Team Dynamics

Most adventure racers come from a background of individual sports, whether that be cycling, running or triathlon. Adventure racing, on the other hand, is a team sport and hence group dynamics play an integral role. I’m sure some shrinks out there would have strong opinions as to how to minimize the adverse effects of team dynamics. Suffice it to say that whenever you get a group of people together and put them under stress, a dynamic will result.

Since adventure racing has been around for a few years, a great deal of experimentation has occurred around team dynamics. Some teams have trained together extensively before races. Other teams meet for the first time the night before a race. Regardless of the circumstances, a dynamic will result and those teams that handle it most effectively, will generally have the best results or at least the most fun.

As a general rule of thumb, if you have done your homework and put together a team of like-minded people with common objectives and expectations with a healthy dose of mutual respect and a similar fitness level, then the team dynamics will be strong. Now why is this important?

Adventure racing, by its very nature, is designed to push you beyond your comfort zone. Don’t think for a minute that race directors design courses with any consideration for your welfare and comfort. They will generally try to push you to your limits, then push you some more, and then just when you think you can’t be pushed any further, give you that one final push over the edge. Somewhere along this progression, your team will be tested and those which can handle the adversity the best, will prevail. So how do you prepare and test your team dynamics?

Most of your success in this area will again come from proper training. There’s a saying in military circles that "the more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war." The same holds true for adventure racing. If your team has trained beyond it’s comfort zone, you will have confronted issues surrounding team dynamics. You will know that "Joe the Volcano" erupts when the team is moving too slowly; or that "Suzie the Squirrel" gets squirrelly in technical mountain biking sections; or that "Get a Clue Nick the Navigator" gets really quiet when he has no clue as to where you are. If you’ve done it during your training, you have hopefully learned how to diffuse a potentially explosive race day situation. Now who cares whether you use a democratic or autocratic model to resolve differences; who cares if you all have attended anger management training; or if you espouse the latest New Age mumbo-jumbo and have a sit down meditation followed by a group hug. Ultimately, the team that moves the most efficiently towards the finishline will have the most positive experience. So do whatever it is that works for your team and do it quickly so that you can get about the business of finishing the race.

Some ideas for training around team dynamics are: do a really good ropes course. This will test your ability to work as a team and evince some interesting dynamics. Discuss various situations and talk about worst case scenarios and how you would anticipate handling them. Get out there and train "out of the box," and test your discussions.

Once you get in a race and you are confronted with "situations," you will hopefully be prepared. Inevitably though, you will encounter something which you have not considered. In those cases, try to take a deep breath, identify the problem, bounce around some solutions, chose one and drive on. You may not be thinking too clearly, in which case you may want to take a break and either eat or sleep. One situation that invariably gets people excited is when you are lost. In this case, get another set of eyes on the map; go through your triangulation exercises if you can, but ultimately, try to retrace your steps to the last point that you knew where you were and then figure out where you went wrong. After twenty-some hours of no sleep and not enough food, emotions can run high; but remember, you are a team—in it together and you can either band together and prevail or crumble and fail.

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