Coaching under pressure in Australian high-performance sport: A qualitative study of coach mental performance

Abstract

Pressure in sport comes from a range of perceived factors including uncontrollability, motivation to succeed, and social evaluation. Psychological flexibility is a concept that has been suggested to help performers navigate challenging situations (such as competition pressure) and maintain effective goal-pursuit. In this study, we investigated sport coaches’ experiences during elite-level competitions to deepen the understanding of coach performance under pressure. Ten Australian sport coaches (5 men, 5 women) with an average 22.3 years of experience at Olympic Games, Paralympic Games and World Championships across eight sports (athletics [2], cycling, diving, field hockey [2], netball, rowing, swimming, and water polo) participated in semi-structured interviews. Through a process of reflexive thematic analysis, two main themes were generated: (1) coach mental preparation to perform, and (2) coach mental performance in action. These themes underscored the significance of cognitive, emotional, and behavioural factors in coaching performance at the highest level and emphasised the benefits of articulating specific observable coaching behaviours. The findings are discussed, along with recommendations for more research centred around direct observation of coaching in action.

Introduction

Numerous authors have explored the stress-inducing features of sport competition.^1–4 Despite a heavy emphasis on understanding the performance environment for athletes, ⁵ performing is not just something for athletes. Coaching too has been described as a performance^6,7 that is done under stressful conditions ⁸ and is central to the quality of the coach-athlete-performance relationship. ⁹ Coach behaviour is a known factor that can negatively affect athlete performance during competition^10,11 and many coaches lack the requisite skills to manage the demands of peak performance events like the Olympic and Paralympic Games. ¹² Yet, this critical area remains under-researched, which is problematic, as improving coach performance can lead to a number of potential benefits including mental health and performance outcomes. Instead, much of the research on performing under pressure involves seeking coaches’ perspectives on how athletes perform ¹³ with the coach often viewed as a facilitator of performance rather than a performer in his or her own right. ¹⁰ In the current study, we interviewed highly experienced coaches to understand how they perform under pressure at pinnacle events such as the Olympic Games. We have presented these insights as example coach behaviours that may facilitate self-reflection and growth for other coaches aiming to improve their own performance in competition.

Pressure in sport has been identified as one antecedent of performance problems. ¹⁴ It can be defined as any combination of factors (such as emotional arousal, self-focused attention, and heightened self-awareness) that may increase the perceived importance of performing well on a given occasion. ¹⁵ Pressure appears to be influenced by the interaction of expectations of self and perceived expectations of others. ¹⁶ It can therefore be viewed as a biopsychosocial response characterised by uncontrollability and social-evaluative threat – the fear of being judged negatively be others – when undertaking a task when the performer is motivated to succeed. ¹⁷ These factors can then impact on the emotions and cognitions of the performer in sometimes unhelpful ways. ¹⁸ Competitive sport at the highest levels creates ideal conditions for the experience of pressure-induced stress in coaches.

Performing under pressure with psychological flexibility

Psychological flexibility is a concept that refers to how people adapt to fluctuating situational demands, reconfigure their mental resources, shift perspectives, and balance competing needs and challenges. ¹⁹ More succinctly, it can be defined as the tendency to select and use strategies that best match the demands of challenging situations in ways that facilitate valued goal pursuit. ²⁰ Psychological flexibility has been proposed to be a contributor to the development of resilience to stress ²¹ and is viewed as important in sport due to the multitude of stressors (such as being watched by thousands of people), uncontrollable factors (such as outcome uncertainty), anticipatory anxiety, and pressure present during competition.^22–24 Despite psychological flexibility being a term commonly referred to as an outcome of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy processes (ACT ²⁵ ), Salkovskis and colleagues ²¹ suggest flexibility is an important mechanism in all psychotherapeutic approaches, not just ACT. We feel this is a helpful broadening of the term psychological flexibility, not least because there exist numerous questions regarding the quality of measurement of the underlying processes of ACT.^20,26–28

