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Reflections on a dream: towards anunderstanding of factors Olympiccoaches attribute to their successJanet L. Currie a & Shelley Oates-Wilding ba Learning Cultures & Practices, University of Technology Sydney(UTS), Sydney, Australiab Hawaii Canoe and Kayak Team (HCKT), Honolulu, USAPublished online: 27 Mar 2012.

To cite this article: Janet L. Currie & Shelley Oates-Wilding (2012) Reflections on adream: towards an understanding of factors Olympic coaches attribute to their success,Reflective Practice: International and Multidisciplinary Perspectives, 13:3, 425-438, DOI:10.1080/14623943.2012.670106

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Reflections on a dream: towards an understanding of factorsOlympic coaches attribute to their success

Janet L. Curriea* and Shelley Oates-Wildingb

aLearning Cultures & Practices, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Sydney, Australia;bHawaii Canoe and Kayak Team (HCKT), Honolulu, USA

(Received 27 November 2011; final version received 23 February 2012)

When coaches watch our athletes in the Olympic Games competing as the bestin the world, we fill with pride in what we have nurtured and produced as anation. However, often less visible, yet no less integral to this success is theOlympic coach. While defining what it means to be an effective coach is quitedifficult and controversial, most would agree that to have reached Olympiccoaching level is to have reached the pinnacle or ultimate level of your sport.What sets these coaches apart enabling them to be the best in the world, emerg-ing to become leaders in their chosen field? This paper fills a gap in the currentliterature by identifying the most significant factors eight Olympic coaches attri-bute to their own success and fulfilment of goals. Analysis revealed that havinga passion and commitment to wanting to succeed, past experience as an athlete,learning from other coaches/mentors, focusing on the needs of the athlete and aneed to contribute were the key factors identified as helping them reach theirdream of becoming an Olympic coach.

Keywords: reflection; Olympic; coaching; individual perceptions; factors;success

Becoming a high-performance sports coach

Sports coaches today are required to use an effective mix of organisational skills,teaching strategies, communication skills and group management practices, basedon a sound understanding of sports science (Schembri, 2001, p. 3). While theprecise role of elite or high-performance coaches is often varied (Robinson, 2010),it has been established that this group usually undertakes a range of tasks aiming toproduce gold-medal winning performances by athletes competing in internationalcompetitions such as the Olympics (Mallett, 2010; Saury & Durand, 1998). Therole of a high-performance coach normally involves a more intensive personal andprofessional commitment, extensive interpersonal contact with athletes, and greaterfocus on intense preparation and competition involvement, focus on performancestandards, variables and competition outcomes, including longer-term goals, com-pared with colleagues working at the non-elite or participation level (Lyle, 2002, p.53). Figure 1 highlights some of the main roles of the sports coach, with those

*Corresponding author. Email: Janet.Currie@uts.edu.au

Reflective PracticeVol. 13, No. 3, June 2012, 425–438

ISSN 1462-3943 print/ISSN 1470-1103 online� 2012 Taylor & Francishttp://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14623943.2012.670106http://www.tandfonline.com

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aspects more likely to be associated with the high-performance coach locatedtowards the outer circle.

To further develop the professional standards of one’s coaching towards the‘elite’ level or meeting the needs of the high-performance athlete, a number of ave-nues are recommended (Banks, 2009; Lynch & Mallett, 2006). Figure 2 illustratesmajor sources often used for the development of individual coaching expertise. Gil-bert, Côtè, and Mallett (2006) listed a coach’s past participation as an athlete andaccumulation of coaching experience as primary factors, whereas Schempp andMcCullick (2010) stated the need for coaches to build a profile combining an exten-sive knowledge base with highly developed coaching skills. The individual mightbe encouraged to further their career by engaging in educational programmes andcoaching courses (Banks, 2009; Gilbert et al., 2006; Martens, 1997; Zakrajsek,2010).

COACH’S ROLES

Teacher of ideas and information

Physical trainer to improve fitness

Sports psychologist and motivator

Disciplinarian - firm yet fair Friend, carer

and mentor - supportive and nurturing

Organiser or planner of programs; activities and regimes

Public relations expert

Student and learner Sports

scientist

Planning training cycles and for competition

HIGH-PERFORMANCE COACH

Negotiating specific goals with athletes re fitness and performance

Monitoring physical, psychological, social, emotional data for performance and wellbeing

Recruiting competitive players and staff

Leading and managing personnel

Liaising with stakeholders, funding and peak sporting bodies

Seeking and negotiating funding

Figure 1. Roles and responsibilities of the coach.Sources: Banks (2009); Lyle (2002).

