The need to coach!

In the present world of sport, it seems that just as much gets written about sports men and women’s private lives as it does on their sporting activities. John Terry, Tiger Woods, Ricky Januarie are just a few to mention, but there have been many in the past as well as many more to come in the future. This brings me to two different points that I would like to make, one concerning the coaching that takes place for these players and the second is the role models that exist for our up-and-coming players. Executive and Life coaching has become a multi-million rand business worldwide, and although some see it as a fad, there is no doubt that there is tremendous value in the service they provide. Top business men and women are using them to try and optimize their own performance, to bounce ideas off, to help them keep a work-life balance etc. This all happens in the fast-paced corporate world. Which leads me to ask the question as to how much of this should be taking place with elite sportsmen? Mental coaches are being used, but are they being used enough to help sportsmen cope with 1) the tremendous amount of pressure they are put under to perform and 2) all the things that can act as temptations such as money, sex, drugs etc. Is there not a need for life coaches to work with sportsmen and women to help them work through these pressures, to advise them on how to keep a balance and therefore to help them focus entirely in their own sporting performance, which is essentially what the world wants. Morne Du Plessis was used to work with a care-free Herschelle Gibbs some time ago. A happy and focused employee is often a performing one, and this is exactly the same in sport. More attention to the ‘person’ is needed and not just 100% on the skills and physical attributes needed to create top performers.

As someone who has been involved with sport at youth level I often think to myself, do we have great role models out there for the youth to look up to, and also, are we doing enough to prepare and assist them with the pressures they experience as young sportsmen and women? When a youngster sees a golfer’s sex scandal sprawled all over the back pages what goes through his/her mind? Of course there are plenty of top role models out there but unfortunately when something negative happens it gets huge airtime as opposed to all the good many of them do. And for this reason, young up-and-coming sportsmen who are put under pressure from their folks, their peers, themselves or even their schools also need to be given the support structures to help them cope and reach their own potential. Coaching needs to go further than just showing someone how to pass and kick and progress to true life coaching and mentoring. This will not only help the players but will also lead to better performances.

The sportsmen and women of today therefore need to be nurtured and supported, for us to truly get the best out of them, as a happy focused player is a good and performing one. Let’s also try prevent the sporting scandals from happening before they do.