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Teamwork ???? Yeah right !!!....

Dusty

Don't run, you'll only die tired....
May 19, 2004
7,606
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Northern Ireland
It would seem timely, after the weekend's national squad success, to ask how the least prepared team could have won??
We all know well enough that our squad had the least amount of time to prepare for the event and so doesn't it seem kinda curious as to how we could have won?
After all, if teamwork needs time to create .... then things just ain't adding up here ...:confused:

There are an awful lot of people who talk about teamwork as if it's the be all and end all of a team's performance portfolio of skills but I've always believed this to be a crock of sh!te .... the weekend's performance tends to back me up .. or does it?

Did you not beat the Russians with Nexus in their early days? Before there would have been time to develop that level of teamwork which SHOULD have been theoretically required?
 

Tony Harrison

What is your beef with the Mac?
Mar 13, 2007
6,516
1,874
238
It would seem timely, after the weekend's national squad success, to ask how the least prepared team could have won??
We all know well enough that our squad had the least amount of time to prepare for the event and so doesn't it seem kinda curious as to how we could have won?
After all, if teamwork needs time to create .... then things just ain't adding up here ...:confused:

There are an awful lot of people who talk about teamwork as if it's the be all and end all of a team's performance portfolio of skills but I've always believed this to be a crock of sh!te .... the weekend's performance tends to back me up .. or does it?
One word - heart.
 

Dr Fingers

They don't tell me nothin
Feb 1, 2009
734
72
63
Dunedin, New Zealand
It would seem timely, after the weekend's national squad success, to ask how the least prepared team could have won??
We all know well enough that our squad had the least amount of time to prepare for the event and so doesn't it seem kinda curious as to how we could have won?
After all, if teamwork needs time to create .... then things just ain't adding up here ...:confused:

There are an awful lot of people who talk about teamwork as if it's the be all and end all of a team's performance portfolio of skills but I've always believed this to be a crock of sh!te .... the weekend's performance tends to back me up .. or does it?
Having a common goal that all team members can buy into can be a really useful focus and can avoid conflict in the short term. The problem may come if the team starts to struggle and fault lines start to appear within it.
 

Robbo

Owner of this website
Jul 5, 2001
13,116
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London
www.p8ntballer.com
Did you not beat the Russians with Nexus in their early days? Before there would have been time to develop that level of teamwork which SHOULD have been theoretically required?

Dusty/Jonathan: Yeah, we beat them the first time we played them but that didn't change the fact they were a better team than us, it just meant we beat them on that day; as to how we beat them?
You can use explanations such as 'heart', 'commitment', 'self-belief', whatever but ..... if I then ask you to explain just what 'heart' means and how it penetrates our performance, trust me on this next point, you'll start getting into trouble in terms of a cogent response.

Questions like, 'if you played with so much 'heart' in the Russian game, then why couldn't you win all the other games at that event in Vegas will then serve to undermine your reason for winning.
'Heart' then becomes something that's inconsistent, fleeting and uncontrollable; as soon as you realise this, you then have to doubt the word 'heart' being the reason why we did beat the Russkies.

However, we did beat them and so something must explain it; my interpretation of why we won that game was a series of events during that funneled the game direction into a win for us ... it was unexpected, yes ... but not impossible.
As for why we won?
'Sh!t happens' ... well, for the Russkies it did that day :)
 

jitsuwarrior

Old Baller, getting older
Jun 14, 2007
673
40
53
Northern England
It would seem timely, after the weekend's national squad success, to ask how the least prepared team could have won??
We all know well enough that our squad had the least amount of time to prepare for the event and so doesn't it seem kinda curious as to how we could have won?
After all, if teamwork needs time to create .... then things just ain't adding up here ...:confused:

There are an awful lot of people who talk about teamwork as if it's the be all and end all of a team's performance portfolio of skills but I've always believed this to be a crock of sh!te .... the weekend's performance tends to back me up .. or does it?
Robbo,

If you take a couple of players out of a team and them to a few others from another team three or four times, and some of these players have trained even for a day together. Then as long as they have an understanding of the game and a couple of strong characters you have a good chance of winning.

In my line of work teams are formed through training hard together, to the point where they feel like they are a band of brothers. The mutual respect they have for each other allows one persons weakness to be soaked up by others strengths.

In paintball if you have a team that work hard in training, and in my opinion, also have a good banter and craic off the field then yes you will start to see what teamwork is.

The ability for a weaker player to improve through pride and the ability of working with others. At the same time a great player can not make a weak team good unless they are willing to work and gel together. What you do find is a better player can inspire others to become better.

We call it Esprit De Corps
 

Robbo

Owner of this website
Jul 5, 2001
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Having a common goal that all team members can buy into can be a really useful focus and can avoid conflict in the short term.
Surely the other teams would have experienced or at least tried to generate this common belief?

And it's no secret, our squad had the least time to do it in ... and so this tends to indicate that whatever reason explains the win has little to do with traditional training concerns.

I don't mean to suggest that traditional training basics played no part in the win, that'd be insane to suggest but there was a tipping factor for sure ... or maybe better description would be a catalyst.

The problem may come if the team starts to struggle and fault lines start to appear within it.
There's no particular evidence to suggest this and I suppose this can apply to any team, at any point in any event.
You can do your best in trying to prepare for this but I doubt every much any of the teams there would have managed to do this because of the nature of the event they were playing in which makes it a common denominator and therefore not significant.
 

Robbo

Owner of this website
Jul 5, 2001
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Robbo,

If you take a couple of players out of a team and them to a few others from another team three or four times, and some of these players have trained even for a day together. Then as long as they have an understanding of the game and a couple of strong characters you have a good chance of winning.

In my line of work teams are formed through training hard together, to the point where they feel like they are a band of brothers. The mutual respect they have for each other allows one persons weakness to be soaked up by others strengths.

In paintball if you have a team that work hard in training, and in my opinion, also have a good banter and craic off the field then yes you will start to see what teamwork is.

The ability for a weaker player to improve through pride and the ability of working with others. At the same time a great player can not make a weak team good unless they are willing to work and gel together. What you do find is a better player can inspire others to become better.

We call it Esprit De Corps
I think the meaning of 'teamwork' is getting a little confused here mate ... 'espirit de corps' more describes a feeling, a feeling of togetherness than can most certainly underwrite my understanding of what teamwork is.

I think you are maybe getting confused here between the emotion [of teamwork] and the acts [of teamwork] ... I am talking about what players do on the field of play in terms of actions that combine with other players to produce a common goal ...
in this sense, my 'teamwork' is purely that of physical acts whereas your 'teamwork' is that of a psychological sense of togetherness ...
 

Robbo

Owner of this website
Jul 5, 2001
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This demonstrates the team formation model (forming, storming, norming, performing) really well. Teams can cycle through and never get beyond the "Forming" and "Storming" stages. The "Storming" occurs where individuals within the team set about establishing a pecking order within the "Pack".

I'm gonna do some reading up on this 'forming, storming, norming, performing' mullarkey and see what's behind it all ......
 

Robbo

Owner of this website
Jul 5, 2001
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Yeah I never heard of that either. Perhaps he made it up?

It does sound a tad pretentious to me I must say but I doubt Rich made it up, I think he maybe believing it's more profound than it actually is but I'm gonna have a nose around and make sure it's not another one of those ready-made Americanisms that promises to answer everything.