Why psychological safety matters for coaches
Psychological safety is not this big framework or concept that needs to be imposed upon coaches, but rather it is built in the small moments of connection and day-to-day interactions between coaches and athletes. The way feedback is given, how mistakes are responded to, whether questions are welcomed or shut down, these small, repeated moments accumulate into a culture that either supports or undermines psychological safety and therefore performance and wellbeing.
Often, coaches are experts in teaching their sport and skill, but perhaps lack the relational awareness that is required for psychological safety to exist. It is not always about the presence of harmful behaviour that makes psychological safety relevant, but whether or not coaches create space for athletes to talk to them comfortably, raise concerns or discuss something that is going on outside of training.
Relational skills like effective communication, empathy, listening, and autonomy-supportive behaviours are really what make up the fabric of psychological safety, and fostering these skills within your coach-athlete relationship or team will create or improve your culture of safety, contributing to better athlete wellbeing and performance.
What the research tells us
Coach behaviour is one of the strongest predictors of athlete motivation, dropout, and psychological wellbeing. Autonomy-supportive coaching has been consistently linked to greater athlete engagement and lower burnout.
Coaches who reported feeling psychologically safe themselves are better able to foster it for their athletes, whereas coaches who did not feel safe themselves found it difficult to ensure it in their environment.
The quality of the coach-athlete relationship is found to be the strongest predictor of psychological safety.
Coaches who model openness to feedback, tolerance of mistakes and interest in the athlete as a person fostered better psychological safety within their teams, whereas negative coaching behaviours were linked with short and long-term psychological harm with effects that extend beyond the sporting career.
How Creating Space can help
Psychological safety is not the alternative to high standards. It is what makes high standards sustainable.
Creating Space works with coaches to build understanding, relational skills, and self-awareness, not to critique their practice. Sessions are grounded in the reality of what coaching actually demands, and start from the position that most coaches care deeply about their athletes and want to create the best possible environment for them.
The session opens by grounding psychological safety in lived experience before it is defined, so it feels immediately relevant rather than abstract. Coaches explore what PS actually looks like within the coach-athlete relationship and what it looks like in their specific environment, before moving into honest reflection on the everyday behaviours and interactions that build or undermine it.
From there, the focus shifts to building the practical relational skills that underpin psychological safety: effective communication, empathy, listening, and how to create space for athlete voice whilst maintaining the discipline and rigour the sport requires. Coaches also receive self-reflection tools to evaluate their own experience of psychological safety and how that affects what they are able to create for their athletes.
Every coach leaves with a personal commitment card and a PS assessment tool they can use in their environment in the weeks after the session. Sessions are available for individual coaches, coaching teams, or as part of a wider club or organisational programme that extends to the full staff and support team.
Outcomes
- A clear understanding of what psychological safety is, what it is not, and their role as the primary gatekeeper of it in their athletes' experience
- Guidance on how to build relational skills and create space for empathy, listening and communication so that athlete voice is genuinely encouraged
- Guidance on recognising the signs that psychological safety may be absent for an athlete, and practical steps to address it
- Self-reflection tools to evaluate their own experience of psychological safety and how this affects their environment
- Practical guidance on maintaining the discipline and rigour that sport requires whilst creating an environment where athletes feel genuinely safe to train, fail, and grow
- A personal commitment card and a PS assessment tool to use with their athletes in the weeks following the session