Benn Harradine is the five-time Australian discus champion and co-founder of Harradine Performance, through which he helps athletes and folks from all walks of life realize their potential by strengthening their mental and physical game. Benn holds degrees in exercise physiology, physical education, and health and personal development, and currently serves as CEO of Killmonday Games. He has agreed to do regular interviews with McThrows focusing on the mental side of coaching and competing.
McThrows: Benn, I know you’re a big proponent of the coach/athlete relationship being a partnership rather than a dictatorship.
BH: Absolutely. If there is no trust between an athlete and their coach, there will also be no results.
McThrows: So how does a coach go about building that trust?
BH: It takes work, especially if an athlete has had a bad experience which has left them unable to trust easily. Someone like that is going to need to see evidence before they trust you, and even those who trust easily will always be evaluating the things you say and do as a coach.
McThrows: What type of evidence do athletes look for?
BH: People tend to trust with their heads and hearts, and there are tangible behaviors in both those areas that signal to an athlete that a coach is worthy of their trust.
An example of a “head trust”
behavior is simply keeping your word.
Being on time, for example.
If you say you are going to turn up to a session at 9 a.m. but then you show up at ten past, and you do that consistently, it creates doubt in the athlete’s mind. If they can’t rely on you to come to training on time, how will they be able to rely on you in a high stress comp when they need you the most?
So, when you make promises to your athletes, keep them.
McThrows: And how can you encourage someone to trust you with their heart?
BH: That requires actively listening to your athletes, and showing an interest in them outside the sport.
If one of your athletes loves to talk about gardening, then during warmups you might ask how’s it going with the plant they’ve been tending.
It signals to them that you are paying attention and you care how they feel. Those simple conversations about gardening or whatever also build a feeling of psychological safety, so an athlete can feel comfortable broaching more sensitive topics when the need arises. Sharing about your own troubles helps as well. Those interactions let the athletes know they can trust you to respect them and respect their confidentiality.
McThrows: Vésteinn Hafsteinsson has been involved with thrower development in Sweden for many years, and he says that whenever he’s working with a group of athletes he makes it a point to go around the room and ask each individual “How are you?” And by that, he means “How are you doing as a person?” not as an athlete.
BH: That’s a great way to build trust. When you have the reputation he has of producing gold medals, why should you ask a developing athlete how their life is going? Why should you care? But the fact that he does care and he goes out of his way to show that he cares makes it even more human.
It lets the athlete know that this
is not East Germany where you
keep quiet and do what you are told.
It’s “Let’s do this together.”
That’s part of the “how” of coaching, which to me is the most interesting and important part. People tend to focus on what is the best training program or the best technique, but it’s irrelevant if you can’t communicate it, and you need to communicate it to athletes who trust you.
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