Joe, I
would love to write an article about you
As far as interviewing me I am yesterday’s ashes.
Finished. Outdated.
What do you mean?
Why would anybody in today’s professional squash be interested in me now?
Well, I am!
Would you mind if I was to post parts
of your life story?
I don't care if you publish it, as it is on the web site for all to read
but I honestly do not see the interest in it. I honestly don't think
anyone is interested in my life because they could not understand how
tough it was in the 1930s in an Orphanage in the Depression. My kids got
me to write it and I have just this week finished my Family Tree after 42
years and have ordered it to be printed. There is nothing deader than the
ashes of yesterday's burning issues.
THE METHOD
LOOKING FOR ANSWERS IN THE PSYCHOLOGY FIELD
You have come a long way, both in your life,
and in your coaching career, haven’t you?
When you ask Neil Harvey or anyone else "What do you think of Joe Shaw"
you are asking what I was like 15 years ago and they respond accordingly.
I was as ignorant then as these Coaches are now, as to the Requirements of
the Sport.
I have read the articles regarding my invention of the 120
stroke rallies, which really is ancient stuff. I have far superior
on-court training patterns now.
When did you realise that you
were on the wrong path?
Well, I had Johnny Ransome, Paul Johnson, Billy Haddrell, Colin Payne,
Robert Graham, the 1986 English Junior Team of Robert Graham, Paul
Gregory, Del Harris, Damien Walker, and many others but I was not
achieving the results although they were all world class players. My
pupils were not achieving their full potential. WHY? That was the
question. I was the Coach. I was failing them. WHY?
Where did you start?
There are only four areas of Coaching:
Tactical
Technical
Physical
Mental
At elite level, the Mental side is 75% of the Sport, and 98% of Elite
Athletes fail to achieve their full potential because they are not taught
the Mental Requirements.
Already a bit confused, but go on…
I studied the authorities on the subject. I began with Frank Pyke, now CEO
of the Victorian Institute of Sport in Melbourne. Then on to Fox and
Mathews 1981, Brooks and Fahey 1985, Fleck and Kramer 1987, and then on to
Sports Psychologists including Ian Lynagh, the father of Michael Lynagh,
the Rugby legend of Australia, and who was the AIS Sports Psychologist,
and discovered a general hypothesis relating to the training of Elite
Athletes
Sorry, what hypothesis?
The hypothesis was that in individual training, there is a definite need
to develop a strategy in the planning stages of the program. A three stage
strategy was suggested by all of them and that made sense to me. I
developed it:
1. Determine the Psychological Requirements of the sport.
2. Determine the capacity of the performer.
3. Implement an individualised program based on the athlete’s attitudes to
those required by the sport.
What in the hell were the Psychological Requirements of the sport?.. ER AH UUMMM. Not a clue. If that was the first requirement for success and I did
not have a clue what it meant, no wonder I was not succeeding.
I am the Coach and I don't know the very first requirements of the sport.
I suddenly realised that I was at fault, not my pupils. All my excuses
were gone. I was guilty not them. I shuddered at this realisation. I still
recall the sinking feeling in my stomach. Where do I go? Who has the
answers?
So, who had them?
Well, to start I went to Queensland Uni, did Sports Science courses,
gathered loads of material, and tried it out. It didn't work but it
helped. I had no idea how to achieve this success.
What was the next step?
First thing was, what was success? So I came up with a format from these
authorities:
A Success is knowing what you want
B Taking the required action
C Measuring and evaluating the results
D Changing as required
Did you test those findings?
I designed Charts and measured and evaluated David and Johnny. The results
were pathetic. We were not measuring them accurately, efficiently nor with
any success. I changed them by putting in all of the Psychological
Requirements as I should have in the first place.
Did it work?
Yes, I was successful, but I had numerous more areas of psychological
value to implement so I studied further and invented my Circular Pattern
Chart (Athlete indicates all areas of perceived problems). I then had over
50 areas of sports psychology to measure and evaluate, so the first
requirement was achieved.
I still had to Determine number 2, the capacity of the performer.
I then designed the Bell Graph which many claim is my best work.
Zone 1
You are invited to join the Elite Training Squad in your State, County,
Country, etc. You consider that you have made it, and that you will now
achieve our full potential. The very first thing that you must learn is
that this is all a MYTH. It is not true. Certainly you are given an
opportunity to succeed at this point, but there are no guarantees, so
realize that it is only a MYTH.
