James Sandilands

Coach Profile

Not so long ago a coaching pathway in performance sport was not always a clearcut option for James Sandilands but it has taken him little time to land in a spot that most coaches can only dream of.

Becoming the lead coach of high jumper Hamish Kerr less than a year out from this year’s Paris Olympic Games was described as a “bold move” in some quarters but the burgeoning partnership between the former junior competition rivals led to a result that will long live in the annuls of monumental New Zealand sporting achievements.

In a sport that has little history in New Zealand at the elite level, Sandilands was track-side at the famous Stade de France, with the back drop of a 70,000-strong crowd, to calm and encourage Kerr through a drama and tension-filled high jump competition which ultimately led to a glorious gold medal for the long-limbed Kiwi.

There were no greater challenges for the pair when Kerr’s progress hinged on one jump to get through the qualifying round, a similar scenario playing out when he reached the height of 2.31m. Eventually, with Kerr and American Shelby McEwen clearing 2.36m and the prospect of a shared gold medal, the athletes decided on a jump-off.

Did coach Sandilands, in his first Olympic campaign, think Kerr, who finished 10^th with a leap of 2.30m at the previous Tokyo Olympics, think the seemingly unthinkable was possible?

“Absolutely,” he said. “It was probably more the way it happened. It was quite dramatic and the stories we heard after coming back to New Zealand, the way people watched it, and the emotions people went through was pretty intense, and we certainly felt that as well.

“But if we were just to look at the end result and nothing else, jumping 2.36m was absolutely on the table, so I’m not surprised by the outcome in any way but the strength and the character he showed to manage that qualifying and to manage the difficult moments in the competition were things we plan for but you never quite know how important those plans are until you get to those difficult third attempts and you actually have to put your plans into place and trust yourself.

“So, there’s certainly more to the result than just that final outcome and that final jump, but that makes it so much more special in the way that it was done.”

It took three rounds of extra jumps, but it was Kerr who would clear first, at 2.34m, to claim the Olympic gold, a first-ever win for New Zealand or medal of any colour in the event, leaving coach Sandilands with a dream start to his young career and plenty to build on.

“It’s a tough one to beat, isn’t it…..to go to your first Olympic Games with a lack of experience and to come away with that is something I certainly won’t forget and won’t ever underestimate how special it was,” he said.

“It’s going to be a good challenge to go again, not just with Hamish but also to take the learning that we’d done over the last year and start to build on that for the region and for other athletes which will hopefully lead to more success in the future.

“We’re spending quite a lot of time at the moment on reflecting and really understanding what did happen and what lessons we can take away from this Paris cycle because it did move very quickly but there were some pretty important messages in there which, in this time of reflection, is highlighting.”

A former New Zealand senior men’s 110m hurdles champion and former national U20 men’s high jump champion, Sandilands competed in multiple disciplines during his athletics career and came up against Kerr regularly.

But throughout his competitive days, there was always a strong instinctive focus on sports science and performance and analysis which drove the coach within.

After studying sports science at Ara Institute of Canterbury, Sandilands was offered an internship at High Performance Sports New Zealand (HPSNZ) in 2019 in strength and conditioning.”

“I was coaching at the same time as well at the time, but that gave me a bit more of a sports science lens on coaching and that’s complimented me and the athletes I’ve coached who have done quite well over the last couple of years,” he said.

Currently, Sandilands actively splits his time between HPSNZ as a PTA for 60 percent of the time while the other 40 percent is with Athletics NZ where he is a contracted coach to nine athletes which includes high jumpers, long and triple jumpers, combined eventers and a sprinter.

Sandilands always aspired to make coaching a career and his relationship with long-standing and accomplished high performance coach Terry Lomax helped immensely with the transition.

“When I was younger, I was coaching some club and younger athletes while I was studying sports science and I probably saw a more formal pathway into performance sport through strength and conditioning at that stage,” Sandilands said.

“It wasn’t until Terry Lomax, who’s been one of my mentors as a coach, came to me at the end of that internship year and laid out a pathway and how coaching could look.

“There’s obviously not a lot of athletics coaches or a lot of clear direction, so with someone like him and his experience, to actually outline there was a possibility of coaching being a career and how that could work, was quite a pivotal moment for me.

“I always kept up with the sports science and the strength and conditioning-type work to enhance my coaching but also as somewhat of a separate career, if need be, because there was no real certainty at that stage, and Covid was around as well at that time, so I had to have a diverse outlook.”

A key moment in Sandilands coaching career came in 2020 when he became Lomax’s assistant coach. Lomax was Kerr’s lead coach at the time while Sandilands had been involved with Kerr in a PTA role.

