colleagues, participants and their wider support network is important as it helps develop a shared understanding and increases trust in the relationships. This allows individuals to know why you make decisions, what you value as a coach and prioritise in your practice. This in turn helps you build a shared environment with clear expectations, consistent approaches and reduces the likelihood of friction and challenging conversations.

Clarity allows for conversations to take place, as individuals connect, and a cohesive environment emerges from your shared core values. This allows you to be you and coach in an authentic way. It provides the foundations to apply your philosophy across different situations as you effectively adapt to the people and places whilst maintaining your integrity.

‘Flexibility is a strength, not a weakness’

Your philosophy is likely to evolve as you gain experience, learn from successes and failures and continue to reflect on how to maximise every individual’s potential that you coach. 

Understanding that flexibility within your philosophical framework is essential as the landscape changes.  Coaching different people, different environments, different contexts and the demands of the sport all require the ability to reflect and flex.

More than just a mission statement your philosophy should be demonstrated consistently though your words, actions, decisions, policies and approaches and programme design.  It’s a every time thing, not a one-time thing, which allows participants to value and respect you.

“At the beginning of the process, I’m pretty much leading it and saying: ‘This is what has to happen because this is new to you, so just listen to me.’ Then, as the athlete begins to win medals, the journey becomes more collaborative, with the possibility of the athlete even taking the lead at times.

“The more proficient the athlete, I respect their opinions about what is good for them or what they feel is going to be good for them. I’ll marry what they say with my own feelings about what I think should happen and then come to a consensus as to what direction we should take.”

– Aston Moore, Athletics Coach to Katarina Johnson-Thompson, Ashia Hansen and Phillips Idowu