Coaching… Some might say it is originating from the sporting world, others say it is from psychology and business. Perhaps the truth is, it is a mixture of all of the above. In this article, I would like to focus on maximising the performance of athletes in sport coaching and share some of my learning from delivering coaching courses and working with sport coaches and help bringing coaching back into sport coaching, especially when working with neurodiverse athletes.
Athletes want to achieve their peak performance goals, and as a result, we see all the shiny results on the Olympic Games and other competitive events.
What perhaps less clear for some of us, is the amount of work, which is going into these performances, the true extend of this effort and continuous sacrifice and pressure which is elevating these individuals to achieve. Unless of course, you are directly supporting athletes, either as a parent, carer or their coach. The years of practice, early morning starts, late finishes, the sacrifice these individuals and their families make to reach the top. They work so hard to be the selected few, who achieve the ultimate recognition for their goals.
As a parent of an athlete who is dedicated to her sport and love her sport, I see all of this in our everyday, mundane life, where she is expected to bring extraordinary performances day in and day out. All of which is of course co-existing in the world of school, study, homework, peer pressures, sleep, and the push to have some sort of normal teenage life. Those competing priorities would be hard enough to deal with for our adult brains, let alone to a brain, which is only just developing the rational thinking, but still largely dictated by emotions.
And if we want to throw another dimension into the mix, let’s look at those athletes with ADHD. The challenges to maximise potential here is taking a new level and coaching staff needs to have up to date knowledge and skills to achieve this. One very important thing to highlight is, individuals with neurodiverse conditions, especially with ADHD must receive customised support, all of which should come from conversations and understanding of the different needs. We mustn’t try to fit a template onto a neurodiverse athlete as the needs are so individual. Just because you worked with one neurodiverse athlete, it doesn’t mean you can copy and paste the techniques to the next. It doesn’t work like that.
In this article, I am looking at some of my experiences working with individuals who have ADHD and will try to translate these experiences into sport coaching. I hope that some of the reflections and tips will give you a range of options to use with athletes. Hopefully once you read it, you will walk away with some practical skills and reflections, which you can apply in any sport setting and with the aim to create the next generation of athletes.
What should be the basis of coaching in sport?
When we look at sport coaching, there is a large degree of functional training and technical development in the life of a coach and the athlete and perhaps this technical development often pushes the person or mindset aspect of the coaching principles to the background. We must not forget that the definition of coaching is a holistic approach where we are unlocking a person’s potential to maximise their performance, to help them reach their goals (Whitmore, 2002). This is so much more than just the technical skills development. If we are overly rely on the technical skills development and neglect the fact that actually brains and mindsets are driving performance, we won’t be able to maximise potential ever. The technique in any sport is the execution of the movements, but the brain is the one which decides, am I good enough to do this? Do I even want to do this? What is the point of doing this? Which of course will make or break the progress.
Many of the approaches and application of these approaches will depend to a certain degree of how old the person is you are coaching. However, the underpinning principles should be always the same, such as our beliefs, unconditional positive regard, creating an environment where the athlete can reach the flow state, establishing trust, creating a reflective athlete who can grow and the ability to deal with emotions and many more soft skills, just to name a few. So, let’s look at some of these in more details.
Beliefs
Our beliefs will determine the success of a person. In coaching, if we feel that the person we work with will fail, or that they are not good enough, they will pick up on these. Even if we contradict our beliefs and feelings with words, yes, you did well, but deep-down thinking, yeah, you are never going to make it. What do you think the person is taking away? The verbal, ‘artificial’ re-enforcement or the belief and load which is behind this verbal gesture?
First here, it is important to check in with your assumptions and beliefs. Just because you feel or think as a coach, that the person is not on the same level of progress or performance like the others, that shouldn’t mean to write this person off or even think they are not good enough. I go a step further here and highlight some development areas; perhaps the coach is not fully equipped to use a range of different styles, and selecting the most suitable one for that individual to reach their full potential.
I would like to invite you here for a short reflection around your beliefs. Think about a squad or a group of individuals you are working with and the interactions you have had with these athletes.