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This developmental process is often ongoing throughout the coach’s career(Cross & Lyle, 1999; Martens, 1997). However, at the end of the day, the criteriafor meeting the status of ‘elite coach’ may include being recognised as being effec-tive or successful at the international level of competition (Saury & Durand, 1998;Tan, 1997). This is generally measured by the performance attainment of athletes atrecognised international competitions and the number of medals won at those events(Bicycling Australia., 2008; Gilbert & Trudel, 2005; Gould, Guinan, Greenleaf,Medbery, & Peterson, 1999). As Lyle (2002, p. 254) stated: ‘Coaching success ismeasured by association with successful performers’.

A further personal measure of a coach’s ultimate success might include her/hisindividual selection as a coach at the Olympic level (McCain, 2008). Researchinvestigating the Olympics has tended to focus on the performance of athletes, yetcoaches are also performers directly influencing athletes’ success at the Games(Gould et al., 1999). For example, negative aspects of an Olympic coach’s perfor-mance at the Games or ‘coaching issues’ are often only noted by groups of teamswho fail to meet performance expectations, in contrast with those who succeed(Gould et al., 1999).

Access to mentoring

Self

-Ref

lect

ion

and

Form

al E

duca

tion

Coa

chin

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xper

ienc

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Participation as an athlete

Figure 2. Major sources of developing coaching expertise.Sources: Lynch and Mallett (2006); Mallett (2010).

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Once they have reached the pinnacle of their profession, that is, to Olympiclevel, it is less clear what factors coaches themselves attribute to reaching this goal.There is a paucity of research available helping to understand those factors from thecoach’s own point of view. Past research has tended to focus on examining factorsattributed to athlete success at the Olympics (Dieffenbach, Gould, & Moffett, 2008;Dunphy, 2008; Gould, Guinan, Greenleaf, & Chung, 2002; Gould et al., 1999;Riewald & Peterson, 2003; Sweetenham, 2008). Therefore, to help gain a greaterunderstanding, we held a reflective conversation with eight Olympic coaches.

Procedures

This exploratory study used in-depth interviews to focus on the participant’s percep-tion of how they reached their goal of becoming an Olympic coach. In-depth inter-viewing was used because it is a useful technique for gaining an oral life history tohelp access and understand the significant experiences and events in the informant’slife and career (Minichiello, Aroni, Timewell, & Alexander, 1990). A sample ofconvenience consisting of eight male Olympic coaches participated in unstructuredconversations between the researcher and informant, focusing on the coach’s per-ceptions of life, sport and experiences, expressed in his own words (Minichielloet al., 1990, p. 87). Using the open-ended interview techniques outlined by Robson(2011, pp. 283–289) we asked the coaches the main focus question: ‘What mainfactor do you feel helped you to reach your goal of becoming an Olympic coach?’Coaches represented Beach Volleyball (n = 1), Fencing (n = 1), Modern Pentathlon(n = 1), Water Polo (n = 3), Kayaking (n = 1) and Volleyball (n = 1). The partici-pants had been coaching in their chosen sport for an average of 15 years and hadrepresented as a coach on average at two Olympic Games. Interview transcriptswere audio-recorded then transcribed verbatim. Using the procedures outlined byRobson (2011, p. 469), an analysis was conducted to identify the major themes toemerge from the qualitative data. In this thematic coding approach, all the data werecoded, or identified as representing a concept of interest, and labelled. Codes withsimilar or related labels were grouped together as themes. The following sectionsdescribe the main themes to emerge from the qualitative data.

Reflections on an Olympic Dream: how did I get here?

The participants identified a broad range of factors they feel helped them to reachtheir dream and pinnacle of their sport, that is, to be an Olympic coach. All but onecoach would not narrow the reasons down to a single contributory factor; they feltthere were many reasons. As Rob said, ‘I don’t believe there is only one thing’.The range of factors presented might reflect the fact that the coaches representedvarying Olympic sports. Burt immediately thought of many factors:

That is quite a tough question to limit it to one main thing. Many things cross mymind when thinking about this, early playing and coaching experiences, learning fromother coaches, family support, commitment to my dreams/goals, the incredible helpfrom coaching and support team members, opportunity, luck etc.

