Coaches Corner

Welcome to Coaches Corner!
We always aim to give all our teams/tours/coaches access to the best information, experiences and coaching. If you’re a coach looking to develop your team and teams performance then you’ll want to bookmark this page. From time to time we’ll aim to add some sport specific and general coaching and athlete high performance tips and tricks to this page.

Why is New Zealand such a Sporting Nation?

What is in the water?

In New Zealand we love our sports. While we might be most globally known for our Rugby, we consistently perform quite well in Netball, Hockey, Rowing, Golf, Surfing, Underwater Hockey, Polo, Motorcross, Car racing and of course the Adventure Racing and distance/endurance events. Kiwis often considered to “punch above their weight” when it comes to sport.

What is the secret to the tenacious spirit and never dying spirit? We are still asking this today, but over time there have been some really unique and special sporting moments in New Zealand’s History.

While Rugby remains the most popular spectator sport in New Zealand, golf is the most popular participation sport, with more golf courses in New Zealand per capita of population, than any other country in the world. Basketball is poised to have the highest participation among youth in 2018, surpassing rugby. This might have something to do with the success of Steven Adams. (http://bit.ly/2E2KH6a).

Here are some really interesting facts about sport in New Zealand. Most notably we have the highest Olympic Gold Medals per capita than anywhere else on the planet!

New Zealand has more golf swings than they do rugby balls. Measured by club memberships, golf is the most popular sport by participation in New Zealand, followed by netball.

Perhaps the reason kiwis have an undying adventurous spirit is the proximity to the ocean? No part of New Zealand is more than 128km from the sea.

Maybe it’s the amount of untouched natural habitat that there is to explore? More rainbow trout in the 2kg to 3kg category are caught annually in New Zealand than in the rest of the world put together. What is perhaps inaccessible by most of the world, kiwis have on their doorstep and have become adept at the outdoors and developed quite strong physicality. The farming community often produces some phenomenal athletes as well, less than 5 per cent of the population of New Zealand is human – the rest are animals. This is one of the highest ratios of animals to humans in the world.

Sometimes it’s probably just good genes. In the 1920’s Olympic games, 15-year old swimmer Violet Walrond became New Zealand’s first female Olympian, but couldn’t leave her accommodation unless to compete or attend team functions. (Source: http://bit.ly/2KEbN48) Speaking of genetics, there are quite a few instances of siblings (in Rugby and Rowing, Shot put and Basketball) being quite successful at the international level. Some notable sporting families in recent history (just to name a few) are:

Barrett Brothers- all rugby players, 3 brothers to take the field for the All Blacks as well as a father who represented at the provincial level
The Adams family – Steven and Valerie. Steven playing NBA Basketball and Valerie with her success in Shotput.
Franks Brothers – both rugby players, and All Blacks
Whitelock Brothers – Rugby players and All Blacks
Evers-Swindell sisters – Rowing success at the international level

We don’t take our selves overly serious, so sometimes the New Zealand tenacious spirit is directed into unusual channels. We also broke a Guinness World Record for the world’s largest tape ball. The ball, which weighs 53kg and has a circumference of more than 2.5m, was made by winding Scotch tape continually around itself.

Along the same lines of not taking ourselves too seriously, we also have a tendency to invent sports that are a bit too crazy for most people. (Source http://bit.ly/2DZsRAR).

1) Bungy Jumping which was Invented in 1986 by A J Hackett. Bungy jumping is New Zealand’s most famous sporting export after the All Blacks. A J’s new sport went commercial two years later when he started charging brave tourists to repeat the trick in Queenstown.

2) Zorbing
The idea of encasing tourists in a transparent ball was first conceived in 1994 by Dwane van der Sluis and Andrew Akers who opened the first permanent zorbing site in Rotorua in 1997.

3) Jet Boating As with Bungy Jumping, Queenstown is the capital of jet boating. The rapids of the fast flowing Shotover River add to the exhilaration of the ride. The Jet Boat engine is uniquely New Zealand as it’s rivers are constantly changing and New Zealanders needed a way to travel by water that didn’t require a certain depth in the same way that an outboard motor requires.

4) Fly by Wire again invented in Queenstown where Kiwi lunacy literally takes to the skies. This unique ride – there is only one in the world – it is the nearest most of us will get to piloting a jet plane. Suspended from a steel cable bolted into the sides of a gorge the six minute ride accelerates to three G’s and is capable of reaching speeds of over 100mph, making fly by wire the world’s fastest ride.

We’ve got a long history of great courageous athletes and adventurers. With people like Sir Edmund Hillary, the first person to climb Mount Everest in 1953, was a New Zealander and Ernest Shackleton who captained 3 expeditions to Antarctic. Some of that tenacious New Zealand spirit also shows up in the world of inventions, as many parallels have been drawn between sport and business and the spirit required to boldly discover new inventions. Baron Ernest Rutherford, the first person in the world to split the atom in 1919, was also a New Zealander. Maybe it’s because New Zealand is the first to see the new day? Maybe it’s that the adventurous spirit of those that first settled here remains alive and well? Maybe there is something in the glacial water that supplies many New Zealanders especially in the South Island? Maybe it’s just good genes? Regardless, we know that Kiwis love their sport, will continue to love their sport and will probably invent a few more and probably continue to out perform their large nation counterparts.

Published November 27th 2018

#1 common issue from coaches that visit us

Why your athletes learn more from specialist coaches than they do from their regular coaches
Some observations from 14 years of hosting teams from all over the world

Athlete centred coaching. The latest trend in coaching has become widely used at the highest levels of sport. The ages 12-18 that we tend to see a lot of, the athlete centred approach has some really good documented benefits. The purpose of sport in these age groups is to develop the person as much as the sporting capability. According to long term athlete development framework, these athletes are in one of the following stages.

