{"id":916,"date":"2020-02-28T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-28T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/reports\/in-2020-spend-time-developing-your-coaches\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:12:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:12:22","slug":"in-2020-spend-time-developing-your-coaches","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/in-2020-spend-time-developing-your-coaches\/","title":{"rendered":"In 2020, Spend Time Developing Your Coaches"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n Feb 28, 2020 <\/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

In 2020, Spend Time Developing Your Coaches<\/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>, Leadership & Culture<\/a> <\/div>\n
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Coach development: sporting leaders are talking about it but no one is sure if they are doing it correctly.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n \n \n

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A Leaders Performance Institute article brought to you in association with our Partners<\/p>\n

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Coach development: sporting leaders are talking about it but no one is sure if they are doing it correctly.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n
By John Portch<\/h6>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an interesting one because the coaching journey is messy by nature,\u201d says Joe Montemurro of Arsenal Women. \u201cYou\u2019re not sure where it\u2019s going. You see this method or \u2018this\u2019 way and you think it\u2019s fantastic and say \u2018I\u2019m going to use that\u2019 but then you don\u2019t know how to translate it and bring it to life.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Montemurro, who was forced to retire from playing at 28, worked part-time as a graphic designer during early coaching jobs in his native Australia, before heading\u00a0<\/span>to complete his\u00a0<\/span>Uefa<\/span>\u00a0Pro License at\u00a0<\/span>Coverciano<\/span>, Florence, the home of the Italian Football Federation\u2019s technical headquarters.<\/span>\u00a0He would then return to Australia as a full-time professional before embarking on his journey with Arsenal Women in 2017.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Such peripatetic stories are far from uni<\/span>que but 2020 sees an ongoing drive to place a structure around coach development, to create pathways in a manner similar to those provided for athletes. Here are\u00a0<\/span>four<\/span>\u00a0consideration<\/span>s for the year ahead.<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Coach development is not athlete development<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Let us begin with\u00a0<\/span>the salient<\/span>\u00a0point. \u201cOften what we do is align the coaching pathway to the athlete pathway and it shouldn\u2019t be aligned,\u201d says Toni\u00a0<\/span>Cumpston<\/span>\u00a0of Hockey Australia. \u201cThey\u2019re quite different because you need to have a range of experience from beginner to expert level at each stage of the athlete pathway.\u201d Athlete goals are fairly clear and linear but not everyone wishes to be a head coach; age-group level might be the area where they thrive. \u201cI think too often people think that progression for the head coach is to be at the highest level \u2013 but it\u2019s not. There has to be a master at each area of the athlete pathway.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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<\/b>2. Have regular, structured check-ins with your coaches<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Setting KPIs can be a useful approach, particularly when there are more metrics than ever to chart progress. \u201cIn a team sport there are different dynamics and we\u2019re all accountable for a specific facet of the game, what with all the data, analysis and information that you can accumulate,\u201d says Paul\u00a0<\/span>Gustard<\/span>\u00a0of Harlequins. \u201cI probably catch up with my coaches two or three times a year,\u201d adds Chris Fagan of the Brisbane Lions.<\/span>\u00a0\u201cAnd in my first year I spent as much time with my coaches as I did with the playing group. I spent a lot of time developing those guys, asking for their opinions, acting upon their ideas, so that they could build confidence and grow themselves.\u00a0<\/span>Our General Manager, David Noble, also does a good job with all of our staff; having a chat about their careers, where they want to head next, what professional development opportunities they might be considering. It\u2019s a very holistic approach that he and I really work at because we think if all of our staff are improving then there\u2019s a pretty good chance our players are improving too and our club will get a better result.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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3. Be sure to check your own development<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Fagan spends considerable time developing Brisbane\u2019s coaches but he will regularly check his own development by asking his playing group. \u201cIt\u2019s not written and we\u2019ll do it in front of the group,\u201d he explains. \u201cI\u2019ll get up and say \u2018righto boys, what am I doing well? Where could I improve?\u2019 and we\u2019ll do the same for the other coaches and it\u2019s a really good environment that we operate.<\/span>\u00a0Sometimes the feedback takes you aback but you can always ask players for a little more explanation. We also have a coaching trademark, qualities that we want to stand for, and we get the players to score us on those on a regular basis too.\u201d It is also something that\u00a0<\/span>Cumpston<\/span>\u00a0wishes to hear: \u201cOne of the biggest things for me is feedback from athletes. If an athlete says a coach is pretty good and connects with them; and you have a lot of different athletes who learn differently in the team<\/span>, and if they\u2019re all saying, \u2018oh, he\u2019s really good\u2019 or \u2018she gets us\u2019 then that\u2019s one of the best ways to judge a coach and how they are doing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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4. But do not dismiss your coaching eye<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

For all the KPIs to which\u00a0<\/span>Gustard<\/span>\u00a0holds his coaches accountable, he still values their instincts. \u201cI am looking for coaching growth as well as things that my eyes can see,\u201d he says. \u201cOne of the greatest coaching lessons I ever learnt was that your eyes are your best coaching tool. I am now trying to instil in my coaching staff that they know to trust their eyes, trust their judgement, to coach better and to\u00a0<\/span>coach on the run.\u201d Montemurro is another advocate. \u201cThe biggest thing I tell my staff is to have your beliefs; believe in what you think is the way to represent your team and how you want it to work but, more importantly, bring up some ideas for how you want to bring that to life; how to make it work in everyday language, how to make it work with your group.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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What else does a winning team need in 2020?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This article featured in our latest Performance Special Report: The High Performance Manual: Winning in 2020<\/em>, which features sports organisations as diverse as Red Bull<\/strong>, the Brisbane Lions<\/strong> and the Royal Military Academy<\/strong> discussing the pertinent topics across Leadership & Culture, Coaching & Development, Human Performance and Data & Innovation. Download it now.<\/p>\n