Craig Joubert gives coaches insight into building a successful team in the Powerade Performance Academy

Questions and answers from Craig Joubert

Powerade launched its first leg of Performance Academies taking place across major cities in the country. The Academy, hosted at the Kingsmead Cricket Ground, saw several performance experts running an interactive one-day seminar.  Among these experts was Craig Joubert, South African Professional Rugby Union Referee and a Referee Talent Development Coach at World Rugby, who challenged and empowered the Durban-based coaches with critical knowledge to optimise their players’ performances.

For the 2018 campaign, Powerade has drawn attention to coaches by Celebrating Everyday Coaches. This campaign will see the everyday ‘ordinary’ coaches who do extraordinary things by refining young talent that goes on to do exploits on world stages. This is because coaches contribute greatly to the success of their teams/athletes and act as mentors and influencers for many sportsmen and women.

Craig Joubert – World Rugby Referee Coach

(Question) What was the objective of your session with the coaches?

(Answer) I wanted to teach the coaches about how we managed to produce a high-performance environment. We have a team of rugby 7s referees that we are taking to the Olympics in 2020 and  we want to create the best high-performance environment for them to operate in. Individually and as a group we want them to be the best that they can be.

I wanted to share with this group of coaches at the Powerade Performance Academy some of the learnings that we have taken out of how to create a high-performance team.

Our first objective was to create an optimal performance team. I wanted to share ideas as to why culture is important to an effective team and some of the key values that they live by that contributes to success in their environments.

There are a lot of similarities between the team that we are sending to the Olympics and what the coaches find at their schools.

Hopefully the coaches learned something from my presentation and they take it back to the schools to create effective and high-performance teams.

(Question) What feedback did you get from the coaches?

(Answer) In my environment we use the teams “Trust” and “Honesty”. I was pleased to see that a lot of the feedback and questions that I got were around “Trust” and “Honesty”.

In a team “Trust” and “Honesty” needs to start with the management team and coaches. When athletes see you embody “Trust” and “Honesty” and they start to emulate you.

“Honesty” does not only mean that you don’t lie to a player, it also deals with information that you give to a team. This includes good and bad news. You earn respect when you are honest and transparent in difficult decisions that you have to make. An example of a difficult decision is where you look a player in the eye and tell them about a selections decision that you have made as to why they did not make the team.

We have found that through “Honesty” players respond well, and they trust you more and are more honest with you.

Even when someone gets bad news, if you do it in an honest and transparent way, it will inspire them to improve.

(Question) One of the things that you talk about is getting the players to learn from themselves, how do you get the coaches to enable the kids to learn from themselves?

(Answer) All the values and behaviours that we have as a referee team were not dictated to by the management instead we allowed the team to come up with them themselves and because they came up with the values themselves they can hold themselves accountable to their own values.

The job of management is make sure that they continuously commit to the values that they came up with.

School children respond well if given the responsibility to review their own performance. If they do well then, they must look at why they did well, if they do something less well then, they should look at what did not work out, learn from it and do it differently. This responsibility makes them far more committed to changing what they do and improve.

For very young kids you can ask them to tell you “what the team is all about” once they have done that you will see them work towards that goal.

We often underestimate young people but by giving them the responsibility to create their own team goals you will be astounded as to how they react, and you will benefit from it.

(Question) How do you deal with pressure and how do you learn from criticism?

(Answer) Criticism is a big challenge for school sport coaches.

Coaches give their time freely and willingly. Parents should be appreciative for what a coach does to further a kid’s development. Some criticism from parents and school sport players can be quite vicious which is similar to what referees can get. I encourage the coaches to try to put the criticism into perspective. The fiercest criticism for a referee comes from the guy that is on his couch at home. They have access to all the replays and all the technology that they need to complain.

For school coaches you will find that most parents will only come through on weekends and not during the week. Some of them think that their kids are better than what they actually are. The reality is that their kids are most probably not as good as what they think they are. What they don’t know is that coaches are trying to do their best to help these kids and these are not the people that you should worry about.

I tell coaches to surround themselves with the people whose criticisms they respect. You never stop learning and constructive criticism will help you become a better coach. Be selective about who you listen to. A lot of people out there with opinions and they are not knowledgeable in the sport that you coach, and they also are very emotional because you are coaching someone close to them. Respect these peoples emotions but do not listen to them.

