Look to almost any sport or event, and the Australians will be there, right up at the top, winning.  They have dominated world cricket and rugby to varying levels for decades, creating dozens, if not hundreds, of world class, record breaking athletes in the process; Shane Warne, Steve Waugh, John Eales and Edinburgh’s very own Stephen Larkham to name but a few in recent years.  Individuals like Ian Thorpe, Cathy Freeman and Lleyton Hewitt stand tall in individual stature alongside great teams such as the Kookaburras (hockey) and the Kangaroos (rugby league).  Even the Socceroos gave Brazil a run for their money in the 2006 World Cup.

At the 2004 Athens Olympics, Australia came fourth in the medal table.  The magnitude of this achievement can only be truly appreciated when comparing the proportionate population pools from which nations select and develop athletes.  With a population of a little over 20 million, Australia finished behind only the USA (300million) China (1.3billion) and Russia (141 million), whilst trumping Japan (127million) Germany (82million) and, of course, Great Britain (60million). 

Essentially, for every one Olympic medallist the USA produces, Australia will have 15.  For every one China produces, they will have 65.  

Are the Australians simply a freakishly talented race of people?  Are they athletically superior to the rest of the world?  Some theorise that as much of their population was spawned from ancestors physically tough enough to survive the once treacherous, disease-ridden, ocean-crossing journeys to the newest of new worlds, they may have a stronger genetic pool than most.

But this, in the modern era of ultra-professional, scientifically-scrutinised sport, is nothing more than folklore.  Australians don’t have more brawn than the Brits or more in the tank than the Yanks.  It is all down to what is between their ears that really counts.  Australians are winners because they think they are.  They believe they deserve to be taking pride of place on that podium.  And they work hard to get there.

Take this summer’s rugby tri-nations as a point in case, when Australia pulled off a quite wonderful and unexpected victory against their long time antipodean rivals and World Cup favourites, New Zealand.  The win wasn’t spectacular in terms of quality of play, nor could the Australian performance be described as anything more than mediocre, but even though they were 15-6 down at half-time, the Aussies clung on, clawed back and scrambled a superb 20-15 victory.

How did they do it?   Because they thought they could.  They saw their chance.  New Zealand were under-performing and Australia capitalised.  Australia weren’t, and still aren’t, a better team than New Zealand.  But their winning mentality allowed them to snatch a victory that no other present-day rugby team would ever have dreamed of. 
It was their attitude, their character that won them the match, and it is this character that has made Australia the most successful ‘pound for pound’ sporting nation on the planet.

So, the question must be asked, why can’t we have some of that?  Is there any big secret to it?  Can Scotland and Britain do the same?

To answer that question, In The Winning Zone quizzed the experts – the Australians themselves.  But not just any old Aussie.  We spoke to two of Australia’s most prestigious UK imports, Marty Aitken and Pat Howard.

Pat Howard is one of the few rugby players in the World who can lay claim to translating his success on the pitch into a similar, if not better record as a coach and manager.  He won the Bledisloe Cup playing for Australia and was a starring fly-half/centre in the much-vaunted Super 12 before moving to Europe, where as a player-coach with Leicester Tigers he has enjoyed unprecedented success, winning all the trophies available to an English professional club, including the Heineken Cup.

So what can we learn from Pat?  Well, according to him, the reason why Australia has become synonymous with winning is simply down to confidence and belief.  They think they have every right to be the best, and will fight to make it happen.

“I believe that the Australian mentality is having the sense of ‘anything is possible’. That if you’re on the field, you’re good enough to be there.  I do believe that that’s not often the case in some British sports.  It’s often good enough to just be British and not the best in the world.”

And he also believes that when it comes to representing your country, there is more pride to be taken in winning for your country, rather than simply playing.  The Australians believe that getting there is only the first step, and that to truly prove yourself, you must take on and defeat the rest.

“Representing Australia is important, but what is more important is representing an Australian side which is a very strong team.  I see that as a significant difference.  So that no matter what time, what situation you have out on the field, in any sport, you’re there to win.  It’s not just about representing your country, because that’s an honour in itself.”

So why do the Australians think like this?  Well, believe it or not, it isn’t purely a natural phenomenon of antipodean psychology.  Australia, like all of us, have suffered great disappointment.  But, rather than complain, they got up and got on with it.

“In 1976 Australia won no golds at the Montreal Olympics, and there was a massive emphasis to turn that around.  By the time we got to Barcelona in 1992, we had converted that to 9 golds, and it has progressively stayed around that or increased.” 

He continued: “By the Olympics being a showpiece, it has given us the momentum to allow that to run through all Australian sport.  We’ve always been good at netball and rugby league, but I think the culture we have had since the 1976 Olympics means that all sport now tries to achieve the best that it can. And I think it’s done enough now to keep us always competing at that top level.   If you make the Australian team; cricket, rugby, whatever, you are expected to win.”

One of the main ideas the Australians developed to overhaul the national embarrassment of the 1976 debacle was by setting up the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) in 1981.  The Institute is widely regarded as one of the main reasons for their recent success in world sport, and it is indeed globally acclaimed as one of the most pioneering and exemplary models of developing sporting excellence.

From the success of the Institute came the development of smaller, more concentrated regional Institutes, such as the Victorian Institute of Sport (VIS) in Melbourne.  As the sporting capital of Australia, the VIS supports over 500 young athletes, is government supported and has close links with many sporting clubs, associations and clinics to ensure their sports men and women enjoy the highest possible level of support. 

Critically, the VIS is also the model upon which our very own Scottish Institute of Sport (SIS) was built.  The SIS, since its inception in 1998, has nurtured twelve World Champions, as well as winning two gold and six silver Olympic medals.  And, in the build up to Beijing, Marty Aitken, a man who coached in Victoria for eighteen years before moving to Europe, has been ensuring we can win even more medals when the time comes next year. 

