Sir Graham Henry told school pupils yesterday to aim for the clouds "because you might miss and land on Mt Cook or even Maori Hill''.
The former All Blacks coach was billed to give a talk to about 100 pupils from throughout Otago on the "science behind high performance sports'' at the Otago Museum Hutton Theatre yesterday.
At the start of his talk, Sir Graham admitted he would take a "broad'' approach to the theme of science.
He told the crowd he was not "a natural rugby coach''.
"I had to do some work.''
Richie McCaw was "the most driven man'' he had met.
"Everyone is striving to get better, everyone is striving to improve.
"If you have humility, you can get better.''
Throughout the talk, Sir Graham displayed his trademark gruff sense of humour, saying more than once "I haven't explained that very well but we'll move on''.
All Black coaches Mike Cron and Wayne Smith were "outstanding educators'' who used science-based techniques to improve the team, he said.
Despite a lack of science-related discussion, Sir Graham was asked a number of questions following his talk, most of which also did not relate to science.