The next leg of Powerade Performance Academies will take place in Port Elizabeth(July), Cape Town (September) and Johannesburg (November).

For more information, visit Powerade Facebook page (@PoweradeZA) and #AlwaysForward.  

ENDS

Notes to Editor

Speakers for Performance Academy in Durban

Craig Joubert: South African professional Rugby Union Referee and a Referee Talent Development Coach at World Rugby

Topic discussed: Creating a high-performance environment

About Craig

Joubert officiated in domestic first class matches in South Africa since 2003, in matches in the Vodacom Cup and Currie Cup competitions. He refereed on the World Rugby Sevens circuit in 2003–04. He has been included in the Super Rugby refereeing panel since 2005 and has also refereed international test matches since 2005, making his debut in a match between the United States and Wales.

Joubert took charge of Super Rugby finals in 2009, 2013 and 2014 and has officiated in Tri-Nations / Rugby Championship matches since 2009, refereeing matches between Australia and New Zealand in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2013. In the 2011 Rugby World Cup, Joubert refereed four pool games, a quarter final, a semi-final and the final. He refereed the deciding Six Nations match in 2012 and one of the British and Irish Lions games on their tour to Australia in 2013.

He retired from refereeing 15-a-side matches at the end of 2016 to take up a role as a Referee Talent Development Coach at World Rugby

Dale Bekenstein: Former Dolphins and Protea’s player and now Protea’s Batting Coach.
Topic discussed: Adapting professional coaching techniques at school level

About Dale

Dale Benkenstein is a former South African cricketer. He was named coach of Hampshire County Cricket Club, England, in 2014 and previously also worked as a batting coach for the Sunfoil Dolphins in South Africa. He is currently head coach of Hilton College First XI in the Kwazulu Natal Midlands, South Africa.

He coaches aspiring professional cricketers from around the world and offers coaching and cricket camps for young cricketers.

Zipho Sikhakhane: Global Speaker, Writer & Business Strategist

Topic discussed: Leading from within

About Zipho

Zipho Sikhakhane is an international speaker and business strategist. She has held management positions in industry leading corporations worldwide and is the first black South African to complete an MBA at the top-ranked Stanford University in the USA. In 2016, she received the Outstanding Young Achiever Award from the UNESCO Center for Global Education. In the last 15 years, she has presented in four continents, including a TEDx Talk in the USA on Africa’s potential. She delivers inspiring keynotes, workshops and poetry on Africa’s potential, leadership, entrepreneurship, youth and women in business. She has been featured in numerous publications worldwide and is published as a contributing author in Singapore in a book on inspirational women. She is also a weekly Business Columnist for the Sunday Times in South Africa. 

It’s all square with one match to go in the KFC Mini-Cricket kids vs Proteas Tour!

The KFC Mini-Cricket kids of Malvern Primary School secured a heroic 1 run win over the Proteas in the penultimate match of the KFC Mini-Cricket vs Proteas Tour, meaning either side has the chance to win the series in the final match!

Winning the toss and electing to bowl first, the Proteas, led by David Miller, took to the field confident that they could wrap the series up with a win in this match and secure the all-important bragging rights as overall victors.

The enormity of the occasion was not lost on the young captain of the KFC Mini-Cricket team, Xavier Elliot, who partnered by Suvarn Rampersad, got off to a cautious start as they looked to build a measured innings up front.

This start paved the way for playmaker Laveshan Govender to come to the crease and cut loose, something that David Miller and Kyle Abbott got to experience first had as the young batsmen dispatched them to all parts of the ground with ease and grace.

With the run rate escalating nicely, Kevin Van den Berg and Matthew Bosch showed a similar lack of interest in the reputations of the well-known Proteas bowlers, putting bat to ball with alarming regularity. This prompted Proteas captain Miller into bringing on his secret weapon, Imran Tahir, who spun a web of confusion around the rampant batsmen, slowing the progress of the home side.

The run respite was brief though, as once Tahir was finished, the kids continued to pile on the runs with Proteas bowlers Nadine Moodley and Lizelle Lee going for more runs than they would have hoped for.

Shabnim Ismail was entrusted with bowling the difficult final over, something she did with great success, stifling the scoring of both Uyapha Mathalane and Zackery Gerber. By that stage, the runs were however already on the board so to speak, and the Proteas found themselves needing to chase the daunting total of 74 runs in the allotted 8 overs.

