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#Post#: 913--------------------------------------------------
The Friendship Test - Chapter 7 - Trying to Relate
By: Dragons Den Date: December 16, 2014, 11:02 pm
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The Friendship Test - Chapter 7 - Trying to Relate
"I know it's easier for people to go with what's comfortable,"
Danni began, "but it's more important to find what works.
Alyssa and Susan might like training together, but is it getting
them anywhere?"
"Well, they haven't been winning lately, so, I guess, maybe
not." Sophia started fidgeting without even noticing herself,
and stared down at her feet.
"Alyssa's kind of... difficult. I wanted to put her with Olga
just to spite them both, but Dragon's not that cruel."
Danni tried to picture cute, little Samantha Micelli as being
"difficult." It was hard to imagine, but she supposed that's
why they called it acting.
"That's the kind of thing you need to look at," she said. "If a
pairing isn't working out, you have to try something else. You
have too many younger fighters to pair off the way we do at RSI,
but you have enough veteran talent to make it work. Maybe some
kind of rotation. I don't know."
Hearing it out loud really made Sophia realise something - half
the Den were rookies. Exactly half, in fact. At a quick count in
her head, there were thirty-four fighters to the stable's name
and seventeen of them would've had less than ten fights
experience in the cage. She's right, Sophia thought. The kids
aren't learning anything without some direct leadership in this
room.
As Danni started to mentally work through the problems Sophia
was facing, her earlier worries melted away. She was still
staring into the empty cage... focused on what she would do if
she were in Sophia's position. She knew some of what she had to
say would be uncomfortable for her friend to hear, but she
couldn't let that stop her.
"As far as being 'difficult' is concerned, Alyssa is going to
have to get over herself if she wants to win," she continued.
"She may not like it at first, but, if you get her moving in the
right direction, she'll stay with it. Winning solves a lot of
problems."
A second wave of realisation hit Sophia. The experienced girls
are going to have to start being less selfish. Without everyone
pooling together, we're going to keep having the rookies
floundering and the champs doing their own thing at the top.
There's no growth without cohesion. She looked at Danni blankly,
still lost in her own thought. "It's not just Alyssa. There's no
cohesion."
Danni laughed at Sophia's choice of words. "Cohesion" made it
sound like the girls were literally stuck together, which was...
just about right, actually. Huh.
Sophia snapped out of her own floating thought. "We're losing a
lot of growth not utilising Alyssa, Susan, Kate, Josie, etcetera
in the cage with the rookies, aren't we?"
Danni smiled as she turned to face the Dragon's Den team leader.
What now seemed obvious to her was coming as a revelation to
Sophia. But Danni could remember... it hadn't always been this
way for her. Like Sophia she had learned as she went. It
bothered her that she really couldn't say when it had all
started to make sense, or how she even got to that point. But
she wasn't surprised Sophia was catching on quickly.
"That's part of it," she said, "but just putting them into the
cage together isn't enough. They're going to have to buy into
each other."
Sophia narrowed her eyes. "That part just sounds like luck."
Danni paused, realizing she was moving off into murkier waters.
Telling Sophia what she needed to do was easy enough.
Explaining how to do it... she didn't even know if she
understood it herself. RSI ran smoothly because of the
relationships that had formed. Britney Spears and Elisha
Cuthbert might act like goofballs, but they were both winning.
Why? Because they made it that way. Britney's first priority
was that she win, but making sure Elisha was primed for victory
came in as a close second. Flip those two, and you had Elisha's
priority list. They discovered that winning was easier when
they were in it together.
As successful as they were, Britney and Elisha were a little
hard to explain. She tried to come up with something simpler,
and it didn't take long.
"When Daniela Hantuchova came to us, she basically walked in
with the belt over her shoulder," she said. "She was
practically a legend, and she'd done it on her own. I'll be
honest, I didn't know what we could do for her." She gave a
little shrug. "So, I did the only thing I could think of. I
put her in there with Aly Michalka, and waited to see what
happened. She shook her head lightly. "What happened is that
Aly got slapped around pretty good, and that was hard on her. I
didn't think it was gonna work. But, then... suddenly it did."
Not that dissimilar from Woz and Hammer, Sophia thought. She was
starting to think she'd have to take a closer look at how and
why that partnership was working so well.
"Aly had a choice to make. Step up or give up," Danni said.
