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Journal Of Excellence – Issue No. 3 Bradbury 55
2000 Zone of Excellence - http://www.zoneofexcellence.com
Athletes Doing it for Themselves: Self-Coaching Strategies of
New Zealand Olympians
Trish Bradbury, Massey University at Albany, New Zealand
Trish Bradbury is at Massey University at Albany, Private Bag 102 904,
Department of Management and International Business, Auckland NZ
Email: P.E.Bradbury@massey.ac.nz
Abstract
Self-coaching in sport (athletes coaching themselves) is a little understood
concept that has not been researched or written about by academics to any great
extent, although practitioners have made some contribution to the literature. In an
effort to define self-coaching more clearly and to understand what athletes do
when they self-coach, questionnaires were posted to the 97 members of the New
Zealand 1996 Summer Olympic Games team. Also, 36 semi-structured interviews
were held with Summer Olympic Games medal winners from the 1956 to the
1996 Olympics. As a result, a definition of self-coaching is proposed as well as
strategies that New Zealand Olympians have implemented to enhance their self-
coaching experiences in their search of excellence.
Introduction
For most athletes the need to be
responsible for their own coaching will
arise at some stage in their sporting
career. Although a large number of both
developing and elite athletes are
engaged in ‘self-coaching’, an
important and prevalent dimension of
coaching, it is seldom discussed nor
recognised as a legitimate coaching
process. The literature, mainly popular
and not academic, does not provide a
definition of self-coaching or describe
researched strategies, but does intimate
that some athletes undergo a process
whereby they are responsible for their
own sporting destiny. This research has
defined self-coaching as the
responsibility for performance-
enhancing and self-fulfilling activities,
independent of a formal coach. In New
Zealand, many athletes do not have
access to the guidance of a full-time
coach and thus are responsible for their
performance outcomes. They sometimes
self-coach not by choice but by default.
Among the authors who have acknow-
ledged or referred to the term self-
coaching, Greenwood (1986) considers
self-coaching as problem solving, that is,
observing results, and working out how to
improve them. Cunningham (1986), in
American Rowing, does not define the
term but describes how one who
observed and listened to his boat [sic]
would learn a great deal from it and, in
effect, be self-coached. Whitmore
(1994), who utilised the term self-
coaching in the business and not in the
sport environment, describes its
usefulness for the practitioner as helping
to "clarify their needs and make their
best decisions” (p.2). Stringer, in
Journal Of Excellence – Issue No. 3 Bradbury 56
2000 Zone of Excellence - http://www.zoneofexcellence.com
Whitmore (1994), also refers to self-
coaching in the business sense as a
"performer-centred approach, complete-
ly in line with a participative manage-
ment style promoting the ethos of ow-
nership equals commitment” (p.105).
As there is not a common definition for
self-coaching in the literature or one
understood universally, a working
definition was developed as follows:
"the facilitation of performance
enhancing and self-fulfilling activities,
independent of a formal coach or
mentor”1. Athletes may call on a coach,
mentor, observer, or technical advisor
for input when, or if, required.
Specific researched self-coaching
strategies are not clearly identified either
in the literature but a range of strategies
are described in some of the “how to” or
“self-help” books for a variety of sports.
For instance, Softball, Slow and Fast
Pitch is not titled or described as a self-
coaching text but is essentially that,
offering strategies for a softball player to
improve their game and skills. The
purpose of this book is “to assist all
softball players of any age, …to acquire
the knowledge and skills
necessary…suggestions are included to
foster improvements in performances”
(Kneer and McCord, 1995, preface).
They suggest watching the “experts”
play, reading about the game, and goal
setting as valuable developmental
strategies.
Newman (1986), a track athlete and
former editor of Canada’s national
coaching magazine Coaching Review,
1 This working definition evolved from reading
the available literature and from discussions with
elite athletes, coaches, sport administrators and
academic colleagues.
discussed self-coaching from his
personal experiences when in his youth
he did whatever he thought was required
to get in shape for racing. He finished
ninth out of a field of 3000 in a cross-
town race and attributes his success to
his self-designed and unwritten training
programme executed four times a week:
I think I always believed I needed a
coach - an assumption to which I still
adhere - only now I have found my best
coach to be myself. I don’t pretend that
this situation is entirely desirable, but
I’ve come to recognize that I coach
myself as well or better than the large
majority of coaches I see (Newman,
1986, p. 46).
