Over the last month I have researched some different studies for both of our current courses in research methods and the psychology of leadership.

I have also started working with the university women varsity cross country program which you can read all about in an earlier blog called “Running with the AXEwomen”.

When I first started in this program I felt I had a good understanding of what high performance coaching looks like and what a good program looks like. Over the last year I realized that there are definitely many different ways of leading a program and there are different styles of leadership and program success cannot always be measured purely by the performance of the athletes.

I think one of the biggest “aha moments” I had in our research methods class was when our teacher taught us the concept of the null hypothesis.

“The null hypothesis is a general statement or default position that there is no relationship between two measured phenomena, or no association among groups.^[1] Testing (accepting, approving, rejecting, or disproving) the null hypothesis—and thus concluding that there are or are not grounds for believing that there is a relationship between two phenomena (e.g. that a potential treatment has a measurable effect)—is a central task in the modern practice of science; the field of statistics gives precise criteria for rejecting a null hypothesis”

When I apply this theory into the coaching world to see if a program produced the outcome for a certain athlete we cannot say with confidence that it was due to the actions of the coach unless it was tested against a control group. In other words, there is no scientific reason to believe that there was a relationship between the program and the outcome unless it was tested against a random sample control group.

In our daily coaching environment, we often assume that because a program produced good results the coaching also must be good. I’m sure there must be some relationship but often it also comes down to what population base the coach is working with and what the previous history of the program was like. If a program was already successful it will attract more successful recruits and that reinforces the strength of the program. In other words, a coach can never say with full confidence that his or her program is strong because of their coaching unless the athletes were assigned in a random sample order and a control group was run at the same time to compare against the null hypothesis.

This revelation will help me in choosing a thesis topic so that it will make true impact on the development of my own coaching practice and environment.

One common theme that keeps on coming up is the concept of transformational coaching and creating a task oriented supportive training environment. As mentioned earlier I had the chance to work with the Acadia Varsity Cross Country team and it gave me a really good chance to look at a program without actually being the head coach in that program. It gave me perspective and I quickly started to understand how being in a consultant role can be beneficial for the program. Although I don’t really like the term of High Performance Consultant or Advisor it does make sense if the coach is willing to reach out and willing to accept feedback and make necessary adjustments.

In my case I was very fortunate to work with a coach who is very open and willing on brining on change and making sure he improves on his coaching practice. Having a growth mind set and being open minded for new ideas is an important building block to create a task oriented supportive training environment.

At the beginning of this term I was pretty sure I was going to do a wheelchair study exploring the relationship between the 400m and 800m for T53 male wheelchair racers and I might still go down this path. However, as I start thinking more about potential topics I’m being pulled more towards coach interventions and applied sport psychology within the varsity program environment. In any ways, I’m following my passion of high performance coaching either within Para or Varsity and it will not matter what I decide in the end as long as I can make sure I get appropriate subjects and feasible data collection.

The goal for me is to learn how to do research and if I can increase my network of coaches and academics along the way that will be an added bonus.

Coach Ueli