There's disappointment among Kiwi fans as Erika Fairweather came up short in today's race.
She'd only just missed a medal - finishing fourth in the women's 400 metre freestyle final.
Coaching expert Wayne Goldsmith joined Piney to explain how she can move forward.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine
from Newstalk ZEDB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
In the Pool this morning, I wanted to get a
view from our coaching guru, Wayne Goldsmith, who joins us
regularly on the show, and how she best puts this
behind her, given she has three more events to compete
in starting tonight and consultation with her coach, what strategies
could she use?
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Wayne?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
First of all, how challenging will it be for Erica
Fairweather to put this behind her and to almost immediately
refocus on her next event?
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Well, first of all, we're going to say how proud
New Zealand should be of Erica. That man, she got
beaten by the current world record holder, by the Canadian
Son Macintosh, who broke the world four hundred im record
only a few weeks ago, and the greatest female distance
swimmer of all times. So it's I don't know, it's
(00:59):
like being beaten by the All Blacks by a point
in a final of the World Cup. I mean, it's
you know where I think all New Zealand should be
so proud of what she's done here. But you're exactly right.
The challenge is now as it is with so many
athletes that have got high expectations, either they're put on
(01:21):
themselves or people have placed on them to say, all right,
didn't quite get where I wanted to be, didn't get
the result that I quite expected. However, I need to
be at my absolute best and quickly. So the question
is really how do you move on? And I take
it back to an NRL story, believe it or not,
(01:42):
where I was sitting talking with Tobe Sexton, who's now
with the Bulldogs and at the time he was with
the Gold Coast Titans, and we're having a chat about
how do you get players to move on quickly after
a tribes being scored and he was talking about he said, look,
I noticed as the halfback that I'm in the ingyle
area and the players are talking about who missed the
(02:05):
tackle and how disappointed they were and talking about where
the gap was. And I said, Jobe, the bottom line
is we've got to ask the question, what do I
need to do now and what do I need to
do next? Because made as humans, we're all focused on
what's happened, what we know has gone before. The trick
(02:27):
is to get our brains focused on what do I
need to do now, what must I do next? Where
do I in their case, where do I have to
stand off? The kickoff? So to bring them into now,
to bring them into the moment and get them out
of their head which is living in the.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Past, and then I guess leads into the analysis of
what went wrong. I get the feeling what you're going
to tell me is that the analysis of the four
hundred freestyle can wait for now.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
There's nothing and is a great liner like the pony,
which is there's nothing that you can do now from
a physical perspective that's going to make you any better.
But gee, you could do a lot of things to
stuff it up. And I think what a lot of
inexperienced coaches do. You know, first time coaches and the Olympics,
quite often what they do is they over analyze and
they say, you know what we've got to do. We've
(03:17):
got to swim it the way Fitmas swim at all.
We've got to play the way the French played in
the sevens. We're going to change everything because that's what
they're doing. Dumbest thing you could ever do is to
change what's worked for your leading up. She's a world champion,
you know, she is a hell of a good swimmer.
So the things that you've done to get to the
Olympics and the things that you've done to be that
(03:40):
good will hold you together right now. And may look,
I've been in these rooms, in Olympic villages and in
Olympic war rooms as you call them, and you sit
down and say, Wow, we've got to turn things around quickly.
The most experienced coaches that I've worked with, so the
Don Talbot's in swimming and some of the great ones
that have been there over and over again, they just
(04:01):
look at you and say, when you ask them what
are we going to do, they basically say, don't change anything.
If anything, I know it sounds really crazy, do less.
The general rule before Olympic game starts is work hard.
The general rule once it starts. Once you're in the
environment is rest more, recover or regenerate more. Look after
(04:23):
your mental health, sleep better. There's nothing you can do
physically to make yourself better once you're in the environment.
