In our eighth episode of Powering Performance, we sat down with Dr. Brian Gearity, coach, professor, 3x author to hear how we can improve our coach/athlete relationship by examining the interactions and relationships that impact our athletes and their progress.
Structuring Your Environment
"The athlete’s body was a site of disciplinary power to produce an efficient gesture. Everything had a purpose. The strategy dominated my coaching practices and restricted consideration of alternatives. Athletes were rarely asked how they felt; they had no input into program design or session planning." - Gearity & Mills, 2013
The time and natural survellance of your training environment may be impacting your athlete's overall development. Dr. Gearity and his colleagues consider the rigid structure of a traditional training session in order to consider how this may be adapted to combat the 'unintended effects' of the environment.
Tune into minute 22:00 of the podcast to learn Dr. Gearity's tips to enhance your training environment.
Choosing your Words
Dr. Gearity and his colleagues focus on how the coach/ athlete relationship are impacting mental and physical health as well as social identify. In his second publication, he considers the role of microaggressions and their affects on both a coach and athlete development. Dr. Gearity's best advice to combat these often subtle insults? Consider the use of microaffirmations like in this example from his 2017 research...
(Gearity & Metzger 2017)
For more on microaggressions and microaffirmations, tune into minute 38:00 to see an all-too-real example...
Follow Dr. Gearity & his research
Gearity & Metzger (2017 ): Intersectionality, microaggressions, and microaffirmations-Toward a cultural praxis of sport coaching, Sociology of Sport Journal, 34, 160-175
Brian T. Gearity & Joseph P. Mills (2013): Discipline and punish in the weight room, Sports Coaching Review, DOI 10.
Twitter | @DrGearity
Thanks again to Dr. Gearity for joining us for another episode of Powering Performance!