|
Why Do We Cheer
for Our Team Mates?
By JOHN LEONARD
Executive Director
American Swimming Coaches Association
Swimming is an "individual"
sport, right? So why should we cheer for our team mates?
The team aspects of
swimming are important to adults. Adults (coaches, parents and officials)
all seem to understand and stress the importance of teamwork, team spirit
and team effort. Why is that? The swimmer dives in the water…alone…and swims
back and forth between the walls as fast as they can…alone…and then gets out
and listens to a critique of their race from the coach…alone…and then either
goes off to reflect on the race or goes up to get an award…alone. What’s the
big deal about "Team?"
Adults make a big deal
about team because of their experiences in life. Most adults have had the
experience of working in a team environment. Perhaps in a sports setting,
perhaps in a work environment, perhaps luckily in both. And so adults
understand one basic principle…individuals perform best when they are
supported by a team, performing for something other than themselves.
Performing for the "team."
Each of us will commit all
of our intelligence, energy and effort to keep from letting down our friends
and our team mates. If only our own ego or self esteem is on the line we can
choose to offer less than full effort and still accept it. Yet when we have
to "answer to" a group, we commit more fully and thus perform better.
Simply put, the team makes
us better people and better athletes.
Lets look one layer deeper.
What does the team do for the individual that makes each of us so committed
to it? Why should we "care" so much for the team? If you want a selfish
motive, here it is:
We can’t improve nearly as
effectively without our team mates support. This goes back to the name of our
sport, "competitive swimming". To compete is to "strive with". Strive is
defined as "to try". "With" is a cooperative word. That is exactly what we
do in swimming, we "strive with" our team mates on every repeat, every set,
every day. (Also with our fellow competitors in swim meets.) We dive in the
pool side by side, and swim down the pool and back with them. We "compete"
in practice everyday. As you swim a repeat faster, your friend will swim
faster to stay with you. As he swims faster on the next repeat, you work
harder to stay with him. Do that repeat after repeat, set after set, week
after week, month after month and you help each other get better.
Now, what if you didn’t
"compete"? What if you came to the wall after each repeat and your friend
said, "hey Joe, chill out, no need to swim so hard, let’s just cool it".
Could you swim the next one harder? Not without alienating your friend. So
each of us depend, to a certain extent, upon the friends in the lane around
us, next to us, ahead of us and behind us to put in an honest effort
everyday if we want to get better. Looking at it another way, when the swim
in the middle or end of a set is hard, and your buddy is handling it, isn’t
it easier for you to keep pushing knowing that your friend is handling it,
and it doesn’t take a superman or superwoman to handle this set? What if no
one else was there? Could you keep pushing? Sharing the load, the effort,
halves the work. Doing it by yourself doubles the load. First you have to
convince yourself you CAN do it, then you have to do it.
Your team mates are a
critical factor in helping you to improve. Picture how awful it would be to
train alone each day…just you and the coach. How much harder to push and
keep pushing and go faster.
Why cheer for your
team mates? Because your destination in swimming is completely tied up in
their destination and they are completely "dependant" on your support and
effort. You have mutual interests…your mutual improvement. Everyday, in
practice or in swim meets, how you do is going to be partly determined by
how well those around you do. You have a stake in their success, and they
have an important stake in your success.
None of us can accomplish
individually what we can accomplish working together as a team. Be a
cheerleader.
Besides, it’s fun. Enjoy
it. |