# How underwater rugby made me a better leader | Julia Braunegg | TEDxGraz Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGCVj8l_1J8 Recap page: https://rapidrecap.app/video/QGCVj8l_1J8 Generated: 2025-12-16T17:43:18.502+00:00 --- ## Quick Overview Julia Braunegg argues that leading effectively, especially in high-pressure, chaotic environments like underwater rugby, requires leaders to cultivate personal calm and trust their team members to execute their roles without constant control, drawing parallels between the physical demands of the sport and the mental demands of modern leadership. **Key Points:** - Braunegg recounts her experience playing underwater rugby at depths of 5 meters, where the environment is chaotic, and players must operate with limited air (20-30 seconds maximum per breath). - The primary challenge in underwater rugby is maintaining composure and trust among teammates when physical needs (air) are critical and communication is difficult. - She learned that effective leadership involves creating a 'bubble of calm' around oneself, which allows others to breathe and function, contrasting this with controlling every action. - A key lesson was learning to trust her young teammates (8-14 year olds) to execute plays, such as passing the ball forward or stealing the goalie position, even when she was not physically present or in control. - Braunegg contrasts two main leadership styles in the sport: the controlling leader who dictates every move, versus the leader who provides clarity and trusts the team to execute, which she found more effective. - She concludes that the ability to foster calm, trust, and clarity for the team to act autonomously is a crucial skill for any leader, regardless of the industry. ![Screenshot at 00:05: Julia Braunegg introduces her talk titled "Leading Underwater," holding a yellow ball which she uses throughout the presentation to symbolize the game's focus object.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/QGCVj8l_1J8/00-00-05.png) **Context:** Julia Braunegg delivered this TEDxGraz talk to discuss lessons learned from her experience as a player and coach in underwater rugby, a demanding and chaotic sport played at the bottom of a deep pool. She uses the extreme environment of underwater rugby—where players have limited time to breathe and must rely on non-verbal cues and trust—as an analogy for modern leadership challenges, particularly the need to move away from micromanagement toward fostering trust and collective composure. ## Detailed Analysis Julia Braunegg begins by setting the scene of underwater rugby, which takes place 5 meters underwater, forcing players to surface for air every 20 to 30 seconds. She describes the environment as chaotic, comparing it to the feeling of drowning when the body signals distress. She highlights that in this sport, players must trust their teammates implicitly. She recounts a specific game scenario where her team had two defenders and two attackers, and one player would go up for air while another went down to maintain pressure—a constant state of controlled chaos. The crucial lesson she learned was that leadership is not about controlling everything; instead, it requires creating a personal 'bubble of calm' under pressure. She notes that the young players she coached learned to execute complex plays, like passing the ball forward or taking the goalie position, without her direct input because they knew their roles and trusted each other. She contrasts the controlling leader who dictates every move with the leader who provides clarity (like knowing where the goal is) and then steps back, allowing others to execute. This trust, she argues, is what allows the team to move forward without constant intervention, a lesson she applies directly to general leadership contexts where leaders often feel the need to control everything but should instead focus on fostering clarity and trust so team members can act independently when needed. ### Introduction to Underwater Rugby - The speaker describes playing at 5 meters deep, with only 20-30 seconds of air, leading to physical signals of distress (drowning feeling) and intense chaos. ### The Leadership Analogy - Braunegg explains that the game involves 6 players in the water, 2 defenders, and 2 attackers, illustrating the complexity where players must trust each other implicitly despite the physical pressure. ### The Lesson of Calm - She learned that her body's distress signals were overridden by the need to trust her team; effective leadership means creating a 'bubble of calm' rather than trying to control every action. ### Trusting the Team - She shares an anecdote about coaching young players (8-14 year olds) who learned to execute plays (like passing the ball forward or taking the goalie position) without her constant direction because they trusted the system and each other. ### Two Leadership Styles - She contrasts the controlling leader who tries to dictate everything with the leader who provides clarity and then trusts others to execute their roles, noting that the latter approach is more effective for team success. ### Conclusion on Leadership - The key skill for leaders is knowing when to take a breath and trust others to execute, creating an environment where people can operate effectively under pressure. ![Screenshot at 00:05: Julia Braunegg introduces her talk titled "Leading Underwater," holding a yellow ball which she uses throughout the presentation to symbolize the game's focus object.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/QGCVj8l_1J8/00-00-05.png) ![Screenshot at 00:11: Braunegg describes being 5 meters underwater, emphasizing the physical challenge and need for immediate action.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/QGCVj8l_1J8/00-00-11.png) ![Screenshot at 00:46: Braunegg explains the team structure of underwater rugby, noting there are 12 people on a team, with 6 moving in silence.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/QGCVj8l_1J8/00-00-46.png) ![Screenshot at 01:46: A large screen displays action footage of players underwater wearing caps and masks, illustrating the chaotic environment of the sport.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/QGCVj8l_1J8/00-01-46.png) ![Screenshot at 06:19: Braunegg smiles while recounting how exhausting it was to manage the chaos, contrasting it with the calm she eventually learned to foster.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/QGCVj8l_1J8/00-06-19.png)