When Technical Excellence Isn’t Enough: The Real Reason High-Performance Athletes Don’t Apply Coaching

Recently, I had a conversation with a very high-performance coach.

This wasn’t a rookie.
This was a coach who has produced dominant athletes over decades.
Technically, one of the best in the world at what they do.

And yet, the opening line of the call caught me off guard:

“Dave, I can’t do this anymore. I’m completely frustrated. Something has to change… or I’m done.”

That sentence should make every elite coach pause.

Because if this level of coach is feeling burnt out and unheard, the issue isn’t competence.
It’s something deeper.

“They Just Don’t Listen Anymore”

Like many coaches today, his frustration was directed at the athletes.

“They don’t listen.”
“Athletes today are different.”
“They’re wired differently.”
“They won’t do what we tell them anymore.”

So I asked him a simple question:

“What specifically are you saying to them?”

His response?

“The same words I’ve always used. And they used to work.”

That’s where the real problem revealed itself.

The Core Issue: Delivery, Not Knowledge

The challenge wasn’t what he was teaching.

It was how it was landing.

As coaches, we are heavily trained in:

• Technique

• Tactics

• Physiology

• Programming

Modern coaching education is technically excellent.
Better than it’s ever been.

But where most coaches are undertrained is here:

How information is delivered, received, and absorbed by the modern athlete.

Athletes Haven’t Changed… But Their Psychology Has

Today’s athletes are not 'worse' or 'softer'.

They are different.

They:

• Process information faster

• Have instant access to knowledge (Google, YouTube, social platforms)

• Learn visually and contextually

• Expect relevance, not repetition

• Are neurologically wired for instant feedback and gratification

The old model of:

“Say it louder, say it more often, and they’ll get it”

No longer works.

Not because athletes are broken – but because the environment has evolved.

Landing vs. Sinking In: A Game-Changing Distinction

During our conversation, the coach said:

“I’m saying the same thing over and over, and it’s just not sinking in.”

So I asked:

“Is it not sinking in… or is it not landing?”

At first, he thought they were the same thing.

They’re not.

Here’s the distinction every coach must understand:

• If it lands but doesn’t sink in → that’s athlete integration

• If it doesn’t land at all → that’s coach delivery

Most coaching frustration comes from confusing the two.

When something doesn’t land, repeating it harder doesn’t help.
It just creates friction.

Where Coaches Are Actually Losing Time

Almost every coach tells me the same thing:

“I’m time-poor.”

Yet when we break down where their time is going, it’s usually here:

• Repeating the same instructions

• Correcting the same mistakes

• Feeling unheard

• Managing frustration (theirs and the athlete’s)

That’s not an athlete problem.

That’s a communication efficiency problem.

The Next Frontier of Athlete Development

The next leap in performance won’t come from:

• New drills

• More data

• More volume

It will come from a coach’s ability to:

• Understand athlete psychology under pressure

• Individualise communication

• Deliver information in a way that lands first time

• Match language, tone, and structure to the athlete’s processing style

This is the missing link between knowledge and application.

A Simple Exercise That Changes Everything

There’s one exercise I ask every coach to do – and it’s confronting in the best possible way.

Record your coaching.

Here’s how:

1. Before the session, write down exactly what you want the athlete to understand or change.

2. Record the audio of your coaching (a phone mic is enough).

3. Listen back later.

4. Ask yourself:

   • Did I actually say what I thought I said?

   • Was I specific?

   • Did my words match my intention?

   • Would I understand this if I were the athlete?

Almost every coach has the same realisation:

“I didn’t say what I thought I said.”

Our perception of our communication is often very different from the reality.

Awareness alone starts changing behaviour.

For Coaches: One Hard Question

If your:

• Technical knowledge is strong

• Physical preparation is sound

• Programming is solid

And yet performance is inconsistent…

Then the limiting factor isn’t technical.

It’s psychological.

Specifically:

• How you deliver information

• How athletes receive it

• How it holds under pressure

The coach I spoke to didn’t need new athletes.

He didn’t need new drills.

He didn’t even need new knowledge.

What he needed was a shift in where he placed his attention.

Once that changed, the frustration lifted – and momentum returned.

If you’re a coach who wants to:

• Get more traction from your athletes

• Stop repeating yourself

• Improve application under pressure

• Coach how athletes learn, not just what they do

Awareness is the first step.
Delivery is the multiplier.