Interestingly, Hans also stated that it was a question that could only be answered onreflection, at the end of one’s coaching career:

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I imagine it won’t be until after retirement and reflection, much like we did as players,that you can honestly answer this, because I can’t pinpoint one major factor.

Passion, commitment and persistence

The most common theme to arise was the belief held by four of the eight coachesthat an individual passion or commitment was considered necessary for what theywere attempting to achieve. John, an Olympic coach of many years standing repliedto the question in just one word, ‘Passion’. Hans’ response was characterised by hav-ing a drive or passion to succeed: ‘I suppose that sums it up – the desire and driveto be successful’. Rob felt that ‘Wanting to become a better coach, having passion,knowledge and belief that you can do the job while backing your gut feelings’.

To be successful, Burt explained that a major personal commitment was alsoconsidered necessary:

To narrow it to one, I think that I would have to say that having the commitmentwould be number one. To even have the opportunity to be at the top of your sportyou have to be prepared to do the years of volunteer coaching which brings a big timeand financial commitment. Then as you move to higher level coaching you have to beprepared to be away from home for 4–6 months per year. For me it was over 20 yearsof coaching before I became Head Coach of the National Team. But commitment isalso a commitment to keep learning and improving, putting the team first etc. (Burt)

According to Lyle (2002, p. 238), commitment is a major characteristic of perfor-mance coaching as ‘the intensity of commitment required for success is consider-able’. Zakrajsek (2010) recalled his journey to being an Olympic coach and citedcommitment as a major ‘ingredient’ along with talent/work ratio and education. Justlike the situation explained by Burt, commitment to Olympic coaching does notcome without personal sacrifice, as Zakrajsek (2010, p. 2) explained:

Unfortunately, in the process of making commitments to our athletes we sacrifice partof ourselves as well as time spent with our significant others and family members.This is a huge part of getting to the Olympic Games. Even if you strive for balance inlife as we all do, you will find that life is made up of tough decisions between twoimportant values that are in conflict with each other such as family time versus coach-ing time. You must make sacrifices to coach at the Olympic Games.

Another participant explained that for him, ‘the factors needed to be an Olympicathlete are very similar to coaching’ and persistence was required:

I would say the single most important factor would be persistence towards a focusedgoal. (Ron)

Gary’s reflection was similar, citing that ‘Resilience and humility towards the craft,the players and the staff’ was required. Holt and Dunn (2004) studied psychosocialfactors associated with soccer success at the professional level and noted resilienceas being a critical factor, in addition to discipline and social support. Resilienceincludes the ability to ‘bounce back’ from adversity. Bass (2010) reported how dur-ing the 2010 Winter Olympic Games there was an extraordinary amount of adver-sity faced by athletes in a number of disciplines and by specific athletes, the mostnoteworthy being the tragic circumstances surrounding the death of Joanie Rochette.

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Many other athletes faced adversity as well, ranging from extremely bad weatherconditions (Cypress), significant changes to venues (Luge and Alpine), and a lackof training opportunities based on schedule and/or weather issues. Bass (2010, p.19) concluded that resilient methods of coping as lead by coaches can actuallycreate a competitive advantage:

Well-prepared teams with strong leadership were able to respond to adversity effec-tively, thus creating a competitive advantage for their athletes … it was clear thatteams who made a long-term commitment to developing appropriate staff [coaching]behavior were able to respond to adversity effectively.

Ron also added that he was able to ‘Learn from setbacks along the way’. Similarly,Schempp and McCullick (2010, p. 222) concluded that the process of gainingextensive coaching experience offers an ‘unparalleled opportunity to learn’. Theystated that the difference amongst coaches who ‘consistently reach the pinnacle ofsuccess’ is due, in part, because this group have mastered the skill of continualimprovement gained from learning from one’s experiences. Burt wished to also addthat:

In the end even having all this commitment doesn’t guarantee anything you also needan element of luck (right place at the right time).

