I found the following section in an insightful chapter of Bob Dwyer’s (Australian Rugby Coach) Memoirs, titled Full Time. It focuses on a conversation between himself and David Campese, one of Australia’s greatest Rugby League players of all time.

It brought home a couple of essential elements of competing and training. The section is part of his chapter titled Coaching Commandments. It is his 10th Commandment and is titled ‘Practice diligently, play instinctively’. PingSkills presents it for you to read. Enjoy.

The coach has fewer higher missions that that of assisting athletes to perform instinctively. David Campese would ask me after every game how I thought he had gone. It’s quite a question from a man who played a record number of Tests and set try-scoring records throughout an international career spanning fourteen years. On one occasion, after a match involving the Australian Sevens I told him that I thought he had gone okay. He wasn’t happy with that reply and pressed me further.

‘How do you really think I played?’ he prodded.

‘I thought you played well.’

‘Anything in particular you noticed?’

‘Well, seeing that you are asking… Do you remember towards the end of the game when you went through that gap and stepped to the left?’

‘Yes, you’re going to say I should have stepped right, aren’t you?’

‘Well, all of your support was on the right, facing almost no defence.’

I’ve never forgotten his reply.

‘Yes,’ he said. ‘ I thought about that after it happened, but I just go where my feet go.’

That’s exactly it. You’ve got to let your self go where your feet go. Practice diligently, play instinctively. In so many ways since then, I’ve encouraged players to go where their feet go. The great rugby league coach Jack Gibson put it another way when he was defending a decision a player had made: ‘He didn’t have time to have a committee meeting.’

A few people have asked recently about playing in competitions as opposed to playing in practice. I think this is the essence of it. When you are practicing, make sure you train well. If you do then things become so well known that you can do them instinctively during a game. If you haven’t practiced then you don’t know what to do. Whatever your level though you will perform better if you just go out there and let it all happen rather than stressing about the result.

Do yourself a favour and get yourself a copy of this book, even just for that chapter.