Abstract
Top level professional sport is subject to enhanced levels of scrutiny due to its significant social and financial impact. Understanding the factors and interrelationships that lead to success, and especially the role sport coaches play, has become a priority in research and practice. This case study builds on research into Serial Winning Coaches1,9,10 to describe the practice of Pablo Laso, a European professional serial winning basketball coach. Using primary and secondary data, the study aimed to identify those factors that appeared to be necessary for success, and how Coach Laso navigated the tensions between agency and structure, and the relative contributions of resources, context, and execution. We have identified those factors that appear, in this example, to be necessary for success, but we are still only able to speculate about the combination of conditions that are ‘jointly sufficient’ to bring about success. The conclusion might be that there is a complex and elaborate mix of conviction, expertise, serendipity, purposeful endeavour, and resources that enables rather than determines success. Nonetheless, Coach Laso's anatomy of success may serve as a catalyst for other coaches’ reflection and development and to guide further research.
Introduction
High-performance sport has been described as “dynamic, complex, unpredictable and, at times, characterised by chaos”. 1 The context itself has characteristics that make it stand out from other sporting domains: the intensity of engagement, the emphasis on competition outcomes, a ‘zero sum game’ (success for some means failure for others), limited longevity, public scrutiny, and a sense of ‘constant comparison’. 2 In sport coaching the need for a balance between routinised, structured approaches to performance improvement and the vagaries of rarely perfect intervention programmes dealing with human beings in an inherently contested arena emphasises the need for adaptation, accommodation, integration, and coordination.3,4 In this context, it is often assumed that the coach is the central figure in maximising the athletes’ potential, suggesting a significant measure of control over the environment, 5 although Parkes and Mallett 6 question this assumption.
Our interest lies in the particular configuration of factors that are associated with achieving success in high-performance sport, for which coaches are acknowledged to have a significant responsibility.7,8 The high-performance sport context is a concatenation of interactions between actors (e.g., coaches, players, support staff, club officials and owners, fans, league owners) and those same actors in other teams/clubs with whom individuals interact. This may be conceived as an ‘external’ structure, particularly when factoring in other teams’ successes, technical habitus, resources and coaches’ actions. However, this ‘structure’ can be impacted by coaches copying, accommodating to, and challenging its precepts. We are interested in how coaches, in acknowledged successful practice, cope with this interdependence between agency and structure. The case study at the heart of this paper follows on from previous research on Serial Winning Coaches (SWC),1,9,10 whom, we make the reasonable assumption, act as change agents for other coaches.
The SWC project centred on coaches whose depth and longevity of attainments characterised them as representative of a particular coterie of serial high achievers. Findings emphasised the character and values that created a winning mentality; they balanced sincere care for their athletes (and themselves) with fierce determination to succeed.1,9 The overarching character of SWC was encapsulated in the phrase, ‘striving, surviving and thriving’. 9 Striving referred to their unapologetic pursuit of excellence, thirst for growth, sense of duty, and work ethic. Surviving acknowledged the complexity, chaos, ambiguity and pathos of their environment, assuaged through creating time, self-care and adopting a range of coping mechanisms. Thriving was characterised by an emphasis on continuous improvement, putting learning at the centre of practice, a concern for everyone's wellbeing, and drawing on their passion for the sport. The overall findings were summed up in the Vision-People-Environment Framework (VPEF).1,10 However, the SWC research placed less emphasis on the relationship between the high-performance environment and the coaches’ practice and role recipes (how they interpreted their roles in relation to particular contexts). Our intention here is to redress this by an idiographic exploration of a serial winning coach's practice, shedding light on how a coach operationalises the factors that lead to success. We wonder if there is a ‘perfect storm’ of the intersection of coach, context and success and whether this is serendipitous or susceptible to purposeful design.
There is an existing body of research that has illuminated the coach's association with sporting success, the preponderance of which is centred on the practice of university coaches in North America. These studies emphasise the importance of a shared vision and how it is operationalised, 11 stressing the importance of a ‘culture of excellence’, core values and daily habits. 12 The personal qualities of the coach are shown to be important in setting the appropriate environment 13 and facilitating buy-in from challenging athletes. 14 Similarly, Fraser et al. 15 identified the importance of shared understandings and athlete-coach relationships in dealing with the consequences of a ‘poor’ season. These studies have a relational and psychological-state emphasis, with a strong reliance on a values-based culture and vision. Allain et al. 16 provides an example of specific features of coaching practice, in this case ice-hockey coaches’ routines-based management of game intermissions.
There is also a valuable suite of case studies of successful coaches. Wang and Straub 17 highlight the approach to winning of successful soccer coach, Anson Dorrance (e.g., shared mindset and mental toughness, the value of preparation, managing competition and a set of values). Hodge et al. 18 emphasise the motivational climate in the world-cup winning New Zealand rugby union team. Voight and Carroll 19 elaborate football coach, Pete Carroll's, vision for a successful university team, stressing a comprehensive and collegial approach to competition, attitudes and expectations. Interestingly, Vallée and Bloom 20 noted that successful performance outcomes may mitigate or mask the impact of a less-desirable team culture. In addition to relational and developmental features, Liu et al. 21 is notable for also identifying sport-specific technical elements characterising a successful Chinese weight-lifting coach's approach to practice.
