What does it take to become a motorsport coach? Tom Hartley, Head of Competitor Development, Motorsport UK, shares upcoming developments for the coaching programme this National Coaching Week…

Motorsport coaching is perhaps less profiled as coaching in other sports, why do you think that this is?

I think coaching in motorsport originated from a different place, because drivers are an entity and a lot of the sport is geared around the mechanics of the car, coaching has necessarily felt as important because getting the vehicle prepped and ready has been the biggest priority.

As time has started to move on, teams and individuals have thought about marginal gains and what is going to give them a competitive advantage, there’s only so far you can go with investing in a vehicle, and actually the part of the sport that seems to be under resourced is the person. That’s why I think coaching is now starting to appear more frequently, why more drivers feel the need to have a coach and why more coaches need to be supported.

Other traditional Olympic and Paralympic sports have seen coaches as critical to bringing a team together, that organisation and coordination that a team needs, and motorsport is just slightly different in the sense that it has a rich history of instruction and safety coming first. Coaching is perceived as the next step.

Is coaching in motorsport negatively perceived?

The role of a coach is seen as a bit of an add-on rather than something that is integral to the support that sits around the driver, and where roles within the support such as a mechanic or team member offer some coaching or feedback, so coaching happens, but the role of the coach is slightly different and newer.

Coaching is a sleeping giant in motorsport, without a doubt it will be the difference for the future of sport, creating and supporting more champions of the future and providing engaging environments for younger people to get into the sport. Coaches are the guardians of motorsport, so they can pass it on to the next generation but also help those already there to fulfil their potential.

Is a symbiosis between coach and driver possible?

The connection between coach and driver is integral so the closeness of that relationship and having shared goals is critical to underpinning an effective coach-athlete relationship. Any coach working with a driver has the opportunity to get to know the person first, the driver second and to have a clear understanding of what they are trying to achieve and that should contribute towards that symbiosis and connection, so they are aligned.

You have aspirations to introduce a ‘gold standard’ in Motorsport UK’s coaching, can you tell us more…

In April we established a new project group called the ‘Future Coach’ and this group is made up of people representing lots of different disciplines and levels of the sport, as well as people from outside the sport to bring some different perspectives. We started to explore that coaching has a high potential to influence the experience of drivers, but there is nothing that currently exists to highlight that the gold standard is. So, with this group of experts we had two workshops where we have explored their experiences of coaching, what has worked, what hasn’t… the key knowledge, skills and competencies of the highest quality coaches, and we have started to develop a blueprint which highlights three foundational pillars for a high-quality coach. These being: technical practice and performance, coaching and interpersonal skills and guardianship and duty of care.

Motorsport UK will be hosting its own Performance Masterclass in September, what will that entail…

Motorsport UK will be delivering the masterclass online, it’s the first of its kind and will be a fantastic opportunity for coaches or anyone in motorsport to learn and share knowledge in their experiences. We will have a number of guest speakers who have oceans of experience from working in Olympic, Paralympic and professional sport with different themes throughout the day based on leadership and culture, neuroscience and human performance and based on coaching practice.

What inspired you to get into coaching?

Like quite a few people I am a failed footballer! When I was about 16 years old, I realised I was never going to make the full journey and coaching was what I wanted to do. I love it because it can make such a difference to people’s lives from playground to podium. You can help people to achieve things that they never thought was possible.