Winston Churchill Memorial Trust 2011

Competition Structures: Learning from the Southern Hemisphere

Martyn Rothwell

martynrothwell@hotmail.com

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 1, 2

New Zealand – The land of ‘mana’ and ‘wairua’ ......................................................................................... 3, 4

Wairua .................................................................................................................................................. 4, 5, 6

Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) ............................................................................................... 7, 8

Alternative Competition – The kids just want to play ............................................................................. 9, 10

The sport culture ................................................................................................................................... 10, 11

Australia – Science and the mental edge ....................................................................................................... 11

Creating the creative ............................................................................................................................. 12, 13

Meeting Ric and Sid in the capital ................................................................................................... 13, 14, 15

Location effect ............................................................................................................................................ 16

Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………17

So what? ........................................................................................................................................................ 18

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the WCMT for giving me a fantastic opportunity. To Lynn and Bob for welcoming me into their home

and family, and helping me to settle in. The AUT gang Tony, Skate, Kirsten and John thanks for all the

information and knowledge. Thanks to Dean, Rikki and Doug at the Warriors, they have some stars in the

making. Andy Rogers at Greater Auckland Coaching Unit, what a guy, keep up the good work. Dwayne and

Simon at New Zealand Soccer, keep leading the way and innovating. Dan Floyd at New Zealand Rugby League,

thanks for your time and sharing your ideas. Thanks to Moony, for giving me an insight into a powerful

coaching tool.

Thanks to Lee Wharton, I’m still laughing at your antics and I hope to see you in the UK soon. Ian Renshaw at

QUT, your words of wisdom have helped me to understand. David Bannister and Brad Donald at Queensland

Rugby League, thanks for taking the time out to help me with my investigations. Dan Kerr for stepping up and

proving that it’s not game over at 23, keep it up mate.

Jeremy Hickmans and Luke Ellis thanks for sharing. Thanks to Ric and Sid, great characters and always

innovating.

The Wilsons, thanks for taking me into your home and making me feel welcome. Keep enjoying life, you

deserve it. Thanks to the Rugby Football League and in particular Julia Lee and David Butler for agreeing to my

leave of absence.

And last but most importantly thanks to Sarah and Jasmine for sacrificing so much to let me take up the offer

of the Winston Churchill Fellowship. You were dearly missed.

1.0 Introduction

I have had a lifelong interest in sport, I was always kicking a football around the back garden pretending to be

a professional footballer or bowling any small ball against the shed like the West Indies fast bowlers of the late

1970’s and dominant 80’s. Honing skills that later in life would give me an enjoyable career in amateur Rugby

League and after that a motivation to keep fit through regular physical activity.

This love of playing sport was also matched with an obsession to watch any sporting event on TV or go to

watch the local professional football team. The first memories of watching sport on the TV are of the 1984 Los

Angeles Olympics and the 1986 Mexico World Cup. It appeared England or Great Britain failing at major

tournaments was the norm and no one seemed surprised, not at least the media with their usual back page

assassination of players, athletes and coaches. I remember watching in amazement as the skilful Brazilians

passed a ball around as if it were a yoyo and breezing past players with a flick of the foot or swerve of the hips,

or the All Blacks playing with flair and excitement to score tries that I only wished the England team could

score.

This disappointment of the national team failing at major sporting tournaments of all kinds has continued

throughout my adult life. At the time of writing this, England Rugby Union stuttered their way through a world

cup eventually losing to France. There has been the odd success and moment of magic, such as England lifting

the 2003 Rugby World Cup, and Linford Christie cruising to 100m glory in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Still we

did not see the domination on a world level like the Brazilian football team or the Australian and New Zealand

rugby teams.

This led me to wonder why we do not challenge on a world level, we are a country who has social parallels

with other nations who compete and dominate on an international level. We are a country who even in this

current financial climate are considered wealthy, have a leading health care system, have easy access to most

mainstream sports and sports that are well funded. Perhaps more significant is the easy access to the majority

of sports and an apparent pathway into a professional career or playing the game at the highest level. As I

developed a better understanding of sport and player development through my professional career, my

curiosity moved away from why we don’t succeed at an international level. The answer to this question has

many considerations and factors that make it unrealistic to try and answer across a diverse range of sports. My

curiosity was now with the question why do we not produce skilful world class decision makers in invasion ball

sports.

I’m almost certain this question will cause some debate but do we really produce players who are comparable

to some of the best in invasion ball sports? This is a subjective point of view of course and without

sophisticated software packages it is hard to evidence. However, observational analysis would suggest that we

do not produce players of this level who make correct decisions under extreme pressure in big game

situations, decisions in big games that win World Cups. When in the company of sports fans I always ask who

they think is the best footballer or rugby player in the world, similar responses are common. Most state Lionel

Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo or Cesc Fabregas as the best footballers or Dan Carter, Jonathon Thurston and Benji

Marshall as the best rugby players. Not once have I heard a British player named, this is a very unscientific

exercise of course and what does “best” mean? However, I think it’s fair to say that the players mentioned play

with flair, excitement and skill attributes that sports fans want to see, and attributes that win big tournaments.

1

In a recent Guardian article, Andy Wilson commented on English rugby league: “for more than a decade, since

the heyday of Martin Offiah, Great Britain and more recently England have been worthy plodders of

international Rugby League, capable of securing the odd victory through a resolute pack, but lacking the

attacking firepower to match the sparkling talent from the Southern Hemisphere out wide”.

Chris Waddle had a passionate rant after England’s 4 – 1 loss to Germany and subsequent exit from the 2010

Football World Cup: “the FA just sit on their backside and do nothing after tournament after tournament, why

don’t they listen and look at other countries and say how do they keep producing talent. We coach it out of

them, I’m telling you we coach talent out of players. Look at Steven Gerard and Wayne Rooney who haven’t

turned up in this tournament, Steve Gerard has been half decent, where do we go from here. Where’s our plan

B, we haven’t got one, they say we have pacey wingers no we haven’t, we haven’t got players who can run, the

back four can’t pass it or control it we lack so many ideas it’s frustrating and all the money in our league it’s

frightening and all we do is waste it on rubbish ideas”.

