| Team Building | Motivation |
Partners
Phil Jackson
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Phil Jackson
Widely considered one of the greatest
coaches in the history of the National
Basketball Association, Phil Jackson led the
Chicago Bulls to six NBA titles from 1989 to
1998 and the Los Angeles Lakers to three
consecutive NBA titles from 1999 to 2002.
In his career, Jackson has coached some of
the best players in the game including Kobe
Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal with the Lakers,
and of course Scottie Pippen and Michael
Jordan with the Bulls. In 2011, Jackson won
his 11th championship, the most in NBA
history. He became President of Basketball
Operations at the New York Knicks in 2014.
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The Zen
Master
The most championship rings in
history, the author of several books
devoted to the art of team building,
is there a better man alive than
Phil Jackson to talk high performance
with? Dave Hancock interviews him for
Performance and uncovers the philosophy
of one of the great visionaries of the
modern coaching era.
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Team Building | Motivation
05 Spring Issue
when they can lose themselves
completely in the action and
experience the pure joy of
competition. One of the main
jobs of a coach is to reawaken
that spirit so the players can
blend together effortlessly.”
It sounds so simple when you
put it like that. But as many
coaches will tell you, what
looks effortless come game
time is invariably the result of
a lot of deep thought and hard
graft. Redefining coaching
means rolling up your sleeves.
Selflessness
he statistics alone are
impressive enough.
Twenty seasons as a
coach with two of the most
iconic franchises in the NBA,
a tally of 1,640 regular season
games yielding 1,155 victories,
a win-loss percentage of 0.704
– the best in the history of the
game, no less – and the small
matter of 11 championship
rings. As coaching CVs go,
none come more gold-plated
than that of Phil Jackson,
now President of Basketball
Operations with the New York
Knicks and a true gentleman
whom I’m lucky enough to have
had the pleasure of working for.
mischievous headline writers has
turned into a badge of respect.
The son of two Pentecostal
ministers who reportedly didn’t
see his first movie until he was
a senior at high school, Phil’s
coaching career has been
defined by his willingness to step
outside the norm in his quest
to encourage excellence. From
studying the philosophies of Zen
Buddhism and Native American
culture, to introducing
mindfulness and meditation
to his teams’ training regimes,
he’s left no stone unturned in
order to create environments
that let his players take their
game to the next level.
But if any coach shouldn’t be
defined simply by the bottom
line, it is the man known to
the game as ‘The Zen Master’.
You see, Phil has always been,
well, just that little bit different,
and what started out as a
throwaway nickname created by
“Phil is fantastic at managing
egos and personalities, getting
everyone on the same page and
maxing out whatever potential
is there for what should be
the common and ultimate
goal,” Michael Jordan – who
in tandem with Phil made the
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Chicago Bulls the franchise of
the 1990s – told ESPN when
asked to describe the qualities
that have made his former coach
so successful. And he’s right,
because when you contemplate
the array of stars that Phil has
worked with – from Jordan,
Dennis Rodman and Scottie
Pippen at Chicago to Kobe
Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal at
LA – and the impact he had on
their careers it becomes obvious
that he has a gift for challenging
and inspiring his players in
ways they might not expect.
“Whether they’re willing to
acknowledge it or not, what
drives most basketball players
is not the money or adulation,
but their love of the game,”
Phil wrote in the pages of
Sacred Hoops, his 240-page
examination of his philosophies
following his time with the Bulls,
first published back in 1995.
“They live for those moments
“There is no shortcut to
success,” he told me. “Details
must be observed and principles
honored. The athletic talent
must be there [in the players]
to be the best of the best,
and the desire to be the best
must first come from inside
the athlete, [but if you can
demonstrate what you’re doing
has a purpose] then players
will show their willingness to
hone the skills and qualities
necessary to succeed.”
It’s clear that when he discusses
a player’s qualities he isn’t just
talking about their ability to
drop a long three-pointer. A
fundamental building block
behind his approach is the
concept of selflessness – the art
of getting talented, ambitious
athletes to surrender their
individual preferences and focus
on what is right for the team.
“Players are conditioned to be
solo artists because that’s how
they grew up, that’s what agents,
media etc push,” Phil explained
in Sacred Hoops, before outlining
how this went against his
basic principles of how a team
functions and the triangle system
of offense he favors. “[The
triangle system] helps undo
some of this conditioning by
getting players to play basketball
with a capital B instead of
indulging their self-interest. The
principles of the system are the
code of honor that everybody
on the team has to live by. We
put them on the chalkboard and
talk about them almost every
day. The principles serve as a
mirror that shows each player
how well they’re doing with
respect to the team mission.”
Besides being the on-court
offensive system, these principles
played an important role in
Phil’s approach to coaching.
“The relationship between a
coach and his players is often
fraught with tension because the
coach is constantly critiquing
each player’s performance and
trying to get him to change
his behavior,” he explained.
“Having a clearly defined set
of principles to work with
reduces conflict because it depersonalizes the criticism. The
players understand that you’re
not attacking them personally
when you correct a mistake,
but only trying to improve their
knowledge of the system.”
their coach’s vision of what is
best for the team, so how did
he manage outrageous talents
such as Jordan? “Every now
and then Michael would break
loose and take over a game,” he
explained in Sacred Hoops. “But
that didn’t bother me as long as
it didn’t become a habit. I knew
he needed bursts of creativity
to keep from getting bored,
and that his solo performances
would strike terror in the hearts
of our enemies, not to mention
help win some key games.”
I asked Phil about the power of
the mind and whether players
like Jordan and Kobe have a
markedly different attitude or
disposition to their peers in
the NBA, and his answer was
emphatic: “Yes, there was no
challenge that was too big.
