Return from COVID-19
Take home message
Return to training without judgement, but an open mind to learning about our teammates.
For Coaches
Who are the self-starters that can assist others in the team environment? Who perhaps require a little more attention in times of stress and isolation?
For Athletes
Did you thrive or not? That’s good to know. What resources are available in your network to help you and your team through the next time?
A phone call with a great friend of over 20 years this week who works in elite sport, posed the question, “How will you handle the return to training?”
He was assembling some thoughts and recommendations at his organisation as to expectations with the reintegration of players and coaches. The context was this has been an unprecedented time for everyone, how will people return. Will there be relief to be back to training? Will players be in better or worse physical and mental condition? What if the players are not in appropriate physical condition? What about stress? Some people have been isolated or in a stressful situation for months? There’s stress regarding health of family members, loss of employment and isolation. It’s a similar story at many organisations of reduced hours or staff - not everyone will be returning to work. Every location has had different restrictions and therefore different impacts. There are just so many potential scenarios.
Looking for the pot of gold?
As our chat progressed, I came to the conclusion that my first response should be ‘without judgement’ (which it probably should be a lot more of the time!). Whilst I have at times been disappointed with what some players have not been able to achieve in their week, I have tried very quickly to turn that into: what can I do to help them in their situation? Can I or a teammate check-in and help? I think this is perhaps a time to learn more about our teammates. Who struggled without the camaraderie of their teammates? Who is a self-starter and who is not? Who, in time of injury or non-selection when likely to be isolated from the team, will I have to be more concerned about? I don’t want to sound naive, but I will be trying to turn all lessons into a positive - how I can be better as a coach. I will learn who might struggle in rehab when isolated from team training and who will be a self-starter. Who learnt other ways to train and who struggled out of routine. Which players can I link to share advice and work together. Who appreciates the phone call once a fortnight, and who needs more frequent contact. What do players (and coaches) have outside of sport and how they occupy their time.
Whilst our Olympic campaign was postponed and is still a strong focus for our squad, fortunately, my hockey scenario does not have the pressure of returning to peak competition in three weeks like an AFL or NRL. With interstate and international borders restricted, international competition seems quite a while away. However, we want to return to the daily training environment as soon as possible and will gladly take any hockey games we can. How will we handle the resumption? How will I handle the first greeting and training? As silly as it sounds, it won’t be with a handshake and a hug, but it will still be a very happy reunion and another important step back to normal on our road to being the best we can be.
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Thanks again. BA.