Contingency planning
Issue: Volume 29 Number 2
Any good coach ensures that their players arrive at the competition venue ready to compete, fully hydrated, well nourished, injury managed, appropriately skilled and fit enough for their given task. Coaches should know which players will be best suited to which events, positions and so on, on any given day. They have usually researched the opposition and have an idea of their strengths and weaknesses. They understand different umpiring styles and how each may impact on performance.
But what if something unexpected comes up? What if the opposition has made major changes to their player line up? What if your key player gets injured in the warm up? What if half your team comes down with food poisoning after dining out the night before the competition on a road trip? What if your team kit doesn’t appear on the luggage carousel after a five hour flight to the competition destination and none of the team has their appropriate competition attire? What if your players are confronted with different scenarios to the ones they planned to combat?
Contingency planning and problem solving are vital components of a coach’s toolbox. A good coach will have the ability to pre-plan for some of the possibilities, or to come up with creative solutions very quickly after a problem arises. Clearly this planning needs to occur at two levels – firstly to facilitate the coach’s own performance and secondly to prepare the athlete for any contingency that may occur in the course of competition.
This article provides coaches and athletes with some strategies to prepare for even the most unexpected of circumstances; to trust their ability to think on their feet if the problem is something that nobody could possibly have foreseen.
By preparing coaches and athletes for a multitude of situations that may occur in competition, an automatic response can be triggered.
The list of situations is probably limitless, but this article identifies common scenarios for coaches and athletes and explores strategies to deal with them. This process can readily be conducted within normal coaching settings after a training session.
Coaching Contingencies
What if your top player is injured during warm up?
- Quickly re assess your options and choose a player replacement.
- Assess the impact of this on the structure of the side – preferably challenge a more established player to fulfil the top player’s role and give a less pressured role to the replacement.
- Stay calm and do not show any sign of disappointment, anguish etc. It is very important that you show faith in the replacement and your strategies to overcome the situation.
- Impart a sense of challenge to the team just before the start of competition, and ask leaders for a special effort.
What if the opposition coach has a plan that surprises you and is working?
- If you had done your ‘contingency planning’ this would not happen, so give yourself a slap on the wrist for that!
- Stay calm – think clearly how you might combat this plan.
- What can you change? Positions of players? Role of players? Defensive or offensive approach? Can you ‘hold game’ for a while until you can manifest a counter plan?
- If the players are not able to adjust themselves, then discuss after the event how they might have dealt with this situation. Use this as learning experience.
What if your entire team kit doesn’t appear on the carousel at the airport?
- The key is to delegate the task of finding a replacement kit or retrieving the existing one, while trying to keep yourself and the players focused on their task.
- Immediately call meeting of all assistants and delegate responsibilities:
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- have one person explore what happened to the gear and if there is a prospect of getting it back
- have another person contact a local sporting goods stores for a replacement kit
- make contact with your governing body to gain permission to wear alternative strips if necessary.
- Calmly discuss the issue with players and tell them that their job is to prepare to play as per normal.
- Ask players in future to pack a spare set of playing gear in case this happens again!
Player Contingencies
What if you panic in close competitive situations?
- Concentrate on yourself, not your opponent – allow yourself to rediscover your ideal performance state which typically will be more relaxed.
- Resume task focus.
- Develop ‘parking’ strategies, that is, park your problems and deal with them later.
- Use relaxation strategies, for example, breathing or key words.
- Accept a level of error as part of the game.
- Revisit previous positive outcomes from similar situations to increase confidence.
- Conduct scenarios that simulate these conditions.
What if you are learning a new technique but making no progress?
- Understand that whenever you change anything, it will not feel as comfortable and will most likely lead to initial performance increment.
- Be persistent and patient – reinforce why technique change is going to improve performance.
- Talk to your coach to determine why the difficulty in changing technique is occurring.
- Identify the part of the skill that is causing problems and practise in isolation.
- Walk away for awhile and have a break.
- Go back to a simpler level to achieve a positive outcome.
- Alter your learning environment, for example, bring in another coach or seek out an indoor environment rather than one affected by weather.
- If you are in a team environment, commit to one-to-one sessions.
What if you have a poor attitude to away games or events?
- Identify your cause of attitude – negative, anxious, lethargic, history of away performance etc.
- Change the situation into a positive one by seeing yourself as an ‘underdog’.
- Use the opposition crowd to motivate you to play stronger – the game does not change because you are at a different venue.
- Plan for idiosyncrasies of the opposition venue, for example, size of ground or type of court/playing field.
- Try to replicate home structures as much as possible in preparation.
- Try to get some practice on the surface, or a similar surface, prior to playing the match.
- Focus on your game plans.
- Control the controllables.
What if you have a bad practice the day before the competition?
- Say to yourself 'good I’ve got that out of my system'.
- Focus on the positives - not everything was bad.
- Mistakes at practice provide a pathway to future training emphasis.
- Go back to basic skills.
- You will be playing in different conditions tomorrow so shrug it off and focus on the match conditions for the next day.
- Finish the practice session on a positive note, for example, a few good hits then stop training.
What if you are devastated with a loss or poor performance?
- See it as opportunity to develop and grow.
- Losses identify the areas that need improvement.
- Seek examples of others who have bounced back from disappointment.
- Focus on identifying areas to improve in the next practice session
- Expect to experience losses or poor performance from time to time.
As outlined earlier the list of such situations is almost limitless. The idea in this article was to demonstrate how this process could assist coaches and athletes by preparing them for a multitude of competitive scenarios.
The author would like to thank the participants in Commonweatlh Intermational Sports Conference 2006 who contributed some of the strategies for dealing with above scenarios
