Coaches: The gatekeepers of psychological safety

Coaches hold more influence over an athlete's experience than almost anyone else in the sporting environment. That influence can be one of the most powerful forces for safety, or one of the most significant barriers to it.

Why psychological safety matters for coaches

Built in the small moments

Psychological safety isn't 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

Small, repeated moments

These small, repeated moments accumulate into a culture that either supports or undermines psychological safety and therefore performance and wellbeing.

Relational awareness

Often, coaches are experts in teaching their sport and skill, but perhaps lack the relational awareness that is required for psychological safety to exist.

Creating space

It isn't 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.

Effective communication Empathy Listening Autonomy-supportive behaviours

The fabric of psychological safety

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.

Psychological safety test

How safe do you and your athletes feel?

Take the free 3-minute Psychological Safety test.

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What the research tells us

The quality of the coach-athlete relationship is found to be the strongest predictor of psychological safety.

  1. 1

    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.

  2. 2

    Coaches who reported feeling psychologically safe themselves are better able to foster it for their athletes, whereas coaches who didn't feel safe themselves found it difficult to ensure it in their environment.

  3. 3

    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.

References: Gosai et al., 2023; Isoard-Gautheur et al., 2016; Jowett & Shanmugam, 2016; Sauvé et al., 2023; Stanford et al., 2022

Psychological safety is not the alternative to high standards.
It is what makes high standards sustainable.

How Creating Space can help

Creating Space works with coaches to build understanding, relational skills, and self-awareness. 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.

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.

  1. 1

    Lived experience

    The session opens by grounding psychological safety in lived experience before it is defined, so it feels immediately relevant rather than abstract.

  2. 2

    Your environment

    Coaches explore what PS actually looks like within the coach-athlete relationship and what it looks like in their specific environment.

  3. 3

    Honest reflection

    Honest reflection on the everyday behaviours and interactions that build or undermine it.

  4. 4

    Relational skills

    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.

  5. 5

    Self-reflection

    Self-reflection tools to evaluate their own experience of psychological safety and how that affects what they are able to create for their athletes.

What coaches take away

A personal commitment card
A PS assessment tool

To use in their environment in the weeks after the session.

  • 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

Ready to start creating space for psychological safety?

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