It would appear that English teams do sometimes lack real flare and excitement, perhaps they are hardworking

and tough but when competing against the best in the world that doesn’t always cut it. Thinking back to the

days of Paul Gascoigne, George Best and Ellery Hanley players who would excite the nation, where are these

sorts of players today? All these players came through an era when sports were newly professional and not

financially or scientifically comparable with the professional sports’ standards of today. Interestingly most

major sports in the UK now are armed with the latest sport science, medical teams and coaches on multi

pound contracts but the skilful players of yesteryear appear to be a dying breed.

I first heard about the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust (WCMT) whilst attending a coaching workshop

delivered by 1992 Winston Churchill Fellow Rod Thorpe. Rod had visited New Zealand and Australia nearly 20

years ago to look into Aussie Sports and Kiwi Sports. These were approaches designed to give children in

Australia and New Zealand more appropriate sport experiences, through discussions with Rod it became

apparent that maybe an alternative approach to coaching and competition could enhance the development of

young people and elite athletes. I was intrigued by this and immediately set about conducting some further

research through reading academic papers, recommended books and contacting coaches and academics who

were involved in sport in New Zealand and Australia. After several months of research it was very clear that

some innovative practice was happening, albeit in small pockets across both countries. Equipped with this

information I set about submitting an application to the WCMT to look into alternative competition structures

and to visit coaching academics to establish the impact they had on developing talent.

During my visit to the Southern Hemisphere I spent time with a Rugby League World Cup winning player,

academics who lead the way in developing policy and coaching interventions, performance and community

coaches, undergraduate and postgraduate students, a professional rugby coach who spent time coaching in UK

premiership rugby, I observed young kids playing a range of sports and visited a skill acquisition expert. All

these experiences helped me to gain a greater understanding of sport in New Zealand and Australia and

perhaps an understanding of why invasion sport athletes in the two southern hemisphere countries are

regarded as some of the best in the world.

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2.0 New Zealand – The land of ‘Mana’ and ‘Wairua’

I arrived in New Zealand on a rainy morning in July. My first observation was the laid back and relaxed

atmosphere, people didn’t seem in a rush to get anywhere and the traffic was nonexistent compared to the

UK. On the drive to Lynn and Bob’s (my hosts for the first few days) house I noticed the large amount of

sporting facilities and the idyllic scenes, my first impressions of the country were good even though I was

struggling with jet lag.

It soon became apparent that New Zealand is a country with great culture and strength, it was also noticeable

that the country had an incredibly rich and dynamic history in Maori culture. I was immediately aware of the

Maori language as the vast majority of place names are of Maori origin. At first, I was puzzled by the seemingly

impossible to pronounce names, after a few goes I started to get to grips with some of the places I would be

frequently visiting. I soon realised that Maori has a logical structure, and, unlike English, has very consistent

rules of pronunciation.

The culture of its indigenous Maori people affects all New Zealanders, and recently there has been a push to

reintroduce the language into schools through the national curriculum. The most recognised tradition today is

the Haka which is a war dance. The Haka was performed before the onset of war by the Maori last century, but

has been immortalized by both of New Zealand's rugby codes the All Blacks, who perform this dance before

every game. Other Maori traditions that are very noticeable to visitors are the welcome called a Powhiri (that

involves a Hongi which is a greeting that involves pressing noses as opposed to a kiss) and the Moko (full faced

tattoos), which I found very hard not to stare at. I spoke to a lady who had a Moko, and she informed me that

it still lived on and that young Maori were encouraged to receive the Moko in an effort to preserve and

connect with their culture and identity.

What was also noticeable in the first few days of me being there was that New Zealand was a country

passionate about sport from grassroots participation to elite performance. People were constantly talking

about the forthcoming Rugby World Cup, it was common place on the news, commentators discussing player

selection, tactics and who would pose the biggest threat to New Zealand lifting the cup. It would also be

common place to see young children playing rugby, basketball or soccer in the park or on green space. For a

nation of 4 million people it is quite remarkable the amount of sporting success they achieve, the table below

indicates the country’s success on the international stage.

Sport Competition

Men’s Rugby Union Tri nations – 10 times winners

World Cup – 2 times winners

Women’s Rugby Union World Cup – 4 times winners

Women’s Rugby League World Cup – 3 times winners

Men’s Rugby League Tri / 4 nations – 2 times winners

World Cup – 1 times winners

Netball World Championships – 4 times winners (7 second

places)

Commonwealth games – 2 Gold’s, 2 Silvers

3

Whilst in New Zealand I had some incredible experiences and got an insight into performance pathways,

coaching interventions, sport at a community level and the culture of sport and physical activity. Over the next

few pages I will give you an insight into my experiences and lessons learnt. Please read it with an open mind, it

is not my intention to say what is right or wrong but to share my experiences with you.

2.1 Wairua

“The culture is something that is there all the time, when nobody is looking” Moony

Although this might not have a direct impact on developing skilful players I thought it was an area too

important to exclude from the report. Wairua is the Maori word for spirit or soul, in a sporting context it

relates to team culture. There was a real understanding and appreciation of team culture with everybody I

came into contact with, from the undergraduate and postgraduate students to the coaches in performance

pathways and at community clubs, and perhaps most significantly an ex All Black’s captain who had been part

of an explicit team culture process that he believed won them the world cup. Team culture is something I’ve

heard about but perhaps have never knowingly experienced it first hand; perhaps all the media around the

England soccer team in the 2010 world cup might indicate a poor team culture. In a recent Times article Rugby

Correspondent Stephen Jones wrote about the leaked player evaluation of 2011 World Cup campaign, a

campaign that went horribly wrong on many accounts. Commenting on the leaked information he said “The

team culture was revealed to fragmented, ill-disciplined, childish, graceless”. The more I came into contact

with people involved in sport in New Zealand the more it became apparent that “Team Culture” was an

essential part of being in a team, and for a team to be successful.

