Shakespeare’s role in motivating one of Australia’s great sporting teams will be explored when The University of Queensland hosts the VIII World Shakespeare Congress next month.
Prominent Australian sporting identity Dr Ric Charlesworth, who coached the Hockeyroos to world dominance including dual Olympic gold, will address a congress dinner on Thursday, July 20.
Dr Charlesworth said he was inspired by William Shakespeare’s genius and used the Bard’s works to help his teams and athletes reach their potential.
Dr Charlesworth wrote Shakespeare the Coach, a motivational text for sporting teams and businesses, two years ago.
“As a coach you are always looking for different ways to say things and for messages that came from someone else,” he said.
“Over a period of time I found I had a bunch of stuff that Shakespeare had said which was relevant to sport. I had used many of the messages as a coach myself and it seemed to me that there was a book in it.
“As an athletic coach or as a coach in any sport you constantly want to lift the bar on the athletes and to challenge them and to put them into circumstances where they are unable to cope,” he said.
Dr Charlesworth admires Shakespeare`s insights into human nature and motivation.
“‘Sweet are the uses of adversity’, is a little quote that comes from William Shakespeare’s play As You Like It, that I have used,” he said.
“It means pushing people sometimes harder than they want to be pushed. The message is that you need to do that if you are going to develop and grow and improve and be better, and be able handle those conditions when they come along.”
One of his favourite lines is from Measure for Measure: ‘Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt’.
“You want people to be able to make decisions and judgments and not to be riddled by doubt, unable to decide what to do next,” he said.
“The reason that teams don’t do so well in sport away from home is that they lose the contest between doubt and belief. That little quote says it perfectly. We become indecisive, we don’t have a go because we’re afraid of failing.”
Click here to hear Dr Charlesworth on Shakespeare.
Dr Charlesworth’s coaching formula contributed to the Hockeyroos (Australian Women’s Hockey team) winning gold at the Atlanta and Sydney Olympic Games. With him as coach from 1993 to 2000, the team also won four Champions Trophies, two World Cups and a Commonwealth Games gold medal.
Dr Charlesworth is a doctor of medicine and also a former Australian Hockey Team captain. He played with the Kookaburras (Australian Men’s Hockey Team) for a record 16 years. He was a first class cricketer and a Federal Parliamentarian for a decade. He is now New Zealand Cricket’s high performance manager.
He first experienced Shakespeare’s works as a teenager studying Julius Caesar in an all-boys high school.
“Most years of my life, since I’ve left school, I would have been to a Shakespearean play,” he said.
“My interest was as an outsider if you like, more as a consumer. But I enjoyed the words, the imagery, the insight, the language and the characters whose behaviours and motivations seemed so real.
“During my time in politics I was a patron of a playhouse in Perth. I used to go to a lot of theatre and in that time I got really interested in Shakespeare.”
The University of Queensland is hosting the VIII World Shakespeare Congress, to be held at Brisbane City Hall from July 16-21, 2006.
Professor Richard Fotheringham, who is UQ Executive Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Congress Convenor, said he was delighted Dr Charlesworth had agreed to speak.
“Ric Charlesworth is a master at drawing together ideas from sport and art,” he said.
“Sports coaches must communicate effectively. They have to inspire people. They must drive them to higher achievements - and Shakespeare’s language is Ric Charlesworth’s weapon for success.”
The Congress dinner will take place from 7.30pm-11pm on Thursday July 20 at the Carlton Crest Hotel. Limited tickets are avialable to the public. Tickets are $150 and include a three-course meal with quality Australian food and beverages. To book tickets call 07 3858 5568 or email info@shakespeare2006.net.au
Dr Charlesworth will also address a public seminar on Wednesday July 19th at the Brisbane City Hall.
Media contacts: VIII World Shakespeare Congress Senior Program Manager Melissa Western (telephone 07 3365 1125, melissa.western@uq.edu.au), or Fiona Kennedy at UQ Communications (telephone 07 3365 1088, mobile 0413 380 012).
.jpg)
