Emotional coaching

sports coach UK Research Summary 7

Emotional Coaching

Keeping your emotions under control is a key element of sporting success. This summary looks at a new study undertaken by two university researchers in the UK to examine how coaches control their emotions and how these can be influenced by internal and external pressures.

sports coach UK Research Summary 7 – Emotional Coaching

Introduction Psychologists already know a lot about how people regulate their emotions, and it makes sense that such research should find its way into sport. Controlling emotion leads to performance improvement – a goal for all sportspeople. Previous research has shown how athletes improve by understanding and controlling their emotions, but little work has been done with coaches. This is perhaps surprising, given the influence coaches exert over their players. The research suggests that coaches who are in control of their emotions are not only likely to improve their own performance but also that of their players.

sports coach UK Research Summary 7 – Emotional Coaching

How do you regulate your emotions?

It is this latter, response-focused group that has the greatest problems with emotions. If you regulate emotion much later, you tend to alter your behaviour but suppress the emotion. For example, you might smile politely while totally disagreeing with what someone is saying. This behaviour means you hide your real emotions, which can create a sense of inauthentic relations with others – to be avoided in the world of coaching, where coach-athlete relationships are so important.

This suppression of emotion is likely to happen to everyone at some time and is useful in certain social situations.

But if it becomes the dominant trait, then it can be associated with more negative experiences; for example, lower general well-being and poorer relationships with others.

In contrast to the late regulators, those who regulate emotions early (the antecedent-focused group) tend to modify both feelings and behaviour. This results in more positive feelings and relationships with others.

An easy demonstration of the importance of emotion regulation is to think about anger – an important emotion for sport (and coaching). Anger is an emotion that can range from mild irritation to intense fury, and any failure to control it is associated with negative impacts on health and performance. The greater your capacity to regulate emotion, the more control you have over anger and, ultimately, the more control you have over your performance in any situation.

Therefore, any coach would be keen to understand how their own emotions can be used most effectively.

However, first, you need to consider how the standards you set for your coaching are influenced either by yourself or others.

© Alan Edwards

While there are a number of theories about emotion regulation, researchers working in sport have tended to use the one developed by James Gross at Stanford University in the 1990s. According to Gross, emotion regulation is a process that influences what emotions we have, when we have them, and how we experience and express them. Researchers have found we all have a preference to implement one of two broad strategies.

We regulate an emotion before it occurs (antecedentfocused) or after it occurs (response-focused).

sports coach UK Research Summary 7 – Emotional Coaching

The link to perfectionism

Research has shown that people who feel their standards are influenced by external pressures are more likely to rely on response-focused strategies to regulate emotion. As such, they are in that less healthy situation of behaving in one way while feeling another.

Is this true for coaching?

The researchers who wrote this paper wanted to test if similar patterns emerged with coaches.

Therefore, they tested 238 coaches by looking at their levels of perfectionism, emotion regulation and anger. The coaches were asked to agree or disagree with a series of statements about goal setting, the influence of others and their emotions.

The researchers wanted to answer three questions about how coaches regulate their emotions: 1

2 3

Is being purely motivated by personal standards healthier or unhealthier for coaches?

Is being motivated by social pressures the least healthy state for a coach?

Is there a role for a mixed state of perfectionism?

Š Alan Edwards

One factor that psychologists have found to influence how people regulate emotion is perfectionism – a personality trait related to achievement. While there are many models to measure perfectionism, they all tend to cover two broad themes. The first theme involves those who set and strive for their own exceptionally high standards (referred to as personal standards perfectionism or PSP). The second theme involves people who have a tendency to believe others are exerting pressure on them to be perfect.

This often leads to harsh self-evaluation and self-doubt about meeting these imposed standards.

This theme is referred to as evaluative concerns perfectionism.

The results The answer to the first question is similar to what has been found in other settings. Coaches who are motivated by their own personal standards of perfection are generally more emotionally healthy.

They manage emotion in a more pre-emptive manner and are better at controlling anger. In other words, their behaviour while coaching is likely to match their feelings, and this creates a positive experience for the coach and their players.

Coaches who are influenced by external social pressures are least successful at regulating emotion and managing anger. Perhaps not surprisingly, if you are having to suppress your emotions while coaching, maybe because you are worried about what others might think, you may find frustration building up and anger eventually breaking out.

However, those coaches who are regulated solely by social pressure were not the only coaches in the study to have difficulties regulating emotion. Those who showed a mixed profile of internal and external influences also had some of the biggest difficulties with their emotions. Although the reasons for this were not clear, it is interesting that an internal/external balanced approach to setting standards can lead to problems for coaches.

sports coach UK Research Summary 7 – Emotional Coaching

This is the first time this research has been tested with coaches, and in general, the results were similar to other settings. This implies that strategies to control emotion that have been successful in other industries could also be applied in coaching. Although it is still early days for this type of research, it does provide food for thought for coaches. Some things to consider include: •

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What type of coach are you? Does your behaviour reflect your emotions or do you suppress them? Does this lead to anger with yourself or others further down the line?

Thinking about how you regulate your own emotions might be a useful reflection exercise.

What influences you when setting standards?

Are they your own personal standards, or do you feel others are exerting pressure on you to be perfect? Understanding where the pressure is coming from can help you manage emotions.

Think about developing a coaching philosophy and coaching values. These suggest a sense of worth, commitment and conviction. You can use these to explain to others why you do what you do and therefore set personal goals.

References If you are interested in finding out more about this area, this summary is based on the article below:

Hill, A. and Davis, P. (2014) ‘Perfectionism and emotion regulation in coaches: A test of the 2 x 2 model of dispositional perfectionism’, Motivation and Emotion, 38 (3).

Other more general reading on this area includes:

Gotwals, J.K., Stoeber, J., Dunn, J.G.H. and Stoll, O. (2012) ‘Are perfectionistic strivings in sport adaptive? A systematic review of confirmatory, contradictory, and mixed evidence’, Canadian Psychology, 53 (4): 263–279.

Lane, A., Beedie, C., Devonport, T. and Stanley, D. (2011) ‘Instrumental emotion regulation in sport: Relationships between beliefs about emotion and emotion regulation strategies used by athletes’, Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, 21 (6): 445–451.

For information on coaching philosophies, see:

Lyle, J. (2002) Sports Coaching Concepts: A Framework for Coaches’ Behaviour. London: Routledge. ISBN: 978-0-415261-58-6.

© sports coach UK, 2014 Designed and produced by Coachwise Ltd 90971a All photos © Action Images Limited/Reuters unless otherwise stated

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