If the height of the bar was
at 10’ they were willing to
try and scale 11’ even if they
were told it wasn’t possible.”
Phil summed up his approach
in Eleven Rings, the 2013
bestselling follow-up to Sacred
Hoops: “When a player isn’t
It’s a tough stance to argue
against when it has yielded
the results it has, but what
of the true global superstars,
like Jordan or Bryant? As Phil
himself acknowledges, sport
is littered with examples of
great talents refusing to bow to
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Team Building | Motivation
05 Spring Issue
motivated him to time and
again encourage a crop of
gifted athletes to ask questions
of themselves they perhaps
otherwise would never have
asked? “What moves me is
watching young men bond
together and tap into the magic
that arises when they focus –
with their whole heart and soul
– on something greater than
themselves,” Phil said in the
pages of Eleven Rings. “Once
you’ve experienced that, it’s
something you never forget.”
forcing a shot or trying to
impose his personality on
the team, his gifts as an
athlete most fully manifest.
Paradoxically, by playing
within his natural abilities, he
activates a higher potential for
the team that transcends his
own limitations and helps his
teammates transcend theirs.
When this happens, the whole
begins to add up to more
than the sum of its parts.
“Example: We had a player
on the Lakers who loved to
chase down balls on defense.
If his mind was focused on
scoring points at the other end
of the floor instead of making
steals, he wouldn’t be able
to perform either task very
well. But when he committed
himself to playing defense, his
teammates covered for him on
the other end, because they
new intuitively what he was
going to do. Then, all of a
sudden, everybody was able
to hit their rhythm, and good
things began to happen.”
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View From The Top
But what of the coach himself ?
I asked Phil about the traits and
personalities that in his eyes are
vital for coaches, and he gave a
fascinating answer, away from
the skills like man-management
or communication we so often
prioritize: “The ability to work
beyond pain, the fear of failure
or of not being considered ‘The
Best’.” And what advice would
he give a young coach just
starting out? “If you can’t get
it done in an eight-hour work
day you can’t get it done the
right way. Don’t overwork just
because. And be authentic.”
That authenticity seems to have
contributed to the strength of
the relationships Phil’s enjoyed
with his players. His approach
to leadership has often involved
handing responsibility to his
players to lead themselves and
make their own decisions. In
Eleven Rings he described how
he reached his leadership style:
“After years of experimenting,
I discovered that the more I
tried to exert power directly
the less powerful I became. I
learned to dial back my ego and
distribute power as widely as
possible without surrendering
final authority. Paradoxically,
this approach strengthened my
effectiveness because it freed
me to focus on my job as a
keeper of the team’s vision.
“Some coaches insist on having
the last word, but I always
tried to foster an environment
in which everyone played
a leadership role… If your
primary objective is to bring
your team into a state of
harmony and oneness, it doesn’t
make sense for you to rigidly
impose your authority.”
Final Word
It’s the words selflessness and
oneness that you find yourself
drawn to again and again in
Phil’s philosophy, but what has
Judging by the evidence
compiled from Phil’s near
50-year career in professional
basketball, it’s a sentiment
Performance doesn’t doubt.
Talking Triangles
It’s very easy to focus on Phil’s
headline-grabbing skills as a
motivator and man manager,
but he’s also employed a
tactical approach that has
divided basketball as to its
effectiveness yet delivered
unprecedented results.
Phil utilized ‘the triangle
offense’ at both the Chicago
Bulls and the LA Lakers.
Pioneered by Hall of Fame
coach Sam Barry at the
University of South Carolina
and refined by former Kansas
State University basketball
Head Coach Tex Winter, who
served as Assistant Coach
“After years of experimenting,
I discovered that the more
I tried to exert power directly
the less powerful I became.”
alongside Phil at the Bulls and
Lakers, the relatively simple
system’s most significant
feature is the sideline triangle
created by the center, who
stands at the low post, the
forward at the wing, and the
guard at the corner. The
team’s other guard stands at
the top of the key and the
weak-side forward is on the
weak-side high post. The
goal is to create useful space
between players and maximize
the team’s attacking options.
“The triangle is actually
extremely simple,” Phil
explained to the Huffington
Post a few years ago. “You
just need enough energy to
get up and down the floor,
because it’s a 94-foot offense.
Everything happens in 4/4
time, like rap music. That’s
how I always described
the tempo to players.”
The system’s adoption in
1989/90 helped turn Chicago
from playoff contenders into
the dominant franchise in
the NBA, as it forced rival
teams – who previously had
concentrated on nullifying
Michael Jordan, already
acknowledged as one of the
best players to ever take to
the court – to rethink their
defensive strategies and
allowed other Bulls players
greater opportunities to
influence the game. The rest,
as they say, is history…
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Team Building | Motivation
05 Spring Issue
Phil Jackson
A Career At The
Very Top
1967
Drafted in the second
round by the New
York Knicks
1973
The Knicks win
the NBA title
1980
Retires from playing,
coaches in various lowerlevel professional leagues,
notably the Continental
Basketball Association
1989
Appointed Chicago
Bulls Head Coach
1992
The Bulls successful
defend the NBA title
1991
The Bulls win their first
NBA championship
under Jackson
1993
Chicago completes the
first of two ‘three-peats’
(three consecutive titles)
1996
Chicago win the
championship for
the fourth time
1998
Chicago complete their
second three-peat under
Jackson, who steps
down as Head Coach
1997
The Bulls successful
defend the NBA title
Spirituality
The Zen Master nickname stemmed
from the array of alternative disciplines
and ideas that Jackson has drawn
from to enhance his coaching. Two of
the most prominent influences are the
warrior philosophy of the Lakota Sioux
and the mindfulness principles of Zen
Buddhism, but they were by no means
the only areas explored.
