Ep56 Rob Beveridge

Thu, 7/8 8:07AM • 39:23

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

coach, players, people, athlete, organisation, team, pliers, apprenticeship, won, championships, teach, big, game, learned, university, perth, working, years, played, hurley

SPEAKERS

Rob Beveridge, Paul Barnett

Paul Barnett 00:00

Rob beverage. Good afternoon and welcome to the Great coach's podcast. How are you today?

Rob Beveridge 00:05

My I'm brightened To be honest, I'm really honoured to be asked to come on your podcast and look forward to chatting.

Paul Barnett 00:11

We love talking all things hoops. So Jim and I are also very excited to have you on. But maybe something really simple to get started. Where are you in the world? And what have you been up to so far today?

Rob Beveridge 00:23

Yeah, so I'm currently living down in Wollongong. So I moved out here about five years ago and catch your hawks and finished up within about 18 months ago. And since then, I've been just working for myself. When I say that I do contract work with FIBA, with basketball Australia, working with different educational organisations, things like that. So a lot, a lot of coach education, work, a lot of mentoring and stuff like that. So after a very, very long journey in the high performance area, it's been nice to actually get away and have a break and get back into the grassroots and working with young kids working with young coaches. Looking forward to covering all of that spectrum with you today.

Paul Barnett 01:05

But I want to start by just mentioning a few of the names that you've been involved with. There are a who's who of Australian basketball, there's Patrick hunt, Adrian Hurley, Phil brown and Gordie McLeod, and Andre Lamont. And this is just, this is just the tip of the iceberg and covered in my preparation, but probably just a real easy question to get going. What do you think the great coaches do differently?

Rob Beveridge 01:30

I've been so privileged that I actually learned my tribe, okay, I always go back to talking about apprenticeships and trades just like you got to go to university and get your qualification. But then after that, that's when you actually learn. And I was absolutely blessed that my mentors for me, but so my first ever job was working at the IRS back in the early 90s. Patrick can't lay under his wings and Adrian Hurley feel brand boring crap, they were there. They were the coaches there, and I've got to learn so much from him. And it probably the things that were great about those guys were that they're so approachable, they are there to help you to become better. And that's what I found with all those coaches is that they did fear anything, they were there to pass on knowledge, they were there. And they all had different strengths. Some were technically really good coaches, but they really really good coaches, Adrian Hurley was a master of dealing with egos, so actually left the AI s and went to Perth Wildcats as a as a nobody more or less like the janitor as the waterboy. I did whatever I could do back then. But he had an amazing ability to communicate. So all those coaches that we've mentioned, technically, they're great, very good communicators, they're people that look after their athletes, their staff, their people that just unbelievable with what they do with that. [PB1] And that was a huge influence on me that in my future in down the track was that I was they taught me how to guess communicate was probably the big thing.

Paul Barnett 03:05

You talked about studying and working at the AAS, you've actually got a degree in applied science in Sports Studies, and a Graduate Diploma in elite sports coaching. But I wanted to ask you knowing what you know, now, what do you wish they would have taught you back then?

Rob Beveridge 03:22

Yeah, it's one of those things when you go through university, you're green, you're thinking, you know a lot. And you go in, you're very gung ho you're trying to be the best, you know, and particularly in basketball, it's all about the X's and O's is fantastic offences and defences and things like that, but they don't really teach that in university, so to speak. I guess. When I look back and think what could have I really, really learned a lot more I've always, particularly the mental health side of things. That wasn't really covered a whole lot back in those days. And, you know, I went through situations where I had, you know, athlete's father was killed. I was with that person when it happened. And you go, Well, they don't teach me that back in university. How do you deal with those situations? I've been through people that have had illnesses or in cancer and things like that. So you're not prepared for that. And really, back in the university, you're just not you learn through through a lot of experiences and things like that. [PB2] And it's hard. It's really, really difficult. Other things like but I've worked with some great organisations like really, really rich organisations like corporate type of things. And when I was at wall Katz incredible, credible resource, but then I've been on the other end, where I've been able to clubs in the fall that I've been in situations of, you've got no money coming in. There's bullying, this harassment, there's all of those things that you actually don't get taught in university like you get all the rosy picture about are so fantastic. The lights come on, you're piling 10 down. Some people and whatever else, but you're not told about, you're working 60 hours a week, you're still up at two o'clock, you're getting phone calls from from ownership groups saying, Well, if you don't win the next game, you're fired, or I'm going to find this pie in that pie. So you don't learn any of that in university. It also, it all happens when you actually get in the real world. So I don't know. And that's what I'm trying to do now is when I do lecturing, particularly first year university people about, there's more to coaching than just the technical side, there's so much more, it's got to teach them the holistic approach to that there's going to be some pretty big barriers that come up against.

