Coaches’ Coping with Stressors: Hardiness in Coaching

Abstract

In the field of competitive sports there is an emphasis on the growth of technical, tactical, and physical aspects as it relates to coach performance. However, little emphasis is placed on how coaches cope with stress and adversity that accompanies their career choice. The purpose of the present research is to establish the background of coping with the stressors by professional (paid to coach) hockey coaches using the conceptual model of hardiness. Hardiness has been used to describe stress resistant individuals (Kobasa, 1979). Kobasa (1979) indicates that hardiness involves the three C’s – commitment, control, and challenge. Commitment is the ability to interpret situations as interesting and worthwhile; control is the ability to influence one’s surroundings through effort; and challenge involves the ability to learn and grow from positive and negative experiences. Nine male coaches who were presently coaching in the Western Hockey League, Canada West League (Canadian Interuniversity Sport), Austrian Elite League, National Collegiate Athletic Association, American Hockey League, or the National Hockey League were asked to complete an open-ended survey. The survey was conducted via email to discuss individual coaching behaviours with respect to how they handle the stressors of their position. Through an interpretive lens of the experiences of nine professional coaches, a record was provided of coping strategies and experiences through the conceptual framework of hardiness. Findings were in line with commitment, control, and challenge (hardiness attributes) and included seven subthemes that portrayed examples of experience as it relates to stressors. Subthemes were developed through a thematical analysis of the responses within the survey. Subthemes that emerged from the commitment attribute included passion and authentic modeling. Subthemes that arose around control included communication, positivity/emotional control, and building accountability. Finally, the challenge attribute subthemes revolved around learning and flexibility. As stated earlier, there is a premium on technical, tactical, and physical aspects as key topics in coach performance. This research attempts to bridge the gap in the mental attributes needed to keep pushing forward in times of stress for professional coaches at an elite level. The methods used do not promote or suggest if a coach that participated was hardy. What it may suggest, is that taken together, all the coaches comments would demonstrate how a “hardy” coach would deal with stressors.