By Coach Barry Jones | IIHF Level 3 High Performance | USA Hockey Level 3 Performance

Eight Years Without a Championship

When I began working with the Perth Inferno, they were a high-performance women’s team that had never won a championship in eight years of competition.

The players were committed, the effort was there, but something wasn’t aligning.

Not in effort, in environment.

The Problem Wasn’t Talent

It’s easy to assume results come down to skill or mindset.

But the deeper issue was how the game was being experienced in training.

If the environment doesn’t reflect the game, behaviour won’t transfer.

Starting With Identity

The first shift wasn’t tactical. It was identity.

Not ‘we want to win’, but ‘how do we want to play?’

This defined behaviours and created alignment.

Designing the Environment Around the Game

Training shifted from drills and patterns to small area games and decision-rich environments.

Sessions looked, felt, and behaved like the game.

Building Habits Through Exposure

We didn’t chase perfection. We chased exposure.

Players repeatedly had to perceive, act, and adapt.

Over time, behaviour stabilised under pressure.

Creating Problems Other Teams Hadn’t Solved

The team began to play differently, creating problems other teams weren’t prepared for.

Not because it was new, but because it was aligned.

The Outcome

That season, the Perth Inferno won the championship with the most wins in a single AWIHL season.

But the result isn’t the story. The environment is.

We Didn’t Manifest a Championship

We didn’t rely on belief. We built an environment where championship behaviour became normal.

Outcome was a byproduct, not the target.

Connecting It Back to the Series

Identity defined intent. Environment shaped behaviour. Behaviour stabilised under pressure.

Everything was connected.

Closing Thought

We didn’t chase the result. We built the conditions for it to emerge.

You don’t get what you aim for. You get what your environment produces.

What Comes Next

What happens when this thinking expands beyond one team or country?

Author Bio

Barry Jones is an IIHF Level 3 High Performance Coach and USA Hockey Level 3 Performance Coach. His work blends ecological dynamics, nonlinear design, and athlete-centred leadership to build adaptive teams that thrive in uncertainty. He is also the developer of Task Sketch, a tool designed to support coaches in creating game-representative training environments.