be a goldfish

I wouldn’t normally use Ted Lasso as my inspiration. I love the way the writers apply his story telling and anecdotes. As a coach, I love an anecdote. I also love taking the players away from the perceived subject matter. In team talks, why do we always talk about cricket? It is often said, “no one remembers a team talk”. So, why bother?

However, I found as a coach that, if you deflect the players thinking by bringing in an entirely different subject matter, the player will listen. They will be intrigued. They'll want to see where the subject is going.

I was asked to coach a team once that were bottom of the league at the seasons mid-point. In our first meeting I asked them to think about how they could win the league from their current position. It definitely caught their attention. All I wanted to do was take their minds away from thoughts of relegation though.

In one episode, Ted introduces his view that the goldfish is the smartest animal in the world. Why is the goldfish so smart? Because it forgets everything within seven to ten seconds. When he introduced the concept, did he have the players attention? Absolutely he did.

In cricket especially, where the next ball comes along so soon after the previous one, the ability to move on is incredibly powerful. Whatever happened to the previous ball is nothing but history. It’s been recorded and that’s it. After the game, by all means look back at the experiences and use them wisely to build a stronger game for the next time and beyond. On the day. Forget it.

Golfers have the luxury of a walk to clear their mind after every shot – especially valuable after a poor shot. They use that time to rid themselves of the negativity and replace with positivity. Cricketers have moments. In most cases, less than a minute.

Runmaka has been set up in such a way that balls are delivered with five second gaps. Why? This is to reinforce ‘moving on’ and focusing on the next ball. If an error is made, instinctively the player can play on, rather than stop and address with too much over analysis of the situation. This isn’t to replace analysis. That can happen elsewhere. In Runmaka, this is an environment to hit and hit again. As I’ve said before. A variety of training is more effective than repeating the same training over and over.

Runmaka has the potential to introduce sessions where stop and think is possible. We can provide a multitude of training styles.

Batters that can adopt the ‘goldfish’ approach will generally find themselves operating within the moment. It’s a package though. Use the history wisely (later), operate in the here and now (next ball), but plan ahead (awareness of each games stepping stones).

Runmakas intention is to reinforce that goldfish mindset – be the smartest animal…

Oh yes, one more thing. I was no longer the coach, but the team won the league two years later!