In relation to coach performance under pressure, the concept of psychological flexibility may be useful to guide coach behaviours since it is about managing performance interference i.e., facing emotional discomfort and setbacks, through a combination of cognitive (e.g., maintaining attention in the game), emotional (e.g., frustration about referee decisions), and behavioural factors (e.g., making the right decision at the right time, such as substitutions).^26,29 Cognitive and behavioural flexibility are terms that are often used interchangeably and relate to the executive functions that control goal-directed behaviour, such as attention and decision making ³⁰ and the behaviour that follows. Cognitive flexibility has been shown to be negatively impacted by the degree to which a task is perceived to be uncontrollable ³¹ and has been suggested as a mediator between evaluative concerns and the generation of anxiety. ³² There is also evidence that greater cognitive flexibility is related to improved stress coping and performance, ³³ similar to constructive forms of emotion regulation. However, instead of being overly wed to specific strategies (such as cognitive reappraisal or expressive suppression) to modify an emotional response ³⁴ psychological flexibility reflects an ability to switch among them as a person discovers what works and fails to work in a particular situation. Kashdan and colleagues ³⁵ propose that a psychologically flexible person can move through increasingly difficult strategies for handling unwanted emotions from avoidance to acceptance to harnessing. In emotion regulation research, it has been highlighted that a single set of regulatory strategies are unlikely to be effective across time and situations (the so-called fallacy of uniform efficacy). Instead, researchers are now using the term emotion regulatory flexibility ³⁶ to advocate for a broader context-sensitive repertoire of options.^36–38

Coach as mental performer in action – behavioural indicators of quality coaching

In considering how best to take insights from research studies and package them in a way that has applied value for coaches, systematic observations of behaviour are one way of facilitating the development of quality coaching practice.^39–41 There exists a significant body of literature relating to the articulation and measurement of sport coach behaviours^39,40 and there are numerous observation tools that are based on different behavioural frameworks, for example, the Arizona State University Observation Instrument, ⁴² the Coach Behaviour Assessment System, ⁴³ and the Coaching Behaviour Scale for Sport. ⁴⁴ However, the available tools have a fundamental shortcoming: a lack of research on in-competition behaviour ⁴⁰ and while some outline the importance of mental factors, ⁴³ there is limited reference to how coaches might navigate the mental demands of competition.

There has been some criticism of behavioural observation tools ⁴⁰ due to their apparent neglect of contextual factors surrounding behaviour with others preferring an ‘it depends’ approach to coach education i.e., contextual factors are suggested to play such a fundamental role in coach behaviour that it is impossible to advocate for a specific set of ‘ideal’ behaviours. ⁴⁵ Nevertheless, from an applied practice perspective, behavioural tools have merit since they give coaches ideas about what they can try in their own practice, they enable multi-rater feedback (e.g., coaches and athletes) that goes beyond self-report questionnaires and provide a framework for meaningful reflection and dialogue about coaching practice.

In the present study, we sought to articulate behavioural examples of quality coaching practice that might then assist in the development of other coaches when performing in competition. We believe this to be a helpful addition to the existing literature for several reasons. First, Malo and colleagues ²⁷ have advocated specifically for the articulation of behavioural markers in the measurement of psychological flexibility, suggesting that current measurement is too indirect and would benefit from the greater contextual specificity that behaviours can provide. ²⁷ Second, much of the literature relating to coach behaviours has focused on training contexts, ⁴⁰ hence we sought to gain insights relating to coaches’ behaviours in competition since we believe this is be a critical yet under-researched part of the performance of coaching. Finally, the current literature on coaches themselves is sparse, instead emphasising athletes’ performance under pressure. Without a clear focus on the coach as a performer, providing for their continued professional development needs is speculative.

Our aim was to interview Australian high-performance coaches to understand their experiences of using psychological flexibility to help them perform under pressure in competition and, present these experiences in the form of example behaviours that would provide value to other coaches who are seeking to develop their own mental performance in competition skills. The research question we sought to answer was: do sport coaches use emotion, cognitive, and behavioural flexibility strategies to help them perform under pressure in competition?