Marty is the Scottish Institute of Sport’s outgoing Director of Performance (He is returning to Victoria to work with the VIS).  Although a top rower, cyclist and skier in his own athletic career, it was as a world class coach where he really displayed his winning credentials.  A professional coach for sixteen years, he was Head Coach to British and Swiss national rowing teams, and he has overseen eight gold, seven silver and six bronze medals at either World Championship or Olympic level.

So what does he see as the inherent differences between sport in Scotland and back home in his native Australia?

“I think in Australia they are not particularly great sports participants, but they are great sports watchers. We have a big supporting crowd, and they will watch any sport.  And if you have that, people strive to be in the spotlight.  So the kudos comes from actually being a successful sportsman in Australia, which is not the case here.  If you play football or rugby you get a crowd to those things, but in Australia you get a crowd to anything!”

There are two things here that should be noted.  Firstly, Marty is ascertaining that Australians aren’t actually more ‘sporty’ than Scots or Brits.  Australia has the same problems with obesity, shrinking participation rates and problems in rousing the Playstation generation from their entertainment systems. 
They also have the same disproportionate number of armchair fans as opposed to actual athletes. 

However, moving to the second point, as Marty pointed out, the spectator in Australia is a more varied sports fan.  They will watch anything.  So not only is this encouragement for young athletes to strive for the limelight, but it also means all sports are ‘socially acceptable’ and ‘cool’ to play.  You are an athlete first, for which you should be praised.  Your actual discipline is irrelevant to the public arena. 

There is a common conception here in Scotland, not helped by the media and the public fan base, that unless you play professional football, rugby, golf or tennis, you may as well not bother, because nobody cares.

Aitken believes the differences in the media between Australia and the UK are small, but significant, in terms of how the public gauge national sport and athletes.

“In Australia they are a lot more supportive of good results. They are critical of bad results, but they don’t go on and on about it.  Because it is self-perpetuating; if you slate people enough, they are going to believe they are shit.”

That the media and the spectators have as important a role to play in our nation’s sporting success as the athletes themselves is a theory backed by some of Scotland’s top athletes. 

Edinburgh’s Chris Hoy, arguably the greatest track cyclist of all time, agrees with Marty’s theory, as he told In The Winning Zone: “It would be nice if the British public, like the Australians, celebrated their winners.  If there is a successful team or individual in any sport in Australia, they will watch them on telly and celebrate their success.  But it doesn’t seem to be that way in Britain.  It may sound like sour grapes, the minority sportsman saying that, but it is frustrating.  It’s not that we want more attention or more money; we just want some balance and fairness.  We are also quick to jump on the losers.  They support you when you are doing well but as soon as that stops there is a real culture of sticking the boot in.”

Catriona Morrison, the 2006 World and 2007 European Duathlon Champion from Broxburn, West Lothian, feels the media can also often be unfair towards Scotland’s athletes.

“Scotland doesn’t champion success at all.  We don’t necessarily accept losing, but we certainly expect to lose.  We would rather have a hard luck story over someone saying ‘I’ve done very well and I’m at the top of my game’ because it is not a story.  What makes stories are that they are heart rendering, they are human and they are scandalous.  ‘Pat on the back’ stories don’t really sell papers, to be honest.”

Back to Marty, however.  In Scotland, there is no shortage of talented youngsters.  With the help of the Scottish Institute of Sport, the Area Institutes (East, West, Central, Grampian, Highland, Tayside and Fife) and the National Governing Bodies, Scotland enjoys reasonable success at junior and age-grade level.  But the problems seem to come when making a choice between sport and the other responsibilities (and indeed temptations) of adult life. 

“It’s mainly time commitment,” explains Marty.  “There are plenty of talented people out there, but bugger all actually make the sacrifice to make the change and say ‘right I am going to do what it takes’.  Whereas in Australia, they just tend to do it.”

Of course, it is a hard choice to make, and one that inevitably should lean towards the security of a qualification or traineeship, rather than depending on the volatile nature of sport.  The sport versus university question is often the most difficult choice.  But it is one that many athletes will have to make at some point.  Pat Howard believes that a compromise can be reached, as he explains in the context of professional rugby.

“I think the balance between sport and study is a tough one.  I think it’s important to keep that intellect, but it is very difficult.  You’ve got to have different strings to your bow.”

And, being remarkably honest for a man who has a job dependent upon the young players he can develop, Howard says: “I would stick with the career first, I’d get it done.  You can push through, get it done and keep playing.  Offer yourself up to be an amateur in a professional environment.  If you’re that good, and they say you have to be a professional player, then say, ‘Can I be an amateur player?  Because I really need to get this done, then I’ll give you my full time because I don’t know if I’m going to make it, you don’t know if I’m going to make it, and I need to be able to attack life from both angles.’  The benefit to the rugby team is you’ll actually have a more focused person, because his ability to balance life is better, and hopefully he will be more intelligent.”

So there you have it.  Australians aren’t superhuman.  They just think differently.  They have the same participation problems as us, but with the help of world class coaching and development structures, and a little help from the media and the public, they overcome these issues to produce brilliant athletes. 

In Scotland, we are working hard to do the same.  But there is still work to be done.  And, just like the Wallabies did against the All Blacks, we need to dig deep and work hard.  As Pat Howard, himself part of the great Wallaby Institution, says, it will be worth it when you win.

“That’s what you play sport for!  You play sport for days like that, you should embrace it.  A great win is a great win but on a big day when your back is to the wall, it’s hard – but that’s why you play sport.”

RO

© Copyright In The Winning Zone, MMVII, All Rights Reserved