Olympic Gold flashback - Sydney 2000 Aussie Stingers Water Polo - Coaching Report

I recently came across the coaching report I wrote after the historical victory of our Aussie Stingers Women's Water polo team at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. The article brought back wonderful memories of not only the victory, but the relationships forged throughout my tenure as National Coach and the extensive support network we constructed and integrated into the women's national program. The systems approach to the construction and management of positive relationships and open collaboration was one of the essential ingredients to the ultimate success of our pioneering team.

I remain just as passionate today, via The Hunting Territory? as I was back then, in supporting leaders in their approach to implementing committed collaboration and cooperation, in many instances during significant change in their teams or organisation. I was recently interviewed by Thomas Whalan, a former athlete I coached prior to joining the Women's program who went on to represent Australia at four Olympic Games, on not only the success of Sydney 2000 but my work since; you can listen to the podcast here.

I hope you enjoy this historical report:

National Coaching Report - Australian Women's Water Polo Team, Sydney 2000

The Gold Medal at the Olympic Games was a tribute to all the people who worked hard in Australia, mostly as passionate volunteers, for the success of the sport of Water Polo and also to the people who fought nationally and internationally for Women’s Water Polo. Our Cinderellas did not wait for the white Prince as in the fairy tale, they went out, trained hard in the swimming pools and gym and also involved themselves in the lobbying process. Finally the selected thirteen fought on such a way that they created one of the most exciting highlights of the Sydney Olympic Games.

?‘The Gold Medal at the Olympic Games was a tribute to all the people who worked hard in Australia, mostly as passionate volunteers, for the success of the sport of Water Polo and also to the people who fought nationally and internationally for Women’s Water Polo’

Beside the systematic preparation, the success in such a thrilling tournament was due to the ‘Aussie spirit’ that pushed the players to fight until the very end of each game. We could already feel this spirit during the last two National Club Championships, which offered so many exiting moments and high standard, competitive games. This spirit was characteristic of the National Junior team who were crowned World Champions in 1999.

There was a touching occurrence of this spirit in the stands of the swimming pools during the Olympics: in the core and lead of our fantastic support group there were our reserve players who where members of the Residential Camp Squad and were not selected into the Olympic team; they did not complain, did not appeal, they were with the team during the Olympic games in the most difficult moments cheering/firing up the spectators and doing so pushing the team into victories.

The Olympic Women’s Water Polo tournament was a huge success: over 40,000 spectators attended the Australian games and an additional 20 000 the night sessions when we did not play. No one could question that Women’s Water Polo deserved to be included into the Olympic program.

Image: Gold medal ceremony for the Australian women’s water polo team at the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Photo: Alicia Hetherington.

?The major aim of the year was to prepare professionally and do everything possible for the Olympic success. This success was and is vital for the survival of our Elite Programs, to deserve the continuous support of the Australian Olympic Committee (“AOC”) and the Australian Sports Commission (“ASC”).

Team Results

In late March/early April, the National Team started the year 2000 competitions with a tough European Tour; three tournaments in three consecutive weekends.

?The team won a tournament in Spain, winning against Spain, Germany and Hungary; finished second in Hungary winning against Italy, Greece, Germany, Kazakhstan and losing against Hungary; and won the third tournament in Greece winning against Canada, Spain, Italy and USA.

?In June we hosted the US National Team and played four official games: we won three times and played a draw. In July the team participated in the Holiday Cup in the USA together with the five other qualified Olympic teams: Canada, Kazakhstan, Netherlands, Russia and USA. We lost against the USA and Canada, won against Russia, Kazakhstan and twice against the Netherlands.

?In August we invited the Hungarian National Team for a training Camp and played two official games and won both (two of the best Hungarian players resigned after the failure of the Qualification Tournament of Palermo, they were replaced by Jodie Stuhmpcke, Nikita Cuffe, Belinda Brooks and Julia Flaskas).

?At the Olympics, we played seven games in eight days: during the preliminary games we won against Kazakhstan, Russia, lost against the Netherlands, won against the USA and Canada. We won the semi-final against Russia and the final against the USA. In 2000, we played twenty-nine official games and won twenty-four, drew one and lost four games (the two wins against Hungary in Australia are not included).