He offered sport science and management
related strategies for self-coaching:
• keep a training diary to monitor
performance and reactions to the
training programme;
• periodic blood testing to prevent,
monitor or identify overtraining,
potential overtraining or an inadequate
diet;
• develop and commit to a programme
for the entire training and competitive
season;
• set realistic and achievable training
goals; and
• integrate recovery time and vary
training activities to revive motivation
and enthusiasm.
Moortgat (1996) who experienced self-
coaching as a developing tennis player
offers yet another strategy. He was not
sure of his actions but he initiated an
approach to his self-coaching in the
following manner:
When I was 16 years old, I started keep-
ing a log of what I did on and off the
Journal Of Excellence – Issue No. 3 Bradbury 57
2000 Zone of Excellence - http://www.zoneofexcellence.com
tennis court. I had no real idea of what I
was doing, I was just basically writing
down how many hoppers I served, set
scores, what worked, etc. I wanted to be
able to look back and document just how
hard I was working. I continued this log
through college and on the satellite cir-
cuit - never really having a plan, but just
writing everything down
Training to be a dancer is similar to
training for tennis or any other sport.
Martha Graham, a dancer who created
her own artistic forms, diarised her
dance experiences in notebooks,
published as The Notebooks of Martha
Graham. She recorded her dance
experiences learning from each diary
entry just as Moortgat did. Graham’s
notebooks, analysed by Gardner (1993),
included such items as dance step
sequences, diagrams or drawings, and
quotations such as:
…the notes accompanying Night Journey
begin by describing some of the opening
movements, both in language and in
terms of steps. The instructions are quite
literal: “Runs with tip 3X l - r - l; two
darts and turn to stage r..bourre turn to
stage r. left hand holding right elbow”
(p.294).
Gardner (1993) speculated that Graham
developed as a dancer through her
notebooks, and through observation and
experimentation of her own body either
alone or in front of mirrors or friends,
and then eventually audiences.
Much can be learned from observation
and ‘giving it a go’2. A swimmer (S-10)
in Bloom’s 1985 study did exactly this:
“At thirteen I started to get into sport as
2 A New Zealand colloquialism for
experimentation or trying something out.
a science. I started reading health books.
I started watching stroke-technique
films. I would watch films for an hour
everyday and then go out and try to do
it” (p.166).
Hall (1997), a self-coached Olympic la-
ser yachtsman, supported observation as
utilised by Graham and the S-10 swim-
mer as useful tools to help sailors. He
suggested taking a day off from sailing
to watch others sail: “There is a tremen-
dous amount to be learned from watch-
ing a day’s racing or even a whole
regatta. Afterward, ask the fast sailors
why they set up the way they did, or
what the wind seemed to be doing that
day” (Hall, 1997, p.24). He also sug-
gested reading books and discussing
simulations of permutations and tactical
situations of sailing using model boats.
Greenwood (1986) promoted yet another
strategy, reflective questioning, to
enhance an athlete’s comprehension and
development of self-coaching. He
believed the coach’s whole approach can
reinforce or inhibit the opportunity to
learn to self-coach. A coach can
reinforce self-coaching by asking
questions that the player can answer and
inhibit it by imposing answers without
explanation. For this reason, Greenwood
believed that players are their own best
coaches.
However, the lack of guidance in the form
of strategies can be problematic for many
self-coached athletes seeking excellence.
Speaking of misfortune in the 2000m
double scull finals at the 1996 Olympics,
New Zealander Philippa Baker uttered a
post-mortem. “We’ve done a lot on our
own and I don’t know if people realise
how difficult it was winning those world
championships” (“Poor final for sad”,
Journal Of Excellence – Issue No. 3 Bradbury 58
2000 Zone of Excellence - http://www.zoneofexcellence.com
1996, Atlanta ’96 p.III). Likewise, New
Zealand coxless pairs rowers David
Schaper and Toni Dunlop trained without
their coach. Speaking of the situation
Schaper said,
We were a bit concerned initially be-
cause we had a couple of months by our-
selves. It was really hard because we had
never trained like that before. You nor-
mally always have your coach there to
motivate you and check that you are
making technical changes. We started
off being a bit lazy and then realised that
we had to get hard on ourselves.... It has
been a big learning curve on taking the
responsibility for our own training
(Sanders, 1997, p.5).
