#but sometimes i go on teamwork and i look at sports jobs and i'm like. i could do that | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mitskijamie · 5 months

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Do you think Ted was a good coach?

Oof. Controversy!

This is a loaded question, because if you look at his end results, you can't deny that he's a "good coach" in the sense that he was able to completely turn the team around and take them to the top of the league. He was definitely doing something right!!

However I feel like I can't really call him a "good coach" with my whole chest because he doesn't know ANYTHING about the sport he's coaching, nor does he really seem to make any effort to learn (like, he doesn't understand the offside rule until 3 years after starting the job. Why?) He's certainly good as part of a coaching team, because he's excellent at building relationships and connecting with his players, but he would be nowhere without Beard, Nate, and Roy, because at the end of the day a team just can't be successful if their coaches don't know anything about the strategy/technique of the game.

Also, Ted's expertise is in coaching kids, not adult professionals, and that really shows in how he handles Richmond sometimes. His whole "winning isn't what's important, it's all about teamwork and having fun and being the best version of yourself :)" is a fantastic mindset for, say, the coach of a little league team, but (as Beard points out) not as wonderful for coaching professionals whose whole job is winning. They're not there to have fun and learn the value of teamwork, they're there to win. I get that the return to football as a fun childhood hobby is a theme on the show, and there's nothing wrong with that, but I feel like Ted doesn't always fully understand the gravity of the sport for people who are truly invested, and he doesn't always do a great job of balancing "having fun and growing as individuals" with like. Doing what these men are paid millions of dollars to do.

As a preschool teacher, I think the way Ted handles conflict is also very reminiscent of how adults handle conflict between young children, which is another thing that would make him a fantastic coach for a kids' team but works against him in a professional setting. In s2, for example, rather than just going to Roy as a superior speaking to an employee and telling him to get over himself and coach Jamie because he's a grownup and that's his job, he tries to get Roy and Jamie to talk it out and come to a resolution like they're two kindergarteners fighting over a toy. He was doing Social Emotional Learning on them, and even though it ultimately benefitted them as individuals, it was not the best or quickest way to deal with a workplace conflict like that between two adults. Can you imagine going to your boss like "hey, the person who's supposed to be training me won't talk to me at all or answer any of my questions and I'm kind of lost" and they were like "lol and what do you expect me to do about that? That's on you, I'm not gonna tell him what to do" insanity

TL;DR I think Ted is fantastic with people and that's a huge asset to him in coaching, but I don't think he knows anywhere near enough about soccer to be a bona fide "good coach" of a professional team. I also think the way he handles his players and their conflicts would be an asset to him if he were a kids' coach or a teacher, but sometimes is frustrating and infantilizing when applied to professionals

#ask #ted lasso #actually when he said 'you want me to tell roy kent what to do!?' I was irritated as hell I was like YES 😭

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niuniente · 1 year

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Hi Niu, I know you read oracle more than tarot, but I've done a couple of bigger spreads for myself lately and one card keeps coming up over and over in a notable position and I'm really stumped at what the cards are trying to tell me, so I was wondering if you or your followers might have any insight.

I've gotten the 5 of Wands in the position for 'a new hobby I should explore in the coming year' as part of a spread I did for my birthday, and in the 'a new opportunity' position for a spread I did for the new moon in cancer a couple days back, but I genuinely don't understand how that might translate into my life? I know the 5 of Wands as competition, chaos, miscommunication, or petty arguments. I'm the least competitive person ever. Competition literally makes me miserable and anxious, (and I have enough health problems that are made worse by anxiety as is. I've been trying to reduce as much of it in my life as I can). I'm working so hard at my job to promote good communication and teamwork among my new project team. I've been deliberately choosing not to take work related disagreements personally and always smooth things over when one comes up. I'm not interested in any competitive hobbies or sports since I feel much more comfortable working at my own pace when I'm off the clock, (since I deal with such insane deadlines with my job and that is Enough Stress for me).

