The Great Coaches Podcast Episode 026
Wed, 2/10 11:24AM • 44:51
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
coach, cricket, team, players, tasmania, girls, people, playing, game, bit, female, understand, suppose, thought, competition, julia, australia, usa, psychologist, sport
SPEAKERS
Jim Woolfrey, Paul Barnett, Transition
Paul Barnett 00:01
Welcome to the great coach's podcast.
00:05
To me, being perfect is not about that scoreboard after
00:08
this is a chance you can understand the person and you can then work towards a common goal. We
00:16
are all on the same team. Now you do it to the best you have
00:20
focus on the fundamentals. We've gone over time and time again.
00:28
great moments are born, and great
Jim Woolfrey 00:32
opportunity. My name is Jim Woolfrey. And you're listening to the great coach's Podcast, where we interview great sporting coaches to try and find ideas to help us all lead our teams better. Our great coach on this episode is Julia Pryce. Julia is a former Australian cricketer and now coach. She started playing cricket in 1988. And just eight years later, was debuting for Australia against England. In her first test, a specialist wicket keeper she played at for one day internationals and was part of the World Cup winning team in 1997 and five, Julia started coaching in 1999, while still playing, traveling to developing cricket nations like Ireland, Scotland, the Netherlands, and Argentina to coach both men and women. She retired as a player in 2012 and transitioned into full time coaching. In 2013. She coached the Tasmanian women's cricket team. And then in 2018, she became the first female coach in the men's to 20 League in Australia, where she was an assistant to Darren Lehman. Then in 2019, she was appointed head coach of the USA cricket team to help them prepare for the 2020 Olympics in Los Angeles. In this discussion, Julia speaks honestly about integrity and trust as her core values and how she uses them to encourage more open and honest conversations within her teams. She shares a fascinating method in having team members analyze each other's playing techniques, as well as their competitors to offer advice on what they think could be improved. And she talks about a positive experience with a psychologist who helped her to keep thinking in the moment. And the central insight she took away was making sure you look after yourself first, so that you have the energy to look after others. It's great learning applicable to all leaders. And we hope you take as much away from this as what Paul and I did. The great coaches podcast,
Paul Barnett 02:39
Julian price. Good afternoon, and welcome to the Great coach's podcast.
02:44
Thanks so much, Paul.
Paul Barnett 02:45
We are very excited to have you today. We love talking a little bit of cricket. But before we get into that, could we just start with where are you in the world today? And what have you been up to so far?
02:55
I'm in Hobart, Tasmania. So still back in Australia, COVID free, which is fantastic. Life is very normal here. And it's actually well not that normal because it was 22. It's quite hot in Tasmania, which is not normal for this time of year. But it's been some great weather, it's been a very mild winter. So it hasn't been as painful as I would have thought having to stay down here in Tasmania for a whole winter. But yeah, generally, just catching up a little bit of work with the stuff I do over in the US tend to go for a run at some stage. So I probably won't get to get out of this chair for another few hours now. Now I'm in one position
Paul Barnett 03:30
here. So we're going to ask you all the tough questions. And we will get onto the USA actually where you're coaching at the minute. But I'd like to start by just taking a bit of a step back because you have a long CV, multiple Cricket World Cups, you've coached men's and women's teams in and I hope I get this right South Africa, Ireland, the Netherlands, Scotland, Australia, and even Argentina. So from that perspective, what is it you think the great coaches do differently?
03:58
Yeah, well, firstly, what is a great coach. And if I am actually indeed one, but all I sort of tend to focus on is is just about those relationships with with your team, I think that's absolutely crucial to understand your players and what their sort of needs are, and how they they're driven, I suppose to be able to get them better. In the end, it all comes down to relationships pretty much without that relationship with the people are really going to want to put in that extra. I mean, you're gonna get a few that are really driven or just want to compete, but there's others and I think in natural human behaviors, you want to have that sort of relationship and some sort of care from with mutually with your coach to your players. [P1] So I think just understanding your players and having them under think that you think he's nuts, I think, know that you care, so that, you know you're trying to get the best out of them and get them improving. And in the end, it's pretty much all about the player.
Paul Barnett 04:52
We have a lot of coaches talk about the importance of care, actually. But what I'm really interested about is how do you bet between knowing someone well enough that you can care for them, but also being able to stand back enough and being dispassionate to make more objective decisions for the benefit of the team, how do you find that line?