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[I would have] experts
come in and teach
the players yoga, tai
chi, and other mind-body
techniques,” Jackson wrote
in Eleven Rings. “I also invited
guest speakers – including a
nutritionist, an undercover
detective, and a prison warden
– to show them new ways
of thinking about difficult
problems… On another
occasion I arranged to have
the team visit my former
teammate, Senator Bill Bradley,
in his Washington DC office,
where he gave us a talk about
basketball, politics, and race.”
Did these techniques work?
Certainly, according to
former Bulls guard Steve
Kerr: “One of the best
things about our practices
was they delivered us from
the mundane… Our team
bonded in ways that the other
teams I played for never did.”
The Warrior Ideal of
the Lakota Sioux
“The Lakota’s concept of
teamwork was deeply rooted
in their view of the universe.
A warrior didn’t try to stand
out from his fellow band
members; he strove to act
bravely and honorably, to
help the group in whatever
way he could to accomplish
its mission – there were so
many parallels between the
warrior’s journey and life in
the NBA. A basketball team
is like a band of warriors,
a secret society with rites
of initiation, a strict code
of honor, and a sacred
quest – the drive for the
championship trophy. For
Lakota warriors, life was
a fascinating game. They
would trek across half of
Montana, enduring untold
hardships, for the thrill of
sneaking into an enemy
camp and making off with a
string of ponies. It wasn’t the
ponies per se that mattered
so much, but the experience
of pulling off something
difficult together as a team.
NBA players get the same
feeling when they fly into
an unfriendly city and steal
away with a big win.”
Mindfulness of
Zen Buddhism
When he first took charge
at Chicago, Jackson found
himself concerned at
the way his players had
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Team Building | Motivation
05 Spring Issue
1999
Hired as Head Coach
by the LA Lakers
2001
The Lakers defend
their NBA title
2000
The Lakers win the
NBA championship
2002
The Lakers retain the NBA
title again, earning Jackson
his third three-peat
previously been taught
to approach the game. “I
realized anger was the Bulls’
real enemy… Anger was the
restless demon that seized
the group mind and kept
the players from being fully
awake… Win or die was the
code; rousing the players’
anger and bloodlust was the
method,” Jackson confided
in Sacred Hoops. In order
to combat this trait and the
negative way it impacted
upon his team’s performance,
particularly against bitter
rivals the Detroit Pistons,
Jackson turned to the
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teachings and meditation
techniques of Zen Buddhism.
“The meditation practice
we teach players is called
‘mindfulness’,” Jackson wrote
in Sacred Hoops. “When
I was coaching in Albany,
Charles Rosen and I used
to give a workshop called
‘Beyond Basketball’ at the
Omega Institute in Rhinebeck,
New York. The workshop
served as a laboratory
where I could experiment
with a number of spiritual
and psychological practices
I’d been itching to try in
2004
Jackson leaves the Lakers
2005
Jackson is reappointed
as Lakers Head Coach
after his successor Rudy
Tomjanovich stands down
due to poor health
combination with basketball.
Part of the program involved
mindfulness meditation, and
it worked so well I decided
to use it with the Bulls.
“We started slowly. Before tape
sessions, I’d turn down the lights
and lead the players through a
short meditation to put them in
the right frame of mind. Later
I invited George Mumford, a
meditation instructor, to give the
players a three-day mindfulness
course during training camp....
Here’s the basic approach
Mumford taught the players:
Sit in a chair with your spine
2009
The Lakers win the title, clinching
his record-breaking 10th NBA
championship as Head Coach
2010
The Lakers defend their title, earning
Jackson his 11th championship,
the most in NBA history
straight and your eyes
downcast. Focus your attention
on your breath as it rises and
falls. When your mind wanders
(which it will, repeatedly), note
the source of the distraction (a
noise, a thought, an emotion,
a bodily sensation) then gently
return the attention to the
breath… Little by little, with
regular practice, you start
to discriminate raw sensory
events from your reactions
to them. Eventually, you
begin to experience a point
of stillness within. As the
stillness becomes more stable,
you tend to identify less with
2011
Stands down as Lakers coach
2014
Appointed President of Basketball
Operations at the New York Knicks
fleeting thoughts and feelings,
such as fear, anger, or pain,
and experience a state of
inner harmony, regardless of
changing circumstances….
Even those players who
drift off during meditation
practice get the basic point:
awareness is everything. The
experience of sitting silently
together in a group tends to
bring about a subtle shift in
consciousness that strengthens
the team bond. Sometimes
we extend mindfulness to
the court and conduct whole
practices in silence. The deep
level of concentration and
nonverbal communication
that arises when we do this
never fails to astonish me.
“More than any other player,
B.J. Armstrong took meditation
to heart and studied it on his
own. Indeed, he attributes
much of his success as a player
to his understanding of not
thinking, just doing. “A lot of
guys second-guess themselves,”
he says. “They don’t know
whether to pass or shoot or
what. The game happens so fast,
the less I can think and more
I can just react to what’s going
on, the better it will be for me
and, ultimately, the team.”
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| Talent Evaluation | Environment |
Diego Masciaga
05 Spring Issue
Diego Masciaga knows what it takes
to run a world-renowned restaurant.
Having worked in the industry for over
30 years, he is the Director and General
Manager of Michel Roux’s Waterside
Inn. The restaurant is the first outside
of France to retain three Michelin stars
for over 25 years.
