Book review: Be A Winner: Achieve Your Goals With Scotland's Sporting Heroes Richard Orr and Kenny Kemp

Published on Saturday 4 October 2008 20:01

Mainstream £9.99

****

THIS seems a decidedly un-Scottish book. Be a winner? Aye, right, whatever. But this, of course, is the point: it is all about challenging and critiquing the country's prevailing culture in a constructive fashion.

Essentially, this volume spells out the blueprint of the Winning Scotland Foundation, established by Sir Bill Gammell, whose motivation for wanting to inspire change is summed up near the end.

"At the moment the bar in Scotland is set too low – we tend to be content with mediocrity," Sir Bill is quoted as saying. "As a nation we've got to have a bigger vision and more self-confidence… Winning isn't everything but wanting to win is."

Now, there will doubtless be sections that will make some (Scottish) readers cringe. Early on, the 'I AM' mindset is introduced – "inspiration, ambition and motivation" – which you can imagine David Brent outlining in a motivational workshop in an office in Slough.

Yet, cynicism aside, inspiration, ambition and motivation do spill from the pages through the tales about and anecdotes from our top sports people, including Chris Hoy, Liz McColgan, Andy Murray, Sir Alex Ferguson (who has contributed the foreword), triathlete Catriona Morrison, hill runner Angela Mudge… in fact, it is striking to realise how many great champions this little country produces, and how much they have in common.

Generally, that isn't talent. Many were far from being top of the sporting class at school. Scotland rugby internationalist Chris Paterson and McColgan recall being teased or even bullied for doing their own thing, Paterson goal kicking on his own, McColgan running. Starting at school, say the authors of the book, "we need to adopt a more positive outlook to those around us".

This is a relentlessly positive book but the underlying theme is that Scotland's sporting culture needs to change. Marty Aitken, the Australian former director of performance at the Scottish Institute of Sport, says: "There is a common conception in Scotland, not helped by the media and public fan-base, that unless you play professional football, rugby, golf or tennis, you may as well not bother, because nobody cares."

In Australia, argues Aitken, there is healthy respect for all sports, and all sports people. Cultural change is a daunting challenge, but you have to start somewhere, and with something.

In this sense, the best thing about this book is that it celebrates some of our unsung heroes, past and present – as such, it proves inspiring and motivating reading, and will hopefully plant the seeds of ambition in some aspiring youngsters.

RICHARD MOORE