05:11
Yeah, well, it's funny because I am, when I came down Tasmania, I played here for three years, just flying in and out when I was living in Queensland, and then retired, and then a year later became the coach. So I was still friends with all those girls that were my teammates. And I did really struggle that first year, because I wanted, I didn't know anyone down here. So, you know, they kept saying, I don't want to go out to this or that, oh, you know, and sort of hanging out with them socially, but then, you know, you have to make those hard calls occasionally, and they're not going to be overly happy with you. But at the same time, you'd hope that they start to understand that it's not a personal decision. I mean, I'm there as the coach of the team, to win games, I'm not there to be their mate, and just pick my friends in the team, because that sounds fun. I mean, in the end, it's about what's what's the best for getting that team forward, whether it's a short term goal or a long term goal. And they can be very different teams, if that's the case, I think it comes down to just making sure that, you know, you've got integrity, and you're very honest with how you go about things, and therefore they understand all of your processes are based around what's best for the team. And therefore you can separate yourself from that, you know, friendship, and I'm still absolutely friends with a lot of people I coach, but they know where I'm just going to tell them how it is. And that and they accept that about me, Coach implies is like a very special friendship, there's a lot of honesty and you put it out there, it's nearly, it's nearly like a family, you know, you have these blow ups and you, you know, they hate you for a while, and then they come back. And you know, because everyone does need to rely on each other, I need the players, they're on my side, and players need me on their side. So it's an ongoing relationship. But in the end, I think it comes down to that trust, relationship, honesty, and making sure you've got integrity with everything that you do and your selections.[P2]
Paul Barnett 06:47
So Julia, you are coaching a very well resourced, well helping to catch a very well resourced mainstream, the Brisbane heat, then alternatively, you're coaching USA women's team, a significantly less resource team. And I'm wondering how your role as a coach changes in both of these environments?
07:06
Yeah, well, I suppose Initially, the first answer would be the fact that I was an assistant coach with the Brisbane heat. So my role immediately is of less responsibility, you know, you sort of just rely on the coach's direction, the head coaches direction of what they want you to do. I mean, you can't bring up ideas, while they're that they're potentially usually can't finance. But as a head coach for the USA, you know, I'm in charge of not just the team, but also you know, the direction we're going with the future of the game, and how are we driving that with the younger kids? And, you know, what are the? How are we getting more people to play? And how do we market the team to other people. So to do all of that, and on a very lean budget, you do have to be quite innovative. But fortunately, as a female sports person, I've been exposed to it a lot over the last 25 to 30 years. So I've become very miserly with the way that I can, you can get things done. And it's amazing how many things that are free or very, very cheap that you can do that are really great for your team to do bonding activities, or plenty of stuff online, that you can, you know, tap into, you know, getting them to watch videos that potentially may inspire them or send them a good message. And you just get a little bit more creative with how you're actually do things, I can just say, Hey, we need to all go out and have an all expenses yacht trip down the Delaware River, or wherever in America, Hudson, whatever. And, you know, that sort of stuff just doesn't happen. So we're potentially it would in a lot of the men's bbl clubs, or even IPL or any of those sort of franchise teams, you know, we can always put them on a ferry. And that's just as much fun because in the end, actually, the the team itself is what matters. It's not necessarily all the external fluffy, great things that you get from it. It's actually how the players are interacting and what they feel that they get out of it. And and that's the the end goal is, are they going to get the same thing out of going on a million dollar yacht compared to going on a ferry trip? And if they asked, we will go the ferry trip and save some money and put it somewhere else for the for the rest of their learnings.
Paul Barnett 09:06
I heard you talk about that actually, on the on a conversation with your good friend Mel Jones, and you were talking about? I think the question was, would you take business class airfares, if it was available? Or would you take the money and put it into team development? But I can't remember the answer. I remember the question. So I'm gonna pose that question to you. Now, if we could put you on one of those yachts up the derwood river? Would you take the money? Or would you put it into development somewhere else?
09:31
I would absolutely put it into development. Just I mean, as much as I'd love a business class flight or a yacht trip on the gentlemen, I think when you take on a role, particularly in the women's game, at the moment, at the end, there's probably some examples as less than the men's game you know, you have your understanding that you know, there's not going to be a huge amount of money and and and you're actually in the bigger picture. You're not just in there just to coach the team and, and that's where your role starts and stops. It's actually broader than that. So any additional money you get coming in sweet. That's something else. And I can do in a pathway program, or we can pay for, you know, another few grounds to be hired and get some umpires so that we can, you know, really do a, you know, proper sort of center wicket to get more benefit out of it leading into a qualifier or something like that. So, there's always ways that you can spend the money better. And I'm constantly trying to find those sort of angles and what we can do with that. But yeah, I definitely go the economy or go the very drip.