Method

Philosophical positioning

In the present research a constructivist/interpretivist paradigmatic approach was adopted, suggesting that meaning is constructed through how an individual engages with their world and based on their experiences.^46,47 This study was shaped by a relativist ontology that recognises the uniqueness of one's view that is socially constructed in context and a constructivist epistemology where knowledge is co-constructed by researchers and participants. ⁴⁷ The authors therefore acknowledge that both participant coaches and the research team explained and made sense of their experiences through their own subjective realities, and it was this process of construction that allowed the researchers to generate meaning from the data. Our philosophical position acknowledges the breadth of knowledge and experience of the research team and offered both a supportive, yet challenging research environment. For example, the first author is a psychologist with more than ten years’ experience working in a broad range of elite sports environments. Prior to becoming a psychologist, they worked as a rowing coach in two different countries at both community and elite levels with their interest in psychology initiating from a keenness to improve their own effectiveness as a coach. This dual experience as both a psychologist and as a coach provided the first author with insider understanding, a cultural awareness of both high-performance sport and coaching, as well as enabling rapid relationship building (i.e., as someone who understands coaching) during the interviews. The second author is also trained as a psychologist and has had a distinguished career in sport coaching at the Olympic level and specialises in elite coaching research. This author was also able to bring their deep experience of coaching to the project which was particularly helpful in designing interview questions. Authors three and four bring a clinical psychology and well-being perspective to the research team, which was used to critically evaluate if and how the pre-existing assumptions (as coaches) of the first and second authors might influence what was seen as important in the data.

Participants and procedure

In the current study, we used a criterion-based sampling method ⁴⁸ to select participant coaches who: (a) were a current or former employed coach within the Australian high-performance sport system; (b) were currently actively engaged in National Sporting Organisation (NSO) or National Institute Network (NIN) coach development activities either as a participant coach in current programmes or in a coach development role; (c) had experience of coaching at elite and pinnacle sporting events such as the Olympic Games, Paralympic Games, Senior World Championships, or under-age World Championships. Twenty-eight coaches were identified as meeting the inclusion criteria. Of these, nineteen were male and nine were female. To achieve a balance of gender as well as able and para sport experience, an invitation to participate was sent to all nine female coaches and to nine male coaches randomly selected from those eligible, for a total of eighteen invitations to participate. From these invitations, eleven coaches agreed to be interviewed, with one later withdrawing due to interview scheduling difficulties. No incentives were offered for participation in the study. Following institutional ethics approval, identified coaches were contacted via email to invite them to participate. This email included a project information sheet which outlined the details of the study including that participation was voluntary. Also included was an informed consent form which was required to be returned to confirm an individuals’ participation. Demographic details of the ten participant coaches are provided in Table 1. Coaches had an average age of 50.5 years (SD = 13.32) and their coaching experience ranged from 6 years to 50 years (Mean = 22.3, SD = 12.61). Coaches came from eight different sports and had all coached at either junior international, Olympic Games, Paralympic Games, Commonwealth Games or World Championships in their respective sports. Four coaches had experience working in para-sport. Five coaches identified as men and five as women. Pseudonyms have been used in this report.

Table 1.

Participant coach demographic details.

Sport	Highest level	Years coaching	Para experience
Field hockey 1	Elite	13
Field hockey 2	Elite-Pinnacle	50
Cycling	Elite-Pinnacle	15	Yes
Swimming	Elite-Pinnacle	6	Yes
Rowing	Elite-Pinnacle	20	Yes
Athletics 1	Elite-Pinnacle	30	Yes
Athletics 2	Elite	30
Netball	Elite-Pinnacle	25
Diving	Elite	23
Water Polo	Elite-Pinnacle	11

Note: Elite-Pinnacle = Olympic Games, Paralympic Games, professional sports league grand final, or senior world championships. Elite = under-age world championships (U23 or U21), Commonwealth Games or other open-age international competition.

