Gymnastik- och idrottshögskolan, GIH

Mindfulness can play a critical role in promoting and protecting mental wellbeing among elite athletes. However, mechanisms of change are needed to provide theoretical insight when designing mindfulness-based programs in this population. The purpose of this study was to explore how mindfulness predicts mental wellbeing through the attitudes of gratitude (toward pleasant moments) and self-compassion (toward unpleasant moments). All outcomes were assessed through self-reported scores on the trait levels. The convenience sample consisted of 226 elite athletes (Mean age = 21.44 years; SD = 3.47; 52.2 % Men), of which mostly resided in Australia (52.2 %) and Sweden (37.2 %). The parallel mediation analysis was conducted via PROCESS macro and covariates were added into the analysis, including age, gender, type of sport, fitness status, and country of residence. Results indicated trait gratitude and trait self-compassion were parallel mediators of the relationship between trait mindfulness and mental wellbeing. Researchers and practitioners in sport can consider cultivating elite athletes' attitudes of gratitude and self-compassion through mindfulness-based programs, which may help optimally promote and protect athlete wellbeing.

High-performance (HP) coaching has been described as a potentially unsustainable profession. Limited research has explored the potential benefits of well-being and stress management interventions aimed at the individual coach level, but there is a lack of guidance within the literature on how to support and enhance the sustainability of the HP coaching profession. To address this, we gathered a panel of 14 international experts (i.e., the authors, including Olympic and Paralympic coaches, performance directors, program directors, and scholars with extensive research and practice experience) for a two-day round-table summit to discuss, reflect on, and co-create recommendations on how to develop programs to support high-performance coaches (HPCs) to be more sustainable and successful in terms of performance, well-being, and engagement. Data from the summit included audio recordings and field notes collected from whole- and small-group conversations and presentations, and were analyzed and organized into themes representing recommendations for future program content (understanding the coaching context; self-awareness, self-care, and self-compassion; establishing values and committed actions) and program delivery (logistics and delivery; creative and flexible resources; organizational responsibility; hoping to perform versus prepared to perform). Sport psychology practitioners, program directors, coach educators and developers, and coaches can benefit from considering these recommendations when creating programs aimed at well-being and sustainability in HP coaching.

High-performance coaches face complex challenges within their profession, which affect both their performance and their wellbeing. Through a qualitative study design, we aimed to understand how serial-winning high-performance coaches perceive self-compassion practice. Nine Scandinavian participants from various sports (female = 1, male = 8) explored self-compassion through psychoeducation and 1 week of practice followed by interviews. The data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. The three themes are represented via a creative nonfiction story: "We have no fear of self-compassion"; "Realizing why I should be a more compassionate friend to myself, it gives me a performance edge"; and "You have to take the armor off, and that is sometimes hard." This study offers novel insights from serial-winning high-performance coaches-a typically hard-to-reach sample. The findings show how self-compassion was perceived as beneficial based on participants' prolonged experience navigating challenges, and how self-compassion may contribute to psychologically safe high-performance environments.

Mindfulness and self-compassion are two constructs positively related to well-being and mental health outside sport. Within sport, these constructs are emerging in research, yet the extant work has primarily been conducted with athlete samples. The aim of this scoping review was to provide a broad synthesis of the literature on mindfulness and self-compassion among coaches. Fourteen articles were included, 11 of them published 2019–2022. Of the 14 publications, the concepts studied were mindfulness (n = 10), self-compassion (n = 2), and a combination of both (n = 2). The samples were predominantly male coaches (68.7%), and most of the studies targeted coaches at the elite or competitive level. The most common area studied was developing and testing interventions and programs, followed by depicting relationships of mindfulness or self-compassion with desirable outcomes. This review significantly extends the current knowledge by illuminating critical issues in this rapidly moving area of research; the need for conceptual and contextual clarity of mindfulness and self-compassion; methodological considerations, such as measures that may allow reliable comparison across studies; and the need to further explore the potential benefits of mindfulness and self-compassion for coaches for sustainability and performance.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka vilka förmågor som är viktiga för att elittränare ska kunna prestera resultat på stora mästerskap och hålla övertid. Inom ramen för den här rapporten är ett vidare syfte att även ge förslag på utvecklingsmöjligheter för att skapa bättre förutsättningar för elittränare att utveckla dessa förmågor.

