As bad as it gets

By Tim Middleton | 12h ago

In 1997 Jack Nicholson was awarded his third Oscar (his second as best Actor) for his part in the film As Good As It Gets, which also gave Helen Hunt her only Oscar — one of only seven films which provided the winner in the Best Actor and Best Actress category.

It cannot get much better than that; in fact, it must be as good as it gets! The film told a hugely compelling story of a successful writer who has obsessive compulsive disorder with a great aversion to change but who ultimately wears down the only waitress to tolerate his dreadful behaviour. In a telling yet surprising and moving scene when he takes her out for a meal, Jack Nicholson’s character tells her, “You make me want to be a better man”. Is that not as good as it gets?

In recent times, often quoted on social media, a statement usually attributed to coach Peterson announced that: “One of the best things I heard from a coach is ‘my job is to find someone better than you. Your job is to make sure I can’t’. That might sound harsh but it’s true at most levels and in life.” Such a statement is worth further consideration in the light of the film just mentioned.

The coach is saying it is “true at most levels and in life” — really? Does a husband say to his wife that his job is to find someone better than her and her job is to make sure he cannot? It may be true that some husbands do sadly have such an attitude but they are clearly way out of line. It is not a truth if a few people believe or state something. Does a CEO make such a statement to his employees, seriously, leaving them with a sword dangling above them on a thread? Who would want to work in such an environment? Sure, employees must continue to work at a high standard and not become complacent or comfortable, but a CEO who would make such a statement, implying that the employee’s work is not good enough for them, is not going to win many friends. Is that good?

When it comes to professional sport, we may recognise that coaches or managers have such an attitude. Every time a ‘transfer window’ comes around, clubs look to bring in new players and remove others. Players do indeed have to ensure that their levels of play are of such a high standard that the club has to keep them. The manager’s job is to get results; if he cannot do so with the players he has, he must find and recruit others. However, that is professional sport, not school sport.

Sadly, school sports coaches also view their role in a similar manner. Not long ago, a sixteen-year-old boy with three O levels was whisked away from his studies at school to join a cricket academy, being advised that he was going to be the next Henry Olonga, the next Heath Streak. At the same time the next year, he was cast aside and dumped on the scrapheap (as a seventeen-year-old) as the academy had found someone better than him. Goodbye! Nice knowing you! Good luck in the future! Yes, that is as good as it gets, it seems! No, that is as bad as it gets.

Indeed, if their results are not up to scratch, school coaches will offer scholarships to youngsters in other schools who will be better than their own current pupils (thus depriving those youngsters who have been faithful members of that school the wonderful opportunity and privilege of representing their school). They see it as their job to do so. They have to find better players so the school wins some irrelevant matches. Sadly, they are just like Jack Nicholson’s character in the afore-mentioned film, having an obsessive-compulsive competitive disorder that dictates they must win at all costs.

So, let us make it very clear what the school sports coach job is. It is not to find a better player; it is to make each individual child at that school a better player. Finding a better player from another school has nothing to do with coaching — it is rather poaching. Indeed, we must unpack it further. The school sports coach’s job is to make each individual pupil not just a better player but, like Jack Nicholson’s character, a better person. There are no Oscars for sports coaches; too many of them, anyway, are acting the wrong parts. Yes, children are to be challenged to step up their game but that is precisely the coach’s job. They are not to find someone better than that person but to find someone better in that person. In fact, they are to help each child want to be a better person. Our job is not to find a better player; we just need to find better coaches, coaches who make children better people. That will be as good as it gets.