A new weapon for your coaching and rigging arsenal—Plan B.
June 1, 2010 by Mike
Filed under Rig Differently, Think Different
Okay, riddle me this . . . what do you do when you have a plan to get something done—and that plan doesn’t work?
For instance, you’re driving your trailer full of shells to an important race. The race site is only 1 hour away, you’ve got plenty of time . . . and then your trailer gets a flat. And then another. And one more.
Arggh—three flats.
Your Plan A just went down the tube. What do you do?
Or you’ve got this fantastic (and killer) workout planed. You’re going to be practicing 3 X 1500 meters, in eights, at race pace. This is going to be great. And then you learn 8 minutes before practice that three athletes are not coming to practice due to illness.
Plan A shot to heck. What do you do?
Sitting in your easy chair, reading this, the answer is easy: You give it another try.
Yup, that is what we do as rowers and coaches. We come up with another plan and try again. And what we commonly call that next effort is Plan B (aka Backup Plan).
And a while ago I got thinking, “Just how often do I use Plan B?”
So I started to keep track. And I found the following:
I’ve found that, on average, I tend to find success with Plan A 70% of the time, have to use Plan B 15% of the time, and fall back on Plan C 5% of the time. And 10% of the time I just don’t get it done.
Like I said this is on average. Some things I’m batting about 100% (like getting up in the morning) and others I’m doing pretty poorly (like workable ideas to stop the BP oil leak). But this made me realize that Plan B, prepared ahead of time, could be a pretty important secret weapon.
And what if this graph held true all the time, for everyone?
Would you be more willing to have a Plan B? Maybe even a Plan C?
Could Plan B be your secret weapon?
That graph looks about right to me. I always find myself reverting to plan B–well maybe not always…but say 20% of the time. I do need to work on my plan C’s though.
Sometimes I feel that I’d be better off if my plan-B became my plan-A because it happens more then I care to offer but feel that would only create a new plan-B.
Mike,
You are correct about having a plan B. You know, “the best laid plans of mice and men” etc. etc.
Life in general is always full of surprises. And most of those surprises are out of our control. The athletes getting sick, a school project getting in the way, the weather. I could go on and on but you know what I am talking about. I have, for a long time now, always had a plan B for every training session. I don’t like to show up for practice with a single goal and have it shot full of holes and then stress over what to do now. Therefor I always have a plan B that regardless of the situation I can make it work.
It would really be great to be able to design a training program and follow it to the “T”, but we both know that won’t happen.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, I get a big kick out of reading your stuff.
as we do not have a coach and some people who believe that you have to be a perfect sculler so you can be a perfect sweep rower do you agree with this or can you suggest why sculling is bad for sweep rowing
Yes, it comes down to being adaptable, which is always a secret to success. As John Wooden says . . . Things turn out better for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.
Mike, you are one of those people and I so like being a part of your conversations, even if I mostly just listen, because it affects me so positively.
Cheerio!
K.
Nice one – thought provoking.
We have a learn to scull course coming up for two squads of ten athletes, for a month. I had better get my plan Bs together.
Thank you once again Mike.
Michael
PS Anybody want to join our course in Bermuda?!
I agree wholeheartedly except are you assuming that the team is fairly consistent? I agree that coaches must develop a skill to be adaptable to the changing nature of the weather, water, and athletes. However, I find, being a rec. sculling coach, the biggest factor for having a Plan B is the inconsistency in attendance of my rowers. Boat lineups are always having to be changed depending upon who does not show up. So I experience more Plan Bs that I would like.
Thanks for reminding us to recognize that we need to be adaptable and prepared for Plan Bs, Cs, etc. However, when Plan A happens, it is truly fun.
Terry G.
Yes, it gives more planning tips, suggestions, and help how to maximize your rowing equipment, video, audio, dvd learning and training also available
good information