Who Do You Want To Be? By Hanne Güssow Thoresen
Hanne is a former Norwegian National Development Team Coach and a current master’s student in Sport Psychology and a Coaching Consultant with the Det Frivillige Skyttervesen, a Norwegian Shooting Federation.
First, what a great honor to get to contribute to Roddy’s (Remodic) Blog. If it hadn’t been for those experienced coaches sharing their knowledge, I would never have made it to the level of coaching that I did. So read this blog and be curious about what you can learn.
My journey as a coach is a journey of coincidences, and of ups and downs. I had no plan of becoming a coach at all. I dreamed of becoming a vet, but my effort in high school didn’t reflect that dream. However, when I look back it makes perfect sense that I became a coach and work in sport. I grew up in a typical Norwegian family with my mother, father, and brother. My grandparents also lived close to our home. My first knowledge in sport was through TV on the weekends, watching all the great athletes competing in World Cup and Championships. They were heroes for most Norwegian kids, and after watching them on TV we went out to play, mimicking those heroes, skiing around the field, skating, and playing in the snow in wintertime. Every weekend also included other outdoor activities and a typical Norwegian activity of the “Sunday hike”. This involves going out for a long ski, or walk in the woods, going long, then sitting down outside and enjoying some buns or snack. After, you go home to relax after being outdoors for many hours. Doing this can provide you with a clear conscience. Sports and outdoor activity create a world of heroes for kids all over the world, not only in Norway.
I started with sports shooting when I was 8 years old. My grandfather was still competing, and it was very clear that I wanted to join him. He started asking me when I was five when I wanted to go to the shooting range and try an air rifle. In Norway, we have two shooting sports federations. One is organized to take care of the international sport activity: the Norwegian Shooting Federation. The other, Det Frivillige Skyttervesen, is focused on teaching as many Norwegians as possible about good and healthy weapon culture, and basic shooting skills in favor of Norwegian Defense, our hunting culture, and our old sport shooting culture. This organization goes back over a hundred years and is unique to Norway. They have 130 000 members and organize 850 clubs. They organize thousands of competitions every year with small bore and big bore rifles, and you can compete from 10 years old until you are over 90. Boys and girls compete in the same classes. You normally start as an athlete in this organization and then move to the Norwegian Shooting Federation if you want to pursue high level sport shooting. My ambitions were high as a youth, but I also valued other things in life like playing an instrument and riding horses. Mostly, I was really interested to learn more about training and how my psychology affected my actions, so at the age 14 I went to the library and borrowed all I could find about training and mental training.
So how did I end up coaching biathlon - a sport that I haven’t done for myself? It’s a long story of coincidences, but to make it short I started in the local club as a shooting coach for kids when I was 19 and after that I didn’t look back. The road was created as I was walking it. In the start it was all fun and mostly playing. I really enjoyed it and I started my education to become a professional coach at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences. I got more and more responsibility also for the physical part of the biathlon training.
After coaching the local biathlon club for some years, I found out that if I wanted to do something with my coaching, I needed to make the next step. I applied for a job with a team in Lillehammer, the centre of winter sport in Norway. And I got it! The first year was only a part time contract, but I really wanted to learn and show what I was made of, so I worked my ass off. I said yes to everything, helping athletes and taking coaching courses. I travelled a bit to other places in Norway to share my knowledge, especially about shooting. Norwegian athletes have had a rumor to be cross country athletes who shoot and not “real” biathlon athletes, those who focus equally on both skiing and shooting. I saw early that the system for learning the basic shooting skills was very different than I was used to, and I tried to use that to my advantage and make my shooting background my specialty – a skill that could separate me from other coaches. I had a great colleague, and we had so much fun. I never worked as much as I did that year, but I never learned as much or had so much fun either.
Next, I became a head coach for my own team, one of the Norwegian Biathlon Federation development teams. I was able to gain experience coaching athletes to World Cup, IBU Cup, and Junior World Championships. Gradually it became more serious both for myself and for my athletes. I experienced more and more of that “backside” of the medal: athletes who struggled with self-confidence, high goals, and high expectations. I also felt this myself. I took for granted that I was valued for who I was and my knowledge, not just our results. More than one time I felt that the communication between those deciding the rules and selections to competitions and national teams led to big frustrations for my athletes, and for myself. And to be clear, it wasn’t the demands of top sport that created this frustration, it was the communication about it.
There’s a big focus on eating disorders in Norwegian winter sports in media theses days. Research from a Norwegian newspaper shows that up to 30% of cross-country and biathlon athletes ages 16-19 struggle with an eating disorder. That’s 27% more than those who don’t do sports. And this is just eating disorders. What about other kinds of problems athletes struggle with? So, what is the reason for this? I think that we need to think about what sport is today and the responsibility everyone who works in sport must hold to make it a healthy pursuit. I do know that some of my own experience regarding the demands, lack of communication, and pressure led to me hitting that famous wall. The fun of coaching was gone! I couldn’t recognize myself anymore. I was completely crushed. And if it can happen to me, a coach who is grown up and with tons of education and experience, it can easily happen to athletes as well. It can happen to all of us! When I hit the wall, I went through everything I had done, everything I could have done wrong, everything that had happened to me along the way, and I used a professional sport psychologist to do it. The reason for me hitting that wall was not one single incident. It was the sum of several events. One of them was that I strived to find that balance between being a coach that I was told needed to set stricter demands and being the supportive coach who cared more about the people behind the results, that I wanted to be. The second was maybe that I was naïve when I went into the highest level of sport, and I was not fully prepared for the “backside” of top sport. Third, I did not have the tools to manage that very intense environment top sport can be. I set aside all other things in life. I missed out on birthdays, meeting friends, going on dates, just normal things for people my age. That didn’t bother me so much, but the real problem was that I did not have balance! That was exactly what I preached to my athletes every day: find balance, remember you are more than just an athlete! To care for them outside of sport. And the sum of it ended up as a disaster. I did not reach my goal to become the first female elite coach in Norway, and I felt that I did not have too much else to show either. So, I ended up quitting coaching biathlon and I am not yet back at it, nor sure that I will be back. That said I am doing fine. I have always had good people around me, helping and supporting me. I was always careful to have my own system of support around me, with people who both challenge and support me. Luckily, I had friends who were there even though they were not a priority in my life when coaching was most intense. I’m so grateful for them! I was asked by a friend if it was worth it, if I would have done it again. It’s easy to say yes because it went ok for me. But that is not a given! Life happens to all of us. So, what is my advice for you? If you are an athlete, a coach, a leader: remember that we work with people, treat people how you want to be treated. Write down your most important values and strive to live after them every day. So, when you are old, sitting in your chair, looking back at your life, you can say: I did it my way! I was myself and I had the best time of my life doing sports independent of what results I achieved and what level I worked at. Top level sport should not preclude having balance, being able to be authentic, and keeping fun in your everyday work. Who do you want to be?The very best of luck to you all 😊You can contact me at hanneghoresen@gmail.com if you have any questions or need someone to talk to. Or send me a DM on Instagram: Skytecoach
2016 Youth Olympic Games Norwegian Biathlon Staff (L-R: Ronny Hafsås, Hanne Thoresen, Per Olav Tretterud, and Olympiatoppen staffers.
Hanne Thoresen with Karoline Knotten, now Norwegian Elite Team.
