The word “coach” is thought to have first entered the English language in 1550s and according to Etymonline, this referred to a “large kind of four-wheeled, covered carriage”.  The English word derived from the Hungarian village of Kocs, where a coach (“kocsi”) was first made, and through French and German iterations in the next century, “coche” and “kotsche” respectively.  The coach would have been drawn by horses which offers another travelling idiom to the Twentieth Century term “coaching.”

Around thirty years later, the term also referred to someone who “trains athletes for a contest.”  “Pony” – meaning small horse, was also used in education at this time referring to “being something that enables a student to get along fast.” 

So, the origins of the meaning of the word coach reflect carrying from one place to another – and that this would be fast, which are still relevant to its newer meaning.

Despite James’ pronouncement, throughout the much of the twentieth century, psychology researchers following Freud and Jung tended to look to the past and what makes humans go wrong, rather than how they can change and what creates a happy, fulfilled life.

Coaching the mind as a form of improving performance came to prominence when tennis coach, Tim Gallwey, noticed that results were better when he helped his tennis players focus on how to learn and manage their thinking, rather than specific technical instruction of how to hit the ball.  He realised that there was a critical self which provided an ongoing commentary (now more popularly known as a “inner critic”) of what the other self was doing and silencing this negative chatter was key to creating peak performance.  He described performance = potential – interference.

The Inner Game of Tennis was published in 1974 and following his book’s success, Gallwey wrote versions for other sports and crucially, applied his methodology in the workplace.

His business training model GROW was featured in his globally best-selling Coaching for Performance (1992), and this paved the way for the growth of the coaching profession.  The GROW Model is used as a foundation model in many different international coaching skills training programmes for leaders and coaches, with its popularity being attributed to its simplicity and effectiveness.  Whitmore was also involved in setting up the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC).