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Stepping Up

Pick up the ball and get Excited

I had the good fortune to be coached by the well known Duncan Laing whilst playing rugby for Pirates Football Club in Dunedin during the early 1990’s. While Duncan was world famous as a swim coach and in particular swim coach of double gold medal Olympian Danyon Loader, he was also a master at the art of coaching winning rugby.

Duncan is one of those people for me who comes top of mind when asked to think about someone who made an impression on your life.

Duncan was about substance, hard work, loyalty and repetition of key skills.

Anyway, after a pre season of the hard work and lots of repetition, plus a few games into the competition, I can remember Duncan stomping out to the field at half time and delivering a talk which I will never forget.

“why do you guys work so hard pre season, train in the rain (common in my home town of Dunedin), repeat the drills over and over again and then when you finally get the ball in a real game you stand with it and wonder what to do? Why don’t you get “excited” when you get that ball and go for it?”

A simple but relevant observation. How often in life do we suddenly find ourselves in a situation we have been waiting for, planning for, training for and fail to grab the opportunity and make the most of it?

Duncan taught me to “pick up the ball and get excited”  – a great mantra and applicable to all aspects of life, sport and business.

So, make sure you “pick up the ball and get excited” for whatever it is that is important to you.

If you would like to pick up the ball and get excited, email Mark Heer at 8pC on mark.heer@xtra.co.nz or phone 0275579422.

(footnote: for those lucky enough to have experienced Duncan, you will be able to picture him jogging on the spot in frustration whilst impressing upon the Pirate’s men to get excited in the way that only Duncan could – enough said!)