Team Submission: Bad Jazz
Jane Blatz; Zachary Brado; Adam Medwetsky;
David Cooper; Burhan Saiyed; Tian Wang

Case Study: The Army Crew Team

Reason: Why does the Varsity Team Lose to the JV Team?

Varsity’s consistent losses to the JV team can be explained by their lack of characteristics that make up a true team. The losses can also be attributed to JV’s strong team cohesion and the presence of team disrupters on the Varsity team.

Team Playing vs. Individuality
The Army’s Varsity Crew team was not a true team. They were merely eight star athletes, with no cohesion or team chemistry, thrown together. The players and positions were selected strictly on physical strength and capabilities. This completely contradicts the
These seats tend to be for stronger rowers with poorer technique, and the two strongest players on the entire team are on the JV squad right now. If these players are good leaders, they would fit well in the captain’s chair, seat 6. The coach should try to find the best team, and the best player for each individual seat, instead of picking the best from the whole team.

Coach P. Intervention
Once the new Varsity team is formed, the team should do more teambuilding and trust-building exercises, as well as participate in and embrace the CEP training. There needs to be buy-in for the team as a whole, and a good culture of working hard and trusting each other. The team cannot work as a group of individuals. The teamwork for this sport is reciprocal teamwork, because the team must work well together and mesh to succeed, always trying to achieve “swing.”
This recommendation only works when there is time for the team to mesh. The proper time to intervene is early in the season, when the team has time to work together and learn to trust each other. The four days before nationals is not the time to switch things up. The time to intervene is as soon as it became clear that there was an inherent problem in the Varsity team. After the first time the JV squad beat the Varsity squad, it could have been a fluke, or even after the second game. Coach P. should be alert after the first loss, and once a pattern appears and Coach P. determines that the Varsity time is