Self-coaching has also been experienced
by non-New Zealanders. Linda Leaver,
an American figure skater turned coach,
spent the last five years of her skating
career uncoached. Her coach was ill and
his recovery stretched into years. She
said, “There are hundreds of things I
learned from that experience. It taught
me to understand the principles behind
skating, much more so than if I’d had
someone standing there saying, ‘Do this,
do that’” (Leaver cited in McKee, 1994,
p.29). But, Leaver did not believe self-
coaching is conducive to excellence and
wondered how much further she could
have gone if her coach had been with
her. Leaver seems to have an inner con-
flict as in one voice she says she learned
immensely from the experience but in
the next she doesn’t support the idea as
being conducive to gaining maximum
sporting excellence.
In order to investigate this phenomenon
of self-coaching in more depth, a study
consisting of self-administered question-
naires and semi-structured interviews
was undertaken. The purpose of the
study was to define self-coaching and
identify those strategies used by New
Zealand Olympians to assist self-
coached athletes achieve excellence in
their sporting, and potentially personal,
lives.
Method
Participants
The eligibility criteria for this study was
based on membership on the 1996 New
Zealand Summer Olympic Games team
or winning an Olympic medal for New
Zealand. A 52% response rate was re-
ceived from a questionnaire posted to the
97 members of the 1996 Olympic team
from 11 Summer Olympic sports (New
Zealand was represented in 15 out of 26
sports). Semi-structured interviews were
also recorded between the researcher and
36 Olympic Games medal winners from
between the 1956 and 1996 Olympics.
These athletes came from the sports of
archery, athletics, badminton, canoeing,
cycling, equestrian, field hockey, row-
ing, shooting, swimming, and yachting.
Questionnaire and Interview
Construction and Protocol
A questionnaire and interview format
were designed to elicit perceptions from
Olympic athletes about their experiences
and ideas on self-coaching. Both tools
were piloted on New Zealand World
University Games team members and
only minor changes were made. Both
were structured similarly with sections
investigating background demographics,
general information on coaching experi-
ences and then more specific informa-
tion on self-coaching experien-ces.
Participants were also given the oppor-
tunity to supply any further information
Journal Of Excellence – Issue No. 3 Bradbury 59
2000 Zone of Excellence - http://www.zoneofexcellence.com
on self-coaching that they felt had not
been previously addressed.
Procedure
In accordance with the requirements of
the 1993 Privacy Act, the New Zealand
Olympic and Commonwealth Games
Association posted the cover letter and
questionnaire to each of the 1996 Olym-
pic team members and an interview in-
formation sheet and consent form to all
Olympic medal winners. The cover letter
and interview information sheet detailed
the parameters of the research providing
the purpose of the research, the right to
withdraw, confirmation of privacy and
confidentiality, and information about
the use of the research results.
Data Analysis
Analysis of the data was both quantita-
tive and qualitative. For analysis of the
questionnaire, the closed questions were
coded and then analysed via the SPSS
computer package and the open ques-
tions were categorised and analysed via
content analysis. With the permission of
the interviewees, audiotape and detailed
note taking recorded the interviews.
These audiotapes were transcribed ver-
batim, including the researcher’s ques-
tions and comments, and their accuracy
confirmed by the interviewees who sug-
gested minimal changes. This process
protected the interviewee from misinter-
pretation, and provided a full record of
the dialogue. The researcher, to ensure
familiarity of content, reviewed the in-
terview and open questionnaire response
transcripts and then highlighted key
phrases for analysis. The variety of re-
sponses provided was reduced for cod-
ing purposes without losing the voices
and ideas of the respondents. Following
this, the summary of the interview re-
sponses was posted to the interviewees
for concept mapping (a Q sorting tech-
nique) to ensure that reliability of the
categories had been achieved. The vari-
ety of interesting results, together with
some relevant literature, enabled the
construction of an effective definition
and the creation of a list of potentially
useful strategies for implementation by
self-coached athletes to achieve excel-
lence.
