Army Crew Team

As mentioned in the case a rowing team's success depended mainly on a very specific combination of strength and endurance, and teamwork. The athletes were being measured mainly on their physical abilities on the "Ergometer" which is a static rowing machine that can measure the athletes force and endurance. Nevertheless, this case was about how the teamwork was pushed to be secondary. The Varsity team crew had the 8 best rowers on the ergometer, they both endured more than the JV crew and had more powerful rows. There was no collaboration between team members. As the case clearly states teamwork was such a key factor that most of the team's success depended on it. As a practical matter, given an average physiology an athlete could increase its strength and endurance through hard physical work. On the other hand one cannot just combine a bunch of great athletes into a team of 8 and have great performance when it comes to rowing. This is exactly what happened in the case of this team. The Varsity team was composed of prime athletes first and then put together in a team. Thus, the teamwork factor was pushed to secondary priority and they were unable to outperform the JV, which had less strength individually but worked relatively more as a team than the Varsity.

It is worthwhile to mention that the Varsity team was becoming worse every time and not the JV becoming better. Meaning there are definitely major psychological factors involved when it comes to individual and team performance. The JV was becoming more and more inspired by their outperformance and preferred to stay together and not switch to the Varsity team as they knew each other much better and were able to perform as a team better. The JV chanted "Nothing to lose" before their performance which summarizes the character of their team as one unit with no fear of failure, which can be a very powerful psychological state.