Making sense of apparent madness

This can be a miserable time of year for those of us whose job it is to inform the public about the Springboks and the buildup to the new international season.

They used to call the off-season the silly season because of the way that period was dominated by rumours of player movements from one province to another.

Now that South Africa is back in international competition, there is no real off-season. So the new silly season is this time of the year, when the Super 12 has been over for nearly a month and the Springboks, full of the perennial promises of new beginnings, new attitudes and changed approaches, are still to play a game.

As there are only so many stories you can write about the Bok chances for the new season, there is a sharp focus on other aspects of the buildup. At times what ends up becoming news goes beyond silly, it becomes ridiculous.

Over the past few seasons we have become accustomed to the late May/June madness (or at least that is what it must appear to be to the readers and listeners). Nick Mallett did it, Harry Viljoen did it, now Rudolf Straeuli is doing it.

Under Mallett and Viljoen the stage, or should that be circus ring, used to be the Beacon Island hotel in Plettenberg Bay. The Boks would stay there for a week or two, the journalists would join them, and the public would be assailed by stories of potjie competitions, sack races and charades evenings.

Often there would be so-called society journalists present too, and everyone not there would get to hear about other aspects of the players' lives. One Cape writer rather memorably wrote an entire story around the colour of Kaya Molatana's underpants.

When Straeuli took over, there was a subtle shift. Instead of going to Plett, the players were shacked up in a police training college. This was supposed to reduce the media circus, but it just shifted its focus. For weeks all we read about was some infamous koppie that the late Brigadier Buurman van Zyl used to chase his players up.

Straeuli had no real intention of sending his players up the little hill, but the public expectation became so great that towards the end of the camp, when the cameras were present, up the hillock they all ran. But Straeuli did have reasons for sending the players to that particular venue. I would not disagree that the more regimented atmosphere of a police training camp has to be more conducive to getting Springbok minds ready for battle than the holiday atmosphere of the Garden Route.

It has taken on a new form, but this year the circus is as active as ever and as productive as ever. Even former Wallaby captain John Eales got involved when he publicly slammed what he called the "draconian" measures with which the Boks intend to instil discipline and build team spirit.

The whole thing did sound completely childish and I agree completely with the dripping sarcasm of a Cape Town rugby columnist who likened it all to a boarding school. Certainly, taking away cell-phones, banning wives/girlfriends and taking the names off jerseys "until players have earned the right" does strike one as the behaviour you would expect of the leadership of a school first team rather than an international team of adults.

The decision to take names off jerseys seems to completely miss the point of why they were there in the first place. They were not there to reward the players, but to make the players more recognisable to Joe Public, who is what this game is really all about. My first reaction to the decision to take away the names was sympathy for the commentators, who now have to go back to spotting the numbers (but how long until those come off too?).

On the surface, it all just seems like complete garbage. The Springboks are highly paid professional sportsmen and as such they are paid to perform. They should not need the coercion of a school masterly management or player leadership bloc to do what they were selected to do.

Yet through the blanket of mirth with which I greet each new pronouncement, there are aspects of it that I do understand. The nuts and bolts of what Straeuli and the management do at these camps is irrelevant, what is really relevant is that the players get jolted out of their normal daily routine and their psychological state gets the wake-up that we all may need when we are about to tackle a big challenge.

It is something I myself did this past week during my taper towards the Comrades Marathon. After dropping the 5am runs to match the decrease in distance, I suddenly found myself a few days later feeling as though I had lost a bit of focus. The remedy was to reintroduce the 5am start (but shorter distances) as the discipline of waking up early chases away any tendency towards laziness (psychological as well as physical).

Robin Smith, the England cricketer, was the main focus of a coaching manual a few years ago. In it he imparted some advice for the batsmen waiting for their turn to go in. He recommended that they should not spend their time in the pavilion burying themselves in a book, but should introduce some little routine to focus on the job in hand.

He used a good example to explain why: "You don't want to be in a situation where halfway out to the wicket you have to ask who is bowling and the answer comes back that it is Allan Donald".

Why this could be a problem should be obvious, just as it should also be obvious why I don't want to lull myself into a situation where in just under two weeks time I wake up from a heavy sleep, yawn and think "Now what is it I am supposed to be doing today? Oh yes, I am running from Maritzburg to Durban".

Most people might recall how when they were at school or university they used to introduce little different routines just before and during exam time. I remember for my matric finals, which is the only time I ever really studied at school, repeating over and over again, for the entire duration of the weeks that the exams were on: "Life is tough, it is a battle field". This was a better way to retain focus than spending my breaks standing around a braai discussing whether the shad were biting.

That would just have inspired me to spend the afternoon chasing fish, and the motivation would have been lost. This may seem a little eccentric, but most readers will know what I am talking about - there are times in your life when you have to actively change your mindset if you are going to achieve what you set out to achieve.

It may seem a little extreme, but ultimately this is all that Straeuli, Joost van der Westhuizen and the other leadership figures among the players are trying to do. Playing for the Springboks is a huge honour, it also brings huge pressures, and in order to be successful, the Boks are going to have to be prepared to suffer some hardships in the coming months.

Being a Springbok during competition time is not one of those jobs where you kiss your wife goodbye in the morning and spend most of the day waiting for lunch or knock-off time while daydreaming about the golf course, your fishing tackle or whatever else it is you would rather be doing.

I agree what the Boks are doing seems childish, but maybe the media are to blame for devoting so much space to the little things that are being done to ensure that when the competition comes around, the players are in tune and wide awake.