PLAYERS TURNED COACH x TODD WILLIAMS

We’ve got a case study of two Gryphon Great players who’ve made the transition of player into coach at the highest of levels. Todd Williams and Brett Garrard. We’re about to launch into a new year and with it a new coaching philosophy and company called Living Hockey. In Feb (in the UK) we will have our first set of clinics of the year.

My Story:

Originally from Hobart, Todd spent way too many years at the AIS and then had moved to Melbourne by the time he decided to play a season for Southgate in the England Premier League at the end of 1998. What was meant to be a six month break before returning to Australia has turned out to be 11+ years in which time he’s been lucky enough to meet Jo and together they try and look after 2 year old Connie.

Following his first season in England, Todd was offered a job and having noticed that whilst years of hockey had been hugely enjoyable and rewarding, it had done little for his bank account, to the extent that church mice felt sorry for him and would give him their spare change. This was the start of 10 years working in the commercial world as a business manager/consultant during which time hockey initially took a back seat in preference to working and finally earning some decent cash. Due to expert timing, Todd’s 40+ mid-life crisis/career change coincided nicely with the sharpest economic downturn the world has seen and so whilst the definition in the UK of an optimistic businessman is someone who irons 5 shirts on a Sunday night, Todd is now skipping around like a spring chicken as Head of Hockey at Magdalen College School in Oxford and is also Coach of Hampstead and Westminster in the England Premier League.

Todd coached HWHC in a earlier stint from 2002 to 2007, then looked after Slough (yes, of “The Office”) in the women’s Premier League in 2008, taking them to the League title and to a silver medal at the European Cup Winners Cup. After that, he started helping out at Surbiton HC and in the process of meeting up again with the Surbiton Captain and Coaching Director Brett Garrard, the usual conversations about hockey and how rubbish the coaching for schools and juniors can be that they normally had at the annual Gryphon Christmas drinks in London has turned into Living Hockey.

Now to speak for Brett:

Still England and GB’s most capped player, Brett has been playing in the England Premier League seemingly since just after the Romans stopped whacking the heads of beaten soldiers around with swords (a theory as to the origins of hockey in case you didn’t know) and replaced them with white dimples. Amazingly still south of 35, Brett is the skipper of Surbiton who are currently top of the England Premier League and is also the club’s Coaching Director, which involves amongst other things, looking after their 550+ juniors. Brett retired from the England and GB set up after the 2006 World Cup and (he won’t tell you this) can rightly be attributed as being a key player in the revival of the England team to where they are now as current European Champions. Right through his international career and since he was a teenager, Brett has run junior coaching camps at clubs throughout SW London and (once again, he won’t tell you this) there are players now in the national team that he coached when they were handing their nappies to their mother and walking on the Surbiton pitch for a session on passing.

As a player universally regarded by his peers as someone who “could play”, Brett knows pretty much everyone, including in Holland where he had a couple of seasons with KZ in The Hague. It was there that he became great mates with Dutch corner expert Taeke Taekema and which also led to the production of the first Living Hockey coaching DVD. Outrageously, they missed out on being nominated for an Oscar or Golden Globe for performances in modern drama and/or documentary but nonetheless it’s still the best hockey demonstration DVD you can get.

In early 2009, Brett started chatting to Todd about the idea of Living Hockey and after a mad weekend driving around Holland (twice – as they kept getting lost) and with Todd missing his flight after falling asleep at the gate (long story – involves a prominent Amsterdam nightclub and a grey goose), Living Hockey started to take the shape that you now see today – the best junior coaching events and camps by a mile, featuring the world’s best players and coaches.