Recently, I had a discussion with my friend, L, on team commitment in sports. He got me to understand his point of view, even though I felt his style was not terribly considerate.
Team commitment is one of the initial steps it takes to having a good cohesive group that can win ball games.
I grew up with a Father who loved Fastpitch Softball. He lived and breathed it each weekend. He had the opportunity to manage a team of players after he had played a number of years. Part of being a manager was the concept of getting people to be there. If they did not have nine guys, then chances are they would have to give me a glove and have me go play right field. I don't think this ever happened, thank goodness, but I think it was brought up as a possibility. I know that in his city league, they would pick up people off the street and they would be out there in their jeans... Jeans! How embarrassing!
So why not recruit more players to the team? This could work if everyone on the team understands that they do not get as much playing time. But people sign up to play sports because they want to play. If my Dad had 18 players and all of them did show up, then half the team would have to sit on the bench. It was usually a tough decision for Dad to have to bench any players who sacrificed their time to come play. People also have egos. They complain or may jump ship to another team if they do not get their time on the field. Dad would often have to sit himself and he hated that, because he always wanted to play.
The main issue I have with commitment is the consideration one has for the other players on the team, especially the person in charge of the team. This goes for any type of sports team, whether it is some bowling league or a soccer team or a church basketball team. The initial goal for the manager is to make sure enough people are going to show up. Now, an objection to this might be "if not enough people show up, then obviously it is not very important to them to even play, so what does it matter?" It matters to those people who do show up. They look forward to playing week to week. This is how they choose to spend their free time. If people only come out to play when they feel like coming out or it is convenient to them, then the team and manager is forced to not trust them.
Trust is an initial component in many types of relationships. Family, business, and of course sports all rely on trust to start getting things going in the direction they want. Once the trust is established, then the team starts working together toward a common goal. In Family, the goal is to have love and joy. In Business, the goal is to make money. In Sports, the goal is to win.
The concept of winning is a little controversial in some of our namby pamby circles. We have this movement in children's sports which has kids dress up in the cute uniforms and all their expensive cute gear just so they can stand out there, not learn the game, do whatever they want and be awarded for it. I suppose the argument is if kids learned that winning and losing is part of the game, they may become upset, cry and go shoot up a mall somewhere. The child out there picking flowers on the ground, staring at the clouds and twirling in circles is encouraged. This is our future, non-committed, totally unique sports player.
My radical concept is this: The players go out there, work together as a team, learn how to improve their skills, and win. People like winning. People like doing their best and seeing the reward on the other end.
Now, does everyone like winning? Obviously not. Some people, like the twirling child, show up when they want, go out and do what they want with no expectation at all from anyone else or any team members. They have no interest in the team, nor helping the team get better.
Some non-committed players are good and they may hit home runs, score goals, spike the ball, score touchdowns, etc. But when they do not have the trust of the team, it becomes confusing to the players how to work with this individual. People get frustrated with team members who do not care about them. If there is no respect, even when there is some success, it is hard to have joy.
I am a big proponent of team. My favourite sport is volleyball and one could not ask for a more team sport. Every player has to work together. But it is not just with volleyball. I see it in every team sport. The trust and the teamwork have to be there and when it is not, it might as well be the children playing in the clouds.
I think there is a place for these people who do not care about their team. They could try the golf course. Oh wait! There may be people behind one depending on them to go faster. So forget that. Try tennis. Nope. Can't do that because their opponent depends on one to show up. Aha! I know where the non-committed individual fits in. The computer. There, they can play whatever they want, whenever they want. They can have a team. Or not have a team. They can win or lose. No one cares. And with a wii, they can actually mimic the sports actions.
Look at computers! They are so perfect... Perfect for people who have no desire to have relationships with mere mortals who want to have fun together and win.
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