Past experience as an athlete

Two of the eight participants nominated athletic participation experience as acontributing factor. For example, Max offered five reasons for how he felt heachieved his goal of being an Olympic coach; however, he strongly highlightedthe fact he was able to draw on his ‘past experiences as an Olympic athlete’.Past experience gained as a participating athlete has been reported in the widerliterature as an important source of coaching knowledge (Irwin, Hanton, & Ker-win, 2004; Jones, Armour, & Potrac, 2003). Mallett (2010, p. 122) stated, ‘Itmakes sense that coaches are likely to coach in a sport which they have signif-icant playing experience’. Robinson (2010, p. 25) concluded that ex-internationalathletes are often fast-tracked towards high-performance coaching roles because‘they have a wealth of experience and knowledge to impart’. The successfulcoaches in Gilbert et al.’s (2006) investigation were characterised by having aminimum of several thousand hours of athletic participation for an average totalof 13 years. For the 10 Olympic athletes interviewed in Dieffenbach et al.’s(2008, p. 64) study, the athletes felt that having a coach who had competed atnational, world or Olympic level was an important aspect of the coach’s ‘credi-bility’. Mallett (2010, p. 123) examined the benefits to the high-performancecoach of having previously played the sport as primarily being (a) knowledgeof the skills, rules, strategies and tactics; (b) understanding the sport’s culture;and (c) an increased sense of belonging, and confidence or self-efficacy inone’s role.

Mentors

‘Learning from other coaches’ through mentoring was nominated by twoparticipants as having helped them reach their goal. Ron explained this factor as

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‘continuing to look to others that have achieved the goal you are striving for’. Thenine elite coaches taking part in the study by Nash and Sproule (2009) attributedaccess to mentors at the initial stages of their coaching careers as vital. Gilbert andTrudel (2005) similarly concluded that access to mentors is critical for a coach’sdevelopment. Even at the elite level, Irwin et al. (2004) noted that 91% of coachesin their study felt mentoring was still very important to their success. Likewise,once they reached the elite level, the coaches in Nash and Sproule’s (2009) studybelieved that continual networking with other coaches of ‘like mind’ as beingessential to one’s progress and growth as a coach. All of the five elite coaches par-ticipating in Lynch and Mallett’s (2006, p. 19) study acknowledged the importantinfluence of mentors in their ‘becoming a successful high performance track andfield coach’. However, Gilbert and Trudel (2005) warned that some coaches mayhave limited contact with their peers due to the competitive nature of sport. Somecoaches are therefore hesitant to share information with other coaches who areviewed as competitors. The more elite or senior a coach becomes, the morerestricted the number of suitable mentor coaches at the Olympic level or above ispotentially available to assist him or her.

Knowledge and understanding of the sport and focus on needs of athlete

Max noted ‘knowledge and understanding of the sport’ as a factor contributing tohim becoming an Olympic coach. Expert coaches generally have an extensiveknowledge base (Gilbert & Trudel, 2005), and Martens (1997) described it as anessential attribute. Schembri (2001, p. 3) described the foundation of good coachingas having an extensive knowledge of the sport’s techniques and tactics. However,Cassidy, Jones, and Potrac (2009, p. 10) cautioned against this factor being over-emphasised, whereby the coach becomes a mere technician involved in constantknowledge transfer, and their athlete a mere robot. ‘Let’s not ever forget that a greatcoach is somebody that gives people a great experience’ (Schubert, 2010, p. 29).Enjoyment gained through a positive, innovative team environment and culture hasbeen noted as helping improve player performance and ability to think clearly underpressure (Lee, Shaw, & Chesterfield, 2009b). Max also explained how this athlete-centred approach was vital for him succeeding at becoming an Olympic coach:

I believe that the main factor that helped me to become an Olympic coach was thecombination of a genuine interest in the athlete, the ability to empathise, an acuteunderstanding of the individual style and technique best suited to the athlete andknowledge and understanding of the sport.

In this approach, empowerment of the athlete is the central concern and focus (Leeet al., 2009b, p. 306). In investigating what factors eight national and internationalcoaches felt had made them successful, all participants in a study by Jones et al.(2003) highlighted the importance of social relations with the athletes and adoptinga holistic perspective of coaching – getting to know them as individuals and notjust as performing physical machines. A ‘quality coach-athlete relationship’ hasbeen stressed by Olympic coaches as a critical influence on their athlete’s success atthe Games (Dieffenbach et al., 2008). Essentially, ‘If the athletes feel valued, theyare more likely to want to train hard and play well for the coach’ (Cassidy et al.,2009, p. 49). The Olympic coaches taking part in Dieffenbach et al.’s (2008)

Reflective Practice 431

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investigation said they were most successful at the Olympic Games when theybased their coaching strategies on the individual needs and goals of athletes:

