An important part of the team, the coach has an incredible impact on players whether amateur or professional. In the second part of “Who’s Got Your Back?”, we look at coaches, their teaching styles, and how this can positively or negatively affect an athlete throughout their career. 

After I completed my tennis career and looked back at everyone who had impacted me as a player, most of the main influencers included my coaches. Elementary and middle school coaches are tasked with teaching players more life-long lessons, such as how to be a fair opponent and how to lose, and win, graciously. A high school coach’s main goal is to help you achieve your dreams, such as playing your sport in college or even going pro. College coaches are sounding boards for players in their first experience away from home. They take on the role of pseudo-parent, mentor, doctor and even therapist; not an easy job!

But coaches can’t abuse their great responsibility. The coach-athlete dynamic is inherently lopsided, with the coach having a large amount of power in the relationship. A bullying coach can impair social and emotional development and cause significant mental health issues. Therefore, coaches need to be consistently supportive and affirming in order to create a positive, self-empowering atmosphere for their players. 

Even off the court, field, track, and pool, coaches have great influence over their players. The influence of coach and player relationship on student drinking is significantly associated especially between the approval from athletic coaches and the athletes drinking behaviors. 

On the playing field, coaches have a major impact on a player’s performance anxiety. Coaches who are trained in creating a motivational climate for their players usually have fewer players with performance anxiety. This signals the importance of a shift in the mentality of coaches in understanding the cognitive-behavioral interventions that can greatly influence their players.

Within the realms of play, there are three specific coaching styles that can be used as deciding factors when picking the best coach for you, as well as deciding on how to deal with a coach if you are struggling to meet on even ground. These coaching styles were developed by a social psychologist in the 1930s and have been seen throughout sports and business since. 

1. The holistic, or laissez-faire, coach focuses on a team’s happiness overall and offers players the ability to try different patterns and drills without much interference from the coaching staff. The main idea is that a happy team equals a successful team. This type of coaching is best for mature, college or professional players, that have the experience to understand how best to implement their skills. 

2. The democratic coach who offers the players a good amount of freedom and influence but stays ultimately in charge of decision making. Best suited for individual sports, such as tennis, this style of coach can enhance a player’s understanding of the sport and build trust in their abilities.

3. The autocratic coach who makes all of the decisions and rarely uses the input of their players. While this coaching style may be best for team sports, rather than individual ones, it is still “win-focused”, which has been proven to be harmful to younger players. However, this type of coaching can be useful when coaching older players that understand why they are being asked to perform a certain way. Typically, athletes start with democratic coaches as young athletes and move to a more autocratic coaching style throughout their college and professional career.

No matter the coaching style, the best coaches are those that are focused on the overall well-being of their players, not just the wins and losses those players bring them. As legendary basketball coach, Pat Summitt, said: “They don’t care how much you know unless they know how much you care.”  Coaches, show your players how much you care and they will show you success, effort, and loyalty in return.