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. 

Powerade Schools Programme helps born sportsmen power through adversity and improve performance.

Powerade Schools Programme helps born sportsmen power through adversity and improve performance.

Whether it’s a game with professionals or a local school derby… There is Power in Every Game.

Passionate young soccer players from across South Africa can be part of the excitement of the 2014 FIFA World Cup® through Powerade’s There’s Power in Every Game campaign, aimed at assisting born sportsmen reach their ultimate sports goals through understanding effective conditioning and hydration.  It also aims to motivate them to power through adversity and inspire and motivate their team mates and community at large.

Globally, Powerade, the official sports drink of the 2014 FIFA World Cup®, unveiled the campaign featuring Andrés Iniesta, who memorably scored Spain’s winning goal in the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ Final.  In the campaign Iniesta shares his story of how he powered through his own challenges to achieve the highest level of success on the world’s biggest sporting stage. To watch the latest video click here.

In South Africa, the campaign will target where true born sportsmen are identified, and that is at school level, through the Powerade Schools Programme. 

In recognition of coaches being the key influencers within the school environment, Powerade kicked-off the local campaign with two coaches’ clinics that were run in partnership with the Dutch KNVB World Coaching Programme, one of the leading global soccer coaching programmes.

In total over 70 school soccer coaches attended the clinics, which were held in Pretoria and Stellenbosch.  Most of the coaches, whose first priority is education, have no formal coaching qualifications. At the clinics they were exposed to international best practices, the latest training information and given insights gathered and utilised by some of the best international soccer coaches from around the world.

The campaign, now entering its second phase, shifts focus back to born sportsmen as pupils from selected schools across the country stand the chance to win exclusive Powerade Performance Sessions in soccer, rugby and cricket for their school by participating in the Powerade Collect-a-Cap competition.

The Powerade Performance Session in soccer will be hosted by ex Bafana Bafana and Kaizer Chiefs captain, Neil Tovey. He, like Iniesta, knows the challenges that need to be tackled in order to play professionally and is well positioned to give aspiring players advice and support.

“We recognise that there is power in every game and through the Powerade Schools Programme, born sportsmen will be introduced to the science of correct training, proper nutrition and the benefits of hydration to help enable them to reach peak fitness at the right time. Whether it is a professional game in Maracana or a local schools derby, there is power in every game.” explained James Maclachlan, IMC Marketing Assets Manager of Coca-Cola South Africa.

“Through our Powerade Schools Programme we are bringing our 2014 FIFA World Cup® campaign to life by touching the lives of everyone that is involved in the careers of a soccer player. This campaign reflects Powerade’s commitment and ongoing support of born sportsmen by providing them with platforms to improve their sporting performances,” he concluded.

 About The Coca-Cola Company

The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) is the world's largest beverage company, refreshing consumers with more than 500 sparkling and still brands.  Led by Coca-Cola, one of the world's most valuable and recognizable brands, our Company's portfolio features 16 billion-dollar brands including Diet Coke, Fanta, Sprite, Coca-Cola Zero, vitaminwater, Powerade, Minute Maid, Simply, Georgia and Del Valle.  Globally, we are the No. 1 provider of sparkling beverages, ready-to-drink coffees, and juices and juice drinks.  Through the world's largest beverage distribution system, consumers in more than 200 countries enjoy our beverages at a rate of 1.9 billion servings a day.  With an enduring commitment to building sustainable communities, our Company is focused
on initiatives that reduce our environmental footprint, support active, healthy living, create a safe, inclusive work environment for our associates, and enhance the economic development of the communities where we operate.  Together with our bottling partners, we rank among the world's top 10 private employers with more than 700,000 system associates.  For more information, visit Coca-Cola Journey at www.coca-colacompany.com, follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/CocaColaCo, visit our blog, Coca-Cola Unbottled, at www.coca-colablog.com or find us on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/the-coca-cola-company.

About Powerade

Powerade is a brand of The Coca-Cola Company, and is available in 70 markets, including Australia, USA, Canada, Great Britain, Brazil, Mexico, Russia, Spain and South Africa.  Powerade combines carbohydrates, electrolytes with fluids for energy and hydration.  It quenches thirst and replenishes minerals and carbohydrates lost during sports or other intense activities.  In most markets, Powerade is scientifically formulated with the ION4® Advanced Electrolyte System, which helps replenish 4 key electrolytes lost in sweat: Sodium, Potassium, Calcium, & Magnesium