There are some limitations in the existing literature, to the extent that the largely university context of the research cited does not fully represent the volatility, fragile tenure, player agency, media scrutiny and results orientation of professional sport. Nevertheless, the research literature emphasises the relational aspects of successful sport coach's practice and the evident value of creating a supportive environment with clear values, expectations and athlete buy-in. The case studies place more emphasis on the desired approach to competition and winning. In all cases, the personal resources of the coach, including drive and commitment, are paramount for sustained successful practice. However, there is almost no attempt to place the coaches’ actions and intentions in the wider social, technical, or resource-determined environment.
Against this background of existing research, the particularity of a coach's professional practice and our desire to identify the reasoning, dynamics and processes associated with success led us to believe that a case study would be the most fruitful approach. More particularly, in our research we sought to address the following questions: (a) what factors appear to be distinctive to our case study coach; (b) how does the coach deal with apparently irreconcilable tensions (e.g., between exercise of control and athlete autonomy); (c) what factors appear to be ‘jointly sufficient’ to bring about success; and (d) to what extent is there a level of agency that goes beyond a set of values.
Methodology
Theoretical stance
Our theoretical stance has been influenced by Crossley's 22 understanding of the relationship between structure and agency. He argues that a constantly evolving structure is the embodiment of a social and resource network, the result of myriad interdependencies. Therefore, we should not perceive instrumental professional practice as merely a reaction to context; it is always emerging. Key actors, including coaches, may effect change. The impact of such relational activity is bounded by what Crossley conceives as rules, resources and relations. Particularly important is the perceived esteem held by some actors, and their consequent level of influence. Therefore, we seek to understand how successful coaches cope with the structural elements they perceive they cannot change, and act to influence those they can in an emerging network of interactions and practices.
We also rely on the concept of necessary and sufficient conditions put forth by Gomes. 23 Necessary conditions are those that must obtain for success to occur, but they do not guarantee that outcome (for example, one would need to be the head coach of a high-performance team, with a record of winning in highly-rated competitions). On the other hand, sufficient conditions are enough for success to obtain but may not be essential. Consider the need for technical expertise, a high-quality support staff, financial resources, or experience as a former player. Each may be characteristic of successful coaches but not essential alone to produce success. In researching these ‘must haves’, deterministic probability can be contrasted with ‘typicality’ approaches that allow for exceptions. 24 This supports the notion that generalising across a population may be less worthwhile than a case study that has the potential to identify a ‘typical’ set of necessary-but-not-sufficient conditions.
We were tempted to think of such research as an attempt to ascertain what might be termed a professional practice philosophy. However, we were conscious that practice itself is a combination of both agency and structure. An espoused coaching philosophy may indicate an individual's preferred intentions but, when operationalised, is subject to institutional and environmental factors that are, or may be, beyond their immediate control. Cushion and Partington 25 argue that there is an overemphasis on coaches’ agency, acknowledging the relevance of social structures and unspoken and unrecognised (tacit) influences on practice. Our interest, therefore, was focused on the potentially complex and emergent interaction of a coach's method, institutional context, high performance environment, personal conviction, the coach's awareness of these factors, and the adaptations or coping strategies used to navigate the role of a successful high-performance coach.
Research design
Case study is a valuable means of exploring people, events or phenomena that are inherently complex, highly contextual and not susceptible to experimentation or survey methods.26,27 Welch et al. 28 acknowledge the contingent and limited generalisability of the case study but emphasise the opportunity to learn from its uniqueness through what they term contextualised explanation and understanding of both the relevant intentions and the actor's (in this case the coach's) experience of the event. Therefore, our approach is both exploratory, charting new territory, and explanatory, being able to draw upon the findings of previous research as part of our sense-making.1,9 In offering an interpretive sense-making of the case, we are mindful that explanations are often ‘contrastive’, that is, they ask why one outcome has arisen rather than another. 29 We have been careful to try not to be selective nor to think in terms of a comparison to an ‘ideal’. Our intention is to report faithfully on a coach's account of their evidently successful practice, searching for the causal dynamics that lead to success in high performance sport in a particular instance, not to realise a generalisable causal effect but to identify how one coach in one context created, manipulated and managed his environment.