National Program

?With the excellent support of the ASC, the AOC and AWPI (now WPA), coordinated by Wayde Clews (High Performance Manager), we were able to draft a complex yearly plan and carry it through. Special thanks also to John Boultbee (Director, AIS), Bob Murphy (Director Elite Sports, AIS) and Andrew Dee (Senior Sport Consultant, OAP) for their tremendous support of the program.?

?We commenced the Olympic preparation in the Centres. At the National Club Championships in February 2000, three Elite Centre Squads (NSW -16, QLD-19, WA– 12 athletes), the AIS Squad (30 athletes) and the Olympic Squad (20 athletes) were selected. For the sake of the Olympic success, we gave up the decentralized preparation of the Olympic Squad from 1 May 2000 to centralize the Olympic program at Kawana. Players of the Centers’ Squads who were not selected into the Olympic Squad mostly joined the trainings of the ITC programs.

• Specialist Coaches

The National Program enjoyed the expert help of some specialist coaches. Greg Hodge from NSWIS and Shannon Rollason (QLD swimming) assisted Sharyn Gist in designing the swim program for the Residential Camp; Lachlan Penfold from AIS/QAS designed and supervised the strength and conditioning program during the entire Olympic preparation. Lachlan introduced several innovative drills into his program providing injury prevention, flexibility and excellent agility development.

• ?Sport Medicine and Science

Our ‘health department’ was one of our strengths. Andrea Mosler AIS physiotherapist provided a wide experience of sports in general, specifically in water polo and a thorough knowledge of our girls. She was meticulous and unconditionally helpful. As well as providing physiotherapy services she also led the pre-game warm up and recovery stretching. In addition to this, she also played an invaluable role in leading the recovery methods during the Olympic tournament, which was crucial during the eight days and seven games of competition.

We were also fortunate to have the services of Dr. Grace Bryant within the program. She accompanied the team on tours and during the Olympics and coordinated the medical service of the athletes in Australia. Her dedication and self experience in water polo, her wide experience in sport injuries and surgery, and her thorough approach helped to resolve some critical injury issues so we did not loose any of our players during the long Olympic campaign. She had to make some tough decisions as well, but these decisions were justified during the course of the past months.

Gayelene Clews led and coordinated our psychology program. She regularly attended our training camps and participated on several tours. She had an excellent role in facilitating our team building, rule and goal setting, planning processes; she gave also individual support to the girls.

?Mark Hubbard (Sport Medicine and Science Coordinator) instigated some invaluable research, which ultimately played a major contribution in the success of the team. In November/December 1999 he organised a study with an Olympic Athlete Program (“OAP”) Research Grant to assess the physiological load of international level matches, and to monitor the load of a tour that incorporated two tournaments.

?AIS Physiologist Danielle Fornasiero and Mark travelled with the team to Canada to the Canada Cup and the Holiday Cup 1999 in Los Angeles. They measured particular variables throughout the duration of matches played in both tournaments and they were monitoring fatigue/recovery variables throughout the three weeks of the tour. The results were analysed and we utilised them in our planning and training leading into the Olympics.

?Subsequent fatigue/recovery monitoring was also conducted at periods of high load in the Kawana residential camp, with the aim of preventing overtraining. This study and the further monitoring had an important impact in our success particularly in improving our recovery during the very heavy physical and psychological load of the Games.

?The girls had a greater awareness of signs and symptoms of fatigue, and how they could reduce them during a tournament. Mark Hubbard’s excellent work proved the usefulness of the Sport Medicine and Sport Science Coordinator position. Acknowledgement should go also to Kenneth Graham (NSWIS Team Leader Sport Science) and Lynn Gunning (NSWIS physiologist) who worked closely with our NSWIS program and contributed to the planning process of the national program.

A special thanks to Peter Davies, Manager - OAP Sport Science and Medicine for his great support.

Elite Training Centres

• State Institutes

The three State Institutes together with the AIS provided world-class scientific support and strength and conditioning programs. Two of the Centres, NSW and WA are based at the State Institutes. The coaches, Jacki Northam and Gary Roberts are employed by the Institutes (although Gary’s position is provided by the Olympic Athlete Program). Both Institutes provided excellent training environmentd for their Centres.

In QLD all players are athletes of the AIS/QAS but the Centre Coach, Sharyn Gist is employed by the AIS. Sharyn was involved full time with the Residential Camp, and the remaining Queensland Centre athletes joined the QAS/ITC Program. Benn Lees, Andrew Enright and Steven O’Keefe regularly provided a mixed boys/girls team for training games at the Residential Camp. A thank you also to Steve Hardy, Andrew Enright, Alan Temple, Scott Schwieckle, Grant Gaston and Sunshine Coast Water Polo for their support as referees and table officials during training games.

