Coach to Norwegian ski stars: Burnout not worth it

At Konnerud in Drammen outside of Oslo, people are dreaming of winter and snow. Because this arena is where the foundations for new skiing medals will be laid.

Lage Sofienlund (35) is a full-time cross-country skiing coach at Konnerud Sports Club. One of the athletes he coaches is Kristine Stavås Skistad, right now one of the world’s best female skiers.

Although cross-country ski coach Lage Sofienlund love his job, there are days when he finds it hard to combine work and life as a father of small children.

Lage Sofienlund from Konnerud in Drammen first became aware of coaching as a career through his college’s sports programme “coaching leadership”. Positive feedback from teachers made him curious.

“I understood that this was something I could both master and enjoy,” he says. He had caught the coaching bug and the dream of becoming one grew ever stronger.

Sofienlund now has a master’s in coaching and psychology with a specialisation in the coaching role from the Norwegian School of Sports Science.

More than sports

Sofienlund has worked with several different sports. Now he is working full-time for his home club Konnerud. 

Before that, he has been the development leader at the Norwegian top-division football club Strømsgodset Toppfotball, among other things.

“Many coaches burn for one particular sport, but I am passionate about developing people,” says Sofienlund.

“I approach the coaching role through team building, establishing a culture and getting people to work together,” he says.

For him, being a coach is all about getting the best out of the athlete, no matter their age, level or sport. It can be a 14-year-old football player on an amateur team or a cross-country skier aiming for medals at the Cross-Country World Cup in Trondheim in February next year.

When cross-country ski sprinter Skistad was at the top of her game last winter, the coach told the local Drammens Tidende newspaper: 

“I am as passionate about becoming a good coach as she is about becoming a good athlete.”

A challenging existence

Being a full-time coach is far from a nine-to-five job. The day can begin with coaching senior athletes in the morning, having a few hours off later in the morning before coaching younger athletes in the afternoon and evening. During the season, weekends are taken up with competitions.

A 100 per cent job for the club means Sofienlund has other tasks to attend to also.

“It does allow me some breathing space, but my working days do get very fragmented. I am rarely completely free. This is the existence for many coaches, especially on an amateur level,” says Sofienlund.

Just like "everyone" at  Konnerudd, Lage Sofienlund is waiting for winter. The snow arrives early and disappears late at the ski arena. 

“Lage 24/7”

It is particularly challenging for coaches to have small children. When Sofienlund became a father, he had to rethink his coaching career and how to balance his job and home life. He now has two children aged three and six. 

“When you have a family, it is for instance far more challenging to be away from home for long periods of time at training camps and competitions,” he says.

“I have told my athletes that they have to accept they cannot have Lage 24/7. If that is what they want, they will have to find a different “Lage”.”

A lonely job

As a coach, Sofienlund gives a lot of himself. The coach is an important support for athletes who are striving to reach their full potential – but who is there for the coaches?, asks Sofienlund.

“Coaches are often very alone,” he says.

“It is important for success to have someone who can back you, but in many clubs, you have no colleagues to lean on. Being a coach can therefore often feel very lonely, especially in lower levels where you don’t have more staff who can share the ups and downs with you.”

Your own employer

Many coaching jobs are part-time and must be combined with other jobs.

What do you think about your pension? 

“I think that there might not be much of a pension,” says Sofienlund.

Few clubs employ coaches. They do not want, or cannot afford, to take on the responsibilities of an employer. The financial conditions are too uncertain.

So coaches often operate independently, for instance as sole traders. They hire out their own labour and invoice for their hours. They are responsible for their own workers’ rights, paying taxes, securing themselves in case of illness and saving for retirement. 

It is not uncommon for coaches to face an uncertain future. They do not always know whether they have a job next month or next year.

Is coaching a job?

Sofienlund believes it is important to give the coaching profession the recognition it deserves.  

“I think many coaches – especially younger ones – feel they are not being taken seriously. Because is coaching really a job? Many think that being a coach is something to do in addition to your normal job. Or you think of the coach as your dad’s mate. 

“I wondered myself for a long time if I could call myself a coach and write 'occupation: coach'. It took a few years before I did that. Today, it is the most natural thing in the world for me,” says Sofienlund.

The state must help

He believes the Norwegian state should invest more in coaches. He wants to see funds earmarked for coaches’ salaries so that more people can become full-time coaches without combining that job with other jobs. 

“More government funding must be directed to the clubs and Norway’s sporting community. We need to believe that coaches are important from a public health perspective, important for mental health, important to fight exclusion and to get more people into sports. We have to see the coach as an important resource in building a more resilient society,” says Sofienlund.

The different occupation

Researcher Marte Bentzen has spent years looking at coaching as a profession. She is an associate professor at the Department of Sport and Social Science at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences in Oslo.

Researcher Marte Berntzen believes efforts must be made to create a more sustainable coaching profession.

Bentzen says that if you compare the coaching profession with more “ordinary” professions, it stands out in several ways.

• Coaches are passionate about their job. They find it difficult to separate work and private life. Many coaches describe their occupation not as a job, but as a lifestyle.
• There are no limits to working hours and workplaces.
• Many find it difficult to combine the coaching role with family life, especially because of unpredictable working hours and much travel.
• The coaching profession is demanding but the working day is a lot of fun. There are more high fives and hugs when you are successful compared to in an ordinary office.
• Many coaches lack workers’ rights that workers in other occupations take for granted, like working time arrangements, pension benefits and a clear job description.

The downsides

Even though being a coach can be said to be a lot of fun, a passion and “life itself”, it can become tiresome in the long run. Not everyone can take the incredible pressure that a coach might face over time, according to Bentzen. 

In her doctoral research, which she finished in 2015, Benzen looked at top coaches and the prevention of burnout. The study of nearly 300 top coaches in Norway and Sweden showed that one in four coaches reported a high degree of burnout at the end of a season. 

A male-dominated occupation

Bentzen does not believe coaching can become a “standard job”, but she thinks it is possible to improve conditions so that coaches can enjoy work while also having a good life outside of the sporting world.

The researcher thinks it is important to professionalise the coaching role to make it more sustainable. This can help reduce the gender imbalance and retain competent coaches who might otherwise give up because of the complicated working conditions.

Researcher Marte Bentzen at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences is fascinated by the coaching profession, but also worried about the working conditions for some of the coaches.

The coaching profession is male-dominated, and only seven per cent of top coaches in Norway are women. 

“I think we lose many skilled coaches, young men and women because it is too hard to combine the job with family life,” says Bentzen.

Queueing up for your job

Bentzen believes the image of the top coach is something sports need to step away from. She argues that coaches should not have to work around the clock, endure a lot of criticism, hit the wall, burn out and always live in fear of not having their contract renewed or being fired. 

“One of the challenges is that several coaches help maintain this stereotype of an “all-in” profession. They argue that a coach needs to put up with it and if they can’t, the profession is not for them.” 

And if you do not want to work under such conditions, there will be many who are queuing up to take over your job.

“There is a fight for the good coaching positions because it is considered lucrative to work as a top coach,” says Bentzen.