Study subject: Coach Pablo Laso
Our case study is centred on the basketball coach, Pablo Laso (58). While ethical approval was obtained from the authors’ academic institution, Coach Laso relinquished his right to anonymity and confidentiality and authorised the authors to use his name. He is a Spanish former professional basketball player (18 season in top leagues) who won two domestic and European titles as a player. Until recently, he held the assist record in the Spanish top professional league. He also represented Spain 61 times in international competitions. However, it was as a coach that he created a notable success story. After a decade coaching lower ranked teams in Spain's top professional league, he became the head coach of Real Madrid Basketball in 2011 where he was able to reinstate the team as a powerhouse in European basketball after two decades of underachievement. Under Coach Laso, Real Madrid consistently dominated domestic competitions, redefined how basketball was played in Europe, and achieved unprecedented success, winning a total of 22 major national and European trophies during his 11-season tenure, including two Euroleague titles (the top competition in Europe). After leaving Real Madrid in 2022, he became head coach of German club, Bayern Munich, for the 2023–2024 campaign, winning the league and cup double. The following season (2024–25) he became the head coach of Saski Baskonia in Spain where he coached for one season with no trophies to add to his tally. He has recently been appointed head coach of Turkish side Anadolou Efes in the Euroleague, a former Euroleague winning club attempting to return back to the top of the competition after a few disappointing seasons.
Data collection strategy
Qualitative data were collected from primary (i.e., newly collected data), and secondary sources (i.e., existing data in the public domain). Coach Laso's recent book, Pablo Laso: Winning to tell the tale 30 was used as the main source of secondary data. The use of autobiographies as appropriate forms of data, when triangulated with other sources of information, has been defended in organisational scholarship, especially in strategic leadership, entrepreneurship, identity and sense-making. 31 In sport-related research, Day et al. 32 have made the case for the use of autobiographies as ‘documents of life’, providing rich personal data. Similarly, Sparkes and Stewart 33 support the use of sporting autobiographies as relevant and useful analytical and pedagogical resources, particularly when focused on a particular question or proposition as in Coach Laso's case. 32
In addition to biographies, Podcasts have also recently been proposed as a uniquely rich and timely source of data, offering dynamic and up-to-date perspectives that may be difficult to access by traditional methods. 34 Consequently, a 48-min podcast featuring Coach Laso 35 was used as an additional source of secondary data. Finally, the lead author visited Coach Laso in person to collect primary data via an in-depth semi-structured interview conducted in English (118 min; 92 double-spaced pages). Such interviews use a pre-planned interview schedule to guide the interaction between researcher and subject but permit open-ended responses to explore interviewees’ opinions, attitudes, experiences and feelings and to lead the researcher into new areas of exploration. 36
Analytic approach
Previous research into SWC practice1,10 found that successful coaches’ practice revolved around three key areas, namely, vision, people and environment. Vision referred to the coach's ability to formulate and articulate a clear and compelling view of what it takes to win, and of the ways of working, processes and actions required to fulfil this ultimate goal. People encompassed the need to ensure that athletes, coaches and any other staff were appropriate fits for the coach's vision and had the competence to realise it. Finally, environment included the acquisition or creation of the human and material resources and conditions that facilitated individuals to optimally fulfil their roles and functions, thus augmenting the chances of success.
In the development of Coach Laso's case study, the VPEF was used as a deductive-inductive tool to sense-make Coach Laso's practice. 37 This dual iterative approach supports a more organised, rigorous and analytically sound analysis. 38 In the first instance, the lead author read Coach Laso's book and the transcript from his podcast twice, deductively coding relevant content against the three areas of the VPEF. Following this initial deductive coding phase, a process of inductive analysis took place within each of the three areas of the framework to generate a series of case-specific themes. A preliminary model of Coach Laso's practice was thus created, shared with him in advance, and used during the live interview as a probing exploratory tool. The lead researcher took Coach Laso through the preliminary model and asked him to sense-check its validity and fidelity, and to where required expand or question the various themes it comprised. In addition to changes to the model made directly during the live interview, the research team analysed the transcript of the live interview to search for additional themes. This led to the creation of a final model of Coach Laso's practice, which was re-shared with him via email for an additional sense-check, after which a final version was agreed.
Positionality and reflexivity
The researchers acknowledge their own position within the research. As well as having conducted substantial previous research in this area, the lead author is also an active basketball coach with experience at the professional and international level. Like Coach Laso, he is also Spanish. The second author has also conducted multiple studies in this field and been a club and national team coach in a different team sport. The researchers’ previous professional experiences and academic insights facilitated access to Coach Laso as well as the rapid building of rapport with him. In addition, it also provided a platform from which to build the study and analyse the data. Notwithstanding the above, the researchers constantly reflected on their position and were cognisant of the potential for personal biases to influence the analysis (i.e., confirmation bias) and thus incorporated several failsafe mechanisms. These included regularly checking and challenging each other's analysis and interpretation of the data, allowing Coach Laso to validate the analysis at multiple time points, and presenting the findings to other academic colleagues to gather their feedback and questions.