Having done so well with the ball, Imran Tahir was chosen to open the batting with Chloe Tyron, facing up to opposition captain Xavier Elliot. From the start the bowling was tight and determined, with Matthew Bosch maintaining the pressure created by his captain’s opening burst.

With things not looking too encouraging for the Proteas, Lizelle Lee came to the crease, hot off her player of the tournament accolade in the recent T20 triangular against Pakistan and Ireland, and looking determined to get her team back in the game. Ably partnered by Nadine Moodley, the seasoned campaigners put the KFC Mini-Cricket kids under pressure, running hard, and keeping the scoreboard ticking with each ball.

This then set the stage for Proteas captain David Miller to come to the crease and in signature style, close the game out with some lusty blows. He started out in just this vein, with some huge shots out of the ground, unraveling the young bowlers who tried hard to counter his strength and skills, but sadly had no answers to them.

Batting in the place of the injured AB de Villiers, Lizelle Lee batted for a second time joining David Miller at the crease. Needing 21 runs from the last two overs, the KFC Mini-Cricket kids needed someone to step up and save the day. That someone was Kai Landman, a talented young bowler that the Proteas could just not get away. Uyapha Mathalane followed his lead at the start of the final over, and within the space of a few balls, the pressure was suddenly back on the Proteas, who despite having star players Miller and Lee at the crease, needed 5 runs from the last two balls.

Chaos then ensued with Miller being run out off a wide while trying to steal two runs, the eventual result being that the Proteas needed 3 runs off the final ball. Young Uyapha ran in again, and with nerves of steel, fired the ball towards Miller, who could only manage a single, and with that the KFC Mini-Cricket kids of Malvern Primary had beaten the Proteas by 1 run!

In almost sheer disbelief, the kids all went crazy when the umpires signaled the end of the match, with the spectators swarming around them in excitement.

It was a famous day for all involved at Malvern Primary, with the home team’s coach, Nathan Viktor, saying that he believes this match will do wonders in inspiring more and more kids at the school to get active with KFC Mini-Cricket in future.

School principle Alan Galvin, said that when he was in primary school, he, like his young learners, used to dream about playing against his heroes. Only difference being that the kids got to live their dreams on this day, making it a day that everyone will remember for a very long time.

Onto the final match of the KFC Mini-Cricket vs Proteas Tour we go, and with the incredible comeback the KFC Mini-Cricket kids have staged in this series while getting active against their heroes, it is anyone’s guess who will come out as the ultimate victors.

Eastbury Secondary School competes for outside gym

Eastbury Secondary School, Phoenix, Durban, was one of the schools that competed in the Coca-Cola® 30 Minute Heroes Challenge, a competition introduced to schools participating in the Coca-Cola® T20 schools Cricket Challenge and aimed at getting learners to participate in physical activity. 

The concept encourages as many learners as possible to complete a five drill circuit within a 30 minute period. The scores will only be made public once all schools have completed their challenge.  The school that completes the most circuits in the allotted time frame stands a chance to win a prize of an outdoor gym to the value of two hundred thousand rand, which will be installed at the winning school.

The five drills in the Coca-Cola 30 Minute Heroes Challenge include:

1.    Shuttle runs between 6 beacons, moving a cricket ball from one   beacon to the next.

2.    Target Throwing at a set of wickets.

3.    Skipping with a skipping rope.

4.    Catching balls off a rebound board.

5.    Weaving in and out of 10 slalom poles.

The Coca-Cola® T20 Schools Challenge is about making heroes,” explains Fetsi Mbele, Coca-Cola® South Africa Marketing Assets Manager. “This grass roots tournament is where heroes are unearthed and then progress through to the Coca-Cola® Khaya Majola Cricket Week, an annual tournament, sponsored by Coca-Cola South Africa for over 30 years. It has to date produced over 200 Proteas players.”

“Through our Coca-Cola® T20 30 Minute Hero Challenge we are encouraging all scholars in the country to adopt a physically active lifestyle that will become a lifelong practice,” said Mbele. 

For full competition terms and conditions please visit http://www.cocacola.co.za/".

