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Project; Team Work
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Group dynamics in sport as in any other sphere of life is
a social interaction of participants, group-members. It is
concerned with the constantly changing characteristics of
groups, sport team members in particular. It considers psychological
environment within teams, focusing on such patterns as team
formation, team cohesion, norming, motivation formation and
leadership, performing and conflicts and loafing within sporting
teams. These relations arise between people joined together,
which interact with one another, are socially attracted to
each other and have a shared identity, common goals, etc.
According to Karlene Sugarman’s article on cohesion,
“The finest to survive and succeed are those able to
find their strength in cooperation, able to build upon mutual
helpfulness, and responsibility foe one’s fellow teammates”
(Sugarman, 2007). Personality processes, emotional and thoughts
influence play an essential role when it comes to succeeding
and there can be no minor details to be neglected. Within
the framework of the teamwork sportsmen may use different
techniques to take control over their thoughts and emotions
in order to enjoy the process of training as well as the game
itself. Pre-performance strategies for self-control lay the
foundation for competition success. It is clear that competing
may bring out any features of character in sportsmen within
a team that is why psychological demands for them are significant.
If both teams are equally skillful, it is mental preparation
that helps team-members to control their emotions on the way
to their victory. Scholars consider that regular mental training
leads to the formation of healthy and generally favorable
environment and has as strong influence on performance of
a team as physical coaching. Emotional attitude and organisms’
reaction to stressful events will most likely exhaust sportsmen’
resources and affect the performance negatively. That is why
there are certain strategies used for pre-performance stress
withstanding. Positive in contrast to negative emotions are
effective in sustaining motivation and change sportsmen attitude
to the game. In team sport emotions can be initiated by many
things depending on an individual.
Sportsmen should develop their coping response to any unexpected
situation during a competition; it should become automatic
and apply to definite circumstances. Due to pre-performance
psychological strategy sports team-members may achieve desired
emotional state, reach their potential. But in order to create
healthy psychological environment not only emotions’
but also thought control is essential, both phenomena are
in close interaction and work in both directions: emotions
are caused by thoughts but on the other hand they influence
thoughts, carrying sportsmen along the vicious circle of negative
thoughts and emotions. The thoughts that run through the mind
of teammates can affect the way they feel and perform. Athletes
spend much time thinking over sport-related issues, however,
in fact sportsmen seldom and even next to never plan their
thoughts during training and the game itself. Though they
are proposed to use techniques of dissociation, music during
coaching, counting or alphabet games distracting attention
from physical sensations such as pain and fatigue. It has
already between proved by scholars that the way teammates
think is closely linked and affects the way they perform,
that is why thoughts and general positive so called “fighting
spirit” and readiness to withstand difficulties do count.
Before characterizing and analyzing important steps in sports
group dynamics, it is reasonable to give indispensable data
on distinguishing between groups and teams. The matter is
that there are different kinds of group understanding and
classification, one of them subdivides them into working groups
the members of which interact to share information, the members
assist each other in performing successfully within individual
field of responsibility; pseudo-team, the members of which
are not interested in sharing common goals or objectives;
potential team, the members of which are striving to perform
as successfully as possible, trying to improve their performance
impact; and real teams, the members of which are committed
to shared purposes in sport, they hold themselves mutually
accountable and are a maximum possible unit during the game.
There are also high-performance teams, which have the characteristics
real teams possess and add to that a deep concern towards
each other’s personal growth and success. It outperforms
all other kinds of teams. Teams have greater performance potential,
but it demands more development and support from each other
than work groups. A team is characterized by the presence
of the following factors: significant performance need or
opportunity, joint commitment to a common goal, real interdependency
and mutual accountability, mutual success and progress professional
concern. Team members also need such skills as problem-solving
and decision-making in order to withstand the calamities they
face within the framework of interpersonal interaction.
It is natural that a lot of factors influence the winning
formula if there exists any, they are interdependent and none
of them can be excluded from the list.
As for sports team composition, the attitude to its formation
may be different and include various factors but there is
an opinion that heterogeneous teams work and cooperate better,
have greater potential. On the one hand heterogeneity promotes
creating better working and training environment in which
every teammate occupies his niche and altogether they comprise
a whole. In heterogeneous groups sportsmen have different
backgrounds and experiences, such team composition, are supposed
to identify superior alternatives. Having differences in backgrounds
and sport techniques usage team-members will have various
personal characteristics and individual preferences, it is
not an easy task to manage and coordinate the work of such
a team though its potential cannot be denied. Considering
all these peculiarities the optimal team composition should
be formed. Team-members should together develop effective
strategies of behavior on the field and teammates with different
knowledge and experience have more chances to succeed (Molle,
2004). Effective teams with optimal team composition usually
have clearly-set objectives, definite roles, responsibilities
trust, support and leadership roles taking into account personal
inclinations and capabilities and previous sports achievements
which should be thoroughly considered.
