Cathal Dennehy: Who is looking after the people looking after the people?

Coaches may be among the great givers in the ecosystem of sport, with so much of their time, energy, and expertise offered up free of charge, but an area in which they’re sorely lacking? Looking after themselves.

In a 2020 study titled ‘Exploring Mental Health and Illness in the UK Sports Coaching Workforce’, researchers found a whopping 45% of high-performance coaches had experienced a mental disorder, with depression and anxiety the most common. “The findings suggest there is an important public health challenge which needs to be met among coaches,” wrote the researchers. “Who is looking after the people looking after the people?”

Another study, looking at 119 coaches across sports in Belgium and the Netherlands, found almost 40% had symptoms associated with depression or anxiety, with 25% experiencing sleep disturbance and almost 20% meeting the criteria for adverse alcohol use. A third study, looking at almost 300 coaches in Norway and Sweden, found almost 25% were experiencing “high levels of exhaustion” while another, looking at Women’s Premier League coaches in Sweden, found 71% reported moderate to high levels of emotional exhaustion.

For Stephen Maxwell, self-care in coaching is a topic that’s long been close to his heart. He’s currently the coach education manager for Cricket Ireland and has worked in various sports down through the years, from coaching roles with the All-Ireland-winning Meath and Dublin ladies footballers to working in professional rugby in Australia and with the Olympic women’s softball team.

He’s currently doing a masters in applied sports coaching at the University of Limerick and as part of that, he conducted research on self-care interventions in coaching, working closely with 10 coaches across Leinster GAA academies.

First question: Just how bad are coaches at self-care?

“From zero to 10, they’re at one,” he says. “I’m very passionate about self-care because I’m working in sport 20-plus years: Professional, Olympic, and amateur. I did burn out for a period of time so I know what it’s like to be at the bottom of the pit. The majority of coaches are there, and some don’t even realise it.

“I’ve seen men and women get divorced, not realising it wasn’t their partner; they were always angry at the world or angry at their partner but that wasn’t the issue. They were burnt out. Self-awareness is the key part of it.”

Maxwell manages the Thomas Davis senior men’s footballers in Tallaght, Dublin, and knows the way it can go in Gaelic Games, with coaches often roped into taking on too much.

“Everyone who works in the academy also coaches in their own club. They might coach the senior men’s or women’s team, are coaching the 14s in the academy, then they’ll do some work with their own children’s teams, which usually ends up being head coach or manager because they’re the most qualified coach. You end up looking after three teams, and they’re also working 9-5 or 9-6.”

The burnout issue is similar for professional and amateur coaches.

“Athletes are really selfish, and you have to be to get to the highest level,” says Maxwell. “When you go into a coaching role, it’s all about the athlete; it’s no longer about you. You’re working 9-5, you might go home and sit down with the kids and wife, rush your dinner, then go back out the door. Or you’re eating crap, your health deteriorates, and that leads to mental difficulties, weight gain.”

Some of the coaches he worked with for the study had just got married. Others had been married for 20-plus years. But there was a common trend: Coaching had impacted their relationships. “People don’t think about themselves, especially coaches; they’re always putting someone else first. Their teams were coming before their partners or kids.”

The first step in addressing a problem is accepting there is one. As part of the research, Maxwell studied academy coaches for five weeks prior to an intervention workshop and for six weeks after it. It began with a one-hour interview which examined their definition of self-care. 

“We had two coaches in the study who showed extreme, high-level signs of burnout. For them the first interview was really eye-opening; it got a bit emotional.”

He had the coaches complete a time-management profile, detailing how they spent their 168 hours each week. That helped them realise just how much time they ploughed into coaching and to see how it cut into things like sleep or time with their families.

“It was eye-opening for them,” says Maxwell. “Professional or amateur, everybody seemed to be in the same boat. The realisation comes through that: ‘I spend this much time working, I spend this little time with my kids, my partner. That’s not sustainable long term.’”

The advice he gave varied by individual, but much of it was about setting clear boundaries between coaching and personal life, setting out periods to switch off and recharge. Some coaches were instructed to reflect on training sessions on the journey home “so they can put it to bed before they leave the car about what they need to do next, rather than going over it while watching Netflix with their wife”.

For others, it was about putting the phone away for a set period after arriving home, not allowing coaching issues to interrupt quality time with loved ones. Maxwell also introduced them to breath work: Taking a few minutes to regulate breathing to alleviate stress.

For others, it was about learning effective ways to delegate. None of it would hold them back as coaches. But all of it could improve their quality of life. The effects proved significant.

“They’re eating better, getting more sleep, they’re more focused on their relationships,” he says. “One coach highlighted how he’s now spending more time with his children, and everyone highlighted how it’s had a positive effect on work-life balance and they’re managing better in work.”

Maxwell plans to present his work at an international conference in Greece next summer and hopes to pursue a PhD in this area.

He says coach education courses are sorely lacking in self-care content and he’s hoping the GAA will incorporate it, given how effective he knows it can be.

He says trying to sell it to Sport Ireland has been a “nightmare” due to “micro politics” but Maxwell believes self-care should form a fundamental part of coach education in Ireland.

“I’ve done this in cricket with professional coaches and it’s made a difference in their lives,” he says. “For me it’s a hobby, trying to make sure coaching becomes sustainable for volunteers.”

That way, it can continue to be something that gives so much but doesn’t exact such a hefty toll on the health or happiness of its practitioners. Because as things stand, coaching is all too often a one-way ticket to mental, physical, or emotional exhaustion.