KEY POINTS:
Behind Valerie Vili's quest for shot put gold at the Beijing Olympics is one of the most hands-off coaches in the business.
Kirsten Hellier has been working with Vili since she was a 1.96m 13-year-old. But the former national champion javelin thrower is adamant she doesn't believe in
micro-management.
"I see my role as a coach...yes, it's a technical thing as well, but it's also about teaching who you're working with the skills to be able to deal with things themselves, and that is what Val is very good at doing."
So when Vili steps out into the circle at Beijing's National Stadium on August 16, Hellier will be sitting in the stands cool, calm and collected as her charge zeroes in on Olympic gold.
Sort of.
"At the end of the day, she's the one that's out there competing and I'm the one that's sitting on the sidelines with a stomach full of butterflies. But I can't do anything - it's beyond my control," Hellier said.
"She's the one that's in control, and my job is to make sure that when she gets into that environment she is in control. I think we've done that pretty well - she's mastered it."
Hellier has been quietly satisfied with Vili's progress to date.
"Physically, Val is in the best shape ever, to be honest. But expectations aren't something we really talk about because both of us are acutely aware of everybody else's expectations.
"It's an unspoken rule that we just do what we do and prepare for the day, and so far we've got the recipe right."
And while there is a huge amount of analysis and technical work involved in training, once it comes to competition time there's not a lot of conscious thought going through Vili's mind.
A great deal of her success is due to Vili's consistently excellent technique and exceptional mental focus, particularly when it comes to the big competitions.
Last year, at the world championships in Osaka, Japan, she won gold with a perfectly executed 20.54m last-round effort.
In March she took gold at the world indoor championships in Spain, again beating the woman who will be her biggest rival in Beijing - Nadezya Ostapchuk, of Belarus.
In 2006, Vili won gold at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games, and she has also picked up world youth and world junior shot put titles.
"She's been there before and right from a very young age, she's got it down pat."
Hellier is convinced the world record of 22.63m, almost certainly set with chemical assistance by Soviet thrower Natalya Lisovskaya in 1987, is within Vili's grasp.
"She's probably physically the only woman in the world that could break that legally, to be honest.
"But it all comes down to what you want out of life. I guess at the end of the day, there's more to it than throwing a steel ball around."
It is precisely that recognition of a world outside athletics that is an underpinning strength of Hellier's long-running relationship as coach, mentor and friend to Vili.
"It's that whole life focus. You don't have to be an elite athlete to understand that if there's a portion of your life that's not balanced, it affects the apple cart.
"You've got to have that balance and that's something I've believed in right from the start, and that we've worked on right from day one," she said.
That considered, holistic approach to life has supported Vili through the death of both parents - her mother in September 2000, and her father in May last year.
"We've been together for 10 years - she does still surprise me, and at the risk of sounding like an old married couple, that's probably what keeps our relationship quite exciting.
"Both of us have changed as people from when we first met, and that's the way it should be."
- NZPA