A good relationship was characterized by mutual trust, confidence in each other’sabilities, good communication (especially good listening skills) and a sense of collabo-ration or working together. A coach’s display of interest and respect for the athletebeyond his/her athletic identity was also important … A main aspect of a good coach-athlete relationship was the coach’s ability to understand each athlete as an individualand to individualize his/her coaching style to meet the athlete’s needs. (p. 63)

Furthermore, coaches are ‘performers’ in their own right. To reach the Olympiclevel, coaches may have to have developed sports psychology skills and have acool-headed approach (Gould et al., 1999). For example:

In an interview with legendary Olympic swim coach, James Counsilman, it wasrevealed that he was often nervous at major competitions but worked hard to not lethis swimmers recognize his own stress. Counsilman felt that this was of utmost impor-tance because he had learned that athletes model their coaches’ anxiety levels, becomemore nervous than usual, and perform poorly. In Olympic competition, being in con-trol of one’s emotional state and masking certain emotions from athletes are just someaspects of a coach’s performance. Coaches must also deal with crisis situations, maketactical decisions, and interact with officials. (Gould et al., 2002, p. 231)

The way a coach generally behaves and delivers practice sessions, includingcoach or athlete-centred approaches is ultimately dependent on his/her philoso-phy of coaching (Martens, 1997; Robinson, 2010, p. 51). One’s coaching phi-losophy will encompass an individual’s set of values, beliefs and principlesguiding the individual’s behaviours, coaching practice and adaptation to chang-ing circumstances, contexts and environments (Cassidy et al., 2009; Jenkins,2010; Robinson, 2010). A focus on quality coaching also involves the individ-ual exploring ways their role can be made more meaningful and purposeful(Cassidy et al., 2009), probably best described by the reasons given in the nextsection.

Wanting to make a contribution

For Erik, there a main reason given for reaching the goal of becoming an Olym-pic coach was his expressed need ‘to make contribution and create somethinggreat’:

The fulfilment that comes from being of service. Parents, great teachers, great coaches,mentors all know what it means to be of service. Our greatest contribution to theworld and most satisfying to self is contributing to someone else’s greatness. Webelieve in people and most likely that is because we have experienced the power ofsomeone believing in us. We are driven to pay it forward out of respect and apprecia-tion and to keep the golden gift we received alive passed into the next generation ofchampions/champion builders. I’m not a perfectionist so doing something right isn’t asignificant part of my framework, however creating a result from the materials thatyou have access to truly fascinates me. It shows the power of human potential to buildyourself, your systems, your performance into something that can achieve a tangiblemeasurable result. The Olympic Games is the highest arena in sport so naturally forme it was logical choice as a testing ground for the champions’ journey.

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Greg proposed similar ideas, feeling a combined challenge and need to contributeto his sport:

If I can contribute and help Australia achieve this from a coaching perspective, thenthat challenge can be ticked off and I can sit back happily until something else pre-sents itself.

Looking back down from the mountain top: discussion and implications

This group of coaches felt that the passion and commitment to want to succeed,experience as an athlete, learning from other coaches/mentors, focusing on theneeds of the athlete and a need to contribute were key factors in how they reachedtheir dream of becoming an Olympic coach (see Figure 3). The range of responsesmay reflect the variability in playing and coaching backgrounds experienced onhigh-performance coach pathways, such as to the Olympic Games (Mallett, 2010).

Interestingly, only Max highlighted his ability to empathise with and attune intothe needs of his athlete as helping him succeed at becoming an Olympic coach.Research points to one’s emotional intelligence (‘EI’), or the ability to perceive,comprehend, detect and decipher emotions in faces, pictures, voices and in one’s

OLYMPIC COACH

Past Experience as an Athlete

Access to Mentors

Knowledge of Sport and Focus on Needs of Athlete

Need to Contribute

Passion, Commitment and Persistence

HOW I REACHED MY GOAL OF BECOMING AN OLYMPIC COACH

Figure 3. Factors Olympic coaches attribute to their success.

