The Right Stuff

We asked Scott Callaghan what it took to prepare for the World Barista Championships in Tokyo, 2007

Hit the stop watch – fifteen minutes to prove your worth in the espresso world against 40 of the world’s top baristas – seven international judges, camera crew and thousands of people watching your every move.

My Motivation

I am unashamed to say that one of my main goals is increasing my profile in the coffee industry so people will listen to me when it comes to issues of social responsibility regarding green bean trades – Fair Trade and Rainforest Alliance.

The Blend

This is the most important and extensive part of the competition preparation process and has taken months. With judges from all around the globe with vastly differing coffee experiences, researching what these different countries are doing with espresso has been a major research project. Together with Dean Morgan, owner & master roaster at Morgan’s Handcrafted Coffee, we have been cupping a range of top grade single origins on different date ranges from roasting and experimenting with blends to come up with the final competition blend.

Understanding Espresso Extraction

The more I learn about espresso the more I realize how much I don’t know, this is a constant and every day pursuit.

Practicing My Presentation (six times a day)

Refining movements and always looking for ways to improve – the more I rehearse, the easier it will be to do under pressure.
Presentation Critique is vital and watching footage of my practice sessions weekly with WBC experienced coffee professionals is invaulable. At the end of each week, a panel of judges come to my training room to judge and critique live. This helps to maintain the real pressure of performance.

Performance Psychologist

Understanding how we think and why, particularly on competition day, can help us counteract behaviors that can be detrimental to an outstanding performance. Working with my psychologist to learn what, for me,  triggers ‘nerves’ and how to overcome them has been invaluable as well as practicing performance enhancing affirmations.

Support

With no time for paid work, financial, as well as moral support is crucial. Charles Stephens from ECM coffee machines, Dean Morgan from Morgan’s Coffee and Chris Short from Cafetto have been fantastic in their support. Then there is Jemima, my wife – working full time so I can achieve my goal, going to bed long before me most nights while I stay up watching myself on DVD or researching on the internet, doing more than her fair share around the house so I have more time and putting up with me – need I say more.

A Typical Day

5:40am Alarm goes off.

5:50-6:20 Drive to work listening to motivational speakers on CD.

6:30am Start work at Swerve Espresso Bar in Mosman, working four mornings a week keeps some discipline in my life, helps with cash flow, and keeps my finger on the pulse in regard to pouring espresso.

11:00-12:00 Driving to training venue – listening to CD of professional speech trainer on public speaking, overcoming fears and breathing techniques.

12:00pm Training room at Morgan’s Handcrafted Coffee. Here I have replicated the WBC competition environment as closely as possible – identical machine and water filtration, sitting on identical purpose built benches. I go through my presentation six times, Dean Morgan films the sixth for me to take home and watch.

6:00pm 1 hour of business- emails, invoices etc.

7:00pm Watch through the day’s presentation on DVD while listening to my presentation music and looking at photos of the Tokyo competition venue.

8:00pm Visualization – Picturing in my head the whole experience – flying to Tokyo, the people, sights and sounds, getting ready on the day and then going through my set up and complete presentation – visualising the judges faces, my friends faces and the crowd.

9:00pm Researching on the internet – finding photos of the judges and locations for visualization, and of course, studying coffee.

10:00pm Relax and process the day, allow myself to slow down while I think through what I have done and how I can improve for tomorrow.

11:00pm Bedtime.

Tags: barista, coffee, coffee australia, espresso, espresso coffee, Scottie Callaghan, specialty coffee, World Barista Championship 2007

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 14th, 2008 at 10:48 pm and is filed under Barista & Roaster Profiles, Online Magazine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.