So I don't know what this card is trying to tell me? All the things I know the 5 of Wands is supposed to represent are things that make me feel absolutely wretched so I'm not sure what I'm supposed to embrace unless I'm just supposed to feel uncomfortable? I don't know what I'm missing. Any perspective you might have would be greatly appreciated.

Not knowing what other cards were present in the spread, it is a bit difficult to interpret just a single card for a complicated question. However, I want to say that readings can speak about things which have happened, are happening or will happen. If and when you don't want to have a competitive hobby, then 5 of Wands can be preferring to your current life as "There's already stress factors in your life, have a more peaceful hobby".

It can also say that in the past your hobbies caused you discord and stress, so you should avoid going back to those old hobbies - or, if you want to do it, approach them with ease and more or less "whatever"-attitude, which allows you to enjoy the hobby, not to stress about the outcome of it.

One possible meaning, if the 5 of Wands is a heads up warning, is that you already have so much on your plate that a new hobby should wait for now. You need more time to rest and be still than to act and be active, especially when you have health problems and a demanding work. If you want a new hobby, it should be as easy and simple as possible to energize and relax you, like doing crosswords or take calming walks or listen to ebooks while lying on a bed or do calming yin yoga or Finnish Asahi.( Here's one Asahi practice video with no speaking. Would you want to look more, search asahi harjoitus (asahi practice) as all videos are in Finnish - but they are easy to follow.)

Also see Biddy Tarot's explanation of 5 of Wands to see if there's anything which resonates with you. Sometimes just one word or one sentence is what the card is underlining to us.

#ask niu #tarot

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footballingreenwich · 5 months

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Football: More Than Just a Game

Interview with Bobby Walker, Jr. by Drew Falla

Bobby Walker Jr, born in Dallas, Texas, grew up around football, and puts his understanding of young minds and athletics to work. Growing up around football, Walker always had a love for the sport. It wasn’t until he turned 12, where he put on a helmet. This decision would change his life forever. He would go on to play college football, and coach after. Starting a young family before moving to Greenwich, CT, was a challenge. However, Walker looked to sports in order to help his kids develop. Working in the education systems across Texas and Connecticut, he learned a lot about the ins and outs of sports and how it ties in with the classroom. Walker, after coaching for some years in Texas as a defensive coordinator and line coach, decided to continue coaching at the youth level in Greenwich. Working for the GYFL as a volunteer coach for kids ages 8-14 has allowed Walker to have very unique views on the game he loves. He believes that, Working in Greenwich actually allowed him to be one of my personal coaches during my time as a young football player. I always looked upon our times together fondly, as he was truly one of the people who helped me fall in love with football. Having such an adept understanding of the game and how kids develop gives what he talks about a unique twist. He talks about football in Greenwich as a whole, as well as its benefits in school and socially. His son, Miles Walker, currently attends Ohio State and plays football there, so his experiences are touched upon a lot in this interview as well.

Q1 [00:00:56] Can you talk about what you think football means to young children and what it, what it helps them develop and stuff like that.

Bobby Walker Jr. [00:01:08] Absolutely. So first of all, I can't tell you the numerous benefits that I believe football holds for kids. And, you know, not only for young kids, but I think it's just about a sport that teaches you a lot about yourself, which teaches you a lot about life. Right? Right. So for young kids, you know, I think, first and foremost, I think football teaches discipline, which I think is really important. Right? The discipline of coming to practice every day, of having all of your gear and learning how to line up on what you think of there are, at the most basic level, it teaches discipline. But when you go further, it begins to teach you about, you know, teamwork and working together and relying on other people and being relied on. And so it teaches you this concept that we're all in this together. And the more we work well together, the better off all of us ultimately are. And then, you know, I can tell you you're going to win all the time. The other thing about you is that sometimes it doesn't go right. Sometimes your goals that you want don't work. And so what do you do then? You can quit. Or you can work a little harder. Or you can change your goal, change your attack, change your approach. And the more you learn that early on, on the field, I think it just applies to everything in school home life, your grades, your job. So I love it there. And it just teaches you I know transport right. It also teaches you just to have pure, unadulterated fun. And I think in today's world, man, we need to teach kids to do that more often.

