Teamwork In Daniel James Brown's The Boys In The Boat

Sport’s are an aspect of life that affect societies across the globe. Athletics affect everyone's life, whether that be playing the sport, watching games, or hearing about a sporting event. There is a big difference between playing an individual sport and players relying on their own athletic abilities versus a team sport when members of the team rely on their teammates to complete each individual's specific responsibility to reach the team's goal. Team sports bring people together in countless ways, and they teach many life skills for the athletes that participate in them. Some of these skills include communication, teamwork, discipline, work ethic, dedication, leadership, and numerous more that will help them in their personal and work

Teamwork is an extraordinary characteristic for any organizations or groups to strive to its fullest potential. According to the Greenberg text “An organization is a structured social system consisting of groups and individuals working together to meet upon some agreed-upon objectives.” In the movie Miracle, the theme of teamwork is portrayed through the Men’s Hockey Team’s head coach Herb Brooks leadership in training recent college graduates to play hockey in one of the most challenging competition in the world, which were the 1980s Olympics.

Sport is incredible in how it can increase confidence, self-esteem, and overall health while teaching children a new ability of working with others as a team, taking direction, and doing things they never thought possible. I want to be able to show what sports is capable of teaching and the rewards that come along with it. The concept of team reveals what is achievable through solidarity that would be impossible in solitary.

As Joe dedicates himself more to the rowing team that he is a part of, his coaches realize there is a team aspect missing. For a while when the team was rowing together some days Joe would perform wonderfully and other times the

    Teamwork is essential to the success of any organization, large or small. The necessity of teamwork was especially emphasized through Pocock’s comparison between a rowing crew and a symphony, stating “If one fellow in an orchestra was

Near the end of this chapter, a young Wes Moore (the author) discovers a basketball court, meets a group of players, and joins their team after playing a few games. His teammates soon become his new friends, and that allows him to notice the strong resemblance between this team and a community. He notes that everyone in the team, himself included, is “enclosed by the same fence, bumping into one another, fighting, celebrating” (p. 45), showing that they all share the same experiences together. In addition, Wes Moore reveals the strong bond amongst him and his teammates when he states that they also share their personal secrets, including their “cruelty and crimes—as if that fence had created a circle of trust. A brotherhood” (p. 45).

The Varsity team lost to the Junior Varsity team because of their individualistic mindset. The coach of the Army Crew team admits to putting together the best crew athletes together on the Varsity team. As “Making Star Teams Out of Star Players” discusses, putting the best individuals together seems appropriate on paper, but often ignores the soft skills necessary to work together as a team. Because the coach focuses on the individual talents of the Varsity Crew team he creates an air of competitiveness within each member, instead of how they can work together. The goal of the team is not greater than that of the individual and no one wants to be the weakest link so they overcompensate their own skills. Every member of the Varsity crew team believes he is compensating for the other members and blames other members for the failure of the team, which shows a lack of team mentality and strong leadership. Through overcompensating, as stated in the case study, that throws off the balance of the boat because one member being off pace causes slower speeds. Also, through pitting the Varsity team against the Junior Varsity team it adds to the divisive culture within the whole Army Crew team.

Throughout my five years continuing on my sixth; I had never became so close to any sport/club offered at my school. Our team is considered a “family.” We stand by eachother through times of doubt and reminisce on our good memories. We enjoy the company of one another. Every Friday night before our Saturday morning races, the team would all sit down together and have a nice meal together. The team is a close knit group even with students joining and graduating from the

The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown is a true story which illustrates the importance of grit and perseverance in the face of challenging situations. Throughout his troubled upbringing, Joe Rantz faces depressing and unfortunate events. When he was young, his mother dies, and his father remarries a harsh woman, Thula, who treats Joe dreadfully. His father can't hold a job, and his family keeps moving from town to town, which negatively impacts his social life. Eventually, Thula threatens to end the marriage with Joe’s father unless Joe leaves the family. Joe’s father accepts Thula’s request, and he abandons Joes when he is only fifteen years old. Yet in the midst of living independently at such a young age, Joe perseveres through the challenges and achieves his life’s dreams. When he is left with almost nothing, his drive to succeed ultimately leads to his triumph at rowing and to his winning of an Olympic gold medal in Berlin.

The short film Balance 1990 (2007) was a disturbing way to get the idea of teamwork across. Initially, the team was working so well together, communicating without words. They were keeping life in balance and moving to help others obtain a goal. Members of the team were reading each other’s needs and agreeing how to react to them. The entire team was fishing for one concept; once one obtained it, they all moved to accommodate so they could learn more. Collaboration quickly began to fall apart as they became selfish with the box and music. Selfishness was the profound idea leading to the destruction of the team one by one. Once the greed destroyed the team, it left the single man with nothing but the yearning of what he once had and no way to get it back.

Each individual on a team of strangers, in a life or death situation, will act on their own. Clearly, the lack of team training, identity, trust and disciple can be cited as an underlying cause. For example, Dodge’s escape fire may have saved all of the fire jumpers lives if they had listened to Dodge.

If we were randomly asked to define the word “team” many of us would have numerous variations of this multifaceted word; some would proclaim it means helping others, backing one another while others might define it as unanimity or culpability. The French associate the word team, with the slogan “Esprit de corps” a majestic word that was adopted by the United States Marine Corps. This matchless catchphrase means: “a sense of unity, of enthusiasm for common interests and responsibilities.” As early as childhood it has been ingrained into us that teamwork is congenial and effortlessly achieved. When in fact it wasn’t until society was introduced to Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team, written by Patrick Lencioni, did civilization start to realize that teamwork is hard to measure and even harder to achieve because the has been loosely used as well as misinterpret. Lencioni understands that teamwork is a difficult thing to measure and achieve, his book reminds us that the power that comes from teamwork cannot be denied. It would be hypothesized that through the authors’ comprehensive exploration and methodical examination, he reveals ways for civilization to comprehend the term as well as employ each other successful; conversely this can’t be done until the dysfunctional factor is properly identified and controlled. Hence the reason for his in-depth plunge in explaining the five dysfunctions and method that can be utilized by teams to overcome the dysfunctionalities.

This directly translates into their studies and their lives. In these team sports, success or failure in competition depends on many variables. When these variables align through effective teamwork a successful play emerges as the teammates work together through coordination, communication and cohesion in training to achieve this result. Everyone has a role in the team and is expected to execute their task effectively. Any sort of individualism proves detrimental to the team as we all know, there is no “I” in

Coach P.’s training program should have focused more on psychological variables and group processes earlier in the season. Instead, training was focused on improving individual team member performance. The Varsity team comprised of the eight top individual performers (Snook & Polzer, 2004). Mistrust between Varsity team members began developing following spring break. Lack of trust and other related psychological issues prevented the Varsity team from synchronizing their rowing even though they were the top individual performers.

The Army Crew Team is in utter frustration since the team that consisted of the top 8 members with excellent strength and condition, rowing technique, and psychological dimension kept frequently losing the JV team before the national championship race. Facing with this problem, Coach P. hold a meeting with the team members to discuss about the problems among the team. Now on, he has to make a decision among the choices of switching the Varsity and Junior Varsity boat, switching individual boat members or intervening to improve the Varsity boat’s performance.