WZ  Comment:  Skill is the secret to success

Scottish sport has been under the spotlight on a world stage in 2007 like no other time in history.  Across the globe four of our most popular sports – rugby, football, cricket and swimming - have all seen Scots teams compete in major championships and matches. 

Sometimes, the results have been pleasing, and occasionally the contests heralded a welcome surprise, a one-off moment of magic from our guys, such as the 1-0 victory over France at Hampden Park, or Kirsty Balfour’s silver medal at the FINA World Championships in Melbourne just last month.

However, just as often, usually after much ill-fated optimism, we are left disappointed.  Sometimes the result is shambolic.  The catastrophic performances against Italy at Murrayfield and at the Cricket World Cup against the Netherlands are examples of that.  Other times it is simply a case of so near, yet so far, exemplified by the 19-18 defeat to Ireland in the Six Nations, or the brave loss to Italy in Bari in the Euro 2008 qualifier.

In the four sports mentioned, Scotland are a respected, competitive nation.  They occasionally produce a world class performer, a Gavin Hastings or Denis Law.  But, in general, though we may climb high enough to see the stars, we aren’t quite close enough to touch them.  Scotland are ranked 16th in the world football, 10th in rugby.  We are the top Associated ICC Nation in the second tier of world cricket, and good enough for the final but not for the gold in international swimming events.

But Scotland the Brave we no longer can be.  Plucky Scots is a tag we no longer need hold.  With the forthcoming Olympic and Commonwealth Games in 2012 and 2014 respectively, we must make it beyond second best.  We must prove ourselves on the World stage.

So what do we need?  What do the Italian footballers, the Irish rugby players, the Aussie cricketers and the American swimmers have in abundance that we are lacking?  The answer isn’t genetic or psychological.  The, answer, thankfully, is something very attainable.  The answer is skill.  Nothing more, nothing less.

Skill takes all kinds of forms, and throughout the course of this article, we will look at the various types of skill required in each sport and cite examples of where the difference can be made.

At no point will any of these examples be intentionally critical of the individuals or teams mentioned.  This is In The Winning Zone.  We don’t do moaning, we do winning.  We just want Scotland to win.

What follows is an ABC (and D) of these four sports and how Scotland should invest in their future.

a) Academy Ambitions - Football

So, to football.  Scotland’s bread and butter.  Oh, how we would rejoice if we make it to the 2008 European Championships.  The defeat to Italy wasn’t so much a slip up as a signposted bump in the road.  But why should it be so?  Why couldn’t we beat them? 

Recall the 2-0 defeat to Italy on March 28th.  It would be very harsh to criticise Scotland’s performance.  Brazil or France could just as easily slump to a similar losing margin at the hands of the deserved World Champions.  But what was the essential difference between the two on that Wednesday night in Bari?  What shattered dreams of a first result on Italian soil in history?

The answer comes in the form of a 6’4” centre forward.  Luca Toni.  He is, and on that night was, the difference in the teams, both in his individual performance, and as an example of the gulf in class between the two sides. 

Two crosses landed on Toni’s head and, with clinical perfection, both ended up in the back of the net.  Kenny Miller, at the other end, was served two equally inch perfect crosses.  Neither of his efforts troubled Buffon, the Italian keeper. 

This is certainly not a slur on Miller.  His performances and goals in the past two seasons have been paramount to Scotland’s rise through the rankings and lofty qualifying table position.  But why could Toni do twice what Miller didn’t even manage to threaten to do once, seeing they were given equally decent opportunities to do so?

There are two reasons.  The defensive quality of the Italians, and the striking quality of Toni.  Miller was hustled into making an error, while Toni left his markers for dead.  The Italians were quicker and more skilful in the execution of their roles. 

This can only come from playing at the top level, all the time.  That hasn’t been an option for the likes of Miller.  He has gone from playing in the SPL, to the English Championship, and back to the SPL again.  Now, these leagues are competitive, but they aren’t Serie A or La Liga, where Toni and his centre-back compatriots Cannavaro and Materazzi ply their trade.  So already there is a dearth of experience at this level.  The Italians have a head start.