Paul Barnett 05:40

You mentioned something interesting there bullying,

05:43

have you

Paul Barnett 05:44

found any techniques that are more impactful than others in dealing with bullies either on the court, or probably most importantly, in the dressing room,

Rob Beveridge 05:52

it's a completely different situation, I find the bullying within a team, like you might have some alphadog, you have a player come in, and they try and stand their authority and the bullies and stuff like that, but but what I try and do with those types of places I've got, I've got a very strong peer group. So when you got good leadership in your group, like with strong personalities, they can generally take care of that. [PB3] So if you've got a minority group, within the team that are bullies, generally tiny, maybe only one tops, they become selfish, and it's all about them, and they intimidate or whatever it might be, if you want to call that bullying, generally, that's not too bad that the other boring is, is probably more so from the management side of things and the ownership side of things in that it happens with, it's when you don't win or a lot of owners, or professional teams. They're very, very successful in business, and they've done amazing, but sports different when you're dealing with, there's so many different teams to deal with the injuries and off court issues or whatever it might be. So there's sort of two sides of the boy, it does become difficult in my situation I have been in and you try and work through those types of things. But at the end of the day, when it becomes so tougher for you mentally and physically, you get out Simple as that. I made that decision that I didn't want to be involved in that that situation. So I removed myself from it.[PB4]

Paul Barnett 07:20

Rob, you transitioned into coaching very quickly. In fact, you started with state teams when you were just 19 years old, which I it's very, very young. Was there a person or an event that triggered this desire in you to be a coach,

Rob Beveridge 07:34

I always wanted to be a player. I think you know, when we're young, under 1416, I want to be a professional player. So I played the Australian club championships for Danes, all the National 16 xylenes 20s. I went through that that pathway, it I guess I was lucky in the sense that I grew up in Canberra, just the AC T was a small pool. So that's why I made the take five years in Victoria New South Wales, Queens, I wouldn't have made it I just wasn't good enough. But when I was in the underwriting team, I also played in the division one site, like on a Wednesday night in the club I applied with was called Ramblas. And Dave Nelson was a Gary ball, a few few of the camera cannons and stuff like that. But what was great about that club was that if you played in the division one, they would cover your registration, your uniforms and pocket money or whatever it might be. But in return you had to coach so it was compulsory that we had to coach so. So I was 16 at that stage, then I started coaching anymore. So I was just catching a bunch of kids and in I loved it, just the joy of coaching. It was yeah became infectious that I just loved that so much. And that was when I was only 16 that i thought you know what, I love this and then when I got down to 20s I knew I was never going to be good enough but I wanted to be involved in the sport.[PB5] So I became an assistant coach with the Anna forebrain ICT team and we got a call Mark Warmington who to this very day, so compare 35 years, I'm still friends with him, but he was the guy that was responsible for getting me into coaching. And he was the he was the ICT development officer. He was a badass, like he didn't care it was all about the kids was teaching fundamentals was attention to detail all of those things. So I was very lucky that I got to serve time with warm out but that's how I actually got into coaching and an opportunity came up where I was the head coach of the under 14 team for the club championships. And Mark Warmington was my mentor, so he came in as a senior assistant coach, and it was a case of Okay, you catch on, I'll deal with the parents. So it was a really good situation. And yeah, I was 19 when I did my first ever national championships and it just went from there that I loved. The IB cat and that even when I went to university, it became almost an obsession with everything I did in university was involved in basketball. So whatever unit it was, whether that's physiology, biomechanics psychology, where everything was studying was from the basketball side of things. So it was almost a case of OCD. But I had great mentors around me that got me involved with the Patrick Hanson and Ivan Hurley's Gordy's Phil Brown, because they saw my passion. They saw that I loved it at such a young age. And that's why they took me under their wing[PB6] . Well, you

Paul Barnett 10:33

actually had a great apprenticeship as a coach, before we get to the National League. And, of course, we're going to talk about being the coach of the World Team later on, but you catch the in 14 Youth national championships along the way, in that apprenticeship. And I wondered, you mentioned a little bit in your opening actually the importance of an apprenticeship and I wanted to ask, what advice do you give other coaches on taking the time to craft an apprenticeship?