One Saturday morning I visited Victoria Park to watch some local Rugby League, it was no different to the UK.

The same coaches, spectators and officials were present just with different faces and accents. One noticeable

difference was the physical stature of the Polynesian kids and the respect they had for the opposition’s players

and spectators. Over the course of the morning I must have watched eight games, at every game I observed

similar pre and post match rituals. Pre match, the teams would perform a sort of dance with chanting, all

teams had a different routine and used different dialogue. It was similar to the Haka that is famous with the

New Zealand rugby teams, and the meaning of the rituals I witnessed was to welcome the opposition and wish

them good luck. Post match, both teams would form one long line and approach the opposition’s coaches and

spectators to thank and applaud them for their support. The pre and post match rituals were examples of

team culture in process, although it was a lot more complex and deeper than what I had witnessed.

To get a better understanding of Team Culture I interviewed a lecturer at Auckland University of Technology

who had a research interest in the area. He explained about his sporting past where he had been involved with

teams that wanted to play for each other and teams that didn’t have any real team spirit. He also had second

hand experience of a well-known Premiership Rugby Union team that had employed the services of a company

to specifically embed team culture into the club through delivering a very explicit process. He started by

explaining to me his first experiences of a dysfunctional team where players did not work or “give physically”

for each other. He also explained the good experiences he had of teams that had players who wanted to play

for each other, where players felt a real sense of belonging for the environment and each other. These

experiences ignited his interest in the area which led to him taking some further and in depth research.

4

The whole notion of team culture was a very interesting one, a process whereby players develop a vision and

values for the team and where the athletes are at the centre of the model. These important values then drive

behaviours and facilitate behaviour change to improve performance. The whole process must be consistently

allocated time to work effectively. It is easy to see why this approach could be a challenge for a traditional

coach, letting go of responsibility and handing it over to the players or athletes. Now I had a better

understanding of team culture it was obvious why so many teams appear to be dysfunctional, especially teams

rich with talented players. Two other pertinent points I gained from the interview was how detrimental using

the process is if it isn’t followed through and how skilled coaches must be to use the approach effectively.

From my observations of the Polynesian culture it was clear that morals and values are a big part of it. Could

this be a reason why the whole idea of team culture is more obvious and readily accepted and valued in New

Zealand? Although I had some knowledge of what a quality team culture meant prior to my visit to New

Zealand, my experiences really opened my eyes to its power and probably highlighted how ignorant I was to

the real meaning of it.

The most powerful Team Culture experience I had whilst

in New Zealand was with Papatoetoe Rugby Union Club

and a very interesting character called Moony. Moony

was an ex teacher who had years of coaching experience

in amateur and professional sport, he had spent time in

England coaching Bristol in the top flight league of

English Rugby and had experience of coaching grass

roots and in representative environments. He had

worked with a number of young players in New Zealand

during his teaching days who were now playing

professionally, perhaps the most high profile player he

had a significant impact on was Keven Mealamu the

current All Blacks hooker, as Keven was a pupil of

Moony’s whilst in secondary school.

The previous year Moony had agreed to coach Papatoetoe who were at the time a struggling team who lay at

the bottom of the table, had poor discipline, lacked structure and guidance and were in desperate need of

some strong leadership. Moony immediately set about developing a team culture, this took priority over

everything else including field based sessions. Local veterans of the team were brought in to speak to the

players and this started the process of developing a team culture. In one season with the same players,

facilities and finances the team went from finishing bottom to third in the league.

Moony explained that the first step in getting the culture right is to identify a leadership group to establish and

grow the culture. This was done on their preseason camp through players and coach selection, 11 players were

selected from a squad of 45. All had their own area of responsibility to lead on, Mooney strategically placed

certain players into specific roles to improve the effectiveness of the team and to help the individual grow and

develop. Players had to write their own role descriptions for their area of responsibility, once Mooney had

signed these off players went live with their roles. Examples of the leadership areas are;

5

Young players

How we train

How we play the game

Sponsors

Life members

Dress

Values

Entertainment

Alcohol protocols

Ambition

A good example of a player leading on one of the above areas was the responsibility Timau (a very talented

player) had around alcohol, Moony explained; “Timau was a piss head but a very talented player who had

played for Samoa, he was slowly wasting his talent and was also a negative influence on some of the players.

He set the standard of no drinking before games and after the game if we were going to have a couple of drinks

it was up to him. It just made him responsible and the rest of the leaders would look to him and if he thought

the team could have a few drinks on the bus on the way home it was up to him. It was up to him to say when

enough was enough or not enough, so when we did or didn’t. So it wasn’t the coaches saying no to drinking it

was the leaders. Timau was a real loose unit but the responsibility tightened him up and he might even play in

the world cup”.

The Team Culture within Papatoetoe was so powerful

that the players named it “Papatoetoeism”. The team

dedicated time to it every week to ensure the team

was on task and challenged each other when

behaviours were not being adhered to. It really was an

amazing experience but appeared a lot deeper and

more in depth than I observed or have explained. I also

met people in New Zealand who thought that team

culture didn’t require an explicit process but should be

lived everyday by the coaches and players, resulting in

a high quality environment. On reflection I’ve probably

experienced good and bad team culture, any success I

had in amateur sport was accompanied with a quality

environment and players who worked for each. I have also experienced the other side of team culture, poor

attitudes to training, players criticising the coach in an open forum and a big blame culture, these experiences

have always been associated with poor performances and unhappy teams.