Data collection

Individual interviews were undertaken by the first author with the first interview being used as a pilot of the interview guide (no changes were determined necessary by first and second authors following this interview). Data collected in the interviews included a combination of demographic and career background information along with answers to specific questions relating to coach's experience of performing under pressure. An example question was ‘what did you do to prepare yourself and the athletes you coach to be ready to perform with pressure in competition’? The face-to-face pilot interview was recorded using the Notes function on iPhone 14 and transferred into Otter.ai for transcription. All other interviews were conducted using Zoom and recorded directly to the first author's desktop computer. Audio recordings were uploaded to Otter.ai for transcribing (verbatim) and video recordings were discarded. Each transcript was manually checked for accuracy against the audio recording and final transcripts were added to the institution's research data management system (RDM) once completed at which time Otter.ai transcripts were deleted. These transcripts were then sent to participants to check for accuracy and potential changes. Two participants responded to this request, but no edits were suggested. Interview duration ranged from 52 to 73 min (mean = 65 min) and pilot interview data was included in the study analysis since this participant met the study recruitment criteria, producing 96,825 words.

Data analysis

Consistent with interpretivism, Reflexive Thematic Analysis (RTA ⁴⁹ ) was chosen to allow the researchers to identify and refine patterns in the data and generate meaning from these patterns. RTA promotes a critical and rigorous approach to data analysis, which involves an iterative approach to analysis that considers the researcher's subjective biases and the context that shape the sense-making. ⁴⁹ Analysis was both inductive and deductive (based on the assumption that coaches may use a combination of emotional, cognitive and behavioural flexibility strategies) with an emphasis on latent (the identification of hidden meaning) rather than semantic meaning (words and phrases taken at face value). Further, the researchers adopted a critical orientation, seeking to form systemic meaning from analysis of coaches’ experiences of performing under pressure in sport. ⁴⁹

Data analysis was conducted following the six-step process described by Braun & Clarke.^49,50 Reflexive thematic analysis (TA) was chosen over other forms of TA (e.g., coding reliability TA or codebook TA) due to its alignment with the authors’ interpretivist paradigm i.e., the research team acknowledged that multiple interpretations could be generated from the same data, with meaning co-constructed through sustained engagement with and interpretation of participants’ experiences. ⁴⁹ First, Author 1 conducted the interviews themself, created transcripts using Otter.ai and edited them for accuracy against the recordings. They then familiarised themself with the data by reading the transcripts multiple times, annotating them with keywords (step 1). Second, Author 1 uploaded transcripts into Nvivo14 and created codes (step 2), which were then summarised into themes and associated coach behaviours. Exemplar quotations were selected for each of these behaviours which were then discussed with the second author, who provided a critical friend perspective on how Author 1 was interpreting the source data. This collaborative discussion prompted Author 1 in conversation with Author 3 to reflect on potential interpretative biases and consider alternative readings of the data. Next, Author 1 reviewed the potential themes leading to a revision to one of the themes whilst maintaining the same overall structure (step 4). When presenting this revision to Authors 2 and 3, it was identified that the thematic structure was based more on what was said (semantic meaning) perhaps missing some of the deeper (latent) meaning. This critical reflection was an important point in the analytic process, prompting us to question our initial themes and to return to the data. This resulted in a further review of the main themes and led to the final structure of themes with confirmation of theme names (step 5). Throughout this iterative process, Author 1 maintained a reflexive journal documenting their evolving interpretations and the rationale for decisions. These were then checked again against exemplar quotes for each theme with Author 2. Finally, Author 1 wrote the results and selected the quotes that best reflected the themes (step 6).

Methodological rigour

It is acknowledged that high quality qualitative analysis depends on several factors being attended to. ⁵¹ However, recently, caution has been advised in the adoption of universal criteria to assess trustworthiness of analysis, ⁵² instead advocating for quality approaches that are consistent with the overall research philosophy. In a project using RTA, reliability of coding across several raters would be inconsistent with the method and research philosophy. Instead, methodological rigour was ensured through the transparency of interpretations of source data, coding and themes by Author 1 in ongoing critical friend interactions with Author 2. For example, in early analysis preparation was identified as a sub-theme of coach performance. Through critical friend reflection on the data and a substantial number of example quotes, we revised the thematic structure elevating preparation to a theme alongside coach performance. Later iterations of the theme structure reduced the number of themes as there was some repetition in ideas that the authors felt could be simplified without losing meaning. All interviews were undertaken by author 1, who was trained in interviewing techniques in his role as a psychologist, meaning the style of interviews was consistent across all participants. The final theme structure is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1.