Raymond Blanc OBE
Recipes for Success
Lessons in
Sustaining
Excellence
At the world’s top restaurants, those with multiple Michelin
stars held over decades, only the absolute best will do. From
morning to night, 365 days a year. It’s an environment of zero
compromises where performance is continually under the
most critical inspection. Our columnist and world renowned
communication expert Chris Parker asks the leaders of
two of the world’s greatest restaurants about instilling and
maintaining excellence throughout their organizations.
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A household name in the UK, Raymond
Blanc is a self-taught two-star Michelin
chef and Chairman and Chef Patron of
Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons,
the only country house hotel in the UK
to have achieved two Michelin stars for
a total of 30 years.
What does excellence actually mean to you?
Raymond Blanc: Excellence for me, and I
think for most of us, is an aspiration. For one
minute, for one second, we want to touch
excellence. Sometimes it requires months,
years or decades, to create that quality,
that sustainability, that commitment. For
me, excellence is a collection of seemingly
meaningless, worthless details, but if you pile
these meaningless details one on top of the
other, lovingly and with the intelligence of
your team, eventually, maybe one day, you
will touch excellence.
Diego Masciaga: I think consistency is a
priority. You can be a star for one, two, three
days, but the difficult thing is to be a star for
a long time. Consistency is very often the
key to success for a business. How do you
achieve that? You have to keep your team
excited. You have to keep their minds excited.
You have to respect them first if you want
to be respected back. Not just from the top,
but from the bottom. That is how you must
respect your team. We’ve had three Michelin
stars for 27 years and it’s been very tough
because we went through wars, we went
through recessions, we went through many
things, but if you keep your team on the ball,
keep them hungry for success, then you can
achieve excellence. Excellency in restaurants,
for me, is the same as excellence in sport. I
deliver food and wine in the best way I can
and get a reward from my client. A sportsman
delivers a great performance and he gets a
reward from his public. If a sportsman doesn’t
perform at his best he will get booed at the
end, whereas a sportsman who delivers a
great performance will get applause.
How do you harness passion and use it to
achieve excellence?
RB: Like all sportsmen, you know all too well
that if you want to achieve something in life
you have to do it again and again, you have to
do it better and faster. You have to train, train,
train. You have to motivate each member of
your team, to train them, to support them so
that these kids grow with you. But more than
that, it’s about them owning your vision. Your
success comes down to your ability to pass
on your vision and to make it a reality for
everyone at the company. Even the washer-up
needs to own that vision. Then you can create
“Your success comes
down to your ability
to pass on your vision
and to make it a
reality for everyone
at the company.”
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Talent Evaluation | Environment
05 Spring Issue
“I make deliberate
changes to stimulate
their minds and to
change their day
because it’s very
important.”
something which is really an extraordinary
dynamic that is beneficial to everyone.
When you recruit, how do you rank attitude
alongside technique and skill?
DM: Obviously you have to look for two things.
One is attitude, the other is performance, or
technique. I can teach technique but I cannot
teach attitude, so really my priority is to employ
people with the right attitude. If you have the
right attitude you can learn faster, you can
perform better, you can achieve excellence. If
you don’t have the right attitude and you only
have performance or technique, you won’t
“If you want to win
something you need to
be a bit arrogant. You’re
not going to go far if
you are the little lamb
every day. Arrogance
on performance is not
arrogance on attitude.
Very different.”
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go anywhere. I speak to everyone I recruit
personally on the phone because while that
voice on the phone might not tell me if they
have the right technique it will tell me if they
have the right attitude. We are all human, we
can detect when a voice is honest and when
it’s not. I look for honesty and humility in my
staff. If you want to win something you need to
be a bit arrogant. You’re not going to go far if
you are the little lamb every day. Arrogance on
performance is not arrogance on attitude. Very
different.
RB: Talent will never be enough to reach the
top. Talent is one tool that will help you but it
is not the definitive weapon that will help you
reach total success. If you don’t have willpower
or the strategy or the team to support you,
if you don’t have the family background to
support you, you will fail. The people who win
are constantly focused on getting better.
How do you combat complacency in a
restaurant that has held three Michelin stars
for 27 years?
DM: Routine is the worst thing sometimes.
Routine is really bad for me, for the team
and obviously for the spectator or guest.
It’s extremely important to excite my team.
It’s not easy to do that. Sometimes I have to
think like them. If I go in to work and I don’t
have a very busy day sometimes I just turn
everything upside down. I know they hate
me for this because they don’t talk to me!
As a young person there is a fine line between
playing and working. And if work becomes a
routine then it becomes boring and there is no
sparkle. You want to see that sparkle in their
eyes. If someone has been with me for three,
four or five years, worked very well for me, and
I see the sparkle has gone, the first thing I do
is look for a high position for them, but maybe
somewhere else exciting – Australia, New York
– and see if I can get a job for them. When I’ve
got that organized then I will offer them that
position as a prize. You’ve worked for me for
four years, I’ve got a super job for you. I then
ensure I’m getting a new member of staff, with
sparkle, someone who is young and willing to
do more.
How do you create trust with staff if you are
driving them so hard?
DM: The only way for your team to trust you
is that they have to know that you can do
their job as well as them, if not better. It’s not
good for me to tell someone off if they don’t
wash the plates properly but at the same time
I don’t know how to do it or I’m not prepared
to do it. Your team have to see you, the leader,
every now and again do their job. And they
will feel good and you will gain their trust. It’s
very important to respect them. You say good
morning every day, use their first name, have
a joke. Once you’ve got their trust you can do a
lot with them because they will do a lot for you.