Paul Barnett 10:27
You we were talking before we started this interview about your love of travel, you know, and all the places you've been, and all the articles I read about, you mentions it all the time. And it comes to you and your coaching to you've been all these various places, and you've you've, you've been a coach in some some, some wonderful teams and a lot of developing nation teams. So I'd like to ask you, when you go into these places, and you're starting from scratch and trying to build a team culture, what are some of the things that you would advise other coaches to do first?
10:55
Yeah, I think I think listening is the first thing you really got to do when you go into a new team, a new sort of group and, and understand what their expectations are of, you know, what they're going to get out of being in your program. And hopefully, you know, you're hoping that they're going to say, you know, they want to get better, and they, you know, they want to give back to the game and all that sort of stuff. But then that's when you start putting down what you also expect as well. So it's starting to put sets and boundaries, I suppose of, you know, where on that what they want and what I want from thing and hopefully they will marry up[P3] . And generally they do, it's more the actual, the act of actually the doing that becomes difficult because protect, particularly in these developing countries, they're all full time workers, and it's the aspirations of the team. And potentially of me, wanting to get them higher and higher and entity gonna qualify for these World Cups, or even winning regional qualifiers, or whatever they're trying to do actually, is probably a little harder than they thought it was. And to be able to balance all that time management, and how are they going to fit in their fitness between, you know, looking after their two children that they've got, as well. And, you know, it's there's a enormous amount of work that needs to go into understanding where that group is, in regards to its development, and it's aspirational sort of goals that they that they want to do. So I think initially, it's got to be about that listening and getting everyone on the same page. And I suppose it's straightaway, as we were discussing before, that honesty, from, from the coach to say, Well, this is where we're trying to go and set it out fairly clearly, you know, making sure that they've got goals that they can understand and can achieve, depending on their individual circumstances and, and things like that. So is always a tough one. Because there's a lot of people that are just like, Man, I've just walked into this team before, I don't need to do anything, because no one's pushing me for my spot. And then you've got others that are, you know, prepared to absolutely go to the end of the earth and really flogged themselves to make sure that they're doing the right thing and you've got in a national team This is so that's where it's so important to be able to have that base, a broader base of players and be able to divided into different sub structures domestically, so that you know, you can really start weeding out those that are pro potentially going to be holding others back and the aspirations of, of the organization which most organizations want to win things, you know, they're not just there, to muck around, they really want their national teams winning things. So I don't know if I answered that question. I went around a lot. And But anyway,
Paul Barnett 13:17
perfect. So we like it when people go around a lot. So I want to talk about high performance environments, because it was a great interview with you recently, the challenge was Julia, what's required to create a high performance environment, you rattled off five things and one of them was healthy competition. And I wanted to ask you, how do you foster healthy competition in female teams? Because my sense is I'm not a coach. But my sense is, it's different from the way you would do it in male teams.
13:48
It may it may be different. I don't know if all teams would be like that. I think there are some male teams that probably don't have healthy competition, either. They're they're a little protective of their, their turf, I suppose with with female teams. And again, I'm being a little presumptuous here. But there's been in the past so few opportunities for females that we've made it difficult for ourselves by not supporting other females in roles and elevating them, because there were so few opportunities, and we personally may have wanted to actually have that opportunity ourselves. Now it's time to open up and broaden up and suddenly we've got women supporting other women, and that is suddenly a new beast, which is fantastic. So in a broader sense, I think the healthy competition comes from, you know, senior players wanting to to sell the game to younger players and get them on board. So if I talk about America, I'm really trying to get them to understand their role as a mentor and a future coach and a development officer to be able to get more people playing the game if they want to improve, and they've actually got to have other people pushing them constantly[P4] . And I would say 80% of my group get it. They understand that whether they've got time to do that is another question but they understand The incentive of having more people playing, pushing them make it hard, so that they've always got someone on their tail, it's hard to stay motivated when you're number one all the time, and no one's trying to knock you off. And then with the healthy competition, I mean, to me, it's about also having, you know, a domestic competition that's very, very strong as well, which we're very lucky to have here in Australia. That's a WMC has been around since 1997. And you know, and that then expanded into a t 20. Competition. And now the Web VR, which has been enormous. And that last sort of 20 ideas is why Australia has been so strong internationally is because they're domestically, they've got such a strong competition, they've got, you know, lots of healthy competition there with girls vying for spots in those domestic teams, but also really pushing those Australian girls to keep them on their toes and know that, you know, they've got someone breathing down their neck, that wants their position in the team. So there's a few different aspects of that healthy competition, whether it's internally in your team, and we've just been recently, we're just this week, actually, in our USA team, we did a, we've been doing analysis and just starting to understand how you are now analyze a player and do that sort of thing. So we've been doing it sort of, we've had vision of our opposition players from when we played in the qualifiers last year, and we've just assign, you know, one or two people to a group of girls. And then last week, they I gave them a parasite and analysis, so they had to analyze one of their own players. And there's a few panic looks because, but I'm saying girls, you just go through the same process, it's all objective, and doesn't mean you're being personally just trying to do exactly what you've done with your opposition so far. So I got 10, out of the 15 have got back to me, which is good. And a couple of them actually spoke to the play that they were doing about which I think, again, is also healthy, to make sure that they're all discussing these things, and helping each other improve, which I think is a really, really good step. So I was actually really quite pleased with the fact I thought I knew that panic a little bit. But that's why I sort of led them into it blindly the opposition analysis and the process so that there was something really objective about it, I couldn't get to subjective and therefore the the arguments would lessen if it was based purely on fact, and what they're seeing and what their analysis is so.[P5] So I've been very happy with that, to me healthy analysis of each other and competition within the group.
