Stay calm and be simple

Take home message

plan for as much as you can.
check your work and stay calm.

For Coaches

Avoid the essay - keep instructions simple.
Always consider multiple options / routines. Have a Plan B.

For Athletes

In the busy moment trust your preparation and stay calm - execute.

S&C coaches in a team environment can tend to have a few roles than just typical “S&C stuff”. Sometimes, the job description is so vague that it covers anything really.  Which can be a good thing as the diversity of experience increases our awareness of other ways of doing things and what our colleagues have to consider in their roles. I believe this breadth increases our skill set.

For example, because we are responsible for loading, we can be involved in competition scheduling (even when the bus should leave the hotel for training!).  Because we do the “fitness stuff”, we are asked about menus and food quality (even though the nutritionist sent through the menus to the hotel).  Because physiology can dictate match work outputs, we can be involved in rotation strategies.  However, there is a very fine line between rotation strategies for physiology and rotations for tactical performance.  One is S&C/Physiology and the other is coaching. But being aware of the relationships between the cogs in the machine, gives us a greater understanding of how the machine works, and opportunities to improve our skill set by learning from others.

Interestingly, I finished my time with the Hockeyroos at Pro-League 2019 on the bench helping with rotations.  Long story short, moving to the bench enabled the Head Coach to sit elevated in the grandstand with a greater tactical perspective of the field instead of on the bench at pitch level.  In doing so, a spot opened on the bench that was filled by me.  In a perfect world, we would have had two assistant coaches on the bench and I would have kept my usual match day coding role (note: not an S&C role, so still multi-tasking and learning about the Analysts world). However, we were a coach short on this particular tour and sometimes, many hands make light work. 

On the bench, I was responsible for assisting with the rotations – telling which player would sub for which player at what time.  We already had a matrix, my role was to facilitate its execution. To be honest, it’s a widely known fact amongst all players and coaches that the first game I was on the bench, I had one eye on the rotation matrix and the other on the clock that I hardly saw the game and did not even know who scored for us until much later!  I was exhausted at the end of the game.  However, a key piece of feedback from the players and coach on the bench was my calm nature.  Apparently on the outside, I appeared calm and controlled!  I certainly did not feel calm.  However, as much as I deflect a compliment, I was calm.  I think I was able to put this down to a few things that I would encourage coaches to develop:

1.       Have a plan.  We had a rotation sheet that listed our proposed substitutions.  So I was not making it up on the spot (our senior coaches do this and it looks amazing, like they’re conducting an orchestra). 

2.       Measure twice – cut once.  It is the only thing I remember from Year 8 Woodwork (that tip and also that I was pretty terrible at woodwork), but the advice somehow has stayed with me.  Before each message to players, I would check my sheet, and then check it again.  Only then would I communicate to the athlete.  No one likes confusion, especially an athlete subbing during a final!

3.       Primacy and recency.  I learnt this a long time ago.  People remember the first thing and last thing easily, and maybe some of the middle stuff (for me, it might only be the last thing – ask my wife!).  Key point, people generally don’t absorb a lot of information, particularly on an interchange bench with an intense game in-front and a loud crowd behind.  The game moves fast and players act instinctively.  My messages to the players needed to be short, concise: “Your taking Emily in one minute”.  They hear, “Emily” and “one minute”.  They don’t need anything else. And I am certainly not going to be providing tactical or technical advice (my players have seen me try to hit a ball. They know not to take advice on how to play from me!).

Calm blue oceans…

4.       A stressed mind is a contained mind.  Getting worked up helps no-one and only makes decision making harder and the situation worse.  With coaches busy in tactical decisions, I needed to stay calm and I think the players needed a calm reference point on the bench too.  The interchange bench is a place for controlled energy.  You don’t want to send out a athlete running wild.

I am forever grateful that the Head Coach trusted me with such a position.  My first game was essentially a dead rubber – it had no effect on our final ladder position prior to finals.  My last game was the Gold medal match which we lost in shoot-outs to a fantastic team.  Needless to say, the pressure increased from that first match to the last, but I think I did alright. 

Regardless of your situation, when the pressure is on, trust your planning, check your work, keep communication brief and stay calm.