Pictures: First team squad during a team culture meeting and Papatoetoe Rugby Football Club Training venue

6

2.2 Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) and a sharing nation

“Teaching kids how to tackle is a problem of perception and not a problem of technique, not just how to

tackle but when to tackle, human bodies are very good at adapting to environmental conditions” Tony

Oldham

I wanted to talk about TGFU in my report because I think my experiences of it in New Zealand highlighted a

culture of innovation and openness to new ideas, perhaps an approach that was one of the reasons for the

country being so successful as a sporting nation. TGfU is a coaching approach born out of Loughborough in

England, it was created by Rod Thorpe and David Bunker in the 1980’s. The TGfU approach to teaching and

coaching games and sport was proposed as an alternative to the technique approach because it was noted

that techniques practiced in isolation did not transfer to the game. In addition Thorpe and Bunker observed

that “games teaching shows at best, a series of highly structured lessons leaning heavily on the teaching of

techniques, or at worst lessons which rely on the children themselves to sustain interest in the game”. The

TGfU approach was proposed as a way of putting the WHY of a game before the HOW.

My first experience of TGfU was with a group of undergraduate students at Auckland University of Technology

(AUT). The group were taking part in a sharing best practice exercise, working in groups to present their

coaching issues to each other and then sharing similar experiences to identify ways to resolve the issues. A

common theme would be how to motivate young participants or how best to improve the skills required to

play the sport. Time and again students would advise each other on using a TGfU approach. The students’

knowledge of the approach was impressive but perhaps more significantly was their perseverance when using

the intervention. Anecdotes would be shared of when the approach didn’t work but after reflection and

evaluation of the session adjustments were made which subsequently developed the coaches’ working

knowledge and experience of the intervention. When chatting to one student he said that he liked using TGfU

because the kids enjoyed the sessions, when questioning him further he said “motivation equals more training

hours away from the traditional training sessions”, I thought wow what a smart kid. The determination

demonstrated in using the intervention and the belief in the effectiveness of the approach highlighted a

resilient and ingenious attitude to coaching, if these kids are to be the next generation of coaches in the

country then New Zealand sport will be in a good place in years to come.

Another significant observation I made in New Zealand was the inclusion of ‘Learning Framework’ in coach

education (this was a common theme during my visit to NZ and Australia). TGfU and the Constraints Led

approach were in several sports coach education programmes, a key to creating a culture of coaches who have

a philosophy of participants or athletes as learners. This philosophy immediately gives the coach the problem

of how he or she is going to design sessions to give participants the best chance of learning and not as in so

many cases the problem of what content is going to be delivered. The people who were responsible for

managing and developing the coach education programmes had strong links with academia and worked

together in developing programmes not only in content but in the best way of delivering the programme.

7

Somebody who was responsible for driving the use of

TGfU in a community sport setting was a charismatic

man called Andy Rogers. I spent three days at Greater

Auckland Coaching Unit (GACU) with Andy getting a feel

for the work he did and looking into the programmes

that they had developed. GACU’s theme was

“Connecting Coaches”, and they were responsible for

running a national mentoring programme that involved

project groups at a national level, where elite national

coaches would mentor talented up and coming coaches.

GACU were also responsible for driving the TGfU

movement within community sport, this movement is

highly significant on many fronts and highlights a national sporting structure that is committed to change and

innovation in order to continually strive for excellence. The open mindedness I experienced in trying new

things from inexperienced and experienced coaches, administrators, players and people in professional sport

was perhaps another reason why a small country was so successful a sport.

However the work of GACU in rolling out TGfU in the community setting did encounter some issues. Coaching

workshops or seminars did not appear to be working in changing the behaviour of coaches, and coaching

officers and coach educators openly discussed the challenge in connecting with hearts and minds to change

behaviour. They also highlighted how inexperienced coaches struggle with the complexity of using such

approaches, one coach educator told me “coaches come on a six hour workshop and we expect them to retain

information and go way and use it, this just doesn’t happen in the real world. The best ways to get coaches to

change behaviour is to observe and mentor them over weeks or even months in using a new approach, and

that’s if they want to change”.

Although issues might be present in developing coaches I think the important factor is that on a strategic level

there are many change agents who are continually pushing a consistent message. Whilst in Auckland I

experienced a range of organisations, academics, community and performance coaches and key figures who

championed interventions such as TGfU and the constraints approach, with these people consistently

promoting the movement change will eventually happen.

http://www.gacu.co.nz/

Picture: Undergraduate students at Auckland University of Technology, I delivered a TGFU session to the

group.

8

2.3 Alternative Competition - The kids just want to play

One of the main areas I wanted to look at whilst in New Zealand was sports who engaged in alternative forms

of their game during competition. These alternative forms of competition were designed to be fun, motivating

and more conducive to skill and decision making development. The common denominator when interviewing

coaches and development officers who were involved in developing these programmes was that the sport

must be fun and motivating to ensure continued participation. When observing these sports it was noticeable

that coaches simply facilitated game play and didn’t shout from the touch lines giving numerous instructions.

Player’s visibly created order through their own learning; this simple strategy gave the young players

ownership of the game and clearly increased enjoyment levels and the competition itself was valued as a key

learning opportunity. It isn’t surprising that New Zealand were so successful at invasion sports, young people

regularly engage in games as described below developing decision making, movement skills, coordination and

passing, catching and kicking skills from an early age and through fun games.

Another observation I made through this alternative approach was what happened during training or practice

sessions. Traditionally some coaches coach teams regardless of age to produce a result on the weekend, when

the kids attended weekly training sessions for the sports discussed below they would turn up and play the

game. Rarely did I see lots of instruction, demotivated kids or boring sessions. This way of delivering sport was

a great way for kids to enjoy sport and develop, coaches seemed to be comfortable to let go and let the kids

play, they didn’t feel the need to demonstrate their knowledge of the game through correcting every fault or

talking for long periods. This appeared to be a very effective coaching approach.