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self, the ability to harness emotions to facilitate efforts and decision making andmanage emotions effectively, as being associated with leadership success and abilityto influence others in leadership roles (Côté, Lopes, Salovey, & Miners, 2010).Sports coaches have noted that characteristics such as supreme self-confidence,mental toughness, unshakeability and strong will are now related to EI and aspectsof the best performing athletes (Morgan, 2003; Stough, Clements, Wallish, & Dow-ney, 2009). Likewise, coaches who cannot only control their own, but are also ableto help their athletes manage emotions may help prevent inappropriate outbursts ofrage or aggression and lead to productive channelling of emotions towards motiva-tion and drive, may find this contributes towards overall success. Successfulcoaches reaching the Olympic level may have higher levels of emotional manage-ment whereby s/he is more effective in being able to maintain beneficial moods,manage stress in themselves and their athletes, aiding with task focus and avoidingdistraction (Stough et al., 2009).

One factor that was not highlighted included the contribution of one’s supportteam and trainers. As Zakrajsek (2010, p. 2) noted, ‘teamwork makes the dream-work’. It may take time to build up considerable trust and ensure that trainers areloyal to the coach’s personal values and vision for the athlete. Cultivating long-last-ing professional relationships with an effective support team will help a coach‘reach the top’ Zakrajsek (2010).

Extensive coaching experience gained through long years of effort and work(approximately 10 years or 10,000 hours of deliberate practice) is frequentlyreported in the wider literature as an essential element in the development of coach-ing expertise (Bell, 1997; Lynch & Mallett, 2006). Mallett (2010) concluded thataccumulated hours from coaching experiences contributes most to the coach’sdevelopment. Therefore, it was surprising that, in contrast, none of the participantsin our study nominated experience as assisting them to reach their dream of becom-ing an Olympic coach. Many international-level coaches have been coaching for anaverage of 10 years (Mallett, 2010), with Schempp and McCullick (2010, p. 221)concluding that there is no substitute for experience when it comes to developingexpertise:

Simply put, no one achieves expertise in coaching without substantial experience.There is no empirical evidence to support the notion that an inexperienced coach canconsistently outperform a coach with extensive experience. To the contrary, researchhas repeatedly revealed that it takes extensive experience – a minimum of 10 years inmost fields – to reach the level of expert. While it takes more than just experience,clearly one cannot become expert without substantial experience in one’s craft.

However, Kidman and Hanrahan (2011, p. 4) have argued that experience alone isinsufficient for developing the expertise considered necessary to become an elitecoach. They have stated, ‘Coaches do not just complete a coaching course, coachfor a specified time and then, presto, become perfect coaches’. Gilbert et al. (2006)found that the level of time a coach spent in formal education decreased as a coachprogressed to elite level. This may explain why education was not reported as acritical factor for the coaches in our study. Gilbert and Trudel (2005) also discov-ered that more experienced coaches relied less on coaching materials and resourcesthan others and tended to prefer self-reflection. According to Lee et al. (2009b, p.302), coaches and players can become proficient through asking ‘why-type’

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questions, helping to decipher what went well, and why. The simple accumulationof years of experience does not guarantee that one will be an effective coach. Effec-tive coaches transform their experience into knowledge through a process of reflec-tion (Gilbert & Trudel, 2005; Jenkins, 2010).

Coaching is also completed within a dynamic, complex, uncertain and fluidenvironment (Bowes & Jones, 2006; Mallett, 2008; Saury & Durand, 1998).Although the group of coaches participating in this study were obviously skilled atengaging in highly structured coaching plans to reach the level of Olympic coach,they did not mention having highly effective improvisory skills. This might includeresponding effectively to the dynamic sporting environment often with limited con-trol and the ability to reflect, work, dynamically adapt to variations and respond ina highly turbulent environment (Lyle, 2002; Mallett, 2010). Lee, Chesterfield, Shaw,and Ghaye (2009a, p. 286) argued that improvisation is at the heart of the creativeprocess and having that competitive ‘edge’:

We can, however, relate it simply to being able to re-frame what is happening in frontof us, and to use the power of the positive question to lead individuals and teams intoa space where they can think differently about what they are doing and do differentthings.

Another important factor associated with Olympic coaches reaching their dream notparticularly highlighted by the coaches in this study is that successful coachesappeared to have strong, positive, open and professional relationships with theirathletes. Issues are discussed and solved in a timely fashion thus reducing any extrastress. In addition, there is strong evidence from reviews of performance at OlympicGames that the top coaches created effective communication strategies with theirathletes. Daily athlete meetings occur ensuring each athlete had a completeunderstanding of their plan leading into and at the Games (Bass, 2010).

