Key Points:
Back to top- Athletes at every level of sport—from young athletes to Olympic and Paralympic medalists—agree that great coaches foster social and emotional growth as much as physical performance.
- Great coaches genuinely care about their athletes, build relationships and environments that foster success, and instill life lessons about teamwork, resilience, and more.
- Ensuring a positive experience for athletes at every level starts with the training coaches receive. The United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) is part of the Million Coaches Challenge (MCC), a multi-partner movement that aims to train one million coaches, bridging a gap in coach training and ensuring that coaches are equipped with the necessary tools to promote positive youth development.
If you’ve ever played a sport, you probably remember at least one great coach. What were the attributes that made them great? Was it their incredible knowledge of the game or sound tactical understanding? More likely, the qualities that stand out in your mind were social and emotional: building positive relationships, encouraging you through mistakes, and supporting you in learning valuable life lessons through sport. That’s what we at The United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) hear at every level of sport, from young athletes all the way to Olympic and Paralympic athletes: Great coaching is about fostering social and emotional growth as much as physical performance.
When asked what makes sports fun, young athletes often highlight coaches who communicate clearly and consistently, provide encouragement to the team, are easy to talk to, and stay positive through mistakes. Great coaches understand that personal growth and enjoyment are central to motivating, developing, and helping players thrive in and outside of sport.
These sentiments were echoed when we celebrated National Coaches Day in November, a day to honor coaches and the impact they have on their athletes and communities. On social media, we asked followers to share stories of how coaching has shaped them.
Most didn’t tell us about how their coaches helped them run faster or get physically stronger —they described coaches who made sports fun, who instilled lessons about teamwork and resilience, and who genuinely cared.
During the Olympic and Paralympic Games over the summer, we saw firsthand that this sentiment extends to athletes at the highest level of sport. There was one type of medal ceremony that most viewers of the Games didn’t see: When an athlete wins a medal, they are given the opportunity to recognize their coach and present them with a medal of their own.
These behind-the-scenes ceremonies shed light on the qualities that make a coach truly exceptional and impactful. While we often celebrate coaches for their technical expertise, the true magic of coaching lies in how they shape lives off the field. More than technical skills, Olympic and Paralympic athletes spoke in these ceremonies about the positive relationships and environments their coaches fostered that allowed them to excel. They recognized their coaches for impacting them not just as athletes, but as people.
Nic Fink, 2024 Olympic silver medalist in the 100m men’s breaststroke, for example, thanked his coach “for being a major part of my journey to becoming an Olympic champion and, more importantly, for helping me become the person I am today.”
Yet too often, these critical social and emotional skills are missing in sport—and that starts with quality training that coaches receive to ensure a positive experience for athletes at every level. The USOPC, in partnership with member National Governing Bodies, aims to set the standard of excellence in quality coaching and resources that support not only skill development but personal development in athletes of all ages and backgrounds.
The USOPC is part of the Million Coaches Challenge (MCC), a multi-partner movement supported by the Susan Crown Exchange that aims to bridge a gap in coach training and ensure that coaches are equipped with the necessary tools to promote positive youth development. The goal of MCC partners is to train one million coaches by 2025.
Our free Connection Based Coaching course, for instance, is open to the public and trains coaches of any sport in developing social and emotional skills like self-awareness, self-management, relationship management, social awareness, and decision-making, then putting these skills into practice on the field.
With self-awareness and self-management, coaches become more aware of emotions like frustration or disappointment and express them in constructive ways. Social awareness and relationship-management skills equip coaches to communicate effectively, connect with athletes as whole human beings, build trusting relationships, and manage conflict. And coaches with strong decision-making skills can solve problems effectively and continuously learn and improve.
When coaches provide a positive experience, athletes invest more effort and improve their performance. More importantly, especially for young athletes, positive experiences make athletes more likely to continue with the sport. According to Project Play, the average child today spends less than three years playing a sport, quitting by age 11. Young athletes who form positive relationships with their coach are less likely to burn out and quit.
We want young people to learn to love movement, to have enjoyable experiences that keep them coming back and reaping the physical and mental benefits of sport. We want them to have the unique opportunity sports offer to learn and practice lifelong skills like teamwork, leadership, effective communication, managing pressure, navigating conflict, and setting and achieving goals. Great coaches—coaches who have both technical skills and the ability to embody and instill social and emotional skills—make all of this possible.
As Lex Gillette, U.S. Paralympic silver medalist in track and field, said, “All of the great coaches leave a lasting impact on their athletes well beyond the field of play. What you are teaching them around sports is directly tied to what they will do outside of the sport.”
From Olympians and Paralympians to children in youth sports, athletes reap more enjoyment, success, and lifelong benefits from sport when coaches have the training and skills to go beyond the X’s and O’s. We invite you to join us at USOPC in creating a new standard of coaching—one that equips a generation of young people with the skills to succeed both on the field and in life. Together, we can ensure that every young athlete has a coach who goes beyond the X’s and O’s, nurturing not just champions on the field, but champions in life.
The views in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of CASEL.
Suzu Cornella is the Manager of Coaching Education Programs at the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC). With an M.Sc. in Applied Sport Psychology and B.S. in Education, she focuses on bringing youth development techniques to coaches of all sports with the SCE Million Coaches Challenge. A former international competitive sport climber, Suzu uses her experience as an athlete, coach, and now as a mother to share the importance of SEL in sport.
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