There’s something familiar about the guy wearing black New Zealand team kit. As there is the guy in the blue of India. Or the guy dressed in the Great Britain Olympic gear.
What is it? The mind starts to scramble for answers. Trying to place names to faces, which is not an easy thing to do when you have thousands of people clearing the Olympic village as the Paris 2024 Games closes its doors.
And then it hits home. They’re South African. All coaches, all representing other countries on the biggest multi-sport stage of all. Hockey has found a home for many former international players now in demand everywhere in the world. The Kiwis have Greg Nicol and Gregg Clark. Last time I saw Clark was at the 2022 Commonwealth Games when he was in charge of India.
There’s Paul Revington with Great Britain, Craig Fulton with India and more.
Someone who is instantly familiar as well is Paddy Upton, a renowned fitness and wellness coach who is making a career of being snapped up by Indian sports. He’s instantly recognisable in the dugout when the Indian Premier League swings into view every year, and at Paris 2024 he’s another involved with the Indian hockey team.
There were 12 men’s hockey teams at the Olympics and seven of them had South African coaches. At the last ICC Cricket World Cup, there were eight South African coaches in seven teams other than South Africa. The trend is also apparent in rugby, at both international and club level.
Upton has always been a deep thinker and he’s made a few conclusions as to why “Saffers” are so sought-after on the international coaching stage,
“We understand and are really good at navigating diversity, in a time where diversity, equity and inclusion is prized. Most coaching and leadership roles today require the coach to first understand their audience before attempting to lead them. It’s no longer effective to simply impose your culture, way, worldview or coaching philosophy onto the room – like most old school coaches and leaders did, and many still do.
“The lesson for any coach or leader, is to take time to understand the people you are working with. Don’t simply impose your way, personality, knowledge or personal biases on the group. Take time to listen and observe before speaking. The better you understand the more you can tailor your coaching approach to meet the team’s needs.”
He feels that growing up the South African way is of significant benefit. “Life in South Africa is not easy. South Africans know this. To succeed as an entrepreneur in South Africa, a category into which sport coaching might fall, requires a can-do, thick-skinned, boer maak ’n plan attitude to solving problems. Most first-world nations have it far easier, which doesn’t require nor teach the same levels resilience, determination, and grit to succeeded against the odds.”
Upton is now 55 but he has crammed a lifetime of knowledge and leadership skills into a distinguished career. He feels that South Africans should be more confident in their skillsets. “Strangely, South Africans in general tend to be unnecessarily apologetic,” he says.
“We suffer impostor syndrome more than the norm and don’t really believe we can be major players on the world stage. Not knowing our value works against our nation’s athletes. This mindset tends to see us lacking confidence and playing smaller than our talent and hard work warrants. We also tend to give opponents from bigger or more ‘high functioning’ countries too much (unwarranted) respect.
“First, let’s call out the elephant in the room. South African sport is rife with politicians and elected officials who lead with a mixture of incompetence and their own selfish agenda. If sport was truly a business, which many of the top sports are, they would have been declared bankrupt. Or more accurately, their CEO’s and boards would have been fired long ago and replaced with competent C-suite executives who have a proven track-record of leading successful organisations.”
It’s the “playing-small” attitude which Upton says is detrimental to coaches who stay in South Africa. "Stop playing small, stop giving too much respect to Australia, or the UK, or even the USA,” he asserts.
“We produced Elon Musk, the USA produced (Joe) Biden and (Donald) Trump. Take a leaf out of world cricket, hockey and rugby who have long realised the value SA coaches bring. We are very good at managing diversity, at making a plan. We are resilient, resourceful and street smart. The clear evidence is that the sporting world acknowledges the value that South African coaches offer. Maybe it’s time to learn how to better mine our own gold,” he says.
Tatjana Smith, Team South Africa's gold and silver medal winner, was the flag bearer for the closing ceremony. Team South Africa concluded the Games with a total medal haul of six and ended 44th position overall.
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