I'm here on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia. And we've just been running a training for the head coaching programme here for the ITF, the International Taekwondo Federation. And we've run these programmes for them in the past, and they're such a good organisation. They really do embrace all aspects of performance for their athletes and training for their coaching staff. And we were talking today about imposter syndrome and the role that coaches play in building that imposter syndrome in their athletes and what they can do better to better manage that. And one of the coaches asked such a good question and it evoked such a long conversation amongst the group that I wanted to share that with you. Not necessarily exactly what they said, but the concept behind that. And if you are a coach and you've had athletes who have had imposter syndrome, I'd love to hear from you. Put in the comments below just so that we can and understand better where coaches are coming from. So back to the question. The question was, I wanted to know why some coaches are intimidated or find it difficult to have someone like a performance psychologist or mental performance coach on staff with them, to work alongside them.
He said, Because we've had such great results in working with our programme, why do all coaches not do this? Now, I have to say to you the same thing as I said to him straight away, which was not all coaches do find it intimidating. Not all coaches aren't open to it. But there are certainly some coaches that struggle. There are some coaches that they have struggles with working with somebody who's inside their athletes heads for a number of, what I think are understandable but not legitimate, reasons. We had this long conversation amongst the group, and one of the coaches said, 'Well, it's about control, surely.'
And I think in some part, he's correct. Which is most coaches like to maintain control over the trajectory of their athletes. It's such a fine balance in creating the right technical, physical, and mentally prepared athlete to perform. And as a coach, that can be very challenging in giving some parts of that development away to other people. So I do understand that, and I think that there is some legitimacy in that, and definitely, you can get some bad eggs of people working inside athletes heads for sure.
But I think it also goes a little bit deeper than that, too. I don't necessarily think it's just about control for the coaches. I think a lot of it comes back to, in my experience, a lack of education in this aspect for coaches. And as a coach, they're very good at doing what they do. They're very good at getting the technical components right, tailoring what needs to happen and what needs to be tailored for their athletes. But they don't want to necessarily have those athletes embrace and take on things that the coach doesn't necessarily understand. And I think in this is where lies the biggest challenge for coaches, because most coaching programmes don't build in a performance psychology aspect to their development as coaches. And most coaches coach the way they were coached. And if it wasn't part of their traditional programme when they were performing and when they were preparing, then it doesn't tend to form part of their ethos going forward as coaches either. So I certainly think organisations, and as I say the ITF had been very proactive in doing this, in building it into their development for their coaches; making it normalised; to be better in understanding what makes their athletes tick; what they can get out of them by better understanding their language patterns; their delivery, better understanding as coaches, what times to coach and what time's not to coach; when to push the athlete, and when to leave the athlete alone.
These have definitely been robust conversations that we, as an organisation here, have had. And I think the coaching staff and the coaching fraternity in the ITF here really do embrace their coaching as a science. It's not okay if I'm just going to coach the way that I was coached 20, 30 years ago, it's how do I get the best out of my athletes now in a world that's really competitive, in a world where it's no longer about who does the most hours. It is very science-driven. Equipment's changed, preparation's changed, athlete management has changed, recovery of injury and preparation in the body has changed. With all of those components that are changing at such a rapid rate, it makes sense that we can't just coach the way we were coached 10, 20, 30 years ago.
When we talk to coaches about the psychology of their athletes and understanding their athletes, I think across the board, one of the most common denominators is they just don't know their athletes well enough to know how to optimise them mentally. And as such, they avoid that component of the preparation. Now, obviously, I'm a huge advocate for working inside an athlete's mind, getting them to better understand themselves, what triggers them, what drives them, and how they can perform and prepare much better so that when they do come to competition or game day, the best version of them can turn up.
But I also think that coaches, for the most part, want the right thing for their athletes. And until we normalise that having athletes work with somebody on their mental preparation, how to manage their emotions, how to optimise their preparation for competition, and then also how to compete, then I think coaches will look at it as something that is a secondary or third-ary aspect to their coaching strategy. It was obviously something that was quite challenging for these coaches, but because they use it in their everyday coaching anyway, it's been normalised for them. They can see the other side of the fence. They can see the benefits that their athletes are getting. They can see the benefits they're getting as coaches in the the fact that they're not reacting, they're not as underprepared as historically they would have been. When an athlete begins to have some mental block issues or confidence and self-belief issues, they're starting to recognise those a lot earlier. And in doing that, they're starting to create the solutions a lot earlier. And there's less to correct because of that.
So if you're a coach, and it doesn't matter if you're a beginner coach, this is your first coaching gig, or you've been coaching for a long period of time and at a very high level, I'd be interested to hear why you do or don't use mental performance as part of your coaching strategy. And if you do, is it something that you would want to have full control yourself? Is it about educating you as a coach to better be able to manage the athlete's minds? Or Are you really comfortable in having another aspect to that, as another staff member coming in and working with your athletes?
As a coach, as a former coach myself, I have to be really honest. I think I would have struggled having a performance psychologist work with my athletes if I didn't have a good understanding. It was definitely something that I embraced as an athlete, and I certainly embraced it as a coach myself, better understanding my athletes, getting to know them, getting to know what makes them tick and what their triggers are, both good and bad. So for me, I think I would have utilised somebody like me in my team a lot earlier than if there's just something wrong. Building it into the entourage for the team, making it something that's on staff all the time.
But how about you? Is that something that you currently do use or would like to use?
If it's something that you want to learn more about, I'd love you to reach out to us and ask us how we better prepare coaches to be able to manage their athletes for optimal performance, to be able to manage those ups and those downs, those highs and those lows, to be able to help athletes not only deal with competition preparation and competition pressures, but how to deal with losing and winning.
So I hope this has stimulated you to think a little bit differently about what you as a coach are bringing to the table, not only in your skillset, but the team that you're putting around your athletes.
And until the next time, train smart and enjoy what you do. And if you're a coach, coach smart. Until then, my name is Dave Diggle.
