Creating high performing teams with All Blacks expertise

Coaches and high performance staff from NSWIS, along with special guests from the Australian national sport network, were in attendance this morning for a forum about High Performing Teams, including a Q&A session with legendary New Zealand rugby coach Sir Graham Henry.

The World Cup winner and five-time winner of the IRB International Coach of the Year spoke in depth about how he helped create a culture of ‘Better Never Stops’ in his all-conquering All Blacks team.

The NSW Institute of Sport staff and coaches at the forum represented a large number of different sports – and Henry believes it is important to learn and share knowledge in order to be the best you can be.

“I think you’re always learning, aren’t you?” Henry said.

“You’ve always got the opportunity to get better.

“A coaches job is to ensure an athlete really enjoys the experience, get’s empowered by that experience and gets better.”

In attendance was the NSWIS Canoe Slalom Head Coach Julien Billaut.

“The ability to think outside the box and take this new insight back into our sport is really crucial and long term this is what will help us to develop the highest level” said Billaut.

An earlier session in the High Performing Teams Forum had seen a presentation from Dr Kerry Howells of the University of Tasmania on the role of gratitude and resentment in elite sport. Dr Howells showcased her research which demonstrated how effective mechanisms to address resentment and show gratitude among sporting teams can have a huge impact on performance.

Also addressing the Forum was Danni di Toro, the co-captain of the hugely successful Australian Paralympic Team in Rio. Di Toro shared some insight on how she helped foster a strong team culture in the team – which achieved a fifth place finish at the Games.

“It’s really beautiful to hear people talk about gratitude particularly in a sports base – I’ve worked on that my whole life.

“You control your effort and you control all the things that go in to being the best athlete you can be. But the result isn’t always in your control and so how you manage that space in a big environment when everyone is looking at you…

“Just reminding you that you are bigger than just the result, you are bigger than your disability, you are bigger than all that stuff. There’s so much more to contribute in that space.”