The primary practices that encompass athlete-centred sport teaching/coaching

 Three primary practices encompass athlete-centred coaching.

- A game-based approach

- Developing players as independent self regulated learners: thinking players 

- Team culture

 The pedagogy (cluster of teaching styles) selected by the coach is instructive in the empowerment of the players and the practice setting as democracy in action via shared ownership of decisions enabled by distributed leadership. Added to this is a focus on the development of a player's life skills. As former All Black's coach Wayne Smith is famous for saying, "better people make better players". An expanded 'teaching' agenda (developing life skills as well as playing ability), democracy in action and athlete empowerment feed into the development of Team Culture. However, Team Culture also feeds back into these other areas in that the coach does not always have the power or ability to select players with the character to fit the culture they want to develop with the team, especially in semi-professional and community sport environments, and so the culture of the playing group established through the dynamics of the mix of characters also feeds into possibilities of athlete-centred coaching. 

Research has shown that creating and maintaining a clear athlete-centred focus is challenging (Bowles & O'Dwyer, 2020). Incorporating the pedagogical strategies of questioning and discussion to facilitate a learner-focussed and player empowered practice and playing experience can run counter to what some coaches believe to be effective and efficient coaching, what their role as coaches is, or contrary to the optics they believe others will want to see to determine that they are coaching well. However, some coaches have found great results in a shift to athlete-centred coaching. One coach I worked with, went from coaching a team unable to make the play-offs for successive seasons to playing in the Grand Final following a move to athlete-centred coaching.

Athlete-centred coaching has been found to make players feel more involved with their training and therefore more motivated to perform. Athlete-centred coaching has been found to  assist players feeling more confident in their selves and as performers (Bateman, 2013). Some coaches suggest adopting the game-based concept of athlete-centred coaching in individual sports is difficult. However, scholarship in this area has informed coaches of individual sports how to bring the tenets of athlete-centred coaching into these sports.

One simple way I find to decide if a coach is an athlete-centred coach is to observe 'who' is doing most of the talking during practice and games - the coach/es or the player/s?

In recent years, I see many clubs at all levels of their game bringing in life skills education in addition to education for game day playing performance. For example, one club I am involved with brings in the Growing with Gratitude program for all junior players and the Resilience Project for senior teams. 

Some clubs see the development of their players as people through life skills education programs run at the club as part of the 'success criteria' of their club equal in importance to winning 'premierships'. Often this is driven by an individual passionate about the role sport clubs can play in the emotional wellbeing of their members. As my colleague and I found when evaluating a life skills program in a football club, maintaining an athlete-centred perspective 'over the years' is challenging in environments staffed by volunteers, as often the passion for developing players as people resides in a coach or club official who through personal experiences is committed to the vision of better people make better players, make better clubs, which make better communities. If that person moves on, there is no guarantee the people succeeding them will see the role of the club in the same way, or be able to 'rally' people to the cause in the same way.   

See here for a copy of the paper that
informs this poster

The central premise behind athlete-centred coaching may be to create an environment where people can thrive as individuals, and by thriving as individuals the anticipation is that the team thrives and the club becomes a highly valued community asset.

If the idea of athlete-centred coaching interests you, I recommend for further reading:

Athlete-centred Coaching: Developing Decision Makers

Athlete Centred Coaching: Developing Inspired and Inspiring People

Perspectives on Athlete-Centred Coaching

The Athlete Centered Coach 107 Reasons It's All About Them

Positive Pedagogy for Sport Coaching: Athlete-centred coaching for individual sports

There is an absence of research on what athlete-centred coaching in school and university/college sport would translate as, and despite the 'character first' policy in talent identification and recruitment that many sports talk about in Australia, a surprising absence of research in general from critical, naturalistic and appreciate perspectives on athlete centred coaching. If this is an area that interests you, please get in touch with me for a chat about what might be possible.