Go with the flow - it doesn't always go to plan
Take home message
not everything goes to plan. be prepared to react.
For Coaches
Always have contingencies and a calm, open mind to changes to routine. Practice alternatives so that people can be on the same page quickly.
For Athletes
Whilst routines are important for preparation, best not to be too rigid that a change to routine distracts you.
Last year, the start of one of our international matches was delayed by 2 hours because the watering system failed and the organisers could not water the pitch (water on the hockey pitch helps the movement of the ball, but also the slight lubrication is better for grip with dry pitches notoriously dangerous being “over-grippy”).
It brings me to one rule that I try to operate by, but not the moral of the story – under promise and over deliver. We were regularly assured it would be ready for the game. It wasn’t. In fact, it was never fixed for the game and the fire department was actually called in to water the pitch by hand! True story.
What I want to highlight is the ability for our players and staff to “go with the flow”. We have had bus delays to the match (that also happened earlier on this tour – 25mins late to pick up the team for the game. We always plan a bit of “fat” in the transport times, but not that much. Needless to say, it was a quick brief in the rooms at the ground before warming-up!). Sometime the food is not ready at the hotel post-match. Or change rooms can be the size of a telephone box (those were before we had mobile phones, kids). But I’ve never experienced a situation where we did not know if the game was on or off. I appreciate athletes such as tennis players may experience delays, or cricket batters waiting. The hockey players have been preparing all day for performance at a certain time.
What was important was for the players to be ready to go at the drop of a hat. Once the process to water the pitch was in action, we had 15 minutes to get ready. This was also another important aspect – the normal pre-game routine was no longer routine and the players had to adapt quickly. Our warm-up occurred on the second pitch and was a different routine to our usual procedure. The coaches and I had to quickly manufacture a warm-up on the spot that would achieve the balance of physical warm-up, technical warm-up and mental preparation – get the players minds back on track after the ups and downs of a two hour hiatus without being over energetic and making the delay “a thing”.
I glad to say our players responded and started the match well. It will be an event that we will revisit for a couple of reasons:
Consider how we may actually warm-up: we do what we have always done because we have always done it that way. Is there another way? Of course there is.
Use it as an education piece, a moment to weave into the team culture about how to deal with disruptions to routine – “Remember when we were delayed two hours? We can handle this”.
It is interesting that often we have to find the balance between perfect and practical. There is a desire to be perfect in all areas of preparation, but that needs to be balanced with the practicality of preparation as not every situation permits perfect preparation. We need to develop our players, and our own systems, to be able to adapt to situations.
Plan A: This is how we would like it to go.
Plan B: these are the things we will do when we can’t do Plan A and we will be alright.
As in this case, with the water off, the players had to relax and just go with the flow (sorry – had to do it!).