It is a bright and sunny January late afternoon in Stellenbosch. The town is abuzz as usual; businessmen and students filling up the coffee shops and restaurants as the rush hour begins.
Yet only a few hundred metres from the town centre and the atmosphere is markedly different. Tranquillity reigns amid the sounds whistles and instructions as Lisa Norden and Mari Rabie arrive at the Coetzenberg sports fields.
"Shoes off please ladies," instructs coach Darren Smith as Norden, Rabie and the Austrian athlete Carina Wasle set off barefoot around the soccer pitch at jogging pace.
"I like giving lots of flavours," explains Smith of the trio’s shoe-less loping. "A few years ago I had a couple of athletes that wound up injured after running barefoot for only two laps of a grass track. I thought that was just ridiculous and fragile; quite sad actually."
Darren Smith is known for his attention to detail. Tales of his focus on technique across the three disciplines of triathlon abound, as is his penchant to get the very best out of his athletes. But that is not really what I wanted to talk to him about. Training specifics and race results are one thing but life is a continuing education. This fact together with my inquiring mind and interest in the people behind high performance sport led me to gaining a long sought after meeting with the articulate Smith. His background, life philosophy and other interests, not to mention his self-directed desire to think out of the box were all topics I wanted to explore in addition to gaining an insight into a world-class coach.
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"Hello mate. We have massage largely covered here, but if you want to come over and give me or my assistant coach a massage then we can see what your level is," read the email reply from Smith a week earlier of my inquiring of possibly helping out his squad in tandem with securing a blog interview. “We could double up that trial and interview one afternoon next week.”
It seems that whenever I begin to get comfortable in a function or endeavour I'm confronted with an experience, meeting or conversation that reminds of not to get too complacent or confident. A sage once said that he travels to his teachers and his students come to him. I can relate to that statement – predominantly the former - and find that the majority of these learning curves fire me up in terms of motivation and continued development, which can only be a good thing. And my meeting with Smith certainly lived up to this mantra.
“I don’t like getting in a comfort zone,” says Darren Smith of his twenty years spent as a coach. “I need a challenge. I had a cushy job at a state-funded organisation back in Australia during the late-nineties. After a few years I literally was bored to tears.
“These development athletes generally thought that they were the real deal; they had every form of support one could wish for. The reality was that they were only around seventy percent of their potential; super talented yes, but I feared their ability to go on to senior international level. So I left and went to start again in the triathlon backwater of Scotland. I got to work with less talented athletes, but who gave 100% and sure enough we got more out of them and me.
“I never had anyone looking out for me,” continues Smith “so I made my own opportunities. After several years of world level success I brought in one of the smartest and insightful people in sport to strip me down to the basics, to challenge me and my program. David Collins was ex-Royal Marine, an ex-rugby player, an ex-Olympic track and field program high performance manager and current Professor in sports psychology. I asked for a brutal cross-examination and it helped me adjust my own style and program with wholly different perspective.”
“What purpose would that serve me,” asks Smith almost rhetorically when the subject of his low media profile enters our conversation. “Writing blogs and self-promotion is not going to help me get the best out of an athlete; you have to be all in. Having a high-profile is not my style in any case.”
While there might be no darrensmith.com, Smith’s results speak for themselves. Yet for all of his athlete’s achievements, there is a price to be paid for immersing oneself into getting the best out of others. Given his attention to detail and penchant for an extreme personal work ethic, how has Smith’s perspective and style evolved over the years?
‘Living this lifestyle of excellence is tough and exacting on everyone, including me. However if you chose to be obsessed like I’ve been there is simply no middle ground.
“There is no meeting your mates every Tuesday and Thursday evening for mountain bike rides because you are simply not around, you sweep in and out of your family’s lives always conscious of deadlines or commitments waiting. The people around you often suffer because of your single mindedness and it’s not always healthy - you get the drift?
”High performance requires sacrifice and that is why I’m finishing up my current method of coaching after Rio 2016. I’ve realised that it is time to move on to other ventures, breathe a little and to get ‘more of a life’. It’s unlikely to ever be boring but the foot might just come off the accelerator just a fraction.”
Smith reveals that he has a yacht back in Australia that he is building up. Once complete he intends sailing across the Pacific to the USA, stopping in Tahiti and Hawaii along the way to meet up with his wife; a truly self-reliant adventure combined with quality family time and one that he is researching and planning in his limited free time.
“I think I might have had a total of four months mental and physical down time since I started coaching twenty years ago,” reveals Smith with a smile. “There was one period where I built a few houses but true downtime is not something I’m too familiar with. I’m busy researching boats, navigation and the other nuances of yachting in between training sessions now, like a hobby of sorts. Having a smaller squad this year has freed up some of my time normally devoted to the pursuit of excellence, so I am enjoying this.”
This pursuit of excellence has seen Smith become a citizen of the world. As one of the original practitioners of the international triathlon training camp model (“Sutto (Read: Brett Sutton) was the first, mate. I just followed his lead.”), his athletes have spent extended periods in some far flung and exotic arena as well as welcomed interesting role models into the camp. But as one might come to expect, these curveballs are part of a bigger picture and not without some rather interesting ulterior motives.
“I wanted the guys and girls to witness true work ethic in a poor and subsistence environment,” reveals Smith of the “D-Squad’s” three separate forays to Iten, Kenya since 2009. Stripping away the basic comforts and watching our athletes change perspective was one thing, but observing proper proprioception through the world’s best runners complemented the second phase of our altitude adaptation nicely.”
Similarly, having former World Champion Chris McCormack in the group during 2012 was also a highlight.
“Macca was fantastic, with his generosity of knowledge, good cheer and calm confidence,” enthuses Smith of McCormack’s time spent with the squad. “I can vividly recall him leading a tempo run with Lisa Norden and shouting at her to pick up the pace the whole way. His energy was just infectious. I know she dug real deep that day and loved his input.”
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The time has come to for me to head back home after a most insightful afternoon with Smith and Montevon. Norden and co are still striding up and down the grass field sans shoes, now in more specific mobility and stability mode with a host of different drills.
“You’ve got a bit of work to do to reach our level,” says Smith of my kneading skill as we bid farewell. “My advice would be to get hold of the best massage therapist you can find and shadow them, even if you have to pay them to perform treatment on you.
“Twenty five years ago I had to make up mind if I was going to be world class at something. It was either be an average pro triathlete in France or take a job in sports science. And here I am all these years later knowing I made the right decision. Sometimes you get to these forks in the road and just need to let your instinct guide you.
“Keep moving forward with your plan, mate. I like it.”
