Fun and games play part in British success

Charles van Commenee has a reputation a no-nonsense coach, but as spikesmag.com explains some old-fashioned ‘fun and games’ played its part in Britain's medal success at the recent European Championships

Many elements contributed towards Great Britain’s record European Championships medal haul in Barcelona. Quality coaching, tick. Organisation, tick. Desire, tick. Comedy, tick, again.

Hold on, what has that got to do with improved athletics performance?

Well, while a bit of laughter therapy will probably not help an athlete run faster, jump higher or throw further – it is amazing how 100 black-rimmed glasses bought off eBay might have played it’s small part, okay, very small part in Great Britain’s success.

Hmm, I can see you are not convinced, so we’ll explain.

Fuzz Ahmed, the British high jump coach, and sometime actor on The Bill and EastEnders is what might be termed ‘a big of character’ and he was put in charge of ‘athlete entertainment’ during Great Britain’s pre-even warm-up camp in Monte Gordo in Portugal.

Now, while these camps are a time to focus and finalise preparations for Barcelona they can lead to occasional bouts of boredom, so what better way to lift athletes spirits and provide a welcome distraction than to buy 100 black-rimmed glasss, conveniently similar to those worn by Charles van Commenee, the UKA head coach.

Now what could those be used for, I wonder?

Come the official team photo the entire British team – unbeknown to Van Commenee – stick on their glasses,  leading to a look of astonishment from the Dutchman, followed by a big laugh. Talk about breaking the ice.

“Everyone put the glasses on and he loved it,” Martyn Rooney, the European 4x400m silver medallist and 400m bronze medal winner, told spikesmag.com. “It helped lightened up the team and added to the enjoyment.”

During the European Championships in Barcelona, Rooney and his GB 400m team-mate, Michael Bingham, who won 400m silver, also took the joke a stage further by appearing on a BBC TV interview ahead of the 4x400m final wearing the glasses. The interview raised a laugh back home and Rooney added: “It was all in good taste and good fun, although I think Bingham pulled it off better than me because he can do the college geek thing.”

It was not only the glasses which provided some light relief among a united British team. At the holding camp in Portugal quizzes and games were organised by Ahmed, and provided a further welcome distraction
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According to Rooney the quiz – the teams were apparently determined by height order – was ‘awesome.’

“We did quick-fire questions and people had to do forfeits, if they cheated,” he added. “It was all done in good taste, so we had Perri Shakes-Drayton pretend to be a dog barking and one of the team doctors had to be snake on the ground.”

European long jump bronze medallist Chris Tomlinson has been a Great Britain regular for the best part of a decade and he believes the ‘team’ has become more united thanks to the fact most athletes train together at either Lee Valley in North London or at Loughborough.

But he also believes the fun enjoyed on these trips add a important element to life on the training camp.

“Obviously, when you are at these camps you can be bored, we had a game called ‘who is in the bucket.’ which is similar to charades which was good fun,” said Tomlinson. “Fuzz is a lively character to say the least, and I know it sounds cheesy but it does help team bonding. When he is organising games it creates a good atmosphere.”

Rooney also backed this viewpoint and added: “Monte Gordo is a great camp, but it is quite isolated,” adds Rooney. “It’s very hard to stay focused on athletics the whole time, so you need something to break it up a bit and it brought the team together. I was in a (quiz) team with people I normally wouldn’t be with and it and was great to have that interaction you normally wouldn’t have.”