Rein van Eijk, head coach of Belgian women, has reflected on a core coaching principle he’s developed through years of international experience: role clarity as a foundation for trust and performance.
For van Eijk, the line between personal connection and professional expectation is not only necessary it’s transformative, he wrote in a recent LinkedIn post.
“It’s personal. Performance is personal,” he says. Van Eijk says the ability to give and receive feedback, hold each other accountable, and ultimately grow as individuals and teammates hinges on something more objective: a shared understanding of roles.
“Role clarity gives a player the psychological safety to hear things that might otherwise feel like personal criticism,” van Eijk explains. In his view, great teams are not built solely on talent, but on emotional safety, alignment, and shared expectations.
As assistant coach of the Tamil Nadu Dragons in the Hockey India League, he saw firsthand how livelihoods and pride were on the line in every match. “For many of those players, hockey wasn’t just a sport — it was survival,” he notes. In such settings, delivering feedback without emotional fallout became both an art and a necessity.
He also points to the importance of framing feedback within the role — the player’s contribution to the team strategy, rather than their value as a person.
“When everyone knows their role, feedback becomes less threatening, more constructive,” he writes. This clarity allows even difficult conversations to build trust instead of eroding it.
That same principle came to life again during his recent tenure as coach of the German junior national team in the lead-up to the 2023 Junior World Cup. A talented forward, recovering from injury, was selected as a travelling reserve.
Instead, the player embraced the role, trained relentlessly, and when the moment came in a friendly match, scored the winning goal. “His commitment didn’t waver — it intensified,” van Eijk recalls.
Moments like these are, to van Eijk, the essence of coaching: helping individuals understand not only what is expected of them, but why it matters. “The role isn’t just what you do — it’s how you contribute to something bigger,” he says.
Since taking the reins in Belgium, van Eijk has continued to champion role clarity as a means of building team unity.
“As a coach, I aim to be crystal clear about what I ask from each athlete,” van Eijk concludes. “That’s how we create space for growth, for honesty, and for winning together.”
