Le Bomb Squad: Le Blogue 4
Every sports team has a bomb squad – the group of impact players who come off the bench to finish the game. Here is Le Blogue 4's.
An interesting trend has emerged where sports teams adopt positive terminology for their “bench players”. Most teams use the term "Finishers" to recognise the bench’s role in finishing a game plan. The Harlequins (UK) use “Game Changers”, and the Springboks use "The Bomb Squad".
Le Blogue itself has a bench of very capable stories that didn’t get printed due to a page limit.
In #4, two stories just missed out on “starting”. Ciaran Dayaram spoke about "Injury", and Jason Mulder gave some "Lessons from a Coach".
Here they are (summarised in point form) for a quick Monday morning ponder. Enjoy!
Lessons from a Coach
by Jason Mulder
From local Cape Town hockey fields to the international stage, Jason has worked with high-performance athletes from all corners of the world. Here are some of the lessons he has learned:
You're not always right. Being comfortable when you're wrong, recognising your error, being able to apologise, and acknowledging where you can be better is essential.
Whether you're a coach, leader or teammate, you need to be aware that your presence can genuinely influence someone's life.
When you live for others, your life becomes more meaningful.
Great things have small beginnings. When you zoom out of the daily practice, the compound interest of small actions becomes clearer. Being 1% better every day really helps.
Focussing on the process is more important than focusing on the result. Don’t just focus on the end goal; look at how you’re getting there.
Living the dream requires enormous sacrifice.
Being passionate makes hard work easy.
Injury
by Ciaran Dayaram
Only the experience of injury can teach you how to be injured. When you do get injured, just know that you aren't alone in the experience. Here are the things I learned in the process:
Take it step by step. Injury sucks. The injury process sucks. Prehab sucks. Rehab sucks. But you need to do it. Take it step by step.
Stay aligned by creating small goals. Don't look at the end. If you're told it will be an eight-week recovery process, understand that the period is estimated. Listen to your body, do what is needed in each moment of the day and be patient.
Make sure your effort is perfect. You have to understand that it's not going to be easy. Some days will be rough, and it's okay to struggle through it, but just make sure you're moving forward each day. That's all it takes. You will get there eventually. As long as your effort is as perfect as it can be, the outcome will take care of itself.
There are only some things you can control. Sometimes life will throw you a curveball. You need to roll with the punches and practice gratitude so that you can adapt and react to change.
Injury isn't only physical; it's mental too. You need to pay attention to your body because it will talk to you. If you’ve lost connection to your body, find out how to reconnect.
Slow down and try to find the lesson your injury is trying to teach you.
Thanks to everyone who reads and contributes to Le Blogue. To read the full publication, click here.
If you’d like to see more Bomb Squad stories, let me know in the comments below.
Danko,
Le Editor.
As I'm currently recovering (slowly) from a total knee replacement op, I particularly enjoyed the comment that even 1% improvement is progress ....... THANK YOU!!!! :-)