{"id":30834,"date":"2025-07-29T10:19:56","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T10:19:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/?post_type=article&p=30834"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:10:38","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:10:38","slug":"when-it-comes-to-learning-the-coach-must-create-the-right-environment-but-the-athlete-must-want-to-step-into-it","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/when-it-comes-to-learning-the-coach-must-create-the-right-environment-but-the-athlete-must-want-to-step-into-it\/","title":{"rendered":"When it Comes to Learning, the Coach Must Create the Right Environment, But the Athlete Must Want to Step into it"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n 29 Jul 2025 <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>Articles<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

When it Comes to Learning, the Coach Must Create the Right Environment, But the Athlete Must Want to Step into it<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n \n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Category<\/div>\n Coaching & Development<\/a> <\/div>\n
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https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/when-it-comes-to-learning-the-coach-must-create-the-right-environment-but-the-athlete-must-want-to-step-into-it\/<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n\n\n\n\n
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Edd Vahid of the Premier League has advice for coaches and athletes alike.<\/p>\n \n \n \n

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By John Portch<\/h6>\n
\u201cWe know that learning has to be important because if you\u2019re out-learning your competitors, you\u2019re probably going to be outperforming them too.\u201d<\/h6>\n

So says Edd Vahid, the Premier League\u2019s Head of Academy Football Operations.<\/p>\n

The numbers as revealed in our Trend Report<\/a> back him up. Almost one in five practitioners who completed our survey felt that learning and development had a direct impact on the quality of leadership in their teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has to come from senior leaders, it must be role-modelled from the top,\u201d Vahid adds. \u201cRole models are crucial in setting the tone for organisational learning.\u201d<\/p>\n

When it comes to teaching and learning, he has advice for coaches and athletes alike.<\/p>\n

For coaches<\/strong><\/p>\n

Create the right environment\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

The skill of the teacher, coach or trainer is to create an environment where you\u2019ve got the capacity to learn, to receive feedback, and for it not to be immediately critical.<\/p>\n

That means creating opportunities\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re learning and you\u2019re able to apply it, you\u2019re going to see progress. You need the opportunity to because therein lies the application of knowledge.<\/p>\n

You must also work to understand how people learn\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think we could probably spend more time on this as an industry. To support an individual, you need to understand an individual, to understand an individual, you need to invest time in them. People learn where there\u2019s been care, an attentiveness, and an investment in the person. The coach needs to understand what makes someone tick beyond the superficial level. What are their influences? What is creating an impact on them when turning up to do a session? What\u2019s going on at home? Such considerations are crucial.<\/p>\n

Also ask yourself: what are you trying to achieve?<\/strong><\/p>\n

What outcome are you trying to achieve? That will determine the approach, timing and future support. If you simply use feedback as an opportunity to offload, especially when a learner hasn\u2019t done well, it may serve your benefit because you\u2019ve been able to get rid of some of your frustrations. But that\u2019s not right. To help them, you have to offer them something they haven\u2019t seen themselves or it\u2019s going to drive them further down.<\/p>\n

Enable good feedback loops\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

It starts with an expectation. The feedback is specific to that expectation. Then identify what the development opportunities are. So how do you avoid or improve a certain situation in the future? Then there\u2019s the monitoring.<\/p>\n

Inviting people to share their feedback on the process is an important part of the feedback loop. The best coaches plan but they\u2019re also responding to emerging themes and the needs of players within a particular session. It goes back to understanding the player\u2019s needs and considering those in session design. We probably don\u2019t seek their feedback often enough. Ask simple questions: how is this working for you? What\u2019s landing? What influences that? Are you progressing?<\/p>\n

For the athlete<\/strong><\/p>\n

And learners must be adaptive\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

We each have our learning preferences \u2013 others will be better equipped to talk about the myths that surround learning styles and other elements \u2013 but you have to find a way to respond to the stimulus in the environment. If you haven\u2019t had opportunities how are you going to accelerate your learning without the chance to compete?<\/p>\n

That means there has to be personal responsibility\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

You see it all the time: the highest performers, whether implicitly or explicitly, go out of their way to make sure they\u2019re ready to learn. There has to be personal responsibility when it comes to how you turn up to learn, how prepared you are to absorb the information that\u2019s available in the environment, whether that\u2019s through players, coaches or other ways. You must be prepared to learn.<\/p>\n

What to read next<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

From the Practice Room to the World Stage: How the Royal College of Music Prepares its Students for Careers as Musicians<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n