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Coaching Panorama 4.

Guest post by: Veronika Chmelar

Article Overview: This article is one part of a study, titled Coaching Panorama. In the whole study (you can read on www.businesscoaching.hu or www.evancarmichael.com) I investigated what is the difference between coaching and other trends of human development.     In this article you can learn about the methods used by one of the most successful sports coaches, Dénes Kemény, Ph.D. who is the coach of the 2004 Olympic gold winner Hungarian water polo team.

Coaching Panorama 4.

By Veronika Chmelár • April 2006

The Secret of their Unbroken Success: Teamwork
Since 1997, Mr. Dénes Kemény, Ph.D. has been the coach of the Hungarian men's water polo team. In the past nine years they have won medals 17 times out of 18 world competitions; 9 of these were gold medals. They have been Olympic champions in 2000 and in 2004, world champions in 2003, in 1999 World Cup, then in 2003 and 2004 World League Champions, in 1997 and 1999 European Champions, and once they came to the first place of the European League.

The 51-year old supercoach started water polo at age of six, by following the example of his father, who had been playing in the first class. He always played in National Championship first class teams: in Hungary, at BVSC, Tatabánya, Spartacus and FTC, abroad in Australia and Italy. The junior European Champion title was followed by his selection into the national team thirty times. In Australia he was member of the champion team, in Italy, during the five years spent with Como, he had been national top scorer several times. At the same time, he had been coaching Italian junior teams, then from 1992, moving completely into the role of the coach, had been the coach of the senior Como team.
    Even while being a water polo player, he had time to study and to work. He has obtained his diploma of veterinary doctor in 1978 (as he had emphasized, through exams and not by paying for it) and until end of 1996 he had been also working as such. In those times it was enough to train twice a day, each time one hour and a half, but in order to achieve today's peak performance, this has increased to two times three hours per day.

    – We cannot afford to train less than our competitors do, if we want to be prepared as well as they are, or even better – says Mr. Kemény – We can only be better then our rivals, if we are able to do all that they are able too, plus if we have some strengths that they do not possess.
    – What is your primary goal?
    – We want to be the best, both in the short- and in the long term. Our permanent strategic goal is to win the Olympics. The intermediary stations – like the European Championship, which will take place next year – can be considered as continuous preparation, but we must also win at these, because this is the only chance to also win the Olympics.
    – As coach, what is your motivation?
    – Basically, I am always motivated by the successful accomplishment of the next challenge. A long series of wins though results in a certain kind of torpidity. When we lose no match for a long time and we only win gold medals for years, our focus inevitably decreases. Losing a match from time to time always gives us a boost and it is a warning sign, that we may not let ourselves down. Fortunately, the team is very strong, Hungarian water polo has a very high standard, therefore we have less lows and longer highs. We always prepare even better for the upcoming challenge. If our competitors reach the level we were at during our previous match, then we arrive even better prepared for the next match. We can learn the most from losing a match, however we also used to analyse and investigate the mistakes committed during matches that we won, because committing them again would lead to losing the next match.
    – How do you choose the players?
    – Besides looking for a good match to professional criteria, I select for positions. Only those can make to the national team, who are courageous, can take responsibility even in critical situations, who handle well the pressure of the decisions and who are capable of subordinating their individual succes to the successfulness of the whole team.
    – What is your thinking about your job as a coach?
    – Players openly compete with each other in order to be selected into the national team and for being kept on the team. When the team is ready, it is the job of the coach, to bring the maximum out of the individual and team capabilities.
    – What do you think, why are you so successful?
    – I am lucky, that in the past nine years I could work with very capable players, who possess outstanding professional knowledge and who bring the right mental and attitude in terms of the most important criteria. The level of organization of the Hungarian water polo is high, there is an outstanding pool of players and brilliant players show up continuously, and they make it easy for me to select the right individuals. It would be hypocritical of me to say that I have nothing to do with the successes that we have achieved; I believe I was also able to find in myself those important capabilities, with which I could bring the physical and tactical preparedness of the team to the competitive level of any other team. And we are likely better than our opponents in terms of team cohesion and capability to win.
    – Do you consider yourself an authentic person?
    – In sports, you are rated according to results, both in the positive and in the negative sense. Let the reader decide whether based on the achievements of the past nine years they consider the Hungarian men's water polo national team and its captain, in other words me, authentic or not.
Veronika Chmelár
October 3, 2005

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