okansas.blogspot.com

okansas.blogspot.com
Occassional thoughts about orienteering

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Selecting a WOC team

After any selection, some discussion always crops up. You can read the discussion about the US selections over at Attackpoint.

I don't have the mental energy to read the whole thread. So, I won't comment on the specifics. But, let me suggest a thought experiment.

Imagine that someone has given you a chunk of money - maybe $15,000 - and assigned you the task of picking a WOC team. Further, you've been told that you'll have the same job for the next 5 years. Finally, you've been told that the guy with the money expects better performance at the WOC each year.

How are you going to pick your team? When do you pick them? How many runners do you pick? How far into the future do you think?

It is the sort of problem general managers in sports like baseball, basketball, and football face. They've got some money, they've got some goals, and they have the freedom to decide how to make their decisions.

I like to go through this sort of thought experiment as a way of trying to understand the sort of problems selectors face and the range of solutions they can consider. In the US, the selection procedures have evolved incrementally over time. There are a lot of good things about incremental changes, but an incremental process often misses some opportunities to consider some more innovative ideas.

So, spend a few minutes thinking about the thought experiment...and maybe you'll have a different view of the problems and solutions to WOC team selections. Or maybe not.

Back to okansas.blogspot.com.

posted by Michael | 8:22 PM

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