Paul Barnett 17:16
What a great idea. With that come from?
17:19
I don't know, I've had five months in COVID, I think, plenty of time to think so, but at the same time, it does help me out as well, because now I've got all this information from the girls, and I'm going to send it out to the players that haven't received it yet. But it's really good for me to start conversations with players as well, because we work on our individual player prank plans or performance plans, what are you gonna call them, it can bring up some really good conversations, because now it's not just my opinion that they were looking at on the piece of paper, this is someone else's anonymous, some of them anonymous, some of them are, you know, they put their name to it, which is good, but allows me to have those conversations with a player and then to self analyze a bit more, you know, once it's been sort of brought up, whether what's their strengths, what their what's their weaknesses, you know, what's their strategies around going scoring? Should they are they you know, is it right or wrong? Or is there even a right or wrong at all. So, to me, it helps me keep the girls on track, get those ippf done, then we can start setting goals for them. So they've got some sort of purpose when they training as well, they actually try and work on something and not just rocking up to have a bit of a hit or a bar. jewelry, if
Paul Barnett 18:24
we got your performance plan out right now, what are some of the things that would be written on it?
18:30
As a coach, or just generally?
Paul Barnett 18:34
If you like, we'd be interested in that.
18:37
What would my performance? Well, it's a quite extensive because I'm sort of also work on the we're trying to put together a domestic structure in there's no female cricket, per se in America at the moment. So I'm trying to work on that sort of tear down level, how do we get it to that? So that would be that would be one performance plan is actually setting a structure up so that it works, then we've also got talent identification, so exposing cricket to the rest of the country? And how are we going about that, which is obviously 330 million people and enormous country. So it's quite a difficult task to do that. So we're using a lot of our statistics and you know, data that we've just gathered recently from some surveys about where our numbers would be. So that's one thing about talent ID. And that's at the moment, we're focusing on, you know, girls that are actually playing, but I think there's also the talent ID for girls that are playing. So transitioning girls from other sports and focusing on that. So again, going into colleges and universities. So that's probably my midterm performance plan would be looking at, you know, growing the sport into the general community for the United States. For my girls, for when we went to the qualifiers. We didn't really talk about winning at all, we never, we didn't really do that. We were just talking about improving in set and set areas for all the girls so a lot of them did take off a lot of those areas, team wise goals. And individual goals so I think at the moment, which is really difficult to have too much of a performance plan for me with regards to schoolwork, or results because we're not playing any games so so at the moment, it's about keeping the squad engaged I've been we've been having a little group challenges and keeping them working together as a as a group in keep working on their improvement in the understanding of the game, we've had a lot of time to do a lot of the mental side of the game we've been doing tactical side of the game, we're doing, you know, even additional things like time management and vulnerability and gratitude and all these extra things that you know, we can tick off these really good things that then help improve them as a cricketer. So I suppose in the end, and how I measure that will be difficult, but you know, are they a better cricketer, you know, coming out of COVID than they were at the beginning of it when we started this process. I don't know how to measure that yet but all but I'm feeling that I they would feel that they are more confident group with regards to lots of aspects and holistically I suppose growing as as cricketers on, on and off field.
Paul Barnett 21:08
She talking about values. You're one of your players, Sarah Farouk said that the biggest thing you've done is brought back fun for her. So good. I wanted to ask you, what are the other values that are really central to your coaching philosophy?
