2024-08-04 11:50:08
This summer, French athletes will be trying to win medals before our very eyes. However, their performance is also about those who are not directly in the spotlight: their coaches.
Today, the supervision of athletes integrates multiple aspects of performance, from physical preparation to technique, including nutrition. However, knowledge is still limited in the area of what is commonly called the “mind”, although in sport psychology the coach is often considered the “first mental trainer”.
As a coach, the challenge is to find the best way to support your athletes in achieving their goals. As an athlete, you rely on these guidelines from your coach to perform despite the strong thoughts and emotions that may arise.
Struggle, a privileged field of study
To understand how this coach-athlete relationship works, as part of our doctoral thesis we studied how coaches and athletes recognize, understand, use and manage their own and each other’s emotions (what we call emotional skills) in wrestling ), whether before, during or after the game.
We aim to fight because This Olympic sport is one of the oldestBy its nature and organization it is different from other sports: individual contact, combat sports, weight categories. Athletes compete in specific styles: freestyle wrestling, women’s wrestling, Greco-Roman wrestling. Each game lasts 3 minutes, with a 30-second intermission. Throughout the game, the coach sits in the “corner of the mat” and can talk to his athlete, and during breaks goes out to the mat to talk to him, give him something to drink, and even relieve his muscle congestion. During the competition, athletes compete in one to five games.
To understand how coaches and athletes manage their emotions, we studied four pairs of coaches and athletes at a French championship. We set up audio-visual recordings during the game. The coach was equipped with a lavalier microphone, the first camera captured the entire mat, and the second camera focused on the coach, recording his gestures and actions during the game. In the days after the competition, we conducted explanatory interviews with each contestant to go back to the moments when they felt the relationship had an impact on their performance.
This type of interview allows individuals to “relive” these unique situations, highlighting their cognitive behaviors and relevant elements of their choices in the environment at that time. We then cross-referenced data from interviews with athletes and coaches. We also combined video and audio data when they were relevant to participants’ selected situations.
Relationship with coach is at the heart of motivation
Our results suggest that coaches attempt to identify athletes’ emotions. To do this, he pays attention to the latter’s different nonverbal signals, such as his gaze, his gestures, and even his breathing rate. The trainer will interpret them and act accordingly: he will then talk to him, give him technical guidance, manage his emotional state with soothing words, guide his words to a spiritual level to motivate him, and even touch or Use non-verbal communication by petting him. As a result, coaches will adjust their behavior to “actively contaminate” their athletes.
The relationship between coach and athlete also involves nonverbal communication: the coach can touch an athlete or relieve congestion in his muscles. French Wrestling Federation, provided by the author
Before doing so, coaches must first identify and manage their own emotions. Therefore, he will exhibit certain behaviors that he believes are appropriate to have a positive impact on the athlete. For example, a coach may have doubts about his athlete’s ability to handle stress before an important competition based on signals he detects in the athlete (parasitic posture, restlessness, wary expression, etc.). He would then take precautions not to pass this suspicion on to her. He will do this by trying to give him confidence, remind him of previous victories, let him see things from another perspective, and prove to him that he or she has nothing to fear.
But the coach-athlete relationship also goes in the opposite direction. Therefore, athletes will seek to identify their coach’s emotions based on the same cues. The wrestler seems to be seeking approval from his coach and making him proud.
A supportive coach to help you recover when you fail
One of our case studies showed an athlete losing a game, which meant his game was over. He emerged from the carpet depressed, silent, but deeply moved. He saw his coach coming off the mat: “He put his hand on my back, he stayed with me”. The wrestler questions everything and tells himself that he must have let his coach down because he put in so much time preparing for this big event. He blamed himself. But his coach is cheering him on, keeping things in perspective and is already talking about what he can do to get to his next goal. “He smiled and told me ‘that’s it, it happens, you have to train more,'” the wrestler said. The coach emphasized what he wanted to do and told him: “It doesn’t matter, we have to work!” ” Don’t worry! […] You try to motivate him again.
These reciprocal behaviors help strengthen the intimacy, complementarity, and commitment to the relationship between the athlete and coach and contribute to improved performance. However, our results highlight that habits and routines within relationships may lead to distorted interpretations of each other’s behavior. In fact, coaches can use certain phrases to motivate athletes without taking into account the true impact it has on the athlete. The actions subsequently implemented were less than optimal.
The results obtained in this work will be used in the training of coaches to increase their awareness and help them understand the different aspects of their activities and their impact on athletes. Perspectives on enriching emotional skills training are also emerging by emphasizing the coach-athlete dimension and giving examples from specific sport situations.
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#Emotions #heart #athletecoach #relationships
