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Comparing Two Different Sporting Strategies In Professional Sports

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Babe Ruth once said, “The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don't play together, the club won't be worth a dime.” There are two different sporting strategies: a team with a superstar, and a team that plays small ball. These two strategies are typically applied to baseball. The team with the superstars (or homerun hitters), strives to get all their runs on those one or two players that can hit the ball out of the park. Small ball is quite the opposite. This type of team just tries to get batters on base. They get their runs by slowly getting the players back to home plate. These strategies are also used in volleyball. But in volleyball, the homerun …show more content…

That player is known as the superstar. This player is usually the one who everyone knows and cheers for because they score all the points. The teammates contribute only a small part and are often overlooked. These players are generally weaker than most in their particular sport because they heavily rely on the superstar. In volleyball, this type of team gets points when the “big gun” is up in the front row. They set this player a majority of the time. The team does get a lot of points when the superstar is up, but once she gets to the back row, the other team goes on their runs. It becomes hard for the superstar team to side out causing the other team to go on their runs. Some problems with the strategy is that the superstar becomes cocky and believes in the saying, “there is no “I” in team, but there is in win.” Players apart of this type of team often play for themselves and don’t have good teamwork. In high school, my team played Queen Creek High School that believed in the superstar concept. The “big gun” was Jasmin. She could do just about everything, and executed it well. The setter would set her 90% of the time and she would get her kills when she was up. But, like I said before, when she went back row, Queen Creek had no one else to rely on, and we started earning our …show more content…

Everyone! This strategy is all about the team and doing their personal job to help the team succeed. Everyone contributes something, even if they are on the bench. For example, the reason the “A” team is so good is because they have to scrimmage and compete against the “B” team. However, players on this type of team are all pretty equal in ability. Small ball teams take advantage of every single point they get. They want to get the most out of every service rotation possible (a team rotates positions after every sideout). The team focuses on getting one point at time and thinks about the now instead of what possibly could come. There is not one specified superstar on the team because everyone scores and everyone works together to get the point. Small ball players may not be the first or second best player on the court, but they are the third-eighth best players. These teams heavily emphasize the importance of teamwork and comradery. Generally, the players are humble and know that they have to work for what they want. My high school team was definitely a small ball team. We didn’t have a superstar but we all played together and for each other. So, what happened when we played against the superstar Jasmin and her Queen Creek team? Well, we worked for every point, slowed Jasmin down, and together we were the superstar. We beat “The Jasmin Hannah” and her Queen Creek Bulldogs. Like Babe Ruth said, teams that play together, are worth so

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