The Impact of Multicultural Diversity on Coach-Athlete Dyad

Acknowledgements
Coaching Athletes to
High Performance

International Council of Coach Education

Pierre Trudel

Social Sciences Humanities Research Council of Canada

Coaching Association of Canada

Graduate students at McGill University

Trusted colleagues

Cliff Mallett
Gordon A. Bloom, Ph.D.
Department of Kinesiology & Physical Education
McGill University
Montreal, Canada
Director of the Sport Psychology Research Laboratory
http://sportpsych.mcgill.ca/
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Graduate Students at McGill University
Trusted Colleagues




3

Wade Gilbert (USA): coaching
effectiveness
Koon Teck Koh (Singapore):
coach development
Todd Loughead (Canada):
coaching leadership
Billy Harvey and Greg Reid (Canada): coaching
athletes with a disability
Andrew Bennie (Australia): coaching style
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Outline of Presentation
 Framework for Good Coaching
 Athlete-Centered Approach
 Case Study: Chantal Vallée
 Conclusions
 Recommendations for Future Research Projects
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Framework for Good Coaching
Good
Coaching
Teaching /
Motivating
Framework for Good Coaching
 The consistent application of integrated professional,
interpersonal, and intrapersonal knowledge to
improve athletes’ competence, confidence,
connection, and character in specific coaching
contexts (Côté & Gilbert, 2009).
 Three components
Athlete
Satisfaction
and
Performance
 Coaches’ knowledge
 Athletes’ outcomes
 Coaching contexts
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Framework for Good Coaching
Framework for Good Coaching
 Coaches’ Knowledge
 Athletes’ Outcomes
 Competence: an individual’s actual abilities in specific
domains.
 Confidence: the degree of certainty an individual possesses
about his/her ability to succeed. Internal sense of overall
positive self-worth.
 Connection: the positive interpersonal relationship
originating from the need to belong and feel cared for.
Positive bonds with people and institutions.
 Character/Caring: an individual’s moral development and
sportspersonship. Respect, integrity, moral courage.
 Professional (sport specific) knowledge
 Technical, tactical, pedagogical, psychological,
nutrition, etc.
 Interpersonal knowledge
 Individual and group interactions with sport
stakeholders (e.g., coach-athlete relationships)
 Intrapersonal knowledge
 On-going learning and reflection
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Athlete-Centered Approach
Framework for Good Coaching
Coaching Contexts
Coaches’
Knowledge
Recreational Youth

Athletes’
Outcomes
Elite Youth
Competence
Professional
High School
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Confidence
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Connection

