Inspiring athletes is about the little things coaches say

Life is not a Hollywood movie and sport is not an Al Pacino speech. In Any Given Sunday, the kinetic Oliver Stone film on an American gridiron team, Pacino plays an ageing coach who delivers a four-minute, pre-game motivational speech.

- Rohit Brijnath

"We're in hell right now, gentlemen, believe me. And, we can stay here - get the s*** kicked out of us - or we can fight our way back into the light. We can climb outta hell one inch at a time."

It's wonderfully dramatic but then it's partly written by the screenwriter who worked on Gladiator. Real life in the arena is more prosaic. Coaches are busy drawing X's and O's, not scribbling rhetorical flourishes, while trying to leave their athletes with a single enduring thought to carry on race day.

"You've done the work. Just go out there and be smart."

These are the words Joseph Schooling remembered when I asked what the best piece of advice a coach had given him during a competition which led to an improved performance. They were said by coach Eddie Reese and the simplicity of the phrase told its own tale.

Most of the work coaches do is cementing discipline, tweaking temperament, adjusting technique, selling philosophies. We might see them as whistle-wearing, rabble-rousing Yodas, but on competition day it's often too late to say anything profound. When I asked Singapore athletes the same question I posed to Schooling, the answers were intriguing.