Results and
discussion
Rates of self-coaching among
respondents
From the 1996 Olympians, just less than
half (43%) said they self-coached, just
over half (52%) said they sometimes
self-coached, while less than one-tenth
(7%) said they did not self-coach. From
the medal winners almost half (47%)
said they self-coached (of which around
one-third said they self-coached with the
assistance of an outside advisor), almost
half (47%) said they sometimes self-
coached, and again less than one-tenth
(6%) reported that they did not self-
coach.
With such a high level of self-coaching
activity it is the obligation of academics
and practitioners to define and explore
strategies for self-coached athletes to
employ. Even in situations where an
athlete has intermittent access to a
coach, athlete empowerment and self-re-
sponsibility should be encouraged. The
resulting potential growth may carry
over not only to excellence in their ath-
letic endeavours but to all aspects of
their life.
Definition
Questionnaire and interview respondents
were not provided the working definition
of self-coaching so as not to bias or
Journal Of Excellence – Issue No. 3 Bradbury 60
2000 Zone of Excellence - http://www.zoneofexcellence.com
influence their response. Instead, an
open-ended question was posed as, “how
would you define or describe self-
coaching?” The most common
questionnaire responses included:
‘athlete makes decisions on training’
(38%), ‘someone who thinks they know
it all’ (34%), ‘taking ownership’ (30%),
‘critically analysing your performance’
(27%) and ‘coaching yourself’ (22%). It
is surprising that ‘coaching yourself’ did
not have a higher frequency. Very few
respondents (only 9%) reported ‘having
no outside assistance’, which again is
unexpectedly low.
My experiences and observations when
working as Chef de Mission with New
Zealand World University Games
athletes and New Zealand Paralympic
athletes led me to expect that these two
descriptions would have been noted
more often. When self-coaching was
discussed with these athletes, they would
say they were coaching themselves,
meaning self-coaching, insinuating the
terms were the same and therefore
interchangeable.
The interviewee replies were more
aligned with the anticipated responses
for a definition of a self-coaching. A
large number of the respondents (58%)
suggested ‘training yourself by setting
your own plans, goals and training and
then reviewing them to get the best out
of yourself’. Almost one-third (28%)
suggested ‘the ability to be self-analyti-
cal or self-critical’ with the next closest
responses (17%) being; ‘without the out-
side help of a coach’; ‘coaching your-
self’; ‘the athlete takes control of
everything’; or ‘being a coach yourself’.
A few respondents considered self-
coaching to include athlete empower-
ment that is, letting the athlete take re-
sponsibility for their progress and ac-
tivities. For instance, Greg Dayman, a
1976 field hockey gold medallist, said:
…the elite level is about trying to get
more out – more of the players coaching
themselves…the players themselves need
to basically know as much as the coach
and be able to make decisions for them-
selves on the field. In other words, they
need to be in control of the total picture
otherwise they are not going to be able
to make those kinds of decisions (8 April
1998).
As a result of the responses reported
here, the working definition developed
early in the research was revised to read:
“the responsibility for performance-
enhancing and self-fulfilling activities,
independent of a formal coach”. Only
two alterations were made which were
replacing the word ‘facilitation’ with
‘responsibility’ and deleting the words
‘or mentor’ which followed the word
‘coach’. These changes were prompted
by suggestions made by many
respondents that self-coaching activities
are the responsibility of the athlete.
However this does not preclude a self-
coached athlete from calling on a coach,
mentor, observer, or technical advisor
for input when, or if, required. Many of
the respondents said that it was
extremely important to have an outsider
assist them at various stages of their
training.
Strategies
Based on the popular literature, a list of
potential strategies was compiled and in-
cluded in the questionnaire. These
strategies can be found in Table 1 below.
Questionnaire respondents, the 1996
Olympians, were asked which of these
Journal Of Excellence – Issue No. 3 Bradbury 61
2000 Zone of Excellence - http://www.zoneofexcellence.com
strategies could be used to enhance self-
coaching. The interviewees, past Olym-
pic medal winners, were asked in an
open-ended question, “what are strate-
gies that could enhance self-coaching?”
The most highly selected strategy (96%
of the questionnaire responses) was to
learn from their mistakes. Chris Greg-
orek, an All-American 1500 metre run-
ner and now coach, supported this.
“Runners should learn not only from
their successes and triumphs, but also
from their failures” (cited in Wischnia,
1998, p.51). There may be better ways
for athletes to prepare to self-coach than
to learn from their mistakes. For in-
stance, if they did their “homework” and
followed guidelines (steps) implement-
ing certain strategies then progress could
be made more quickly than by learning
from mistakes. None of the interviewees
mentioned this particular strategy.