Interpersonal
University
Intrapersonal
Professional
Olympic/Paralympic
Masters
Character/Caring
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Athlete-centered approach (ACA) to coaching
promotes autonomy by using strategies that empower
athletes to make choices inside and outside the
sporting environment
Focuses on the holistic development of the individual
Helps establish environment in which players share
responsibility for individual and team performance
Research has been largely a-theoretical and
superficial about athlete-centered coaching (Nelson et
al., 2012)
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Athlete-Centered Approach
Athlete-Centered Approach
 In North America, a body of research on successful
University and Olympic coaches revealed they had a very
positive, athlete-centered approach (ACA).
 Although winning was important to these coaches, they
were at least equally concerned with developing their
athletes’ personal and academic skills.
(Côté et al., 1995; Duchesne, Bloom, & Sabiston, 2011; Gilbert &
Trudel, 2000; Gould & Carson, 2008; Miller, Salmela, & Kerr,
2002; Smith & Smoll, 2002; Tawse, Bloom, Sabiston, & Reid,
2012; Vallée & Bloom, 2005).
 Bloom, Durand-Bush, Schinke, and Salmela (1998)
 International Journal of Sport Psychology
 The importance of mentoring in the development of coaches
and athletes. (21 expert team sport coaches).
 Conclusions:
 Mentoring builds trusting relationships and develops both
personal and professional skills
 Coaches were mentored by more experienced coaches during
both their athletic and early coaching careers
 Once they gained experience, they began mentoring athletes
and young coaches
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Athlete-Centered Approach
Case Study: Chantal Vallée
Athlete-Centered Approach
 Duchesne, Bloom, and Sabiston (2011)
 International Journal of Coaching Science
 Intercollegiate coaches’ experiences with elite international
athletes in an American sport context
 6 University soccer coaches of international athletes
 Conclusions:
 All coaches had a cultural awareness and understanding of
their international athletes
 This helped their international athletes grow and develop
personally, academically, and athletically
 Vallée entered the sport psychology graduate program to
become a better head coach by learning how highly
successful coaches turned poor sport programs into
successful ones
 During her degree she was the assistant coach for the
McGill University basketball team and also worked with
the provincial team
 After her degree, Vallée accepted a head coaching position
at the University of Windsor in Canada.
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Athlete-Centered Approach
Case Study: Chantal Vallée
Athlete-Centered Approach
Case Study: Chantal Vallée
 Vallée and Bloom (2005)
 4 elements to building a successful program:
Journal of Applied Sport Psychology
1) Coaches’ attributes enabled them to display appropriate
leadership behaviours according to the situation.
 Building a successful University
program: Key and common
elements of expert coaches
 Transformational leaders.
 Purpose: identify factors that
collegiate coaches believe builds a
successful sport program
2) Desire to foster players’ personal growth and development.
 Participants: 5 highly successful
Canadian female basketball and
volleyball collegiate coaches
4) A vision linking the previous categories together.
3) Thorough organizational skills from which coaches’ planned
the season and prepared their team for games.
Chantal Vallée
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 Players bought into the coaches’ goals, philosophy, and
personality.
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Athlete-Centered Approach
Case Study: Chantal Vallée
Athlete-Centered Approach
Case Study: Chantal Vallée
 Coaches’ Attributes
 Transformational Leadership
 The very nature or persona of the coach. The attributes of the
coaches were distinguished by two elements: the coaches’
commitment to learning and the coaches’ characteristics.
•
It is defined as a superior leadership performance, which
elicits exceptional outcomes from the followers.
 An ability of a leader to elevate the interest of his or her
followers and to foster their commitment and energy towards
the group and its goals.
“You have to continually be developing yourself as a coach. You have to stay
on top of it. Even this past weekend, when I went to this coaches’ clinic, I
got three or four new drills. . . . You do not just have to be working with
people that are coaching at the next level, you can learn from people that are
coaching high school, or junior high, or whatever. I think you always have to
be working on your own game. (C3)”
 Views athletes as capable of bringing contributions to the
team. Treats athletes with respect and helps them understand
life lessons, not just their sport.
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Athlete-Centered Approach
Case Study: Chantal Vallée
Transformational Leadership
Vince Lombardi
“Vince Lombardi’s success, I am
convinced, lay not only in his
inspirational personality but also
in his ability to teach. He was a
teacher. He could communicate
an idea to his players, explain it
so they understood it - not only
how to execute it, but why! He
taught, right to the heart of the
matter, without frills or
gimmicks.”
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 Fostering Personal Growth and Development
Vince Lombardi
Former head coach of the Green
Bay Packers led the team to
three straight championships.
Considered by many as the best
and most successful coach in
NFL history.
 The expert coaches aimed at developing each player into a
high level athlete, instilling intrinsic motivation to maximize
their potential. This was accomplished through life skills
development and the empowerment of each athlete. Athletes
equipped with skills, strategies, behaviours, and values that
would build each of them into a champion on and off the court.
“This is my philosophy: [our sport] is life skills development.
When the players finish their final year, I hope their toolbox
will be full and that it will help them to succeed in life” (C5).
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Personal Growth and
Development
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Personal Growth and
Development
Pat Summitt
 “If I was renowned as a tough coach, I also wanted to be
a caring one.”
John Wooden
Former head coach of UCLA
and regarded by many as the
best North American
team sport coach of all time.
 “She taught me that it's OK to let down your guard and
allow your players to get to know you. They don't care
how much you know until they know how much you
care.”
Pat Summitt
Former head coach of the University
of Tennessee, and all-time winningest
coach in North American University
basketball history, of either a men's or
women's team in any division.
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Personal Growth and
Development
Athlete-Centered Approach
Case Study: Chantal Vallée
John Wooden
 Organizational Skills
 “Consider the rights of others before your own feelings,
and the feelings of others before your own rights.”
 “Young people need models, not critics.”
 “Ability will get you to the top, character will keep you
there.”
 Each coach valued specific organizational skills that
enabled them to achieve success
 Distinguished by planning and management/administration
“I think [I made] them more game smart: [I show] them what they did and why it
worked or why it did not work. Before, we would watch video and I would
not say anything and they would be laughing [at themselves]. Now [after an
evaluation of the effectiveness of the video sessions], I analyze the tape more
from what I see, and I share that with them. I think that I sometimes assumed
they knew the things that I knew, and many times they did not. . . . I think
they were able to analyze the game better and carry that over into helping them
prepare for the next opponent.” (C3)
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Athlete-Centered Approach
Case Study: Chantal Vallée
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Athlete-Centered Approach
Case Study: Chantal Vallée
 Vision
 The coaches’ vision emerged as a fundamental element for
understanding how they built their successful programs.
 Vision involved goals and direction for their programs, as well
as the introduction and selling of their coaching philosophy to
their athletes. Through their motivation and passion, coaches
convinced players to follow them and buy into their system.
“I think anybody starting a program has a vision. Early on, I had a total
vision of what I wanted everything to look like. I knew, when I took
over at this university, what I would be doing” (C4).
 Appropriate execution of these 4 components of the model will
lead to desired holistic development of the athlete (cf. Bloom,
Falcao, & Caron, in press; Cassidy, 2013; Potrac, Brewer,
Jones, Armour, & Hoff, 2000)
 Vallée followed principles of athlete growth and development
on and off the basketball court
 Vallee’s organizational skills, including her ability to recruit,
plan and run effective practices, and prepare her players for
competitions helped the team achieve success.
 Her coaching practices were assisted by staying positive and
building athletes’ confidence
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Athlete-Centered Approach
Case Study: Chantal Vallée
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Athlete-Centered Approach
Case Study: Chantal Vallée
 In the 2004-05 season, her first, the Windsor Lancers
finished in the bottom of their division.
 Vallée led team to national championship in 4th season
 2 years later, they won their first National Championship
in 50 years, and they won it again the next 2 years (201112 and 2012-2103)
Chantal Vallée video
(YouTube: Windsor Lancers Women's Basketball CIS Final 8 Recap)
 Example of theory guiding coaching practice
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Recommendations for
Future Research Projects
Athlete-Centered Approach
 Conclusions

 Creating and selling a coaching vision that includes both
short and long term goals is a fundamental part of
organization
 Balance athletes’ growth and development academically,
socially, and athletically, while focusing on the 4 C’s
 Coaching is a systematic practice that requires year’s of hard
work, practice, and an ability to integrate and translate
knowledge effectively to the specific environment
 Winning is a by-product of success
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Case studies of more coaches who have adopted an
ACA approach
Examine ACA in professional sport
Examine ACA in special populations (athletes with a
physical disability; masters athletes)
Integrate this approach into coach education
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Questions and Comments
Thank You
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