Karen Brown – Interview

I’ve been asked that a few times. It’s really interesting because I was standing next to the 5 athletes and the GK Maddie, all of us were amazingly calm, I think the players and myself just knew we were going to win. I remember one of the athletes, I think it was Alex Danson, looking at the Dutch Team before it all started and she said, “Oh my god, look at them, look at them, they ‘look scared stiff .

We had worked an awful lot on what it would feel like if we were in this position, how we would want to be and what environment we wanted to create amongst the 6 of us. It was knowing in advance what we would be saying to each other, how we would react, whether we scored, whether we didn’t score. We spent a lot of time on ensuring that we were consistent in our processes.

And because of that, I think the girls had an awful lot of confidence. It wasn’t just technically whether they could execute their skills, it was also emotionally being able to control their emotions. Honestly, they weren’t over hyped or anything like that. It was all very calm. It was much calmer than we were at the Europeans a year ago, much more chilled. I don’t know whether that was because some of them had been through it before at the Euros. There was no doubt they had a lot of confidence in Maddy [Goalkeeper], absolutely no doubt.

As a team they also had a lot of confidence in each other. Even though a couple of the outfield players missed a shuttle, when they came back the others just said it doesn’t matter, don’t worry, we’re all right, we’re still in this. Just keep at it.

I remember I looked at Holly [Webb] before the penultimate Dutch penalty, she was hanging on my left shoulder and I squeezed her and said, “You realize if Maddy saves this,(it’s not if she misses, the words were very carefully chosen) If Maddy saves this, you’ve got it to win Holly.” She just went, “Yeah, not a problem, I’ve got this.?She said that before Maddy had made the save,? I remember thinking as Holly walked up [to take the final penalty], “Even if she doesn’t score she won’t let herself down, she will do well. That was the view the whole team had; “We’ll do our best and if our best is good enough that’s fine.” That was the attitude that they were taking into it. It was interesting reflecting on the experience because I genuinely felt calm and ready for it. It’s what we’ve trained for to take shuttles to win Gold.

The moment it went in, I just remember leaping up in the air and then thinking, “Don’t run with them. Don’t run because you won’t be able to keep up! I went back to our coaching staff, because we’re a team as well. I wanted to be with the coaching staff.

We had a very experienced playing group and a very diverse but extremely experienced management team. There was only one person in the management team who hadn’t any previous Olympic experience. Some athletes had got numerous Olympic cycles under their belt and I think that really helped.

But I really don’t think that there’s a golden nugget that we could say that?s why we won. During the Games, the momentum builds and the belief builds. There is no doubt staying undefeated and winning helps everything, everyone stays confident and relaxed, small things don?t become big. We kept the processes exactly the same for each game, as coaches we never ask players to do anything we didn’t think was within their skill set. We knew our opponents inside out. We knew, we were very confident.

It was a great dynamic amongst the coaching group. Everyone played their role and that was, I think, one of the keys of success. Danny was heading it up and he did that brilliantly, but he allowed everyone to have a full contribution and do their role with no one trying to do someone else’s role, which can happen when the pressure is on. We approached every game the same. We debriefed every game the same. Everything was forward looking to the next game.

I look after the majority of our defence work as well as one of my main roles during the Games is scouting opposition. Myself and Craig Keegan the other Assistant Coach prepare a presentation to Danny of what the opposition will do, we then would discuss our tactics and the pros and cons of what might happen, on some days this lasted 2- 3 hours, then Danny gives the tactics to the team.

During the actual matches, my role was to get the substitutions right and work out how we get the maximum amount out of our players for those 8 matches in 13 days. Things like working out how our long our key players need to rest etc.

Danny would watch from the stands and send messages to me such as, We need more pace down our right hand side and it would be my job to make sure we could deliver this within the player group.

If you over play your athletes they will fatigue, and if they fatigue they’ll make errors, all the key matches are at the end of a tournament so the fresher the players are the better they will play, it’s a delicate balance as you have to make sure you get to the knock out stage. The bench is an interesting place, players are coming and going at regular intervals, we have spent a lot of time over the last 2, 3 years understanding each individual player and creating the environment that they want on the bench. Some athletes need a quite word, some of them just want to be told what to do, some want to be light hearted etc, so you need to understanding what works for each individual athlete, as well as what works for the team. Basically they like the coaches and players to be calm and relaxed they believe this gives them the best chance to play well. Craig Keegan and I who run the bench try and control this and given the circumstances and pressure of the Olympics I think we did a pretty good job!