Research rigour
In keeping with the study's relativist ontology and constructivist epistemology, the researchers not only accept but embrace the analysis and interpretation of qualitative data as individually constructed and thus fallible and not focused on finding a single truth. Adhering to what Sparkes 39 refers to as the ‘letting go’ perspective, this study incorporated Tracy's 40 criteria for excellence in qualitative research to make a case for its validity. These include its relevance and contribution to the field, sound methodology, the richness of description and explanation, including sense-checking by the study's main subject, a robust ethical process of institutional approval, and a significant level of internal coherence demonstrated by the appropriate choice of methods and procedures in relation to the research questions.
Findings
Findings are presented using the components of the VPEF as a structure. In describing the case study data, due to space limitations, verbatim quotes have been offered sparingly. In addition, we have chosen to highlight instances where Coach Laso exemplifies the tensions between structure and agency, and, in relation to necessary and sufficient conditions, where he prioritises elements of his practice or environment.
Vision
The findings confirmed the paramount importance of having a clear vision for one's practice. In Coach Laso's case, this vision revolves around four key themes: i) life philosophy; ii) relentless competitiveness; iii) playing style; and iv) future orientation (components summarised in Table 1).
Vision main elements and components.
Life philosophy
Coach Laso prioritises having a well-defined and consistent set of personal values, allowing him to operate from a values-based perspective. He highlights the need to be authentic in relationships with those around you, and especially players. Likewise, he emphasises his overall desire to do good work he can be proud of: “…good work always takes you down the best path, in any area of your life. If you can do things well, good things will happen”. Finally, he emphasises ‘responsibility’ as the key value driving his practice: “A commitment to stand up and be counted in the good and the bad times is something I took to heart from a very early age”. This latter element complements his mission to create value for others: “For me, my vision of coaching is the club has to get better, the team has to get better, and players have to get better”. As part of this, building a strong connection with the fans is prioritised.
A further element of Coach Laso's life philosophy is a strong belief in his own ability and in the adequacy of his views and actions. This self-confidence translates into a sense of purpose and drive: “I never go to a club just to see what happens. I have always been sure about my own ability”. It also serves to protect him from external pressures and to help maintain focus: “I am very determined in whatever I believe in; this is central to being able to control the inherent pressure of professional sport. Pressure cannot change your attitude or ideas, or behaviour”.
Finally, Coach Laso's philosophy also includes two stabilising elements. First, his unwavering passion for basketball which helps him cope with the demands of his profession and second his equanimous approach to coaching and to the nature of the high-performance environment. This is exemplified in his relaxed approach to the risk of being dismissed: “Getting the sack is part and parcel of being a professional coach; if that changes you, then maybe you are not made for professional sport”. In summary, Coach Laso's life philosophy emphasises the capacities that allow him to exert agency. Although he recognises that there are elements that he cannot control, his key message is that this should not distract from his convictions or chosen direction.
Relentless competitiveness
While Coach Laso's life philosophy anchors his practice, he attaches especial importance to his teams’ capacity to compete under any circumstances: “Competing means being always ready to face anything that's thrown at you. […] to win even in the days when everything goes wrong”. Developing this ‘relentless competitiveness’ is the omnipresent process goal that allows outcome goals (i.e., winning) to be realised; it is thus both a goal in itself (process) and a catalyst for other goals (outcomes). Relentless competitiveness is fostered by a complete and shared belief that the group can achieve their objectives, including the players’ belief in the coach's capacity to lead them to a positive outcome: “A big part of being a coach is making the players believe, share with them the conviction about the style and philosophy”. Belief includes instilling confidence in the individual and group's ability and capacity to achieve their objectives, including helping players understand that the team must come first.
Notably, relentless competitiveness also relies on the team's resourcefulness to meet the varying and extreme demands of the high-performance environment. This is manifested in the capacity of the group to win even when not playing well and finding different solutions to overcome challenges: “I always believe there is a solution to every problem, and more so in basketball. The coach must know how to pass this on to the players”. In addition, relentless competitiveness requires extreme levels of ‘grit’ to endure the daily grind of elite sport and get through difficult times, avoid complaining or making excuses, and be able to continue to compete and win regardless of the conditions. Finally, Coach Laso highlights resilience as a key component of relentless competitiveness, not only to bounce back quickly from failure and defeat, but to learn from them and become stronger: “The biggest growth in teams comes from the rebuilding that happens after a defeat”. The goal of becoming relentlessly competitive as a team relies on Coach Laso's agency in instilling this as a pervasive feature of every facet of the team's ‘being’. Although not sufficient in its own right, relentless competitiveness is perceived by him as crucial and a necessary condition for success.
Playing style
Not surprisingly, there are basketball-specific aspects related to performance that form part of Coach Laso's vision: “I strongly believed in my idea of how basketball should be played [attractive basketball], and I held on to that. […] That was my advantage: I knew the style of play and philosophy we needed”. This involves doing things differently and innovatively: “We changed the paradigm”. This style of play was also grounded in the belief that he had the players to execute it. This unwavering belief in the style of play (i.e., consistency) and his players also served as a protective factor against the unavoidable ups and downs of competitive sport and the criticism from fans and journalists.
