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The British gymnastics coach tells us why he believes "Success builds confidence."
Raise Your Game: With the Olympic games coming to London, what does being a coach mean to you?
Paul Hall: The Olympics is the pinnacle of any coach's career. It was wonderful to have the experience of Beijing, but the thought of having a home Olympics in a time where I've got a group of gymnasts who are heading for some great results is a wonderful thing.
RYG: How do you identify talented gymnasts?
PH: Our club opens the door to any person. When the kids are very young, it's difficult to discern who's going to be a talent and who's not. Some of them show some physical attributes - they can jump further, run faster or they've got good co-ordination, but it's really the mental strength that someone like Louis Smith possesses that sets him apart from his peers in terms of winning medals.
RYG: How do you get somebody like Louis to make the most of their talents?
PH: We have to direct him. The role of a coach is to try to manage and facilitate as much possible, and to prod the gymnast in the right direction to make sure they do things that sometimes they don't always want to do in order to achieve what they want to achieve.
It becomes more and more difficult as the gymnast gets older. The stakes become higher, it becomes more competitive and those who can consistently perform over a period of time in the highest level with the greater stresses are the ones who will make it through to Olympic Games.
RYG: As a coach, what's the most important thing you can give to an athlete?
PH: The benefit of my experience, advice and guidance. When the child is young, I need to be quite authoritative and a disciplinarian occasionally in order to guide them in the right direction. As they evolve through puberty, I can be alongside them as a guide to show some sort of trust and respect so that we can have a mutual agreement to get to the top.
RYG: You've built a very positive working environment here at Huntingdon gym. How important is the support team in the build-up to 2012?
PH: The guys who are hoping to go to the Olympics have a group of mates around them. I coach six or seven adults and I can honestly say that without them it would be an extremely difficult task to get one or two gymnasts to the Olympic Games. They all work together and they all egg each other on. It's the team ethic that I really like and I think it's a big asset of Huntington Gymnastics Club.
RYG: How do you help your athletes to cope with both success and failure?
PH: To be motivated by both is a very important thing. We have gymnasts here who sometimes win everything and sometimes lose everything, and it's very important to debrief after the competition to go through what happened, to talk about their feelings and to talk about the next step. If something didn't go to plan then we re-focus and evaluate to try to make it better next time. I'm very goal orientated myself and I try and encourage the gymnasts to be exactly the same.
RYG: What are the skills that make this group such a potential force for success?
PH: It's not just this group, I think it's British gymnastics as a whole. Over the last few years we've been working very hard on a focus group of about 15 young athletes who are moving inexorably towards success in 2012. We've seen their progress and it's been a result of a group of coaches and a team of people who are behind those coaches in terms of support staff, physiotherapists, nutritionists and administration support. All those things are coming together at the right time to create the best environment for success.
RYG: How can gymnastics help build confidence in youngsters?
PH: Success builds confidence, and if the gymnasts can work in a disciplined environment where they can be motivated and have some success, then that feeling of success is a motivational factor that gives confidence to anybody. I think gymnastics is a wonderful sport for all people. It teaches discipline, social skills about manners and it's a way of life. I'm very proud, not only of my gymnasts' endeavours and what they do in competition, but the fact that they conduct themselves well.
RYG: How difficult is it to instil discipline in your gymnasts?
PH: It is difficult, but in some ways they have no choice. They're very aware of the fact that gymnastics is a discipline sport, and if your discipline slackens off a little bit, it's very difficult to maintain those results. They're goal orientated and they want to do well. There's a massive target in London 2012 and they know they have to work very hard, so I don't have too much trouble getting them working.
RYG: In a similar way to athletes competing at the Olympics, students going into exams experience a lot of pressure. What do you do to help your athletes overcome those nerves?
PH: The key is repetition and training, so the biggest factor to overcome nerves is to be well prepared and if you rehearse your routines enough, you're more likely to get through it. For students and anybody in any walk of life, you have to be prepared for anything. The more preparation and revision you can do beforehand, the better prepared you'll be, and that's one of the key things.
RYG: How important is it to have the right attitude?
PH: I've learnt that if you go expecting something, it's far more likely to happen. We'd talked about Beijing for quite a few years beforehand and now we talk about London as if it's going to happen. That makes the target far more realistic, and if you have any nagging doubts in your head about being able to do a routine or winning a medal, then it's far less likely to happen. I try and encourage my gymnasts to be very positive and to think very positively about the targets they're aiming for.
