Teams, Athletic and Non LO6963

Charles Parry (74150.236@CompuServe.COM)
24 Apr 96 19:15:26 EDT

>I spoke to one coach a year ago whose team was superlative. "How do you
obtain such field discipline, such consistency?" His reply: "The kids
hate practices, because all we do is overlaps [a kind of pass where the
passer runs behind the receiver to his/her other side, into open space
ready to receive the ball back if necessary]. But when they get out on
the field, well...you see what happens."
What I saw in that team was a hightened sense of collaboration. These 18
and 19 year olds were constantly talking to one another.
-- end of quote --

Barry;

IMHO that coach was drilling into them a two-person meme-like gestalt as
his distillation of successful habits & awareness in that context
(soccer). A good start if players come into it trained by their academic
classes to be focussed on individual achievement. But notice that he did
so using his authority (my inference from "The kids hate practices...")

So my point remains - these athletes get to practice/experience teamwork
due to the (flowing) structure of this game within which there is no
avenue for the exercise of external authority (coach). Athletes in other
"team" sports (such as baseball, football, basketball) are much less
fortunate, as the dominant decision-maker (coach) has so many breaks in
the action to impose his/her will. Players are left with making the small
decisions, not the big ones. Any wonder there is so much struggle and
confusion about SMTs?

Back to the original question - where is the practice-field for team
skills & orientations?

Charles Parry
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-- 

Charles Parry <74150.236@CompuServe.COM>

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>