Representation of interview thematic structure.

Results

We aimed to understand how coaches in elite-level sports competitions managed performance pressure to maintain progress towards their goals. Our qualitative study interviewed some of Australia's most experienced coaches and sought to answer the following questions: (1) Do coaches use cognitive, emotional and behavioural flexibility strategies to help them perform under pressure? (2) What specific behaviours do coaches use to help them perform under pressure? Two main themes comprised of six sub-themes were generated from the interviews: (1) coach mental preparation to perform, and (2) coach mental performance in action. The thematic structure is visually represented in Figure 1.

Coach mental preparation to perform

Participant coaches consistently described the importance of mental preparation to their ability to perform under pressure. Jamie – a diving coach – explained how preparation would impact performance through the following quote: “I feel okay because I've prepared everything and ticked all the boxes, dotted all my I's and crossed all my T's. And, and so I could sit back and relax. I didn't feel too stressed about it”. In the current research, three sub-themes were generated (Table 2) relating to coach preparation to perform: (a) care for self and others; (b) meticulous planning, and (c) coaching team. Seven coach behaviours were identified that explained what interviewed coaches said they did to prepare to perform with pressure: (1) builds high quality relationships, (2) provides emotional support to others, (3) prioritises self-care, (4) uses simulations to prepare for competition stress, (5) promotes flexible responding through contingency planning, (6) articulates coach team roles and responsibilities, and (7) [coaching team] challenges and supports each other.

Table 2.

Coaching behaviours associated with coach mental preparation to perform.

Sub-theme	Coach behaviours	Exemplar quotes
Care for self and others	Builds high quality relationships	We'd spent a lot of time on the road as well as in the daily training environment. So, we, we knew generally how people might operate in certain circumstances. And if something was a bit different, it was noticeable. (Stephen, hockey coach)
	Provides emotional support to others	Talking about being nervous, being stressed, having failure, those kinds of things, to normalise the emotions for them. And then allow them to be able to, hopefully, have some acceptance and be able to communicate with me about that stuff. So that they're not they're not trying to hide it. (Ian, rowing coach)
	Prioritises self-care	When you don't look after your own well-being it will just grey everything up in your world and you're not the person that you probably should be. (Sam, netball coach)
Meticulous planning	Uses simulations to prepare for competition stress	So, throwing in some potential real-world scenarios, you know, there's been a puncture, you're a minute behind, all these things, just to put the athlete under a little bit more load. And then through the debrief, just think, how did that tone work, that choice of words, was it too much, those sorts of things. (David, cycling coach).
	Promotes flexible responding through contingency planning	For me personally, to perform under pressure, I think I need to have structures and plans in place for myself like a, b, and c, so that I’m ready to respond to different situations. (George, swimming coach).
Coaching team	Clearly articulates roles and responsibilities	It's really important having some people around that you can provide roles and responsibilities to, then that eases the pressure on you as a head coach and therefore, helps you relax. But also, you don't feel rushed, you look a lot more calculated in decisions that you make. (Peter, hockey coach)
	Challenges and supports each other	There's a lot of time built in to talk to each other and be able to reflect and question things or say I need help with this or in our coaches meeting every week we talk about a lot of things like that. (Jamie, diving coach)

Coach mental performance in action

Participants in the present study described behaviours that were consistent with the emotional, cognitive and behavioural elements of psychological flexibility when performing under pressure in competition. The importance of regulatory flexibility was explained by Ian – a rowing coach – in the following quote: “I’ve seen myself go from a rah-rah coach to a quiet, still, informative coach for my athletes. There's no one that I work with now that I look to bring noise or loudness or anything like that”. In the current research, three sub-themes were generated (Table 3) relating to coach performance: (a) emotion flexibility; (b) flexible attention, and (c) flexible behaviour. Six coach behaviours were identified that explained what interviewed coaches said they did to perform with pressure: (1) manages own emotions during competition, (2) intentional with displays of emotion, (3) does what's necessary to maintain focus on-task, (4) shifts their attention based on what the task needs, (5) remains adaptable within the plan, and (6) succinct in communication.