It's all about sticking to the things that have got
you there in the first place.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
I'm sure that there would have been a routine in
place for Erica and for other swimmers who are involved
in multiple events, because she's certainly not the only one win, lose,
or whatever. After the four hundred, there would have been
a plan for her for the twelve twenty four hours
after that as she heads into the two hundred free.
So sticking to that is key from what I'm hearing
(04:57):
you say it is.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
And look what you can do, and what some coaches
will do is you change something but change nothing. So
what I mean by that is you might change something
that is in reality testimony. I can't even say that
without my false teething. But you might change something, not
because it's going to make any physical or technical change
(05:21):
in reality, but the athlete goes, you know, okay, that's
going to make me better. Sometimes you play a little
bit of a mind game where you go, you know
what I've been thinking about the race. You know what
I think we should do. Why don't we change instead
of using your left hand, we'll use your right hand
on that? And they go, oh, yeah, that's good. Here.
See you're giving them something small to focus on. Where
(05:42):
they go, yep, I've made a change that's going to
improve me. In reality. It probably is here or there,
doesn't really make a difference, but sometimes with some athletes,
you give them a little thing, just a tiny, tiny
thing that they can focus on that gives them the
confidence to say, hey, okay, I learned from yesterday. My
(06:02):
coaches come up with an idea for me, and we're
going to change something to give them a little bit
of a boost if they need it. But again, it
would be very very small. You wouldn't change anything substantial.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Everyone's going to have an opinion. Obviously, there are only
certain opinions, very small number of opinions that will actually
count to Eric a fairweather. But in terms of athletes
in her position staying off their screens, is that something
that you would encourage as a coach?
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Oh yeah, Look, I got up this morning and because
I'm into sport and swimming particularly or there were so
many emails and texts and social media posts and so
many of them. I don't know. They should apply for
a license to be able to use a keyboard because
some of the comments right across the board were just ridiculous.
(06:52):
There was a conspiracy theory about the Chinese team, for example,
that I read this morning that they deliberately swim slowly
to lose the final of the relay because they wanted
to catch people off guard. I mean, it was just
so much rubbish, you know. And if you're an athlete
in the village and you're going what I need is
I need a little bit of reassurance or I need
(07:13):
something to make me feel better. I need a quick
emotional hit to read something positive, and you go on
social media. It just doesn't work. And look what you said,
pin and is exactly right. You have a small group
of people that you listen to and trust and you
put your faith in them. So it could be for example,
(07:34):
your coach and your life partner, or your coach and
your mum and dad, or coach and your best friend,
or two members of your team. You have a very
small circle and if you want help and support, you'd
go to them one of the Again another I love
talking about this. Another thing you've got to be really
careful of is to have set all this up beforehand
(07:56):
with the team on how you'll deal with win, lose
or draw. So what I mean by that often say
to teams that are going to big competitions, it does
matter what happens, they're going to be on an emotional
rollercase to feeling great if they do well, feeling not
so good if they do poorly when they come back
to be part of the team, be their rock, be stable,
(08:17):
be strong, be positive, be helpful, be caring. Don't give
them too much advice, because if they're already trying to
sift through and figure out a simple, clear path forward
and they're getting one hundred and ninety two different voices
in their ear, it only makes things more complicated and
more difficult. And I think that's where the relationship between
(08:39):
coaches and their athletes become vitally important, because in moments
like these, you just want to hear one voice that
you know and trust, and you've got faith in.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
So much wisdom. Way, just one final thing, and this
might be a hard question to answer, but in your experience,
when a swimmer, let's stay with swimming, when a swimmer
experiences disappointment but then has to get back in the
pull straight away, is that typically generally a good thing?
Or will someone's performance just naturally go down but because
(09:13):
of the disappointment of the first race, if you get
what I'm asking, Yeah, my view.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Is, as always, it comes down to preparation, and it's
the same as when you work on football teams. Isn't
it is that you go in thinking, yeah, I want
to win the game, but what happens if we lose
someone in the first ten minutes? What happens if we
get a nine to one penalty count, what happens if
all of a sudden it's eighteen mil at a half time.