So why not bring Scotland up to speed?  Why not take the advice of one of the most  respected names in Scottish football?  Earlier this year, Hibs boss John Collins lauded the need for French style subsidised football academies in Scotland.  The system in France doesn’t only coach athletic excellence in young players; it also provides full time schooling.

The players would receive the best coaching, and learn the fundamentals of football so that whenever they take the step up to senior football, they can finish with the precision of a first class striker and keep concentration for a full 90 minutes.

If we can get a structure in place where young Kenny Millers and Barry Fergusons could flourish, playing at the highest possible level every day and being developed to the very best of their abilities, perhaps this would make a difference in the standard of football Scotland are capable of at senior level.

b) Back to Basics - Rugby

Onto rugby and it is the same story.  As highlighted by In The Winning Zone in the aftermath of the games, Scotland’s inability to beat Italy and stave off Ireland came down a lack of fundamentals.  Frank Hadden can only be applauded for attempting to play a wide, expansive game, as he did against the Italians, but unfortunately he doesn’t presently to have the players who are capable of doing that.  But that can be turned around.

It was pointed out by a former Scotland coach that in recent years, the Scottish players just aren’t up to the same skill standard as their counterparts in Ireland, England and elsewhere.  The gob-smacking series of errors against the Italians proved this.  They were getting the simple things – passes and kicks – horribly wrong.  You can’t play Harlem Globetrotter rugby until you have mastered the practice courts.  So back to the practice courts they must go. 

The teams that win matches and championships are the ones that can get the basics right when under intense pressure.  A drop-goal in front of the posts on the training ground?  Easy.  In front of millions in the dying seconds of a World Cup Final?  Not quite so easy.  Jonny Wilkinson practiced and practiced until he knew he was good enough to do it.  Just as Chris Paterson has perfected the art of international goal-kicking.  He is the best in the world.  His team-mates should follow that example. 

Scotland need to bring their players back to base level, particularly in the backs.  Rather than trying chip kicks and long looping passes, the players should go back and perfect the skills they should have had down to a tee at school.  Running straight; timing a pass; making space and releasing the outside man.  Only from this point can a more expansive game be played.

The philosophy of their new consultant, Yehuda Shinar, should also be taken into consideration and worked on closely between now and the World Cup.  T-CUP: Thinking Correctly Under Pressure.

Against Ireland, Scotland had the match in their hands.  But they let it slip out of them again.  They allowed Ireland to rile them.  They allowed the pressure to get to them, and the Irish ebbed their way back.  The reason the Irish succeeded in doing so is where the lesson should be learned.  Under pressure to turn the match around and get a result, Brian O’Driscoll and his men knew what to do, and they did it with little fuss.  They just went about their jobs, they didn’t panic.  This is what Shinar and Hadden must instill into the Scottish players in time for the World Cup.

c) Consistency of class - Cricket

Compared to rugby and football, Scottish cricket doesn’t quite compete in the same domain on an international level.  But Peter Drinnen and Craig Wright should still be proud of how far they have taken their team.  The World Cup, though disappointing, was a learning curve, an adventure, even. 

But what was missing?  How can we perform so strongly against the best in the world, Australia and South Africa, and then crumble so pathetically against a much weaker side, the Netherlands, over the course of just a few days?

Coach Drinnen called for consistency in his team’s performance.  But consistency of what?  Some of Scotland’s ‘best results’ have come from games they have ‘honourably’ lost.  Again, this is not to take credit away from them.  To quote a cricket buzzword, as relative ‘minnows’ the performances Scotland pulled out against the two leading nations were fantastic feats.  But they can’t rest on their laurels and think they have done enough.  They must make the next step to get better.  But how?