Table 3.

Coaching behaviours associated with coach mental performance in action.

Sub-theme	Coach behaviours	Exemplar quotes
Emotion flexibility	Manages own emotions during competition	I'm doing a better job at the moment of noticing my emotions and actually being able to go, that's frustration or that's, that's anger. Or that's just pure unadulterated fatigue. But being able to put a name to it. (Ian, rowing coach)
	Intentional with displays of emotion	Other people's perception of me, whilst coaching in competition was that I was reasonably calm, that I was reasonably measured. And I think that's something that is true in general terms. It was deliberate as well. Certainly, I saw other coaches who overreacted, who lost it for want of a better term, who, when the red mist basically descended, it was a distraction not only to their teammates, but others and detrimental to the team. (Stephen, hockey coach)
Flexible attention	Does what's necessary to maintain focus on task	When I was on the sideline, there was potential for more distraction than when I had the helicopter view up in the stands. (Stephen, hockey coach)
	Shifts their attention based on what the task needs	You can shift your [attention] and can decide where it goes. Rather than being this sort of tunnel vision on there's a spot fire, you just take this perspective where you are a little bit more broad, aware of it, and then sure enough, there is a puncture and you’ve got to talk to the mechanic and pull the car over then that's where you put the energy and time for that. And then it's coming back, resetting, broad, ready, focus, go back broad. (David, cycling coach)
Flexible behaviour	Remains adaptable within the plan	It's not just a one off, but what are they doing repeatedly? If one of my players is getting beaten on a [particular move] and that's happened three times, there's a reason for it. So, as a coach, I've identified it, why is it happening and then what's the solution? (Sam, netball coach)
	Succinct in communication	I think one of the things I've been trying to work on is giving helpful information that can make an impact in that moment, without trying to give them too much. And that's finding a balance of wanting to try and find a solution for everything versus what's actually helpful. So, what's helpful is being able to simplify and kind of summarise everything. And what's not [helpful] is definitely when it's just here's a thousand things to think about because I've only got two minutes, and I'm just going to hit you with everything. (Alex, water polo coach)

Discussion

In this qualitative study, we aimed to explore high-performance sport coaches’ experiences of performing under pressure in competition and understand the role psychological flexibility plays in coach performance. Overall, there were two main findings. First, coaches invest significant time into mentally preparing both themselves and the athletes they coach to be ready to perform. Coaches described the importance of care for self and others, meticulous planning and the value of building and maintaining a team of coaches around them. Second, coaches used emotional, cognitive and behavioural flexibility strategies to perform under pressure. Psychological flexibility for participant coaches related to how they managed their own emotions, how they were able to direct and control their attention on task-relevant factors, and how they remained adaptable to changing situations. In this discussion we explain our findings in relation to the broader, available evidence and discuss limitations and future directions of this research.

Preparation to perform

Findings in the present study were consistent with earlier applied sport studies noting the importance of coach mental preparation for performance at pinnacle events. ⁶ In line with psychological flexibility literature,^19,53 we found that coaches described a key reason for their extensive preparation was to increase the repertoire of behavioural options of both themselves and athletes when performing under pressure during competition. Coaches interviewed described engaging in simulation training to prepare for upcoming challenges. This was consistent with research in the domain of pressure training ⁵⁴ which has been identified as an important process in athlete preparation. ¹³ To that end, we found that the coaches in the present study engaged in behaviours consistent with the multi-phased approach to stress and pressure training proposed by Fletcher and Arnold ¹ i.e., they were aware of the representative performance stressors, undertook training to manage these stressors and systematically evaluated the effect of this training. The importance of preparation and the use of contingency planning as a key coaching strategy has been found in other studies of high-performance coaching ⁵⁵ and is congruent with theories of behaviour change such as mental contrasting with implementation intentions, ⁵⁶ which highlights the use of ‘if… then…’ planning to overcome expected barriers towards goal achievement. ⁵⁷ While some have suggested there may be such a thing as too much flexibility with performance being detrimentally affected, ²⁷ this was not highlighted as a concern by coaches in our study. Rather, interviewed coaches highlighted that flexibility was about availability of options, and not about being obligated to do things differently. Coaches explained that preparing for different situations they might face and planning meticulously for upcoming competition helped them to behave in more flexible ways as it ensured their behaviours remained aligned to their objective during competition.