If you ask them to work two extra hours, they
don’t mind, they don’t ask for money. You will
give them money but you only let them know
after!
RB: The most crucial part of gaining respect is
to train people and invest a tremendous amount
of time, money and structures in these young
people so they feel confident. You as an owner
have invested in them and that way you create
a great dynamic.
13
| Composure | Creating a Champion |
Shooting
Star
How a four-year journey turned
Peter Wilson from a European
Junior Champion to a world record
holder and arguably the best
shooter on the planet.
Peter Wilson
Peter won gold in the double trap at the
London Olympics in 2012 at the age of 25. He is
the current world record holder for the event,
having scored 198 out of 200 at a World Cup
event in Arizona in 2012. He was made an MBE
in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to
shooting. He announced his retirement from
shooting in October 2014.
37
05 Spring Issue
the best out of me for 2012.
I didn’t pay him a penny. He
didn’t need money, it was
about passion for him. I did
everything I could to obey
him. He was very explicit:
‘You work with me, I am your
sport psychologist, I am your
coach, I am your technical
coach, I am your nutritionist,
I am your fitness instructor,
I am everything and you do
everything I tell you and you
will win the Olympics’.”
n 2008, a 21-year-old
Peter Wilson was part
of Great Britain’s
Olympic Ambition Program
and in Beijing sampling the
Olympic experience. Just two
years earlier he had taken up
the double trap, and before
2006 was out he had become
European junior champion. So
how, just four short years after
his Beijing trip, did a 6ft 6in
shooter, by his own admission
no natural athlete, become
world record holder (with an
incredible 198 out of 200) and
London 2012 gold medallist?
Stephen Dobson spoke to
Peter about momentum, being
in the zone, and being coached
by a legend of the sport.
Peter Wilson was raised on
his parents’ farm in southwest England. After suffering
nerve damage to his shoulder
in a snowboarding accident,
meaning he could no longer
play cricket, rugby or squash,
he took up shooting. He says:
38
“I stumbled into Olympic
shooting when I left school,
started shooting double trap
and just loved it. I shot it for
about four months, qualified
for the under 21 GB team,
went to Slovenia as a junior
and won the European
Championship two months
later! So six months after
deciding to take it up I’d won
a European Championship.”
Wilson quit university to take
up shooting professionally:
“I was on a mission to win
the Olympics and there was
nothing else that mattered.
As a junior champion I was
on the lowest rung of UK
Sport funding, so I was paid
a minimal amount with most
of my expenses covered.”
Wilson had a good year in
2007 and began to move
steadily up the UK Sport
ladder but in 2008 things took
a turn for the worse. He says:
“We didn’t win any shooting
“Hit this pair
and whatever
happens
next doesn’t
matter. You can
prepare for
that at another
point. If it
means your
heart stops, so
be it. You die;
get over it.”
medals at the Olympics, so
our funding was removed. I
was sent to Beijing as part of
Ambition 2012, designed to
prepare young athletes ahead
of London. But I knew we
were heading back home
to no funding.” That stark
decision changed Peter’s life. It
forced him to look beyond the
norm in terms of coaching,
even before he came back to
the UK. He explains: “While I
was at the Olympics, I sought
out a man called Sheikh
Ahmed Al Maktoum, a legend
in the world of double trap,
who had won gold in Athens
and come seventh in Beijing.
I snuck into the athlete’s
lounge at the shooting range,
sidled up to him and said
that I was coming off the
program, explained what
that meant and asked him to
consider coaching me. To my
amazement he sort of agreed.
It was good timing – he was
quitting after the Olympics. I
gave him a call that evening,
we had a good chat and he
just liked me, we got on well.
“I agreed to do absolutely
anything he asked me to in
order to win – I would stand
on my head for 10 days if that
was what he said would get
So in 2009 Peter trained
and trained with his Dubaibased coach and began to
build up a support team to
prepare for 2010. That year,
he qualified for the European
Championships and won
silver, in a competition he
reckons was the best he ever
shot in his career – including
his 2012 world record. It
was also a chance to regain
his funding, so the stakes
were high. He takes up
the story: “I’d flown all the
way to Russia, worked and
worked and worked for this
moment and in the first
round I pretty much blew it.
“I shot 42 from my first 50.
There’s no way you’re making
the final from there. But
with a mixture of anger and
bloody-mindedness I then
went out and shot 49 out of
50 twice in seriously difficult
conditions. Everyone started
to miss around me and I just
started to find my form at
exactly the right time. I shot
well enough in the final to
hold my own. I came second
and got my funding back.
There was just such immense
pressure after that first round, so
to bounce back was amazing.”
“When you’re
in the zone,
you will
win, end of
story. But
when you’re
not in the
zone, which
is probably
going to be
99 per cent
of the time,
who’s going
to win? So
let’s not worry
about the one
per cent, let’s
worry about
the 99 per
cent.”
The next stepping stone for
Wilson was competing against
his coach. He says: “There
was a ‘quota’ tournament [for
Olympic qualification] in Chile
and Ahmed had decided to
come out of retirement and
try to qualify for London. We
shot exactly the same score
and had to shoot off to make
the final. I beat him and he
then came and sat behind
me for the final as my coach.
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05 Spring Issue
Composure | Creating a Champion
He explained what I would
feel – I’d never been in a final
where a quota place was up for
grabs, so the pressure was on.
“I felt exhausted. I told him
I was knackered. I’d given
everything I had. I wanted to
go to bed. He told me: caffeine.
Drink as much caffeine as
you’re allowed: ‘My advice
would be go and drink two cans
of Red Bull, have a banana
and then prepare for the final.
