The coach’s role keeps changing, Mülders argues, and it now means giving more attention to the individual within the group: personal goals, with feedback and feed forward on them. But players have chosen a team sport with boundaries to acknowledge, so when one athlete needs a different path the coach must explain to the rest why it matters for that player. It makes running a programme harder, and he accepts that. Watch the full masterclass: Result vs process.
He keeps the base simple: win the ball, keep it, penetrate, score, and if you lose it, win it back. The balance between possession and penetration is what coaches get wrong, since a possession pass can go forward as well as square. Set plays decide a lot under current rules, and he points to Atlanta 1996, where constant interchange and ice vests let Australia play at a tempo nobody thought possible in that heat. Watch the full masterclass: Building winning teams.