Rob Beveridge 10:57

I can't emphasise it enough because people want to become the head coach of a national league team when they're 25. They love the sexy stuff. And I think it's really important that you're gonna understand every single role that's involved. So that's what I mentioned. When I went over to Perth, I went to work with the Wildcats, and I did everything for him helping with the warm up the stretching, the stats, the clock, the rebounding individuals, you name it. So I'm hanging out with Andrew vlaar Hoff and James Crawford, Ricky grace, Scott Fisher, you've got Adrian Hurley is the master coach, they're saying how they operate, they taught me how to do the video. So they were very inclusive, they brought me in, and I learned everything I saw the importance of, of strapping the importance of massage before the game, the importance of recovery, and all of those little things there. That, so I went through that so I learned from those guys, but then I'd go and coach my own team, and try and apply my principles to really I found it, I've gone I've worked with guy Malloy, as well, who ironically end up being your best man or winning live together in Perth. He's one of the greatest teachers of the game for a skill development perspective. So when you're working with these people and see how they do things, that's how I learned. So I wanted to learn about skill development, I wanted to learn about video about warm up, everything like that. So you learn that stuff at university in the books, physiology and biomechanics and all that, but then when you get hands on, you see actually how it's actually really applied.[PB7]

Paul Barnett 12:41

We'll talk about the Wildcats in a minute, but I'd actually like to take a sidestep or actually continue on the journey because this great apprenticeship leads you to be the Australian men's and 20. Coach. And in 2003 that team famously goes on to win the World Championships in Greece, being in the USA team in the semi final. There were a lot of soon to be famous players in your team actually, in the other teams during that tournament as well. I'm really fascinated to know how you were able to shape that team of athletes from across a vast geography into such a high functioning team so quickly.

Rob Beveridge 13:18

I coached It was love the ANA 20 national level. I think I did eight, eight years. I think I won for nationals and Kane ran out four times. So that was the age group that I felt really comfortable with. And because I was successful at that level, I think that I've gained the respect of love a lot of the players. So when I was appointed as the head coach, I already knew everybody anyway, they knew who I was once about my style of game of when we hit our squad together of 16 to 20 players, probably eight out of the 20 were played from a New South Wales. So they were extremely familiar with me, because I was the head coach of the New South Wales Institute of Sport at the time. And we had six of my players from aid Swiss actually go to is so the Damien Martin Steve market, Mark realex marriage live or Yaniv, it went on. So my pliers actually went down to the IRS and then all of a sudden when you bring in the Andrew boats and the brand new leaves and those types of pliers, we were able to bring them into the Australian Institute of Sport for two years. So I would regularly be down in Canberra. Yeah, we'd be running camps and stuff like going on tour. So I knew all the pliers anyway, and they knew me side developed a pretty good relationship with them. So it wasn't as if they were all out of the country. We actually had them pretty much based in camera the whole time playing as a group. So my sister coach Marty Clark. He was the head coach of the IRS at the time. So I'm the head coach of the national team. But we ran in very, very similar offences and defects and sort of Yeah, not not packed or anything like that. But he was an amazing system coach. So, it again, I can This is the style again, when I say the style again, he was the era national style guy wasn't even invented, it was just, it's been, we have instal a game that's been passed down over the generations from the Adrian Herman to Barry Bonds. And Lindsay guys, you've got to look back into history that no single coach actually invented the Australian style of game that was more the attitude that we developed always as part of that pathway. So when we brought them together, I had some really, really high character, people that were so unbelievably hard working, they really got after it when you got leaders, like your Damien Martin's, and your Bogot's, in particular, that a drive in there every single day, it actually makes your job as a coach a lot easier.

Paul Barnett 15:56

Well, your success with the Australian added 20 team leads you to be invited by Nike to participate in the hoop summit for young basketballs. And for six years, you coach the World Team against the USA team at that summit. And I was looking through the list of first round draft picks that came through your team. Nicholas Baden sergej, Sergei ybca, Tristan Thompson, I mean, this list goes on and on and on. I imagine in those games with all the attention that's on the players, the nerves must be quite high. And I wanted to ask you, has there any methods you found in helping people deal with nerves and just calm down and remain focused in important games?