21:23
I suppose we sort of spoken touched on it before is that integrity, you know, so that girls know that, you know, what I say that I'll do, I'll actually do and go through it, I know that there's a trust element as well there. You know, if they are having difficulties away from the game, that they can come to me and understand that it's, you know, it's a conversation that we can have, it's, you know, there's they might not get the outcome that they want, but at least I know that they can have a conversation with me, and it will be a fairly open and honest one sort of mind valleys I saw I do try a growth mindset, [P6] I think is very important as well, particularly being in the USA, it's it's quite different than lots of different cultures in the in the team as well. So you've got to constantly be making sure that you're, you're open to, you know, this is what they do in the Caribbean, and this is what they're doing in Pakistan or, you know, it's always about not not thinking all the same way that I do here in Australia, it's about trying to be a little broader in the way I think as well. So that growth mindset is probably has been the most valuable, I think out of my values for the last sort of five to six months, where it's really been quite challenging to get girls on the same page and probably get them to understand being a non cricketing nation, getting them to actually understand the integrity of the game and how to respect the game. And even, you know, there's the the sort of the values of the sport and sportsmanship in, in cricket with, you know, their unwritten rules. So therefore, it's like, well, why do we do it? There's no, that's not a rule, we can do that, well, you can't really do that. So it's about, you know, that educating them a little bit with regards to, you know, the values around the game as well. And my respect for the game, and how how players should be perceived about having that respect for the game as well. So, so yeah, a bit of respect, I think needs to be in there. I might add that to my list of values, I haven't put that one down. And accountability. That's my biggie. Sorry, accountability. I've got to make sure I'm doing stuff. I know it's a boring one. But you've just you've got to make sure that you're taking charge and of if things don't go right, well, it does fall on my shoulders, because I'm the head coach and I have no one else to blame. So I've got to make sure that I'm accountable to these girls, and I am making sure they've got a good program every week, that's going to help them to grow. But also make sure that I turn up
Paul Barnett 23:33
and ready to go to a you were very close to the parents so blade windy and grime within IMC. In fact, your father took you down to watch the Boxing Day test all the way from Queensland, which would have been what elements of your upbringing and your parents have found a way into some of those things you just talked about them
23:52
was my parents were Victorian. So it wasn't that big a deal going down to Melbourne for them. So they am bad. So we were visiting family for Christmas. So it was a double tick there. So that my family was very, very, it was a very Christian household I got brought up with, you know, a lot of, again, honesty was a big part of our family, and that we should be able to speak up and have an honest conversation. So that's really helped me. Because a lot of people find it difficult to have those honest conversations that are hard because, you know, You're upsetting people or it's difficult, but I have, I have to admit, I've always found it just quite normal because I feel if I'm just telling them the truth, then this shouldn't be an issue, which of course sometimes it is. But then again, it comes back to having that relationship prior to that you don't just blurt out whatever you're saying. And you need that relationship with with with your players to be able to have that honest conversation in the first place.[P7] So I think honesty is definitely one my mother was the big traveler. So she was she was the reason why I love traveling so much she traveled caught the boat across to England when she was a 21 year old and traveled the world for you know, two years and unfortunately when I was 10 I did a European trip for six weeks with my family as well. So I just got the bug very, very young and loved it ever since. She was also an occupational therapist, and she was all about helping people. And she was a Pisces, though. I'm a Capricorn. So we're very different. But she's a she was a Pisces helped out, you know, a lot of people end up working in palliative care. So I think that resilience, you know, that she had to show every day coming home, having seen some really awful, awful things that these hospices were, you know, terrible. So I think, again, that's rubbed off on me a little bit. They've taught me how to be, you know, you're allowed to care and you're allowed to be upset and allowed to be, but you can also there's a time and a place, and maybe it was too much. Maybe I hold things in a little bit too much. Some people won't be critical of them. But but they, yeah, generally, I can't hear emotionless sometimes, but I'm certainly not on the inside, I'm hurting. On the outside, I try and keep it together. And you know, in times that you actually needed to,
Paul Barnett 25:56
to be strong, I suppose. And get through some tough times. I want to ask you about resilience in a minute. But I just want to talk about tough times, actually, which was tazzy 2018. I don't want to go back over what happened or what didn't happen. But I just like to ask you what you learned from that whole experience that you've taken forward into your future roles?