You play out all those different possibilities and you prepare
(09:41):
for them, and you know, I know when I've been
in camps and when I've been in the villages with
athletes over the years, you get to this moment and
you want them to feel empowered and powerful and that
what happens to them next is their choice is that
yesterday was yesterday. I can't do anything about what happened.
(10:04):
All we're focused on is what do I do now?
And point it can come down some really simple things
like okay, what are we going to do now? We're
going to get in and do some easy laps, or
then we're going to do what We're going to go
to the village and have a really good meal. What
are we going to do and we're to have a
nice nap and asleep and sticking to simple practical things
(10:24):
that you can do and be focused on what comes next.
I mean that word next, and even more importantly, I
guess the word now. What are we going to do now?
What do we do here? What are you going to
do next? Bring it from the past into writing and
right now, because mate, as you and I know, I
haven't had breakfast even it's a little bit late, but
(10:46):
I'm about to choose what I eat for breakfast. And
because that's about to happen, I can't control what I
had to eat or drink last night, can't do anything
about what's gone. And to get the athletes in that
mindset to say, I choose to move on and swim
really really fast. I choose to be remarkable tomorrow. I
(11:07):
choose to warm up brilliantly. I choose to eat well.
I choose to sleep well. You give them that sense
of real empowerment, and it takes away a lot of that,
Well this happened yesterday. I have no control over the past,
but I can control what I do where I am,
and how do I approach it right now?
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Well, I can only hope that Eric Afairweather has the
kind of wisdom wrapped around her that you've provided us
this afternoon. Wayne, Always love getting your insight thanks for
taking the call. We might see if we can catch
up again next week, because no doubt something will happen
in the week you hit at these Olympic Games that'll
be worth discussing, so please keep your phone on if
that's okay.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Always a pleasure, my friend, Always a pleasure.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Good on your Wayne. Thanks indeed, Wayne Goldsmith there a
regular contributor to the show and always with pearls of
wisdom on whatever topic we throw his way.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Faine, listen live
to News Talk zed B weekends from midday, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine
from Newstalk ZEDB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
In the Pool this morning, I wanted to get a
view from our coaching guru, Wayne Goldsmith, who joins us
regularly on the show, and how she best puts this
behind her, given she has three more events to compete
in starting tonight and consultation with her coach, what strategies
could she use?
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Wayne?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
First of all, how challenging will it be for Erica
Fairweather to put this behind her and to almost immediately
refocus on her next event?
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Well, first of all, we're going to say how proud
New Zealand should be of Erica. That man, she got
beaten by the current world record holder, by the Canadian
Son Macintosh, who broke the world four hundred im record
only a few weeks ago, and the greatest female distance
swimmer of all times. So it's I don't know, it's
(00:59):
like being beaten by the All Blacks by a point
in a final of the World Cup. I mean, it's
you know where I think all New Zealand should be
so proud of what she's done here. But you're exactly right.
The challenge is now as it is with so many
athletes that have got high expectations, either they're put on
(01:21):
themselves or people have placed on them to say, all right,
didn't quite get where I wanted to be, didn't get
the result that I quite expected. However, I need to
be at my absolute best and quickly. So the question
is really how do you move on? And I take
it back to an NRL story, believe it or not,
(01:42):
where I was sitting talking with Tobe Sexton, who's now
with the Bulldogs and at the time he was with
the Gold Coast Titans, and we're having a chat about
how do you get players to move on quickly after
a tribes being scored and he was talking about he said, look,
I noticed as the halfback that I'm in the ingyle
area and the players are talking about who missed the
(02:05):
tackle and how disappointed they were and talking about where
the gap was. And I said, Jobe, the bottom line
is we've got to ask the question, what do I
need to do now and what do I need to
do next? Because made as humans, we're all focused on
what's happened, what we know has gone before. The trick
(02:27):
is to get our brains focused on what do I
need to do now, what must I do next? Where
do I in their case, where do I have to
stand off? The kickoff? So to bring them into now,
to bring them into the moment and get them out
of their head which is living in the.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Past, and then I guess leads into the analysis of
what went wrong. I get the feeling what you're going
to tell me is that the analysis of the four
hundred freestyle can wait for now.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
There's nothing and is a great liner like the pony,
which is there's nothing that you can do now from
a physical perspective that's going to make you any better.
