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Les Wilson, who I am proud to say I brought on board with
the Canadian Soccer Association in the 80's as the manager and administrator of
the National Teams program, used to talk about the 7 P's.
The 7 P's went like this - Poor Planning and Preparation Produce
Particularly Poor Performance - except that Les did not use the word
"Particularly". Instead he would stray
into the vernacular by substituting "Particularly" with the 4-letter P-word.
As coaches we need to plan and prepare, but there is a
limit. Over preparation can leave
players and teams flat.
Case Study One
England
is their preparations for World Cup 2010 went into a training camp in Austria.
This after an arduous season - for most - in the EPL. The European training camp was followed by a
lock-down situation in South
Africa in part of because of the security
concerns there. Pro soccer players are
red blooded competitors who have to let their hair down every so often -
hopefully in a semi-responsible way. England
did not "bubble" in South Africa.
Case Study #2
In the Women's World Cup presently now in its final stages in Germany, Canada went in ranked 6th
in the World having qualified impressively by winning the CONCACAF play downs.
The coach with some justification decided that a long period
of preparation in a professional environment was required. As a result, from the beginning of the year
to the start of the tournament some of the players spent only 10 days back in Canada with the rest of the time in a training
camp in Italy
or at tournaments abroad.
The team came up flat in their first two games and were eliminated.
In the case of Fabio Capello (England)
and Carolina Morace (Canada) you
could understand what they were trying to do.
But I'm suggesting that there must be a balance.
Case Study #3
Good luck and good management go hand-in-hand so you have to
be careful you don't pat yourself on the back when things go well. It could be a case of happenstance.
As the coach of the Canadian Olympic Soccer Team we had won
our way via CONCACAF to the 84 Olympics.
Our principal sponsor at the time was Molson, the world-famous Canadian
beer company.
As you may know the Olympics are alcohol free.
Molson wanted to support the team. I was able to get a key for a spare room in
the dorms we were housed in at Harvard
University and under the cover of night Molson stocked our R and R room with all their
varieties of beer and put in a fridge as well.
I gave the key to our co-captains, Bruce Wilson and Bob
Lenarduzzi. The players did not abuse
the privilege.
Some years after Bob Lenerduzzi reminded me of the decision
and said that the players had appreciated the gesture as I was trusting their
judgment. As it happened, we had a good
Olympics and were narrowly beaten by Brazil in the quarter-finals. That Olympic experience paved the way for our
successful qualification to the World Cup (Mexico 86).
Did the key to the beer room help? Who knows?
Probably it did. But don't tell
the IOC people. I don't want to mess with them.
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