Rob Beveridge 16:36

The appointment into that role, I didn't realise how big it was. When I had a phone call from a guy called Richard Brooks that invited me into the coach the team, I actually thought when he ran that was one of my Mike's just taken the episiotomy Michael joke and stuff like that. And he said, I'll read back in 24 hours if you want to do it. And Tony, he came back. And I thought, wow, and I started researching. And I saw the players that were involved with Tony Parker's and Pau Gasol, and things like that. And I thought, wow, this is, this is going to be an incredible challenge and situation that you've got pretty much seven days. You're training a couple of days, a couple of times a day, and you've got players, all different languages from all over the world, and they are the best. They are the most ultimate. But then when you see the USA, USA team that's lining up with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant's. And you'd have the list still is Bradley Beal. It just goes on and on. You go on, you get pretty nervous and you're at you're in the stadium. And first time I did, it was in Memphis, and I've rocked in and there's over 200 people around the side of the on the sides, and there was slight Larry Bird and Chris Marlon and Mike fratello. And all these these people, and you know, they come up and introduce them to you just blown away, like, Oh, my God, that's Larry Bird. You know, Larry's, I love your drill. Do you mind if I use it, you're on guard, oh, my god, you're Larry Bird. It was it was amazing experience. But in what I found was particularly after my first year or two of being involved in the enormity of it, that the amount of the influence of just that one game, when you have the very best players in the world versus the very best in the USA, that everybody is looking on these players. And what I learned during that six years in particular, was nearly every player had an agent, but particularly the USA, sorry, the international players, nearly every single person had an agent, because that's their meal ticket to the NBA. So they were quite highly influential, where they would be in the year that you got to do this. You've got to get 20 points, you got a 10 Arabia, you got to do blah, blah, blah, blah. But what I ended up doing with the pliers is that to get them to realise, who are you what might what defines you to be great at what you do. So, if you're a rebounder, you go out and you rebound the crap out of it. If you're an athlete, you run the floor and Duncan, if you're a shooter, you shoot if you're penetrating penetrate. So I really tried to define the roles of the players to make them comfortable when they started to get a bit ready. I'd bring him in and just reinforce to them. What's your strength? What are you great at, because in particular, that the international MBA level, everybody knows if you're talented, they know that they can see that you're six foot 10, one seven foot six wingspan in your athlete, they see that they want to see the coachability they want to see when I'm on the sideline when I'm communicating to a player. Is he actually listening to you or is he going off and doing his own thing? Is he becoming selfish? NBA scouts and NBA coaches and all that whole entire thing when they're investing 10s of millions of dollars into into drafting pliers. They've got to get it right. So that's what I try to explain to the people you don't have to go out and hit 30 points. I mean that, don't get me wrong, they will help that you got it you got to be able to fit in. And I think that's that's a real big thing that I tried to get through the pliers to relax them. The only if you're open, you're gonna shoot that son because that's your shot.[PB8] So a lot of that there was a lot of positive reinforcement and trying to keep them level headed and calm as I possibly could have been a bigger area when you've got 10 15,000 people watching. And you've got Kevin Duran coming down the court. It's it's pretty nerve wracking.

Paul Barnett 20:29

Rob, you've spoken about being a people pleaser early in your career, and getting caught up in trying to help the players solve their problems. But what advice would you give to the other leaders out there who might be falling into the same trap of trying to please people and not primarily leading their team,

Rob Beveridge 20:46

I've got that personality that that I always try and do the right thing for everybody. But I fear the experience over time you get used and abused in it takes time to realise that. And Ric Charlesworth who spent time with john wall's forget some of those great coaches, I learned from those, those people and it was sort of the 8020 principle, I can't do anything for 20% I can't solve the problems and what I've learned as a coach is that when you try and solve the problems for a band aid, they've actually probably got to go through that hurt that pain. They're gonna make the mistakes. Now you want to be there as a as a buffer, you want to be there to help them. But I found you know, we're always trying to help them too much. And I guess over time, the more experience I got as a coaches that they had to learn off a five years and I find it's always a lot easier to teach people and show people through the failure rather than always success and always putting a bandaid on and trying to help them. So I think that that's that's what I need to say to coaches in particular, you can't solve all the problems in the world, sometimes. It's just the way the way it is.[PB9]

Paul Barnett 22:01

We've reached the point where we get to 2009 and you become the head coach of the Perth Wildcats. The team go on this amazing run three grand finals in four years, and the 2010 championship. What were some of the things you did when you first got there that drove this result?

