Leading While Losing: Elite Coaches’ Perspectives of Losing Streaks

Abstract

The aim of this study was to explore the perspectives of elite professional football coaches when their team has experienced a “losing streak” of at least three consecutive matches. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 12 elite coaches from the National Rugby League, Australian Football League, and Super Rugby or international-level Rugby Union. Reflexive thematic analysis resulted in the development of six themes, which were organized under a practical three-phase framework. The “pre” phase included (a) team environment; the “during” phase included (b) context of the streak influences strategy, (c) coach approach with the team, (d) disruption in the team dynamic, (e) the coaches’ personal response; and the “post” phase included (f) poststreak reflection. These coaches encountered complex multifactorial contextual situations, which required them to accurately assess the underlying issues that were causing failure and decide on a leadership approach that would reverse underperformance. Overall, these findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the temporal dimension of coaches’ approaches to losing streaks and highlight the critical process involved in establishing a team environment capable of responding with positive individual and collective cognitive and behavioral responses following successive losses.