One Stone, One End, One Game

 

by James Skitt - 15.02.10

As current men’s World Champions, Curling provides Team GB with a great prospect of gold medal success at the XXI Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, with the women’s squad also boasting a healthy mix of youth and experience, including 19 year old skipper Eve Muirhead, a three time World Junior Champion.

Dealing with expectation will be a crucial factor in any success, which is why English Institute of Sport (EIS) Psychologist Kate Goodger, delivering alongside the squads support through the Sport Scotland Institute of Sport (SIS), has been working with both men and women’s squads over the last 15 months to develop coping strategies that enable them to focus on the task in hand.

“The main strategies we’ve developed have been about ensuring there are robust team processes in place for game day and managing the tournament environment” Goodger says.

“We’ve tried to develop a real team philosophy that is process based which the curlers refer to as one stone, one end, one game” she explains.

Both squads have been working through a strategic model in order to support their individual emotional control, distraction management and effective decision making. However, as Goodger explains, the focus for the two teams is quite different.

“The men have a great deal of Olympic and major championship experience as a team” she says.

“Expectations are higher for them due to their current World ranking but their depth of experience helps them manage this as a potential distraction.”

“The women in contrast are a newly formed team with more than half being first time Olympians, together with the youngest captain in GB Olympic history. Therefore we’ve shaped the models to fit the different team dynamics, so in the men’s case that has focused around optimising communication and teamwork on the ice, whilst the women have developed clear roles, processes and strategies for game day.”

“In addition I have also worked closely with SIS Media Officer Katriona Bush to ensure that the messages given in the media reinforce the team philosophy, which for the less experienced athletes in particular is a really valuable approach.”

Goodger, whose support is spread across a periodised support programme which includes training camps and tournament attendance, will travel with the teams to their training camp in Calgary and then move onto Vancouver.

“The work at the camp and the games will really mirror what I have been doing with the teams at any event I have attended” she says.

“A conscious decision was made early on to normalise the Games as far as possible to be ‘just another tournament’, which is not easy but very necessary in managing distractions. Although the actual Games environment such as the village is very different from other championships, the performance environment is the same, so my role is simply to work with the teams as I have been, identifying potential issues before they become real ones.”

“During the tournament I am around the athletes to have individual sessions as required but on game day I work through the coach and attend the pre and post game briefings.”

The Team GB curlers in Vancouver will be:
Men: David Murdoch (skip), Ewan MacDonald, Peter Smith, Euan Byers, Graeme Connal
Women: Eve Muirhead (skip), Jackie Lockhart, Kelly Wood, Lorna Vevers, Annie Laird

Photography © Getty Images