Rob Beveridge 22:18

Before I took the Perth job. I was actually offered the Perth job Previous to that. And I knew in my own mind that I wasn't up to that. So I ended up coaching where Sydney Razorbacks was my first professional MDL job. I was speaking with the analyzer speaking with Perth at that time because I had a pretty successful Junior career and an up and coming coach. So I spoke to the owners and management stuff like that, but that I actually made the decision that I wasn't ready for that I wasn't mature was how could I deal with multimillion dollar owners media expectation sponsors for I just knew that. So that's why I actually took a lesser job because basically race backs the year before I got there had only won five games. So there was no expectation for me as a rookie coach to do well. maafushi I think I only won 10 games, but that's successful in my mind. Sometimes people look at winning records and things like that I'd never really looked at that. I'll look at what change Have you made. So I served my apprenticeship with a it's no disrespect to where Sydney but that's realistic that they were a lesser team then then Perth or Adelaide. The job then came up in Perth after doing two years of working in an organisation that folded we didn't get paid. It was tough. And I felt that that was good life lessons for me. And I thought you know what, I'm ready to do this. I know what I want. I know what you need to do to be successful. So when I got into Perth, and met with Jeff bendet, and the board said, Okay, you guys have not done anything in 10 years. You're a very rich organisation, but you haven't won a championship. He was 10 years before before I won the championship with them. And I said what you're doing isn't working. So if you want me to come in and coach the team, which I really wanted to do, but I told him that no, I'm not interested. I'm Stein port. There, we have to change the way things are in their original organisation. And they were they actually listened to the sign, okay, we have to change the personnel. We got to change the infrastructure of the organisation. So I went in and did a presentation to the owner and the CEO Nick Marvin about, okay, we have to have a athlete centred approach. We got to have an infrastructure put in place with really good staff with assistant coaches strength and conditioning doctors, physios, chaplains choir welfare like I gave him a model. And then we have to we build an infrastructure that is going to help the athletes become the best they can. But then we had to recruit athletes that were great people High character great worth he actually[PB10] . So because I was I spent 10 years back working with the National Junior Programme give or take, you know, national, Indiana 20 level. I had I didn't have a monopoly as such, but but I had a generation of players that I had an ability to recruit. So that's how I was able to get Damian Martin and Matt Knight, those types of players because I've actually spent time developing those players. I'm a teacher in the game. That's what I do. I teach them to become elite athletes[PB11] . So they when I got to Perth and presented this model, and they agreed with me, and we had to get great import. So I brought in Kevin leash, I've already got Shawn ready today, I've got Paul Rogers. I've now built a programme of good infrastructure with really good people. And we won championships. And to be honest, I'm pretty disappointed that we didn't win more because two of the championships at the Grand Finals we lost. [PB12] Damien Martin's out, he snapped his Achilles in the semi final. In the end, another semi final, he tore his ligaments in his ankle. So we actually played to Grand Finals series without Damien Martin. Let's fast forward. All these years, Danny Martin is one of the most influential greatest leaders and defensive players that our country will ever say. That's why they won so many championships sound a little bit odd are different twisters. The thing that I'm pretty disappointed that I know that if we'd had daylight, playing those Grand Finals, we would have won a whole lot more.

Paul Barnett 26:35

Talking about disappointment. You have talked about your dream of coaching the Australian team one day, you came very close in 2013, you got down to the last two and you missed out. I've heard you say you were devastated with the word you use not to get the job. And it made me wonder how now you handle passing along similar news to your players. And whether there are any methods or techniques you found that are more useful than others.

