From the consultation room to the changing room

It's May 2023, the culmination of an unprecedented season of success for our young senior side. Our name had been at the top of the table week in week out, and players were queuing up to be a part of this magical moment. As coach, I spur the players on from the sidelines. The team brush aside the opposition, with a 6-0 victory, and we win the league.

As we lift the cup, I'm engulfed by joy and pride in the young men around me. It's in that moment I realise that the psychology-centric path we have taken, the culture we have built, has not only changed the trajectory of this team, but has impacted these players' lives. I really have become a psychologist-turned-coach.

But it wasn't always a smooth road…

The authoritarian approach

Due to bilateral ACL ruptures in my mid-20s, my time as a voluntary academy coach began many years earlier than I anticipated. Keen to keep a foot in the beautiful game, I began my journey by running the strength and conditioning sessions for the senior and academy sides. These involved players running shuttles and pushing themselves to their limits. All the other coaches were at least ten years my senior. Eager to gain respect, I employed a tough approach at first, thinking that the players would respond by working hard.

I can see why many coaches employ this authoritarian approach, but it wasn't working. Reflecting on why, I looked at some of the psychological literature and models I use in my work as an Assistant Psychologist in the NHS. I quickly realised how every player is unique and my approach needs to be tailored to those needs and strengths. As a result, I called upon a person-centred approach, the self-determination model, and OSCAR (Outcome, Situation, Choices, Actions, and Review).

Keen to be a reflective practitioner on this coaching journey, I also analysed my emotional responses to their performance. I noticed my frustration at players who didn't work hard in training during fitness drills. However, just telling them to work harder wasn't productive. As many psychologists will know, telling someone what to do rarely works. Whatever behaviour change it may initially cause doesn't usually last very long, as attitude largely remains the same (unless they come up with the idea itself, but more on that later).

I realised I need to circumvent my uninformed frustration. I began to employ the iceberg model that I often used in clinical psychology, or the ABC approach (Antecedent, Behaviour, Consequence). Something has influenced this behaviour and without knowing the antecedent or what is below the iceberg, we can't begin to change the behaviour.

Not everyone will get a 4min 29s score on their Bronco fitness test and I needed to employ that person-centred approach here, too. Rather than rewarding results, rewarding effort – something the players could control – created a better sense of autonomy and purpose. This approach also fostered a positive culture, where players didn't lose confidence after a fitness test if they knew their strengths as a player lied elsewhere.

Many of the players who were not thriving in fitness tests were now putting in a lot more effort, despite the lack of enjoyment. A buzz began to form, and I soon stepped into a lead coaching role for the seniors B team.

Person before athlete

In this new role, I knew that I would need to continue bridging the gap between clinical psychology and coaching to create a prosperous team culture. The term 'psychology' is batted around in amateur leagues, but few stop to unpick what that means beyond simply having mental fortitude. To meaningfully adopt a psychology framework, my approach was to first treat the players as people before athletes.

Once you develop a rapport on a human-to-human level, the coach to player relationship comes much more easily. This is seen in the therapeutic relationship, too, whereby this healthy relationship is paramount to making any therapeutic gains (Lai & McDowall, 2014).

For many young men, expressing vulnerability is often not part of our schema, especially in this context within an ex-mining community in Wales. By creating a safe space for open dialogue, I encouraged players to express their concerns, aspirations, and personal challenges. This facilitated a deeper sense of camaraderie, mutual respect, and cohesion, which, in turn, translated into improved performance on the pitch. If someone was late, instead of fining them or stating they were late and 'it's not good enough', a simple question such as 'are you alright?' or 'what happened?' would often provide a more open and honest explanation and did not promote as much defensiveness. Would they be late less often if you took a more direct approach? Maybe so, but what you'd often get is more of an insight into the person's life and challenges and hence a deeper connection going forward.

The team decisions

This deeper connection is imperative in a team dynamic. Research has shown teams who are allowed to express concerns, while also taking accountability, showed improved performance (Wallace et al., 2011). When you create this open dialogue, you often empower people and create leaders. Players would then often come up with their own solutions to challenges in games. As we know in psychology, people are more likely to change their behaviour if they have come up with the idea themselves (Deci & Ryan 2008). Building on the self-determination model, having experience in motivational interviewing, and using the OSCAR model, I would often use some of the same open-ended questions I would use in my consultation room, but in the changing room at half time, during a match.

After waiting a few minutes (an opportunity for players to speak amongst themselves and come up with their own challenges and solutions) I would ask, 'What have we done well, this half?', 'What have we not done so well, this half?', or, 'What does a great half now look like for you?'. These simple questions would often generate the same ideas we had as coaches on the sideline, yet the players would come up with these points autonomously. As in a therapy group, I would often respond with, 'what could we do differently', or, 'Player X, anything you'd like to add as a centre half?'. I responded positively to players' opinions, to help increase cognitive learning effects and communication. This supported a key aspect of my role as a psychologist-coach, to instil a culture of self-reflection and continuous improvement. By encouraging players to critically analyse their performances after games and identify areas for growth, we created a culture of accountability and self-driven development.