Training diary Use of mirrors
Video analysis Training partner
Peer feedback Competition diary
Self-analysis Self-awareness
Self-management training Mentor feedback
Self-coaching workshops Self-reflection
Talk to more experienced athletes Long-term planning programmes
Learn from mistakes Specialist assistance
Modelling other athletes View other elite athletes in same discipline
Books, journals, magazines Discussions with other athletes
Table 1 Potential strategies for self-coaching.
A training diary was ranked a very close
second (89%) in the questionnaire but
the interviewees ranked it much lower
(37%). Möeller (1993), a disabled
athlete who discussed her perspective to
training programme design, emphasized
that she did not keep a training log but
felt it was a very important strategy as it
would help the athlete, and the coach, to
evaluate and control the effects of
training. Hall (1997) concurred that one
be used to debrief and analyse training
or competition: “The more you use a
notebook, the faster you will learn in a
lasting way from your experiences”
(p.24). The questionnaire respondents
rated a competition diary much further
down the scale (64%) which the
interviewees did not even consider. It
might be assumed that they considered
training and competition diaries to be
one and the same. Also frequently
reported by questionnaire respondents
(87%) were self-analysis, discussions
with other athletes, and talking with
more experienced athletes. The
interview respondents had a minor
variation to these last two responses, to
talk to other athletes to find out what
they were doing and to take what works
best for you, giving it a similarly
positive rating (94%). To talk to athletes
Journal Of Excellence – Issue No. 3 Bradbury 62
2000 Zone of Excellence - http://www.zoneofexcellence.com
who ‘have been there’ can be a valuable
learning opportunity. Yachtsman Chris
Timms, a 1984 and 1988 gold and silver
medallist respectively in the Tornado
class, spoke of how he and his teammate
learned from other world class athletes.
There are two priorities in yacht racing:
one was learning how to sail a boat, the
second was making a boat go faster. Our
answer to that was always ensuring that
we were surrounded by the fastest
people that we could find - the fastest
people on the planet. We cultivated that
when we went offshore. We cultivated
friendships with top Europeans and top
Americans - we were fraternising with
them. We became personal with the guys
who were good at it and we’d learn from
them. What to buy, what gear to have
and how to work it and how to acquire it
- that was the key. I suppose you could
say in a sense, the performances we got
were a rub off from competing with these
other guys. If you go out there and sail
for three weeks with the world
champion, if he goes twice as fast as you
do, you can bloody soon work out the
techniques to stay with him. And that is
the way it was all the way through (12
March 1998).
Long-term planning programmes (84%)
and the use of a training partner (82%)
were also popular recommendations
from the questionnaire respondents.
American Joan Nesbit, a 1996 Olympic
10,000 metre runner, saw great value in
a committed training partner:
It may seem odd to hear a coach say this,
but I think a really great training partner
is more important for a runner than a
coach. Any training system can work out
fine if a runner is committed to it, but
sometimes that commitment is the
difficult part…That’s where a training
partner is so valuable…A great training
partner stimulates and motivates you.
You can learn from each other and both
raise your level of performances (cited in
Wischnia, 1998, p.52).
The interviewees (37%) did not consider
a training partner as a very beneficial
strategy. Eighty percent of the
questionnaire respondents believed self-
awareness to be a positive strategy.
Viewing athletes in the same discipline
was suggested by not quite three-
quarters of the questionnaire respondents
(71%) while viewing athletes in other
disciplines was far less popular (42%).
Reading books, journals and magazines,
and researching the Internet were placed
relatively high (67%) whereas nearly all
(97%) of the interviewees reported this
strategy as highly useful. Mentor and
peer feedback or specialist assistance in
the form of observers, mentors, or
coaches were all placed relatively high
in the questionnaires (65%) and the
interviewees indicated similar support
(69%). The questionnaire respondents
ranked video analysis well (60%) but an
extremely high percentage (86%) of the
interviewees suggested it as a strategy
that they would use and generally
suggested it first.
