Importance of Empathy in Coaching Athletes

I have the pleasure of speaking with Prof Stephen Rollnick in this episode. Stephen provides consultancy, mentorship and training on the subjects of motivation, change, teamwork and Motivational Interviewing (MI) of which he is a co-founder.

Stephen is a clinical psychologist and an Honorary Distinguished Professor in the School of Medicine in Cardiff University. He has also co-authored the brilliant book Coaching Athletes to be Their Best: Motivational Interviewing in Sports and it’s this book we mainly speak about, specifically relationship building; Motivational Interviewing (MI); how to speak to groups to get the most out of them; using empathy to help people change; building trust with players; and we give an example of what MI can look like in practice.