Vic Paulson at W.C.
Coaching with morals, honesty and integrity
Vic Paulson, our coach at Wellington College during the 80s, understood the importance of fair competition. This is what makes people grow as athletes. If someone interferes with the natural progression and importance of competition they are destroying the standard of play. They are restricting the development of the game. This is where bias or favouritism lowers the standard for everyone, including those who intend to participate with total fairness and honesty.
By 1985, Vic had produced the best basketball programme in NZ for school boys. In 1983-84 we lost both finals at the schoolboys nationals. The two teams we lost to (Kelston Boys High and Church College) had recruited players from all around the country to strengthen their teams. We were the same group of guys who went from Year 9 to senior level. In 1985 we made the semi-finals with a young team. The following year Vic quit coaching and Wellington College had created a reputation as a ‘basketball’ school. Other students started coming to W.C. to further their careers. Vic taught me how to play and think basketball during the period 1980-85.
During 1987-88 and 1992-93, under Vic’s tutelage we created the best U/16 basketball programme in NZ. This further enhanced Wellington College’s reputation. By then parents wanted to send their kids to the college. The parents began to get involved and many wanted to coach their sons teams or get involved in other ways so they can have their say in how the team is run. They brought in their philosophies and their own set of ideals which in the end were based on providing a platform (or an easy road) for their sons to advance. Unfortunately they didn’t understand that basketball is a team game and the needs of the team are far more important than the needs of the individual. Consequently, the principles that the Wellington College Basketball Programme was based on went out the window as the parents failed to realise the reasons behind the college’s rise as a basketball school.
Vic taught me the correct way to play and coach basketball. This was based on the principles of free-thinking or the power of the mind (not materialism). I fell in love with the concept of that freedom. It was natural and pure.
Don’t Panic
Basketball players usually develop an emotional relationship with the coach. They can be affected by the coach’s emotional balance. If the coach panics or shows signs of panic, the team will panic. If the coach can remain calm under any situation, the team will remain calm and provide a greater chance of victory. The mechanisms a dog uses to sense fear are similar to athletes sense of fear and panic from their coaches. As in the case with dogs, it is well documented that if you can control your fear the dog won’t attack you but respect you.
One day I was coaching in the Wellington College Old Boys Gym and Vic was present with his seven-year-old daughter. While Vic and I were talking she was playing. She began to slowly climb up the ladders on the wall of the gym, step by step. Her eyes were fixed on us as she made her way to the top. She then hopped on to the top of the four metre high ledge and while holding on to the railings, she slowly walked along the equivalent the length of the court and back. She then climbed down.
Vic had his back to her and would occasionally turn and give her a smile and turn back to face me. At first I was a bit concerned when she started to climb up and tried to let Vic know his daughter was climbing up the wall-bars. He just smiled and explained to me that if we don’t show fear and panic, then she won’t panic.
Long-Term Planning
Vic instilled a clever outlook for his players’ goal setting with the following phrase: “It’s not how you start but how you finish.”
He would also go on to say: “I don’t care if we don’t win anything all year; I just want us to get to the nationals and make the top four. From there anything can happen. You put yourself in a position to win the tournament.”
This wasn’t to say he wasn’t still trying to win everything during the season. He just wanted us to acknowledge and gauge our rate of progress so that we coud increase our chances of peaking at the most important part of the season.
During the 1984 Wanganui Invitational Basketball Tournament we stumbled across Rongotai College going over our offences during a time out and were plotting to use it against us. We immediately brought this to Vic’s attention with a sense of anxiety. He smiled and said “that’s okay, if they try to stop options in our plays, then other options will appear like backdoors. You cannot stop a well executed offence.”
He even joked about going over to their camp to make sure they’re reading our offences correctly. He explained this point of view to us in a way that made us understand and calmed our fears which greatly increased our chances of winning.
If there was a dispute over a call during a scrimmage, some people would argue that call to the bitter end whether they were right or wrong. Unfortunately some people do anything it takes to win, even cheat! Vic taught us not to cheat. Win or lose, you know where you stand ethically.
