What is coaching?
When you picture the act of coaching, what do you see?
Picture a coach. What do you see? What you see and how you see the coach performing their role may tell you alot.
Do we coach differently when we’re being observed? How do people view coaching? How do people view a coach and the act of coaching?
These are questions that I’ve been thinking about alot this past year. I often encounter a, conscious or unconscious, disconnect between different perceptions about the coach and the act of coaching.
This disconnect can arise to some frustrations and barriers. I’ve written before about some barriers that are encountered by female coaches.
I’ve found Professor Sophia Jowett’s work about gender bias in coaching to resonate with my experiences. I’m mindful about how perceptions of what coaching is and how coaches should act also ties into this gender bias, and harm coaches of all genders.
“Coaching is helping people help themselves” - Russell Earnshaw, Coach Developer
Perceptions of what coaching is and how coaches should act can collide with and reinforce gender biases. If we think coaches should act in a specific way, then that can exclude a group of people who we believe only behave in an opposite way.
For example, if there is a belief that an effective coach is one that is assertive, loud and communicates via telling, then that links a stereotype of male behaviour to coaching. Jowett says this belief about effective coaching is the predominant way of thinking.
Therefore how we view coaches and the act of coaching is linked to dismantling some barriers and gender biases for coaching.
“Coaching is a supportive practice where a player is guided and supported through a series of tasks and challenges that allow them to learn/embed/stretch their abilities.
The coach should not be the finite source of knowledge and must be open to adapt to the learner’s wants and needs to ensure the learner is suitably challenged to maximise their development.” - Andy Stevens, Coach.
Let’s first explore a traditional (and still predominant) view of a coach. This is informed by the male-dominant history of sport:
“The social institution of sport features a long and gendered history where traditional notions of masculinity (…) are valued and reproduced, and where dominant masculine ideals and characteristics associated with leadership are perhaps more deeply embedded and persistent than any other arena.” - Vicki D. Schull
This gives a view of coaching practice that is informed by masculine stereotypes. This might involve using more interactions with players where coaches tell rather than ask.
(Let me be clear. I am not saying ‘tell’ is a tactic coaches can’t use, nor am I saying I don’t use tell as a device.)
Some more examples of a view of coaching informed by male-dominant history might include loud sideline behaviour on matchdays and being assertive as a constant.
A definition of coaching that is derived from stereotypes harms male and female coaches. It can pressurise coaches of all genders and reduce playful explorations into coaching practices.
It can also create an assumption that a more assertive and traditionally masculine coach knows more:
“For example, female college athletes have expressed preferences for male coaches based on the gendered logic that men possess greater sport knowledge, enforce discipline, and garner respect through authoritarian leadership practices.” - Vicki D. Schull
I challenge myself, and others, to think about how we coach when we’re being observed. Do we feel the need to present an image of coaching that is unauthentic? It is one that aligns with the predominant masculine historical view of what a coach is?
I have, in the past, felt pressure to act in a way that wasn’t authentically me due to observations during training sessions and matchdays. This can lead to players feeling uncertain. It can also result in missed opportunities on coaching courses where the exploration of your own coaching practice can be misguided and inauthentic.
This pressure I’ve felt has often been from a need to prove what I know. As a female coach, I often have to constantly display my knowledge.
“I see coaching as someone, or a team of someone's, who know what my goals and ambitions are, and they guide, support, and motivate me to work towards them. In rugby, this support and motivation comes at training in the form of tasks and challenges that build my skills and confidence to help me achieve my goal of playing safe and fun rugby.
Good coaches give feedback and reflection rather than put downs and criticism, and they support you in finding your own way to overcome obstacles rather than just telling you exactly what to do. If they did that, how would we ever learn!” - Sue Burton, Player
I’m currently calling this act of inauthenticity performative coaching. Performative coaching is to coach in a way where you feel on display and therefore feel under pressure to squeeze into a sterotypical box.
I also call it ‘Coach with a capital C’. It’s the idea of The Coach as the knowledge-possessing, loud, authoritarian figure.
All of this text is not me saying that there’s no need for coaching that pulls from ‘masculine’ traits. I use ‘tell’ and assertiveness alongside other coaching traits.
However, any use of traits and styles needs to be driven and explored in a way that’s playful and not performative.
Since becoming aware of performative pressure across the past few years, I can sometimes feel a tension within myself. There can be a push and pull between authentic and performative coaching.
Where next?
On a larger scale, there are growing discussions around coaching practices.
The support system around coaches needs to be better.
I would like a wider engagement with gender bias and coaching traits within coach education, so that coaches of all genders can benefit.
On a personal scale, I am more aware of gender bias and what my authentic way of coaching is (certainly more so than about five years ago!).
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