Well-being underpins performance

Interviewed coaches recognised the importance of self-care for both their own well-being and performance. This is consistent with findings in the Serial Winning Coaches (SWC) literature where SWC's (i.e., coaches who consistently achieve high levels of success such as gold medals with different athletes over a long period of time) were found to buffer stress through looking after their physical and mental health. ⁷ Interestingly, our finding of coaches consistently prioritising their own physical and mental health appears different to Potts and colleagues ³ who found that coaches typically neglected their own needs and put athletes first. One factor contributing to our finding may be that several of the coaches in the current study were former Olympic medal winning athletes themselves, and it was clear that the habits they built as athletes were being carried over into their work as coaches. Many of the coaches in the current study were also senior or head coaches, perhaps suggesting greater opportunities to influence their environment to invest in their own well-being. ⁵⁸

While previous research has outlined the value of working with other coaches for learning and reflection, ⁵⁹ the present study went further by highlighting that coaches need a team around them to be able to manage the attentional demands of high-performance sport i.e., having a coaching team became an interference management strategy. ²⁶ High quality relationships and sense of belonging are commonly viewed as being important for psychological well-being and are implicated in the difficulties in navigating stress.^3,12,60 In the present study, participant coaches outlined several strategies for managing high cognitive load during competition which appear consistent with the notion of orchestration within a complex and relationally oriented social system ⁶¹ in that these coaches demonstrated openness to the complexity of competition and foregrounded relationships (with athletes and support staff) as key enablers of performance. Coaches also said that they used the sharing of coaching team roles and responsibilities to mitigate the effects of high levels of tacit knowledge that may potentially impede the head coach's ability to pay attention to the here and now of the game. ⁶²

Psychological flexibility as a performance strategy

We found psychological flexibility skills to be central to participant coach's narratives of their performance in competition. While we found evidence for coaches flexibly managing their emotions, their cognitions and their behaviours, it was their management of emotions during competition that was described as the most notable challenge and the issue of most critical importance for the coaches interviewed. This was consistent with literature that suggests coaches’ own emotions have been shown to influence athletes’ emotions and subsequent performance. ⁶³ We found that coaches were affected (i.e., self-reported stress) by the often chaotic and time-limited circumstances of pinnacle sport competitions. ³⁸ Coaches frequently needed to manage the internal (e.g., self-doubt, frustration, excitement) and external (e.g., crowd noise, referee decisions) distractions that are so prevalent in major sporting events. This was consistent with what Cherry and colleagues ²⁶ term interference and was a primary reason why psychological flexibility was utilised by participant coaches as a set of skills to navigate challenging situations.

In the present study, we found that coaches described using antecedent-focused regulatory strategies (e.g., simulations and contingencies) to proactively influence the emotions experienced by self and others during competition ⁶⁴ and their subsequent readiness to behave with consistent composure. This was in line with what Meijen at colleagues ⁶⁵ call challenge appraisals (e.g., of available resources, readiness to perform), which uses preparation activities to help participants reframe cognitions in readiness for a motivated performance. Coaches interviewed also made mention of response-focused regulatory strategies, ⁶⁴ in particular the intentional use of emotion for strategic benefit (e.g., the coach raising their voice to the team to communicate a need to increase performance intensity, even if the coach wasn’t actually experiencing anger). This is consistent with what Kashdan and colleagues ³⁵ term harnessing. Interestingly, beyond harnessing emotions, coaches seemed to struggle to articulate how they flexibly regulate their emotions ⁶⁶ when performing under pressure. A possible reason for this is that coaches may struggle to recall the strategies being used during competition due to their focus of attention being on their athletes. However, further work on helping coaches develop emotion flexibility skills appears needed.

