It was our first training session as members of the Melbourne Football Club’s scholarship team in 1977.  We had received our Demon’s uniform a few days earlier so identifying the other scholarship holders was pretty easy.  One thing we all had in common was the sense of awe we felt as we entered the bowels of the MCG.  For overseas readers, the Melbourne Cricket Ground is the most famous sporting venue in Australia and one of the best-known in the world.

Our coach for the year was John Tilbrook.  Known as Diamond Jim (for the price Melbourne paid to have him play for their team a few years earlier) he had a very short stint in the US looking to play gridiron there.  It was his experiences in the US that he spoke about when we first met him.

John talked about his coaching hero, Vince Lombardi who carved an outstanding coaching career with the Green Bay Packers.  Lombardi coached the Packers from 1959 to 1967.  In those nine years they won 5 NFL premierships and the first two Super Bowls.  He is rightly considered one of the NFL’s coaching legends.

Lombardi had a number of ‘rules’.  One was he expected his players and coaches to arrive 15 minutes before any scheduled meeting time or training session.  This became known as Lombardi Time.  We were expected to adhere to that rule while in the scholarship team.  It is something that has stuck with me since then, and I’ve been thankful for it when heavy traffic would otherwise have meant I would be late to Yarra Bend for coaching.

As an acknowledgment to Lombardi Time a new clock installed last year at Lambeau Field (Green Bay Packer’s home ground) was deliberately set 15 minutes ahead of time.  Everyone who knew of Lombardi knew the meaning of the clock’s time.

Two quotes from Lombardi which have had the greatest impact on me are “Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all-the-time thing.  You don’t do things right once in a while; you do them right all the time.  Winning is a habit.  Unfortunately, so is losing” and “Focus on the fundamentals”.

These philosophies were central to how we were expected to approach training and have been ones I have always done my best to adhere to in coaching.

I’ve written previously of the importance of habits and their influence on positive long-term outcomes.  There is also lots of scientific evidence to support the idea that good habits are created through awareness of doing things as well as you can.  For example, if you need to adjust how you hold the club, the fastest way to make the change automatic is to practice it with your attention on getting it right every time, not every second or third time.

When we were training with the scholarship team the sessions consisted of lots of drills reinforcing the fundamentals of football skills.

Constantly reviewing fundamentals for golf – including the five aspects of set up: grip, stance, posture, alignment and ball position – can sometimes seem monotonous.  However, improvements in swing and ball flight are significant.  When touring professionals have been competing regularly for a month or two without any coaching, the first visit is always a review of set up.  Slight changes occur because of course or weather conditions.  If you have coaching for your golf, you will no doubt understand the importance of getting those fundamentals right.

Those two philosophies on habits and fundamentals are timeless.  I have seen them work countless times with golfers of all levels.  They also worked well for our scholarship team as we took on the Victorian state team after a few week’s training and won convincingly.

I’ll leave you with another of Lombardi’s quotes: “If you settle for nothing less than your best, you will be amazed at what you can accomplish in your life.”