"She fights in a division with Brooklyn Decker and Erin
Heatherton. If she ever wanted to break through and have a
shot, she would have to be able to beat the best. So, she
stepped up. She started fighting back... focusing on finding
ways to beat Daniela. One day, she even dragged me over so I
could watch and give her pointers."
She laughed at the memory of Aly literally pulling her over to
the cage.
"The harder Aly fought back, the more impressed Daniela became,"
she said. "Next thing you know, she's the one giving the
pointers... literally helping Aly figure out how to beat her.
And it worked. Aly got much better. But, that meant Daniela
had to work harder to stay ahead. So, she got better, too.
And, between the two of them, they've been pulling the newer
fighters along behind them."
Sophia tried to take it all in, and came to a final, simple
conclusion. "Cohesion," she nodded at the wise leader before
her.
Danni mulled over Sophia's word choice, once more.
"Relationships," she said finally. "Cohesion may be the goal,
but you can't make that happen. What you need to do is foster
relationships. Find pairings that look right. Help them feel
comfortable. Most of the time, they take care of the rest on
their own."
Sophia nodded. "Relationships. Check."
"I can usually do those things because I learned from one of the
best," Danni said as she nodded toward Sophia. "I've had roles
in a few different TV shows and movies. The set is a place
where you find rivalry and competition... just like you find in
an MMA stable. Lucky for me, I knew a young woman who once
turned a cast into a close-knit group of friends. I just try to
do things the way she did."
A sheepish smile found its way onto Sophia's face with the
compliment. "You can do those things because you're Danni
f*cking Harris. But, I see your point, and thanks. I guess if I
can crack those relationships that's half the battle."
Danni held her palms out and shrugged. "It doesn't always go
the way it went for Daniela and Aly. In fact, it hardly ever
goes THAT well. But we've been lucky. We've had a few pairings
work out so well, the others don't need to be talked into trying
it. They WANT to."
"So," Sophia mused aloud, "if we get a couple of pairings to pay
off and make a deal out of it, the others will just want to
follow suit and chase a partnership that gets that done?"
Danni laughed. "It would be nice if it was that simple," she
said. "They don't necessarily chase, but they are, at least,
intrigued. Sometimes it works right away. When we brought in
Roselyn Sanchez, we didn't know how things would go. Roselyn
was eager for the chance to work with Emily VanCamp, but we
didn't know how Em would feel. Turned out, she was pretty
excited to have a high-level partner to train with. Roselyn has
since pulled Brittany Tacy under her wing, while Em has quickly
taken a liking to Demi Lovato. That's a good group, and I
hardly ever have to get involved with them."
Sophia smiled at the mention of Emily VanCamp. "Sounds like
Emily's a popular one. I've heard Kate mention her after events,
and Kate's not often impressed for the hell of it. I'm assuming
her teammates are impressed too. That's got to make it easier."
"Em's pretty hard to dislike," Danni said with a nod, "but other
times it's not so easy. Julianne Hough and Ashley Tisdale get
along great, but we needed someone a little more seasoned to
push Jules along. We brought in Danica Patrick, and that went
over like a lead balloon. Jules and Danica didn't really have a
problem with each other, they just didn't seem to care for one
another too much. And Julianne wasn't too happy about seeing
her training time with Ashley reduced."
Sophia looked concerned. "The hell do you do about that?"
Danni shrugged again. "I wasn't sure how to play it, but I got
a little help from an unexpected source. Ashley smoothed things
over on her own." She smiled and shook her head. "I know it's
hard to imagine Ashley - a proud fashionista who I'm pretty sure
wears Prada to have breakfast at her own kitchen table - as a
relationship counselor. But, that's Ash. She helped Jules see
that training with Danica was what she needed. As Julianne and
Danica trained more, they gained a respect for one another. Is
it a Daniela/Aly type relationship? Nope. But, it's good
enough, and the three of them have found decent success
together. In fact, we decided we were comfortable enough to add
Kristen Bell to the mix. Kristen's a lot like Ash.... very 'no
worries, be happy.' She's easy to get along with, and between
the two of them, they keep that group together."
You could almost see the cogs turning over in Sophia's mind as
she processed Danni's information. "Out of curiosity, who do you
train with?"
Danni decided to ponder that for a minute. She had no problem
answering the question. It was where that answer was going to
lead that had her concerned.
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