First Coaching Experience

In 1992, under Vic’s guidance, I began coaching the Wellington College Under 16s. I picked a young team that I was looking to develop over two years. My team progressed so much that year that the following year I had to transfer my top five players to the senior team. I still had one of the strongest teams in the competition and we were favourites to win. Vic asked me to put the team in the men’s ‘D’ grade competition so they can experience the intensity that they weren’t getting against kids their own age. 

I didn’t and we went through the year beating other schools by large margins. We met Aotea College in the semi-finals and lost by five points. We lacked the intensity to win a semi-final. Aotea played with nothing to lose and were the better team on the night. After the game, Vic sarcastically asked me if I had put the boys in the men’s D grade. I put my head down and said “No”. That night I learnt my lesson and blamed myself for that failure, but learned a valuable lesson on the importance of intensity.

One day at my U/16 practice Vic approached me jokingly, but, frustrated. He said to me (referring to one of his players), “I’ve tried everything I can. I tried begging, pleading, hoping, praying. I tried scaring him, threatening him etc, but I can’t get him to play with real intensity.” This was a student who had all the skills in the world but never played or practiced with any ‘urgency’ or ‘meaning’. It’s not that the student wasn’t trying it, rather than he simply wasn’t trying hard enough. It was because he had exceptional skills and he used those skills to get by.

During practices, we’d break up into two groups and run through our offences in the half courts. Vic would encourage us to practice at game speed, with game intensity. Sometimes we’d be in a relaxed mood while we’re running our offences, and he would stop everyone with disapproval and start the offence himself. He would pass the ball to the wing and cut down the middle to one side then go and screen away, then cut back up to the top at an aggressive, fast pace. He was showing us intensity, emotion and meaning. We began understanding the importance of training how you play.

The faster and harder you train in your sport (physical, mental and emotional) the harder it is for mind to process information, as everything around you is moving so fast. You’re putting your mind in a situation it doesn’t see at any other time. If the speed of a game is greater than the ability of the mind to process that information, then the individual has to adjust to the speed of the game, with the necessary skill base.

The purpose of giving 100 per cent effort 100 per cent of the time means your mind has to think at the pace you’re practicing. Eventually your mind gets used to the speed of your sport and perceives it as normal. Consequently you develop an understanding of what is required to succeed.     

Every athlete’s purpose is to master the art of slowing down time. This is only achieved when the athlete exerts 100 per cent effort during training.

If you train 70 per cent one day, 80 per cent the next, then your mind has to continuously reset and adjust, therefore inconsistency will feature in your game and your rate of improvement will be considerably slower. It is imperative that every athlete trains with purpose, meaning and intensity. True success can only come through hard, honest work. This way your mind knows nothing else.

Encouraging Heart

One day, while I was trying to select the 12 players for my U/16 team, I was undecided about one player. He appeared uncoordinated, had very little skill and had trouble handling the ball. But compared with the other trialists, he was the most tenacious in everything he did; he was a battler. Because of this I became compelled to find a reason to put him in my team. I knew that he would be a liability on offence, but I respected the way he put his body on the line for his team.

I asked Vic for his advice on that player’s selection prospects. His reacted by saying “what an athlete!” I knew straight away from Vic’s reaction that he should be in my team and that I would need him at every practice. This is because he brought a high level of intensity that I hoped would resonate throughout the whole team.

I gave this player a set of fingertip exercises to do every day for twenty minutes. Within a short timeframe, I noticed how this kid’s skills were improving faster than anyone else in the team. Consequently I asked all of the team members “who did those drills I showed you all at the beginning of the year?” All the kids except for one looked at me with a bit of guilt. The boy I was originally going to cut was the only one who put his hand up. By the end of the season, he was the most improved by far. I then realised that a real athlete is someone who is prepared to make sacrifices and work as hard and as long as it takes to achieve his/her goals.

In 1987 I once yelled at a student for making a mistake as I tried to exert my authority within the team. This was considered by many as normal practice in basketball, and I found it happening to myself and to others. I saw and felt this kid’s embarrassment and shame. When I reflected how I didn’t like it when it happened to me, I decided never to yell at a player or embarrass him/her in front of the team ever again. 

From then on I learned only to give encouragement to my teams and players. If someone makes a mistake a negative reaction from the coach or even other team members is like planting seeds of negativity. As these seeds grow throughout the season the team will become consumed with that corrosive negativity and a season of failure and disappointment is imminent. Unfortunately coaches do this to make them feel good about themselves. 

A good coach treats everyone the same. If you criticise a player for making a mistake, you then have to criticise every player on your team. If you don’t and only pick and choose who you criticise you’re then practicing bias and inequality and basically abusing the position of power you are given. 

This also makes you appear as a coward and your team will lose respect for you. Encouragement is a great tool to use. If a player makes two, three or four mistakes in a row, through positive thinking that player can work through mistakes and become better and smarter, and gain a greater chance of success.