V Ball

V Ball is an adaptation of netball designed to increase time on task and give participants role rotation of the

positions within the game. Teams have reduced numbers and are not constrained by areas as in the full

international game. Speaking to a postgraduate student who was involved with the programme she explained

that V Ball was designed to “develop better players for the international game” and the real challenge in skill

acquisition is in “designing small sided modified games to reflect the long term skills required for the elite

game rather than short term skills”. The game certainly appeared to challenge participants’ all round skills. I

observed kids running, changing direction, passing and catching and shooting, these actions were repeated

lots of times in shorts bursts. It provided participants more involvement opportunities than the full

international game that I also observed, and the difference was very noticeable.

Turbo Touch

Turbo Touch was a game I heard about prior to arriving in New Zealand, the game is fast and explosive but

simple to play and attracts players of all abilities. The game is an invasion game using a rugby ball and is a

mixture of netball and rugby. The attacking team has two plays to score and then hands the ball over. I took

part in a game with a group of AUT students, it was certainly fast and furious and the amount of information to

be processed during game play is very high. Again I made a similar observation as with V Ball around coach

behaviour when watching school sessions, that coaches would turn up and facilitate the game and traditional

coaching did not apply. Game play implicitly teaches participants the value of keeping the ball and how

important it is to create opportunities with limited possession, key principles of play to invasion sports. All

these skills and behaviours were learnt through playing the game. A great example of the game can be seen on

the following clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOmFcD4zN6k

Turbo Touch Website http://www.turbotouch.co.nz/index.php?id=194

9

New Zealand Soccer

One of the most inspiring experiences I had in New Zealand was when I got an in depth look into New Zealand

Soccer’s alternative competition format. I spent a day with Dwayne Woolliams who explained their new

approach to developing young people through soccer. The governing body was a very forward thinking

organisation who championed change and innovation. Dwayne showed me the Football in Schools Programme

which had two strands, Football Literacy and Let’s Play. The two strands were very similar to programmes I had

seen in the UK with games a key focus with global and specific learning intentions. The emphasis was on

problem solving and how to play the games, and through the games participants would develop physical,

mental, technical, tactical, game understanding and social skills. Interestingly the Let’s Play programme

outcome was “To engage children in more unstructured self-guided play to promote and develop players with

game intelligence”. This was a similar theme to many sports that I came into contact with on my journey.

The real exciting part to the new programme was the competition format that the governing body had

introduced in the community game. Up to age 12 full size pitches and 11 a side matches had stopped, as is the

case with most countries. However the alternative was not just standard 5 v 5 small sided games but a range

of carefully designed games each with its own implicit outcome. Full size football pitches were divided into six

smaller pitches, on each smaller pitch teams would play a 4v4 format for a set period and then move to the

next pitch (with different rules and outcomes) to play again. Teams didn’t have coaches but parent leaders

who would ensure the efficient running of the games and all the administration duties on the day. Results did

not matter and no leagues were published, the main focus was clearly on development.

It was good to see a governing body driving change and trying things differently, however the changes did

come at a cost. New Zealand Soccer ran education sessions for parents, coaches and administrators prior to

rolling out the new initiative; this was to ensure a clear and consistent message was delivered as to the

rationale behind the change. The messages and correct information had not reached everybody and this

caused issues when rolling out the new competition format. Dwanye informed me that some parents had

removed their children from the sport because they felt the competition did not resemble the 11 a side game

and was ‘pointless’ and not ‘worth the effort’. This was disappointing and highlighted the importance of

educating the right people and getting them onside. However despite some unhappy parents I felt the steps

New Zealand soccer were taking in developing meaningful competition were exciting and a step in the right

direction.

2.4 The Sport Culture

One of the best experiences I had in New Zealand was the obvious culture of sport, whether this was informal

or formal sport in structured or unstructured settings. It appeared that everybody had some interest in sport

whether as a spectator or participant. There was a real sense of community about the whole sport experience,

this was highlighted when I visited Victoria Park to watch rugby league, where brothers and sisters, aunties

and uncles, mums and dads and grandparents attended to show their support. Perhaps the most memorable

experience I had that highlighted community spirit and a strong sport culture was in Whangarei, a city

surrounded by rural suburbs in the North Island with a population of about 50,000. I was in Whangarei to

observe a weekly netball event, and when I arrived at the venue at 0800 people were already arriving for the

day’s activities. Throughout the day approximately 2000 people were involved, whether it be playing,

spectating or officiating. Players as young as five and as old as 60 took part in some form of netball and size,

shape, ability and results didn’t seem to matter. Some took it seriously, others just wanted to have fun but the

important factor was that sport was being used as a vehicle for people to come together and socialise.

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Within school physical education and sport children experience lots of different sports and participate up to

five hours a week in the school setting. Even when school children move into the final years of high school they

still access the five hours. It was interesting to watch school kids of all ages engaging in free play through

various game types, learning innate skills that transfer across many sports and that would give them the skills

to confidently play most sports. The school also had a strong community focus and many clubs played out of

the school facility, who were normally serviced by the kids who attended the school. This was a very smart way

of attracting kids into playing new sports through a familiar and comfortable environment, rather than asking

them to step into a new environment in the form of a community club. Teachers were flexible with the

talented kids and would carefully timetable after school clubs to avoid clashes enabling kids to access a range

of activities and sports, there was an appreciation of the child who seemed to be at the centre of sport in the

school setting.

Another by-product of the sport culture was the seemingly common practice of late specialisation. I got the

chance to run a focus group with a group of players who were part of a rugby league performance squad,

some were contracted to a professional club and were paid a small wage. The purpose of the focus group was

to get a feel for the players’ sporting journey from an infant to the present day, trying to establish any

significant information about what coaching practice and competition the young men were exposed to

growing up. As I dug further I was amazed to discover that the majority of the group (about 15) still played

competitive basketball, many of them were 19 or 20 and were aiming for a full time professional contract with

the rugby league club the following season. This multi-sport approach was uncommon and from my

experiences and I had never experienced it before, compared to sport in the UK where its common place for

talented kids as young as eight to spend most of their adolescent years engaged heavily in one sport. Late

specialisation was very common across many sports and perhaps even more significant was the coaches and

clubs acceptance of this practice.