Through the process of reflection involved in taking part in our research, theOlympic coaches may have focused more on those philosophical aspects of theirpractice that have provided them, in retrospect, with feelings of fulfilling a greaterpurpose and finding meaning (Cassidy et al., 2009, p. 49). Focusing on thosequality aspects of one’s own career through a personal reflective process may havehelped the participants to explore ways in which their coaching practice ismeaningful, purposeful and enjoyable (Cassidy et al., 2009). The importance ofself-reflection, to reflect on one’s success and failure, to process experiences andemotions, is how a coach will draw meaning from and learn from their experiences(Ghaye, 2001; Gould et al., 1999; Mallett, 2004):

A ‘reflective practitioner’ is someone who, at regular intervals, looks back at whatthey do and considers how they can improve. They ‘reflect’ at what they have done.They are not happy to cruise along … Looking backwards enables those involved toget a sense of where they have come from, a sense of development and progress. Inaddition, part of the reflective process entails looking forward and therefore towardsfuture goals. So taken together refection can be said to involve both projection andreview. (Lee et al., 2009a, p. 286)

It is not known if similar responses would have been reported if participants repre-senting ‘higher-profile’ or mainstream Olympic sports such as athletics or swim-ming had also participated in our study. Due to the significant variability in the

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roles of coaches for every sport, defining ‘effective ‘behaviours’ may be problem-atic (Côtè & Sedgwick, 2003; Mallett, 2010). ‘Typical’ pathways to the Olympiccoaching level may be unique to each sport and each individual’s unique circum-stances. Future research could explore success factors attributed by coaches ‘intra-sport’, and across the full range of Olympic sports, to examine the role, nature andeffect of specific sporting contexts and varied environments (Côtè & Sedgwick,2003; Gilbert & Trudel, 2005). A series of follow-up and subsequent interviews isalso recommended to help develop rapport with the participant, and to also allowfor capturing any new ‘memories’ that may have been triggered or arisen betweenconversations. Due to the incidental nature of the sampling technique used in thisstudy, incorporating larger numbers of coaches in future studies may help increasegeneralisability (Minichiello et al., 1990; Robson, 2011).

While there are limitations to the generalisation of the findings due to the smallsample involved and retrospective nature of the data, the findings suggest theimportance of coaches accessing appropriate mentors, establishing effective rapportand recognising individual differences in athletes. Due to the recent transformationsin the nature of coaching work and its participants, it is also recommended thatfuture research explores the changing nature of career pathways and those factorsattributed as most important to reaching the dream of becoming an Olympic coach.

Notes on contributorsDr Janet Currie has a background in school teaching, university lecturing, community healthpromotion and health policy. She has qualifications in education and health promotion. Herresearch interests focus on investigating the perceived benefits of participation in leisure andphysical activity, health promotion policy, marketing and promotion of healthy lifestyles andsocial and emotional well-being. Dr Currie has designed numerous educational materials in thearea of health promotion and exercise including books, videos, teacher and communityresources. A past national level netballer and athlete, Janet enjoys creating effective healtheducation messages designed for engaging students in the school classroom setting, using sportas the key focus. Most recently, Janet authored the national high school teaching resource,Dream, Believe, Achieve for the National Rugby League of Australia. Dr Currie is a pastNational President, Vice-President and State representative of the Australian Health PromotionAssociation. She is a Director of Health Education and Promotion International and in 2003 wasawarded the Outstanding Community Engagement Award by Australian Catholic University.

Shelley Oates-Wilding is one of Australia’s top sportswomen and motivational speakers. Adual Olympian, World Champion, and Australian Representative in three sports, she is also asuccessful keynote speaker, university lecturer, businesswoman and mother. Her life’s goal isto ensure others get a chance to enjoy the same benefits from achieving their goals as shedoes from hers. As a child, Shelley’s dream was to represent her country and wear theGreen and Gold at the Olympics. As a youngster she played and enjoyed all sports andrepresented Australia in Track & Field, Netball and Surf Life Saving. At 24 years of age, afull knee reconstruction sidelined her netball career. Not one to shy away from a challenge,Shelley never gave up on her dream and found a sport that she could do without using herlegs. With her trademark discipline and determination, Shelley has become one of theworld’s best paddlers. She has achieved the title of World Champion in Surf Ski andOutrigger Canoeing and has represented Australia in kayaking at the Atlanta and SydneyOlympic Games. Shelley now lives in Honolulu, Hawaii and is Head Coach of HCKT.

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