One of the biggest common complaints from our visiting coaches…
We see many parents, coaches and parent-coaches come across our paths. We organize tours for all levels of teams, from all different sporting codes and many parts of the world. Almost all of our tours get some specialist coaching in some shape or form. These specialist coaches have honed their craft and know what athletes need at what time. Given we tend to develop tours for age groups 12-18, it’s often the basics that need to be tended to and coached and repeated.

One of the most common statements from our parents and coaches who tour with the team is:

“We’ve gone through all of these skills with our players, how come they are actually listening and doing it different when it comes from the specialist coaches”

What we’ve noticed is that sometimes parent-coaches or volunteer coaches can have a more prescriptive and dictative approach. It can be challenging to find new, inventive ways to drill the basics, and of course sometimes it’s just a novelty effect. We all know the coaches who are quite prescriptive in their approach. They often have quite good game and skill understanding. They may have played at quite a high level in their own career, or are a very passionate fan or avid club participant. They mean well, and in many cases sometimes the team would cease to exist if it wasn’t for the passion of some volunteers.

If you want to explore new ways that you can learn from the best.
Learn to drill the basics, but get more adoption from your athletes.
Scroll to the bottom for a few downloads from Sport NZ

Often our specialist coaches are masters at finding new ways to teach the basics. The All Blacks are known for their focus on run-catch-pass, and Rowing NZ’s basics are release-recovery-catch-drive. It’s always amazing to see that seasoned coaches can get the maximum performance out of some athletes who nobody expected to perform. These are some of the most magical moments on tour. So what is different about the seasoned specialist coaches and how do they manage to essentially be teaching the SAME things, and somehow are able to pull out the greatness in each individual athlete. Well, we think it’s the athlete centred approach, the constraint led approach and the Teaching Games for Understanding. We all know that when a student of the game comes to a new conclusion themselves, they are more likely to remember and embody that new learning than if it’s told to them time and time again. As athletes work their way up the hierarchy of learning, as a coach you can support them in having them arrive at the conclusions themselves, which will ensure they can “embody” the knowledge and use it in different situations and be able to make decisions when the circumstances look a little bit different. This is the ultimate aim, to have your athletes be able to make decisions and self correct, of course this comes with time, but there are a few ways to ensure it happens easier and faster and earlier in their development.

Sporting New Zealand has some resources to help take you to the next level in your own coaching journey.

Here is a bit of a comparison about how the traditional model of coaching compares to Teaching Games for Understanding or “Small Sided Games”.

TGfU-Teaching Games for Understanding Resource Sport NZ

Constraints-Led-Approach-May-07- Sport NZ

Published Nov 5th 2018
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Podcasts for Sporting Parents

Often we come across parents and coaches who are looking for resources for how to navigate the world of youth sports and all that comes with that. Sport can be a phenomenal way to help teach your young person some life skills as well as help to build character and resilience. There are however a lot of unknowns and aspects outside of your control, coaches, teachers, administrators, other parents, other players. These are often tender years and as parents you’ll be wanting to ensure that you give your emerging athlete the best chance at growing and developing healthy habits, skills and relationships that will serve them long into their adult lives. We’ve compiled a list of some helpful resources that might help you navigate this time in their lives.

The Sports Parenting Podcast
Featured on MLB Academy, CNN, CoachUP (CU), USA Football, and the Huffington Post

Janis wants to help parents guide their children to become champions in sports and in life. Sports should be more than just a game. More than wins and losses. More than stats and scholarships. She believes competition provides a perfect setting for character growth. She’s been on both sides of the bench as a parent and a coaches wife.

Playing sports brings excitement and recognition. It may even help pay for college and open doors for the future. But nothing will ever be more important than the type of person your son or daughter becomes in the process.

Janis has written many books on the topic, including 11 Habits of Happy and Positive Sports Parents she’s also written a free resource that’s pretty handy a 4 step plan to help you enjoy your time as a parent in youth sports

The Ultimate Sport Parent Podcast – Instilling confidence and success in young athletes

The Ultimate Sports Parent Radio-a series of audio interviews–offers sports parents and youth coaches tips and strategies about specific youth sports issues, which are listed below. You can listen to the audios online, download them to your computer, or use iTunes to listen to them any time.

The show includes interviews with sports parents, youth sports experts, and coaches. Listeners hear other parents’ stories and get practical information about playing time, difficult coaches, kids’ worries, how to improve kids’ mental game, sports kids’ confidence, and other issues.

The Sports Parent
The husband/wife wonder duo of sportswriter Jeff Pearlman and family coach Catherine Pearlman merge sports and parenting into a podcast that digs into everything from overzealous Little League parents to participatory trophies for all. Featuring a loaded guest list of some of the biggest names in sports and entertainment.

Why Youth Sports Makes Parents Crazy
*One off Episode

In this—the final episode of Season One—Dr. Sara and Dr. John talk about how youth sports can be the royal road to emotional problems for parents. Highlights include:
(a) a discussion of how easy and natural it is for parents to get overemotional about their child’s athletic performance
(b) ideas for emotional preparation
(c) the sorts of bad advice parents can yell from the sideline (but shouldn’t!)
(d) insights from Coach Collin Fehr, who, with his newly minted doctorate, shares the “best thing” for parents to remember.

Educational resources from this podcast that are super helpful with a whole list of “must read” books for parents of young athletes. Educated Sport Parent Website

Published October 25th 2018

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Mental Skills

Pre Season Rugby Tips

Grant Keenan -Coach for Crusaders International High Performance Unit

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Mark Vanner -Strength & Conditioning Coach (2018) Crusaders International High Performance Unit

International High Performance Unit and Total Rugby

What is your focus as a coach in pre-season and how do you structure your trainings to meet these objectives?