Article 1 Part 2 – Strategy & Tactics (cont.)

As we move along in our series,  we will continue with the strategic planning process.

 A Strategic Profile determines your team’s central philosophy and perspective on the game,              and has the potential to shape all aspects of your strategic decision-making.  With this we MUST understanding if your team forms to a standard of the 3 profiles or can you mix it up and use the profiles when needed? The 3 standard strategic profiles are:

Colleen Jones (Defense), .

1.       Defense First

This profile centre’s around the “Patience is a virtue” philosophy. You use simple and basic shots while utilizing take outs mostly. Your game will be comfortable in close and is low in the scoring.  Defense first takes a great amount of patience and a lot of mental toughness.

 The Ferbey four (Offence) 

2.       Offence First

On the other hand; offense first takes the “No guts, no glory” approach. Shots will be knotty and complex with a lot of finesse shots having to be made. Aggression is the name of the game and you better have great resilience.

 The Great Schmirler team (Balanced)

3.       Blended/Balanced Attacked

So what about this blended/balanced attack concept? Well we have all heard it “Time is everything”; your success will come from playing the odds. You won’t care if the shots are take-outs or finesse, you can do it all but remember timing and communication is going to be everything.

Hey and if you think I am full of it or you have to choose in order to be success; Wrong. Each type of these profiles have produced champions; Colleen Jones (Defense), The Ferbey four (Offence) and of course the great Sandra Schmirler team was balanced attack.

Remembering that your specific performance  capabilities are every bit as important as your collective preferences, which Strategic Profile seems to be best suited to your team, and why? Only you and your team can decide and I would suggest if you don’t know ASK…ask before you throw one more rock.

You can change the profile any time you want but communicate that. You can change end to end if you want but you and your skip need to be one the same page. Communication of the profile is the key to even the simplest success.

A Game Plan represents your team’s general blueprint for the upcoming game, previewing the basic strategies that you intend to employ as the game progresses from one stage to the next.  When making a game plan you will need to establish clear targets but make sure you establish challenging but realistic goals. You will need to structure every game in a consistent, communicated and logical manner.

So what does that lead us to next? Well; if you ever wondered what Jim Armstrong is great at and how his success is so profound, then you would have noticed his ability to control the game.  Game Control represents a potentially sustainable scoreboard advantage that, without guaranteeing it, clearly enhances a team’s odds of eventually winning the game and you have seen it!

To understand game control you have to understand there are degrees of game control. Basically there are 3 simple degrees of game control.

1.       Definite Control  - 3 up with or 4 up without

2.       Limited Control – 1 to 2 up with or 2 or 3 up without

3.       Potential Control – tied with or 1 up with out

Now the game of wheelchair curling is ever evolving and the fact is I have seen a team that is up 4 with still end up losing, so save your comments and emails these are only guidelines not gospel.

The other major aspect to Game Control is End staging. End staging is establishing your team in correct throughout the ends in order to win. Simple right! So in the 8 end game there should be 4 stages. Stage 1 takes place over end 1 and 2. Stage 2 takes place over ends 3 and 4. Stage 3 takes place over, guess what; end 5 and 6 and finally and not to insult anyone stage 4 of course over ends 7 and 8.

In our next article we will get into more specifics about what should be occurring in the game and end plans as it relates to each of our strategic profiles.