A number of strategies emerged from the
data, which are supported by the
literature. As a result of this study, three
changes were made to the initial list. The
questionnaire respondents put forth a
new strategy of observation and
experimentation. The interview
respondents altered a listed strategy on
the questionnaire, ‘long-term planning
programmes’, to one a little more
specific, ‘setting a realistic training
programme’. They also provided two
Journal Of Excellence – Issue No. 3 Bradbury 63
2000 Zone of Excellence - http://www.zoneofexcellence.com
new strategies, testing via sport science
tools and watching other athletes, which
were not reported in the “other options”
section in the questionnaire. A
comprehensive list of potentially
effective self-coaching strategies
includes:
• learning from your mistakes;
• using a training diary;
• observation and experimentation;
• reflective analysis;
• reading and Internet research;
• video analysis;
• setting a realistic training
programme;
• testing via sport science tools;
• using a training partner;
• viewing and talking to other athletes;
and
• using outside observers, mentors or
advisors.
These strategies are reflected in the
researched definition of self-coaching.
By implementing strategies for which
the athlete alone is accountable,
performance may be enhanced and
excellence achieved. Not all strategies
are going to suit all athletes as seen in
the various response frequencies given
in both the questionnaire and interviews.
While any one of these strategies is
better than none at all, a combined
selection is probably more effective. The
items are not mutually exclusive and
depending on the athlete, the stage of the
athlete’s career, the time and place, and
the environment or situation, a different
mix may be selected at any one time.
Conclusion
In the review of the literature, especially
academic, it was difficult to find
material written directly about self-
coaching. The popular literature,
however, held some information about
the authors’ personal experiences. Hall
(1997), one of the few practitioners who
has written and experienced self-
coaching, was highly supportive of self-
coaching in sailing and believed the only
person who can help an individual
improve in their sport is that individual.
Not all are as confident of self-coaching
as a tool however. Leaver’s comment
about her self-coaching experiences may
point to an ambivalence towards self-
coaching. When self-coaching there is
no one to blame for the performance
output except oneself, as according to
the researched definition, (the
responsibility for performance-
enhancing and self-fulfilling activities,
independent of a formal coach), the
individual is responsible for one’s own
personal destiny. It was noted by Hall
(1997) that athletes must be honest with
themselves to identify and cure any
weaknesses they have. If they do not
have characteristics such as self-
confidence, discipline, motivation, self-
belief, dedication, and determination
(Bradbury, 1999) trying to self-coach
may in fact lead them to inner conflict.
Ambivalence may also be related to
widely held attitudes that someone who
self-coaches is ‘someone who thinks he
or she knows it all’ and who is
considered arrogant or egotistical. These
individuals may not call on an outside
observer, coach or mentor when required
and may lack in the characteristics noted
above. However, overall the feedback on
self-coaching is positive. In New
Zealand self-coaching is a realistic
situation and this research is much
needed to help elite athletes on their
pathway to athletic, and potentially
personal, excellence. The researched
strategies - learning from your mistakes;
Journal Of Excellence – Issue No. 3 Bradbury 64
2000 Zone of Excellence - http://www.zoneofexcellence.com
using a training diary; observation and
experimentation; reflective analysis;
reading and internet research; video
analysis; setting a realistic training
programme; testing via sport science
tools; using a training partner; viewing
and talking to other athletes; and using
outside observers, mentors or advisors -
are a step in the right direction to help
self-coached athletes achieve much
sought after excellence.
Finally, the purpose of this study was not
to draw conclusions about the suitability
of self-coaching for elite level athletes in
search of excellence. Further research is
required to present more data to support
or negate this notion. However, in New
Zealand many athletes are assuming the
role of a coach and coaching themselves,
with no agreed definition or strategies to
aid this endeavour.
This paper has begun to address this
lack, by proposing a definition of self-
coaching and identifying a set of
research-based strategies which are
considered to be effective by successful
New Zealand Olympians. Application of
the findings from this research will assist
elite athletes to achieve sporting
excellence.
Journal Of Excellence – Issue No. 3 Bradbury 65
2000 Zone of Excellence - http://www.zoneofexcellence.com
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Journal Of Excellence – Issue No. 3 Bradbury 66
2000 Zone of Excellence - http://www.zoneofexcellence.com
Acknowledgements
Many thanks are extended to the Secretary General of the New Zealand Olympic
and Commonwealth Games Association for his assistance and co-operation and to
all those Olympic athletes who generously gave their time and shared their
experiences.
