Coach’s influence ‘critical’
By Don Fennell – Richmond Review
Diane and Doug Clement
WHAT MAKES A great coach? One of Canada’s most revered track and field leaders says it is helping an athlete become “the best person and athlete they can be—in that order.” Doug Clement credits his coach at the University of Oregon, BillBowerman, for having a profound influence on his life. A star athlete at Vancouver’s King Edward High School, Clement attended Oregon on a track scholarship in 1952. That same year he was a member of Canada’s 4×400-metre relay team at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. But Bowerman, who introduced jogging as a health benefit to North Americans leading to him co-founding Nike, saw in Clement more than just an athlete. He encouraged his pupil to not only teach physical education (which was Clement’s initial intent) but to expand horizons and consider a career in medicine. Clement heeded the advice and in 1955 enrolled in the University of B.C. medical school. Graduating in 1959, he set up a general practice in Richmond and became a leading proponent of exercise in preventing heart disease. In 1962, he and his wife Diane founded the Richmond Kajaks, which became the top track and field club in Canada. Clement’s coaching and influence produced such future Olympians as Charmaine Crooks and Lynn Williams. At a recent coaching conference in Richmond, Clement noted that Williams (bronze medallist in the 3,000 metres at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics) went through a flat period early in her career, following an injury, when she didn’t have the belief in herself to realize what her potential was. “You have to be careful not to close the doors on people,” Clement said. “Some of the best discipline comes from those athletes nowhere close to the international level. It’s important then to recognize that it’s not just the performance that counts, but it’s the person.” It is “critical,” said Clement, to understand that a coach may become, for a time at least, the most important person in a young athlete’s life. Though sport as a competitive career is only a small period of a person’s life, that coach can help shape who that athlete ultimately becomes, he said.
Richmond School District administrator Glenn Kishi was also a strong athlete in high school. And like Clement, he says former coaches greatly influenced him. “Sport teaches you about life and you get bits and pieces from everybody,” said Kishi, whose high school coaches included Ian Anderson, Kent Chappell and Charlie Phipps. “Ian was known for his strategy and because I later coached with him I learned to appreciate the time he put into preparation. To do that you’ve got be well organized. Charlie was also so disciplined and Kent always promoted values.” Kishi often assumed a leadership or captain’s role on his teams. He was never much of a rah-rah player, but tried to be a good example by demonstrating the qualities he admired in the coaches. He later, as a coach himself, showed and passed on those qualities to his players. “On a team everyone has a role and needs to understand that role,” Kishi said. “Not everyone can be the quarterback, but every role is equally important. When I was coaching I was not just teaching them a sport but life lessons.”
Clement spent several years in the 1990s as the medical doctor for the Vancouver Canucks. Despite the fact hockey was now a job for the players, money did not enter into their approach because they all bought into the sub-culture of it still being a game, he said.
“When you’re directing a program you want to teach through positive reinforcement,” Clement said. “(The athletes) know they’ve done well or not.” Many coaches believe the target should be just ahead of what an athlete can achieve. But Clement said it should be exactly where they can achieve it. While coaching with the Kajaks, Clement used a system in which a target was established every workout. But it was all but ensured the target would be reached, he said. “The same principles are used for the next step and that becomes infectious,” he said. “The athletes come to believe they will make it and there’s nothing like success to breed success. Don’t put the carrot just out of reach.” Ironically, while stressing the enormous influence a coach can have on athlete, Clement said his goal was to be superfluous. “The critical component is to ensure you’ve prepared for athlete(s) to work without you,” said Clement, adding that the best athletes will seek your support when and if they need it. Speaking from a medical perspective, Clement also said one ongoing dilemma that coaches struggle with globally is understanding how far to “push” athletes without having them sustain injuries because of over-using their muscles. “A stress-fracture is an over-use injury,” Clement said. “It’s the process of imbalance that leads to the fracture.”
Priscilla Lopes-Schliep captured a silver medal in the 100-metre hurdles at this year’s world championships in Berlin. (David J. Phillip/Associated Press)