Effective coaching revolves around effective communication and how we communicate with athletes can play a crucial role in influencing their mindset. Coaches who adopt and convey a growth mindset – believing and communicating that abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work – can foster a similar mindset in their athletes. This approach encourages athletes to embrace challenges, persist in the face of setbacks, see effort as a path to mastery, and learn from criticism. Conversely, a coach who communicates a fixed mindset, by suggesting that talent and intelligence are static traits, may limit their athletes’ willingness to challenge themselves. This could also potentially lead to the avoidance of difficult tasks, a fear of failure, and a decreased ability to bounce back from setbacks. A clear contrast of how language can convey a fixed or growth mindset is labelling a successful athlete as ‘talented’ (implying their success stems from innate factors outside of their control) compared to praising the hard work they did to reach those levels (emphasising their capacity for improvement and the effort they put in). Or, if an athlete uses static language like they’re “not good at running downhill”, then we reframe that as that they’re “working on becoming better at running downhill”.
Research highlights the importance of a growth mindset for achieving success and resilience in sports. Coaches who emphasise learning, effort, and perseverance, rather than innate talent, can help athletes develop a love of learning and resilience, which is essential for accomplishing great things (Dweck, 2006). Similarly, studies on managerial assumptions about personnel suggest that a growth mindset intervention can lead managers (and by extension, coaches) to provide more accurate performance appraisals and more helpful coaching by promoting an environment where athletes feel encouraged to improve and excel (Heslin & Vandewalle, 2008). Adopting a growth mindset also keeps coaches accountable – it challenges us to always pursue better ways to help our athletes improve.
There are many different forms of communication, and we always need to consider which is most appropriate under different circumstances. Are we seeing our athletes face-to-face, or are we communicating remotely via phone, email, text, social media, etc? Face-to-face conversations may be able to convey more non-verbal messages, though they may not always be the most convenient. Ultimately, this decision may largely come down to logistics.
Other factors to consider are whether we give athletes general vs specific feedback.
Here are examples of each to illustrate the differences:
General Feedback
Motivational Encouragement: “Great effort out there today, you’re really pushing your limits!”
Overall Performance Comment: “You’re getting faster in every long run.”
General Advice: “Remember to keep hydrated and maintain your energy levels during long runs.”
Broad Technique Guidance: “Focus on keeping a steady pace throughout your runs.”
General feedback like this is valuable for encouragement and motivation, but lacks the specifics that an athlete needs to make targeted improvements.
Specific Feedback
Technique Adjustment: “On the downhill sections, try to use a shorter stride to improve your stability and reduce the impact forces.”
Pacing Strategy: “During your last 10K trail run, your first 5K split was significantly faster than your second. Let’s work on distributing your effort more evenly to avoid burning out too early.”
Nutritional Guidance: “I noticed you hit a wall at around 20km last time. Let’s try adjusting your carb intake before the run. Consuming a gel 30 minutes into the run might also help sustain your energy levels.”
Equipment Recommendation: “The shoes you’re currently using don’t provide enough grip for wet conditions. Consider switching to a trail shoe with deeper lugs for your next rainy run.”
Specific feedback is directly actionable, offering clear, detailed advice that athletes can implement to address areas of need in their training, technique, or strategy. This type of feedback is essential for making precise adjustments that can lead to meaningful improvements in performance.
Both positive and negative feedback serve important roles in coaching by helping to motivate and guide athletes towards improved performance. Here’s how we might use both types of feedback:
Positive Feedback
Acknowledging Improvement: “Your uphill running technique has significantly improved; your increased leg strength and better pacing are really showing in your uphill segments.”
Praising Effort: “I’m really impressed with your dedication to early morning runs; your consistency is setting a strong foundation for us to build on.”
Highlighting Specific Achievements: “You executed your nutrition plan flawlessly – fantastic work keeping to 70g of carbohydrates per hour.”
Recognising Consistency: “You’ve been consistently completing all your training each week, which is a testament to your commitment and discipline.”
Positive feedback like this boosts confidence, reinforces desirable behaviours, and helps athletes associate hard work with positive outcomes (and hence, build a growth mindset).
Negative Feedback (constructively delivered)
Identifying Technique Issues: “I’ve noticed you tend to lean too far back on steep descents, to slow yourself down. Let’s work on maintaining a more upright posture and increasing cadence.”
Pointing Out Training Gaps: “You’ve missed a few long runs, which are crucial for building endurance. What can we do to ensure you’re able to complete these moving forward?”
Discussing Race Performance: “It seems like you started the race too fast, leading to a slower second half. Next time, let’s focus on pacing strategies to maintain a steady effort throughout.”
Negative feedback, when delivered constructively, focuses on areas for improvement without discouraging the athlete. It should be specific, actionable, and paired with suggestions for how to make the necessary adjustments. The goal is to motivate athletes to overcome challenges and improve, rather than to diminish their confidence or motivation.
When giving any sort of feedback, it’s important to meet the athlete where they are, and consider their background knowledge and preferred learning styles. There is no point giving an athlete an overly scientific explanation of their training session if they don’t understand the terms you’re using – this is simply showing off! On the other hand, some athletes will really want a detailed and scientific explanation of everything they do and love to see data metrics. There are no rules of thumb here – you need to get to know the athletes you’re working with.
Of course, the only way to get to know an athlete is by listening to them. Active listening is a communication technique used to ensure that the listener (i.e., you) fully comprehends and remembers what is being said. It involves the listener engaging with the speaker both verbally and nonverbally to signal attentiveness and understanding. Active listening requires several key components:
Paying Attention: You focus entirely on the speaker, avoid distractions, and refrain from thinking about how to respond while the athlete is talking. This might involve nodding, maintaining eye contact, and positioning your body towards them.
Showing That You’re Listening: Nonverbal cues such as nodding, smiling, and other facial expressions, as well as verbal affirmations like “I see,” or “Go on,” indicate that you are paying attention and encouraging the athlete to continue.
Providing Feedback: Your feedback reflects your understanding of what was said and can include summarising/paraphrasing, asking questions for clarification, and expressing understanding or empathy.
Defer Judgement: Active listening involves refraining from evaluating or forming an opinion about what is being said until the athlete has finished. Avoid interrupting, and when appropriate, give the athlete the benefit of the doubt.
Responding Appropriately: Active listening culminates in an appropriate response. You acknowledge the athlete’s message, offer insights or advice if requested, and communicate in a respectful and thoughtful manner.
As a coach, it may be a natural instinct to want to rush to show our athletes how much we know and give them all the answers immediately. However, the athlete may learn more by figuring the problem out for themselves (and, they may retain the lesson better). So, there may be times where it’s more effective to respond by asking them for their thoughts, e.g., “Why do you think you slowed down in the second half of the race?”, “What do you think we should focus on in this next 6-week block?”, “Do you have any lessons you’re taking away from that session?”, etc.
Key take-aways
- Good communication is essential to good coaching
- Promote a growth mindset over a fixed mindset
- Consider how you can best communicate with your athletes (face-to-face, instant messaging, phone/video call, etc)
- When giving feedback, consider whether you want that feedback to be general vs specific, and positive vs negative, and consider the athlete’s background
- Actively listen to your athletes to show them that you understand their perspective
- Sometimes it’s more effective to get an athlete to find the solution to problems themselves
Dweck, C. (2006). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. .https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.44-2397.
Heslin, P., & Vandewalle, D. (2008). Managers’ Implicit Assumptions About Personnel. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 17, 219 – 223. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8721.2008.00578.x.