Planning for the conditions

- conditions under which the game will be played
- situations that might occur during a game.
Conditions
It’s useful to have a checklist of what’s important to consider in your sport, especially when playing an away game. Examples might be weather, including wind, rain and temperature and the ground conditions or different playing surfaces.Planning for these variables requires two views; the right-hand quadrant view, which might be how tactics, games, clothing or equipment might change according to weather, and the other is the left-hand quadrant view – how different players think or feel about different conditions.We cannot know these thoughts or feelings unless we ask, and only then can we help players in planning.Things that players report as affecting their game, either positively or negatively, include parents or partners watching versus not watching, playing at home or away, the game being televised or not and different weather conditions.Situations
The second aspect is preparing for different match situations, specifically those deemed as key moments in a game – where managing that moment can have a bearing on the outcome.Examples are: being marginally ahead/behind close to the end of the game or being well-ahead/well-behind. It might be having a rain interruption in cricket, being dealt a poor referee/umpiring decision or having an injured player.An idea would be to bring up at least one such scenario per week and have players discuss what a poor response and what a good response might look like.By planning for these situations, when they do arise, players have ‘been there’ in their minds and thus would be somewhat prepared for them. This won’t guarantee success, but it’ll give a better chance than not doing it.Your task
Using a checklist is one way of ensuring you’ve considered everything in relation to conditions in your sport. In the comments, share items you’d include in your checklist.Collate relevant items from your ideas and those of your peers to create a checklist that could be used in your planning for conditions.Our purpose is to transform access to education.
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