The Pathway Blog: Fostering Growth Mindsets

-Bryn Saunders

In this month's blog, I wanted to delve deeper into some of the thinking that underpins our approach, and help parents better understand how the learning environment we are building is designed to support long-term success.

At the Academy, we have some key values which run straight through from our little ninjas' pledge, all the way to our approach to international performance. Fencers are always encouraged to overcome their challenges and to help each other on their journeys.

By framing the approach to training and learning in these terms, we are trying to from day one, create a culture conducive to learning, exploration and growth, empowering our athletes to meet challenges head-on and overcome fears of failure. As athletes mature and fencing becomes a larger part of their identity, reinforcing these guiding principles helps them become more resilient to setbacks, more likely to challenge themselves and more likely to take more ownership of their journey as young athletes -skills which are just as valuable off the fencing piste as they are on it.

Growth Mindsets Carol Dweck is one of the most prominent educational psychologists of the last 50 years, having introduced the concepts of fixed and growth mindsets in 1988.

"In a fixed mindset students believe their basic abilities, their intelligence, their talents, are just fixed traits. They have a certain amount and that's that, and then their goal becomes to look smart all the time and never look dumb. In a growth mindset students understand that their talents and abilities can be developed through effort, good teaching and persistence. They don't necessarily think everyone's the same or anyone can be Einstein, but they believe everyone can get smarter if they work at it."

Whilst this insight has had profound implications for the approach to teaching and construction of learning environments in school, it is equally, if not more so, important for development in sports -particularly skill sports such as fencing where progress is non-linear and always involves direct competition with an opponent.

Avoiding The Trap of "Talent"

As coaches, it is very common for us to hear phrases such as, "he is really talented at sabre" "does my child have talent for the sport, what is her potential?" "She's just always been really good at parries". When we coach, it's easy to go down the line of thought of "he just gets it".

When an athlete's self-perception of their ability has formed part of their social identity, this can have a very negative consequence of fostering risk adverse behaviour. Rather than being motivated by a desire to improve, they can become motivated by a desire to not have that identity challenged, especially in front of a coach, parent or peers. This can mean not working on new skills, protecting oneself emotionally with thoughts such as "well, if I'd tried 100% I would have won", avoiding harder competitions, or holding back in training to maintain an advantage over a peer. Over time, this stifles development and the athlete isn't able to reach their full potential.

When working with young athletes, as either a coach or a parent, it is crucial to bear this in mind. Effort and improvement should be praised more than results. Athletes need the freedom and support to fail so they can grow from the experience. Fixed definitions of skill or aptitude should be avoided at all costs. Athletes should be reminded to look back and appreciate how far they have come through their own efforts. This last point is particularly important for fencers; it is easy for a runner or swimmer or golfer to measure their progress by looking at the improvement of their PBs or handicap, but for a fencer who is improving within a group of peers they are likely to instinctively measure their success relative to those peers, without a view to how their own skills have actually improved.

Every fencer at the Academy has heard the phrase "the individual's success is the team's triumph". This core message helps draw attention to the development that fencers make as part of a team by learning to support each other's development by pushing each other; a rising tide lifts all boats.

Into Practice

One of the big success stories for the Academy in recent years has been the progress made by the cohort of U20 and U17 girls who have made up the majority of recent GBR championships squads. This didn't happen because of a lucky "golden generation", but is rather the result of providing an environment where those girls are able to work hard together to push each other to the greatest heights with a constant hunger to improve and belief that they can inmprove.

It is our hope that these trailblazing athletes will serve as the example for others to follow in their footsteps, not only in terms of achievement, but in terms of attitude and outlook.

One of our great strengths as an Academy is our incredible support network of parents and community, and our challenge to you is to help us help our young athletes to grow and never limit themselves. We are all one team, and when everyone trusts the process and pulls in the same direction anything becomes possible.

We've come a long way the last few years!