whilst i have played sports for most of my life..

…natural athletics are blessing that passed me by. I, like many others, found that my strengths lie somewhere else: teamwork. It is one of sport’s great lessons, that a team that plays as a unit will tend to beat teams of more talented, less collaborative individuals. Successful teams will work towards a common goal; obsessing over the social and spatial choreography of a field; creating, as time goes on, a mental map of each game. In and out of sport, this is what makes top teams successful. This idea struck me on a recent visit home, to Cornwall.

Famous for its natural beauty and social isolation, Cornwall is home to a disproportionate number of British artists. One such artist, is Barbara Hepworth, the greatest English sculptor of the 20th Century. Towering above Cornwall’s idyllic streets, Hepworth’s sculptures are unmissable. However, the inspiration for this article came from one of Hepworth’s earlier endeavours. A collection of etchings that celebrate the organisational harmony of human beings.

In the mid-to-late-1940s, Hepworth’s daughter was treated for a serious illness by Norman Capener, an Exeter-based orthopaedic surgeon. Despite Hepworth’s prickly nature, she and Capener struck up a friendship that lead to her being able to ‘sit in’ on future operations. Over the next 5 years, she made 80 drawings dedicated to these experiences.

“From the first moment I was entirely enthralled by the classic beauty of what I saw there; classic in the sense that architecture and function were perfectly blended, and purity of idea and grace of execution were in complete harmony.” - Barbara Hepworth, 1953

The works are immediately engaging. Because of their ‘washed-out’ colour palettes and Carvaggio-style staging, there’s real drama to the blurred figures in each piece. Our eyes are drawn to this unnerving beauty, yet there seems only one place they can rest: the hands and eyes of the surgeon. Despite the confusion of their surroundings, the hands and eyes of each character involed are presented with perfect precision. Sets of large piercing eyes, and strong, delicate hands offer a pristine contrast to their surrounding obscurity. In this, Hepworth acknowledges the efficiency of surgical theatre. Hands and eyes are the only necessary tools to complete an operation; everything else is left to blur.

In theatre, every movement is calculated, each action is intuitive. The team become something inhuman, a unit of surgical harmony, manifesting each effort through the hands and the eyes of their colleagues. Looking at the Hospital Drawings, I can’t help but think of sport.

Having played football all my life, I recognised this search for organisation. Good teams communicate, but the best teams don’t need to. Fluid football requires years of training, years of foundational chemistry building. Diamond formations, where four players position themselves into a diamond on the pitch, create the easiest passing lanes. In these formations, passing triangles make playing through an opposition midfield easier. Yet, what happens when a player pushes past their teammate, changing their shape?

“Pep” Guardiola is one of the greatest coaches of all time and has achieved his success through tackling this issue. In his teams, one player pushes forward, and the others rotate positions, re-forming their diamond formation. It’s an exercise that requires not only exceptional quality, but years of training. To work best, this system must be instantaneous. You must know what your teammates are going to do instinctively. If it works, every movement should be intuitive.

In his search for perfection, Guardiola admits he will never get there. There are simply too many variables. He can’t organise the ball into the net. His players must be able to think on their feet, to deal with the unexpected, to be creative and aggressive, and to lean on good fortune and individual quality in the final third.

“My job is to get you to the final third, your job is to finish it” - Pep, Barcelona (Thierry Henry)

Hepworth’s admiration and Pep’s philosophy led me to a realisation. I am not alone in my struggle towards structure, but whilst we try to organise our lives and develop skills of improvisation, it is through teamwork that life’s storms are best weathered. As a teen, I worked in a kitchen. I joined an established team; one forged through years of long nights and busy lunches. They couldn’t predict the dramas of each shift, but they knew what was expected, and relied on their ability get there. They all had a part to play, as no one could do it alone. It was here, that I realised that in the darkness of uncertainty, teamwork matters most. It becomes a light to follow, and a foundation to fall back on.

‘It is a choreography that’s developed over time, working with the same people day after day; if one guy is out of synch, the pooch is screwed.’ - Anthony Bourdain (chef)

There is beauty in communal organisation. No amount of scheduling apps and calendar widgets can prepare you for the worst of life, but through social harmony, we become forgiving, lighter on our feet, and more able to adapt. Through our team, we can deal with the freak waves whilst we struggle for the harbour. In chaos, our well-intentioned organisation doesn’t disappear, it’s just hidden from view. When push comes to shove, and plans fall by the wayside, it is through reliance and trust that structure re-emerges. The best teams of athletes, artists, surgeons, and chefs all move with confidence, but they do so because they have earnt it. They know themselves, their team, and the job that is expected of them. They know their limits just as well as their abilities.

It is important to take risks in life. If the rules break down or the plan goes wrong, a leap of faith must be made, but to have confidence in risk requires trust in your team.