Honest ones and the rest..

I'm not gonna announce the position I hold but lets just say it's in a contact sport and I'm privileged to be able to coach and select the best players the country can produce..
Due to incompetence in other areas this can be questioned when it comes to development and it's direction but at the same time we're promised it's gonna change.
Lets say its like a bad relationship, its not "if" your gonna leave it, its "when" your pushed.

So like everything else the question is why stay.Well basically its the troops. They make it all worth while. Sure you can't be liked by everybody and it isn't always easy to keep everybody happy but what makes it really worthwhile is when you finally get the players who carry what all great sportsman have. Strength, honour, humbleness and of course pride.

A Coach who carries my respect is Jim Telfor who said to his troops;
"There are two types of players...
Honest ones...
and the rest!"

Basically we have no time or need for the "rest" as he pointed out.
I have just planned a trip to play a side that Will be without doubt the hardest test that the Squad will have ever played. Much higher than the division in Europe that we're playing and of course it will be our first game and the oppositions closing of the season game.

And it's in the face of Adversity that I hear most of the squad players tell me that they are excited about the prospect of facing such a challenge.And that's what makes it all worthwhile as your lucky enough to meet a few good men, but when you have an entire squad of them then it makes it all worthwhile. Some aren't the honest men I'm describing above and they are transparent to the rest which is a problem I'm aware of. They point fingers at everything else except their own inadequacies, be it the weather, the food, the reff, the accommodation. They blame other players instead of self reflection. As I pointed out, they are transparent and the only question is if one can change that transparency and dishonesty.

I feel this question can be asked out of sport as well and on a more day to day scenario. Are our personality and character entwined in our DNA string? It is a pretty common problem that people in relationships feel ( or hope) that their partner will come around and change..doesn't happen very often (or ever?).
In sport its more obvious and quicker to pick up from an early stage. The quality traits are very easy to pick up and that's why sometimes it isn't always the best club players that achieve the bigger picture (Ibrahimovich a good case study)but team players who have that honesty.

It makes it a privilege to be able to general these troops into a "charge of the light brigade"*scenario and yet feel that we can overcome even the toughest obstacles with positive results afterwards. As Lord Tennyson immortalised in his famous poem;
"Theirs not to reason why / Theirs but to do and die"...

...and meet up in the bar afterwards. The guys have been acquainted with my favorite quote which has been changed slightly;
"Coach..you deceived us!"
"YOU LET YOURSELF BE DECEIVED";-)

áyé

recommended reading: Sun Tzu "Art of War"
*Crimean War Oct25 1854