Interview with Paul Ratcliffe
Interview with Olympic Silver medallist Paul Ratcliffe.
Q: You are a multi medal winning canoeist yourself – how did you get into the sport?
Paul: My Dad will tell you that he got fed up with blowing up dingies, so he bought us a couple of canoes for Christmas, which I guess is part of the story. I had seen people paddling whilst on holiday in North Wales, and I was already a great lover of the outdoors. I was fascinated with that environment, so I saved up for my own canoe. I remember watching Richard Fox claim the first of his five world titles in Bala and was just inspired from there.
Q: You performed at the highest level of the sport as an athlete; did you always think you would go into coaching?
Paul: I did win a lot of medals, but I always wanted to win the World title and the Olympic title and I was close but not quite there, for various reasons. That drove me on to coaching really, as I thought maybe I could help people, having learnt from the mistakes I made myself. We have a good performance director who had a vision for the future and he brought in a programme that UK Sport were about to start called the ‘Elite Coaching Programme’. He thought I would make a good coach, so I went away, had a think about it and decided to apply and got into coaching from there. The programme gave me the opportunity to step away from the mainstream system and go and learn my trade amongst the clubs first of all and then the junior squad, so it was a natural evolution to where I am today.
Q: So what was the deciding factor for getting into coaching?
Paul: I think the main question is why I decided to retire really. Then, the next step was looking for a career. Retiring was the hardest part but it just felt right in my heart. I think I just came to the point where I had to have a very honest conversation with myself about whether I was going to win and felt it probably wasn’t going happen for me. Then I had to make a decision about what to do next and coaching came along.
Q: How did you find the transition from athlete to coach?
Paul: It was horrible! I was quite selfish as an athlete. You’re driven and do what you think is best for you, so the transition from being selfish to selfless was probably the hardest thing to do. As an athlete I was always the king of my own programme, leading the way and now I am the guy at the bottom of a mountain holding the rope, supporting, guiding, nurturing.
Q: Have you changed as a coach from when you started?
Paul: Yes, I am less intense! As an athlete I was pretty intense. It’s one of the areas I have tried to work on, to take a step back and allow athletes to form their own paths and just to be there to help guide them on their way.
Q: Which coaching achievement are you most proud of?
Paul: Everyday is hard fought and to see the dedication of the athletes on a daily basis makes you proud to be doing the job. Seeing the changes you make with people is a good indicator. One person that stands out is a girl I worked with early on and seeing the transition in her life from being quite negative to very positive made me proud.
Q: Who has influenced your coaching style?
Paul: I had quite a few coaches throughout my career, some in clubs and others that I pursued when I thought they would benefit my career. I always looked primarily at how that person could help me. It was quite a selfish motivation really. So I wouldn’t say one person has really been the biggest influence. What I have taken into coaching really is a combination of lots of ideas that I feel can work and make a difference. My Dad was the one constant I had throughout my career but I would say he was more a mentor than a coach, and he’s still there as I go through life.
Q: You have all moved down now to Lee Valley to start training on the Olympic course, how is it going?
Paul: Early on, I wrote a paper about canoeing and where I saw my future. I wrote that I would like to run a high performance facility in London. This was before London won the Olympics. So I had a vision that I would be working and living down here, and for it to have happened, well, I just see it as a fantastic opportunity for canoeing, the athletes and me as a coach! As a Slalom athlete in Great Britain right now, where else would you want to be other than at Lee Valley? It’s very exciting! A lot of work has gone in to creating the environment down here, with coaches & athletes all moving down. It’s the beginning of real Olympic legacy!
Q: What are the benefits of having a home Olympics?
Paul: There are so many opportunities for everybody around the whole country. There are not many people that the Olympics won’t touch! Great facilities have been built because of the Olympics and as a nation we have been crying out for these facilities. As an example, we have had a £31 million facility built which would never have happened before. From here it’s a question of how many people can we touch & how can we get them into the sport, to experience something completely new.
