Athletes need networks too
Take home message
a network - a group of advisors - is important for coaches and players to deliver the best service possible.
For Coaches
Encourage athletes to learn from others. This will facilitate your learning as well - what other coaches think, and also what and how your athletes think and learn.
For Athletes
It’s your career - take ownership and try to be the best expert of you that you can.
At the conclusion of our Pro League tour in Europe in June 2019, I was fortunate enough to spend a few days with another senior national team. Embarrassingly, it is seldom I get the opportunity to meet other coaches and teams and this was a tremendous experience. Among many of the topics covered was an interesting one about how senior athletes utilised mentors outside of their team environment. This led me to think deeply about the value of networks for athletes, as well as coaches.
Coaches at a workshop. What about athletes?
As an S&C coach, I have been encouraged to network. For me, it has been critical – there is so much to know and apply as an S&C coach and we are responsible for the well-being and development of the athletes in our care. That is why we belong to member organisations (eg. ASCA, NSCA, UKSCA) and attend workshops. Of late, I feel I have come to appreciate the importance of the network of the athlete as well.
Athletes at the top of their game, who have been around for quite some time, will be constantly searching for an edge to improve. It could be athletes that have suffered significant injury or have long-term chronic injury that requires careful management. These athletes should be allowed to seek what is in their best interests. Not every S&C coach knows everything or is the best coach for every athlete – we all have our strengths and weaknesses.
Perhaps it is a sign that I might be (finally) maturing as a coach, but I am more willing than I used to be about an athlete seeking advice from other athletes and coaches for components to bring to their program. I think as a younger coach I saw it as a sign that I did not have all the answers - when as a young coach, of course I had all the answers! Now that I am older, I am more comfortable in knowing what I don’t know (which is growing - the more you learn, the more you realise what you were unaware of and have yet to learn) and I am happy for athletes to bring in what they need. It would be arrogant not too. (It’s likely you have been asked to get multiple quotes for a large spend, or shop around for the best deal on a fridge. Shouldn’t athletes do the same? Especially with so many options and individual responses to training).
I have a network of coaches that I will seek advice from in order to produce the best possible product I can for my athletes. But in reality, the athlete is completely responsible for their development. I try my hardest to provide the best service and advice I can, but a more comprehensive service would include multiple opinions, particularly when dealing with the elite end of performance.
I’m confident that I have seen and done enough to have the answers for the majority of my athletes. However, if a 300-gamer or athlete with a significant chronic injury, was to come along and say they’d spoken to another coach about a process they want to incorporate, or if there was someone else they could see to help them, who am I to tell them they can’t do it. If that decision involves seeking outside support, I think they should go for it. It is their career and their responsibility. I am there to help provide a service for them, not dictate to them. In rehab, I try to get senior athletes who have been involved in rehab before, regularly “bumping into” younger athletes who are currently injured. I think it is great for them to share experiences and advice, rather than just hearing from me all the time. Sometimes that advice may need to come from outside the group, and why not?
That’s why I think it is important as I grow, to not only increase my network, but encourage my athletes to grow theirs. Speak to other athletes and coaches. Surely, I will become a better coach by learning from another coach, through the eyes of my athlete.