Elite coaches see compassion as a path to better performance

It may sound like a contradiction to talk about compassion in the competitive world of elite sport. After all, isn’t elite sport all about becoming hardened to resistance and adversity?

But this is a false dichotomy, according to a new study that analyzed the views of 12 Danish high-performance coaches on the use of compassion in their work with elite athletes. The results are published in the journal Psychology of Sport and Exercise.

In fact, there is a broad consensus among the coaches, most of whom are head of national teams, about the benefits of using compassion, says the study’s lead author, Emilia Backman from the Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen.

The study is based on semi-structured interviews with 12 anonymized Danish coaches working at the highest level (10 out of 12 are national team coaches) in 10 sports. In the study, the coaches give their views on compassion and assess the potentials and barriers.

“All of the high-performance coaches bought into the idea that using compassion has beneficial outcomes in their sporting environments. Many also feel it is something that they already practice in one way or another,” she says.

“But even though the coaches saw the benefits of compassion, they still expressed some uncertainty over how to utilize compassion and the consequences of doing so.”

Shifting focus to the sporting environment

In the context of sport, compassion is about more than just showing compassion. It is a tool in sport psychology that focuses on how coaches and others can recognize the athlete’s experience of disappointment and adversity and thereby help alleviate distress.

This systematic attempt to alleviate the suffering of others is still an under-researched field in sports psychology, unlike “self-compassion,” the athletes’ own practice of being kind and understanding toward oneself during challenging times, explains Backman.

“With this study, we have therefore moved the focus away from the individual athlete and zoomed out to look at the use of compassion in the entire sporting environment. The aim has been to explore how it can support athletes, especially in terms of lasting performance enhancement,” Backman says.

In the study, the 12 coaches point to several benefits of incorporating compassion. Among other things, it can:

• Help the athlete avoid over-identifying with negative sporting outcomes
• Stimulate human connection and mutual understanding between coach and athlete
• Foster unity and cooperation in an otherwise competitive sporting environment
• Establish the trust that allows the coach to push athletes to enhanced performances

Sometimes athletes need a push

Despite their positive assessments, many coaches are also unsure about what compassion means in practice, as the coaches have to balance understanding the needs of individual athletes with the pressure to perform.

According to Backman, it is therefore important to develop and concretize compassion as a tool that can be adapted to different sporting contexts and situations.

“For example, compassion is not just about sitting next to someone when they’re crying and tapping their back and saying it’s going to be okay. Sometimes the compassionate thing to do is to be able to push your athletes. The difficult aspect of that, like some of the coaches also mentioned, is finding this balance of doing one or the other.”

At the same time, she wants to challenge the notion that compassion is a form of ‘softness’ that leads to complacent athletes. Some coaches share this concern, but the interviews also show that it doesn’t have to be that way.

“To act compassionately really requires wisdom, strength and commitment—and these are not soft values in my opinion. So even though compassion focuses on the more emotional aspects, I don’t think it is easy or ‘soft’ to incorporate. And it is not incompatible with sporting performance,” Backman says.

Misplaced compassion

A further dilemma highlighted by some coaches is the risk of getting into situations where compassion may seem out of place. Can a coach, for example, show compassion when he or she has deselected an athlete from the team or a training session?

According to Backman, it is still possible to have a compassionate approach, where the coach, even in difficult conversations, shows respect for athletes and considers their perspectives as well.

“But it’s definitely a contradiction in the sense that compassion typically focuses more on improving well-being and not so much on performance. But as said, the two things don’t have to be opposites.”

Making that clear to more coaches and sports organizations is an ongoing challenge.

“But I sense that sports organizations, at least in Denmark, are moving in a direction where they put even more emphasis on the well-being of their athletes,” says Backman.

She hopes that compassion knowledge will be incorporated into more training programs. A first step has been taken. Team Denmark, the national elite sports organization in Denmark, which supported the study, has incorporated the use of compassion into its elite coaching programs.

Emotions at stake

We’re all familiar with the image of the swimmer, rower or badminton player who has to explain to the camera why things didn’t go as hoped and can’t hold back the tears of disappointment. And perhaps it has even become more acceptable to show such emotions.

However, Backman wouldn’t go so far as to say that we live in “emotional times.”

“But I am convinced that there is a greater understanding that we need to take into account the emotional needs of the individual athlete and better understand how they relate to sporting performance.”

In the study, some of the coaches also point out that there has been a shift in the culture and management style of their sport, where “soft” values and skills such as compassion, caring, empathy and the mental well-being of athletes have taken center stage. According to some of the coaches, this has made it necessary to adapt their training practices to the needs of the athletes.