Notwithstanding his firm commitment to a style of play, Coach Laso highlights “always [being] open to adapting, evolving and learning so you can grow”, to the extent that “[at some point] I had to reinvent myself as a coach due to the lack of resources”. He identifies adaptability as perhaps the most important quality for a coach: “The coach has to adapt all the time. You will have different players, and your game will have to adapt. Or you have a different president, and you have to adapt”. Adaptability also needs to be evident within the group: “[…] we were all able to adapt. Over time, that was our greatest virtue, knowing how to adapt to everything”. Coach Laso concluded: “you have to have enough flex in the system to cope with [all the expected and unexpected occurrences], and that's why building the roster with stretch is important”. This firm conviction about his playing style and his capacity to build adaptable teams appears to underpin his concept of winning basketball. It appears that a strong technical component is a necessary condition for success, although this is adapted over time and context. Adhering to the playing style may be more important than its particular configuration: “certain things have to be taken care of, so the team has an identity and play with a sense of direction”.
Future-orientation
Working to long-term objectives and not being distracted by day-to-day demands and pressures is crucial: “I always think that a coach is successful long-term, not just winning tomorrow”. Being able to maintain this long-term view with the realities of elite professional sport, where performance is judged from game to game (i.e., working on a dual timeline), is key to success and, perhaps, his mental and emotional stability. Deliberate anticipation of influential factors, being ‘ahead of the game’, underpins Coach Laso's philosophy. This future orientation is closely linked to his emphasis on whole-club development and a culture of continuous improvement. However, this requires high levels of stability: “You have to work for this stability, […] For example, keeping the coach for a long time, having players on long-term contracts so they remain at the club for multiple seasons, [maintaining] the same club philosophy or idea [style of play]”. This sense of ‘project’ has always been a driver for Coach Laso's career decisions. Coach Laso's future focus demonstrates a complete commitment to focus on the task at hand and getting the job done (i.e., high agency) without being swayed by the day-to-day pressures of professional sport (structures). A strong vision and a strong belief in agency appear to be a necessity for achieving success.
People
Coach Laso recognised that professional coaching is relational - a ‘people job’. He identifies three groups to whom he pays particular attention: fans, club leadership, and players and staff (Table 2).
People main elements and components.
Fans
Coach Laso prioritises establishing a feeling of communion with the fans, born out of a deep sense of respect and duty towards the club and the supporters: “Sometimes, […] we see the fans as something external, […] they pay [their ticket] and that's it. I don't think so. I believe we have to offer them something they like [entertainment], not just winning”. This desire to satisfy the fans had an impact on his choice of style of play.
Club leadership
Coach Laso also recognises that a coach is part of a larger organisation that will outlive the coach's tenure and has its own framework of objectives and plans. Therefore, while always trying to influence the direction of travel for the better (i.e., agency), he is aware of the need to clearly delineate roles and responsibilities and to have clear boundaries (i.e., structures). This approach means being very discerning as to which battles are worth fighting. Despite the need to ‘tread carefully’, he emphasises the need for the coach to ‘manage up’ as much as possible: “The coach must never be above the club, but he has all the information, and the club should always listen to him”. He is, however, realistic about his level of influence at the club and concluded: “[at the end of the day] if you don't like the environment, the only thing you can do is to say thank you and leave”. This highlights again the constant dance between agency and structure in the practice of a successful professional sport coach.
Players and staff
Coach Laso maximises the performance of players and staff in six main ways, namely, select, unite, develop, support, manage, and release. The importance of, in conjunction with the General Manager, carefully selecting players based, not only on their basketball skills, but also on their cultural fit is consistently emphasised. Central to this is having exemplary captains and veterans who can be cultural leaders: “I was very lucky to have two captains like Felipe [Reyes] and [Sergio] Llull […] They were always there to energise the team and set the tone of the toughness”. He also highlights the need to be constantly vigilant, even when winning, to spot areas of weakness and to sign-up players quickly to fill those gaps. Equally, investing in young players that could rejuvenate the squad over time and help the club remain competitive was vital.
Once players and staff are selected, Coach Laso emphasises the need to unite them as a team. To achieve this, he identifies creating meaning and belief, and fostering role acceptance and interpersonal relationships. Meaning is built around developing a sense of pride towards the club and the fans: “I have always tried to help my players understand that getting to Real Madrid is not the important thing, becoming a legend at Real Madrid is”. A sense of belief in the potential of the group to succeed is also paramount for creating unity. Developing common goals, making everyone feel important and balancing personal and team success is key.
Complementary to selecting and uniting, Coach Laso has a deep belief in the need to develop and support those around him: “this [job] is about learning to become a better player, and a lot of times, a better person”. Helping people grow requires a constant level of challenge, yet with some caveats and timelines that respect the player's stage of development. Beyond a moral responsibility to develop players, Coach Laso acknowledges it is also a performance imperative. Notably, he highlights the primary role stability plays in allowing everyone and the team to develop: “Stability allows you to develop the players, find better solutions to the team's problems. Stability also gives you a different emotional level […] You need players to feel well, so they can perform, and it's hard to do this without stability”.