Sheikh Ahmed bin
Mohammad bin Hasher Al
Maktoum
Wilson’s coach won the UAE’s
first-ever Olympic medal for
his country. A member of the
Dubai ruling family, he had
taken part in hunting since he
was a boy, but only took up
shooting as a sport at the age
of 34. HE had previously been
the UAE’s national squash
champion. He won the double
trap gold medal at the 2004
Olympics in Athens and came
fourth in the trap event.
40
Although some people think
you want to slow your heartrate down, because we have to
react very quickly, you have to
be absolutely on your mettle.’ I
did exactly that, and went and
shot 47/50 in windy conditions.
I’m particularly good in those
conditions, having trained at the
top of a hill in Dorset. I came
second and won a quota place.”
Through the winter of 2011,
Wilson trained a huge amount,
which was unusual for the sport,
where competitors tend to take
the winter off. He went out to
the Middle East for weeks at
a time, spending the whole of
February 2012 in Dubai. He
then flew to Arizona and shot
a world record 198 out of 200,
but his form then deserted him.
He says: “For a split second I
thought I was a little bit better
than I was and my form just
completely dropped off before
the Olympics.
“Having been world No.1, I
failed to make the next two
finals, coming 7th and 10th.
I pulled out of the European
Championships and flew back
to the Middle East just before
the Olympics, which everyone
slated me for. Dubai in 52
degrees was not exactly going
to be a true representation of
London, but I knew I needed
to spend time with Ahmed.”
A Mental Test
Those weeks in Dubai were
the making of Wilson. He
tells it like this: “I cried a little
bit – there were some tough
moments, a few reality checks.
Ahmed is an amazing coach
but sometimes getting the
best out of you, he can be
quite hard. He said from the
outset: ‘This won’t be an easy
journey, I can be pretty horrible
when it comes to shooting’. I
remember a few months prior
to the Olympics him telling
me that I was rubbish through
a full two-and-a-half hour car
journey, repeating: ‘I really
don’t think you’re cut out for
this’. I say: ‘But I’m world No.1,
I’m the world record holder’.
And he says: ‘You were lucky,
I don’t think you’re cut out
for this. In fact we’re going to
see Saif Alshamsy and he’s
going to beat you. He is going
to destroy you, in fact. And
you’re never going to win the
Olympics so just forget about it.’
“I was so
angry that I’d
let him get in
my head, not
knowing that
this whole
thing was a
test, and the
following day
I turned up to
training early
and shot 200
out of 200. I
had never done
that before.”
“I battle with him and argue
with him the whole way there
and I turn up and I beat Saif,
then we drive back and the
same thing happens. ‘Oh, you
were lucky. Saif had a bad
day – we’re going to go back
tomorrow and do the same
thing again.’ And the exact
same thing happens. I turn
up, I beat Saif and we drive
back with him telling me I was
lucky. By the time I get back
to my hotel I’m almost in tears
because I think my dream is
over. I believe in Ahmed and he
is telling me that I am useless.
That night I ring him and say:
‘I think you’re right, I’m not
going to go the Olympics, I’m
not good enough.’ And he goes
absolutely ballistic. He loses
it. He says: ‘Look, this has all
been a test. You never, ever
from this point on trust anyone
ever again. When you get
into the Olympic Games, that
environment, the Village, people
will be playing with your head,
people you trust, people you
love, people you hate, trying to
get any advantage.
It’s taken me two days to
break you. You’re going to
be in there for two weeks.
You are perfectly capable of
winning the Olympics and
setting a new world record,
you are the only one capable
of shooting 200 out of 200.’
And he basically built me
back up again. I was so angry
that I’d let him get in my
head, not knowing that this
whole thing was a test, and
the following day I turned up
to training early and shot 200
out of 200. I had never done
that before. He found the
whole thing hilarious. He had
rewired my brain and got me
ticking again, from worrying
that I might lose to being so
angry and so focused that I
would win at all costs.”
Wilson went to a Grand Prix
event in Italy prior to the
Olympics and shot two off
the world record, scoring 50
out of 50 in the final. He was
right back on track.
The Olympic Final
Then to London... “It’s a
strange competition, the
Olympic Games. You don’t
get to do the training you
want, your life is not your
own, you’re dragged from
pillar to post to do x, y and z.
I wanted to do more training
and I wasn’t able to. Also,
the netting in front of us was
in a sort of horseshoe shape
and it meant that the wind
circulated – when you have
a lot of wind the targets bob
and they bobbed a lot at the
Olympics, so you got robbed
Shooting factfile
As a sport, shooting
has been practiced for
hundreds of years, and has
featured in every Olympic
program since the first
modern Games in 1896,
with the exceptions of
1904 and 1928. There are
now some 15 shooting
disciplines at the Olympics.
The sport is divided into
three different groups: rifle,
pistol and shotgun. In rifle
and pistol competitions,
marksmen aim at targets
ranging from 10 to 50 metres
away while in the shotgun
event, competitors shoot
at clay targets propelled
at a series of different
directions and angles.
So what does shooting
require as a sport? Incredible
accuracy of course, but
also huge reserves of
skill, concentration and
nerve. Competitors need
strength, stamina, handeye coordination and
exceptional motor skills.
The double trap, when
two targets are released
simultaneously, with one
shot taken at each. The
shooter stands 16 yards
behind the house that
releases the targets and
a complete round is shot
on a random scheme of 15
pairs. Competitions consist
of shooting five rounds
of targets, giving a total
possible points tally of 150,
and final for top scores.
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05 Spring Issue
Composure | Creating a Champion
right side of the bed that day.
