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When we turn up to coach, we bring all of who we are as coaches and people, including our personality, emotions, and biography. These factors drive our behaviour, therefore understanding the mechanisms is key to making progress in our behaviour. Tune in for a deep dive on both inherited and learned behaviours, as well as the roles motivations and emotions collaboratively play in making you who you are as a coach. In addition, you'll receive strategies for working with your individual makeup and surrounding influences to guide you on your personal journey.

If you enjoy this episode I recommend checking these episodes out too:

Rethinking coaching philosophy

Don't change coach behaviour, control it

The information fallacy in coach behaviour change

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https://markjcarrollcoaching.wordpress.com/consultancy/

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Subscribe| Labours of Sport Coaching - The Self-Determined Coach

Ever considered what a coach's philosophy can and perhaps should include beyond sport specific knowledge? We use the term philosophy so much in coaching that it means everything and nothing all at once, and in this episode I sit down with Dr Mark Partington from Edge Hill University to discuss his new paper revisiting philosophy. Combining sociological theory with professional experience, Mark's paper offers new angles for discussion, from the place of metaphysics to considering whether the values coaches profess within philosophy statements are realised within actual coaching practice. Tune in to get to grips with, and understand the practical use of terms like ontology, epistemology, axiology, and reflexivity, while becoming more self-aware of the power of social influences on your coaching philosophy. You might just unlock a new level of thinking to take your philosophy, and practice, further.

Paper discussed:

Partington, M., & Cushion, C. J. (2025). Re-visiting a critical analysis of ‘coaching philosophy’: deconstruction to reconstruction. Sport, Education and Society, 1-14.

If you enjoy this episode, I suggest you check out this previous episode too:

Why effective coach reflection needs reflexivity

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https://markjcarrollcoaching.wordpress.com/consultancy/

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It is solid advice to nurture your athletes' internal drivers through autonomy-supportive coaching for sustainable, long term motivation and a range of positive benefits. But there are times when short term impacts matter too, and situations and personalities call for a responsibly managed controlling coaching approach to elicit immediate reactions from athletes. In this episode I talk through this case, building on clues left by research evidence and drawing on my professional practice to offer a nuanced argument for taking full advantage of all behavioural regulators as and when needed in coaching, for a short while at least.

Paper discussed:

Pelletier, L. G., Fortier, M. S., Vallerand, R. J., & Briere, N. M. (2001). Associations among perceived autonomy support, forms of self-regulation, and persistence: A prospective study. Motivation and emotion, 25, 279-306.

If you like this episode, I suggest checking out these episodes too:

Don't change behaviour, control it

Reframing motivation with SDT

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