Rod Davis
Reset
Setbacks, slumps, tough times, whatever you want to call them, we all go through them, both individually and as a team. You know the times that you feel like you and your team are not climbing up the ladder of improvement, but you’re stuck on just one rung. You can see others around you, still climbing, some gaining on you, some getting further ahead. The harder you try to move forward, the more frustrated you are at being stuck.
It happens in every sport; hell, it happens in business and in life. It’s a fact of life. Treading water, just trying to keep your, or your collective heads, above the surface, not moving forward. As a coach, we deal with individuals and teams in this situation all the time. So you learn to deal with it. What if I told you there are a few tricks to get out of it more quickly… It’s called the ‘reset button’. Just as with most things, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. If you can see it coming, or even have the slightest hint it’s possible: push the ‘reset button’.
That is why the reset button should never be confused with the ‘panic button’. Coaches never panic… that is the first thing you learn in coaching 101.
I can hear you asking ‘so what is this reset button, what does it mean, and where does it come from?’ It comes from the school of hard knocks, mostly my school of hard knocks, but some others make the book too.
The book is a collection of my notes over the last umpteen years of things I have learnt, should have learnt, am relearning, been taught, and just thought about until the answer arrived like a lightbulb when the switch is thrown. The book is decades old, worn to the point of being haggard, handwritten, scribbled really in pencil and ink of about every colour. It’s my coaching bible. Where I go to find answers and inspiration for both my coaching and sailing. Not much to do with how to sail, lots to do with how to get the best out of people, both as individuals and teams.
OK, let’s open the book and see what it says about getting restarted after being stalled.
22 SEAHORSE
There are no page numbers, and no order to the notes. To find anything, you have to thumb through the pages. Good thing I know where we are going, more or less. Let’s see, Five Lessons Learnt from the All Blacks (New Zealand’s world champion rugby team), nope, not that one. What is Communication? That is a good one (but not what we were looking for)… here is what we were looking for.
The heading at the top of the page: Preventing and Getting Out of a Slump.
The ‘preventing’ part was only added a few months ago, when I learned that the same concepts promote prevention… much better than curing after the fact.
I will relate all this to a team racing their sailboat. You can interpret things to fit your situation – sailing, work or whatever. 1. Back to Basics Do the basics right and you are 90 per cent there, don’t get lost in the tricky shit. When it comes to crew work you can push things to the last second, by design or just inattention, and completely mess up. It’s not rocket science – at the leeward mark we have to get the jib up, get the big balloon-like sail onboard, down below, and pull the sails in as we turn the mark. Everyone has their role. The guys in the back don’t throw in an extra last- second gybe, the halyard is flaked ready to go, and the boys up front know the timing. You push it, you can gain a few metres. You push it and don’t get the basics right, you lose 15 boat lengths and it’s race over. Risk vs Return… not rocket science. Starting: a solid basic start is anywhere on the line, full speed and where you can sail free for the next three minutes… the basics. The tricky start is fighting with five boats for the favoured end – if you are lucky enough to win the fight you get the golden start. The other four teams – well, they are well back in the pack now, at best. 2. Concentrate on Positive Things Not what is wrong, but what needs to happen for it to go right. For example, if you feel like you’re always racing in a fluster, with no time to think or make decisions, perhaps you just need to pre-plan more. When another boat is approaching, the tactician or helmsman calmly says ‘if he tacks on us here we will tack away because I am happy to go the other way’.
MAX RANCHI
RICHARD LANGDON
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