Q2 [00:02:51] So you touched on school, can you mention a little bit more about how football helps with school? And maybe, you know, why it's important for young kids to not just get into just football, but sports in general and how that can help with their education.

Bobby Walker Jr. [00:03:08] So there are a couple of things, man, that you need to keep in mind. Right. And so some of this unfortunately you did ask the wrong person because I'm also a teacher and an educator. So I do a lot of studies about some of this stuff. Right. So all of those basic level, I think that like I said, it teaches you discipline. So if you're going to play a sport, particularly the older you get, time becomes abstract and you got to learn how to utilize the time. You have to do all the things you watch. So that includes how do I get my school work done, how do I practice, how do I live, how do I train? And so the older you get and the deeper you get with sports, you find yourself working on these schedules and you become really rigid about it. And you learn that I can squeeze everything I want. If I can learn how to manipulate and manage my time well, at least for me, that was one of the best things I learned. Even in high school, I knew that I was going to practice to X amount of time, and I lived pretty far away from home, so I knew I'd get home by this time and then it would take me this much time. So I'd always been thinking about my schedule. And how to, you know, use my schedule to my advantage. But also I'm switching things that I wanted to do, how to go have fun on, how to be with my friends, but also how to make it to the weight room and sometimes everything. So sometimes you know what I mean. So that's part one. But the other part of the number of studies is just talk about the connection between being physically fit and learning about movement and learning. You know, sometimes I know it sounds corny, but like if we had some training to do, instead of focusing on how hard it was and think about a test later that day, and as your body is exercising, you're able to retain a lot of the information that you're trying to cram into your brain a little bit. You know what I'm saying? So that's how I used to do that when we did gases, right? Instead of think about the gases, I try to think about work or I think about a history test, or I think about math problems or something as a way to try to get that deep into my memory.

Q3 [00:05:11] You mentioned being in the, education field and you talk a lot about football. Can you talk about what you do for a living and what, like go into detail about each thing that you've done? I know you've been a coach and I work in the Education Boys and Girls Club. So can you touch on that?

Bobby Walker Jr. [00:05:29] I was fortunate enough to be able to play football in college, but my going to a Division three school, I was able to also play another sport I love. Track and field hockey were shot put, discus and they learned how to put the hammer in college. So sports literally I did sports. You know, you think of weekends on that college 85% of all weekends. I had a competition. And you know, for track and field, you know what I'm saying. So that's how much I love sports. And then when I left college aged 22, I went straight into teaching. So I went back to my hometown in Dallas. And I taught fifth grade humanities at an all boys private school. But I also was forced to be a coach where I did a lot of defensive coordinator stuff. But I also work even with the O-line, the D-line or the linebackers or sometimes all three, you know, just depending on what the team needed and what coaches we had on staff. And so when I left, I worked in Dallas from 95 to 2000. Then I left there and moved to Maryland. So school called McDonough school and then went up the McDonough school. There was a middle school, Dean Ambrose, who taught history as well. So I taught seventh grade and then eighth grade history. They both, were making history, different parts of it. But I was able to coach J.V. football, a little varsity football. And then it also comes fast track. And one year I go out periodically helping the beat. Great football team do whatever they needed to coach for day. So, you know, again, you know, you can see sports always played a role in where it went. We were there from 2000 to 2005 that we moved to Connecticut and in Summer 2005, I became the head of middle school for the middle school principal at Haywood Summer School in Stamford. I was there for nine years and I always worked with the football team. I couldn't do it full time, but I would do it and I would coach, the offensive line and the defensive line. And then every Saturday, I was sort of the spy in the sky, always in the press box, looking down their formations and helping a whole line coach try and identify places. And, you know, any time I do, I would move. And then on the defensive side of the ball, my job was to not only look at those patterns, but were there like any kind of clues that they would give us, like as one team, every time the running back didn't get the ball, he was upright, a two point stance. Every time he got the ball, he was down in the three point stance. You know, that was my job. I was like, find those patterns and then try to lead up to the defensive coordinator. Right? Right. And then, when I go to the Boys and Girls Club in 2014 and not being able to go to school, that's what gave me time to jump to the GSM. I wasn't working at a high school anymore, and so I was able to dedicate my time to helping young people get ready for football. So for the six years that I was at the Boys and Girls Club, you know, I coached, I think I coached at the junior level for four years and then senior level for two, and that was a lot of fun. Then when I moved to Greenwich Academy in 2020, I think that was sort of the end of my coaching career.

