In crafting strategy, we try to impose order on a chaotic reality; the selection and disposition of a new team in a new season of footy!
Strategy attempts to create a system that will deal with this reality and channel it to our best interests. But even with a superb strategic vision and the formulation of prudent strategy, the best laid plans can go awry for many reasons.
Some of these plans can involve:
- Lack of responsibility – planning for the assignment of specific tasks before a match that allow you to coach and not be distracted by a multitude of questions that the team manager, assistant coach or committee members can handle.
- Overreach – Players, committee, supporters, sponsors who have ambitious goals for this season who think because they are in a lower grade there going to have instant success without considering the difficulties of developing a new team.
- Breakdown of communication – even with plans that are clearly articulated before a match, senior players, runners, water carriers and injured players who are supporting the team must continue to communicate the team plan throughout the match.
Note: Injured or players who are not selected for the match should position themselves around the ground to encourage their team mates and not sit or stand around the coaching box becoming a distraction. This practice should apply to all grades and become part of a new discipline in the club.
Poor intelligence – all players as part of the strategy ‘to do things differently’ now have a duty to keep their coaches informed of reasons why they cannot perform to their optimum level. Hidden injury becomes a coaches’ dilemma and is unfair to all team members. Future dates when players are unavailable should be communicated to the coaches as early in the season as possible.
Consideration should also be given to the strength of opposing teams and particular players who are the driving force behind them.
Inertia – We often think of inertia as resistance to change, for a body at rest to stay at rest, but it’s also the tendency for a body in motion to stay in motion in a particular direction on a fixed course.
Note: the number of players who do training laps in an anti-clockwise direction without ever thinking of going in the opposite direction.
Inertia is often blamed for mid-season slumps’, there are many reasons for this one being the length of time a team has been training from pre-season to the time of the slump, boring training routines, health issues, injuries and other factors.
The Chinese warrior philosopher Sun Tzu and his texts regarding ’The Art of War’ written more than two thousand years ago have been studied by successful AFL coaches including Mick Malthouse and Paul Roos.
Mick once replied when questioned by a reporter about the poor performance of some of his younger players replied; ‘The ox is slow but the earth is patient’ which led everyone to believe that he was the guru regarding ‘Bing-Fa’ or Soldier Law.
I have been told that Mick’s quote is not from the Bing-Fa it’s rather an old Chinese proverb, however the Bing-Fa is the most widely read text of military strategy. Modern scholars trying to shape economic policies of nations by understanding the strategy used by Chinese warrior psychologists realize their writing applied to competition and conflict in general, on every level through to international relations.
His aim was invincibility, victory without battle and unassailable strength through understanding of the physics, politics, and psychology of conflict.
For those who are interested in this subject the following is interesting from David G Jones B.A., M.A., Honorary Fellow Univ. King’s College
The picture is of Qin Shi Huang, first emperor of China – describing what Bing-fa is all about – not about combat, but about empire building.
Qin Shi Huang assembled the brightest minds from the known world and established academies of learning in the kingdom of Qin where they faced noble objectives: find a way to end war and build an empire of peace. They succeeded in a way that appeared magical to the common people (“None can see the strategies by which I succeed,” says the Bing-fa).
Jones cited that in twenty years of research in libraries and archives and consulting with authorities in various fields brought these new insights to life, while he uncovered several remarkable myths and mysteries. It is amazing to him that the accepted wisdom of Sun Tzu, Lao Tzu and the foundation of China is based more on myth than verified fact. His site addresses both the myths and the facts.
This page is dedicated to Trevor Beard of GT Bobcats who proudly sponsor the Pickering Brook Football Club.
Telephone: 0427 903 507 http://www.intothenick.com