2.5 New Zealand key findings

1. The power of team culture in driving performance and the importance of it in New Zealand culture.

2. How driven some academics, sport administrators and key figures in sport are to changing current coaching

practice and to instigate and champion change.

3. Alternative forms of competition that are being used in New Zealand with the outcome of developing

players, and the importance of using research to support the new approach.

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3.0 Australia – Science and the mental edge

Having visited Australia before, I was aware of what to expect: a bit livelier than New Zealand with more going

on. My first stop was Brisbane (Queensland), and my host in Brisbane was a lecturer at Queensland University

of Technology (QUT) called Lee Wharton (Wharto). Wharto was a great guy who had been involved in coaching

rugby league for 20 years. His academic specialisation was coaching, with a particular focus on expertise in

coaching, specifically looking at what makes an expert and how to develop expert coaches. My time with him

was a fantastic experience and an eye opener to other coaching methods. Wharto also had contacts all over

Queensland which he used to arrange meetings, interviews and observations that took me on an informative

journey. Somebody else I met at QUT was Ian Renshaw, who had completed extensive research around

something called the “Constraints Led Approach” to coaching. A coaching approach that was very different to

traditional methods adopted by many coaches and sports, and an approach that was considered essential to

skill acquisition and to developing decision making.

After Brisbane I took the short flight to Sydney (New South Wales). Sydney was the final leg of my trip but my

enthusiasm was still high and I was excited by the prospect of some of the meetings I had planned in the final

week. For the final week of my trip I was staying in Manly with a great family called the Wilsons, a great

location and great company. During the week I visited the Australian Institute of Sport, several National Rugby

League clubs, staff at the Australian Rugby League and I also got to spend time with a rugby league coach who

is considered the best ever by many coaches, players and commentators in the game. The next few pages

explain my time in Australia and hopefully highlight some of the informative experiences that I had. Again

please read it with an open mind, as the purpose of it is to simply share my experiences and not state what is

right or wrong.

3.1 Creating the creative

“The best players who have played our game have all learnt to play in the backyard” Brad Donald

In Brisbane I spent some time with Brad Donald who worked at the Queensland Rugby League as a

Development Manager. Brad had time in the game coaching and playing and had worked in development for

11 years. Over this time Brad had observed that kids and elite players of rugby league were bored of

traditional coaching methods and players of all abilities were being constrained by this approach. There was

also some concern that the Australian version of mini and mod rugby league (for players up to the age of 11)

had constrained players so much that the game was no longer producing elite players in key positions.

Brad explained that in elite rugby league in Australia there is a real shift away from drill based practice and

small sided games are used as the main vehicle to deliver coaching sessions through situational learning. There

has also been a push to change the coaching approach in schools. The sport had observed that pupils were not

enjoying traditional sessions and within a class only a few pupils would be motivated or benefit from the

session leaving the majority de-motivated and not enjoying the physical activity. There was also a concern

across Australia that kids were not playing backyard sport anymore. The technology culture was common

across Australia like most developed countries, with kids choosing to spend time on a computer over playing

sport. Many sports were developing backyard programmes to reintroduce free play back into children’s daily

routines.

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Brad gave me an insight into rugby league’s programme and what the governing body was trying to achieve

from it, the new approach was called ‘Backyard League’: “The game gets more out of it because when our

development officers go to schools which is a big part of our programme at grassroots, the kids walk away

having played the game (rugby league) or a form of the game. What we wanted the kids to do is learn to play

the game so when they went away they could play the game anywhere, at the bus stop, school yard or in the

garden. The problem was that footy has been banned here (in some school yards) for the past 10 or 15 years

because kids tackle and get hurt, so we wanted to try and reintroduce footy. So with this programme we give

away footys, week one we get them to a point where they’re scoring tries and beating a defender, week two

we get them playing games against each other and let them know that one on one is a game of footy or two on

two or whatever, that is backyard footy. Then we walk away and the teachers run it, we leave them with a bag

of footys and four markers and say listen it’s just like a lunch time duty. Just put down the markers chuck them

a footy and let them negotiate (the rules) and just sit up on the hill and watch them”.

When I observed Backyard League in action teachers would hand over the equipment bag and kids would run

off to a spot on the school field and just play. When speaking to one teacher she said “Creating motivation for

the sport is just as important as creating skills because we want them to practice away from the school

environment”. It was clear to see that the high school kids were enjoying the games, probably because they

were free to play how they wanted. In one particular session a kid consistently scored very easily because of

his superior athletic ability, after he scored a third try his team decided that he could no longer score which led

to him creating opportunities for the other players in the team. This was great to see, the players managed the

rules themselves and adapted on the run, always thinking of different ways to change the rules or score points.

As I watched more and more Backyard footy in action it was clear to see the role of the game, the game gave

participants the opportunity to develop in varying conditions that allowed them to develop unique skills. It also

had softer consequences than in a formal setting, both physically and mentally. For example if a player didn’t

make a pass or tackle he or she wouldn’t be judged or criticised by an overbearing coach, nor would their way

of doing things (passing or tackling for example) be changed perhaps making the experience boring and not

engaging. When reflecting on this way of introducing rugby league to young people it was easy to understand

how the role of the formal game may de-motivate interest in the game in general. This approach was no

different to how I used to play the majority of my sport growing up over 25 years ago, had things really

changed that much?

3.2 Meeting Ric and Sid in the capital

Whilst staying in Sydney I made the three hour drive over to Canberra to visit the Australian Institute of Sport

(AIS), where I had arranged to meet Richard Shuttleworth (Ric). Ric works for the AIS as a Skill Acquisition

Specialist working directly with sports coaches to ‘conduct applied scientific research into elite and sub-elite

sport and explore innovative strategies and technology to enhance learning and performance’. From our

meeting I could sense that Ric was a champion of chaos coaching and the constraints led approach, these

approaches were a common theme throughout his work at the AIS, and he had a firm belief that coaching

should be to ‘facilitate a learning experience’. Ric also spent time educating coaches across a number of sports,

particularly looking at traditional coaching methods and the constraints they placed on performers. He would

discuss the impact that years of structured coaching would have on young performers and the barrier it

presented to decision making, from my time in Australia it appeared that this was a major worry to certain

figures in rugby league.

