As a player he trained, played and asked his coach a question in passing at practice. Coaching turned out different: after his first Sunday game with the Bloemendaal women, ten players texted him on the Monday wanting feedback, which was why an experienced colleague had asked whether he had a decent phone plan. Meetings, individual talks and board conversations fill the week on top of running training. Watch the full masterclass: Teun de Nooijer on nurturing talent in field hockey.
Yes, he did, and he found them useful for two reasons. A course will never teach you everything, Shane argues; the point is to take the two or three ideas that fit how you believe hockey should be played and develop them further. The other gain is the network, since the coaches you meet on courses keep reappearing beside pitches for the rest of your career. Watch the full masterclass: Ask Me Anything with Shane McLeod.
Shane describes Be Gold as the start of Belgium’s conveyor belt: a deliberately wide base at under-14 that narrows through the age groups, with the under-21s acting as the final filter into the Red Lions. The programme is run as close to a senior international set-up as possible, with physios, strength and conditioning staff and quality coaches, and its best graduates arrive roughly eighteen months from performing well internationally. Watch the full masterclass: Ask Me Anything with Shane McLeod.
Told he is a figure in the sport, he refuses it with a story about his father. He once called someone a star, and his father took him by the shoulder and said the stars are in the sky, and he had never seen one walking down the street. His conclusion is that there are no stars and no figures, everyone is equal, and what counts is bringing out your best. Read the full write-up of this conversation.
He borrows from the Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano. Utopia moves a metre further away with every step you take towards it, so you never arrive, and that is exactly the point. It exists so you keep walking. He offers it as the thing a coach should give a squad, a reason to keep moving rather than a target they will one day hit. Read the full write-up of this conversation.