Serial winning coaches’ strategies on reorienting to success following seasons of low performance and team culture

Madison M Fraser, Gordon A Bloom, Clifford J Mallett

Despite the depth and breadth of high-performance coaching research, the focus has largely been constrained to the positive aspects of coaching, such as how serial winning coaches (SWC) achieve success and create a winning team culture. Although the findings from SWC demonstrate their ability to be resilient in pursuing both personal and professional excellence, it is unclear how SWC act and react when facing challenges such as low team culture and uncharacteristically low performance. Thus, the purpose of this study was to explore the strategies that University SWC team sport coaches used to reorient to success following a season where both performance and team culture were low. Seven University serial winning head coaches were interviewed, with an average of 23.3 years of experience and 37 combined National Championship titles among them. Following virtual semi-structured interviews, data was analyzed through a reflexive thematic analysis. Our findings showed that despite struggling throughout the season, SWC dedicated a lot of time to reflecting on their actions after the season had finished. From these reflections, coaches examined the relationship between culture and performance, and identified key elements in building a winning team culture. Further, SWC identified areas of improvement both for themselves and for their athletes, and brainstormed strategies to reorient their team to success. Their strategies included shared leadership, changing the mindset of the team, and setting the culture early. These findings shed light on how SWC approach challenging situations and may be applicable to coaches of a range of experience levels.