It's all about the Support

It struck me a few years ago at the FCI in Germany that many of the international teams were getting larger. This was backed up when I spoke to people I knew on the teams.

For the successful teams gone were the days of a lone manager and a coach. We were now seeing support teams of vets, Physio's, fitness coaches, one team had a dietician with them and the Russians at the IFCS had a man dressed in a black suit following them around, we thought he was a KGB agent!

Agility was starting to follow many other sports by preparing their elite athletes in many many other ways and getting more specialists involved.

One of my first tasks after being appointed was to set up my support team. I knew there was no way I could prepare 16+ people on my own. So this years support team consisted of:

Marc - Assistant

Natasha - Assistant

(Ruthless) Ruth - Handler Fitness Coach

Emma B - Data Analysis

Emma F - Chiropractor

Rachel - Vet

Can you name the owners of the legs?

These people all played an important role in preparing the team and for those who travelled to the EO, their role extended to the three competition days.

I'm not going to go into all the details about their role on a public forum because some of it we want to develop quietly behind the scenes, needless to say next years support team will look very similar if not slightly larger.

I will be looking to bring some additional skills into the support team later in the year so keep an eye on the blog for opportunities to get involved.

And skills in erecting Gazebos help too.