Due to cuts of funding but also to communication problems, the Western Australian Institute of Sport discontinued its water polo programs (men’s and women’s as well) after the Olympics. To our disappointment the decision was made months before the Olympic Games, independently of the Women’s Olympic result.

The New South Wales Institute of Sport and the Queensland Academy of Sport apparently will increase the support for their Women’s Water Polo Program. We appreciate their commitment without which we would not be able to achieve our objectives. Special thanks to NSWIS Director - Michael Scott, NSWIS Group Manager - Charles Turner, QAS Director - Wilma Shakespeare and QAS Program Manager - Peter Shaw.

• State Water Polo bodies

The New South Wales WPI in cooperation with SOCOG, led by Ross Coggan and David Marks provided a superbly organised three match test series against the USA in Sydney. Likewise, Queensland WPI organised a test match against the USA in Kawana and also the Hungarian test series in Brisbane and Kawana. Thanks for their contribution.

Residential Camp?

It was obvious that the Olympic Squad would need a longer Pre-Olympic Residential Camp and in 1997 Sharyn Gist commissioned a comparative study from Andrew Heath (officer of AIS, Queensland).?His thorough investigation into several options and preparation ended with the establishment of the Residential Camp in Kawana by Wayde Clews (High Performance Manager). Wayde secured a complex sponsorship deal between the AIS, OAP and Kawana Waters Chamber of Commerce (major local sponsors were Lensworth Kawana Waters, Sunco Motors, Surfside on the Beach Holiday Apartments, Caloundra City Council, Stewarts Kawana Waters Hotel). Thanks to Kim and David Curd for their tireless work managing the project. ?

In return to the local sponsorships the girls provided more than 200 public appearances at schools, shops, shopping centres, and other venues. Thanks also to Daniel Willis (Sunshine Coast BP) for his enthusiasm in organizing and sponsoring the Supporter Group at the Olympics.

Surfside on the Beach Holiday Apartments provided a relaxed living environment with excellent service: every two athletes shared an apartment where they could host their families/partners almost throughout the duration of the Camp. We also had two apartments for the Residential Camp staff members, and a third one as an office. Special thanks to the complex managers, Lou and Sue Hatton for their hospitality and helpfulness. ?

Gary Ireland (leasee of the Kawana Aquatic Centre) provided an excellent training facility at Kawana for the Olympic Squad. His continuous support provided unlimited access to a new Olympic size pool. Consequently, we were able to set up an ideal water polo training pool with several goals and our special Rebound Net systems (that allowed intensive shooting, jumping and agility training).

Sharyn Gist (Assistant Coach), Lisa Acret (AIS administrator/Olympic Camp manager) and myself remained at the Camp full time. Lisa was responsible for the day to day running of the Camp and was the liaison between Kawana Chamber of Commerce and the Olympic Squad.

Sharyn conducted the gym sessions with Lachlan Penfold, prepared and ran the swim sessions and mostly the goalie sessions and together we implemented the water polo sessions.

Gary Roberts, the other Assistant Coach, worked from home and joined us from time to time. He prepared thorough and detailed video and statistical analysis about our team, about the opposition teams, about our individual players and about some opposition key players. While in Perth he looked after the remaining athletes of the Perth ETC. When he joined us at the Residential Camp, he participated in coaching and at the tactical meetings. ?

Jacki Northam, the Sydney Centre Coach who is the Assistant Coach of the National Junior Team as well, looked after the remaining athletes of the Sydney ETC and joined us also time to time when she fully participated in all our coaching activities.

In a normal week we had eleven training sessions: three gym sessions, three combined swim & ball skills sessions, three tactical water polo sessions and two training games. We adjusted the training load and the length of the sessions to the plan and to the actual physical state of the players. We held one or two tactical video sessions per week. During the second phase of the camp, prior to the games, every week we analysed an opposition team. The squad was divided into three groups, each group received the edited tapes of the particular team (defence, attack, extra attack, extra defence, key players) and had two sessions in watching and analysing the tapes themselves; the coaches did the same.

