© Bill Begg 2001. Edited by Alexander Bont

Bill Begg is a world renowned super coach in the realm of speed skating. Skaters travel half way around the world to live and train with him with the goal of winning gold medals. Wherever Bill goes the medals are soon to follow his results are purely astonishing. Click here to see his resume.

1) Coaching is not an EGO trip: The goal of the athlete is not to kiss your feet because you are such a wonderful coach. It should be ' we are going to work out a strategy of how you can achieve your goals'. Ensure you don't elevate yourself to far above them, or you will lose the good strong willed athletes.

2) Great Coaches: have one thing in common, their vision, and their ability to communicate it. Do you have a big vision for the group of Athletes you are coaching, and do you express that vision often enough?

3) Ex Top Athletes, be aware, to not try & create life clones: Work with your athletes where they are currently at in their training. Until they work out of where they are, you won't get them to do exactly what you want them to do right away. It may take a year or two for this to happen.

4) Show them how: Don't tell them what to do, teach them what to do!

Remember these lines:

I see I forget,

I hear I forget

I see, I hear, I DO, I remember.

5) Don't take for granted that athletes understand: Make sure you clearly set out Objectives, Strategy, & what work needs to be done.

You the coach need to PRETEND to yourself, that your athletes, don't think, don't read, don't hear, ensure that they fully understand what it is you are trying to convey to them, so you can help them be successful.

Ask one of the group, to display or relate to the others what you have just asked them to do, then you will know, if you have communicated correctly.

6) Handle hesitant athletes differently than negative athletes: You as a coach & leader, need to be able to differentiate between the two types, as problems can be caused, by putting hesitant ones in the wrong box. You could lose a great potential athlete, beware and think about it, as we all do have them, Nurturing them, is the key.

7) Think Win, Win: In potential conflict situations with your athletes, there will be compromise, which always entails someone having to give up something, at some cost, where as win, win, is looking for a better solution, where no one loses out, easier said than done, but if good old Kiwi ingenuity is alive & well, its not a problem. 

For example, I had a girl Claire an Intermediate under 17s that was going to give up, one section of people in the club were putting pressure on her, that she had to do the cycling that she disliked. I said to Claire that she did not need to bike & I was happy to see her 3 times per week, as she was part of the team & she probably wanted to be here with her friends, also if she gave up she would have trouble keeping her body in good shape, plus this way she could have her social life, I took the pressure off her, & she trained even on Christmas eve & boxing day night, she normally would not do that voluntarily, she got keener than ever & I saw her 5 times per week, she won all the Intermediate ladies track & road & was part of our team that won the senior mixed 4 track relay. The club & myself got what we wanted. She enjoyed her skating, remained in touch with friends & enjoyed winning, no one lost out, we all gained, therefore this is a Win Win.

8) A Problem: There is no such thing as a problem, only the lack of an idea.

9) Criticism: Ensure you sandwich, every bit of it, between two hefty slices of praise. Do not just constantly criticize your athletes.

10) Success & Speed of the group: Usually relates to the speed & success of the leader. You as the coach are the leader, or some leader in the group, success is directly relating to you.

11) Helping Them: That’s what your athletes are interested in. They want to know, how you are going to help them reach their goals, by helping others succeed, you will then ensure your own success.

12) Organised & Arranged: Athletes will do what is arranged & organised. They will support it even stronger, if they were part of helping create it.

13) Goal Setting Is Important: Have you ever tried to do a jigsaw puzzle, without looking at the picture first? To not have set goals would leave you in the same position.

The picture always needs to be clear, help your athletes achieve their goals, by implementing a plan, utilizing your resources & taking appropriate actions.

14) Your goals & Dreams: Drive you to get to training every night, to help your athletes, once you are there, yours are locked back in your subconscious, you are only interested in helping them fulfill their goals & dreams.

15) Invisible sign: Remember, everyone has an invisible sign around their neck, make me feel important. Everyone bar none, are susceptible to a little ego stroking.

16) Sport is part of your life: Encourage your athletes to have some other minor outlets, if their sport becomes their life totally, & things don't turn out right, you end up with major psychological problems. When training athletes fulltime, particularly females, when there is no commitment to weekend competitions, try to finish training by 10am Saturday morning, with no training till after 5pm Sunday. This allows them a life, to get out & enjoy themselves, barbecue's, weekends at the beach, disco's are all possible, plus there is a minor regeneration phase with nearly a day & a half, with no formal training sessions. It's win win situation. They get time out & the coach & athletes all have a rest, but you still get your sessions in, it works well for full time time athletes.

17) Life's Do's & Don'ts: Life is about doing what you have to do, to be able to do what you want to do. Are you prepared to change what you are now, for who you could become in the future? Ask your athletes this question & remind them of the 1st law of success. "The only time success comes before work, is in the dictionary". 

18) You must be brave enough to risk failure: As a coach & as a competitor, in order to achieve success at the highest level you do a lot of experimenting & recording. If it doesn't bring the desired outcome, don't repeat it. Why do you think the average millionaire in the U.S.A. is 57 years old & been broke 5 times. They obviously tried something different, from what they had been doing previously. If you do what everyone else does & follow them, you will always be second, every new idea was invented by someone, why not you?

19) Whenever possible train your learners with your champions: This way they learn the good skills, lessons in self discipline & you can save yourself years of hardship in trying to teach them new skills as well as trying to change bad habits. The new athletes need the skilled coaches time. The skilled athletes usually only need their encouragement & inspiration, as they should know what they are doing & not need a crutch to lean on all the time. Another advantage is during warm ups & stretching etc. when the slower skaters can easily keep up with the faster ones. The good skaters can help the others without interrupting their training. You can utilise the buddy system.

20) Golden Rules:

(a) Treat others, how you yourself would like to be treated.

(b) Make your Athletes feel good about themselves.

(c) All athletes have potential, its up to you as the coach to find it.

(d) Train with a purpose, never ever train for the sake of training.

(e) For top level athletes, stress is a function of life & sport, you have to learn to cope with it, so you train for it, by once per week putting them under stress. For example in Perth we used to have them cycle the 70Km death valley course, but not as a group, solo at 2 minute intervals, with the stopwatch on everyone, they had times that they needed to achieve, the times were very hard & difficult to maintain. Another way is the mystery tour, an undetermined number of laps around the rink, giving it everything 2 laps to go... sorry a mistake, the lap counter was wrong coming for the finish, they have mixed up the laps now only 4 to go. Last lap give it everything, sorry haven't got the flag. Now give me another lap. You done that now one more for good luck.  

(d) Be Productive, make a list of 6 things to do each day, tick off the list each day the ones you complete, those you don't, put back on your daily list till you do them, then you will be able to become productive.