Physicality
While I reflected on the brilliant aspects of Vic’s coaching, I realise that he was keen on making his athletes aware of the intense physicality entrenched in basketball and he made sure that we felt it at an early stage in our development.
When Vic would scrimmage with us he would be extra physical. He would bump us and push us around in a reasonably civil manner, but enough to cause us some added stress. We realised in a short amount of time that he was trying to make us stronger. He was trying to make us understand (feel) what strength is. If you get bumped and lose the ball, you will quickly learn how to hold and protect the ball better the next time you find yourself in a similar position. That’s learning both mentally and physically simultaneously. Your competitive spirit is seen through the desire of holding onto the ball. If your will to hold onto that ball is strong, then the coach is seen to be doing his/her job.
If we scrimmaged against younger players Vic would urge us not to take it easy on them. He would warn us that playing against younger players would weaken our game but it would do wonders for them. He would say, “bump them around a little (like he used to do to us), let them get a taste of the physicality of senior basketball.” However, in doing so, he also encouraged us to play in a low-grade men’s league when we were around 15 years of age, in conjunction with our participation in the secondary schools competitions. It soon became obvious that this was a great benefit for our physical development.
Structure – Offence & Defence
DEFENCE is an emotion, a desire. It can only come from within the athlete. It’s an indication of a person’s desire and passion, will to win and to improve.
OFFENCE is a form of expression. It starts internally, but is expressed externally so it is difficult to judge a persons desire or commitment.
(Fotis Liolis)
Vic helped me to gain the understanding that if you play that running game all year, then one day you’re going to come across a team that’s as big, fast and as strong as you and if you don’t know how to execute an offence you’ll be trouble!
If you run a 30 second offence, the opposition have to play defence for 30 seconds. It wears them down, frustrates them and increases the chances of them committing fouls.
When I first started learning how to play defence in basketball I would be chasing the ball around trying to steal it. Vic told me: “If your opponent’s mind is on the defender and what the defence is doing, then his mind is not fully focused on his job which is running his team. You’ve got him beat!
“You can get into your opponent’s mind by making them think you’re going to do something you’re not, take a few jabs at them (as if you’re trying to steal the ball), then retreat. Keep them guessing and thinking (worrying) about you.
“The more times you can make your opponent cross-over dribble, dribble behind their back, or through their legs then there’s a greater chance for them to lose the ball.”
As a coach, the way to make kids play and understand defence is not to ask your team to play pressure defence. You demand it. If one player is playing lazy defence, you sub that player off and let the bench and the player know the reason for the substitution. The player coming off should go and sit at the end of the bench and wait at the end of the line. If a player wants to be on the court they have to play defence. As they get older, it becomes more natural and they become self-motivated to play defence as hard as they can and reach higher levels.
Better Ways To Win
For many coaches, winning games by 50 points is a great ego boost. They walk around and feel proud of themselves. For Vic this was a potential problem in the long term. He expressed his view by saying: “If you only have three or four hard games in your regular season, when you get to the nationals (where every game is hard), then you’re going to be underdone.”
The concepts and lessons that I learned from Vic enlightened me as a coach. I tried to implement them as a player and coach. Unfortunately many of the people I was dealing with were not interested in the development, expansion and promotion of the game. They seemed to be only interested in their own personal developments, agendas and dreams. If anyone dared to challenge their methods they got punished, segregated and isolated. I was always challenging the motives behind what these people were doing in the daily running of the sport. This made me very unpopular and a threat to those who were using and abusing their position to only further their dreams while under the guise that they’re there for the team or the community — the big fish in the little pond syndrome.
The qualities that Vic believed in are the same qualities that have made New Zealand Rugby great over the last 100 years. Their results speak for themselves.
When I left school and began playing in the 1st and 2nd Divisions, I came across coaches, imports and administrators that were trying to control my mind. They wanted to control what and how I thought. They wanted my complete loyalty. This meant I had to abandon my beliefs and lower my standards in order to follow a coach that hadn’t earned my respect.
Vic Paulsen taught us not to “grease up” to people to get ahead, not to brag or boast on and off the court, not to blame others for our mistakes or criticise others when they make mistakes. He was the best!