Q4 [00:08:52] I was coached by you on the Cos Cob Crushers. Do you have any unique memories from our time together, on the Crushers staff, or Miles this time or anything? Could you just touch on those experiences and what it meant to you?

Bobby Walker Jr. [00:09:13] Where do I start? The first thing I remember. I remember when I first started coaching and I was teaching people. Were you probably I don't know what you guys, we call it one step through it. We literally take one step to make sure you're in good position right? And doing it over and over and over and everybody is like, this is boring, coach, can we do more? And me trying to get you guys to buy into the system that this is going to work. I promise you it's going to work. And then as you guys got older, by the time we got to game time, all of a sudden we realized that it didn't work like that. And just the way in which, you know, you play on a team for two years and for Miles, he's a year older than you are, right? It was cool that every time you all came together, y'all won as bantams and then, you know, the juniors, they didn't win. You guys moved up. The next year we won. After juniors even went to seniors. You guys weren’t there, they didn't win. You guys moved up. And so what I realized was that I had this really unique combination of guys with Miles and Cliff and then you Teddy and Jake, and what it was was by the time you guys got to me, you know, that's what I was trying to do. And that became fun. Y'all saw it y'all again to see what it meant to move people out of the way. All of a sudden we had like the best rushing team around, you know, couple that were really good running backs. That comes from the things going undefeated man. You know Miles’ last year you guys just dominated everybody. So you know guys that were really close right. Right. And this is sort of was like bragging when other coaches came to me to tell me how good the line was. And everybody kept saying it was because you guys were big and y'all were. But the truth is, man, I have another coach who understands football. And he goes, man, you get those guys are really well coached. And that was the biggest thing. That was the biggest compliment to me is that you you guys are big. But I'm a huge fan of big guys too. But they were big. They weren't good. You guys were big. You were good. You were athletic. And y'all worked together as a unit for sure.

Q5 [00:11:29] Can you just talk about the connection between the GYFL, and either Greenwich High School or Brunswick or both, and what it means to each respectfully.

Bobby Walker Jr. [00:12:05] Let me tell you, man. So the GYFL has a lot of respect in particular from the high school level programs in this area. Whether it's Greenwich, it's Brunswick, or Greenwich Country Day. Every time I talk to a coach from there, and I mean, one of my favorite things I loved as a coach was when all those high school football coaches came out. And what it did, man. And you were one of the games where it was like a community event, right? Right. Not so much that it was just a bunch of boys. But then you have the guys that used to play. They come out, you know, guys that, you know, played ten, 15 years ago, come out in their jerseys every once in a while to come watch the teams. Obviously they have their own kids. There's the level of pride that you have there, you know. And that was cool to be there. And so it took a little while. I remember when Miles was in middle school. And, you know, for Brunswick. And so I probably could get in trouble for people who would come to Brunswick. Right. I kept trying to tell the coach from Miles in middle school. I knew him personally. He was a good friend of mine. I'm like, listen man, there is some serious talent on this roster, right? And you need to come check this up. Even if he's not trying to recruit people, at least come watch your Brunswick boys play and see how well they're playing the game and how well they know the game. Right? So it wasn't about recruiting. It was about coming to support those kids who play at Brunswick, who live in Greenwich, who work out there every single weekend, three days a week, you know, practicing. And so I remember the first time, his name was Coach Sean Gerard signed. And when Gerard came over, him being blown away by the level of skill that was out there and what he saw. It was actually really good football. And that was one of the first things he said to me, man, those kids are really well coached. And then all of a sudden I think Brunswick now comes out. And again, it's not always about your support. Take people away from the public school. A lot of people see that's what's going on. It's actually not what it is. A lot of coach, too, to support those boys at Brunswick, because he wants to see, you know, who are we at school? All right. So that was really fun for me, man. And then, you know, I got on the GYFL board. And so being able to sit with those guys, and it was women talking about the program and how we, you know, bigger impacts on boys. That was really cool to me.