Positive Psychology and Psychological Flexibility

A large part of my philosophy as a coach is underpinned by Seligman's work on positive psychology (Seligman & Martin, 2002) as well as Russ Harris's work on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (Hayes et al., 1999). As I discovered as a practitioner, these two approaches complement each other well. With ACT, the underlying principle is to accept negative feelings and continue to move in a direction true to our values, whereas positive psychology embraces us to focus on the positives and lead a life which is meaningful to us. Both approaches help us move in a direction we want to go, while allowing negative thoughts to just be, rather than to focusing on 'fixing' them. With a lot of my clinical work and personal values aligning with these two models, I felt this would also allow me to provide consistent messages as a coach, which is important across many seasons.

Using my knowledge of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), I understand that psychological problems can arise when we try to solve every little discomfort or negative feeling. This can lead to avoiding experiences, getting stuck in unhelpful thoughts, and not taking actions aligned with our values. My main goal as a coach was to help my players become more psychologically flexible. I wanted them to be aware of the present moment, accept their thoughts and emotions, and make choices that align with their values in different situations. By doing this, they can improve their overall psychological well-being and performance.

I often tried ways of encouraging players to develop psychological flexibility by asking them open ended questions rather than telling them the answers. Upon reflection, this was more important over the course of the season than focusing on the positives; however, I felt the two aren't mutually exclusive. Psychological flexibility often involves accepting and embracing difficult thoughts and emotions while taking committed actions toward one's goals. Many of the players, for example, would get frustrated with the referee's decision. My message was often simple and will be very familiar to many practitioners: 'focus on the things you can control and accept the things you can't.' The referee will make decisions you won't agree with (referees make around 300 decisions per game) and we can't really control this. What we can control as players is how we respond to this and respond in a way that's helpful to yourself and the team. I often taught the players to recognise unhelpful thoughts, accept them, and choose actions that align with their values. From an anecdotal perspective, I noticed many players stress experiences reduce as the season went on when referees made a 'contentious' decision. Players at times still did challenge referees, but often in a more controlled and accessible manner.

At times throughout the season, dealing with referee decisions was often more difficult, and so defusion techniques would be employed too. I used metaphors, humour, or visualisation exercises to create separation between players and their thoughts which reduced the negative impact on performance. I liked to give the example of when Wayne Rooney was arguing with the referee and then took his frustration out on the ball and scored a ferocious volley against Newcastle United in 2005. The players resonated with this and learned their own techniques to employ similar strategies. This helped players switch their attention to the relevant task rather than internal states, such as frustration. The odd joke on the sideline would also help defuse the situation too.

Lessons I have learnt

Many of the players knew what my degree was in, and had a vague idea what my day job consisted of. I was rarely asked for any psychological advice, but when I did begin speaking in a more psychologically informed way, players certainly took note. Just as with therapy clients, this rapport with players was essential. To build this, you must be clear about what you consider to be important values to maintain over the course of a season, at least. By taking time to reflect on your qualities and core beliefs, you can then begin consistently implementing the standards and principles throughout the team.

In modern day elite sport, psychology has become an integral part of sports performance and coaching. But in my experience of the Welsh football amateur league for over 10 years, a lot of coaches talk about how important physical fitness and technical skills are, yet psychology and psychological principles have not filtered through as much. As a young aspiring coach and clinical psychologist, I felt I brought something fresh to bring to the dressing room. Despite winning the league (first reserve league title in the club's history) in my first season in charge, my role went far beyond winning. I realised how, guided by psychological principles, I could help to make the season a real success off the pitch too, both for myself and the players.

Photo: Mac Morgan

Key sources

Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2008). Self-Determination Theory: A macro theory of human motivation, development, and health. Canadian Psychology/Psychologie Canadienne, 49, 182-185. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0012801

Hayes, S. C., Strosahl, K., & Wilson, K. G., (1999). Acceptance and commitment therapy: An experiential approach to behaviour change. Guilford Press.

Lai, Y. L., & McDowall, A. (2014). A systematic review (SR) of coaching psychology: Focusing on the attributes of effective coaching psychologists. International Coaching Psychology Review, 9(2), 118-134.

Seligman, M. E. P. (2002). Authentic happiness: Using the new positive psychology to realize your potential for lasting fulfilment. Free Press.

Wallace J. C., Johnson P. D., Mathe K., & Paul J. (2011). Structural and psychological empowerment climates, performance, and the moderating role of shared felt accountability: A managerial perspective. Journal of Applied Psychology, 96(4), 840-850. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022227.