I wrote this post before the event and just never got to publishing it. I’m kind of glad I waited.

In June this year, I missed my first tour in about 6 years. Whilst I love my team, my family comes first and I enjoyed a once in a lifetime experience, father-daughter event. Whilst it looks like a choice between team and daughter, it was not really a choice.

So instead of me going, a replacement S&C coach was taken. It was interesting to hear an array of concerned questions, a major area being: What if the replacement coach does things worse? Or better?

I need to be crystal clear on this matter - professionally, “my replacement” was too good to be worse and I could not be more excited about that very fact that he could be better. I’ve been fortunate enough to be with some of these players for a long time and the vast majority have had only one Head S&C coach in this team. So from an S&C point of view, the players I work with can only get as good as I am. That’s kind of limiting wouldn’t you say? And with no S&C team, it’s the same voice all the time! I try to balance freshness with routine as I think both are important, but at the end of the day, it is a long time with the same coach. My absence and replacement is a fantastic professional opportunity for me and the team.

For starters, the coach “filling in” is no rookie, with 20 years of elite experience. I consider him to be an outstanding practitioner and a role model for me. This represents a brilliant chance for young and old players to learn from a very, very experienced coach and I’m thrilled.

We actually swapped jobs for a while which was also great for me as I got to work with a diverse range of new athletes and coaches for a few weeks. All my old jokes were new again! A sign of how good this coach is, he was intricate in his programming and almost every day was mapped out. As a “relief teacher”, I just had to turn up, all the lesson plans had been done.

And in turn… I gave him nothing! A schedule and a bit of loading guideline, but no instructions how to do anything (I think he even took his own resistance bands!). If he wanted to know something, I told him to ask the players and coaches. By asking them, we would both find out what they actually knew, not what I thought they knew. This was not to throw him under the bus in a “well I’m not going so there” take my bat and ball and go home approach. I actually wanted him to tour like it was his tour. Not to do what I would do, or think “what would BA do here”. I wanted the players to learn as much from him as possible. Decide what we’ve tried and did not work for whatever reason, what we doing that was bad that he could improve and what was already good (if anything).

Imagine you’re an elite athlete, preparing for an Olympic Games (or your 5th) and you did not know a particular mobility routine, warm-up process or corrective exercise that could make a difference, because your coach (me) is limited. This was actually an opportunity to fill gaps.

How bad would it be for me to withhold an opportunity for them to learn, to not engage with another coach, because of my insecurity? If there’s a better way, wouldn’t I want to know it too?

I am not afraid that he will show me up or that I was doing something wrong. That feeling disappeared long, long ago when he taught me new things. No one knows it all, or should be under pressure to know it all. Just strive to get better.

Our athletes don’t know it all. That’s why they seek coaching.

So should we.

(Ps. We are on tour now and we are about to do a second thing he taught them - yesterday was an activation game and today is a mobility session - both led by players. I think the combination of a new activity AND player driven is pretty awesome and the “swap” has improved everybody just as I had hoped).

Get over insecurity