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Time and again Ric would highlight the importance of ‘Learning Framework’ and advocated the use of it in

coach education to help coaches understand the stages that a performer might go through. Through this work

he was also working with key figures in Australian rugby league to help better shape developmental pathways

and to better equip the coaches on these programmes to understand how people/athletes learn. A key to this

was using a problem based approach to coaching where open game play would be used to shape behaviour

and magnify the problem, coaches would then identify rules and conditions (constraints) to implement that

would help solve the problem. This approach was very different to traditional coaching methods and was

anticipated that it would help develop better decision makers and reduced ‘robotising’ coaches and players.

Whilst in Canberra we got onto the topic of Technique v Outcome, a common debate amongst coaches. Ric

offered some commentary on his thoughts around the debate: “So it’s like a passing technique if you’re going

to keep doing this (passing action) in a drill, your just drilling it and you’re not thinking why you’re doing it,

because you’ve isolated the problem into a closed situation and the problem is your over there and I need to

pass to you and there’s a guy coming quickly. The goal now isn’t getting it to you at the right time, the goal

now is the way I do it and that’s irrelevant. So I think you’ve got to have a hierarchy of what are the outcomes

and what are the goals in a situation, and the reason why Wayne Bennett is so good is that he doesn’t work on

technique but the timing of your pass. But that’s not to say technique work is out the window, say if I had a

problem getting the ball to you under pressure. Then it’s born and it emerges out of a situation, tradition does

it the other way where you put everything together (techniques) and you end up with the game. There is little

transfer under pressure through doing it this way, you see players struggling to adapt when under pressure

because they’ve only every practiced one solution to the problem through the drill”.

Another good experience I had during my visit to Canberra was meeting a fascinating character called Sid. Sid

had years of experience coaching rugby league, this was very evident through the conversation we had and the

anecdotes he offered about teams and players from years gone by. Perhaps more significantly he had great

knowledge and experience of using non traditional coaching and learning strategies.

Sid had spent time coaching at one of the National Rugby Leagues (NRL)

under 20s teams, a very prestigious coaching and playing environment

which historically has proved a pathway through to coaching and playing

in the NRL. Sid’s approach to coaching an under 20’s team in the local

Canberra competition was very unorthodox and could be considered by

traditionalists as not coaching or even reckless. A strategy of causing

chaos, due to the team being over reliant on instruction, which would

lead to self-organisation, was implemented through what would appear

to be chaotic and disorganised environment.

An example of this was turning up to the first training session with no

apparent session plan or idea of a session goal or outcome. Sid

approached the playing field, addressed the players and then threw a

ball onto the pitch and shouted “just play”. This was obviously met with

a confused response from the players who didn’t know what to do,

probably as a result of not being put in this position before. The approach understandably led to lots of

questions from players, a usual response from Sid would be “I don’t know you sort it out!!” Similar adaptations

of this approach continued throughout the season with interesting results.

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Eventually this approach led to the players creating their own order and systems and order was formed as a

result of the chaos. Players had developed consequences for lateness, non attendance and other actions

considered not conducive to the team culture and performance. Players were also responsible for selecting the

team and would justify their selection to the playing group.

A great example of the athlete centred environment and how comfortable Sid was with totally letting go of the

team was the day just before the semi-finals. Sid used the excuse that his battery was flat, this led him to

turning up late, he arrived at half time and because he hadn’t had the chance to inform the players of his

lateness prior to his arrival he was ordered by the players to sit in the stand because of his late arrival. Happy

with their decision Sid proceeded to watch the game in the stand. The players had warmed themselves up and

were well ahead when Sid arrived and ultimately won the game.

You probably wouldn’t find this approach on any coaching course or see it used in a performance

environment. Coaches are under pressure to get results and under these pressures coaches normally go back

to what they know best and coach teams through a very coach centred approach. In Sid’s case he was

summoned to meet with senior management on several occasions to explain his approach and on several

occasions he was nearly removed from the coaching position. Understandably it would take a very confident

and secure coach to adopt this way of coaching, but are the results more powerful and effective?

So what was Sid’s rationale behind enabling the players to have ownership and responsibility for their

environment? Sid kindly offered some commentary on his experiences and approach: “I first began to adopt

this approach when I went to play professionally in the Brisbane competition in 1985. I was instructed by the

coach that as I was a front rower if I wanted to run the ball it would need to be on the first 3 tackles and I was

not to pass the ball just “stick to the game plan”. This game plan centred approach made me feel de-motivated

and lacking ownership for my performance. I felt that even though I was a front rower I was capable of passing

the ball a short distance if a defender rushed out of the line and left a hole for my support runners to run into.

As a consequence of these instructions I saw that I no longer had support runners and the other forwards were

‘merely doing a hit up; to position our backs to attack’.

As I began coaching I discovered that coaches felt that they needed to be the “expert” and instruct their players

as to what to do. I feel that it is quite strange that a coach confidently predicts the oppositions movements and

reactions at the last training run before a game, which could be up to 48 hours before the contest in some

cases, and then instructs his players what to do and when.

I am not against game plans but feel that players that can identify what is happening in the moment and make

decisions based on the opposition’s actions can add great value to a good game plan. My reason for adopting

such an approach that Martyn has described was to firstly create players that can adapt to different situations

and solve problems and then put a game plan for specific opposition in to place”.

