Making history is such an overused phrase in sport. Thereâ€s a danger we start to believe itâ€s easy, expected, nothing special. Or that it just happens by magic in an instant on a golf green or a rugby pitch. We envisage “Henry V speeches†on the eve of battle urging players to make their mark on history moments before stepping into the arena. But at the weekend, two of the finest sports teams in the world demonstrated how months and years of intentional, deep culture-building are necessary to create a team identity to underpin the highest levels of performance.
Although at starkly different ends of the commercial sports world, both the European Ryder Cup team and the England womenâ€s rugby team deliberately cultivated a shared sense of what it meant for each team to create history together. Europe knew they had to defy the odds to win away for the first time since 2012, while the Red Roses hadnâ€t won the World Cup since 2014, losing in the previous two finals.
So what did these teams draw on to ensure they could bring their best game in those make or break moments? Performing under pressure at that level is not about training harder or putting the game‑face on. Itâ€s not enough to be fuelled purely by individual, extrinsic drivers “to be the bestâ€. Thatâ€s always there within an athleteâ€s psyche, but when you need to dig really deep – whether itâ€s facing a hostile environment at Bethpage Black, or Canada scoring first against you in the World Cup final at Twickenhamâ€s Allianz Stadium. You need deep-rooted foundations to ground you, to hold your nerve and find your best performance, and to develop the instincts that help a team to achieve more together than they could alone.
Rather than feel negatively pressured or weighed down by history as we have seen in the past, these athletes, captains, vice-captains and coaches respected, researched and embraced the history of their sports. They understood how the past, present and future would connect when they took to the field of play. And then they used this understanding to make sense of their unique responsibility to write the next chapter together, finding joy in the opportunity and privilege to do so.
Behind the scenes in the Europe locker room, “This is our time, this is our place†was emblazoned on the wall, accompanied by names, jerseys and stories of those who had made their mark, focusing on the European Ryder Cup teams that had beaten the odds to win in the US. The dates of the four previous wins were written on the walls: 1987, 1995, 2004 and 2012 with the four shirts of those winning away teams hanging up. This wasnâ€t just about words, it was about jerseys worn and sweated in by their predecessors. Their shared challenge was to add one more shirt to the rail.
A similarly profound history swirled around the Red Roses. The Trail of Roses installation at the London Eye celebrated every woman who had pulled on an England shirt, the pioneers and trailblazers on whose shoulders the current team knew they stood. This was a moment to show how far the womenâ€s game had come since the first World Cup in 1991 and point to the immense future potential. Echoing the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team philosophy of taking care of the jersey before passing it on in better shape to the next player, these supremely talented golfers and rugby players drew on this sense of lineage to reach out and connect with their audiences. All the while, they gained perspective, meaning and humility for themselves, qualities that are key components of human resilience.
Former players (from left) Maxine Edwards, Janis Ross, Karen Almond, Emma Mitchell at the Trail of Roses, an installation featuring 267 giant red roses to represent every England womenâ€s rugby player. Photograph: Stripe
Both teams set their ambitions far beyond winning. Luke Donald, the European captain, reaffirmed that they werenâ€t just playing to win, they were playing for each other, for all those who dreamed of playing for Europe in the future, for something far greater than themselves. Continuing to draw on the work with the performance coach Owen Eastwood that shaped his captaincy and team-building skills two years ago in Rome, Donald commissioned a moving video that featured many of the 37 European men who had won an away Ryder Cup, including current members of the team and himself – a powerful reinforcement of their overarching mission.
Donald knew he needed to invest in both the data and the culture, the quantitative and the qualitative. One vice-captain, Edoardo Molinari, crunched the stats to inform pairings while another, José MarÃa Olazábal, captain from the last Europe team to win on foreign soil, brought past inspiration. Donald spent time listening to the players, figuring out how to prepare and set them up to thrive and play their best game at Bethpage Black: creating a shared purpose, connecting them to each other and then giving them autonomy to lead themselves once on the course.
New Zealander John Mitchell, the Red Roses†head coach, similarly prioritised culture-building since joining in 2023. The Red Roses emulated one of the core team strengths of Englandâ€s women footballers by ensuring the team spirit for those among the replacements felt as strong as those on the pitch. They also shared the Lionesses†ambition to create a lasting positive impact after the tournament through inspiring younger girls watching, the upcoming generation of players, as well as global rugby leaders to see the future potential of the sport.
Both of these glorious sports teams have shown us that the true value of their sporting success lies in the depth of connection to their predecessors, those watching now and future generations to come. Developing a deep and deliberate historical consciousness is becoming a core part of how modern elite sports teams build resilient cultures to take their performance to the next level.
Discover more from 6up.net
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.