The business of coaching
Issue: Volume 29 Number 2
A dash of instinct and flair, plenty of experience and expertise and a whole lot of business nous - just some of what’s needed to be a top-level coach in Australia today.
According to Phil Borgeaud, AIS Assistant Director, Sports Programs, the role of a head coach is huge.
‘They have to pull the whole program and all the stakeholders together and get everyone travelling in the one direction,’ Phil said.
The traditional view of a coach is someone who looks after the physical, technical and tactical preparation of the athletes, but there are so many more elements to on-field success.
Coaching is a high-level management job with many more dimensions than most businesses.
‘There’s a great deal of complexity in the sporting arena. We’re not talking about a one-product business that manufactures widgets and sells them. We’re talking about a business that has to keep people happy and informed as well as deliver the sports elements of the program,’ Phil said
‘The widget manufacturer doesn’t have to gain agreement with a diverse range of stakeholders on the structure of the program and then respond to public criticism about their performance.
‘Sporting teams are usually in a very public domain and that adds a whole new layer.’
This is exactly why it is paramount that coaches at the top level manage their sport as a business, according to Terry Wheeler, from the Australian Sports Commission’s High Performance Unit, Coaching and Officiating.
‘Sport is now a bigger identity in our society and there’s a great vested interest,’ Terry Wheeler said.
‘Coaches need to be able to account for a full range of things from finances to the future direction of the team or sport.’
Terry believes coaches have to be very clear about the performance direction they are going to take over a four-year period. They also need the business skills to put that into a strategic plan so they can allocate the necessary funds and personnel.
‘There would be little difference between being a high performance national coach and being a manager of a substantial business.’
Phil Borgeaud believes Australian Men’s Hockey Coach Barry Dancer is a good role model for high performance coaching.
‘He has about six core fulltime staff he works with on a day-to-day basis. He’s got to keep that team running across everything from delivering on field training and performance management to administering the program,’ Phil said.
‘Then there is the next ring of stakeholders—all the service providers, contractors and consultants that Barry has to manage.
‘You might have a physiologist, psychologist, biomechanist, conditioning expert and a performance analyst. They all need to know about the approach the others are taking with a particular athlete. It’s all very much part of a multi-disciplinary approach.’
Major sports like hockey also have national federations, state associations and clubs and a head coach needs to work with other coaches at each of these levels for a consistent approach to developing an athlete.
The skills and breadth of demands increase in importance as you rise through the levels.
‘For example Barry Dancer estimates he spends 20 per cent of his time working on technical aspects of hockey with his athletes—the other 80 per cent he spends managing the program,’ Phil said.
Badminton Australia is another sport which is striving to be more professional and to this end National Executive Director Stuart Borrie says it has looked overseas to gain the necessary expertise to take progress to the next level.
‘It is critical to have the highest standards when it comes to high performance coaching,’ Stuart Borrie said.
‘We are working hard to develop the expertise here, but until we get to that point we recruit international professionals who we can learn from, not just when it comes to playing badminton, but also making the sport more successful and businesslike.’
Even the recruiting process needs to be done in a professional way.
‘You need to provide a clear and realistic view of the systems that are in place with your sport so you can give the prospective coach a clear picture.
‘This is critical from the retention side of things, especially when you are looking at a two-year investment into the sport.’
Danish badminton coach Claus Poulsen is the latest to bring his invaluable expertise to Australia. Meanwhile, Badminton Australia is working hard to upskill their own coaches and provide a pathway through to the top level.
‘When we bring a coach from overseas we also tap into the other resources they bring. We can learn a lot from the way things are done in other countries,’ Stuart Borrie said.
‘It is a big investment in the future and it needs to be done strategically.’
The challenge for many sports is that not many coaches come from a business or management background.
‘They’ve come from being a participant or elite level competitor more often than not and moved onto the next stage of coaching and risen along the pathway to the top level,’ Terry Wheeler said.
This is where the ASC’s High Performance Unit comes in, providing the professional development necessary for a coach to be able to carry out strategic planning and convert that into a workable business plan.
‘Coaches don’t have to be experts in every area of business, but they need to have a little bit of knowledge about each area—just as they need to have a basic understanding of sport science, psychology, nutrition and recovery.’
‘Many national associations have someone with the business acumen to be able to develop business plans and look after financial and medical records, but a coach cannot pass off responsibility for it. He or she needs an amount of knowledge in the area to allow them to ensure their program is running efficiently, effectively and correctly.’