Zone 2 - The Refinement Zone
There is a great improvement in your performance at your level. Targets
are reset, your program refined, problem areas at this level are
eradicated.
Zone 3 - The Awareness Zone
The Myth is becoming a Reality. Tempting offers are made to you to go
elsewhere. Join another club, Institute, Team, while still Training and
improving your Ranking. People are becoming Aware of your potential. Other
coaches take over. They are in it for THEIR BENEFIT, not yours.
Zone 4 - The Comfort Zone
You accept the offers. The Training declines. You must repay in some way
for your rewards. You must Coach the Team, help out somehow at the Club,
but the Good Lifestyle and the Money are worth it.
Zone 5 - Disillusionment Zone
You now realize that you took the soft option. You did not Pay the Price
required to achieve your full potential. You are disillusioned and accept
that Change is required, but what can you do now?
Zone 6 - Suicide Zone
The Myth that you created is no longer valid. Totally disillusioned, you
Suicide your career, and there is only one way out. You either recreate
the Myth or you commence a new career.
OK. What is the precise use of that chart?
It with deadly accuracy previews the possibility of success, explains the
reasons in six simple parts, and shows why 98% of the elite athletes fail
to achieve their full potential whatever that may be. Every player
understood that this was showing them very clearly whether they would
succeed or fail. All excuses were gone.
Did it make you feel better then?
Oh yes, this was actually MY safety mechanism. I could with deadly
accuracy as I said, tell the athlete whether they were going to achieve
their full potential, barring illness or injury. The responsibility for
success was now off my shoulders as the Coach and on to theirs. I felt an
enormous sense of relief.
Then?
This assisted me to Determine the Mental capacity of the performer (week
2) and the physical capacity was easy. The Resources to do the physical
measurements were all available in all Sports Physiologists programs and
books.
On to Week 3 to implement an individualised program based on he athletes
ATTITUDES to those required by the sport.
Do I dare ask?...
…How do you define Attitude?...Back to the Resources, more study and I
discovered that when you teach a pupil, they all have different patterns
and styles of learning.
TELL them and they hear
SHOW them and they see
INVOLVE them and they understand
That was a major breakthrough. I made numerous mistakes, and kept
experimenting with David and Johnny.
In your resources, you refer to “tests”.
What are they?
It was the next step! I had to study Psychological Profiling so I did the
following investigations:
Myer Briggs courses (They were very good but not
complete as I needed the
results for sport not academia)
Mc Quaig Word Survey
Sun Tsu 500 BC
Enneagrams
Luscher Color Charts
And I was at last successful. I now had by far the greatest collection of
the Psychological Requirements of sport on the planet.
So, is it possible to summarise
what you had learnt so far?
Mm, not that easy. To start with, there are only four reasons why Athletes
fail to achieve their full potential, whatever that may be. STUDY THIS
CAREFULLY young lady:
1. They do not have the Resources.
2. They don't know what to do.
3.They don't know how to do it.
4. They don't want to do it.
THEY DON’T WANT TO DO IT! They all say that they do but they don't. There
are NO other reasons for their failure.
I now had the all important Resources, knew what to do, knew how to do it, and could tell from the Bell Graph AND the psychological profiling tests
whether they were going to succeed.
I now knew that if :
A If you train the way they did in the PAST you will fail.
B If you train the way they do in the PRESENT you will
only be competitive.
C If you train as they will do in the FUTURE you will
be successful.
OK. Now what?
I then had to invent the Training Wheel because I discovered that once you
stop the program then the player loses all of the momentum. Hence the
Training Wheel of Plan:
Plan
Play
Check
Change
Therefore the FOUR KEYS TO SUCCESS are:
1. Knowing what is required
2. Taking the correct action
3. Measuring and evaluating the results
4. Checking and changing as required
How do you evaluate the results?
To maintain measurement and evaluation, I required (see the Requirements
coming out all the time) a method of Analysis so I employed the S.W.O.T.
Analysis with outstanding success.
Heuh, say what?
SWOT: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats
The Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats are detailed and
given marks out of ten. We start with the major weaknesses and turn them
into strengths.
The lowest scores are worked on, say a 2 until it is a 5. Then back to the
3s until they are 5s. Then on to the 5s until they are all at least 9s.
Perfection of 10s is a wonderful thing, but it is the order of the
universe that it can be sought but never achieved on a continual basis.