The imperative to manage makes communication a vital part of the coaching role. Coach Laso discusses the notion of ‘sufficient communication': “I'm not keen on talking to the players too much, but at the same time, they know that my office door is always open. […] But I don't need to explain [myself], because then I will have to explain every decision”. However, he was also keen on establishing a level of self-management wherein the team took charge of ‘policing’ the required standards and practices. Nevertheless, he also identifies the need to communicate with them on an individual basis: “You have to adjust to each individual”. The final component of ‘people’ is the need to release players and staff when they are no longer a good fit and cannot drive the team forward. His sense of agency here was strong; players were treated as individuals and accorded a measure of respect and responsibility, but only in so far as it contributed to a successful team.
Environment
Four key characteristics of the environment that contributed to sustainable winning are identified: progressive, resourceful and responsive, stable, and challenging and supportive (Table 3).
Environment main elements and components.
Progressive
Coach Laso repeatedly comments on the need for coaches and clubs to be progressive - to improve continuously, to get ahead and stay ahead, to remain competitive. A carefully designed ‘progress plan’ from one season to the next is vital: “Okay, next year if we want to fight for this, we need to get better at this, and it's a moment where you really have to take a look and decide what you want to do in the future to improve your team”. The team and club always come first: “There are moments when as a coach you have to make decisions that players are not going to like but that will be good for the future, and a lot of times this is the hard part of coaching”.
Resourceful and responsive
Moreover, Coach Laso highlights the need for the club to be resourceful and responsive, to make sure that sufficient investment is allocated into key areas to allow continued progress: “At the elite level, when you take a step back, when you don't move forward, and when you are not ambitious, you get punished”. These resources need to be deployed to find solutions to day-to-day problems and unexpected occurrences such as injuries or player signings.
Stable
Coach Laso also signals ‘stability’ as a key ingredient of high-performing environments. Stability was required at multiple levels: institutional, roster, style of play, emotional and coach tenure: “Stability is key at every level, institutional and sporting. [In relation to the roster] in my 11 years we signed 39 and only 10 left after the first year”. Despite acknowledging the need for stability, he is adamant that this should not mean that everyone is able to relax and be complacent: “You cannot allow players to get too comfortable, they have to be happy, but not comfortable […], I want them to compete”.
Challenging and supportive
Achieving high levels of stability and personal wellbeing are not incompatible with creating a consistent level of stress and challenge - another critical feature of high-performing environments according to Coach Laso: “They have to always feel that pressure. Now, I'm the first one that is going to try to make them feel well [meet player needs], but also the first one to be demanding. [You need] the right level of challenge and support”. He identifies having clear ‘red lines’ and expectations, a constant raising of the bar, and high levels of internal competition and accountability. Notwithstanding this, he also emphasises the need to avoid crossing certain lines. Offering appropriate and carefully balanced support to help players navigate the intensity of the challenge is paramount. Coach Laso recognises the key features of a success-sustaining environment. He emphasises the role of the coach in shaping the environment where this is possible, and maximising resources over which he may not have complete control.
The importance of structuring priorities
Through the exploration of Coach Laso's vision, people and environment features, it is apparent that Coach Laso acknowledges the competing priorities inherent in his practice, and the level of agency that he can bring to bear on his decision making. Our analysis of his self-reported practice suggests that he uses, both to prioritise his decision making and to reconcile the level of his agency, a pragmatic framework of high-, mid- and low-level decision making. The reconciliation of agency and structure requires high levels of coach adaptability: “The coach must adapt always. […] so many times we make the mistake to think that everyone has to adapt to us. This is a big mistake”. It was clear from Coach Laso's comments that he has a realistic appreciation of those matters that are within his control and those (e.g., resources, recruitment) that are not entirely in his gift. He describes the consequent hierarchy of decisions that he is able to make as high-, mid- and low-level (see Table 4).
Coach decision-making.
High-level decisions that could make or break his season were deemed by Coach Laso as the most important decisions and were guided by his vision. These involved personal career moves, retaining, releasing or signing new players, and deciding on a particular style of play. By contrast, mid-level decisions could result in winning or losing a game but had much less impact on the season as a whole. He emphasised that decisions should be taken after analysis and reflection, and with, where possible, an objective critical stance. Despite the fragility of coaches’ tenure in high-performance sport, Coach Laso was firmly of the view that no matter the short-term pressures, the longer-term view should prevail. Mid-level and low-level decisions applied mostly to game preparation and management. The difference between mid- and low-level decisions is the amount of time available to consider options. Mid-level decisions involve and can rely on a greater level of analysis (e.g., preparation, game plans, line-ups, rotations, etc), whilst low-level ones demand on-the-spot quick decisions (e.g., player management, play calling, time-outs, in-game tactical changes, etc.).