Some authors have hypothesised the role cognitive capacities play in differentiating performance of sport coaches. ⁶⁷ While the present study did not specifically measure cognitive abilities, it supported the assertion that executive function is a critical factor underpinning psychological flexibility within a performance context, particularly in relation to how coaches maintained a distinction between task-relevant and task-irrelevant information, through their extensive mental models of their respective sports. Whilst being far from definitive, participant coaches in the present study appeared attuned to the importance of such cognitive capacities and outlined intentional ways they went about managing themselves through a heavy reliance on tacit knowledge of their sport, an approach often referred to as the ‘art’ of coaching.^62,68

Mental performance behaviours and coach development

Despite researchers outlining a complex set of factors involved in high quality coaching,^41,69 professional coaches frequently appear to lose their jobs due to poor results. ⁷⁰ It is important, therefore, to contribute to the literature about what constitutes effectiveness in coaching practice beyond results. ⁶ In the present research we identified example behaviours that can be used to describe quality mental performance in competition. This approach is consistent with observational learning in social learning theory. ⁷¹ There is clearly a risk that articulation of specific ‘model’ behaviours could lose the connection to the context within which they exist and by extension encourage the use of behaviours as evaluation instruments. That was certainly not the intention in the current research. Instead, there is an opportunity to use example behaviours as way of facilitating reflective practice ⁶⁹ and to help coaches explore their own situations, choices and learning in a growth-oriented way consistent with the literature on dialogic pedagogy. ⁷² The behaviours identified in the current research are unlikely to be exhaustive and may be helpful in complementing other coach development activities within elite sport environments. Future research should consider further assessing the relevance and usefulness of these behaviours to sport coaches.

Limitations and future directions

In this study, we have begun to identify ways in which coaches prepare and perform under pressure during the biggest sporting events. However, it should be acknowledged that while qualitative interview studies provide rich, context-relevant insight, coaches can sometimes be poor at describing their own behaviour. ⁴⁰ A limitation of the present study was the reliance on coach reflections without also seeking the opinions of athletes being coached. Future research should seek feedback from multiple sources and should also prioritise direct observation of coaches in action, ideally over extended time periods. In-situ observation studies would also allow for a better understanding of antecedents and consequences of coach behaviour, which would in turn help evaluate and refine any coach development activities. It is recommended that such observations take place in both training and competition environments, to better understand any differences across contexts. While the example behaviours identified in this study will provide a framework for coaches to reflect on their behaviours and consider opportunities for personal growth, the reliance on behavioural frameworks may limit the context-specific nuance in developmental conversations and could be perceived as a ‘one size fits all’ approach to coaching. This could be open to misinterpretation and used in an unhelpful way without expert guidance from applied practitioners such as sport and exercise psychologists. Future research should continue to refine the behaviours identified in this study, and to consider the extent to which they can be evaluated as being facilitative of quality coaching practice. It is also important to note that all participants in the current study were elite-level coaches working at the pinnacle of sport. While the authors anticipate many of the behaviours identified in the present study may be helpful for coaches working with different athlete populations, we caution the reader against generalising from our findings. We encourage future research across the full spectrum of sport to continue to grow our understanding of how coaches perform under pressure.

Conclusions

The aim of this study was to investigate coaches’ experiences of performing under pressure during elite-level sport competitions like the Olympic Games to understand skills (psychological flexibility) and methods (behavioural observation) that may inform future coach development activities that improve the quality of coaching at pinnacle sporting events. Through interviewing ten highly experienced Australian sport coaches we uncovered key insights relating to how coaches prepare and perform under pressure in competition that underscored the significance of cognitive, emotional, and behavioural factors in coaching performance.