But gee, you could do a lot of things to
stuff it up. And I think what a lot of
inexperienced coaches do. You know, first time coaches and the Olympics,
quite often what they do is they over analyze and
they say, you know what we've got to do. We've
(03:17):
got to swim it the way Fitmas swim at all.
We've got to play the way the French played in
the sevens. We're going to change everything because that's what
they're doing. Dumbest thing you could ever do is to
change what's worked for your leading up. She's a world champion,
you know, she is a hell of a good swimmer.
So the things that you've done to get to the
Olympics and the things that you've done to be that
(03:40):
good will hold you together right now. And may look,
I've been in these rooms, in Olympic villages and in
Olympic war rooms as you call them, and you sit
down and say, Wow, we've got to turn things around quickly.
The most experienced coaches that I've worked with, so the
Don Talbot's in swimming and some of the great ones
that have been there over and over again, they just
(04:01):
look at you and say, when you ask them what
are we going to do, they basically say, don't change anything.
If anything, I know it sounds really crazy, do less.
The general rule before Olympic game starts is work hard.
The general rule once it starts. Once you're in the
environment is rest more, recover or regenerate more. Look after
(04:23):
your mental health, sleep better. There's nothing you can do
physically to make yourself better once you're in the environment.
It's all about sticking to the things that have got
you there in the first place.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
I'm sure that there would have been a routine in
place for Erica and for other swimmers who are involved
in multiple events, because she's certainly not the only one win, lose,
or whatever. After the four hundred, there would have been
a plan for her for the twelve twenty four hours
after that as she heads into the two hundred free.
So sticking to that is key from what I'm hearing
(04:57):
you say it is.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
And look what you can do, and what some coaches
will do is you change something but change nothing. So
what I mean by that is you might change something
that is in reality testimony. I can't even say that
without my false teething. But you might change something, not
because it's going to make any physical or technical change
(05:21):
in reality, but the athlete goes, you know, okay, that's
going to make me better. Sometimes you play a little
bit of a mind game where you go, you know
what I've been thinking about the race. You know what
I think we should do. Why don't we change instead
of using your left hand, we'll use your right hand
on that? And they go, oh, yeah, that's good. Here.
See you're giving them something small to focus on. Where
(05:42):
they go, yep, I've made a change that's going to
improve me. In reality. It probably is here or there,
doesn't really make a difference, but sometimes with some athletes,
you give them a little thing, just a tiny, tiny
thing that they can focus on that gives them the
confidence to say, hey, okay, I learned from yesterday. My
(06:02):
coaches come up with an idea for me, and we're
going to change something to give them a little bit
of a boost if they need it. But again, it
would be very very small. You wouldn't change anything substantial.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Everyone's going to have an opinion. Obviously, there are only
certain opinions, very small number of opinions that will actually
count to Eric a fairweather. But in terms of athletes
in her position staying off their screens, is that something
that you would encourage as a coach?
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Oh yeah, Look, I got up this morning and because
I'm into sport and swimming particularly or there were so
many emails and texts and social media posts and so
many of them. I don't know. They should apply for
a license to be able to use a keyboard because
some of the comments right across the board were just ridiculous.
