A New Paradigm for Coaching and the Irrelevance

S P O RT Monday October 28 | 2013 The Times 21 Upton is new breed of coach FO R M I DA B L E become convinced that their value TEAM: Gary is the collection, crunching and pro- Kirsten and cessing of data that will unlock Paddy Upton opposition tactics and weaknesses. propelled the The danger is that an over-re- Proteas to the liance on those analytics causes a No 1 Test cricket type of “d at a - b l i n d n e s s ”—a non- spot. Upton’s thinking, unresponsive system, success with ironically undermining intelli- India and the gence in the pursuit of it. Rajasthan Royals Part of the problem is that, in PADDY Upton is an unassuming has made him a sport, there are so many moving man. Quiet and soft-spoken, his household name parts, so many strings to pull, that first impression belies his impact in international knowing exactly which one pro- on the players he has inspired to cricket coaching duces the right result is almost defy expectations and surpass Picture: DUIF DU impossible, and the consequence is what even they considered to be TOIT/G ALLO that coaches [and science] invest their potential. I M AG E S time and energy in pursuits that As a coach first of India and lead only to cul-de-sacs and tiny South Africa with Gary Kirsten, gains. Those tiny gains often make and then of the Indian Premier the difference — the average dif- L e ag u e ’s Rajasthan Royals, he has ference between first and fourth at overseen campaigns that have de- the Olympic Games is 0.5%, so you livered a World Cup, two No 1 Test can understand the pursuit. cricket rankings, third place in the The problem is that it can com- IPL and second in cricket’s Cham- promise focus on the truly valuable pions League. investments, and is often driven by The latter were achieved with the insecurity and to feed the human smallest budget, spent on a ragtag of specialist assistants and analysts when you consider that 20 players bowling coach. No fielding coach. desire to micro-manage as many group of players who some would provides data and information, who have played the sport for about No strength and conditioning aspects of performance as possible. charitably have called “misfits” to which flows up the hierarchy, from 15 years each have, between them, coach. Leadership was provided by It’s as if simply doing something begin with. No more. Upton’s ap- where decisions, tactics and 300 years of cricket experience. senior players. Practices were op- becomes confused with doing the proach to coaching transformed instructions flow back down. Th at ’s five lifetimes for a single tional, and the only obligation on right things, and doing them well. the team. It also asks some chal- Up t o n ’s method, however, is to coach, and so if the collective wis- the players was to make sure that Speaking for sports science, I lenging questions of the traditional empower the players, allow them to dom of the squad can be harnessed they were healthy and fit enough to believe the result is “junk science” coaching and management style, drive their own technical, and, [easier said than done — it takes a play to their potential. which undermines sports science including the role of data analysis more importantly, personal devel- special person with extraordinary Up t o n ’s approach is anathema to and helps nobody. There are, of in sporting performance. opment through exploration, fail- emotional intelligence to achieve modern competitive sport, where course, many ways to win — h i st o r y Upton turns the classic coach- ure and guidance from their peers. this], it will trump the single per- time, money and energy are in- provides extremes of coaching player relationship on its head. Information flows sideways, spective of a coach sitting above the vested in the search for the tiny that range from autocratic to med- That classic approach places the peer-to-peer, with the coach facil- team. differences that separate winners itative. But in Upton (and Kirsten), all-knowing, all-seeing coaching itating a journey of discovery. The So, when Upton led the Royals, he from losers. Science forms part of SA may have a new breed, whose staff at the head of a team. An army appeal of this approach is clear did so with no batting coach. No that search, and many scientists principles are worthy of attention. We don’t know for certain why people get cancer, but we do know that it’s not caused by witchcraft, the tokolosh or superstitions like carrying money in your Bra. Ignorance remains the biggest problem. For a better understanding go to www.c4c.co.za.

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