Compassionate Coaching

Compassionate Coaching: Hidden Disabilities and Conditions in Athletes

By George Kantelis

Many coaches are well-prepared to handle situations where athletes are injured or otherwise physically unable to compete. Timothy Baghurst, professor and director of FSU’s Interdisciplinary Center for Athletic Coaching (FSU COACH), and Christopher Stanley, research associate in the Florida Center for Reading Research (FCRR), are helping coaches prepare to work with athletes who have disabilities and conditions that are sometimes less noticeable.

HOW THE BALL FOUND THE PEACH BASKET

Their book, “Reach Every Athlete: A Guide to Coaching Players with Hidden Disabilities and Conditions,” began to plant its roots in their minds when they met several years ago.

“Tim and I initially met when Tim assumed the director role of the FSU COACH program in the College of Education,” said Stanley. From there, he noticed similar trends in their research. “Tim had been co-authored on a systematic review paper that had analyzed and reviewed the coaching literature and noted gaps related to working with athletes with disabilities. I had actually just begun a systematic review of the sports psychology literature within the last decade and noted approximately the same gaps and relative scarcity of research.”

Timothy Baghurst

Christopher Stanley

After developing a dialogue on their research, Baghurst had the idea to work on a piece together, but they had a communications issue to solve. “We wanted to get this in the hands of coaches—not just in classrooms for students—but actual coaches that are in the field and practicing,” said Baghurst. “We could have written an article for one of those journals, but that wouldn’t have necessarily reached the audience that we wanted.” And so, they landed on a book as the best way to accomplish their goal.

“Reach Every Athlete: A Guide to Coaching Players with Hidden Disabilities and Conditions” details two key components in supporting athletes with Hidden Disabilities and Conditions (HDCs): creating a coaching environment that helps athletes feel safe enough to come forward with their needs, and then adjusting coaching strategies based on the needs of the athletes.

A SAFER COURT

We often don’t entertain the thought that athletes on our television screen may have HDCs, but it’s a coach’s duty to support athletes at all levels. “It’s almost assumed that athletes don’t have any kind of hidden disabilities or conditions, but they do,” said Baghurst. He highlights an important first step in considerate coaching. “If we are not able to find them or even consider looking for them, how are we going to help those athletes who have needs?”

Certain psychological HDCs may not strike us as immediately relevant to athletic ability, but Stanley maintains that “these conditions and disabilities always directly relate to sport participation performance because of the cognitive, sensory and muscular demands of sports.” While certain HDCs like colorblindness may cause an athlete to misread plays, other HDCs like ADHD can inhibit an athlete’s ability to learn the sport. Some HDCs may even exist more simply as sensitivities to certain noises or stimuli. “I don’t like the traditional start gun in races,” said Baghurst. “I used to tense up waiting for this gun to explode right next to me, and I hated it. It affected the way I ran.”

Given an environment where the athlete feels safe, listened to and heard, they may be more willing to speak with their coaching staff about any struggles they are experiencing. This, of course, can benefit team success, but it also supports the individual success of the athlete and the involved coaches. The natural question arises: how can coaches, as Baghurst put it, “create an environment within your coaching where athletes feel comfortable coming and talking to you?”

The answer is ultimately one of the mission statements of the book. Of course, coaches aren’t able—or expected—to participate in the diagnosis of their athletes. Consequently, it’s their responsibility to maintain a healthy rapport and a safe atmosphere for the athletes. “It’s about being open,” said Stanley. “It’s about dialoguing with that athlete and those parents or guardians and making plans to help that athlete succeed in practice and in competition scenarios.”

PICKING UP THE PLAY

The second goal of “Reach Every Athlete” is to educate coaches on different HDCs and advise them on how they can support athletes who are experiencing them. Being made aware of the HDC and understanding how it works is vital, but it is only part of the equation. Coaches also need to understand how any given HDC can impact in-game performance and what strategies, drills and adjustments can be made to create a more accommodating and successful practice environment.

“What can we do to have a more realistic conversation with that athlete and his or her parents or guardians?” said Stanley, posing the million-dollar question. “Who else can we bring in for support? What are some simple things that we could do to alter practice scenarios to help support them and get them to a place of more full, long-term participation and performance?”

To give some examples, one chapter of “Reach Every Athlete” discusses potential strategies to use when working with athletes who have visual impairments, including color blindness, low vision and complete blindness. The chapter offers dozens of research-backed options and strategies to accommodate the needs of a visually impaired athlete for nearly every conceivable sport: being more considerate with the use of printed materials, emphasizing vocal communication amongst the team as opposed to body language, and enhancing certain drills and activities with auditory cues to enable visually impaired students to comfortably participate.

Appropriately introducing new ideas, strategies and exercises intocoaching sessions can create a more fulfilling and safe experiencefor athletes with HDCs. These small adjustments can make a worldof difference to an athlete’s comfort level and—by extension—theirperformance. “You have to find ways that promote yourunderstanding of [the HDC], whether it be posters on the wall orhaving guest speakers come in and talk about some of thechallenges they’ve experienced as athletes so that the athletesunderstand that this is OK, that it’s normal,” said Baghurst.

HDCs can be either physical or psychological, but they can be difficult to discover in either case. Whether it be a learning disability, autism spectrum disorder, growing pains or juvenile arthritis,Stanley and Baghurst’s research continues to encourage considerate, compassionate coaching. Coaches who can create nurturing, safe environments for their athletes are not only advancing the potential of their athlete’s and team’s successes, but they are advancing coaching as a discipline.

Stanley and Baghurst’s book was published in January 2022