Discussion
At first sight, the key elements of Coach Laso's practice do not appear to differ from previous literature or common conceptions of sport coaching. He acknowledges that coaching is relational, a ‘people profession’14,15; the implementation of his convictions, values and expectations is achieved through the relationship with players and staff.1,9 Within this, players and staff are supported to grow, both in sport and in life, achieved through a sense of responsibility, contribution to a common cause, and stability in response to winning and losing. 12 However, these relationships are overlaid by a constant awareness of the demands of high-performance professional sport: the consequences and implications for progression, improvement and ultimate success drive his decision making. 1 Factors such as stakeholder influence, employment tenure, media scrutiny, the importance of results and community profile, and player rewards and career decisions are reflective of a particular professional sport environment. 2 The heightened, more intense impact of each of these factors in professional sport draws attention to the coach's capacity to navigate and cope with and succeed in this environment.3,4
Coach Laso identifies self-presentation and role modelling as important, with an evident concern for others’ welfare, a stable, equanimous, values-led persona and, above all, an overwhelming sense of conviction. Nevertheless, there is no doubt about his interpretation of the central role of the coach in determining the intended path to success; he sets the vision, ensures adherence to values and plans, establishes and delivers the performance programme, manages games, establishes priorities, and acts as the arbiter of inherent tensions.7,8 In doing so, he is assisted by a set of heuristics or ‘coaching takeaways’: learning from adversity, constantly adapting to context and events, always looking forward, prioritising stability of personnel, and balancing immediate need with longer-term development.1,10 Above all, he stresses a pre-eminent state of ‘relentless competitiveness’: a ‘state of being’ and purpose that permeates all activity, always focused on and tasked to seek to win. Some further investigation is required to establish if such a doctrine can be a causal factor across all levels of sport. It may be an approach that is best suited to circumstances in which teams, with a degree of control of resources, recruitment, and so on, are already operating in a theatre in which success may depend on marginal gains.
This research extends our knowledge of the practice of SWC by going beyond the identification of common characteristics to illustrate in detail the relationship between personal conviction and the perceived reality of the high-performance environment. The research exemplifies the strategies and mechanisms used by Coach Laso to navigate what is shown to be a contested environment with multiple layers of influence. Key to his successful practice is a capacity to distinguish between the elements of his practice over which he can exercise a measure of control, doing so in a way that reflects his practice philosophy, and influencing or accommodating to those elements over which he has much more limited control.2,6 The case study results identify similar features of relationships, values, an emphasis on competition, and the coach as a ‘driving force’ as were highlighted in the literature reviewed earlier. However, the study is important for being sited in professional sport and extending the breadth of literature available.
In particular, the study sheds light on some of the mechanisms used by Coach Laso to cope with the everyday demands of what is a dynamic environment. 6 Decision making is important; he comments that he thinks he makes up to 350 decisions per game (i.e., play calls, time outs, substitutions, defensive assignments). More strategically, he acknowledges the distinction between what he terms high-, mid- and low-level decision making. What is clear here is that his expertise ranges from its emphasis on the ‘bigger picture’, with its adherence to a strong conviction about the appropriateness of a comprehensive vision, to the ‘nitty gritty’ of session design, performance improvement, and game and player management. Perhaps the key mechanism, one that has thus far not been identified in research, is Coach Laso's capacity to bridge the demands of the external role (e.g., club building, recruitment) and the more-direct on-court team preparation and game management through a process of compartmentalising. This is something that deserves further research.
We began by questioning the balance of agency and structure that would characterise Coach Laso's practice. The reality would appear to be a fairly pragmatic approach to the level of influence or control that he is able to exercise. He acknowledges the high degree of control, and enactment of his vision and values, over the proximal parts of his practice (the intervention programme, his interaction with players and match coaching). Where he has more limited control, for example fixture lists and travel requirements or recruitment policies and resources, he is able to use his experience and credibility to exert some influence but to accept that he accommodates his practice to these circumstances.6,25 We speculate that coaches without his SWC credentials are less likely to be in a position to exert influence.
Despite the richness of Coach Laso's reflections on his coaching career, we admit that we find it challenging to untangle the priorities or key characteristics that appear to be most influential. When we stand back from the breadth of his insights, it is difficult to think of it merely as a coaching philosophy. It is a world view that translates into his approach to coaching, perhaps reminding us not to regard the sport coaching role as merely about performance or the immediacy of outcomes. He paints a picture of expertise as transcending, but not diminishing the importance of, the technical and relational features of the performance intervention process.
