Why am I interested in coaching in sport specifically?

In elite sport, physical, technical and tactical margins between top teams and athletes are now minimal. That is to say, while there are variations in quality, they are broadly speaking at a very high level across the top tier of any given sport. The sports I follow most closely as a spectator - rugby and tennis - I think bear this out, where on occasion any of the top players or teams can beat - or at least closely match - the other top players or teams. 

We have seen an increasing use of sports psychologists over the last few decades. We recognise that the extra 0.1% is mental. This has objectively improved both performance and well-being for those who’ve adopted it.

And yet despite this we still see dominance: Sinner and Alcaraz, South Africa, New Zealand. Some teams and players still struggle to break through, despite their obvious physical, tactical and technical capability, sometimes even superiority. 

Why? And what is the next step?

In my view it is self-owned active reflection. 

What do I mean by this? 

It’s worth revisiting what coaching is at this point. Coaching is a thinking partnership where a coach facilitates a safe psychological space for the athlete and - and this is the key point - the athlete brings their lived experience, goals and motivations. 

The athlete sets the agenda, the tone, the direction, and the coach enables active reflection by asking questions, challenging assumptions and holding the athlete to account for what they have committed to. 

This is the key difference for me between a psychology intervention and coaching - the ownership of the outcomes lies unambiguously with the athlete, because it is the athlete who has determined the challenge or goal, established a path to meet that, and laid out the steps that will take them there.

So, active reflection? This is the process of walking through an event with the express purpose of deconstructing it, breaking it down so we look at it through different lenses.

Using frameworks such as Gibbs (What happened? How did I feel? What does this mean? Why did it happen this way? What could be done differently? How will I implement changes next time?) we explore an event, a match, a point after the fact and reflect on the lead-up, the action taken and the outcome from an internal perspective. This will unlock an exploration of how the athlete felt in the lead-up, enabling them to recognise the triggers for certain behaviours, thinking patterns, and reactions. It enables a space where the athlete can establish strategies to manage them in the moment, thereby resulting in more positive outcomes more of the time. 

Active reflection through coaching enables an athlete-owned strategy for in-the-moment decisions based on responding rather than reacting. 

I think this is the next frontier in sport. 

If you’re interested in exploring this with me, please get in touch!

2026-07-23