The objectives haven’t changed.
The pathway in endeavouring to reach them, though, most certainly has.
The aim is in the name.
Pursuit.
Pursuit in providing improved, impactful coaching and technical assistance to Canadian high-performance athletes. In increasing investment, both financial and in on-the-ground ways, into those individuals entrusted with shaping sport in this country.
In helping tighten an often-fragmented sporting landscape across the country. In enhancing experience for all. In providing an environment that can draw the most out of everyone involved. In putting people first.
And it’s working.
“I’d say Pursuit has been one of the most successful approaches to partnering with other organizations around one common priority, and that priority is elevating the quality of Canada’s high-performance coaches and technical leaders in sport,’’ estimates Own the Podium chief executive officer, Anne Merklinger.
“We have a lot of momentum these days. We’re working in an environment where people are much more candid and feel safer coming forward to share the good, and I think that’s wonderful,” said Merklinger.
“I’d say also that every leader in sport in Canada right now is 100 per cent committed to making sure we deliver the best possible sporting experience for every person involved.”
Own the Podium’s Pursuit program is spearheading a shift in emphasis. By providing improved, impactful coaching and technical assistance to Canadian high-performance athletes and assigning coaches and high-performance directors. By increasing investment, both financial and in on-the-ground ways, into those individuals entrusted with shaping sport in this country.
By helping tighten an often-fragmented sporting landscape across the country. By creating a safe-sport environment that can draw out the utmost in each individual.
The first tile of the domino effect towards progressive high-performance sport lies, naturally enough, in coaching. More valued, well-rounded, empathic and emotionally invested coaches, it stands to reason, will aid in producing better athletes and, in the long run, better people.
“An absolute game changer,’’ says Lorraine Lafreniere, chief executive officer of the Coaching Association of Canada, of the Pursuit program. “I can’t think of a better way to describe it.
“Just a tremendous initiative.
“I know that now coaches see a difference in their performance and in how they’re valued.
“And, as we know, theirs is a hard job. They are a precious resource. That was really the driver that brought us together. The national sport organizations on their own have limited resources and limited skill sets in developing coaches. There are some great high-performance directors, and technical directors, out there but the truth of the matter is they don’t have the resources.
“Who’s caring for the caregiver? That’s what this is really about. It’s about growth and development for the person who’s so focused on someone else’s performance growth and development.
“Through this program we can build this incredible body of expertise and knowledge to impact generations of coaches. And the messaging is consistent – we need people to work better together – and we can focus on our organization knowing you’re going to be there to help.”
Partnering in the Pursuit initiative, tied to nearly every summer and winter Olympic and Paralympic sport (50 summer and 29 winter high-performance sports), are Sport Canada, the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC), the Canadian Paralympic Committee (CPC), the Coaching Association of Canada (CAC) and Own the Podium (OTP).
“Pursuit,’’ chimes in OTP Pursuit lead Laura Watson, “strives to support people in a journey of continuous improvement. Sport’s greatest asset are its people. Pursuit is dedicated to the personal and professional development of high-performance coaches and technical leaders.
“The Pursuit program creates an environment where people can focus on being their best selves.”
The COC and CPC are injecting the essential financial backing for Pursuit. Over $800,000 a year is being invested into the ongoing upgrade in coaching and technical expertise of national sport organizations (NSO).
And if the program wasn’t successful, adds Merklinger, “they wouldn’t be sustaining the financial investment. It’s that simple.”
The priority, as noted, is people.
“In the high-performance world a few years ago, it was all about results,’’ acknowledges Sian Bolton of Ski Jumping Canada.
“Now, it’s much more focused on athletes performing to their highest potential and in helping them achieve what they’re capable of. But – and this is so important – not to the detriment of their long-term wellness.
“We’re trying to guide them as much as possible these days. And I think the coaches have the same mindset – look out for our athletes long-term, not just how they’re performing this year. Look at each athlete and say: ‘What’s his or her potential?’ Not all of our athletes are going to be on the podium, but the coaches should spend just as much time working with those athletes so that if they’re currently sometimes in, say, the top-30, soon they will always be in the top-30.
“They deserve just as much attention as those who we know can reach podiums on any given weekend.’’
The offshoot initiatives of the Pursuit program are many and varied. Gaps are being identified. Bolton and Own the Podium’s high-performance advisor, Libby Burrell, for instance, owing to the tightly packed, nearly uninterrupted competitive schedule, collaborated with national ski jumping team coaches to organize a wellness camp in lieu of a few World Cup fixtures to better prepare athletes for World Championships.
“The coaches basically looked at them and said: ‘OK, these people need a break. We’ve got World Championships coming up and we need the athletes to be at their best’,’’ explains Bolton.