Durban Boys High School competes for outdoor gym

Durban Boys High School, KwaZulu-Natal, was one of the schools that competed in the Coca-Cola® 30 Minute Heroes Challenge, a competition introduced to schools participating in the Coca-Cola® T20 schools Cricket Challenge and aimed at getting learners to participate in physical activity. 

The concept encourages as many learners as possible to complete a five drill circuit within a 30 minute period. The scores will only be made public once all schools have completed their challenge.  The school that completes the most circuits in the allotted time frame stands a chance to win a prize of an outdoor gym to the value of two hundred thousand rand, which will be installed at the winning school.

The five drills in the Coca-Cola 30 Minute Heroes Challenge include:

1.    Shuttle runs between 6 beacons, moving a cricket ball from one   beacon to the next.

2.    Target Throwing at a set of wickets.

3.    Skipping with a skipping rope.

4.    Catching balls off a rebound board.

5.    Weaving in and out of 10 slalom poles.

The Coca-Cola® T20 Schools Challenge is about making heroes,” explains Fetsi Mbele, Coca-Cola® South Africa Marketing Assets Manager. “This grass roots tournament is where heroes are unearthed and then progress through to the Coca-Cola® Khaya Majola Cricket Week, an annual tournament, sponsored by Coca-Cola South Africa for over 30 years. It has to date produced over 200 Proteas players.”

“Through our Coca-Cola® T20 30 Minute Hero Challenge we are encouraging all scholars in the country to adopt a physically active lifestyle that will become a lifelong practice,” said Mbele. 

For full competition terms and conditions please visit http://www.cocacola.co.za/".

Dave Alers has committed to the development of young cricketers at the Coca-Cola Khaya Majola Cricket week since 1989.

The Coca-Cola Khaya Majola Cricket Week has always depended on passionate school teachers who have been prepared to give up the week before Christmas, year after year, to create the opportunity for the cream of our under-19 cricketing talent to show what they can do.

And you'll have to go a long way to find a cricket man more passionate, or one who has created more of those opportunities, than Dave Alers, deputy principal of East London's Hudson Park High School, and manager of the Border Schools team that is playing at this year's week in Durban.

This is Alers' 11th consecutive week as a team official, and his 20th in total. His first was in Johannesburg in 1989, when he was the assistant manager of the Border team and he has missed out on the odd occasion, but otherwise he has been pretty much a permanent fixture at the elite schools cricket festival ever since.

Alers was no mean cricketer himself. He played in four of these weeks - from 1972 to 1975, representing the then Rhodesia, making the SA Schools team in his final year. He then went on to play 1st class cricket for Rhodesia, Eastern Province and Border, as an opening bowler. He also played for the SA Universities team in 1977 and 1978.

After qualifying as a teacher at Rhodes University he was appointed as a teacher at East London's Cambridge High School in 1982, and started coaching the first cricket team there in 1985. He then moved to Hudson Park, where he also took the 1st team and, nearly 30 years on, he is still coaching.

He has seen a lot over the years and, for him, the biggest event has been the birth of the new South Africa. "In those early years this was the Nuffield Week - an all-white affair, with all that that implies. The unification of cricket led, in the Border region especially, to exposure for some amazing talents, and coaching them over the years has been a highlight for me," he said

Pressed to single out one special year, Alers said it would have to be 1994 - the last time the week was at Kearsney College. "It was a special year because it was the 1st unified week, and the Border team that year had in its ranks two players who were to become giants of South African cricket - Mark Boucher and Makhaya Ntini.

"I would hesitate to say that standards have dropped these days - they haven't - but we don't see players of their stature very often these days."

As far as changes down the years are concerned, he believes the biggest one has been a greater emphasis on winning these days. "In my early years we only played declaration cricket, with a two-day game day in some of the weeks. Draws were common in those days and it was more about performances than results," he said. "T20 cricket hadn't been invented and limited overs cricket was frowned on."

With the introduction of the new formats, results became possible and this changed the way players approach the game. "It's been a good thing and I think players have benefitted from having to apply different strategies."

Alers is excited by the prospects of SA u-19 bowler Ngazibini Sigwili, who is from his school and in the Border team this year. "He is the second SA Schools player Hudson Park has produced," he said. "In 2007 we had Cebo Tshiki, also fast bowler, in the team."

As for the future, Alers is hesitant to commit himself to another Coca-Cola Khaya Majola Week next year. "My wife has been amazingly tolerant of me being away at his time of the year, every year," he said, "but she may run out of patience eventually.