The findings reinforce the centrality of a consensual vision described in previous research11,17 and confirm the pervasive relational element of coaching practice. 41 The use of the VPEF enabled us to make sense of Coach Laso's practice and evidenced the interconnectedness of the many elements that comprise the ‘anatomy of success’. This is represented in Figure 1, in which we have attempted to capture the breadth of relational, technical and organisational matters. The apparent contradictions within them emphasises the balance of agency and structure, but a balance about which Coach Laso is patently aware. These dualities lead to inherent tensions that he navigates by adhering, over time and circumstance, to a personal and professional set of principles. As suggested in the earlier literature review, this is most often described as an all-pervading, relatively stable ‘glue’ that holds everything together.
Anatomy of success figure.
In reviewing what appeared to be the relevant factors, we were struck by the ‘toughness’ of the environment. 2 Any interpretation, analysis or evaluation of the coach's practice, behaviours and level of agency has to acknowledge the dynamic intensity of the role: expectations of multiple stakeholders, the fragility of tenure, a schedule of over 100 games per season, the assumption of accountability and leadership, the constant drive to innovation, the primacy of results, and the confounding efforts of other clubs and coaches. In this context, one area for further study is the reality of decision making against popular conceptions of good practice. Coach Laso points to the challenges, “only the coach knows or has all the information”, “there are moments when as a coach you have to make decisions that players are not going to like but that will be good for the future, […] this is the hard part of coaching, doing things that only you understand”.
This case study reports how one coach describes his personal recipe for success. We believe that a crucial contribution is to highlight the tensions inherent in the role and how this, evidently successful, coach navigates these tensions. The findings paint a picture of a coach busily moving between layers of agency, micro-managing direct intervention and influencing in situations in which power rests elsewhere. 42 There is a constant state of adjustment and prioritising, reinforcing notions of orchestration and accommodation.3,43 The resultant holistic scope implied by a professional persona or a coach's inner concept of what will contribute positively to success does not lend itself to disciplinary certitude. Being required to accommodate issues appropriately described as social, emotional, inter-personal, technical, strategic, resource-led and so on requires research designs that capture the nuanced subtlety of contextual priorities, institutional oversight and coping strategies. 9
Each of the contributory elements to success can act as a catalyst for others’ practice, but the serendipitous blend of opportunity, context, precursors, vision, and resources, particularly when potentially disrupted by other coaches’ similar intentions, cannot simply be copied. Nevertheless, any potential lessons can be maximised by awareness and attention to the ‘anatomy of success’ of a serial winning coach. Our intention has been to identify an approach to coaching that goes beyond a set of values; a more holistic appreciation of a level of agency within a complex and many-layered social structure.
Sustained achievement is likely to be resource-led but this research has highlighted the contribution of a consistent vision and set of values – and putting these into practice in what appeared to be a single-minded fashion. Expertise-related words such as navigating, coping, orchestrating, and adapting convey a purposeful, sometimes ‘hard won’, interaction with the environment – but these may also be relevant in all coaching contexts. We may have also, inadvertently, raised questions about the extent of a coach's contribution to outcomes, within any particular set of circumstances. 44 However, while success cannot be guaranteed, it may be possible to set the foundation for it.
Limitations and future research
First of all, we acknowledge the limitations of the case study methodology. We therefore make no claims beyond the singularity of context and the practice, however well captured, of Coach Laso. Nevertheless, the in-depth treatment has permitted us to explore the subtleties of his interaction with his environment and, we hope, to provide a platform for further research which provides rich descriptions of actual coaching practice and builds a repository of in-depth case studies of successful coaching. These case studies should also include explorations of the professional pathways and praxis of female coaches who are currently markedly underrepresented in the literature. We acknowledge too the danger of interpretation. We have tried to present a faithful account of Coach Laso's perspective on his practice, using our experience as high-performance coaches to present this in a way that is accessible to other coaches. While the paper offers rich insights into values and philosophy, further research is needed to observe high-performance coaches in action. More empirical observations will allow us to move beyond the coach's vision to how this is enacted in practice.
Conclusion
In exploring Coach Laso's practice, we hope to have identified those factors that appear to be necessary for success, but we are only able to generalise or speculate about the conditions that are ‘jointly sufficient’ to bring about success. Coach Laso provides one example of how he navigates this contested and challenging terrain. The conclusion might be that there is a complex and elaborate mix of conviction, expertise, serendipity, purposeful endeavour and resources that enables rather than determines success. The combination and interplay between these elements are difficult to articulate, challenging to negotiate, and not susceptible to being meaningfully attributable, in isolation, to coaching success.
Footnotes
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to acknowledge Coach Pablo Laso for his disposition and openness to conduct and support this research.
Ethical approval
Ethical approval for this research was provided by the authors’ academic institution on 13th January 2025.
Consent to participate and publish
Consent to participate and publish the outputs of this research was obtained from Coach Pablo Laso in written form.
Author contributions
Lara-Bercial and Lyle contributed equally to the design and conceptualisation phase of the study. Lara-Bercial conducted the in-person interview and the analysis of the coach's book and podcast. Lara-Bercial and Lyle jointly conducted the refinement of the analysis and shared writing duties.
Funding
The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.