Introduction
Method
Participants
Procedure
Analysis
Results
Extreme independence
Personally, as an athlete, I did not have anything to do with sports policy and sports organisations. I was up there with the worst of them in terms of being an extreme individualist, and for me elite sport was all about structure and focus. Daily, weekly, monthly, annual structure and focus. First you establish the structure and then you focus on sticking to it; that is what elite sport is all about. What The Top Sport Centre did, what the federation did and what event organisers did, I really could not care less, I only focused on what could hopefully improve my performance. Extremely egotistical and no doubt not very nice.
When I was an athlete, I was probably better suited to an individual sport than a team sport, but if I had been in a team, I think I would have had exactly the same attitude: I’ll do my thing and if I think the coach is not helping me to optimise my training and performance, I’ll say that, and if that means I will not be on the team then so what, it is their loss [chuckles] […]. Obviously that is not so easy if you’re eighteen or nineteen and you’re not sure if you have the courage.
A: Norwegian athletes are very independent-minded - they coach themselves - but the further east you head in Europe, the more it becomes the coach who is the boss, and I know of athletes my age who have never planned a training session in their lives, which seems really weird to me [chuckles].
Q: Do you think that elite sport, or elite [his sport], has developed a lot in recent years?
A: The athletes who do well have not changed a lot.
Q: What are the athletes who do well like?
A: [Pause, he chuckles] I think they are extremely focused on their goals. I think they are willing to do what is needed of them to reach their goals [pause]; that is what I think … to summarise … to summarise briefly.
I am quite clear on what I want, although I'm open to getting feedback and new ideas, but equally I apply quite a fine filter to extract the things I think will help me to improve, so [pause] coaches need to have really good arguments before I listen to them.
Coaching without skills?
I think coaches too often, either because of their formal qualifications or the athletes they’ve trained in the past, gain a slightly unjustified authority. In my opinion, a population of 4-5 million people is not really enough to choose athletes from, and then it is definitely not enough to pick really good coaches from.
I think it involves keeping the lines of communication open, so you can give both criticism and praise, and it has to be a two-way process. It has to be acceptable for the coach to give constructive criticism to the athlete, and then it is almost essential for athletes these days to be so conscious of what they are doing, of their training, that they are qualified to give constructive criticism in the other direction as well. I feel that I’ve seen too many set-ups where the coach has a one-way communication line down to the athlete, without any guarantee that the coach has the expertise to justify that one-way communication.
I always wanted to have the last word, because I’m the person who knows what I can and cannot do; the coach does not know that, he does not have a clue.
At the sports high school there was an incredible coach, Coach 1, who believed in the simple things, who you really trusted and who often said the right things. Then there was Coach 2 who cared PASSIONATELY [capitalised by first author to show that the word was stressed by the participant], and he had new ideas every … practically every week, but he lacked the continuity of Coach 1. Then there was the first period with Coach 3 as my coach. Kept things just as simple as Coach 1, believed in the simple things, not very sociable in terms of bringing the group together, but managed to unite the team in spite of that … Then with Coach 4 who was … who maybe slowed me down in my training and was more cautious, but incredibly motivational in terms of good technique. Then a year with Coach 5 as my coach [pause]. Very similar to Coach 3, but maybe not … not quite innovative enough for my liking, but still motivating and stuck to the simple things, but I felt a bit too much he was like a supply teacher at school [we chuckle], if you get my drift [laughs].
[…] and then I went back to Coach 3 for the last years of my career; he was maybe more of an adviser and manager than a coach now, and he became less and less of one, for me at least, in my eyes, although he disagreed, and then I had those three or four years when I had really decided on the right way for me, which was really motivating.
The coach as a butler
No, they’re coordinators, they play a big role in ensuring creativity, I think, creating variation, keeping you from getting bored, and then coaches are, and that is what I see today as well, they’re basically administrators, in other words they make sure that the flights are booked and that the hotel room is there for you when you go on training camp, and that you get picked up at the airport, which is an important role as well.
[The coach] helped to make my day-to-day life easier, did some of the stuff to do with sponsors, arranged some training sessions, made sure there were always training facilities available, structured the training a bit so that it was appropriate, obviously created a bit of variation in my training, to get the right balance. A purely practical function, really.
It was a lot of fun, socially it was really important, and important to me feeling happy. It is important to have some time off, even at training camps, there are many things you can do between sessions that helps you to recover properly mentally as well, and not just physically; to have a chance to chat about things that are nothing to do with sport, you know, and obviously you can also discuss your training, but it is just as important as a catalyst, really.
I think they’ve been good [his relationship with his coaches]; I think I’ve always been very fair. I think I’ve said relatively early on if there is anything that … um … is not working […], and I’ve yet to find a coach who has challenged me too much or who has set standards that I have not been able to achieve. Looking back, I slightly regret not having experienced that, but I’ve always appreciated an argument or a discussion, whether it is about the type of coach or the coaching philosophy.
Q: What has been your experience of changing coach during your career?
A: Very good. Getting fresh blood into a team, getting new opinions, a new focus.
Q: Does it take you a long time to build up trust with new coaches?
A: No [pause], not really.
Expectations - make it or break it
Q: Could the coach have any negative impact on you? For example if the practical arrangements were not in place, or any other things?
A: No, not really, because I’ve always said it is me, and just me, who is responsible for my performance; I have to do the […] every single metre, no one is there to […] for me, not during training, not during competition, I have to lift the weights myself, I have to do the explosiveness training myself, I have to do the base miles, the intervals; so it is just me, I do not want anyone else to get involved, I have to do it myself.
Q: Have you ever been faced with someone having different expectations of the coach-athlete relationship than you?
A: No, not personally, but maybe that is because I’m a bit like, you know [chuckles] […]. ‘You’re welcome to be my coach, but I'm the one in charge.
Q: If he [the coach] does not have the same expectations, he has to develop them?
A: No, there is more respect than that, you know. But I did not see it as a … as an absolute necessity to have that relationship, to have a coach around me or to have one in place. Ninety percent of what I did was done without my coach being present.
[The coach’s most important task in a team] is to lay the master plan, the one that controls the team [pause] … um … to some extent, but without a leader in the group the coach does not really stand a chance, because he does not actually do the training sessions. When you are out training, building up the team spirit, if you do not have someone who is willing to lead the team, a captain if you like, then the team falls apart.
And then I had Coach 6 as my coach, who was someone I did not have confidence in as a coach, but as I said to him on the first day, ‘I do not really have confidence in you as a coach, but I believe we are going to work together.
Q: How was the team affected when you changed coaches?
A: Generally, or … yes, generally positively, but with Coach 6 it did not work out, and suddenly the team was all over the shop with different opinions and different training philosophies.
Q: What were the consequences of that?
A: Well, the results were not too bad, but we had to change coach again the following year, so not everyone fits in as a coach.
I felt that the coaching role of Coach 3 had been diluted over the past year, and I took action, kind of explained what was behind the problem, how shall I put it … he said he felt the chemistry was not right and that it had not been right for perhaps two months […] and he asked me what was wrong, and I was totally prepared for that and I decided to have it out. Maybe it was unfair not to give him a second chance, but I did not […]. I had written down all of the things that I was unhappy with and what my conclusion was, which Coach 3 took really personally and very much as a personal attack, even though I said you’re the best organiser for the team, but as a coach I think you’re doing a really lousy job, and I need more … more feedback. We had a meeting at [location] after that, where he said he was not particularly pleased with the way I had handled things.