PhD, Associate Professor M.P. Bondarenko¹
Dr.Hab., Professor V.Yu. Karpov²
Dr.Hab., Professor Yu.A. Zubarev¹
Dr.Med., Professor V.S. Sokolova^3
1Volgograd State Academy of Physical Culture, Volgograd
²Russian State Social University, Moscow
³Moscow State Pedagogical University, Moscow

Keywords: professional performance, coach, competitive result, athlete, stresses.

Background. Success of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi and some other top-ranking international competitions in the Russian Federation has encouraged interest of the government and society in the national sport design and management issues. Sports, as distinct from physical education, are focused on competitive successes, including world records in every competition [2, 5]. Every competitive accomplishment, however, requires long-term trainings and intensive physical and mental work with inevitable stresses on the way to progress and victories. Preseason periods are always increasingly stressful both for the athletes and coaches who pin their hopes on the prospects, do their best for their progress and are often closer to them than their families [4, 6].

Objective of the study was to analyze and classify the stressors in the swimming coach’s service.

Methods and structure of the study. Subject to the study was a sample of coachers from Volgograd, Moscow and Moscow region provisionally split up into age- and mastery-specific and gender-unspecific groups of 25–30, 30–38 and 38–45 year-olds classified into Honorary, Top-level and First Class Coaches of the Russian Federation. Every coach was given a pulse oximeter (HR monitor) and instructed to test and fix the HR variations in the training period, preseason and regular season to rate his stress levels.

Study findings and discussion. The study has found the following service-specific stress exposure aspects in the sample.

The first aspect of the coaching service is that neither coach can restrict his attitudes to the trainee by the formal training responsibilities but always assumes a sort of parental responsibility – for the reason that the years-long trainings, shared emotions, experiences and close communication (athletes are normally served by the same coaches for at least 3-6 years) naturally develop mutual trust, friendship and understanding [1].

The second aspect of the coaching service is that it is exposed to what may be called a professional risk of failure. When starting his hard work with a new trainee, the coach always hopes for a high progress and great competitive accomplishments albeit these hopes may never come true. The high expectations mean that the coach should both be patient and insistent enough and at the same time take a high responsibility for the trainee’s health, athletic, mental and ethical progress, with the patience and pressures being reasonably balanced. It is not unusual in the actual practice, however, that coaches tend to overload their athletes in the training process and, as a result, many promising junior athletes may fail under the loads and burn out mentally and physically.

The third aspect of the coaching service is that it requires high stress tolerance. Coaches are always exposed to high nervous and emotional stresses, particularly in the regular season [3, 6] and, therefore, must demonstrate high self-control skills to be able to efficiently and effectively manage competitive situations and provide due guidance and support to the trainees – with such an ability commonly acknowledged among the best aspects of the coaching mastery [7, 8]. It is common, however, that a coach is unable to consult the trainee or correct his/her competitive performance and, hence, has to keep his own emotions and stresses in check. Such situations of forced helplessness are associated with extra mental burdens that may be highly detrimental to the coach’s health.

We obtained the coaches’ heart rates in the training process, preseason and regular season, that may be summarized as follows:

- The highest stress tolerance in the training process was demonstrated by the 38–45 year-old group tested with the HR under 90–95 beats per min;

- Two groups were tested with the HR of 100-120 beats per min in the last pre-season trainings: see Table 1;

- Young coaches were the most emotional in the regular season, with the HR coming to as much as 158 beat per min.

Table 1. Age-specific heart rates of the swimming coaches, bpm

The study data shows the coaches being same vulnerable to the prestart fever as competitors. The prestart conditions may be provisionally classified as follows:

1. Prestart fever that means the highest nervous and mental tension. The coach in this condition may be excessively thoughtful, caring, interested in his athlete’s mindset, wellbeing, mode etc; or absent-minded, annoyed or even totally indifferent.

2. Prestart apathy that does not manifest itself in any visible tension up to total indifference, with the coach looking depressed, unwilling to talk, closed-minded, avoiding any communication with the athlete and surrounding. The coach may be even reluctant to give advises, recommendations or even kind wishes to the athlete.

3. Alertness is the prestart condition totally opposite to the above, with the coach looking highly optimistic, not very talkative, striving to secure the athlete’s positive mindset and confidence. Sometimes the condition is associated with high albeit restrained stress, encouraging gestures, displayed spirit, other positive body language, special care and support for the athlete.

The above prestart conditions may be of high influence on the athlete’s prestart mindset. A negative prestart condition of the coach tends to undermine the athlete’s confidence and desire to win, particularly when the coach is expressly unconfident and depressed. In such situations much depends on the coach’s experience. The higher is the coach’s self-confidence and reliance on his/her own mastery and knowledge, the higher is his/her prestart stress tolerance. Some coaches make resort to talks to drain out their excessive emotions. It should be noted that, apart from the prestart conditions, professional coaches are exposed to the following other stressors and conditions.

