The greatest value of my work is in partnering Gary: Paddy Upton

The mental conditioning coach tells Bharat Sundaresan about the success mantra adopted by him, in tandem with Kirsten, for Team India and now South Africa

On his role as mental conditioning coach

The term mental conditioning coach came into being because that's what people would understand. That's only a part of what I do. My work with Gary I would best describe as high performance director— both now with South Africa and earlier with India. I obviously watch what's happening on the field but not so much the skill but the energy dynamics between our team and the opposition, about who's got the upper hand. It is about creating an environment where the players get a best possible place to enjoy themselves and play with freedom. It's not a fear of failure mindset but a pursuing success mindset. That's my job. Sometimes I write guarantee slips for players about them failing. So now you can put that worry out of your mind, so let's go out and pursue success and that is created by the language and the actions of the leadership of the team. I do have to play a psychologist's role at times, though my skill sets are different.

On his partnership with Kirsten

The greatest value of my work is in partnering Gary and not necessarily the one-on-one sessions with players. Certainly early on before every meeting he'll come to me and say 'this is the message I want to get across' and I'd say to him 'is that what you want to say or is that what the team wants to hear' because more often than not the coach says what he wants to say. We would discuss if that was the best message for the team on that particular day. He doesn't think whether it is what the teams need to hear and we would discuss if that was the best message for the team. That's the role I've been playing with South African cricket too now. And someone like Gary realizes that, so I can give him a very detailed and a very open feedback.

... contd.

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