“They went to Croatia, a beautiful area by the coast. A sports psychologist, one permanently attached to the team, travelled with them. They did team building events, they did trust building events between coaches and athletes – how they can communicate better between each other.
“And they also took some time out for themselves, to have a bit of fun.”
Another progressive ski jumping launch arrived in the form of an annual Coaching Forum, where coaches from Europe trek over to Canada for a week and work with Canadian high-performance counterparts, as well as with club and provincial coaches.
“The reasoning behind that initially was, every sport has the same problem – you lose athletes at a certain age,’’ Bolton says.
“Every time an athlete goes from one level to another, from club to provincial or provincial to national, you can lose athletes. We looked at that and figured that part of it might be because they go from one coaching style to another coaching style. So, we really wanted to get the coaches at all levels, from club to national, working together, communicating together; working as a team. So, the athlete progression would be as seamless, as comfortable, as possible.
“We’re very happy with how it’s gone.”
The Forum has expanded to include various mental wellness training exercises, using it as an opportunity for coaches to work on development plans for athletes transitioning from one stage to another and in planning for life after high-performance sport.
“People are not looking at athletes as a commodity to be used anymore. Now it’s more of a holistic approach: How can we support these people after their jumping careers and have good futures?”
The answer is in Pursuit.
The genesis of the initiative can be traced back to 2014, after a study by the COC of the top priorities of national sport organizations determined that investment in leadership development of key technical personnel was sadly lagging.
“They recognized that it was important to do but that they didn’t necessarily have the capacity or resources to invest in world-class professional development of their leaders – that would include chief executive officers, coaches and technical directors,’’ explains Marg McGregor, COC’s original point person on the program.
“It became important for the COC to support national sport organizations in the development of their key personnel to keep them healthy and ensure they are growing and world class, but also to retain them. Once we’ve developed coaches we don’t want to lose them, either to retirement or to other nations. If you feel that someone cares about your growth and development, that makes a difference in your skills but also in your commitment to the country, to Team Canada.”
The initial initiative focused solely on the elevation/improvement of the always-critical, all-too-often-undervalued job of coaching.
Roughly a year later, following a review of high-performance coaching in Canada by contracted individuals, an implementation plan had been developed.
Findings and recommendations were presented by OTP to the COC late in 2015, and by the fall of the next year OTP had received significant funding to move forward with what was then called the Coaching Enhancement Program.
The slowdown/shutdown necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic provided more time for analysis, and it became clear the net hadn’t been cast wide enough. That’s when program partners pivoted to include technical directors alongside coaches. A CEO leadership development program had also been established by the COC.
This expanded initiative was rebranded Pursuit.
That sense of heightened belief is echoed by Karen O’Neill, chief executive officer of the Canadian Paralympic Committee.
“I’m going to speak from a para perspective here, but when you’ve got coaches who are either volunteering or not being enumerated or compensated at the levels they should be – up until recently, I’d say in the last four to six years, so many of them were part-time or volunteer or very reduced payment … well, there’s a level of respect and psychology about value, of the sport, of an individual’s leadership,’’ she says.
“I think Pursuit has been a great model. You pick an area, you create some intentionality and vision, and everybody puts their shoulders behind it.
“It is a platform for learning how to operate differently in sport. Contained. Focused.”
Among the innovative initiatives within Pursuit is Canada Leads, an opportunity for peers in the coaching and technical development areas to come together in groups far from prying eyes and talk freely about common challenges; along with a highly successful mentorship program headed up by Max Gartner.
And the COC is all in in support.
“That peer-to-peer support is huge; really impactful. It helps diminish that sense of isolation,’’ says McGregor. “Again, these people are under intense pressure to deliver results and to ensure they have a solid culture of excellence within their team while dealing with a whole roster of challenging issues outside the field of play.
“So, to have a cohort, a like-minded individual in your network is really impactful. Within your own sport organization sometimes it’s very hard to express concerns, weakness, gaps in your skill set. But when you’re in a safe environment with other experts in the field, those are conditions where real learning can take place and real growth happens.”
The shift in priority, in tone, benefits everyone, says cyclist Laura Brown, a bronze medallist at the 2016 Rio Summer Games in the Team Pursuit who has successfully segued into coaching. Now, and even more importantly, down the road.
“It comes back to the leave-it-better-than-you-found-it idea,’’ she stresses.
“Sport is just a small sliver of your life. If we can help these young people function in this world, be adults and take responsibility, if we can do that through sport, that’s what we want.
“If you can help athletes learn and reflect and make decisions on their own, when they leave sport and go out, they’re going to have the post-sport skills to make the world a better place because they’re going to be good people.”
The pursuit is ongoing.
The aim, after all, is in the name.