4. Far from home condition that develops due to the professional responsibilities often keeping the coach far from his/ her family, often with virtually no weekends at all. Coach is always busy on the black-letter days and spends his/her weekends in competitions together with the athletes. Long business trips may last several months at a time. This challenging lifestyle is often harmful for a family life as it exposes it to tensions, alienation and mounting communication problems. It is not unusual, particularly in elite sports (that are the most stressful) that happy couples of coaches and athletes break apart. Not every family may stand a life of the wheels with everyday travels from one place to another, uncomfortable environments, stressful living conditions and permanent problems that give virtually no chance for a comfortable healthy lifestyle and mental balance due to the growing nervous and emotional tensions.

5. Communication condition that develops due to a coach having to keep in contact with multiple people more or less involved in the education, training and competitive processes including athlete’s family, relatives, sport school community, other coaches and their trainees, refereeing teams, journalists, managers, sponsors and many other people that may be not directly related to the competitions or trainings. For such challenging communication to be successful and stress proof, the coach has to develop excellent interpersonal communication skills plus high patience and tactfulness [6]. It is not always possible to assess and report the permanent and high pressures from the sport management and sponsors the elite coaches have to cope with.

6. Ups and downs condition develops due to neither coach being totally immune to failures on the way to triumphs. The negative experience of failures makes some coaches vulnerable to pessimistic mindsets, unconfident of their abilities and future and, hence, exposed to job-specific stressors. Every coach’s career is too dependent on the competitive accomplishments of the trainees, whilst the factors of influence on the competitive wins and losses are so multiple and unpredictable that a success is never guaranteed. The expectations may be so high and the failures so painful that it is not unusual for the coaches and athletes even to retire after serious defeats. It is always disappointing to see excellent coaches and promising athletes retiring from sports and often going for other businesses.

7. Name making condition is a result of the high publicity of the coaching service, particularly in the modern team sports. Coach is always in the epicenter of public attention – often regardless of the team level, age, popularity and successes, since his/her activity or inactivity is always emotionally scrutinized and discussed by sport analysts, supporters, opponents, families, managers and sponsors – i.e. everybody having some interest in the sport discipline, team or individual athlete. Coaches have to give interviews, respond to multiple questions, stay public and accessible whilst keeping in check their own emotions and sentiments and strictly controlling the communication process, body language, tone and wording – and thereby exposing themselves to this stress condition.

Conclusion. The study data and analyses contribute to the ongoing research project designed to offer the relevant classification tables of the coaching service stressors; followed by practical recommendations on how the stressors may be mitigated and stress tolerance may be improved in the practical sport careers of athletes and their coaches.

References

1. Bondarenko M.P. Metodika otsenki kompetentnosti sportivnykh trenerov [Sports coaches’ competency rating methods]. Uroven zhizni naseleniya regionov Rossii, 2013, no. 3 (181), pp. 90-92.
2. Bondarenko M.P. Proizvoditelnost sportivnogo truda v sovremennykh usloviyakh [Athletic performance in modern conditions]. Fundamentalnye issledovaniya, 2014, no. 9, pp. 2258-2264.
3. Kalinin A.D., Karpov V.Yu. Opredelenie kriteriev otsenki psikhologo-pedagogicheskoy deyatelnosti trenera po morskomu mnogoboryu [Criteria to rate psychological and pedagogical activity of maritime all-around coach]. Izvestiya Sochinskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, 2012, no. 3, pp. 137-143.
4. Stepanova O.N., Bernina Yu.S. Vedushchie trudnosti professionalnoy deyatelnosti trenerov po lyzhnym gonkam [Main difficulties in coaching service in cross-country skiing]. Nauka i shkola, 2013, no. 2, pp. 136-139.
5. Stepanova O.N., Makhov A.S., Latushkina E.N. et al. Upravlencheskaya deyatelnost trenera: vidy, obyekty, kriterii effektivnosti [Coach's management activities: types, objects, performance criteria]. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury, 2016, no. 3, pp. 66-68.
6. Bondarenko M.P. Assessment of the motivation factors for professional sport activity. Middle-East Journal of Scientific Research, 2013, vol. 14 (9), pp. 1221–1225 [Electronic resource]. Available at: http://www.idosi.org/mejsr/mejsr14(9)13/16.pdf (date of access: 12.12.2017).

Corresponding author: teoriya.ru

Abstract

Professional coaching service in any sport discipline is rather specific in at least one critical aspect that makes it so different from any other specialty. The thing is that the coaches’ performance ratings are heavily dependent on the practical competitive accomplishments of their trainees and, hence, permanent stresses, pressures and emotions are rather typical for the modern coaching service. Objective of the study was to analyze and classify the stressors in a swimming coach’s service, with coaches from Volgograd and Moscow cities and the Moscow region sampled for the study. The sample was split up into the age- and experience-specific groups. Based on the study data, the psychological conditions faced by the coaches were grouped into a few categories including prestart fever, prestart apathy, alertness, far from home, communication, ups and downs, and name making. The study data and analyses contribute to the ongoing research project designed to offer the relevant classification tables for the coaching service stressors; followed by practical recommendations on how the stressors may be mitigated and stress tolerance may be improved in the practical sport careers of athletes and their coaches.