Changing Takt

The idea at the beginning of the year was to focus on short snappy stuff, with ball in hand as much as possible. You can work lads hard this way but they will never fall to their knees the way they would after a good hole opener. We wrote off Amsterdam saying things would get better but after our semi-final capitulation in Den Haag, it was time for an urgent review.

We were hunted down and slayed ungraciously. Rather than meet the challenge head on, we huddled into a ball and let them attack us. When we returned to training the following Thursday I was clear in my mind on what needed to be done. When I told the lads the focus at training was going to change a little, the body language was good. What followed was close to maximum effort through a series of long runs. A good reaction and a good start.

We upped the ante again tonight. The lads will have been too tired to count but there were 50 runs, varying in distance from 10 metres to 100 metres and broken up by ball drills. There were only a couple of isolated examples of lads heaped over roaring into a bush, but even they powered over the finish line.

I know I can be a whining auld bollicks when I'm training a team but there was little to bemoan tonight. You couldn't fault anyone's effort and its a good reflection on the bunch of lads that we have. They went about their business quietly and with purpose. Of course, we can't flog them every night but its important there is enough pain stored in the memory bank, so that we can call upon it when the going gets tough.

Last year, when we were on our knees, I talked alot about going to the well. This year, maybe we forgot where the well was. Action taken...the water mark is rising!