Rob Beveridge 27:02

I set my my bar so high. And with really, really high expectations comes big disappointment. That's something that I've learned, the higher the expectation, the bigger the disappointment. So I've I've learned, like I put all my eggs in one basket, that was the focus. And ultimately, the rating. I was told the reason I didn't get it was because we lost that grand final against Andre the minuses team, the wonderful coach, they beat us in the grand final and he's won more championships, maybe he got appointed. And I think it's a bit of a BS reason to do that. But what I now reflect on is that you probably get a bit ahead of yourself that I know I was doing really good job, I was in the mix and stuff like that. And there was whispers that that's the direction that they were going to go. And when you lose a plier of diamonds calibre, well, that sort of removes some of that. So I think it's really important that what I now it gets through to my players is that you got to have no regrets in what you do you give, give 100% with what you do. And if you don't get it, you don't get it. Now you walk away if you get your head held high. And something that I do with my players, I am absolutely on a stalling, I tell him how he is how I see it what I believe they need to hear the truth. Now, I think that that's what I've learned through those experiences that when you expect something to happen, it doesn't happen the way maybe you would have caught it should have happened. You need to just be honest and upfront with what you do.[PB13]

Paul Barnett 28:40

Rob, I have a great quote from you, where you say culture is the expression of your organisation, the team's values, its attitudes and beliefs. So if someone wanted to try and improve the culture in their team, what things would you tell them to do first.

Rob Beveridge 28:54

So when when when I look at golf clubs, I watch culture. And to me, it's the the environment in which you're working. And when you look at the really successful organisations, generally speaking, and I've done research into Google, you've looked into to really successful organisations, they, they look after their staff, so they recruit really good people that are really good at their jobs, and you empower them to do their jobs. So I believe that you put your players in a really good, positive, fun, healthy culture that they're going to thrive. Where on the other hand, if there's going to be the players walking on eggshells or your staff where they're getting micromanage, they're getting questioned. All of those things, if you're looking over your shoulder all the time, it's really hard to perform to your optimum. So that's why I believe that we've got to have a real positive, healthy culture environment for them to thrive for That's that's the the success that I've had is that when I've had organisations that back me support me, and we work together, it's really important that my philosophy, it's athlete centred, it's coach driven. And it's a ministry supported. [PB14] And I made what I mean by that is we put an infrastructure around the athlete, so they can be the best I can. So I've got a good strength conditioning coach, I've got a good physio of God, I look at the holistic you know, even have a player welfare officer to make sure that they got personal professional development that their wife and partner or kids and that whole thing that they're doing, okay, so the athlete can really just focus on, on on playing to their best ability. So we'll do that. But then if you get in a situation where as I said, if you're looking over your shoulder and you don't get physio, you don't get paid on time, you don't get all the the expectations of working in a professional organisation. When they do that, that's when players life. Again, I look at it, it's the success of the Perth Wildcats is the reason they're been so successful for such a long time as they've had the same core group of players. And they all get well looked after they've been offered more money to go elsewhere. But they don't go chase the money because the environment, the facilities, they've got recovery centre, they got their meals cooked for him at lunch, or whatever it might be. So I think that's, that's something that was really, really important.

Paul Barnett 31:27

You spoken about valuing players based on behaviours, not statistics. So I wanted to ask, what are the behaviours that are fundamental requirements from players in your teams?

Rob Beveridge 31:37

Again, this is what I've learned through the Patrick Hansen, the, the Adrian herlings, and that those coaches as I've come through, and they coach people in, they might not be the greatest offensive defensive coaches and stuff like that, but they play hard. I speak to Ric Charlesworth, I look at him the amount of gold medals that he's won and what he's achieved in his life. And societies are harder, cities are hardest, but he's a very, very fair man. And because it how it is tells you truth. And that's what athletes need to know. They need to know the truth. But and the characteristics I look for in athletes is they have to be honest, they got to be hard working a great work ethic. They don't accept mediocrity, they want to improve, they don't blame others. And probably one of the most important thing is that they're very, very highly accountable. So that's what I look for. And you know, I could watch a video. So when I recruit players, yeah, I can sit down on the computer, and I'm going to watch this player. But then I want to, I want to get deeper than that. I want to know who they are. How do they learn? You know, they've got boyfriends, girlfriends. I mean, gangs? Where do they live? How they got taboos? What's their belief? What have they studied? Do they fail school? Do they expect to their coaches, their teammates, so I really get into try and find out who they are. And if I can find out who they really are, that that shows them that I'm actually investing in it, to be able to help them to the best of their ability. Now, because everybody's got skeletons in the closet. Nobody's perfect. But let's try and help people to become the best version of themselves.[PB15]

Paul Barnett 33:13

Speaking of helping players become the best version of themselves. There's a quote from you where you say, ultimately, when you're in a team sport, when you've only got X amount of spots, people miss out at a find the difference between the players is their attitude. And so I wanted to ask, Are you able to share a story of how you worked with a player to lift their attitude, and ultimately, their performance? Look, I