26:18
Yeah, it was it was, it was fantastic. To learn heaps, because it was the first sort of head coaching job that I'd had. And it was a full time position. I never thought that I was ever going to be able to when I was playing cricket, I never thought this sort of stuff would happen well, in my lifetime. So you know, I'm very grateful to cricket Tasmania, and a lot of the staff there with, you know, amazing when I when I first started there, so but just the job itself probably just got a little too big for me in the fact that I'm trying I was trying to look after the hope or the pathways as well. And so I think that the main thing I learned from being there was to have learned to say no, where I just kept taking on more and more things. And I had the same thing. When I was working with AFL Queensland, I was just exhausted after six years there. Same thing just took on way too much, because no one else was sort of doing it. And you sort of felt like, yeah, I still want it to be there. So, but at the same time, it wasn't really helping me personally. So the more time I spent in cricket, Tasmania here, growing the pathway and pushing that sort of side, the less time I'm spending with the actual team, which was my primary job. So I think that's one thing that I've really got to have a bit more self care. And just make sure that I'm looking after myself so that then I can start looking after others. That was my, my big my big learning from it. But I also learned lots of things. I mean, you always learn from failures, not that it was a failure, but you learned from failings you learn from learnings, you know, there's plenty of things that I might do differently. And there's plenty of things that I do exactly the same.[P8] So, but yet no, I've certainly got through it fine. And again, it's it's not the worst thing that's ever happened to me in my life. So I can, I'll deal with it quite well. But I've got to travel for six months straight after that. So that was great, a bit of a holiday and tried to get my head right about what I wanted to do for the rest of my life and enjoy coaching. It's, you know, it's great, unfortunately, I got into a golfing CHANNEL SEVEN commentary as well, which is sort of like coaching without the responsibility, which is fantastic. You know, you just get on there and you talk about cricket, and you can analyze everything that's happening on the field. And at the end of the day, you just go away and have a beer with a few of your co commentators. And you don't have to worry about doing all the stuff that you have to do for as a coach. But at the same time coaching is, is can be so rewarding. You know, when you're able to help a team get across the line from all the stuff that you've seen them do we see a player that you've been working with, and then executed a skill out in the middle, that just kick started something for them in the future, they know they go and get a 50 or something that's their first 50. Or they bold that off cutting board from having bold only outswing has for the past five years. And suddenly they've all that I've kind of been working on it takes that off stamp, those sort of things you can't get in the commentary box, those are some things you have to you have to be vulnerable, you have to put yourself out there and put your you know, your emotions on the line to be able to get teams across the line. And you know, and I think I think that's hard to replace, other than plot actual playing itself.
Paul Barnett 29:06
Julio, how would you say that during COVID, it's giving you the chance to work on the mental side of the game a lot more. And you said this is something that we just don't do enough of as cricket players and cricket coaches, could you tell us about some of the things you did with your team in the USA to build mental resilience?
29:22
Sure, we've been doing a little bit of stuff. I didn't do a whole lot of stuff. When I was playing, I got dropped for the Australian team the first time and we got told that we were doing, we started just to engage a psychologist. So this would have been 2002 or 2003. And it was compulsory to do three sessions for the season. So and I'm like, Great. Now I've got to do this psychology thing. What am I gonna say to her? that'll just keep, you know, at bay and I won't have to think too much about it. And I sort of thought Oh, well, I can tell her I'm you know, how do I get back into the Australian team without focusing solely on that and I did three sessions. With that, and now the best three sessions I've ever done, I wish I had done psychology way earlier. And I think it's about finding someone that fits with you. Not every psychologist is going to have that relationship. I was just lucky that this chick was fantastic. She was good fun. And, you know, didn't take it all too seriously, but had some really good messages in there and things that I could go away and work on. So, and funnily enough, I got back in the Australian team Not long after that. So it was really I had my best season, because I'd stopped thinking too far ahead. I was sort of trying to talk about being in the moment. So I've relayed that story to the girls a few times. I think they're sick of hearing it. But But then what we started to do this year, we went on to smiling mind and just we've I've got them starting to do little mindfulness exercises and starting to feel like in the moment a little bit more, stop thinking too far ahead. Like what are you doing right now? What's happening with that so and a few of them have come back and they absolutely loved it, I thought it was the best could be something quick that they can do, you can do a three minute mindfulness session, buy before you go and start cooking dinner for your kids or whatever. So the girls found that one really easy to put in in play. We've also had a little bit of meditation as well. And we've done heaps of paydays and readings, you know, Justin Lang is a big one for all that sort of stuff. So, you know, that was