Beyond ‘crude pragmatism’ in sports coaching: Insights from C.S. Peirce,William James,and John Dewey: A commentary

Introduction

Firstly, I'd like to thank Simon Jenkins for his interesting article, and for mentioning my work with Saracens rugby club, presently the champions of the English premiership and European cup holders. I'd like to pick up a couple of points from his article and explore why professional athletes are increasingly turning to ancient philosophy for advice.

When we started the philosophy club at Saracens in 2014, we had a sense that we were doing something new and radical: gathering some of the best rugby players and coaches in the world in a circle to discuss ideas from Epictetus, Lao Tzu, Aristotle and others. The surprise (it was genuinely a surprise) was how much they enjoyed it and got from it. Paul Gustard, defence coach at Saracens – he's now part of Eddie Jones' team at England – said it was ‘the favourite thing we did all season'.

Philosophy club at Saracens rugby club

I had no experience of working in professional sports. I was a journalist who'd written a book on how ancient Greek philosophy inspired Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and how it had helped me and many other people to live more flourishing lives. David Jones, a philosophy and psychology graduate who runs the personal development programme at Saracens, invited me in to do a talk. It was sufficiently popular that we started a regular ‘Saracens philosophy club', which has been going for three years now, during which time Saracens have become England and European champions (all thanks to philosophy, naturally).

Since then, ancient philosophy has begun to make an impact on American professional sports as well. Ryan Holiday's book on modern Stoicism, ‘The Obstacle is the Way', was used by the Seattle Seahawks during their campaign to Superbowl victory in 2015 – their coach, Pete Carroll, is unusual in having long emphasized the importance of ethics and philosophy to a team's winning culture. Last season, the New England Patriots also used the book on their road to superbowl victory.

Why philosophy? Well, professional athletes have been using sports psychologists for many years, as a way to try and improve performance and cope with pressure. But psychology sometimes has a value gap – it's an empirical science, which teaches instrumental techniques for performance enhancement.

Bridging the gap between science and ethics

However, players and coaches don't just want instrumental value-free techniques. They recognize the need for values as a core part of a team culture or individual mind-set. Saracens, for example, has core values – discipline, humility, team-work, work-rate – which players and coaches continually reference. Many other teams talk about their ‘philosophy', by which they mean the values and culture which they think is a crucial part of their long-term success.

Ancient philosophy bridges this science/ethics divide. It offers teams and players a way to learn instrumental evidence-based techniques for self-management, such as mindfulness or CBT (both of which derive from ancient philosophies). But – here's the crucial point – group philosophy sessions also offer a way for teams to discuss values and to consider what they mean to them in different situations, in an open, Socratic and pluralist way.

Typically, in a Saracens philosophy club session, I will begin with a short talk, exploring ancient philosophy's perspective on a question like ‘is anger always a vice?' I would discuss techniques from Stoicism/CBT for controlling anger, and explore how the Stoics and Aristotle argued over whether anger is always bad. And then we open it up to a group discussion, where players share their own opinion and experience, in a respectful and open manner.

Players genuinely enjoy these discussions. They enjoy being able to put their own opinion forward, being able to listen to others' perspectives. Initially, I found, they looked to me to provide 'the right answer', but then they learned to enjoy the fact there wasn't just one answer, that the questions we were discussing were nuanced and multi-faceted. In the group discussion on anger, for example, one coach shared their own personal experience of having to manage their temper – it was far more interesting than anything I said.

Philosophy also gives a way for men to discuss their emotional lives in an indirect way. Men – to make a huge generalization – are sometimes more comfortable discussing ideas than emotions and relationships. But the ideas of ancient philosophy on how to manage one's emotions and values give them a way in to that inner space. It's voluntary and non-coercive – they can bring in as much or as little personal information as they want. They can keep it at the level of ideas, or they can bring in personal experience. In practice, they do both.

What's happened now is that the players have basically taken ownership of the programme. They organize their own philosophy groups, lead discussions, and run sessions with other organizations through a programme called ‘the Saracens way'.

Conclusion

My approach is eclectic, in that I don't think there is one right answer to the question ‘how do you live a good life'. Therefore, I don't think an entire team should be drilled in mindfulness, or Stoicism, or Christianity, or any other life-philosophy. There should be room for a variety of life-philosophies within a team. I think this has some relation to the pluralism of William James, a philosopher I deeply admire.