Q6 [00:14:30] Can you talk about some moments where you may have seen a challenge in the population of the league or the amount of kids who signed up, or if there were any challenges with rules or, an uproar from the community with any issues that they had or any moments where you might have experienced, some difficulty.

Bobby Walker Jr. [00:14:58] We had some big scares in the league, right? The first one being when the first reports, were being recorded in the NFL anaboutd a connection between CTE and people constantly having head collisions and working those windows and people. A lot of parents, parents and the number of kids dropped to really dangerously low levels to sustain, you know, six teams with three levels each. And so as a team. We have to talk to parents, but be very honest. You know, we weren't going to say, oh, he's not real, right? We're not going to tell falsehoods, but we have to talk about what things were we doing as coaches to try to make sure that we're stable young boys heads. Right. And so, you know, this whole movement went out to cause youth football in general. Coach, you behaved out of the game. And we made it a priority that we retrained all our coaches. How to teach tackling, how to teach, blocking with all modern ways, and not from the, you know, those of us who played in the 80s and 90s where you were taught to be with your head. And so I thought that was actually really cool, not only as a come closer community that we come into that, but you saw the GYFL as a team, try to get everybody to commit to this new way of teaching. And so it became mandatory that if you were a coach, you also had to be certified. And, you know, while I was in youth football, I forgot the name of the, Federation, but we all had to be certified. And if you are certified, you could not get on the sideline. Coach. I thought that was a genius move. I thought it was a great way to to acknowledge the fears that people have and, and and to acknowledge what the studies were revealing. But it was also a way to, let us know that we do have your best interests in mind. And no, we're not going to put him in any kind of, you know, life threatening, life changing situation. So that was one. And then obviously the biggest one recently being just Covid and how that we, you know, how we conduct how we conduct practices during Covid, how we keep kids safe during Covid. You know, that was a big major challenge where like and there was just one of the guidelines were allowed to operate under was the high school and other people doing so? You know, things like that.

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drewfalla · 5 months

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Football: More Than Just a Game

Interview with Bobby Walker, Jr. by Drew Falla

Q1 [00:00:56] Can you talk about what you think football means to young children and what it, what it helps them develop and stuff like that.

Q5 [00:11:29] Can you just talk about the connection between the GYFL, and either Greenwich High School or Brunswick or both, and what it means to each respectfully.

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treadmilltreats · 4 years

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The Sam Bloom story of hope

I started writing this blog 8 years ago hoping that I may inspire others. I knew I wasn't alone out there with my feelings about coming out of an abusive relationship. I am a fighter, a survivor and so I love stories of survival, and of determination.

Recently I watched the Netflix movie Penguin Bloom, based on the real life story of Sam Bloom,

and her story that became a best-selling book – Penguin Bloom.

This was a story of despair but also a story of hope, and of new beginnings. It all started when Sam and her family were on vacation in Thailand in 2013. They were the perfect family, Sam and her husband were childhood sweethearts, they had 3 boys they adored and together they were an active family. They surfed together, played ball together, and rode bikes together but everything changed on that vacation.

Sam fell from a rickety balcony, and her world changed forever. Paralysed from the chest down, the active life she’d led before seemed lost, leaving her deeply depressed at the prospect of a life in a chair

But then something gave her hope in her darkest days, a tiny orphaned bird that they named Penguin. She was a wobbly-headed magpie chick who’d tumbled out of her nest. Her boys had found her by the beach and when no veterinarian would take Penguin in, the boys convinced Sam to let them nurse her back to health.

This little bird suddenly gave Sam a purpose, it drove her instincts as a nurse and mother to help bring the little bird back to health, and in doing so, it gave her the purpose of living again and the will to move forward with her own recovery.