Surely, we must be near the end by now…
Nearly! Then I put I in place Self Contracts because they were not putting
in 100% effort into every detail of the program. This placed the
RESPONSIBILITY squarely on their shoulders, and with all of the Resources
correctly utilised I am not to blame. I have done my job as a Coach.
Finally I make them complete Affirmation Cards which have our rules. They
must be in the first person "I", must be personal, achievable, and
positive. Like all of these all important Resources, they constantly
change.
The Training Wheel is always in motion. When it stops your career is
finished.
THE PROGRAMME
Did you collate all the information in a document?
The Resources are all detailed in week 31 which by sheer chance is now on
David's web site, www.davidpalmer.be.
All of this Coaching information is
on the site. It is at least 10 years ahead of anything in Sport anywhere in
the world. I also have a 130 page Manual, a Coaches Manual, an Athletes
Manual, so covering every aspect of Sport. I completed the Manuals with
David and Johnny over 10 years until I got it right.
You have developed so many tools, haven’t you?
The Bell Graph which predicts with absolutely 100% accuracy the graph of
the players potential. The Goal Setting Charts, Resting Pulse Rates and
their importance, S.W.O.T. Analysis which are absolutely vital, Self
Contracts where the athlete contracts with himself / herself to perform
Time Management Programs, Sleep patterns and the all important Affirmation
Cards. These are just some of the Resources that we use. You cannot
construct anything without resources. Nothing.
THE RESULTS
Who is using your method at the moment?
David and Johnny, Shaun Moxham and others use these programs, and without
them they would never be where they are now. In Australia for example,
David Mennie in Moorabbin in Melbourne, easily the most knowledgeable
Coach in Australia, utilises them with enormous success. I have Melbourne Storm, a
major Rugby League team on these programs, and they went from losing every
game in one year to now be fourth on the ladder and in contention for the
premiership this year. All because they are on these programs. My Golfers
are now achievers.
A word of conclusion?
Well, two questions in fact, for every Coach and Athlete
1. "What will I gain if I take this action and
complete the full program?"
2. "What will I lose if I do not take the action."
You see, it wasn’t that hard to talk to me after all…
Yes it was! I am now retired, and you come along, and shatter my peace…
Yes, but I am irresistible, aren’t I?
No you are still pain in the Derriere !!!!!
Bye Joe…
Thanks for listening to me. It is much appreciated.
All the best for now…
Joe Shaw, 24th July 2004
|
|
Neil Harvey used to say that he has
never ever seen a worse grip than mine since Quasimodo grabbed the
bell rope. God help anyone if I ever attempted to teach them
technique! |
Del Harris
Joe Shaw:
A Squash Biography
Player:
1961 Started playing in Port Moresby (aged 31)
British Open Over 60
semi-finalist
Queensland State
age-group titles
Australian Teams title with
Austin Addaraga, Ernie Robins and John Vary
Papua New Guinea Veterans Champion 1970, 71, 72, 73, 74
Twice World Masters Games quarter-finalist
Life member of
Port Moresby Squash
Players Coached:
Kate & Emma Major
Rodney Eyles – world champion 1997
David Palmer – world champion 2002, world number one 2001
John White – world open finalist 2002, world number one 2004
Team Coach:
Papua New Guinea,
2x South Pacific Games Team & Individual Titles
Fiji, 1x South Pacific Games Team & Individual Titles
1986 England, World Junior Championships (runners-up)
1996 Brazil, World Team Championships |
|
“Great thinkers will
always encounter
violent opposition from mediocre minds” |
the
Bell Graph
Joe on
David Palmer
It was very noticeable World wide that
David publicly thanked me for my contribution to his career [when he
first won the British Open].
But the one point that stands out in this story, is the Loyalty that
David espouses, the ability to overcome the bitter attacks that
threatened his career, his total lack of vindictiveness towards
those responsible, and the fact that he achieved his fill potential
in spite of sometimes insurmountable problems.
He is the Captain of the Australian Team and an absolute credit to
his Country. I am a very proud person to have assisted him as many
others have assisted him, not the least being his own family, in
overcoming such substantial obstacles with such dignity and grace.
His commitment is total and his loyalty unsurpassed.
This loyalty nearly destroyed his career, but I like to think that
it also was essential in him achieving so much in his Sport.
|
Palmer & White in the
World Open final 2002
|
