Winning Hearts
By Philip O’Brien
To people in the arts, theatre director, actor, playwright and drama teacher George Huitker seems to have been very quiet this year. But appearances can be deceptive and in fact Huitker, whose broad range of talents also includes soccer coaching, has taken a sabbatical from theatre this year to concentrate on the sporting side of his life.
Last week, Ginninderra Press published his new book How to Succeed Without Really Winning, and it has nothing to do with a Broadway musical of a similar name.
Back in 2001 George Huitker was drinking coffee at a café in Loreto, Italy, as a young fan dribbled a football in the square nearby. At that moment a father walked past, carrying his quadriplegic son, on the way to pray for a miracle at the adjacent cathedral.
The contrast between the two Italian boys gave Huitker pause for thought, even more so when father and disabled son emerged into the sunlight without any apparent miracle. Meanwhile, Huitker wondered what would happen to the young, able football player. Would he achieve success in his sport? And, more importantly, would the boy’s father keep things in perspective, realising how lucky it was that his boy had good health and mobility?
Back in Canberra, shortly afterwards, in his capacity as drama teacher and soccer coach at Radford College, Huitker encountered excessively competitive parents in junior sport, with children being pushed beyond what was mentally and physically appropriate for them. “It really worried me,” Huitker says. “I thought, ‘let’s sit back and wonder why we’re engaging so passionately and vigorously in all this’. Success in sport – and life - is surely more than just about winning.”
Huitker writes from experience for he once scaled that competitive greasy pole, beginning in the days when he was a junior soccer player in Saturday morning competition in Canberra. He didn’t have a pushy father, but he does know how easy it is to get caught up in the hype and competitiveness of sport. “The book is, in part, a reaction against an ugly side that exists within myself,” he says.
Yet, surprisingly, his disillusionment really set in during the long hours of theatre work with his own company HMT. He realised that his reason for engaging in theatre was no longer the pleasure he derived from but from the need to prove himself to others. “I realised that I was n longer enjoying what I was doing,” he recalls. As a result, he’s taken a sabbatical from theatre this year and has concentrated on his sports coaching.
Of course, none of the above philosophy is new. Many sports, such as cricket, have - until recently, anyway - stressed that “the game’s the thing,” and that the result should be secondary. But what’s different about Huitker’s book is its presentation, drawing on a frame of reference from Shakespeare to the Dalai Lama to lyrics from the pop group Kiss. In fact, in its gently didactic style, the book is reminiscent of Alain de Botton’s ‘The Consolations of Philosophy’ set in a sporting context.
How to Succeed Without Really Winning even has the structure of a sporting manual, with 11 essays, or ‘training modules’ as Huitker refers to them, which systematically progress his argument, followed by ‘match reports’ and ‘send-off reports’ which provide give longer anecdotal examples from his coaching life.
It’s obvious that the philosophy of former Olympic women’s hockey coach Ric Charlesworth is a strong influence on him, especially Charlesworth’s advocacy of the Japanese concept of ‘kaizen’ – ‘continual improvement’ – as opposed to the more conventional notion of ‘continually proving yourself’. “It’s all about trying to get the best out of yourself without dominating other people,” Huitker says. “It’s about growth, development and focussing on process rather than product.”
While the book’s focus is on school sport, he says the point he is making applies to sport at all levels. But, at national level, aren’t there times when winning is all-important? And how do we steer a line between the focus required to succeed at sport but the peace of mind required to enjoy it?
“Kids need to know both the prizes and pitfalls of success,” he says. “They need to know the percentages of players who eventually go on to succeed at a national level. I’m not saying don’t follow your dreams but be aware of the sacrifices you have to make. If you’re aware of that, it’s easier to enjoy the process. Whereas, if you’re just focussed on success and you don’t achieve that, if you can’t redefine you goals then you’re going to be an unhappy person. Even at the elite level, do we want success to be everything so that we all end up like Shane Warne or Lleyton Hewitt?
There’s also lessons for the arts in all this, he says. “What I’m suggesting is that in the arts, as in sport, the best way to evolve is to look and listen to other people, leaving to the side agendas governed by winning.” And that’s just what he’s been doing this year, withdrawing from the local arts scene as he rekindles his enthusiasm for theatre.
Yet, he stresses, he hasn’t rejected his muse. “It’s changed shape. In compiling and writing the book, I’ve still been engaged in the arts. I’m just playing a different code.”
Relax supplement
The Canberra Times
21/8/2005
How to Succeed Without Really Winning is published by Ginninderra Press
