High expectations can backfire, Andreu argues here. Telling players anything is possible breeds frustration when it is not, so he treats expectations as agreements built through constant conversation across the season, not targets fixed on day one. Ric adds that in fourteen years with Australia’s national teams he never met a player who knew how good they could be, so the coach’s job is to keep lifting the bar. Watch the full masterclass: The Pygmalion effect.
A coach never changes anybody, Ric says; you build an environment where players change themselves, an act of their own free will, backed by motivation, technical support and feedback. Praise on its own is not enough, criticism has its place too. Citing Norman Vincent Peale, that most people would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism, he lands on his rule: comfort the troubled and trouble the comfortable. Watch the full masterclass: The Pygmalion effect.