Hidden Costs of Coaching - Part 2
Last time, I wrote about isolation and how working alone can quietly slow your development. This is what often comes next. Uncertainty and with it, Decision Fatigue.
Now we aren’t talking about obvious uncertainty, where it’s clear everything is going wrong. I am talking about the quieter kind that sits underneath your day-to-day work. The kind that makes you question yourself even when sessions are running well!
A coach I worked with recently described it in a way that stayed with me.
He was running good sessions. Athletes were engaged. Data was being collected. Programmes were structured. From the outside, everything looked solid. There were no obvious issues, no major red flags, and no clear signs that anything needed to change.
But internally, he kept returning to the same questions:
“Is this actually right?”
It wasn’t a one-off thought. It followed him through his day to day routines. We discussed what that experience felt like. Whether it was immediately after sessions, during planning, when reviewing data, when deciding whether to push or pull - it was the nagging presence of doubt. Nothing was clearly wrong, but nothing felt fully certain either.
Over time, that uncertainty began to shape influence how he operated in a preservation and reactive manner. He started tweaking sessions more often than necessary. Changing things that were probably already effective. Holding back progressions because he wasn’t fully confident in the decision, then overcorrecting the following week. Small adjustments became constant adjustments, and decisions that should have been straightforward began to feel heavier than they needed to be.
I felt for that coach, because I too had been there and experienced the same “tweaking” unnecessarily.
For both of us on reflection, our behaviours weren't because we lacked knowledge. We lacked confirmation.
And that’s where uncertainty becomes costly.
It doesn’t stop you from working. It slows how effectively you work. It increases the number of decisions you carry, extends the time you spend thinking about them, and gradually drains the mental energy you need to coach well. I reflected on how Id moved from working in a big team, to working as a sole operator. Yes, more leadership responsibilities, but no one to sense check ideas with all of a sudden. That isolation created doubt,
This pattern shows up across many different areas of performance.
In S&C, it often looks like constant adjustment. Rewriting sessions late at night, changing exercises not because they are wrong, but because you are unsure if they are optimal. The difference between “good” and “best” becomes blurred, and that uncertainty leads to unnecessary change.
In working with Data, it shows up as second-guessing outputs. You question whether your system is telling you the right story, spend hours trying to validate numbers, and hesitate to act on insights that should be guiding your decisions. The issue is rarely the data itself, but your confidence in interpreting it.
In the context of Rehab, it becomes over-planning. You try to cover every possible variable to avoid getting it wrong, which often leads to complexity where clarity is needed. The priority of the phase becomes diluted because too many options are being considered at once.
And in working within youth development, you see coaches uncertain about whether what they are programming is “enough” to create changes and development, when actually brilliant basics are all thats needed.
Different contexts. But the same underlying issues. Theres too many decisions, not enough clarity, not enough people to sense check ideas with.
One of the biggest misconceptions in coaching is that uncertainty is a knowledge problem. In most cases, it isn’t. It is a decision-making problem under constraint.
You are working in environments where time is limited, information is incomplete, and outcomes are uncertain. There is rarely a single correct answer, and decisions often need to be made before you feel completely ready.
So you do what thoughtful coaches tend to do. You think more. You analyse more. You try to get it right on your own!!
But without a way to sense-check your thinking, that process becomes heavy. The same questions resurface. The same decisions get revisited. And over time, the weight of that uncertainty builds. That same coach reflected on what changed once he had regular conversations around his work as part of our mentorship together.
He didn’t suddenly adopt a completely new system, and he didn’t overhaul everything he was doing. The fundamentals of his approach were already sound. What shifted was the speed and confidence with which he made decisions. He no longer felt the need to revisit the same questions repeatedly, or second-guess choices that were already justified.
Instead, he began to trust his reasoning. But, he also had the support to check in and ask my opinion too when he felt he needed that confirmation, or even the need to be challenged.
This is where perspective really does become so valuable.
Perspective does not remove complexity from any decision, but it helps you prioritise within it. It allows you to recognise which decisions actually matter, which variables deserve attention, and which concerns can be set aside. Without that filter, everything feels important, and when everything feels important, decision-making becomes slower and less effective.
Over time, that has a cumulative effect.
Coaches begin to spend more time thinking than acting. Decisions take longer than they should. Adjustments become reactive rather than intentional. Energy is spent managing uncertainty rather than progressing the athlete in front of you. From the outside, this is rarely visible, but internally it becomes draining.
What changes when coaches introduce regular discussion and feedback is not just what they do, but how they process situations!
They begin to recognise patterns earlier. They develop a clearer sense of priority. They understand when to act decisively and when to hold. Their thinking becomes more efficient, and that efficiency allows them to operate with greater consistency under pressure.
And that consistency matters.
Because coaching is not just about making good decisions. It is about making good decisions repeatedly, in environments that are often unpredictable and demanding. When clarity improves, confidence tends to follow. Not as a personality trait, but as a by-product of understanding.
The really cool part is recognising uncertainty, and using it to help signal a different response….
When you transition your relationship with uncertainty towards proactive outcomes, it no longer sits in the background anymore. It becomes more of a signal for you. Something that tells you, “this needs a bit more thought” rather than something that lingers and follows you around longer than it should.
And that’s probably the real benefit.
Not removing uncertainty completely, but getting better at recognising when it’s there, and understanding what to do with it. From a self-awareness point of view, that’s a big shift. You start to notice your own patterns; when you’re overthinking, when you’re hesitating, when you’re going round in circles.
It’s at this point that seeking support, from a trusted guide or a peer can help save you so much time, and any emotional anxiety often linked with the hidden cost of coaching that is uncertainty.
So it’s worth taking a step back and asking yourself a few honest questions.
Where are you holding onto decisions longer than you need to?
Which parts of your work feel heavier than they probably should?
And when uncertainty shows up, are you stubbornly working through it alone?
Could you benefit from reaching out to share your uncertainty with someone?
And that is usually the difference.
Not whether uncertainty exists, but whether you’re able and willing to not go it alone!
Did this resonate with you? We have our group mentorship programs starting in April - whether your skill gaps are in Rehab, Soft Skills, S&C, Data, or LTAD, we have ways we can help. Enrol here for April Cohorts.