“That was the first time I really saw coaching as a way forward, as a pathway,” Sandilands said. “It was still relatively unclear and I had to find a way, be in an assistant type role for a while and start from scratch in some ways but that was the first time I really started to see how my sports science and coaching skills could converge, and ultimately benefit my career.

“That kind of merged into me helping Hamish from a PTA perspective, so it was just kind of wearing a different hat in the same environment at times but it certainly gave me a clearer angle to focus on, with Hamish, particularly.

“And I was able to add some value into that programme and then that merged and changed over the last 18 months.”

Sandilands is full of admiration for the team behind Kerr’s success and how their combined efforts have all played a part.

“I’ve been really fortunate with the people in Christchurch that I’ve been able to work with, starting from my days as an athlete, which is where I first met Simeon Joplin, who’s now Hamish’s strength and conditioning coach, who also coached me back in 2016,” he said.

“And also where I’ve got to know people like Tamsin Chittock (physio), so there’s people I’ve known a while and grown relationships and been able to work with them in different ways, and now have formulated this year into having a really close working relationship with them around Hamish.

“Just being able to learn off these people gradually over time and then becoming more accelerated over the last year has been really helpful. And I certainly owe a lot of the success of the last year to the people who have been in Hamish’s campaign for longer than I have. It’s been really rewarding to do what we’ve done with these people, they’re a very special group.”

Pre-planned, becoming Kerr’s lead coach in 2023 would be a life-changing moment for Sandilands but one he wouldn’t fully comprehend until post-Olympics.

“It was certainly a progression and a transition that was mapped out with Terry, and then Hamish pushed that to a be little bit faster than we had anticipated,” Sandilands said.

“But we hit the ground running and with an essentially 12-month runway towards Paris, we had to get pretty clear, pretty quickly on what we wanted to do. And by no means was it perfect or a complete picture of high jump but we had enough that we knew we could work on and develop with Hamish that ultimately led to some Olympic success this year.

“It all came up pretty quickly and now it’s a time of reflection I suppose for myself and the team as we look forward to the next four years. Now, it’s just dawning on how much things have changed in the last year and certainly how much I’ve learnt and how it’s all sinking in a little bit differently.”

Coming in to the lead coach role with such a short window before the Olympics, it was case of `we’ve got a job to do, lets get on with it.’

“ We certainly spent a lot of time together trying to figure out what that would look like, how it would work and what we needed to focus on with Hamish but mostly it organically grew based on the time we spent together and how that grew over time,” Sandilands said.

“We probably didn’t anticipate just how much we would all work together as a team and how that played out. The amount of time we spent together each week was probably unseen in some ways but as we started working, we started to try to piece together that 12 months ahead and it ended up being a very rewarding project.”

Outside of their coach-athlete relationship, Sandilands and Kerr have also been friends for many years, the boundaries are clear and there have been no issues with being a coach and a friend.

“It’s something we’re aware of and for the most part it helps us,” Sandilands said.

“We can be pretty honest with each other and can cut through a lot of difficult conversations and get to where we need to go. It’s something that needs to be managed, of course, something to be aware of but ultimately as long as we’re communicating well it’s a huge strength for us.

“And there’s been some massive moments of real honesty at key times that have led to pretty big decisions and some pretty important conversations, even in competition. So, I think that relationship we have and the way we’re able to communicate with each other and understand each other has been a massive strength and one we need to continue and evolve but there’s a lot of positives in my mind.”

Sandilands credits Lomax as the instigator behind his coaching career but other influencers have also played their part.

Out of the South Canterbury Amateur Athletics Club in Timaru, New Zealand’s oldest athletics club, coaches Grant Lord, and Ian Baird, a former coach of champion shot putter Tom Walsh, were key figures in Sandilands formative years.

“Those two taught me an awful lot,” he said. “Ian showed a real interest and understanding of physics and biomechanics in the practical sense of coaching, and taught me in some pretty unique ways.

“And Grant really started my journey in the sport and taught me a lot about the art of communication and understanding athletes, and the humility needed to really build trust and build a relationship while also having a great understanding of the sport.

“Those two taught me an awful lot of the wide range of skills needed for coaching that I’ve been able to go away and develop in my own ways.”

Simeon Joplin and Tamsin Chittock have also added their value in Sandilands progression.

At just 28, Sandilands is in the infancy of his elite level coaching career which bodes well for future success.

“I’m under no illusion that Hamish was an outstanding athlete before I was involved with him and I’ve been fortunate to play a part in that,” he said.

“But I’m still learning every day and really wanting to make the most of opportunities that I’m given and massively excited for the coming years to grow as Hamish’s coach, but also as a coach in general in the sport and everything that’s involved in that.

“It is very early days which makes having the success like we did over the last year rather unusual, but it’s a good place to be and there’s plenty more to come which is exciting.”