‘In a normal week we had eleven training sessions: three gym sessions, three combined swim & ball skills sessions, three tactical water polo sessions and two training games… We held one or two tactical video sessions per week. During the second phase of the camp, prior to the games, every week we analysed an opposition team.’

The third session was a common one where we shared the experiences. It gave a thorough internal knowledge about our oppositions. During the tactical sessions and training games we tried to play the right answers to the experienced opposition tactics.

It was important to create a balance between tough, hard training and recovery, between disciplined training and creativity and enjoyment of training. The well-structured training and meeting system provided enough variety.

We also made sure that the girls did not burn out. They had several free weekends when they could return home and some full recovery weeks at home. ?The neutral, beautiful and peaceful environment, the sufficient living space and privacy all certainly helped. A very important factor was that all rules and frames of the Residential Camp were created and regularly reviewed with the involvement of the team. All these processes created a healthy team culture where we could remain focused on the better preparation possible.

‘A very important factor was that all rules and frames of the Residential Camp were created and regularly reviewed with the involvement of the team. All these processes created a healthy team culture where we could remain focused on the better preparation possible’.

The strength of this team culture was challenged with the selection of the team on 17th June, three months before the start of the Games. The reason for this date was that the last opportunity for us to play officially at a tournament as a team was the Holiday Cup and we wanted to start the final tactical work with the team instead of still trying out players. We thought also that these three months would allow time to settle a strong team structure where each player is familiar and comfortable with her role.

?It was a challenge because some of the players could have perhaps relaxed and the reserves would have been burned out or training with adversity if remaining in the Camp. Nothing similar happened: the selected players remained determined and focused, and the reserves – even if obviously disappointed after the announcement of the Olympic thirteen – remained extremely helpful and cooperative (Belinda Brooks, Nikita Cuffe, Julia Flaskas, Tanya Keogh, Emma Knox, Melissa Rippon, Jodie Stuhmpcke). The best proof of their fantastic commitment was that most of them followed the team to the Olympics where they became the core of our Supporters Group and made sure that when the team was struggling, the Supporters Group was the loudest firing up the whole crowd. With all their help and enthusiasm, they had a true role in achieving the best result possible.

The performance of the Olympic Team

?Planning the two-year Olympic preparation we focused on three major factors.

??????????????????1.???????????The Strength and Conditioning program targeted an overall strength development with special attention to shooting and agility development. Swimming sessions developed both conditioning and swim skills. This regular and systematic training has had a clear impact on the girls. We were able to play a more consistent, stronger, faster water polo and were pretty resistant against the extremely heavy pressing defence. We clearly outplayed our oppositions in the fourth periods of the games and there was no drop of performances during the whole seven games of eight days. (We won 24 sprints for the ball on 28: Gail Miller 4/5, Bronwyn Mayer 6/8, Melissa Mills 14/15).

??????????????????2.???????????We did not want trembling hands, lost balls in front of the huge Olympic crowds so we worked a lot on basic water polo skills with high repetition drills using special devices for the development of shooting technic/accuracy and agility. All players improved their skills. We still often struggled with the accuracy of shooting. The ones who saw our training ?or even warm-ups prior to the games knew that our shooting skills were really excellent. The lower percentage in shooting accuracy was certainly due to the extreme psychological pressure of the Games the girls had never experienced previously.

??????????????????3.???????????We continued working on our tactical arsenal and had several defensive and attacking versions the team understood and delivered very well. I am also convinced that we were in a certain phase in our team development when not all tactical versions ?were automatically working and players from different states just started to play and think really well together. It was amazing to see how players who weren’t really close to each other before, started to play extremely well together. This didn’t show itself in high scoring but the good complimentary moves and precise, well-timed passes, the good picks and switches, the excellent cooperation particularly in defence, were clear improvements.

There was an excellent balance within the team; as we dreamed, there were always three- to four players in every game standing out while the whole team played a strong basic game with very effective defence.

We had the best defence - 29 goals against v Netherlands (36), Russia and USA (39). Liz Weekes played regularly well in the goals with some ‘life saving’ saves in each game and had an extraordinary excellent game in the final: 66.7% effectiveness in savings; it was very important that Daniel Woodhouse stood ready behind her; she proved her excellent form against Canada providing a 69.2% effectiveness in savings. Naomi Castle (15 steals), Jo Fox (9), Bronwyn Mayer (9), Gail Miller (9), Simone Hankin (6), Debbie Watson (6), Melissa Mills (5), Taryn Woods (4) composed a very strong ‘wall’ in front of our goalies, but everyone contributed to this defence with good cooperation and determination.

