An Athlete's Experience of Tough vs. Toxic Coaching

This post is part three of a series.

In my last post , I talked about a prevalent problem when I was growing up in sports (in the '80s and '90s) of parents and coaches misconstruing the maltreatment of athletes as just “tough coaching ,” and not only tolerating it but also celebrating it as a best practice. Even now, in my role as a philosophical counselor who helps recovering athletes, I regularly encounter widespread confusion about what distinguishes tough, but healthy coaching from toxic or abusive coaching. Having lived through both in my club and NCAA gymnastics career , I want to take some time to sketch this difference from the inside.

Here are five key things that tough, but healthy coaches emphasized in comparison to toxic coaches.

1. Support, safety, and trust vs. threa