There’s No ‘I’ In Team
The Australian AR calendar is packed full, with some spectacular team races on offer. Now is the time to look ahead, gather your team mates and get cracking.
As well as being immensely satisfying and a lot of fun, team racing brings a whole new set of demands. Your team of two-to-four must be within 100-metres of each other at all times. In these longer races, the challenge of working together as an efficient team cannot be underestimated – you really have the capacity to help or hinder each other. You can use tactics like towing (literally pulling them along on an elastic bungee cord), and many other tricks of the trade to keep team dynamics healthy, and everyone moving as fast as possible.
Take Responsibility
Obviously, everyone is ultimately responsible for themselves, but in a long race, looking out for each other is just as crucial. Tired people do stupid things and that affects everyone. For example, if you’re eating, check others are too.
Keep Moving
There’s not much you can’t do whilst moving. If it’s absolutely necessary to stop, discuss in advance, then make sure everyone does all their stuffing around all at once. If everyone stops whenever they feel like it (e.g: to get their waterproof etc.) you could end up stopping three or four times instead of once.
100-Metre rule
Aside from the fact that keeping together is a rule, spreading out is just inefficient. If you’re not close enough to talk then you’ll end up wasting time.
Team Roles
If not evident from the start, people’s strengths and weaknesses will probably help roles within the team evolve along the way. Work out who does what best (such as who navigates best in which disciplines). Someone usually takes on a ‘caring’ role, and you might nominate a ‘leader’ who has the final say in disputes.
Transition Tactics
Welcoming though they are, don’t get lured into stuffing around. Get organised in your mind before you arrive. Make sure everyone is in tune with the plan. Get in. Get sorted. Get out. You could easily save an hour.
Respect
An essential component. You don’t have to be best mates with your team or even know them very well (though it helps). In my mind, if you’ve got mutual respect then you’ll be okay.
When Things Go Wrong
Keeping calm is the best option. It is more important to work out the solution to a problem than decide who’s fault it was. If it is not helpful, don’t say it. At GeoQuest in 2006, we took Larry the Lizard, our mistake mascot attached to the back of a pack with a carabiner. Larry was a little rubber lizard who made all our mistakes. If anyone needed to vent then they just yelled at Larry! It was a great tactic for managing fiery tempers, and certainly helped bring out the funny side.