Ämnet är högaktuellt och sprunget ur forskningsresultat och allt fler offentliga berättelser som samstämmigt visar att elittränarrollen innebär höga krav som leder till att elittränare slutar på grund av stress och utbrändhetsrelaterad problematik.Det finns goda skäl att förebygga och minska mänskligt lidande och sett ur ett idrottsligt perspektiv är det en förlust av värdefull tränarkompetens när någon slutar på grund av att det är ohållbart. Det tar lång tid att bli en kompetent elittränare och det finns ett behov av mer kunskap om vad som bidrar tillhållbarhet och framgång hos elittränare. I denna rapport förhåller vi oss till hållbarhet som förmågan att prestera på elitnivå med bibehållen hälsa och motivation av samma kvalitet.

Inför rapporten intervjuade vi 32 tränare/ledare/förbundskaptener. De har alla lång och gedigen erfarenhet av att vara tränare på allra högsta nivå inom svensk elitidrott och har haft framgång på de största internationella mästerskapen. Intervjuerna genomfördes under 2022.

Det är fundamentalt att elittränare har kunskaper och förmågor inom idrottsliga och träningsmässiga områden för att nå toppen, men det krävs mer för att nå hållbar framgång. Våra resultat visar tydligt att (1) självreflektion och livslångt lärande (intrapersonell kunskap) och (2) kompetens i samspelet med människor och förmåga att bygga relationer (interpersonell kunskap), varit avgörande för deelittränare som lyckats prestera på mästerskap och hålla över tid. Dessa förmågor får vanligen litet eller inget utrymme inom forskning, tränarutbildningar och projekt för tränarutveckling.

Våra utvecklingsförslag för att skapa bättre förutsättningar för hållbara förmågor och framgångsrika tränare inom svensk elitidrott är följande:

• Utveckla kompetens inom organisationspsykologi genom praktiknära forskning och tillämpning inom svensk idrott: Hur skapar vi hållbara, framgångsrika och psykologiskt sunda och trygga organisationskulturer för elitidrott i Sverige?
• Skapa möjligheter och förutsättningar för elittränare att lära sig om inter- och intrapersonell kunskap, genom (1) genomlysning och utveckling av tränarutbildningar, och (2) praktiknära forskning för att utveckla evidensbaserade program och verktyg riktade mot elittränare.
• Inkludera elittränare i större utsträckning inom ramen för idrottspsykologiska stödinsatser. Uppmärksamma att elittränare likt aktiva är performers med höga prestationskrav som kan påverka den mentala hälsan.
• Utveckla strukturerade mentorskapsprogram för de som är nya i rollen som elittränare. Behovet av att ha ett bollplank, någon att prata med och lära av, är centralt för såväl hållbarhet som framgång på de stora mästerskapen.
• Mer forskning om framgångsrika elittränare med tonvikt på hur de agerar och samspelar med sina idrottare och andra relevanta personer i både tränings- och tävlingssammanhang.

This study aims to explore which abilities are essential for elite coaches to achieve results at major international championships and be sustainable in their roles. This report also provides suggestions for creating conditions that better support elite coaches’ development of these abilities.

This project engages in a timely topic, emerging from research findings and more publicly shared stories that together show that the role of an elite coach involves high demands, which cause competent coaches to withdraw from their roles due to excessive stress and problems related to burnout. There are good reasons to lessen and prevent human suffering, and from a sports perspective, valuable coach competencies are lost when someone leaves because the role is unsustainable. It takes a long time to become a good elite coach, and there is a need for deepened knowledge of what contributes to the sustainability and success among elite coaches. In this project, we relate to sustainability as the ability to perform at an elite level with sustained health and motivation quality.

This study is based on individual interviews with 32 coaches/leaders engaged at the top level of elite sport who all have solid and prolonged experience and have had success at the biggest events. The interviews were conducted in 2022.

A high level of knowledge and skills within sports science and coaching (professional knowledge) is fundamentally important to succeed, but more is required to reach sustainable success at the highest level over time as a coach. Our results clearly show that (1) self-reflection and life-long learning (intrapersonal knowledge)and (2) a good ability to interact with others and build relationships (interpersonal knowledge) are crucial for elite coaches to succeed at championships and to be sustainable in their role. These abilities have, so far, been largely overlooked within research, coach education, and projects for coach development.

Our suggestions to create better conditions for elite coaches to both succeed at championships and to be sustainable are as follows:

• Develop competence in organizational psychology through applied research and practice within sports in Sweden. How do we create sustainable, successful, and psychologically safe cultures in Swedish elite sports?
• Create possibilities for elite coaches to gain more inter- and intrapersonal knowledge by (1) reviewing and developing coach education and (2) conducting applied research to develop evidence-based programs and resources targeting elite coaches.
• Include elite coaches to a larger extent with the support system of sports psychology. Recognize that elite coaches are also performers, like athletes, who face high-performance demands that may affect their mental health and performance.
• Develop structured mentorship programs for elite coaches new to their role. A sounding board and someone to talk to are crucial for sustainability and success at championships.
• More research on successful elite coaches, focusing on how they interact with the athletes they work with and other important people in the training and competition context.