also good about how do you relax? And, you know, after a game, how do you, you know, you're really wound up, you've got to play again, the next day, how do you stop thinking about what you did wrong in the game, or all those sort of things. So the meditation again, is also about relaxing and switching off, and how do you and then you can start to lessen that. And do that in between overs, and then in between balls in the air then suddenly becomes part of your life constantly. [P9] So. So yeah, we've just been doing a lot of PDS, a lot of some practical stuff, we did an online mental resilience course, they called it the first time they've done it, which was a little theory based, but at the same time was it made some really good discussion points to girls. Some of them were really intense, nerdy ones, they love it. And they got they got really into it, which is great, because not everyone's going to buy into these things. First go. And you just got to try different different ways of attacking maybe the same thing, but from different avenues. And and so we probably did repeat our message a fair a fair bit where we did it from various angles. And as I mentioned before, we did, you know, gratitude, and we did vulnerability, and what are the effects of these sort of things and opening yourself up to your teammates? How can that benefit you as a person and just all that sort of stuff, and I'm sure they're exhausted, I know, I am from trying to do all this stuff for five months, because I've never had who ever had that time, you know, to be able to do so much. And it was great, it was really, really good, good. So it stretched me as a truck as a coach. But I think it also made them really think about themselves. And a lot of them have really gone, they've really pushed on that and done some great things with with their own game, or even just trying to drive the game themselves in the middle of nowhere, you know, they've got no team, but they're trying to do something, it's been a really fun five months. And I've really got to understand a lot of the personalities a lot better, you know, the people that are going to blow up and, you know, come in here and say, No, I don't think we should be doing that. And then you've got someone over there saying, I think that was an amazing way of doing that we should check it out. And, you know, so it's been good, you just really, really got to understand the players. And I haven't been in the country since December. But I feel like I'm actually quite close to them. So hopefully, I'll get there at some stage. And we can actually see each other face to face and discuss these things. But But yeah, I think really focusing on that mental side of things. And and really making it normal is the other thing as well, because, again, anyone who's been to psychologists, it's such a obviously a shame, but everyone that no one talks about it, you know, it's a really personal thing. But when in fact, if it's, you know, we're talking about psychology, which is purely this the way you think it's not, it's not that you've got anything that's wrong or right in your head, it's just, let's get everything lined up, it's going to make sense for you to be able to analyze everything that's going on around you and make it clearer, and you can get to your decision a lot faster without all the clutter in between so bit like even if you're injured and you go to the physio no one seems to be too concerned about that, you know, what you how you're going to go through getting back from your calf, you know, tear that you've had, because you're 48 you're trying to still run or and it's exactly the same process with a with a psychologist, you know, it's going through the process of how am I going to practice this so that I can put it into a game, or I can use it after a game to relax or get myself mentally prepared before I go and play or train or say something. So we're just trying to normalize it a fair bit. So I've really enjoyed it actually, it's been quite good fun.
Paul Barnett 34:20
Julie, when I speak to female coaches, they often talk about their role as being one that extends beyond the sport that they're in. And they talk about being a role model for other women within and outside the sport, which is a heavy burden, I think to carry. So I'd like to ask you, what advice do you have for other female coaches who are moving into elite environments?
34:41
Wow. It's a good question. Um, I don't know if I think we've got to take that pressure off ourselves a little bit because I don't even know if it's necessarily true. So when I was the assistant coach for the web for bbl so the first female to do it, I didn't really think too much about Up until I stopped reading all these articles left, right and center, you know, and suddenly I'm, I'm the if I don't do this, well, that means every other female and future is not good enough is not good enough to be a bbl coach, and I hadn't even thought of it that way at that stage. So, which is absolutely ridiculous. So I think my, my suggestion or advice to people is just do what you do the best worry about your own strengths. Don't worry about the external factors and the and the noise that goes on around it or you do what your strengths are, and be confident in those strengths. And don't worry too much about the outside unless you want to. I mean, it's it's great to, you know, to have these female role models and drive that. But there is an extra pressure that comes with that. And you are going to get knocked down and social media has some good aspects of it that sort of got some very bad aspects of it as well. But I think, I think is any female doing anything? I think you just got to do what you do best, and not worry too much about the external noise.[P10]
Paul Barnett 36:01
It's a good answer. Thanks, Julia. Just one last question if we can, and I've saved the easy one to be
36:07
good. I'm sweating here.
36:08
Yeah. Julia,
Paul Barnett 36:11
what legacy Do you want to leave as a coach?