It has already be been assented that leadership in team is
necessary for team cohesion which means rational development
and success. To avoid loafing athletes should feel trust towards
other teammates, it is next to impossible without good organization
of competitive setting and presence of trust in leadership,
being a vital part of team cohesion. Good team leader is capable
of prioritizing most important problems team has and sees
the way the most responsible, skillful and competent team-members
can solve them, contributing as much as possible to the key
purpose or the result required to remain competitive in sport.
A team leader will train, concentrate team’s efforts,
support or entrust as is appropriate, the individual members
in such a case will show themselves worth. Though it is up
to the leader to create favorable “climate” and
environment within a team and to contribute to team-members
being on good terms with each other and favour team cohesion.
Team cohesion is considered to be a complex phenomenon and
one of the components of group dynamics contributing to the
winning formula implementation. There are opinions of scholars
that team cohesion cannot be effectively built in sports,
hence, each team is a collection of individuals with unique
world oulook and a number of peculiarities, it is next to
impossible to rally them even during the game let alone allround
interaction of teammates on round the clock. It is rather
obvious that cohesion in teams is a dynamic process the goal
of which is to unite team-members and create such a state
that all of them pursue common objectives and work to the
fullest. The more cohesive a team is, the more it encourages
peak performance in its teammates (Sugarman, 2007). People
usually refer to a team as cohesive if all its members get
along well, are devoted to their team and united in the pursuit
of its goals. Such a team is to have well-defined responsibilities
of each teammate, common purpose, good working and personal
relations if possible, mutual respect and support. Moreover,
Karlene Sugarman in the article on cohesion points out that
an additional sign which shows the extent of team’s
cohesion is “the frequency of statements of we and our,
in contrast to statements of I, me and mine” (Sugarman,
2007).
Though cohesion takes a lot of time and efforts to achieve
but actually it is worth doing it by joint efforts of team-members
and team leaders. The Head Softball Coach Shellie McCall once
noticed that team cohesion is like glue, which keeps a team
concentrated and determined on the common goals. According
to the recent survey conducted among the basketball team players
of different teams, cohesion is a shared perception and there
is a strong relationship between the two notions of success
and cohesion, as though they may never exist without each
other and are closely interrelated. Consequently, true team
cohesion inevitably leads to mutual understanding and team
success, though there are still other factors, which may be
in the way of professional teammates’ gaining results.
A tendency observed manifests that real teams exhibit even
stronger effects than non-sport real groups and there is a
powerful relationship between cohesion and group success in
sport teams. It is clear that for every team its success is
the product of an integrated accumulation of all team members’
exertions. There are four main factors contributing to cohesion,
which are personal, environmental, team and leadership and
they fall into such categories as personal perception of the
social group, attraction to it, perception of group task and
attraction to it.
Success in competition is most likely attainable is each team
member totally concentrates on common task and shares team’s
beliefs and prospects, being ready to contribute to them actively
at any time. Team-building strategies are often based on this
approach to competition and they should be composed and implemented
so that coaches make sure that teammates have a high level
of shared commitment and are all satisfied with the way the
goals are posed, have a common vision of attaining them.
Team goals should be clear and definite; they may concern
either the nearest competition or some event or gaining status
in the prospect of several years. In this case goals may be
short-term and long-term, some scientists also single out
intermediate goals. It is considered that in practical terms
short-term goals are by far the most important but on the
other hand sportsmen should not neglect setting long-term
goals as while short-term goals are basically process-orientated
they may be compared to concessive steps resulting in achievement
of a long-term goal. Any goals of a team should be put taking
into account objective reality, real opportunities of sportsmen
and should become more and more complex but still feasible.
Goals of each sport team are to be monitored and revised when
there is necessity, the approach should not be to rigid but
flexible and individual paying attention to each athlete,
especially while working with experienced athletes.
Goal-setting is an essential part of motivational technique
and according to a popular approach of SMART-goal setting,
they should be specific, measurable, adjustable, realistic
and time-based or time-bound. Moreover, teammates should possess
self-efficiency, those who have a high level of it are usually
more motivated. As it helps to concentrate attention, recall
positive experiences and generate a sense of self-efficiency
and confidence.
Sportsmen in team should have channel their energy effectively
and for that they need a good motivation which is a pivot
of their successful performance. Motivation assesses all aspects
of team-members’ behavior. Being dynamic and multifaced,
motivation can be handled in a way to contribute to superior
sporting performance. There are different approaches to motivation,
it can be extrinsic or intrinsic. The former motivated sportsmen
participate in competitions or contests because they are inwardly
motivated, find this activity enjoyable. The latter do it
because they are inspired by external rewards and recognition.
If sportsmen in teams lack motivation, they exhibit a sense
of helplessness and insufficient interest in the outcome.
All the components mentioned contribute to successful performance
of a team, professionalism, mutual respect, decision-making
skills, flexibility persistence if they are all developed
and well-balanced they will lead to maintaining a successful
sports team.
References
Mello, A. (2004). Team compostion. University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Sugarman, K. (2007). Group dynamics. Cohesion. <http://www.psychwww.com/sports/cohesion.htm>
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