"But she know this is what I really love to do, so who knows, maybe I'll make it 21 weeks next year."

Four teams win on day one of the Coca-Cola Khaya Majola Cricket Week

Gauteng and Western Province were among the winners on day one of the Coca-Cola Khaya Majola Week in Durban on a day when rain cut play short and four of the eight games ended in draws.

Gauteng played KZN Inland and scuttled them for just 61, with Nicholas Scholtz taking 3/7 in four overs and Kagiso Rabada getting 3/14. Gauteng then declared on 172/9, once Marques Ackerman had reached his half century. KZN were on 17/1 when the match was called off, giving Gauteng a 1^st innings win on a day when timed cricket was played.

Western Province also declared their first innings, on 125/6, after they bowled their neighbours, Boland, out for 49. Their opening bowler Dayyaan Galiem took 4/13 to set them up for a 1^st innings win, with Boland on 14/3, when the rain came.

The other sides to notch up victories were Namibia – over Griquas, and Easterns, who beat Limpopo.

The top run-scorer on day one was Chris Marrow of SWD, who made 86 not out against Mpumalanga. Four other batsmen got half centuries. They were: Marques Ackerman; Michael Eckard (Northwest – 54 v Free State); Michael Stannard (Free State – 55 v Northwest) and Aubrey Ferriera (Border - 54 v Northerns).

Three bowlers took “fifers”. Sohail Mahmoud took 5/64 for KZN Inland against Gauteng; Lance Humphrey took 5/24 for Easterns against Limpopo and Timothy Niemand got 5/50 for Northerns against Border.

Western Province are up against Northerns today, and Gauteng meet the hosts, KwaZulu-Natal. All four sides are looking for a win to continue their progression to be in the running for a spot in the prestigious main game, come the end of the week on Friday.

Summarised scores

KwaZulu-Natal Inland 61 1^st inns (Rabada 3/14, Dudgeon 2/11, Broodryk 2/24, Scholtz 3/7). Gauteng 172/9 decl (Roelofsen 40, Valli 23 Ackerman 51 not out; Mahmoud 5/64, Elliot 2/17). KwaZulu-Natal Inland 2^nd inns 17/1. Rain stopped play. Gauteng won on 1^st innings.

Limpopo 76 1^st inns (Botha 16; Humphrey 5/24, Snyman 2/9). Easterns 1^st inns 119/8 decl (Germishuis 25, Van Rooyen 31, Snyman 28; Patel 3/20). Limpopo 2^nd inns 63/5 (Mangena 25 not out; Simelane 3/23). Easterns 2^nd inns 21/1. Easterns won outright.

Northwest 138 (Eckard 54, Weyers 33, Maritz 18; Van Wyk 3/26, Makhasana 2/17, Mokwena 3/26, Ntshona 2/33). Free State 120/6 (Stannard 55, Mogoera 28; Weyers 4/27). Rain stopped play. Match drawn.

Northerns 194 (Moonsamy 40, Du Plooy 43, Moanta 28, Klopper 24; Neimand 5/50, Elembi 2/28). Border 107/6 (Ferreira 54, Steyn 24; Spykstra 3/23). Rain stopped play. Match drawn.

Boland 1st inns 49 (Cilliers 25; Galiem 4/13, Stevens 3/2). Western Province 125/6 decl (Hamza 35). Boland 2^nd inns 14/3. Match drawn. Western Province won on 1st innings.

Mpumalanga 205 (Daya 26, Chandler 24, Griesel 48, Nepgen 36; Moolman 3/34, Roelfse 3/39). SWD 139/4 (C Marrow 86 not out, T Marrow 27 not out). Match drawn.

KwaZulu-Natal 157 (Oakes 41, Wallace 24, Smith 21; Bobb 4/34, Stretton 3/20). Eastern Province 153/5 (Mama 49, Carse 25 not out). Bad light stopped play. Match drawn.

Namibia 1^st inns 136 (Erasmus 32, Kruger 36; Brooker 4/21, Kruger 2/39, Van Zyl 2/25). Griquas 1st inns 63 (Bruwer 26; Smit 4/12, Snyman 2/28, Du Preez 2/9). Namibia 2^nd inns 73/2 decl. Griquas 2^nd inns 48/5. Namibia won outright.