You have to make the athlete more afraid of the coach than the skill. This chilling coaching mantra sums it up except that it’s written in plain view of the perpetrator, and the victim. It is an approach that prizes medals and records above the mental and emotional health of young competitors. But at what cost?
For many athletes fear-based coaching isn’t just tough love it’s a regime of intimidation with a brutality that leaves scars long after their final game or competition. That you’re compromised feeling has led athletes to describe too many of their experiences as “hostage situations,” from being belittled for displaying fear to suffering public humiliation. One gymnast recounted a regimen of daily punishment such as performing push-ups and climbing ropes until they collapse, simply for failing to execute dangerous acrobatic skills. It was not just about the physical dangers but also the fury of their coach, adding two layers of fright to their lives.replace me
That toxic atmosphere affects not only performance it alters the athlete’s mind-set. A psychologist published in the Frontiers in Psychology that conveyed how authoritarian leadership can cause increased anxiety and burnout for the athlete as well as less enjoyment and less sense of perceived competence. Such coaches can’t imagine the long-term damage they cause and label the athletes who make like they are quitting as “quitters” rather than traumas they suffered.
Fear-based coaching does not stop at the end of the sporting arena. For many former players, relationships, self-worth, and boundaries can become fractured. One of the main discoveries made by the Center for Sports Studies, is that authoritarian coaching is not a means to build trust, it actually destroys it and, in doing so, robs athletes of the ability to form healthy relationships in their own lives.
And this loss of autonomy may be the most insidious. Athletes from authoritarian regimes often lose their capacity to be either self-advocates or to set personal boundaries. They become people-pleasers, incapable of rejecting demands or recognizing poisonous conditions. Such undermining of autonomy carries over into adulthood, impacting career decisions, relationships, and even their ability to listen to their gut.
The psychological toll goes beyond just the athletes. Even the coaches themselves are sometimes caught in a system that withholds sorts of motivators that don’t rely on fear. As Laura Miele, PhD, wrote in Psychology Today, “Coaches often feel the pressure to win throughout the season, sometimes inadvertently projecting their anxiety onto their players.” It’s a domino effect. One player goes down, followed by the next until the whole team is out of kilter and confidence.
So, what’s the alternative? Research repeatedly finds that democratic styles of coaching that encourage autonomy and provide support result in better psychological experiences for athletes. These approaches also build trust, promote open dialogue, and empower athletes to take control over their training and performance. Unlike its authoritarian counterpart, democratic coaching is driven by resilience and motivation, not fear.
Now is the time to question the notion that fear is a must-have for success. Athletes are human beings, not machines, and deserves to be heeded much more than if a trophy is on the line.
The stories of these recovering athletes act as a warning to the sporting world. We will never fully explain away the fear-based coaching that finds root in such toxicity, but by listening to their experiences and using patterns of harm, we help to infect and interrupt this process. Real success, after all, isn’t just about winning it’s about thriving.
