Winning well

Across the TAP team we have daily conversations with people working within the sporting system, from coaches and athletes, to board members, sport psychologists, referees, welfare officers and everyone in-between. It is a wonderfully privileged position to be in, and we find that people feel they can speak candidly with us – we think because we are recognised as an independent organisation with a sincere mission to help everyone have a better experience of sport. It also puts us in a fantastic place to gather insights from a wide range of perspectives and gain a sense of where there are subtle shifts happening across the landscape, what needs are felt strongest and how they show up, and also where there is doubt or uncertainty around the direction things are going. 

One topic that has been repeatedly raised in conversations over the past few years, and which is clearly something many sport leaders are grappling with, is the concept of ‘Winning Well’. Both UK Sport and the Australian Institute of Sport have chosen this phrase, Winning Well, from which to anchor their revamped performance strategies. This is a laudable and important shift away from a win-at-all-costs approach that has been the unofficial mantra of high-performance for the previous two to three decades. But what is clear is that there is a significant lack of clarity around what Winning Well actually means, and in some cases skepticism about the sincerity of this philosophic shift from the governing bodies.

While The True Athlete Project has its focus on something far greater than winning (which conveniently often helps athletes to win), the move to “Winning Well” is still a step in the right direction.

The overwhelming attitude among coaches and leaders that we speak to is one of vehement support for this new focus, but most are also unsure as to what it means in practice and how it will be fostered or encouraged by the powers that be. From our perspective we see no reason to be skeptical about the sincerity of the initiative – the vast majority of those we meet that work in sport administration are passionate and driven to create flourishing and safe sporting environments. So for us, we take it for granted that the will really is there. But there is clearly a job still to be done to align the people working in sport around the values, mindsets and behaviours of a culture that prioritises winning well as its central tenet.

This also happens to be our space at TAP, our backyard, so to speak. Since 2015 we have been on a mission to create a more compassionate culture of sport, showing how performance, wellbeing and social impact go hand in hand to create a better experience for everyone involved in sport, and to unleash sports’ immense potential as a force for good in the world. Our expertise is in showing how this can be achieved in a very practical way, embedded into the very act of practicing sport itself.

Therefore, we felt we wanted to contribute to the discussion by presenting TAP’s take on what Winning Well means. The purpose of this document is to help those people living and working in sport to get an overview of the themes, elements and characteristics that bring Winning Well to life. We are not presenting here the granular behaviours and practices (which is our bread and butter), but more like our own definition of Winning Well – what is essential and foundational to a sport culture that aspires to “win well”.

From this definition, we would hope leaders and practitioners are able to assess the extent to which their sporting environment lives up to the Winning Well approach, and also to identify any areas for improvement. Of course, what we describe in this document is our ideal of the Winning Well culture. We are well aware that some of what we describe here requires investment of resources such as time, energy and money – which many sporting environments are in short supply of. But the truth is that much of what is required to live up to this approach can be achieved simply through care, attention and a strong foundation of values such as integrity, compassion and ambition – even in spaces of sparse resources.

When people give examples of flourishing, safe sporting environments, they tend to describe both a culture that is values-led, and the essential health and wellbeing of the athletes, coaches and support staff themselves. But we rarely see Winning Well articulated in this way. This is therefore our starting point for our understanding of the concept of Winning Well – that it involves both being values-led and winning while well. We hope this approach will move us collectively forward, and catalyse even more conscious action towards making these ideas a reality.

This is not a definitive proclamation,  we simply hope that it will help to stimulate further discussion about what Winning Well means to others and in varied contexts. So please let us know if you have comments or reflections on any of what we present here.

We look forward to hearing from you!

The TAP team
[email protected]

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