It is very common for coaches to feel bad when their athletes suffer disappointments, so what’s the best way to deal and cope with this situation when it arises? Denise used to use techniques and rational thinking to help the Scotland National athletes, ‘park it’ so that they could quickly learn from poor performances and plan for the next one. Nowadays, Denise no longer uses strategies to help athletes or herself to feel better; instead, she points sportspeople towards understanding the source of human realities. It may seem a little odd to suggest that coaches do not need to intervene, that there is nothing wrong or to be done when athletes experience ‘unproductive interference’, but this approach has proven transformative with Denise’s clients. By using a parenting example, Denise shares a recent shift which has helped her family enormously when it comes to coping with disappointment.
