Warrior Coaching

As we get back home from this years Bootcamp and start to unpack our kit it is a good time to recount the experiences we had and the lessons learned.  As always there were some strong themes that kept arising and they were very relevant to everyday life, even when you’re not in the middle of nowhere trying to get up a steep incline.

There a few blogs coming this week to share the stories, the experiences and the lessons learned.  Here is the first instalment.

Teamwork/ Communication

Straight from the off it was evident how fast situations can get complicated simply through a lack of teamwork and communication.  As we travelled down we went in two car loads with the brief that we would stay together and go at a steady rate.  However, the excitement over the weekend ahead lead to some over enthusiasm and one car started to pull away during the journey along the M4.  Before long the two cars were out of sight of each other.  Theoretically this was not a problem as all parties were briefed on where they were going so as long as they followed the plan everything would fall into place.  But as we know from life, it doesn’t always work according to a plan does it?

Sure enough by the time we got across the bridge into Wales we had learned that the M4 was closed from junction 24 onwards.  The plan was to drive to junction 32 so this clearly through the prepared tactics off track.  First thing to do was make a quick call to the other car.  No answer.  No doubt a combination of driving and listening to some tunes along the journey meant they didn’t notice their phone going.  And in the space of a couple of hours the smooth plan had turned into a situation where the team was split up, out of communication and having to tackle a change of plan with no knowledge of have the other party were approaching the challenge.  Well, we had to stick with the plan that we had originally set.  After all the destination was the same it was just the route that had to be adjusted to account for unforeseen circumstances.  Out came the AA road map and after some quick adjustments we were on track driving up the A449 to meet with the A40 and travel into Brecon without any real problems.  We’d see the other car there.

As we closed in on the campsite that we always go to every year it seemed to be a great deal busier than usual.  Essentially the campsite is a sheep farm and the farmers are happy for hikers to camp out in their fields for a relatively small amount of money which always suited us very well.  However as we closed in it appeared that the campsite had been organised into some form of an event with stewards/ marshals, a music tent and a beer tent?  None of us had ever seen this before?

Well it turned out we had arrived on the same weekend of the Jazz Festival which sees people from all over Wales flock to Brecon for what appeared to mainly be a heavy weekend of boozing.  From the untrained eye it looked the camping area of V Festival which was a long way off what we were used to finding when we got there.  And as you can imagine with such organisation the deal we were used to having with the farmer was drastically different to today’s prices which were quoted to us at £30 a night?  So naturally we explained our situation and that we weren’t going to be attending the festival and enquired about where to camp without all the facilities.  As they recognised us from our annual trip a deal was made.  However, we were unable to speak for the other car load?  In fact as they had raced ahead they were probably already there and the Brecons being the Brecons there wasn’t really a great deal of phone signal to establish contact.

So after 2 incidences which affected the previously concrete plans, we were now driving amongst dozens and dozens of tents trying to locate the rest of our team.  We couldn’t find their tents/ car anywhere?  After a couple of laps of the area we simply decided to head for the quietest area we could find and start pitching the tent.  After all it was pitch black at night what else could we do?  Sure enough within about 15-20 minutes there must have been just enough signal for them to phone us.  And we had a couple on the phone the other end explaining that they had just got here and did we know that a Jazz Festival was on?

As it had turned out, despite racing ahead on the M4 they had managed to get the navigation wrong once they were faced with an obstruction.  They couldn’t understand how it had happened as they were using a sat nav, and pointed out the kit took them the long way around.  And there was the first lesson of the weekend and we hadn’t even pitched our tent.  In fact there were two good lessons.

Lesson One

When working as a team, stay as a team with good communication and a clear plan that everyone understands.  Naturally unforeseen circumstances can mean that plans have to be adjusted so having the team in close communication these changes can be made without any party being out of the loop.  On our trip we had all had to make decisions as individuals and it led to one group making inefficient choices because they were isolated in unfamiliar terrain.

Lesson Two

Don’t assume technology will save you if you don’t know the basics.  A big part of our Bootcamp weekends is navigation and one thing we talk about is the use of maps against GPS.  Which is very similar to using the AA road map against Sat Nav.  Now both groups had Sat Nav technology in the cars, however one car went straight for the technology and the other car checked the road map first, and never needed the aid of technology.  After all, the technology only helps if you already understand the basics and you should not be hiking according to GPS if you don’t know how to read a map with a compass.  Same for car journeys though admittedly many rely on technology now the Sat Nav is available.  The question is where else do we rely on technology where we don’t have the basic knowledge to verify if it is taking us in the right direction?

Next we’ll talk about the next lesson which true to form with Warrior Bootcamp is never very far away.