CONTRIBUTING TO A BETTER COACHING WORLD
Coaching is the greatest profession in the world! Helping athletes succeed is a wonderful feeling as you know, It is one of my true passions. I knew I wanted to be a coach at 14 years old and started coaching at 17, while going to college at the same time. I spent the last 40 years coaching speedskaters in the Netherlands (12 years), USA (10), Germany (4) and Canada (14), working in 4 different cultures with tons of different personalities from a large variety of backgrounds, contributing to 10 Olympic Medals as well as 35 World Championships Medals and 8 World Records.
Over the years I have gradually become more interested in helping coaches like you perform better. I was asked to support several Olympic and Paralympic coaches, mentored a foreign coach daily for 2 years and helped assistant coaches grow. During my career, coaches approached me and brought up great questions that lead to deep discussions. I saw many coaches struggle and even leave sport altogether. I want to help make the coaching profession a better, more enjoyable place. I care about you as a coach. This is where I want to focus my attention now: coaching and mentoring coaches like you, to be the best in any sport and in any country.
I want to contribute to a better sports world. A world where coaches can increase their Performance, win more and make coaching a long-lasting career. I would like you to achieve improved well-being, improved life-work balance, more satisfying connections and relationships with your athletes, staff and management, decreased loneliness, growth as a human and a coach and a better family life. My mentoring aims to arrive there by offering you support through asking questions, deep listening, great conversations and drawing from my experience. My coaching will give you a second, supportive perspective, so that you can achieve your own goals and the goals of your athletes.
“I’ve worked with many coaches but up until I started working with Bart, none were able to really figure out what I needed. Bart was able to adapt to my unique needs quickly and we soon started winning. This is a testament of Bart’s versatility and commitment. Bart knows what you need, and you will give up before he does.
After I retire from speed skating I’m looking forward to a career in coaching. Empowered and inspired by Bart’s teachings and the knowledge that he’ll be there to teach me some more.”
Ted-Jan Bloemen, Olympic Champion.
YOU
You are not a coach; you are a person who coaches. And as someone who coaches, you believe that your coaching improves your athletes’ Performance and well-being. This therefore means you believe you can improve your coaching Performance through being coached yourself, through working with your own personal coach.
There is a paradox in coaching: coaching is not about you, but it is entirely about you! You are serving and leading your athletes, and at the same time your behavior is their example. How can you show up every day as Your Best Self and model Coaching Excellence?
You are hired for your Mind. Yes, you are hired for your Mind!
The next frontier in improving performance, in giving an organization the biggest competitive advantage, is the development of your Mind, the coaches’ Mind. Your state of mind determines how well you function and how you present to your athletes and team. It’s about developing your Self-Leadership; the ability to guide yourself with clarity, purpose and resilience, to serve and lead with a clear mind.
Your Mind will function better by increasing your awareness, tuning into your thinking, intuition and experience, developing your mindfulness and by you being healthy and fresh. You being coached can help you improve your desired state of Mind. Your coach can help you bring out Your Best Self in your job and daily life.
MY COACHING EXPERIENCE
I have coached speed skating at every level and have been very successful with athletes winning numerous Olympic Medals, World Championship Medals and setting World Records. I cherish the great relationships with athletes, coaches and staff and thoroughly enjoyed working with a lot of people, including athletes and support staff from 13 different countries. It has given me so much fulfillment, energy and enjoyment and these work and personal connections still mean the world to me. Coaching is a blast, and I have enjoyed the road to winning just as much as the success I have been allowed to be a part of.
I also experienced the Shadow Side of coaching through experiencing burnout, the loneliness of the Head Coach, feeling the responsibility for athletes lives and success, missing life-work balance, living out of your suitcase, travel and jet-lags, lack of self-care, anxiety, seasonal weight gain, athletes with serious mental and physical health issues, the cumulative effect of caring for your athletes over the years, knowing some athletes will not make it, starting new jobs in new countries relocating the family, stress, health problems, not being mentally present during family time, pressure to perform, fear of losing your job or sponsor, sleepless nights, imposter syndrome, self-doubt, the challenge of figuring out a new culture with different standards of behavior and more. Wow, there really is a Shadow Side to coaching!
As you can imagine, I could have benefited from someone to talk with. I should have had someone to talk with, instead of having to work through it alone. I should have recognized this and taken advantage of great people around me. But my ego thought I could do it all alone. Are we as coaches not all thinking like this at times and not listening to advice enough? You don’t have to do this alone, you can work with a mentor or coach, work with me!
YOUR PASSION
Your passion is in coaching as well. You love it, but also understand and are living the Shadow Side of coaching. And no matter this Shadow Side, you want to coach for the rest of your life.
The question then becomes:
How can you optimize your positive experience and how can you minimize the Weight or cost of coaching to yourself and your family to achieve longevity, and to bring out Your Best Self every day to improve your Performance and increase your probability of Winning?
Here is a possible answer to that question.
As you believe in coaching, why not have a coach yourself? Someone who has been in the trenches and has experienced it all. Someone to talk to, who asks you the right questions, listens well, is in there with you, can ease the loneliness, who can understand what you are going through and can give you a supportive perspective.
Your organization also understands that you, as the Head Coach, are vital to the Performance of your organization and your organization is willing to invest in your optimal functioning. Professional development funds should be available for you to augment your coaching capabilities. You also may be willing to invest in yourself.
But, very important, I have only one obligation, and that is only towards you and your improvement alone, not to the organization! Our conversations are confidential and will not be shared with anyone in your organization. Even if your organization pays for the coaching.