The build-up was perfect.
of the odd target. You just had
to accept you were going to get
robbed, that you were going
to do everything correctly,
pull the trigger and then you
were going to miss one. And
you just had to get on with it.
I shot 143 out of 150, which
would have been probably
three light of my best and I
think I would say I was robbed
of three, so I was pretty happy
with my performance.
“I was three targets ahead of
second place going into the
final and I shot 45 out of 50,
which was not good but not
bad, it was an average score.
The Olympics tends to lower
the scores slightly because of
the immense pressure. I was
lucky not to be at my best but
still good enough to win. That
was something Ahmed always
used to say: ‘When you’re in
the zone, you will win, end
of story. And when someone
else is in the zone, they will
win, end of story. But when
you’re not in the zone, which
is probably going to be 99 per
42
cent of the time, who’s going
to win? So let’s not worry
about the one per cent, let’s
worry about the 99 per cent.’
So that was why we trained as
hard as we did.
The Final Round:
Preparation and
Pressure
“I fell to my knees when I
shot my last pair of targets
and the first person I thanked
was Ahmed Al Maktoum.
In that moment of extreme
pressure, when you’re trying
to hold the gun as still as
possible to ambush the first
target, to shoot it in under
a quarter of a second, and
your head is thumping and
the crowd is going insane,
you ask yourself can you hold
your own? You can’t hide,
you can’t rely on someone
else, it’s not a team sport.
You have to produce the
goods and everyone is there
to watch you. You’re either
going to hit the target or
you’re going to miss it. It’s
very, very simple. And I just
went through what I had
done for the last six years, the
last three years with Ahmed,
and I pulled the trigger and
hit those two targets. I don’t
remember what I did, I can
barely tell you what it was
like. If anything it was an
out of body experience. And
I thanked Ahmed because
he had pushed me at every
available opportunity to train
harder than anyone else to be
the best I could be so that in
those moments of extreme
pressure, it just happens.”
Being in the Zone
“In Arizona, when I shot
198 out of 200, I was in it
(the zone). You don’t think
anything – your mind is
completely blank and you’re
just shooting. You can’t really
recreate that state – I knew
I had almost never felt it
before. Maybe twice – in
training. but I woke up on the
“Often, you miss and you
punish yourself for that miss
and end up dragging it on,
missing two or three instead
of just the one. You need to
give each and every pair the
respect it’s due. That’s when
you’re in the zone – when
you’re able to take those
moments and carry on.”
“I say that you’re living 24
hours behind yourself. It’s just
a little trick I learned. I didn’t
hear that from anyone else, it’s
nothing smart: if you train and
train and train, and there’s
nothing more you could have
done – physically or mentally
– and you’re happy, then the
result is the result and it will
take care of itself. By saying
you’re living 24 hours behind
yourself, you literally can
take a back step and relax
because you’re already on the
town, prancing around, doing
interviews, living the dream
– because you’ve already won
and so all you’ve got to do
is focus on the process, the
technique – as Ahmed calls it.
He used to say: ‘Technique,
technique, technique, there is
nothing else that matters.’
“I even said to myself, with
that last pair to go, when I
was under the most insane
pressure, I literally thought
my head was going to
explode, I just said to myself:
I don’t care if I die, I don’t
care if my heart explodes
and I die after this pair, I
have to hit this last pair of
targets and if I die, so be it:
“I have achieved my goal.”
The Role of
Momentum
“Momentum is key. When
you’re shooting well, there’s a
scoreboard either side of you
and it’s displaying to everyone
just how well or badly you’re
shooting. You gain confidence
or get demoralized from
looking at it, depending on
how you’re going. I probably
wasn’t the most technical
shooter at London 2012,
but I was certainly the most
mentally strong.
“There were guys there who
had been doing it for longer
than I had been, but I was
just ready. Mentally, I had
worked out how my brain
worked and was able to make
it work in my favor. When I
was on 42 out of 42, I would
think, like anyone else, that I
was on for 50 out of 50. But I
wouldn’t let that affect how I
approached the next pair.”
Training with a
Former Champion
“Being with people who’ve
won and who have been there
in those moments and actually
lived – not just watched, but
lived in those moments – you
can learn so much more.
Their wealth of knowledge –
Ahmed in the Olympic final,
for example – he won by 10
targets. I won by two so the
pressure was slightly different,
he knew going into the last 20
or 25 targets he’d won already.
My final went right down to
the very end, to the last two
targets, and so the pressure was
slightly different but still, talking
to him before I went into the
final he said: ‘You’re going to
feel this, then you’re going to
feel that, then you’re going to
feel this’ and so I was prepared
for that.
“There is no magic fairy
dust that you can sprinkle on
someone so that they go off
and win the Olympics but
you can be prepared, you can
be as prepared as possible. It
was great to have that sort of
knowledge before you walked
into the ring, before you walked
into battle. You knew what you
were going to feel and then, I
felt it, then I felt the next thing
and then I did the next thing
and then of course I missed –
Ahmed and I hadn’t prepared
for that, well I suppose Ahmed
hadn’t prepared for that but I
had. I had prepared in my own
mind for it – what happens if
I miss my last pair, make sure
you’ve won before your last
pair, all that sort of stuff. You
think, ‘What happens if I miss
five pairs before?’ Go back to
basics: ‘Where am I? I’m back
at Southern Counties in Dorset
on Wardon Hill’. I trained and
trained and trained so when it
came down to it, the last four
pairs were robotic. I was barely
in control of myself in the sense
that I was totally safe – I wasn’t
about to drop the gun – but
I had no real idea what I was
doing, I was just doing it.”
And that’s the focus that wins
Olympic medals.
