Coach Candy, at your service

Not all cricketers get to contest one, never mind two major finals during their playing days. Rachel Candy once managed two in consecutive days, and that would end up drawing a line under that part of her life.
It was February 2017, and the Canterbury Magicians had succeeded in getting the weekend they had aimed for all season. Back-to-back domestic finals.
First up was the T20 final in Rangiora against Otago. It ended in a 5 run defeat for Canterbury who couldn’t quite chase down Suzie Bates’ team from down south.
There was an immediate chance for redemption the following day at Hagley Oval in Christchurch, where Auckland would provide the opposition in the 50-over final, but even as Candy drove to the ground with her teammate and partner Erin Bermingham, it was almost as if she’d forgotten another trophy was up for grabs.
Candy said to Bermingham that she was planning to retire, but they had lost the day before and she couldn’t retire on a loss. Bermingham brought some context to Candy’s dilemma.
“You could play for the rest of your life and never win another title” said Bermingham and she was right – but they had another chance there and then.
Not only did the Magicians beat Auckland by six wickets, but Candy was out in the middle, eight not out, when teammate Kate Ebrahim scored the winning runs to secure the title.
Candy knew it was indeed her time to bow out.
A couple of weeks earlier, she was fielding and asked herself why she was even out there. At the age of 30, the right-arm medium pacer had suffered neck and back injuries and wasn’t even bowling. She was fielding for 50 overs and getting a bit of batting time. It wasn’t how she wanted to spend her life anymore.
She’d had a successful career. Born in Palmerston North, she’d represented her own major association, Central Districts, as well as her country, debuting for the White Ferns in 2007. After playing one T20I, and seven ODIs, the national selectors went in a different direction and with Candy unable to break back into the squad, she found herself at a crossroads, unsure if cricket was her future.
Picked for a North vs South series of matches, she got talking to Canterbury Magicians coach Stephen Cunis, who convinced her to move down to the South Island and play for them. She started taking wickets and the international recall came in 2012. She ended up playing 10 T20Is and 18 ODIs for her country, including three appearances at the 50-over World Cup in India, in 2013.
Since retirement, Candy has remained involved in cricket, but now there’s far more to juggle. Candy and Bermingham have three children; Jonty, who is four, and twins Pippa and Flynn, who will be two in February. Bermingham is a police officer in Christchurch and Candy has held roles at Canterbury Cricket, working in the female and youth pathways, and was also assistant coach for the  Magicians in the 2022-23 season. After that, the arrival of Pippa and Flynn saw her take time out, but now, with the kids in daycare two days a week, Candy says it’s time to get back out there.
“I wanted to do something for me again and I wanted to get back into coaching. For me it was about what I could do, I’ve got a lot to offer,” Candy says.
Candy first started coaching many years ago, when she attended Palmerston North Girls’ High School and it’s something she’s loved ever since.
She has now launched ‘TRC Coaching’, where she works with a variety of players, male and female, from the age of 10, through to professional players contracted to Canterbury. Balancing that around family life, can mean pretty long days, but for Candy it’s worth it.
“There’s a real range of abilities and it’s a good challenge. I coach because I like helping people learn. I like to see people have success, to figure things out,” Candy says.
“I don’t have all the answers, but how do we set up situations where we can figure it out together or the athlete can figure it out themselves. That’s a really cool moment, when you see them get it, and how excited they are, and the lightbulb moment for them, and that’s why I coach.”
Now that her playing days are behind her, Candy has been able to reflect on the coaching techniques she experienced; what she liked and what she didn’t like, what worked and what didn’t, and that has helped her develop her own style, her own set of ideals. She coaches one-on-one, as well as small groups, and when dealing with players of mixed abilities, she wants to provide opportunities for everyone to be successful, whatever success may look like for them.
“It’s not about me as the coach, it’s about them as the athlete, understanding what makes them tick. It’s the balance of the intrinsic and the extrinsic and knowing what each person needs, understanding them as a person,” Candy says.
“I tell people when they’re working with me; ask questions, challenge me. I don’t have the answers necessarily. Tell me if you don’t like something.”
Candy is currently coaching three players contracted to the Canterbury Magicians; Gabby Sullivan, Jess Simmons and Sarah Asmussen. She says they are all very different players, with very different needs, so it’s a cool challenge. It’s about building trust with athletes and understanding them on a day-to-day basis and how they can change.
“I want to make myself redundant as a technical coach for those players I’m working with, because then you move onto the tactical and the mental [side] but I want them to be able to feel how their body moves, understand how their body moves, the outcome of that and those changes so they can have success out on the field.”
TRC stands for Train, Refine, Challenge, and as Candy enters the next phase of her professional life, her experiences on and off the cricket field are ensuring she’s well equipped to help others achieve their goals.