This is the transcript of a podcast episode. You can listen to the episode here, and to the interview on which it is based here.
I’ve been thinking about the interview with Hugh McCutcheon this week and in particular about his coaching style that says we need to know where you’re coming from, we need to support you where you are now, and we need to prepare you for where you’re going. Right now during all the uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus, which has affected college students and their campus lives so completely, he’s having weekly coffees with his players to check in and make sure they’re doing all right. He also encourages the players to support each other—have coffees with each other, find ways to socialize or interact off the court.
Recently I watched the documentary Athlete A about Larry Nassar and his abuse of over 250 girls and young women while he was a doctor for the U.S. Women’s Olympic gymnastics team. How did he get away with it for so long? In the documentary, they talk about the coaching style of Bela and Marta Karolyi. If you aren’t familiar with them, they’re an incredibly successful gymnastics coaching team from Romania who came to coach the U.S. women’s team. Their coaching style, though, was by many accounts brutal. There was no room for injury, for a bad day, even for hunger. Esquire Magazine quotes one gymnast who trained under the Karolyis as saying, “Emotional and physical abuse was actually the norm, and we were all so beaten down by that and made so obedient that when we knew there was a sexual abuser in our midst, we would never say anything. We felt utterly powerless.”
The documentary surmises that this coaching style created an atmosphere where Larry Nassar was able to abuse so many for so long. The girls were used to being told that no one cared about whatever their problem was. If you’re hurt, if you’re tired, if you’re hungry, suck it up. I’ve got a line a mile long of girls willing to take your place. So be quiet and perform or you’re out.
And it worked, the Karolyis won a lot of medals. The athletes they coached were some of the best gymnasts in the world. But guess what? Hugh McCutcheon wins medals, too. He coached the men’s and women’s U.S. volleyball teams to gold and silver Olympic medals, and his team at the University of Minnesota has been to the NCAA Final Four three times. He’s coached 11 team members to 18 All-American certificates. AND his players are successful in life. He hasn’t broken them, they’ve thrived. The gymnasts who competed under Karolyi have talked about their lasting physical and emotional scars. Larry Nassar is serving life in prison. USA Gymnastics filed for bankruptcy in 2018. USA Gymnastics and the Karolyis have faced multiple lawsuits. The Karolyi Ranch, the training facility they used for so many years, has been closed.
It’s true, you can lead with fear. It’ll work—for a while. You can get results. What you don’t get, though, is trust. You don’t get innovation, creativity, ethical behavior, loyalty. Communication. Honesty. If you lead a team with fear, if you say to them, my goal is X and if you don’t produce it by Friday, you’re dead to me, do you think they’re going to bring to you a major problem with the design? I doubt it. Those girls were being sexually assaulted and they didn’t bring it up. When you lead with fear, you’re building a house on a minefield. You don’t know what disasters await, because the builders are too scared to tell you.
You can watch Athlete A on Netflix. The trailer is here. There are more articles on Nassar and USA Gymnastics here and here. You can see the victim impacts statements from the Larry Nassar state court sentencing hearing here.