Army Crew Team Case Study - Team Building
Team Submission: Bad Jazz
Jane Blatz; Zachary Brado; Adam Medwetsky;
David Cooper; Burhan Saiyed; Tian Wang
Case Study: The Army Crew Team
Reason: Why does the Varsity Team Lose to the JV Team?
Varsity’s consistent losses to the JV team can be explained by their lack of characteristics that make up a true team. The losses can also be attributed to JV’s strong team cohesion and the presence of team disrupters on the Varsity team.
Team Playing vs. Individuality
The Army’s Varsity Crew team was not a true team. They were merely eight star athletes, with no cohesion or team chemistry, thrown together. The players and positions were selected strictly on physical strength and capabilities. This completely contradicts the views of the more experienced crew coaches, who rank psychological factors as the most important aspect of a successful crew team. Instead of selecting players by the single most important aspect of a team’s success, these factors were ignored. In a sport where team trust and dependence is of utter importance, where even a hair flip can throw off an entire race, the lack of team cohesion and trust within one another caused great failure. It proved foolish to simply throw a group of good athletes together and expect them to be compatible. This strategy is a prime example of when “the whole is less than the sum of its parts.”
Lack of Shared Goal
In addition, the Varsity “team” had no solid team goal that they were working towards. Yes, they all wanted to win; however they were unclear as to how they would work together to accomplish this. This was evident from the team e-mails and discussions. The individual players proved to be too egotistical and centrally focused on their individual goals of personal success and opinions to function. They were too focused on individual blame and accountability to work together successfully. They never discussed bettering themselves as a team unit.
Lack of Direction – Absent Leadership
Jane Blatz; Zachary Brado; Adam Medwetsky;
David Cooper; Burhan Saiyed; Tian Wang
Case Study: The Army Crew Team
Reason: Why does the Varsity Team Lose to the JV Team?
Varsity’s consistent losses to the JV team can be explained by their lack of characteristics that make up a true team. The losses can also be attributed to JV’s strong team cohesion and the presence of team disrupters on the Varsity team.
Team Playing vs. Individuality
The Army’s Varsity Crew team was not a true team. They were merely eight star athletes, with no cohesion or team chemistry, thrown together. The players and positions were selected strictly on physical strength and capabilities. This completely contradicts the views of the more experienced crew coaches, who rank psychological factors as the most important aspect of a successful crew team. Instead of selecting players by the single most important aspect of a team’s success, these factors were ignored. In a sport where team trust and dependence is of utter importance, where even a hair flip can throw off an entire race, the lack of team cohesion and trust within one another caused great failure. It proved foolish to simply throw a group of good athletes together and expect them to be compatible. This strategy is a prime example of when “the whole is less than the sum of its parts.”
Lack of Shared Goal
In addition, the Varsity “team” had no solid team goal that they were working towards. Yes, they all wanted to win; however they were unclear as to how they would work together to accomplish this. This was evident from the team e-mails and discussions. The individual players proved to be too egotistical and centrally focused on their individual goals of personal success and opinions to function. They were too focused on individual blame and accountability to work together successfully. They never discussed bettering themselves as a team unit.
Lack of Direction – Absent Leadership