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05 Spring Issue
Sustaining Excellence | Talent Hotbed
What makes
Chinese diving
different?
The major things Rett believes
make the real difference, relating
to a mixture of training methods
and organizational culture.
•
Age groups train together. Which may
mean gold medallists train together with
10-year-olds. Diving coaches will typically
be responsible for a number of Olympic
veterans and juniors, meaning the latter
can learn from the champions in and out
of the pool, bringing a sense of humility.
Athletes become a family, calling each
other big sister and brother.
•
Most time is spent working on the
fundamentals. In diving, the Chinese have a
higher training volume than the rest of the
world, with more than 100 dives per day
perfectly normal, many of them very basic.
•
Each dive, even the basic ones, is given
feedback. A dozen coaches give immediate
feedback on every dive that their athlete
performs that day, no matter what the level
of the diver.
•
Athletes are not allowed to specialize
in one discipline. The 10m platform divers
will dive on the 3m, 5m, 6m, 7m and even
the springboards depending on what their
coach wants them to work on.
• Fun! Dry-land training is a place
where there is frequent playing
around and laughing. The coaches
let the athletes be kids.
•
Team identity through sacrifice is vital.
There’s no need to train at 6am instead
of 9am but the team does, because it’s
inconvenient, and it creates an air of ‘we
work harder than anyone else.’
32
•
The most important work is done
outside the pool. Chinese divers perform
dry-land training better than anyone else.
Like their dives in the pool, each athlete
has a laminated sheet of dry-land exercises
that move them from the trampoline to
the foam pit to the mats or to the runway
to practice approaches. They move around
the gym and are never on one piece of
equipment for more than 20 minutes.
•
Feedback from lots of coaches is key.
As the athletes move around the dry-land
training area, they move into the zones
of different coaches who offer a variety of
corrections based on what their ‘coaching
eye’ sees. Chinese coaches all share a
basic methodology so there’s no worry of
conflicting messages being sent.
•
Video is used as much as possible.
Closed circuit cameras catch all the dives
being performed. After the athletes get
out of the pool and receive feedback from
the coach, they can look up on the huge
monitors and see the dives for themselves.
•
Spectacular failures are applauded. The
technical proficiency of Chinese divers is
incredible because they practice longer
and harder, but they have dominated
competitions by performing simple dives
exceptionally well. But they also know
that they have to push themselves and
innovate. And when they do this in training
the support of the whole team is fantastic.
33
05 Spring Issue
Andy Walshe
Reading List
Andy is a globally recognized leader
and expert in the field of elite human
performance. For over 20 years he
has been focused on the goal of
‘de-mystifying talent’ by researching
and training individuals and teams
across a vast network of world-class
programs in sport, culture, military
and business settings.
Andy
Walshe
Andy Walshe, Red Bull High Performance
Director, talks us through some of the key
titles that have influenced him, although
he admits he might not have finished all
of them…
The Fourth Part
Of The World
Toby Lester
Published in 2009, this
book tells the story of the
first map to name America,
after cartographers had
for centuries drawn the
world consisting of just
Europe, Africa and Asia.
Walshe: “I grabbed this one as
I am fascinated by any insight
into great explorers and the
age of discovery. This is a
recounting of the making of
the Waldseemüller Map, which
redefined our understanding of
the new world. It also provides
a good personal account of
greats such as Columbus,
Polo and Copernicus.”
08
Catching The Fire
Michael Collins
First released in 1974 (with
a foreword from Charles
Lindbergh), this autobiography
covers the author’s time
as a test pilot in the US Air
Force, his spacewalk on
Gemini 10, and the Apollo
11 mission, on which he was
command module pilot.
Walshe: “Aside from it being
a general description of one
of the most innovative and
courageous periods in the
modern history of exploration,
I picked this one up as I wanted
to understand more about
the ‘unsung hero’ and their
roles in the performance of
extraordinary teams. On Apollo
11, Collins orbited the moon
solo for several days while Neil
Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin
walked on it…”
Human Performance
Enhancement In HighRisk Environments
Elders: Wisdom
From Australia’s
Indigenous Leaders
Paul O’Connor and
Joseph Cohn
Photos and recordings
by Peter McConchie
This book, published in 2009,
takes the breakthrough work
being done by the military
on human performance
issues and presents it in a
way that is applicable to a
wider audience of high-risk
professions and industries.
It focuses on selection,
training, safety and interface
design – essential steps in the
process of putting the right
people in the right positions
with the right equipment.
This 2003 book is about
indigenous peoples and their
traditional and contemporary
ways of living. It is a series
of chapters authored by
tribal elders from around
Australia with each chapter
describing an important aspect
of contemporary tribal life.
Walshe: “A good overview on
the research around selection
and training from military,
rescue and general operational
group perspectives.”
Walshe: “In support of
an initiative in our group
based on the idea that the
ancient learnings on human
spirituality and wisdom
are the foundation of all
modern human performance
models. In some respects, the
traditional masters and their
cultural frameworks point to
the notion that they are the
original performance leaders.”
Over The Edge
Of The World
Photos and recordings by
Laurence Bergreene
Bergreene, a prize-winning
biographer and journalist,
recounts Magellan’s 1519
sea voyage, the first to
circumnavigate the entire
globe, entwining a variety of
candid, first-hand accounts.
Walshe: “Reading this was
a tipping point in my career.
The question motivating me
was how do some people
see beyond the conventional
wisdom of their time? If we are
to support the best as they push
the limits of their field, can we
understand more about what it
takes to pioneer and innovate
in a given arena? How do we
train the notion of courage,
risk and perseverance which
seem to define the more noble
characteristics of the explorer?”
09