{"id":170407,"date":"2020-10-29T04:00:50","date_gmt":"2020-10-29T02:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\/?p=95651"},"modified":"2020-10-29T04:00:50","modified_gmt":"2020-10-29T02:00:50","slug":"former-madibaz-hockey-star-shares-british-coaching-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/former-madibaz-hockey-star-shares-british-coaching-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Madibaz hockey star shares British coaching journey"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Former Madibaz hockey star Jody Paul has forged a new life in the coaching arena in Britain. Photo: Full Stop Communications<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Former Madibaz hockey star Jody Paul has forged a new career in Britain, but his heart will always be with Port Elizabeth and the university that has kick-started his path in the sport.<\/p>\n

Recently the 44-year-old ex-South African player shared his thoughts in a webinar with Madibaz Sport on his 14 years overseas where he holds the position of head coach at the University of Bath.<\/p>\n

He is also the interim head coach for the Great Britain elite women\u2019s programme and has been used in coaching roles with the national U18 and U21 boys\u2019 teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have also assisted in the senior programme in both genders, with a highlight being a bronze medal at the European Championships in 2017 with the men,\u201d said Paul.<\/p>\n

He fondly recalls his time at Nelson Mandela University (then known as UPE and, later, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University), where his game developed to a level which took him to the heights of competing in the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.<\/p>\n

\u201cI genuinely loved my time as a student and coach at UPE and then NMMU,\u201d he recalled. \u201cThose experiences shaped me as a person.<\/p>\n

\u201cSharon Beckman and Brian Hibbert were the two people who got me to UPE all those years ago and I will be eternally grateful for the opportunities they provided me as a player.<\/p>\n

\u201cNMMU allowed me the opportunity to carry on playing international hockey by employing me in the University Shop as a manager and Riaan Osman used me as head coach of the hockey programme.<\/p>\n

\u201cRiaan and Paul Geswindt were very accommodating and extended my international playing career.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy first years of developing as a coach were at NMMU where I worked with some talented athletes. That time allowed me to grow as a coach and gave me the foundation for what I am doing now.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the webinar Paul spoke about some of the ideas he had developed during his coaching career.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things I have tried to introduce into my coaching philosophy is to feed information forward,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI recall back in my playing days if I did not make a team, I was told only then what was lacking in my game and why I was not selected, which is too late for the player.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe feed forward option allows the coach to tell the players in advance what they need to work on to earn selection.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul added that it was important to avoid any \u201cinformation overload\u201d on the players.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s necessary for the coaching staff to nail the detail, but you need to be careful that you don\u2019t load your players with unnecessary information,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt does depend on your player group because some players operate better with more information, while others are opposite.\u201d<\/p>\n

Equally essential, he said, was to create open lines of communication with the players.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are times when you may want to put the team on edge in a training session, but you need to tell them of your plans so they understand what you are trying to achieve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul recalled that in his early days he was a demanding, verbal coach, barking out instructions to his players.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is the way I was able to learn, so I put that on others, but when I think if I would like my kids to be coached that way and the answer is \u2018no\u2019, then you realise you need to change,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSociety is completely different today and you have to adapt to that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t feel I have changed my standards and values, but the way I package things is different to how I used to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Pauls \u2013 including wife Tracy, children Jack and Jude and a dog \u2013 have settled into their life in Britain.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe live in a lovely village called Farmborough just outside Bath and this is our life now,\u201d said Paul.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still have family in Port Elizabeth and were lucky enough to visit them in December and January. It is always great to come back home to PE and see friends and family, even though we do catch up regularly on social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good for the boys to meet all their cousins and have a connection with the country. They love visiting South Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Former Madibaz hockey star Jody Paul has forged a new life in the coaching arena in Britain. Photo: Full Stop Communications Former Madibaz hockey star Jody Paul has forged a new career in Britain, but his heart will always be with Port Elizabeth and the university that has kick-started his path in the sport. Recently […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":170408,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9021,3330],"tags":[3257],"class_list":{"0":"post-170407","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mypr","8":"category-port-elizabeth","9":"tag-mypr","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/former-madibaz-hockey-star-shares-british-coaching-journey.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}