High-performance coaches (HPCs) encounter a wide range of demands and face challenges engaging in self-care and recovery activities to promote a sustainable coaching career. In this innovative mixed method study, we aimed to gain an understanding of HPCs’ experiences of a brief mindful self-reflection intervention. To address this aim, 18 HPCs completed an 8-week daily intervention and reported their ratings of mood and energy via daily SMS-diaries. Self-reported measures of self-compassion, mindfulness, and well-being were collected at pre-intervention, 2 weeks post-intervention, and 6 months post-intervention. Qualitative data consisted of focus group interviews that were conducted 2 weeks after the intervention ended and a written follow-up containing three questions 6 months after the intervention. To further explore the mechanisms throughout the intervention, participants were categorized into two groups, High Mood and Energy (HME) and Low Mood and Energy (LME), and we compared these groupings with qualitative data. Using reflexive thematic analysis, we subsequently developed two overarching themes from these data that characterized group differences, (viz. HME: “Self-aware and open to attend to self-care needs and well-being” and LME: “Reflecting resistance to the intervention and low self-awareness”). Taken together, we interpret these data to suggest this mindful self-reflection intervention has the potential to enhance HPCs’ self-compassion. This work provides knowledge that can help guide both coaches and organizations in their quest to promote sustainable coaching careers in the elite sport context and we offer recommendations for practitioners working with HPCs. © 2024 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Psychological strengths are idealized in elite sport and contribute to the presence of stigma surrounding mental health issues and a high threshold for help-seeking behavior. Recently, scholars have argued that the concept of vulnerability has the potential to challenge the dominance of the performance narrative in sport. In this article, we provide practitioners with innovative poem and word cloud resources based on insights from high-performance coaches to enable conversations about vulnerability in sport. We hope practitioners will use these resources to stimulate reflection and dialogue about vulnerability, which may lower thresholds for help-seeking and foster sustainability in sport organizations.

High-performance coaches (HPCs) operate in complex and unpredictable environments wherein sustainable performance and well-being are regularly challenged. The purpose of this study was to develop, through an iterative process of data collection, evaluation and action, a brief SMS-based mindful self-reflection intervention to support sustainable high-performance coaching. We present this work through the form of a process evaluation. After an initial pilot intervention, three subsequent phases of development took place with 18 HPCs from athletics and figure skating. In each phase, HPCs completed a daily or weekly brief mindful self-reflection SMS-intervention for 8 weeks prior to taking part in a focus group interview and 6-month or 12-month follow-up. The results of the process evaluation demonstrate exceptionally high fidelity, reach and perceived value of the intervention for the HPCs. The HPCs also perceived the intervention to influence key mechanisms for a sustainable profession such as greater engagement in their well-being (e.g., self-awareness, helpful perspective on vulnerability and self-compassion). Moreover, lasting behavior changes associated with sustainability were reported at 6- and 12-month follow-ups. This process evaluation reflects a rigorously developed and novel procedure for the delivery of a brief mindful self-reflection intervention and appears easy to use by HPCs in their demanding roles.Lay Summary: We present a process evaluation of a mindful self-reflection intervention developed to foster sustainable high-performance coaching. Over four development phases we refine the SMS-based intervention and report exceptionally high fidelity, reach and perceived value among the participants. At 6- and 12-month follow-ups participants reported lasting behavior changes associated with sustainability.Implications for practiceThis brief SMS-based mindful self-reflection intervention facilitated healthy perspectives on vulnerability and help-seeking behavior and prompted behavior change aligned with self-compassion and well-being at 6- and 12-months follow-ups. Hence, the SMS intervention may provide practitioners with a tool for supporting sustainability among high-performance coaches.The process evaluation presented here demonstrated exceptionally high fidelity with the simplicity of the SMS intervention seemingly key to this outcome. Moreover, receiving positive reinforcement throughout the intervention and having opportunities to share their experiences in focus group interviews influenced the participants? perceived value of mindful self-reflection over time.This user-friendly intervention offers a mechanism for self and shared understanding in sport organizations and may provide insights for a range of stakeholders regarding the value of new ways of working that promote vulnerability, openness, help-seeking and collaboration.