Rob Beveridge 33:36

always remember because I did send me state teams are men rocking up and you've got 80 to 100 kids. So you rock up and you gotta grab a cup of coffee, but 80 to 100. And I can only take 10 I can only take 10 clients a minute, and then you've got your reserves and stuff like that. So what I like to do is right at the very, very start, I said, Okay, this situation, we are at 200 people here, I can only take 10. So a lot of people go out right now. So what I want you to do is divide yourself into groups. So let's get all the point guards over here. The shooting guards the wings, the power forwards and the sailors like Go, go, go and join your group. And you'll go and seeing the point guards, you might have 30 people 30 people in that group. And you say, Okay, let's do the math. See, there's 30 people in the point guard and I'm taking two of you. So I'm probably going to take two ones, two twos, two threes, two fours, two fives. So let's look at yours. 30 people there. So what I'm looking for is that the two people that are going to do everything that I ask often, I know the skill level and then all sudden also people I shift lines because I look down on Jesus only 30 but there's only 10 there, you know, so I sort of worked that out but But what I try and do is is very rare, again, objective and realistic side, it's gonna be difficult. So I'm looking for a person. So it comes down to people that have got equal ability, I'm going to go with the person that is more coachable, better attitude, because if we're going away, and this is what we do with our national team is when you're going away at times for two for six weeks at a time, and you're living in hotels, and there's travel, and there's a whole lot of adversity people get on each other's nerves and things like that. So you've got to look at the personalities and how they fit in, are they prepared to sacrifice their core time, are they prepared to share a room with somebody they don't like. So it's all those little things that that I do look at. So anyway, when I sort of get it all down, I'm looking for the person that's going to dive on the floor, I'm going to look at the person to help set teammate up, I'm going to look at the person that has a better attitude. So I sell that from day one at the troughs part of my subjectivities a big part of selection.[PB16] So really, I try and cut it down as quick as I can. But then once I get really, really close, you've got to be upfront and honest insight. Okay, this is what I need from you. Alex marriage is probably one of my all time favourite player to step back in those days, he wasn't highly skilled or anything like that, like developer, the big boy and stuff like that. But the most amazing attitude that every single training session, he gave 100%, he helped his teammate up you do all of those little things there. So with him, it was just given him the confidence, that belief to God, okay, you know, you can make this this time, because you're six foot 10 120 kilos, you can set some great screens for people, you can get in rebound, you can do all those little things. So that's what I loved about him was, I guess, giving him a carrot, giving him a goal and saying, say this is what I'm looking for. And he grabbed it with both hands. Fast forward all these years really Olympics full time professional in Europe, and not the most highly skilled player, but one of the best role players that I've ever coached.

Paul Barnett 37:15

By now you've got a book out at the minute, I watched you on a video talking about the book and you said, Your responsibility as a coach is to do your very, very utmost to make sure the athletes are in a real positive environment. And if they do that they'll thrive. And so I wanted to finish by asking you after now 30 years of coaching 30 Plus, what do you hope is the legacy you've left as a coach to those athletes,

Rob Beveridge 37:39

every athlete that I ever coach, I want to be better versions of themselves and I always look at like four different pillars that one the skill development side of things are teaching to become better players skill wise, even a pastor shooters, DPS, whatever it might be the skill component I take care of, I want them to be better physically. So have good strength of initially coaches and physios and making the as big as strong as they can. third component is mentally you get them to, to understand that the why we do things and then the fourth thing which is probably overlooked a lot of the time it's the holistic approach and how they are post Korea or post sporting career. So that those four areas and that's how I've always built programmes that we try to get every player so when they come in certain level when when they leave they're better both on and off the court so I'm hoping the Lacey I'll leave it there they are better players better people. And then what I hope is that what I've taught them with my beliefs over time of what success is about and it's not necessarily winning, but being part of the successful programme is that they can then pass that on to to their kids, their family, their post career as late as in the in the workforce. I really that's probably the legacy that I want to leave as a coach.[PB17]

Paul Barnett 39:02

Rob everage It's been fantastic talking to you today. Thank you so much for your time. Your books winging its way to me as we speak, I can't wait to read it and explore it all the best with the continued launch of the book and and all the best for the season coming up in New Zealand.

Rob Beveridge 39:17

Thanks very much Paul. Really appreciate the invite and absolute pleasure chatting to you