Core strength How the scheme is growing

A total of 67 coaches graduated this year in four centres: London, Essex, Glasgow and Wales, where the Welsh Rugby Union has taken on all of the apprentices to work in their community coaching programme. The plan now is to expand the programme still further, with new courses starting in Middlesbrough, Devon and Bristol.

than they were in throwing a rugby ball around with Greenwood.

As Scott Hann, the coach who had helped Whitlock progress from a young hopeful to an Olympic and world champion gymnast, watched the sessions unfold, he was particularly impressed by the Coach Core philosophy.

“I’ve seen so many kids damaged by bad coaching,” he said. “The scariest quote I ever heard was that an athlete should be more scared of their coach than of the skill they need to learn, that way they won’t be frightened of learning the skill.

“When I was first a coach it was the received wisdom. And then we wonder why we didn’t produce a gold medallist before Max.”

Greenwood, too, insisted that no one improves by being shouted at. “I played under a coach who was literally purple with rage every time we went into the dressing room at half-time,” he said. “He’d spray the walls with rage. Did it make me a better player? No. Did it make us a better team? Of course not.”

Meanwhile, as the Royal party joined in the groups, throwing themselves into Judy Murray’s tennis game with particular gusto, Prince William was asked what he believed was the most important thing a coach needs to do. “Listen,” he said. It was sound advice.