Speaking about Scotland, Australia coach John Buchanan told The Scotsman: “The immediate thing is to go through the experience you've had, whether that's individually or as a team.  How did Australia go about their game? What are the skills that they've shown? How do we match up our skills where there are deficiencies? That's probably the easy part. The hard part is then to actually transfer that into something long term.”

Herein we have the answer.  And again, as someone who ought to know has pointed out, it is down to skills.  Why not take the example of the Aussies?  Many of national team already play cricket in Australia, and Drinnen himself is a former Queensland batsman.  He knows what first class cricket is all about.  So let’s start to implement a first class system of coaching.  Let’s use some of that sportscotland and Lloyds TSB sponsorship money and invest in teaching the players how to bowl like Shane Warne or how to bat like Ricky Ponting. 

Buchanan is right.  We don’t deny that such a concept is much harder to transfer into reality than it is to speculate.  But everyone starts somewhere.  Give the younger players some first class coaching, right from when they first pick up a cricket bat at school.  There is no point in waiting for them to join a club when they are young adults before they are selected for elite duty, as is the case currently.  In countries like South Africa the talent identification is made sooner and exploited fully.  The same must happen for Scotland to develop as a cricketing nation. 

Of course this can only come if there is also an increase and improvement in cricket playing facilities, particularly for indoor playing.  In Scotland, cricket is only a summer game, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be practiced year round.  No-one ever became a world beater by being a fair-weather sportsman.

d) Dolphin Dexterity – Swimming

Well done to Scotland’s swimmers.  They were the heroes of the Commonwealth Games in 2006, and at Edinburgh Swimming Club under Fred Vergnoux, we have most likely the best swimmer training and development programme in the UK, if not Europe.

But we are still nautical miles behind the Americans.  For Luca Toni, Brian O’Driscoll and Shane Warne, read Michael Phelps.  And then some.  Because, as we have just recently learned, the US team actually had an extra team member – a dolphin.  A research scientist assisted Phelps and his US team in developing a rampaging new ‘fifth’ swimming stroke, mimicking the motion of our sea-faring friends. 

As reported in The Times: “From every start, undulating into and out of every turn, Phelps snaps like a tightly coiled spring into a whipping motion designed to emulate the propulsion of the fastest mammal in the ocean. The energy required is exhausting, but the results are devastating.”

What is interesting, and indeed appropriate, are the comments left by a British reader: “Why didn't Bill Sweetenham (GB National Performance Director) or the Aussies see that one coming? No spies in the US camp?”

Perhaps spying isn’t the right way to go about things, but the question certainly is why didn’t we see it coming?  At the very highest level, it takes innovation to distance the best from the rest.  We are currently blessed with a golden generation of swimming stars in Scotland, but now that we have them, they can’t be allowed to plateau. 

The lesson to be learned is that they must continually strive to improve.  OK, so Kirsty won silver, but at the same time she was light years behind gold medallist Leisel Jones.  And this was anticipated.  No-one expected Balfour to win.  Why?  Was her technique not up to scratch?  Is she not fit enough?  What makes Jones better? 

This is the same story as the football, rugby and cricket teams.  There is always a reason why the other teams are better.  So the only way to counter this is to find out what is necessary to be the best, and do it.  Fred Vergnoux says there should be at least three 50m pools in Edinburgh.  There are twenty such pools in Paris alone.  Meanwhile there are only five in the whole of Scotland.  How does this affect our swimmers?  They only get limited pool time.  They must share their time in the water with the public, so they are rationed to early morning and late afternoon sessions when the pool is at its quietest.  How can they become the world’s best swimmers and catch up with Phelps, Jones and the dolphins if their pool time is restricted?  Skill doesn’t come naturally, and it doesn’t have a limit, as Phelps proved by smashing record after record at FINA.

Scotland the Brave.  Plucky Scots.  Is this how we want to be recorded in the sports encyclopedias?  With our current crop of athletes, we really need to take our chances now, before they become no more than a forgettable memory; because nobody remembers second place.

RO

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