Q: Do you think there are any negatives of a home games?
Paul: In London, they have a good business plan & a vision of how the whitewater course can run commercially, which I don’t think previous Olympic courses have had, if you look at Athens and Beijing for instance. So I don’t think there are any negatives, as long as we make sure we secure legacy for our facilities. It’s about securing events post 2012, like the World Championships coming to Lee Valley in 2015.
Q: How much would you have liked have competed in a major event on home water?
Paul: Well I did in Nottingham in 1995 at the World Championships. It was my first ever Worlds and it was unbelievable, so if I were in a position to compete at the 2012 Olympics, I know the feeling would be even better! I think we have to be aware of the weight of expectation on athletes. I remember in 1995 at the world championships, I was the most nervous I had ever been. I had to turn that nervous energy into an opportunity and remember that it was just a race. I used the crowds to motivate me, remembering that they were there to support me and see me perform, regardless of whether I was good or bad.
Q: You are coaching the girl’s squad but only one of them will be able to compete at the Olympics, does that cause problems?
Paul: I’m probably my own worst enemy in this respect. I was one of the people who proposed the class system. I thought it would be good to create a system that builds proper technique. To start with the top girls and then try and bring those methods all the way down through the development levels. It started as a philosophy but when you get into the running of it you have to deal with the challenges head on.
For me it was a question of looking at the transitions you can make with individuals, being on neutral ground as their coach when it comes to the decision as to who is going to get an Olympic place. My job is to be the best coach for each one of those individuals and, consequently, the best one will get the Olympic place! Hopefully though, each one of them will have benefitted from the work we have done in the process and will respect the other athletes. I hope they will all have enjoyed that honest hard fought battle and have clarity on how the Olympic place will be awarded.
It started off as a distraction for them; looking at each other & wondering what the other person is doing all the time. But then they realised that this wasn’t going to help them, so they have all learnt a lot! The first year was the biggest challenge, as we needed quick wins. Then the second year bedded the plan down and now we are all running smoothly and fine tuning the system as a group.
Q: Which paddlers currently on the scene most impress you? And why?
Paul: I take a lot from every athlete on the world stage really. I think the ones that impress me the most are Estangue and Martikan because of their ability to re-create their best runs at the Championship races consistently and I think that is a real marker of where someone is physically, technically and most importantly mentally.
Q: How has slalom changed since you started international paddling?
Paul: Courses have got harder, more technical. The gates are bunched together more – the power element in the sport has got ramped up. Boat design has significantly changed the way people paddle as well, giving the paddlers more flexibility, with the ability to accomplish moves that would have been risky in the past.
Q: What changes would you like to see in slalom?
Paul: I’d like to see a decision on whether we use one pole or two & I think the ranking system needs a few tweaks – I don’t really understand how the points work.
Q: As a coach working with female athletes, how do you view the move towards gender equality in our sport?
Paul: The introduction of C1 Women is brilliant! I think they got too much grief in the beginning but then we saw them at the World Championships last year and they were awesome and it was real competition! We need to continue that evolution and see it as part of the Olympic programme for 2016.
Q: Do you still paddle now?
Paul: I haven’t done any paddling since Penrith in 2009.
Q: What are your goals for 2011 and beyond?
Paul: To be the best coach that I can be! To be continually learning, so that I can deliver the best knowledge I can to the athletes. I want to help them prepare so they can sit on the start line and then put in a performance that will bring them medals!
Post 2012 I would love to run a performance centre down here at Lee Valley and continue the development of athletes, as well as delivering legacy in the sport.
Q: What is the most important lesson you’ve learnt as an athlete that you have taken through into coaching?
Paul: That you’ve got to do whatever it takes to succeed!
Q: Why should people come to see Canoe Slalom in 2012?
Paul: It’s fresh, it’s energetic and it will be a cracking event to come and see.
Thanks