Supercoach

Rugby League has many iconic coaches, however only one is known as ‘Supercoach’.

Jack Gibson won five premierships in his illustrious coaching career, including back-to-back titles with Eastern Suburbs in the 1970s, and a three-peat with Parramatta in the early 1980s.

As his wikipedia page notes, Gibson “was highly regarded not only for his coaching record but also for his thirst for innovation”.

The supercoach would make regular trips to the United States to study their coaches, becoming lifelong friends with San Francisco 49ers head coach Dick Nolan.

Gibon was also an avid reader, and writes: “From my regular morning habit of reading, I would write down any wise, pragmatic and smart quotes and ideas that struck me, and that I felt could be of use in coaching”.

The second half of his book The Last Word is full of quotations from a vast array of historical figures from Bette Midler to Babe Ruth, to Albert Einstein and Plato.

(Hilariously, the way Gibson wrote his quotes down was to include the word ‘coach’ wherever possible, so his notes appear like Napoleon and Carl Jung were philosophizing about coaching).

More crucial, though, are Gibson’s own thoughts on coaching, so here is my personal collection of 13 pieces of wisdom from the Supercoach:

• “There is one commodity a coach needs — time.”
  

• “I’m sure a coach can overcoach a side. You can’t cover every point so don’t try.”
  

• “For a coach to raise his voice to his players is to admit he’s lost it. It’s a sign of panic — and that’s contagious.”
  

• “If you’ve got the balance between the physical and mental sides of the game right, then the team is going to benefit.”
  

• “If you can keep it simple under pressure there’s a good chance you’re going to get the job done.”
  

• “Coaching is teaching the plus things and the minus things.”
  

• “How could I expect my staff, the officials, and most importantly the players to maintain their poise under pressure if the head coach couldn’t?”
  

• “The use of video evidence is not always conclusive, but it sure beats the memory bank of most witnesses.”
  

• “Sometimes I’d ask my players a question: ‘Do you get frightened out there?’ The ones that said no where the ones that I’d get nervous about. The ones who admitted they were fearful, but went anyway, they seemed to do better.”
  

• “When you pick a team, you need to remember that each player has to have confidence in the people he’s playing with. That’s very important as far as the overall team effort is concerned.”
  

• “Always, if I was going to point out a mistake I needed to have worked out why the mistake had been made. It’s not much good to me if I remind you that you’ve dropped the ball in a crucial situation unless I can tell you why you’ve dropped it.”
  

• “All a player wants to hear in the few minutes of halftime is what it is that might make him a better player.”
   

• “To win anything you’ve got to have a toughness about you. The team’s got to be tough, that infiltrates into the individuals, and then you’ve got to have a tough leader.”

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