What were your beliefs around their progress, their capability when you had the conversations with them? Do you interact differently with those who are easier to work with? Do you have favourites? Challenge yourself and think about;
- What are the reasons I am feeling the way I feel about this person? What would need to happen to bridge the gap between my belief and my coaching style to get the best out of this person?
The reasons why beliefs are so important in coaching is that they are determining the mindset of the coach and the athlete.
Another reflection task for you before we move to the next important aspect of coaching;
- What can you lose by having the belief that this athlete can actually achieve regardless of the performance they are showing in that given moment?
- What would happen if you let go all of these preconceptions which build this barrier between true performance and potential by having negative beliefs about this athlete?
Don’t forget, the athlete is capable of much better results than they are currently achieving. If you are operating from the wrong kind of beliefs, you will damage the self-confidence of the person and you will place your own limitations on the person. Just because you don’t think they are good enough, or perhaps something in the way you look at yourself reflects on the way you talk to that athlete; I wasn’t good enough, or they didn’t believe in me, therefore you won’t make it either.
Beliefs are present when we look at the Pygmalion effect (Horn, 2011), especially around self-fulfilling prophecy. As a coach, if the athlete senses that you feel they will succeed, they will have an increased performance, especially if this is underpinned with continuous positive reinforcement. However, the opposite is true as well, if you are unconsciously given up on them, regardless of what you say, their performance will decline.
If you suspect that the athlete is questioning their capability, you can pick up on these by look out for negative language patterns, such as I must do this, I am never going to achieve that, I should do better, everything I do should be perfect…etc. These are very normal human behaviours; we question our capability all the time. You can have conversations around these and turn the performance gaps into positive goals, all of which is underpinned by your beliefs that they can do it!
We must take this a step further here with a scenario when you are working with a neurodiverse athlete.
Some neurodiverse individuals will have strong emotional responses when they feel that nobody likes them, or someone is angry at them or receive rejection, criticism or failed something. Even if this is not the case, they are not rejected, not directly criticised or the coach is not angry at them. These feelings will result in very strong, sometimes extreme emotional responses and actual pain in these athletes. Other times, they will shut down and the performance is unrecognisable. The potential cause for this phenomenon is rejection sensitive dysphoria (RSD), which is a common thing in individuals with ADHD (Dodson, 2019). It might take time for the individual to ‘get to know’ the coach and their approach and vice versa and during this journey of mutual discovery, there will be occasions where RSD will surface. A helpful tip here is to provide positive continuous feedback to the person, highlighting what is going well, giving the development point and pointing out that the athlete can improve, because the coach beleives they are capable and dedicated to make improvements. The risk if RSD is not recognised, that the athlete might burnout before they can achieve their best performance. As with many of these situations, RSD takes a lot of emotional, physical and psychological energy out of the neurodiverse athlete. They are in survival mode, working hard on emotional regulation, so they can just cope with the situation, and realistically, they won’t even reach the stage when they can focus on the actual technical or performance requirements.
Mindsets
In an ideal world, through effective coaching and relationship management, we would want all athletes to develop the growth mindset, where they can look failures and lost races as learning points. With appropriate guidance, neurotypical athletes are able to develop the growth mindset (Dweck, 2006), they are able to take technical corrections on board, analyse race results and apply those in practice.
Growth mindset is often not the natural mindset state for athletes with ADHD. Negative self-talk and lack of self-confidence can be ADHD characteristics and athletes can find it hard to communicate these or even understand these emotions themselves. When faced with setbacks, athletes can feel increased emotional and physical symptoms of pain, that they are not good enough. If the feedback is not delivered to them in an effective manner, this might trigger RSD and start a downwards spiral where they feel that nobody likes them.
When athletes are facing this negative internal monologue, coaching staff will need to work extra hard to get to performance improvement, especially as these negative monologues can result in shutdowns, where the individual is paralysed by the feelings and emotions. A helpful tool here might be using a range of positive affirmations, challenging the negative thoughts, and openly promote an atmosphere and culture of self-belief and positivity. If there is a continuous positive environment and coaching staff is building positive self-beliefs, athletes can combat the negative self-talk easier. It is not impossible for neurodiverse athletes to reach growth mindset; however it might be harder to remain in the growth mindset state for long enough for steady performance improvement.
