There is nothing more satisfying in any sport than being part of a team that has that winning formula and not only play for each other but create an atmosphere that makes you want to pull the shirt on and give your all for the cause at every opportunity.
Over the years I have been lucky enough to play at both ends of the spectrum in teams that look great on paper but very rarely if ever succeed, to the afore-mentioned that seem to just click together and success follows. It may seem strange to say I have been lucky to have played in teams that have little or no success but without this experience I would never have identified what I believe are the pitfalls and general failures of unsuccessful teams.
I fully appreciate that talent and ability play a big part in winning an event and this alone can be enough but I have also seen many a player/team who has so much ability but continuously fall short due to a poor attitude or are blinkered to their own frailties. This is where things start to get very tough for team selectors as it becomes a balancing act between players that can play together and potentially leaving a talented player out of the squad due to the negative impact they create.
There is also the scenario that you pick a rink full of players who are maybe the best in the club/county but aren’t necessarily a lead, second etc and maybe all predominantly play skip but you feel the quality they possess or player aura will see you through matches. In my experience of seeing this in competitions and doing the same thing myself it generally doesn’t work out. It is very hard to replicate what dedicated front end players give to a team as a good lead will consistently give you bowls in the head but also I feel you can have a situation where negativity and poor morale can creep into the rink. Top players have different styles of play and their own opinions of how shots should be played and can on occasions give off enough of a negative vibe that it can affect the shot you play. This can seriously affect the harmony between the players as you can start to doubt your own choices and question whether your teammates are criticising your decisions resulting generally in poor execution of a shot.
Having played for Durham County both indoors and outdoors for over 20 years I have been part of a very strange situation that sees our Liberty Trophy indoor team win the championship on a regular basis (Record 11 times) yet our outdoor Middleton team (right) have underachieved for many a year with our solitary success being in 2000. Now for all I appreciate the two formats are very different and the county has had some exceptional indoor players over the years it is hard to accept that a county the size of ours with probably 70% of the same players outdoors should struggle as much as we have.
This became an issue I have had to deal with since taking over the manager position in 2015 and is one I am still struggling to conquer but have maybe made some of the mistakes I talked about earlier. I have potentially fallen in to the trap of selecting who I believe are the strongest players but ultimately some don’t play for the team and cant look at the position of the overall situation and encourage where necessary. Apart from a time around the 2000 success there seems to have always been a culture of making sure their own result is positive rather than consolidating a situation to ensure the overall result is the right one. This is something that hasn’t been noticeably evident in our indoor team and we have always been renowned for being extremely strong at the end of games which comes from belief and fighting for each other.
In 2016 I have seen 2 teams that will be competing for team of the year and both epitomise my ideal requirements for a successful team. The first is Leicester City FC who shocked the football world after winning the Premier League and the other was the GB ladies hockey team at the Rio Olympics. Both of these teams were not expected to achieve what they did but the evident team morale and the sheer determination to give everything they had for each other reaped the benefits and to see the delight and celebrations that followed made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
I was lucky enough to be part of a similar situation this year when playing in the international series for England. I don’t think I have ever been part of a 24 man team that not only gave everything when playing but also were very much a team off the green and that includes the reserves. To hear a team mate congratulate a shot you have played from 3 to 4 rinks away not only boosts the morale of the player but also shows that there is genuine togetherness as a group to get the best result. I am also a big believer in continuously keeping the opposition on their toes and under pressure and if their concentration is drawn to something happening away from their rink then it can create the illusion of domination in a game.
This may not always result in a win but it is easier to go into your next game with a team that believe in themselves than one that has negativity running through it.
I certainly hope to help create a winning team mentality both as a player and a manager for as long as I’m still involved competitively and will hopefully continue to identify and learn what it takes to achieve this.