Naomi Castle (scored 3 goals) and Jo Fox (2 goals) were excellent in centre back and had an important role in being responsible for the defence, they were excellent in attack as well. Taryn Woods (3 goals) was tough in defence and very useful and hardworking in attack, scoring some important goals. Gail Miller (2 goals) was excellent in defence, particularly in extra man defence, and was very fast in attack. Melissa Mills (4 goals) and Bronwyn Mayer (6 goals) had an excellent tournament doing lots of the hard job of mobile field play, giving great passes and scoring crucial goals.

Debbie Watson (3 goals) had also a good overall tournament, scoring some important goals, she also had an important role in the excellent team spirit giving her experience and matured calmness in critical moments; Kate Hooper helped taking off a bit of the heavy load of our centre forwards; Simone Hankin (4 goals) was very powerful against the extremely heavy pressure on centre forwards during the whole tournament, she heroically struggled with her shoulder injury while the opposition voluntarily tried to aggravate it (particularly the Russians), she drew lots of kick-out and scored some of the best, unforgettable centre forward goals of the tournament.

Yvette Higgins (8 goals) had an excellent overall performance; in attack she was one of the playmakers with excellent passes, and great goals, her shooting accuracy and smart decision making – obviously together with the final winning goal – made her one of the best players of the Olympic tournament. Bridgette Gusterson (11 goals) showed the best example of a complex team captain. She fought very hard against her killing defenders, scored great goals, was strong in the most crucial moments (winning centre forward(!) goal in the semi final against Russia; a real but refused goal in the last seconds of the final); she played an outstanding role in leading the team as well mentally as physically with her excellent performance and behaviour.

Psychologically the team played incredibly well. Before the Games I was convinced we were good but was afraid that under the never experienced pressure of a home Olympics and the huge expectation of winning the gold medal, we could fail in the most critical moments and lose already won games. The first really big and important win, was against the USA just after the loss against the Netherlands when we desperately needed to win to make sure that we were in the final four. The USA had 13 extra-man against our 8 but with an excellent, self-scarifying defence we won 7 to 6.

?In the semi final against Russia and in the final against the USA (front of an incredible 16 000 crowd!) the team showed an extreme mental strength actually winning the games under the biggest pressure. Against the Russians at first Debbie Watson scored an extra man goal from Yvette Higgins’ pass, then Naomi Castle an action goal from outside, then, about 17 seconds to go, Bridgette Gusterson scored one of the best Centre Forward goals of the whole Olympics (men included; Simone Hankin had some unforgettable backhand goals as well).

The final seconds of the Olympic final were even more incredible; in the world team sport history I don’t know about similar example as scoring twice in the last 4 seconds of a world competition final; our girls did this, at first Bridgette Gusterson scored, the goal was refused, at 1.3 seconds on the clock Yvette Higgins scored another one.

There are some interesting things out of the rich statistics of the Games:

After the Olympics we would like to continue the decentralised program reinforcing the role and identity of the State Elite Training Centres. We plan to organise overseas tours for them as the teams of their State Institutes. We also plan to organise open tournaments in Australia where the State Institute teams could compete against overseas National teams or clubs.

?Our aim is that the Elite Training Centres ('ITC'), working closely with the ITC programs become the workshops of high-performance coaching and athlete development and this knowledge would deeply effect the training and game in the clubs.

?At the end of this unforgettable two years program I have to thank the Executive: Peter Kerr, Tom Hoad and particularly John D Whitehouse and Leanne Barnes for their excellent support to the team and personally to me; and all the athletes of the program who were always cooperative, enthusiastic, and worked hard with us throughout this beautiful journey.

?Thanks to Jeanette Gunn (National Team Manager) who sacrificed so often her time and played a special role on tours and during the Olympics. She was extremely efficient and effective in her organisational capacities and consequently played a very important role in our success, particularly under the enormous pressure of the Olympics. And – finally – special thanks to my coaching colleagues, Sharyn Gist, Gary Roberts and Jacki Northam for their excellent performance. They sacrificed their personal life, worked hard for the team, participated in the planning and delivery of the program, and in the – often very hard – decisions. The success would not be possible without their outstanding contribution.