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3.3 Location effect

Whilst on my travels I got talking to a number of rugby league enthusiasts, who would tell me who they

thought would win the Grand Final and the next State of Origin Series (both major rugby league events in

Australia, equal to the soccer Premiership decider in the UK or England playing a six nations decider at

Twickenham). On one occasion I got chatting to a guy who was probably in his 70’s, he was a Queensland

supporter and had in depth knowledge of lots of NRL players which he demonstrated by telling me the

background of players who currently played in the Queensland State of Origin team who were currently on a

major winning streak against their counterparts New South Wales. At the time I didn’t realise the significance

of the conversation we had but on reflection I realised that the majority of the players who the guy got excited

about were born and raised in the country, in remote towns or cities across Australia. In Australia this is

actually a phenomenon called the ‘Location Effect’ or ‘Wagga Effect’.

The ‘Wagga Effect’ is a phrase used by the Australian Institute of Sport to describe the disproportionately high

number of elite sports men and women who come from regional cities. A study by researcher Dr Damien

Farrow confirms the existence of the phenomenon, which concluded sports stars are more likely to be born

and raised in a regional centre like Wagga Wagga than a big city. Dr Farrow reasoned children from smaller

towns have more space to play, are exposed to many different sports, and because competition is limited, will

often participate alongside adults. With so many high-profile sportspeople originating from Wagga Wagga, it's

also believed many children are motivated to follow in their heroes’ footsteps. Famous sports people born and

raised in Wagga Wagga include Wayne Carey, Paul Kelly, Michael Slater, Peter Sterling and the Mortimer and

Daniher brothers (very famous athletes in Australia).

This phenomena supported anecdotes, theories and opinions I had come across in both New Zealand and

Australia around transfer across sports and the value of kids engaging in free play. In both countries what is

apparent with some of the top athletes and decision makers is that they have played many sports from an

early age, and in many cases the adolescent years have been spent unsupervised and without coaching. The

Queensland Cup in Australia has seen many of the current Australian rugby league team come through its

ranks, interestingly due to the geographical spread of Queensland many of the players in it have not accessed

a performance pathway and their first taste of semi-professional sport is the Queensland cup. The competition

offers the perfect environment to prepare athletes for professional sport, and equally significant is that some

of the athletes coming into the competition have had many years in the phenomenon that is the location

effect.

3.4 Australia key findings

1. The importance of free play in the development of creative players and decision makers and how the

Backyard League programme is key to reintroducing this.

2. How essential learning framework is in coach education programmes, and the importance of using this

approach to enhance the effectiveness of coaches.

3. The importance of the formative years in an athlete’s career, and ways in which this could improve the

development of players in sport.

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5.0 Conclusion

When setting out on the Winston Churchill Fellowship I had the specific question of ‘Do alternative approaches

to coaching and competition structures enhance the development of young people and elite athletes?’

In this fast moving world it is clear that there is less opportunity for kids to participate in unstructured outdoor

play, the landscape has drastically changed over the past 30 years. School yards are no longer breeding

grounds for soccer, rugby or netball players and clearly out of school activity has also lost its appeal. I believe

this is one of the main reasons for the demise of world class decision makers in UK sport, but what can be

done about it?

Although I didn’t see evidence and research of alternative competition formats enhancing player and talent

development, I do firmly believe that the experiences young people get in the formative years have a

significant influence on their future performance levels. Opinions from key people in Australia around the

rugby league mini and mod competition constraining young performers so much that the elite game was no

longer seeing a wealth of players in key positions and indeed highly effective decision makers, might highlight

the importance of creating the right competition environment for the young. Another essential component to

creating the right competition environment is to educate coaches around the importance of player

development over preparing a team for the weekend competition; observation of this approach normally

offers long periods of inactivity and a constraining environment. However, unfortunately sport appears to be

awash with coaches who have different agendas based on league tables and results.

To further support this, the examples given around the power of the location effect on the development of

elite players and the recent developments of the Backyard League programme, could suggest the value of

letting young performers just play without coaching intervention or as in many cases coaching interference.

My time in Canberra highlighted how much of a negative and positive impact coaches can have on an athlete’s

career, and the value in promoting learning framework before technical or tactical content. The games based

approach is clearly a valued coaching intervention in New Zealand and Australia and this is accompanied by

coaches who create the right learning environment over a coach centred approach and over bearing adults.

Although the TGfU approach lacks theoretical basis anecdotal evidence and slowly research is starting to

support the intervention, furthermore the function of TGfU does fit the constraints led approach which is

becoming more popular in Australia through the introduction of Skill Acquisition experts.

All my experiences would point towards the value of competition and coaching interventions being

appropriate and motivating and how important it is to get them right. I didn’t experience wholesale

differences to the UK across both countries, but the small differences were significant ones and ones that

would ensure they stay one step ahead of the game. Of course change can only occur when key people see the

value in it and can influence the change. New Zealand and Australia seem to have personnel in key positions

that are consistently driving change for the better, perhaps a reason why they continue to lead the way in

some invasion sports.

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6.0 So what?

So what have I done since my return to the UK? It would have been a waste of time if I wasn’t going to use the

experiences and knowledge gained on my visit to the southern hemisphere. The five actions below are

currently underway or have been planned for 2012.

1. Introduced new coaching interventions on the Midlands Rugby League Scholarship programme for players

aged 14 to 16. This has engaged with 48 players and six volunteer coaches.

2. In March 2012 the Midlands Rugby League Service Area programme will launch, the programme’s outcomes

lead the delivery of the programme but lessons learnt will be implemented onto the programme. Coaches will

have a remit of ensuring the kids on the programme develop a love of the game through carefully designed

games that will motivate and develop the players involved. This will engage with up to 180 players and 12

volunteer coaches.

3. Changes will be made to the Midlands Youth League game format, these will be done to increase time on

task and role rotation giving participants more opportunities to develop. A key to this is the education of

parents, players and coaches.

4. The 2012 Midlands Community Rugby League Coaches CPD programme will have some of the content in this

report on the agenda. The eight coaches on this programme engage with approximately 800 children

throughout the academic year.

5. Dialogue with the people I met will be maintained which will hopefully lead to specialists visiting the UK to

share information and shape developments around coaching and developing players.

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