Unconditional positive regard
Unconditional positive regard (Rogers, 1951) is another important principle in coaching. When the coach is faced with some really challenging behaviours, unconditional positive regard can be a guiding principle to help navigate the environment. It is about accepting the person for what they are, dissociating the person from their behaviour and performance, showing consistent respect, support and non-judgemental language.
Have a look at the reflection points below;
- Let’s say, you have an athlete whose performance is not meeting the expectations of the set or the training session. What do you do? How do you approach the situation and feedback to this athlete? Are you showing disappointment and even withdraw support in that moment when they need your encouragement the most? Or hands on heart, are you going into these conversations with a positive acceptance and create a space where the athlete can safely reflect as they know they will have a supportive conversation with you?
Remember, ‘fake’ or ‘artificial’ responses are picked up by the individuals very quickly. Athletes with ADHD can be impacted by emotional contagion, they will be easily affected by the mood of others around them. If they pick up on the disappointment or judgement in the voice or feedback of others, they might go down the spiral of anxiety. They might demonstrate strong emotions, such as anger, crying, frustration. They will seek extra reassurance. Helpful tips here are to encourage mindfulness and deep breathing to try to regulate the emotions. It might be also helpful to acknowledge the emotion, don’t take the reaction personally, and try to normalise it, and accept, help the athlete accept what just happened. Reassure that everything is ok.
The environment and fun
Sometimes, individuals with ADHD will push back on things they should do or must do. Not because they are rebelling against a certain task, but perhaps because they are paralysed by the fact that they need to do it. A fun environment, where the task is disguised as a game or a race, might help the individual to start with the otherwise daunting job. They want the dopamine rush from the activity. Rephrase the activity and try to challenge the individual with gamified elements;
- I bet you can’t do it even faster! Let’s see what else you can change for the next set, and see your times after! What would happen if you change XYZ? Let’s experiment.
Here, you need to increase their curiosity and open up the possibilities and increase the dopamine levels in their brain. The minute they feel that they will get something out of it, it is more likely they will achieve that task. If they feel in control and that they have a choice, the outcomes are a lot stronger.
The environment is also important as sometimes individuals with ADHD can have a mindset, where they think; if it is not perfect, it is not worth it. If we are continuously praising perfection only, if we are focusing on the outcomes, but not the journey, we are inadvertently feeding the fix mindset and perfectionism, which will cause anxiety and increased mental health difficulties in the long run.
If the environment is monotonous, boring, if there is lack of stimulation, ADHD athletes are more likely to zone out. The environment will result in them having a lack of focus or interest, which might manifest in disruptive behaviours or giving up altogether the efforts. Bring back the fun as much as possible into the sessions. Routine and monotonous can be a hinderance factor, however, structure can be helpful. If individuals know what they are expected to do, perhaps in advance, this can lower the anxiety levels.
Remember, you are a role model, and you have an incredibly powerful tool in your hand with every interaction you make with the athletes. You can make or break people and that is a huge responsibility, but equally an enormous privilege if these conversations are used positively. Performance sports are hard enough on the mental health for any individuals, especially if you have the additional layer of neurodiversity on top of it. Understanding the different needs of each athlete are the key to maintain healthy body and mind for the long term. Hopefully some of these tips will help you support the people you work with.
Reference list:
Dodson, W. (2024). Rejection sensitive dysphoria: The ADHD symptom no one talks about. ADDitude Magazine. Retrieved from https://www.additudemag.com/rejection-sensitive-dysphoria-adhd-emotional-dysregulation/ (Accessed: 19.09.2024)
Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. Random House.
Horn, T. S. (2011). Advances in Sport Psychology (3rd ed.). Human Kinetics.
Rogers, C. R. (1951). Client-centered therapy: Its current practice, implications, and theory. Houghton Mifflin.
Whitmore, J. (2002). Coaching for performance: Growing human potential and purpose (3rd ed.). Nicholas Brealey Publishing.
