One of New Zealand’s best-known sport coaching and high-performance consultants came to Gore last week to teach local educators how to get the best response from their athletes.
Dave Hadfield gave a mental skills masterclass last Wednesday at the Gore Library, telling the audience his whakapapa, some key coaching concepts and his success stories with famous athletes.
Mr Hadfield consulted both elite players and coaches of New Zealand rugby teams for 25 years, and has worked internationally with the Toronto Blue Jays in Major League Baseball since 2017.
Once a fourth generation sheep and beef farmer on the Kapiti Coast, Mr Hadfield had to sell when interest rates peaked in the 1980s.
The loss of the family farm caused him to sink into a very big hole, he said.
"Looking back now at what I know now, I was clinically depressed," he said.
Following this, he went to university and earned a degree in psychology.
With experience playing rugby and coaching cricket he was approached by close friend, former All Black captain Graham Mourie, to help his coaching of the Hurricanes and carried on from there.
During the talk, he spoke of the importance, at the age of 73, to continue learning and to keep an open mind to new concepts.
"I’ve got pretty well established views on things, but I’m always open to tweaking."
He spoke of different coaching styles, ranging from the "I’ll teach you" to the "you get on with it" approach.
None of the styles were wrong, he said, but had to be applied to the right style of learner.
When consulting rugby coaches, and especially with high school teams, he said he encouraged them to identify two or three leaders in a team.
He said those leaders would help guide the group.
He also told of a Blue Jays player who was batting against a machine and constantly missing.
He asked the player if he could remember a time when he was always hitting the ball.
The player said he did and Mr Hadfield told the batter to shut his eyes and imagine he was back in that moment.
Once there, Mr Hadfield instructed the player take some swings.
"And then he just went whack, whack, whack, whack," he said.
After successfully hitting the ball several times, the player gave Mr Hadfield a hug and the consultant said he had to explain to the coaches that he was not a guru.
He had just applied the "listening to and asking questions" style of coaching to the player, who ended up signing a $US1.3 million ($NZ2.15m) contract.
Mr Hadfield’s visit to Gore was a fundraiser for Māruawai College’s basketball team. His son Sam Hadfield teaches music and kapa haka at the school.
