BHUBNESWAR: Australian hockey legend Ric Charlesworth is a multifaceted personality. A medicine practioner, Ric was a professional cricketer before he switched over to hockey. His expertise was not just limited to being a player, thankfully he opted to coaching in later part of his illustrious career, and carved a niche for himself. Today, Ric is touted to be among the world’s best in coaching. In fact, he is the only player who has won the World Cup both as a coach and a player.
Though Ric wears many hats, coaching has been the most satisfying experience for him. This is how feels.
“I came into coaching accidentally. I was trained in medicine and then was a sportsperson and I also had experience in politics. Then I quit it to go back to medicine. That is when I was approached to coach a women’s team. So, I went there in a T-shirt and shorts training a group of athletes who were ambitious. It went on from there. Now I can say, coaching has been the most satisfying experience. ,” said Ric, at the 1st Ekamra Sports Literature Festival held in Bhubaneswar.
The former Australian also had a brief stint with India as the head coach, before things fell out between him and the then Indian Hockey Federation President KPS Gill.
“I love the country and I came here ambitious and hopeful. Unfortunately, after a few months things fell out. But I felt there was enormous talent here,” he says.
Now, an author, Ric has written books on coaching, sharing his experiences and the basic tenets of the job.
“For me leadership is where you want to go and taking people there. Coaching is getting the best out of people.Coaching resembles the acronym GROW – Goals, Reality to achieve it, Options viable to achieve and the Will and Wit to achieve it,” he said.
Though he refused to pick one favourite team for the World Cup slated later this month, he is placing his bets on either of the Netherlands, Belgium or Australia to win the title.