(06:52):
There was a conspiracy theory about the Chinese team, for example,
that I read this morning that they deliberately swim slowly
to lose the final of the relay because they wanted
to catch people off guard. I mean, it was just
so much rubbish, you know. And if you're an athlete
in the village and you're going what I need is
I need a little bit of reassurance or I need
(07:13):
something to make me feel better. I need a quick
emotional hit to read something positive, and you go on
social media. It just doesn't work. And look what you said,
pin and is exactly right. You have a small group
of people that you listen to and trust and you
put your faith in them. So it could be for example,
(07:34):
your coach and your life partner, or your coach and
your mum and dad, or coach and your best friend,
or two members of your team. You have a very
small circle and if you want help and support, you'd
go to them one of the Again another I love
talking about this. Another thing you've got to be really
careful of is to have set all this up beforehand
(07:56):
with the team on how you'll deal with win, lose
or draw. So what I mean by that often say
to teams that are going to big competitions, it does
matter what happens, they're going to be on an emotional
rollercase to feeling great if they do well, feeling not
so good if they do poorly when they come back
to be part of the team, be their rock, be stable,
(08:17):
be strong, be positive, be helpful, be caring. Don't give
them too much advice, because if they're already trying to
sift through and figure out a simple, clear path forward
and they're getting one hundred and ninety two different voices
in their ear, it only makes things more complicated and
more difficult. And I think that's where the relationship between
(08:39):
coaches and their athletes become vitally important, because in moments
like these, you just want to hear one voice that
you know and trust, and you've got faith in.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
So much wisdom. Way, just one final thing, and this
might be a hard question to answer, but in your experience,
when a swimmer, let's stay with swimming, when a swimmer
experiences disappointment but then has to get back in the
pull straight away, is that typically generally a good thing?
Or will someone's performance just naturally go down but because
(09:13):
of the disappointment of the first race, if you get
what I'm asking, Yeah, my view.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Is, as always, it comes down to preparation, and it's
the same as when you work on football teams. Isn't
it is that you go in thinking, yeah, I want
to win the game, but what happens if we lose
someone in the first ten minutes? What happens if we
get a nine to one penalty count, what happens if
all of a sudden it's eighteen mil at a half time.
You play out all those different possibilities and you prepare
(09:41):
for them, and you know, I know when I've been
in camps and when I've been in the villages with
athletes over the years, you get to this moment and
you want them to feel empowered and powerful and that
what happens to them next is their choice is that
yesterday was yesterday. I can't do anything about what happened.
(10:04):
All we're focused on is what do I do now?
And point it can come down some really simple things
like okay, what are we going to do now? We're
going to get in and do some easy laps, or
then we're going to do what We're going to go
to the village and have a really good meal. What
are we going to do and we're to have a
nice nap and asleep and sticking to simple practical things
(10:24):
that you can do and be focused on what comes next.
I mean that word next, and even more importantly, I
guess the word now. What are we going to do now?
What do we do here? What are you going to
do next? Bring it from the past into writing and
right now, because mate, as you and I know, I
haven't had breakfast even it's a little bit late, but
(10:46):
I'm about to choose what I eat for breakfast. And
because that's about to happen, I can't control what I
had to eat or drink last night, can't do anything
about what's gone. And to get the athletes in that
mindset to say, I choose to move on and swim
really really fast. I choose to be remarkable tomorrow. I
(11:07):
choose to warm up brilliantly. I choose to eat well.
I choose to sleep well. You give them that sense
of real empowerment, and it takes away a lot of that,
Well this happened yesterday. I have no control over the past,
but I can control what I do where I am,
and how do I approach it right now?
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Well, I can only hope that Eric Afairweather has the
kind of wisdom wrapped around her that you've provided us
this afternoon. Wayne, Always love getting your insight thanks for
taking the call. We might see if we can catch
up again next week, because no doubt something will happen
in the week you hit at these Olympic Games that'll
be worth discussing, so please keep your phone on if
that's okay.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Always a pleasure, my friend, Always a pleasure.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Good on your Wayne. Thanks indeed, Wayne Goldsmith there a
regular contributor to the show and always with pearls of
wisdom on whatever topic we throw his way.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Faine, listen live
to News Talk zed B weekends from midday, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
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