The Successful Coach - A practical guide for beginners and experts by Robin McConnell. Paperback published by Harper Collins. Price $19.95. Reviewed by Lynn McConnell (no relation).

Any effort to encourage coaching in sport in New Zealand is to be welcomed and Robin McConnell, academic, sports enthusiast and parent, has filled a hole in the market with his modest publication.

The almost consistent call in the wake of New Zealand's Olympic Games effort in 2000 was for the need for more coaches in this country.

Coaching is a tough call nowadays. Societal changes have produced a whole host of different demands on time and energies. Sport has been one area hit hard.

Whereas giving service in communities by giving up time to go and coach sports teams, at whatever level, was regarded as commendable and a social service, nowadays there is a reluctance for employers to make the same acknowledgements, or for people to want to endanger their jobs by getting into coaching positions in the first place.

This is a tragedy for a largely amateur sports society which has such volunteer work as the very base of a significant area of the New Zealand life style.

But the realisation that coaches are required has been around for some time. The Hillary Commission has run a Coaches Count campaign while individual sports have undertaken their own drive to lift coaching numbers.

Coaching can be a daunting task for the beginner. But much of it is about organisation. Organisation of one's own time and of the team's time.

What McConnell has done is avoid the quickly discarded heavy tomes of theory that have tended to be regarded as the prerequisite to coaching.

He's reduced the dialogue to a workable form based on the different needs for coaching at various levels.

It is not delivered in the form of a lecture, and several parts of the book ask questions of the reader so there is an inclusive feeling.

Bullet points are scattered throughout leaving something of a checklist, not only for on-field coaching but also off-field development.

The role of a captain is typical of this and highlights just how crucial the choice of leader can be.

There is an element of real-life example from McConnell's own experiences, especially with the All Blacks, and if there is a fault with the book it is that there is not enough of this spread across several sports.

One of the great failures of New Zealand sports society is the failure to utilise the examples that have succeeded, and failed, in a textbook form so that future generations don't have to fall into the same holes their predecessors had to climb out of.

There have been enough people with enough practical examples from their sporting careers, whether as players or coaches, to provide a coaching resource for the generations.

McConnell's book is a start but much more work remains to be done.

For the moment, it is hard to think of a better way for modern coaches to get an introduction to what they can expect from the job they have accepted.

Dealing with young people of the modern era is not easy, but has it ever been? Chances are that by considering their own coaching methods by what is provided in this book, coaches may find the job will be markedly easier.

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