So the last few weeks have been
me turning into a stress ball trying to determine my partner for the 2014 Yukon
River Quest (YRQ). The YRQ is a 750Km marathon canoe race from Whitehorse to
Dawson City, Yukon. This is 12 day holiday canoe trip that teams RACE in
approximately 55 hours (69 hours is the maximum when you are pulled from the
race). So when the going got tough for this
paddling decision, who did a turn to: my ex-curling teammates of course and
mostly Kerry Galusha (my curling teammate of 18 years). There is no one I know
who knows more about forming teams and teammates than Kerry! But what I learned
in this process is picking teammates is a fairly similar process across sports,
the stresses and thought processes are not all that much different. And what better a time to discuss team
dynamics and teammates than an Olympic year; teams parting ways after disappointment,
new teams forming for another 4 year training cycle and of course championship
teams forming for Sochi.
I LOVE team dynamics! For me a
team is more than just looking for success in a specific sport or towards one,
single performance goal. I play sports for experiences, challenges, goals and personal
growth and I pick teammates for those same reasons. Curling coach, Bill Tschirhart from BC, outlines his formula for a winning
performance as;
P = SL+E+C-D+/-TD+/-PF&N+/-L+A
In Bill’s formula; SL= skill
level, E= experience, C= confidence, D= distractions, PFN= personal fitness and
nutrition, L= LUCK and A= attitude. All of these are dependent on your choice
of teammates and what you bring out of each other and it shows the depth we
need to look in choosing teammates.
Kerry Galusha and I played as
curling teammates over an 18 year span. We have chatted about this before and I
know Jill Officer (Team Canada- Sochi) expressed these same sentiments after
the Olympic Curling Trials about herself and Jennifer Jones; after that many
years you begin to feel like sisters and not teammates. Sure, you have disagreements
and some frustrations now and then with teammates like this but Kerry is the one
person who I never doubt during a game, I know has my back and at the end of
the day will be standing beside me win or lose. Granted, I lived with the Koe
family for many years which meant she couldn’t get rid of me too easily! But at
the end of the day this is a teammate that the majority of the time we have
shared a competitive drive, similar goals and a way of understanding either
other that moves beyond discussions and planning. It is a relationship that is
intuitive at times.
I also chat a lot about a team I had
while attending the University of Alberta; Lori Olson-Johns, Natalie (Morgan) Halloway
and Tiffany (Odegard) Game. All four of us have had great curling careers and
continue to have success. Lori and Tiffany were both participants in the most
recent Alberta Scotties Championships and with Lori losing the final game! This
was a team that was young, full of ‘piss and vinegar’ and stacked with big
personalities. I remember at one point getting in deep with one another and not
even knowing if would have a full team showing up at the next game. We had
passion, attitude, drive, determination and we were too young to know when to
use things to our advantage and when to back off a bit. At the end of the day,
we beat Team Cathy King and Team Heather Nedohin, both Canadian Champions, to
move on to provincials in our home club! These were teammates I will always be
appreciate of and have friendships with. We got the best out of each other in
ways only each of could!
There are many other curling
teammates that I could go on to mention; Heather McCagg-Nystrom, Dawn ‘Dawny Mo’
Moses, Wendy Miller and others who I am appreciative for in terms of
performances and also personal reasons.
In picking a YRQ teammate I looked
to similar qualities; someone who could push me and I could push them to our
limits and challenges, in a pairing I had to know that I was putting in my 50%
and sometimes more of the effort, someone who could see me cry and at my
weakest and not judge, and of course someone who would work with and compliment
my sometimes OCD and type A personality. This is not necessarily the fastest, most
experienced or fittest racer/paddler but like Bill’s formula, it is teammate
that you can get performance, adrenaline and thrill with! And there were technical reasons too; I needed someone who was heavier than me to go in the back of the boat as I was NOT prepared to take on that responsibility.
So with teammates and
partnerships in mind and now determined for me and 2014 YRQ, I am excited for
the next stage of team dynamics… becoming a team or working towards cohesion. Technically
referred to as Tuckman’s Model of Group Development, and casually chatted about
as FORMING, STORMING, NORMING and PERFORMING. Besides being able to hang out
with cool teammates this is the process of sport that I love more than anything
else. We form together as a team, we go through our difficulties and storming,
we learn our systems and start norming, and then (and we know championships are
built on this) we learn to peak when we need to and perform. I LOVE it all and
even writing about it gets my adrenaline going. The challenges and tough
moments are always worth it at the end and as athletes we know that through
these challenges comes success. I remember at a World Curling Tour event in
Lloydminster, being so frustrated during some stormy times that the tears would
not stop. Even having to walk the cold golf course to get the tears to stop. But
that turning point became a weekend of our first WCT qualifying event and we
would go on to win the NWT/Yukon Championships that year.
So with all of this information
and the joys of team dynamics and forming team I wish everyone success in their
own decisions. Know that any stresses you feel in picking teammates is normal;
you are not the first or the last athlete that will go through all of this.
Know that you will have doubts at times but when it comes time commit there will
be something deep inside you as an athlete that knows the right decisions. Learn
from these experiences and when we are old these lessons will become good
rocking chair stories. But more immediately we should just be able to become better
people through these sporty- experiences.
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