In the book Sam speaks of what it was like to suddenly have her life pulled from her.

"My husband Cam went away last year for a job. I was lying in bed and I looked at an old profile pic of myself on Facebook and just started sobbing. It was like looking at someone you love, but they’ve died. It was really full-on and I felt like I was losing it. I often used to think the real me died in Thailand. I was grieving – I still am.

I was so bored for the first year after the accident. Before, I was active every day, independent and doing mum things. Boredom became my worst enemy, but when Penguin came into our lives it became her and me every day. Suddenly, I had something to do. She was with me all the time and was really good company. We would sing and chat to each other. Penguin listened to all of my complaints and she never accidentally said anything thoughtless in response to me"

This tiny bird changed her and her family's life, it gave her the help to go on and she decided she wanted to live again, to accept this new world she now had to live in, who she was now and let go of who she used to be.

She started by taking kayak lessons and soon her outlook on life began to change. She realized she could still do many of the things she had loved before. Not only that but in 2015 she got on the Australian ParaCanoe team, but lost out on the opportunity to go to the Olympics. She was devastated because she felt that was her purpose and goal, and thought what am I supposed to do now? But she didn't give up, still searching for something to give her purpose, she received a letter from Julian Wilson’s mum. (he’s the number three surfer in the world!). She told her to get back out there and try surfing again.

She went on to take back up the sport she has always loved, surfing. She won two World Para Surfing Championships (2018/20), after first making the Australian Adaptive Surf Team in 2018. She competes in the ‘prone-assist’ category, itself a precise illustration of the teamwork required in her sport.

This is a story about hope, a story of never giving up, a story of change and accepting that change. We all go through changes in our lives, we lose loved ones, our jobs, our dreams sometimes. Some of us hit rock bottom and it feels like nothing will ever be the same and many times it won't but you must have the will to live, the will to survive, to do whatever it takes to get past it, move on, try again and we all have that inside of each and every one of us.

So today my friends, I'm here to tell you if you're in that low place, if life has beaten you up and you think it's over, it's not. Just look around at the survivors out there, the Sam Blooms of the world, who face adversity and overcome it. You too can do that, we all have it in us, you just have to go deep to look for it, but trust me it's there as long as you don't give up, anything is possible my friends, anything.

"Be the change you want to see"

"And just when the caterpillar thought his life over...he turned into a beautiful butterfly"

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larphacks · 8 years

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in accordance with your guides on how to be a good 2IC and how to lead small groups. how do you assemble them? for my next larp my character have been tasked with assembling a squad to go perform a specific duty. i don't think i'm gonna have much trouble leading the group but my task also includes gathering it.. choosing who to bring and talking them into going.how do you assemble a party ?

Oh, this is really interesting, thanks!

I’ll cover “choosing who to bring” and the mechanics of assembling an operational team in this post; “talking them into going” is definitely its own post and merits a longer consideration!

When I’m picking teams in LARP for missions or quests, I tend to break it down into four categories of personnel: one or two Leadership or command figures, the Experts who help you achieve the main goal of the quest, the Force Protection who do the violencing, and the Combat Support who keep you all alive and resourced on the way.

Clearly these categories apply most obviously to a mission structure where you’re going to go to a place and do a specific thing while fighting enemies en route. Not all LARP missions are so structured. If the mission is a poisoning assassination, you might find that your Experts are the same people as your Combat Support. If it’s a puzzle-heavy Crystal Maze affair, you might find your Experts are simply anyone with a good brain on them and you don’t need any Force Protection at all. Adapt the template as you see fit - it’s just a base structure to work from.

Eager to get started! Photo by Oliver Facey, from Odyssey LARP (now tragically finished).

Now Read On….

Leadership

Who?– People with commanding voices and a clear understanding of the mission. People who your subordinates will listen to instinctively, either because they are charismatic/commanding, or because they already know and respect them.

How Many?– Approximately one “squad leader” per 4-6 personnel you’re leading. If you only have 4, then you’re the only leader necessary; appoint a 2iC from among your troops. If you go above 6, split them into multiple squads and pick a sub-leader for each, who reports up to you.

