ANDREAS & NORMAN,
THE A TEAM…
After
meeting
Andreas, now it's Norman Farthing's turn, the other compere
in Passion and Organisation...
Part 1....
First, a few facts....
 Norman's
dream as a boy was to become a jockey. But his dad wanted him to
get into the Navy, as his two brothers, but “I don’t know how to
swim, I don’t want to go into the Navy.”
His dad was not happy, and said fine, don’t, but no way you are
going to be a jockey". Broke the young boy’s heart. He didn’t
speak to his father for years, and unfortunately, his father
died before they had the chance to make up…
Poison Dwarf
At 15, he went in the army, so small they couldn’t get an
uniform for him! He was very passionate, determined, and soon
got the nickname of “Poison Dwarf”!
Discovering squash
 At
the time, he was passing by a squash court, saw a ball flying
through the wall. He knocked at the door, saw two soldier in
full army winter outfit – it was freezing – who said to him “who
are you, go away!”.
“Well, I just wanted to give you your ball back”. “Well, thanks”,
they replied, “and now, go away”!!!!.
That was his first contact with squash.
Master Chef
He became a chef, served in the army for 15 years. His last
assignment was in Belgium for SHAPE, where he worked for the
Supreme Commander of Europe.
He was part of the Ski team for 5 years, and could have gone to
the Grenoble Olympics of 1968, but the Northern Ireland events
prevented him to participate…
After the Army
At 30, with his wife and two kids, he left the Army, to open a
restaurant in Munster, Germany. At the same time, he was
coaching his two sons squash, who later became German Champions.
So as he had good results, well, one day, he was proposed to
transform his hobby as a job.
“Yes, please”, he replied. And for the next 10 years, he run the
squash club with his wife. Cost him his marriage though…
He arrived in Paderborn in 88, worked on the world junior
team in 90. Left, but came back in May 92, where he started
working with Andreas, with who he’s got a very very very strong
working relationship.
Juniors Focus in
Paderborn
 Norman
and his team have installed a pilot project for Junior squash in
Paderborn between all the schools, where about 1700 kids are
screened each year.
About 400 of them are selected. About 250 actually turn up for
the training, and through 6 schools of excellence, they offer a
full year of squash coaching to about 100 of them, who train
twice a week.
Norman is extremely - and rightly - proud of this programme.
 "Junior
squash is so important for us, we make sure that the players
that represent us in the German League give 30h of coaching to
our kids, otherwise, they don’t get their money!
"Here, a kid can play squash for 2 euros, he gets a racquet, and
a court for 45mn… These kids are the customers of tomorrow, and
you invest, you can’t accumulate!" |
USA
MEET PAUL ASSIANTE,
TRINITY COLLEGE LEGEND
 If
you follow US Squash, you cannot not have heard of the name
"Paul Assiante".
Coach to Trinity, they are unbeaten for 13 years now in the US
CSA (US College Circuit), an more than impressive record of
course.
Originally a gymnastic coach, he was purely and simply thrown
into deep water.
 "When
my tennis coach left the university, I was proposed the post,
although I'm not sure I deserved
it at the time.
"And while they took me around to show me the tennis courts, the man
in charge told me, oh by the way, you are also in charge of the
squash coaching.
And that was it! That was how I was introduced to squash. And I just
picked it up from there…" |
I have to say I loved the way he was
talking to Chris Gordon when he was battling against Swiss
experienced John Williams. A calm, reassuring, very matter of
fact, simple speech.
 "I’m
a great believer in 'you cry in practice, and you lose in
competition'.
The heart of it all, a player needs to feel calm when he is
competing.
And when he looks at me, he needs to look into my eyes, and see that
he's going to be ok." |
As simple as that.
|
EN BREF