36:14
Oh, you reckon? That's easy. Oh, my goodness. Legacy. And again, this is another thing I've never really thought about. Maybe I need to think about these things more when I was when I was with AFL Queensland. And I left there to go to do the job in Tasmania. The my boss said to me said, Oh, well, you've left a legacy here. And I said, Have I What do I left? And he said, Well, your legacy was that I'd started this school girls competition, he said, and that will be the easiest pathway now for for girls to play football in Queensland, because it's in the school system. And I had never thought of that. I mean, I knew it was good. But I just, I didn't say I wouldn't be like flying a flag, like, hey, that's my legacy. You know, that's what I'm living. That's what I'm leaving my hat on. But the cricket, what we've legacy. And, man, I don't even know what my legacy would be. Well, let
Paul Barnett 37:02
me try a different way than so what is it? You want to leave? Not nearly what you've left. But yeah, when we were preparing for this, you know, you wrote back I might you wrote something like, Oh, great, I might learn something, too. And then the more I read about you, you'll have to travel. You've gone to all these different countries. You've coached men and women. I'm like this, this lady is a learning machine. And I'm just watching interviews with us. There's been that was a great interview with Mel Jones, then the the administrator from Pakistan, whose name I just can't recall right now. She was I mean, she's dead. She was a dental surgeon. She was this Uber professional, successful person. I think you leave a legacy of learning. And I think you leave a passion for learning and self development, which might not be self evident to you. But I think it would be evident to the players who are in and around you. I could be totally wrong, because we've never but that that's that's the definitely impression I got reading and preparing for tonight.
38:01
Yeah, cool. Thank you. Yeah, I will. I mean, I, I actually, love cricket was funny. Someone asked me recently to have to do an interview about the AFL. Queensland job not long ago. And they said to, you know, you've got cricket or football, you know, which one do you like this? And I'm like, it looks like asking which child you love best, you know, you can't do that. But I think my passion, because my parents were Victorian. So I grew up, you know, watching NFL football. So unfortunately, I have to count. And so that's my resilience right there. That's how I've got resilience. So but so I've always loved AFL football, because I've grown up with it. And therefore I think that is why I did the job that I did, because I was passionate about it. And then I think with cricket, it's the same sort of thing. Why am I still involved in cricket, even though you've been burned, if you've had a few bad experiences, and I keep coming back for more, it's because, you know, the sport itself is such a fantastic sport. And I love the fact that a country like the USA wants to play cricket, you know, and I love the fact that Argentina, when I went down there, they were keen to have me do a session with them, which is unbelievably good. And obviously, when I was in Ireland, Netherlands and Scotland, not again, not non traditional countries, it's so exciting to have all these people want to play the game that I love. And they want me to teach them that. So yeah, I find that I find that fantastic and very inspiring. And, you know, keeps me driven, I suppose to stay in the game and keep, particularly females giving them opportunities to be able to play because, and it's great sometimes in these non traditional countries because they don't see it as a male game. They just see it as cricket. And that's so refreshing. I love that. So yeah, I don't know, I just I sort of feel like I've nearly found a little bit of a where I'm supposed to be and it's in these developing countries and you know, getting things on track, getting them organized, making it easy for anyone who wants to play the game, just come straight into it and go from there.[P11] So
Paul Barnett 39:52
there is a team in Prague, I think they're in tier three in the sea. And I know that they're preparing to try and go up to the next grade. So hopefully We'll get you ready to do some coaching and testing. A little bit more check be together.
40:05
Yeah. Sounds good.
Paul Barnett 40:07
Surprise. Thank you for your time today. It's been a great interview. I wish you all the best with USA cricket. I think you're onto something there. There's a big population. And I'm sure that by the time you leave, it's going to be even more successful than it aspires to be today.
40:19
Awesome. Thanks very much, Paul. Really appreciate it.
Transition 40:21
The great coaches podcast.
Paul Barnett 40:25
Hi, everyone, it's Paul here. And you have been listening to our discussion with Julia price. The key highlights for me were Julia's thoughts on making sure that in the first conversations you have, when you join a new team, you listen to understand the players needs, but also respond with your expectations and boundaries, so that expectations can be built quickly, and how she used a sports psychologist to help her when she was dropped from the Australian team. And how this helped her focus more on the present and regain the form she needed to rejoin the Australian team. I hope you enjoyed it. As much as Jim and I did. In our next episode, we will be speaking to Teen USA boxing coach, Billy Walsh,
41:06
what makes a good coach, you know, I think there's, there's many, many hats you got to wear to the common good coach, for all those guys that are enormous personality, being able to relate to people and get on with them. And also then you have to have the background, the technical, tactical awareness of, of your sports. And sometimes, you know, being a good relationship builder, I think and then having respect of your players or your athletes is a key part says many coaching. So
Paul Barnett 41:37
just before we go, coaches are not usually the type of people who seek the spotlight. And so if you can put us in contact with a great coach that you know has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you. You can contact us using the details in the show notes.
Jim Woolfrey 44:31
Before we go, coach is not usually the type of people who seek the spotlight. And so if you can put us in contact with a great coach that you know, has a unique story to share. We would love to hear from you. You can contact us using the details in the show notes.