Doing What?– Giving clear direction for where the group is going, why they’re going there, and in broad terms how they are going to achieve their objective. Mission leaders should not be “double hatted”, i.e. fulfilling one of the below roles in addition to their primary role; this is sometimes permissible in smaller groups, where not much coordination and control is necessary, but disastrous in large ones.

Experts

Who?– People with the expert skills, training or knowledge necessary to achieve your aim.

How Many?– Exactly as many as you need to fulfil the core aim - plus a spare or two in case you lose one along the way!

Doing What?– Staying out of trouble and keeping themselves safe until their moment of glory comes!

Force protection

Who?– Reliable fighters who can follow orders. During an arduous or complicated mission, teamwork and cohesion can be more valuable than raw fighting prowess, so consider both qualities carefully.

How Many?– That depends entirely on the threat level. In a setting where I expect a reasonable amount of combat, I like to have my FP:Everyone Else ratios at about 50:50.

Doing What?– Forming a ring of steel around the “squishy centre” that is your command group and experts, scouting ahead, guarding behind and destroying everything that stands in your way. You should be in “close command” of these guys (through your subordinate leaders, if appropriate) - they should be prepared to move when you say move and hold when you say hold.

Combat Support

Who?– Quick-thinking, highly reactive support specialists who can identify where their skills are needed and move there quickly, with a minimum of direction.

How Many?– One healer/doctor/etc for every 4 personnel in the party is a good rule of thumb, depending on your system’s rules and threat level. Plus anyone you need to e.g. navigate you through the dread portal, send prayers to Zeus to let you pass unscathed through the field of lightning, etc.

Doing What?– These guys are more a “wind up and go” toy than the Force Protection. You should give them clear priorities at the start of the mission (like “heal anyone who needs it”, or “buff the tanks first”, or “keep us moving but conserve resources”), and they should then execute them throughout the mission with a minimum of direction. If there are a lot of them, then you might choose to appoint a subordinate leader within the combat support (this is a great role for your 2iC!) to report back to you on casualty states, resource consumption and the like.

Through the gate! Photo by Oliver Facey, from Odyssey LARP (now tragically finished).

Like I mentioned in this post, understanding the source of your IC authority is paramount in small squad leadership - and that applies to picking your team as much as leading it in the field.

If you’re working in a quasi-military setting where you can assume that most characters will basically follow your orders because of your rank, then you don’t need to fret over the force protection much - finding people who will do what they’re told is easy! - but you may need to go out of your way to find intelligence, proactive personalities for your combat support.

By contrast, if you’re working in, say, a byzantine Renaissance-inspired nest of vipers high-politics setting, you won’t need to worry too much about finding robust characters who can be relied upon to look after their own safety, but you want to spend more time finding a 2iC and subordinate commanders you can really trust not to put the knife in your back at the last minute.

Clear delineation of mission roles. Photo by Oliver Facey, from Pioneers LARP.

A final word of caution: While it’s all good roleplay, some of your fellow players may have bad memories of being picked last for sports teams or activities in school. You want to avoid making anyone feel OC isolated or sidelined through your IC behaviour. The best way to do this is to be clear, up-front and honest about your reasons for picking your squad, and to present them publicly. You cannot guarantee that you won’t upset someone with your decisions - that’s the nature of life, and of Geek Social Fallacy #1, unfortunately. But you can actively look for opportunities for anyone who feels left out to join an alternative mission or get involved in a different aspect of the game.

If you spot someone being repeatedly left out of “cool stuff” in a LARP context, and have reason to believe they might be taking it hard OC, consider bringing them along on your next outing. It isn’t your job to bend your character just to make their life easier, but you’ll often find yourself surprised by what someone you have previously overlooked can bring to the party. Something as simple as a new perspective on the mission can be worth twenty reliable stick jocks in a crisis. Picking the “unknown” might be risky - but we never achieve anything great without tolerating a bit of risk!

Assembled! Photo by Beth Dooner, from Empire LARP.

#larphacks #larp #process hack #leadership

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