The Barefoot Coach

by Paddy Upton

When a light beam starts going forward, one can think of a little bit of electricity being produced, and then as the electricity moves forward it powers up a little bit of magnetism, and as the magnetism moves on, it powers up yet another surge of electricity, and so on like a braided whip snapping forward. The electricity and magnetism keep on leapfrogging over each other in tiny, fast jumps—a ‘mutual embrace’. (Albert Einstein) began to explore the leapfrogging of light waves (…) If light was a wave like any other, Einstein mused, then if you ran after it, could you catch up? (…) Light is not like that, however. Light waves keep themselves going only by virtue of one part moving forward and so powering up a next part. (The electricity part of the light wave shimmers forward, and then ‘squeezes’ out a magnetic part; then that magnetic part, as it powers up, creates a further ‘surge’ of electricity so the rushing cycle starts repeating.) Whenever you think you’re racing forward fast enough to have pulled up next to a light beam, look harder and you’ll see that whatever part you thought you were close to is powering up a further part of the light beam that is still hurtling away from you.2 There is no point at which you can say, ‘I’ve got it’. Always and forever, mystery gets you … Our role as coaches is not to bring our players to where we are, but to bring them to a place and point where they can surge ‘ahead of us’ by virtue of our own magnetism powering up new bursts of...