Frank Dick is one of Scotland’s greatest ever coaches, he has worked with some of the most famous names in sporting history, including Daley Thompson, Boris Becker, Gerhard Berger and Denise Lewis. Towards the end of 2008, Frank spoke to some of the most influential people in Scottish sport – coaches, officials and executives amongst them.

He spoke to them about winning, about making the difference, about being the best.  In The Winning Zone was lucky enough to have the only ringside seat and a tape recorder.   His talk was aimed primarily at these individuals, as they discuss how to best send Scottish sport forward, but his words are an inspiration to everyone.

Here’s the highlights of what he had to say.  Read it, digest it, enjoy it, and be inspired...

“At the Olympics, the difference between being an icon, a moment in history, and a disappointment, is two one hundredths of a second. There is not a reflex in your body that can move at that speed. Bear that in mind, whatever career in life you follow.

“However, more than anything, winning is about yourself being better today than you were yesterday, all the time.

“I had the privilege of being in the arena when Usain Bolt ran the 200m. When he came off the bend, he could have hopped the rest of the way and still won. He was no longer in a race with anyone else, the fight was with himself.

“So, when you go into your arena of endeavour, can you do that? When you’ve won it anyway, are you willing to re-invent excellence? Are you willing to go beyond the line? If you’re not careful you’ll go through life comparing yourself with other people, you’ll go up against another seven people in a race and you think “What’s their benchmark? I’ll try to be better than that.”

“I believe that everyone in life is born with a drive – to be better or to be different. If you don’t believe that then look for this or that child fighting for this or that toy, to make sure that his or her voice is heard – we’re competitive.

“The problem is then in our adult world – motivation is not the issue, it’s how to avoid de-motivation, which is a problem in every culture. How do you create a world where you do not destroy what people are naturally beginning, the desire to be better, the desire to be different?

“You’ve got to want to win and you’ve got to have a passion and a hunger to do that. You’ve got to believe you can win.  That’s a fragile little bird that can be knocked out of flight at any time, but if it can be knocked out of flight, it can be knocked back in flight.

“There are three things you have to remember. Remember to celebrate achievement whenever you find it. Remember to support endeavour and aspiration wherever you come across it and remember to challenge under-performance whenever it happens, do not walk away from that.

“Coaches must be excellent at working with beginners. There must be the appropriate facilities and equipment. It’s about time and energy and economics to make all of this happen and we’ve got to set the right motivational climate.

“What we’re talking about here is, you would not give infants to a university professor, you’d give them to someone who was world class at working with infants, getting the best out of them and preparing them for the next part of the journey. We’ve got to think about changing our mindsets of how we’re coaching people.

“When you coach people, there comes a tension, where you’re constantly working between challenge and support. If you give too much support, they will never be able to address challenges when they go out there. If you hit them and hit them and hit them, they’ll break.

“We must take them on this journey to a point where they own what happens out there. It really irritates me when somebody playing at Wimbledon, or whatever, is looking up to the box for inspiration. Why?! You’re on your own, you should be standing up and fighting now and thinking through each part of what’s happening here so that you can go for it.  You may need the odd prop, but ultimately it’s about ownership.

“As John F Kennedy said, if you can’t imagine it, you can’t do it. Being a Scottish person, if you don’t know where you’re going, how do you plan the journey? You’ve got to be really precise in your own mind as to what your dream, your vision is. Then as every good coach knows, you don’t plan forwards to the dream, you plan backwards.

“If this is where you must be in August 2012 in London, where must you be in June to make that last step? Where must you be a month before that? Until you walk yourself all the way back to here. And when you walk out of this door, you know that your steps are going towards the dream. They’re not something vague out here, you’ve got your focus and you’ve planned backwards from the dream.  You’ve got to learn to join up the dots.

“Align everything between our values, everything we do, everything we think, every way we behave. You must reflect alignment between our values and our vision, or why are you doing it? Coaches should ask themselves that question when they’ve walked off a training session, athletes should be asking that question when they’ve walked off a training session.

“Calvin Coolidge, the 30th American President said: “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence; Talent will not, nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent; Genius will not, unrewarded genius is almost a proverb; Education will not, the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”

“I‘ve talked about winning but I haven’t ever really explained what I think it is. Many years ago, when I was a Scottish coach, I used to go round the tracks of Scotland, working with coaches, and every now and then a kid would get out of school early and they’ll come and listen.

So I’d be working away and out of nowhere I hear a voice, “MR DICK!” But with a name like mine you don’t turn round straight away because you don’t know what’s coming next.

“MR DICK, MR DICK!” “Yes?” “WILL YOU COACH ME?” “I can’t just now.” “WILL YOU COACH ME LATER?” “Yes when I’m finished here.”  She’s nine years of age and she wants to run 100m.

“Five or six weeks later she lines up with another seven kids, she runs down the track, hurls herself at the line.  She finished eight out of eight, in 18 seconds.

“MR DICK I WAS LAST.” “No, you weren’t last, you did it in 18 seconds, you smashed the 20 second barrier and I had you down for 19 seconds and you’re a whole second faster than that. Do you know what this means? It means it’s your lifetime best performance, your personal record.”

“In a few week’s time she’s got another race to run, what does she think winning is now?

“17.9 seconds.  She grabs a Saltire flag and runs round the track with it. This is my definition of winning, winning is being better today than you were yesterday, every day.

“The reasons you take on challenges and climb mountains in life is because it’s the only way you can prepare for the tougher ones to follow.”

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