Thursday, September 25, 2014

Many Hands Make Light Work

When I think of a “team,” the first thing that comes to mind is sports.  Therefore, I will be discussing the experience that I had in high school while playing club volleyball.  Club volleyball, otherwise known as traveling or competitive volleyball, is a high intensity team sport in which teammates heavily rely on one another to be successful.

For those of you who know nothing about volleyball, it is a sport in which teams of six players compete against each other by moving a ball over the net between two sides.  The objective is to force the ball onto the other team’s side and have it drop onto the ground, but each team only has three touches to get the ball over the net, and a single player cannot touch the ball twice in a row.  However, if one accomplishes this and the ball touches their opponent’s floor space, they receive a point.  To win a volleyball game, one must receive 25 points and win by at least 2 points (so if the score is 25-24, you would have to play another point and would win when the score is 26-24).  

Volleyball has various positions, but to simplify things, in my description we will group these players into three categories, back row players, front row players and the setter.  Back row players are often the first people to touch the ball and their objective is to get the ball to the setter.  The setter is usually the second person to touch the ball, and she places the ball so that the front row players can use their third touch to hit the ball onto the opponent’s side.  The setter is oftentimes called the “playmaker” because she acts as the connection between the front and back row, and she can also initiate various plays for the team to carry out in their three touches.  Nonetheless, communication between all team members is key.  It is crucial that players “call” the ball by saying the common phrase “mine” in order to avoid confusion as to who is performing a touch.  Additionally, everyone must know what is occurring on the court and how to react to their competitor in the back row, front row and setter positions.

I believe that a successful volleyball team is an all-channel network.  It demands that all team members communicate freely, effectively and efficiently, because oftentimes, a team does not have time to develop a thorough plan before executing its three touches.  Players must also communicate where they are moving to in order to aid the play.  This is crucial because without this communication players may run into each other and become confused as to where their position is located on the court.  Communication must also be open because sometimes, plays or touches don’t go as planned, and the said positions don’t touch the ball when they are normally supposed to.  This requires the team to adapt and work together to solve a complicated situation and send the ball to the other side.

A successful team is also an all-channel network because morale is characteristically high.  Volleyball teams oftentimes do cheers when they win a point and try to bring up their energy in order to intimidate their opponent.  A strong team will keep their spirits high and encourage one another throughout a game.


My club volleyball team met many of Katzenbach and Smith’s characteristics of high-functioning teams.  First off, my team had a common purpose that could be translated into specific goals.  Each year, our goal was to receive an invitation to compete in the USA National Volleyball Club tournament.  One could receive this invitation by winning so many tournaments in a season.  Each time we were successful at a tournament, we were able to see ourselves reaching our goal.  Besides this, my team was also “of manageable size.” There were only 15 girls on my team, so it was easy to communicate goals and organize ourselves.  Additionally, we accomplished Katzenbach and Smith’s fourth requirement because we each had distinct talents.  We were selected for the team based on our ability to play in the back row, front row and setter positions, so each player brought a specific skill set to the team.  Finally, we held each other accountable.  Coaches often say, “there’s no ‘I’ in team,” and we were a perfect example of this.  When someone was having a tough time on the court or a bad day, we picked each other up.  We took wins and losses together and realized that each game truly was a team effort and if we won, or lost, we did so together. 

2 comments:

  1. This essay started out very well, in your description of the of the functions and you description of the all-channel network as the way to consider how the team operates.

    But near the end, and perhaps it simply didn't occur to you, the situation becomes more complex because you said the team actually has 15 players, not just the six who have started. You discussed not at all how the reserves get utilized. Is there are rotation system so nobody on the floor gets too tired? Or do the starters stay in most of the time because they are better performers than the reserves?

    Even if you just focused on the six girls who are on the court, there is still an "assignment problem" issue with who plays where. Is each player in the role they want to be in and are most proficient in? Or, again, is there a rotation. (I played volleyball a bit, not competitively just for fun, and we rotated through the positions.)

    Near the end, you talk about the distinct talents, but because I have it in my head that there is some rotation, I'm not sure how the distinct talents map to team function, so you could have described that more.

    Let me close with a sidebar. I'm aware that really good players get scholarships to college and that might serve as a different sort of motivation for some. Did you have any such athletes on your team? If so, did that help with the team play or make it harder?

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  2. Thanks for your comment, Professor Arvan. In competitive volleyball, there is a "rotation" as you describe it, but once front row players get to the back row and vice versa, they are subbed out. This means that each player is not playing an entire game and does get some sort of break. The same goes for the setter position. There is normally a "front row setter" and a "back row setter." Since competitive volleyball is a bit more complex, front and back row players each have specific places on the court (location-wise) that they play at regardless of their location in the front or back row; they always "shift" to this spot when play begins.

    I did have athletes on my team that received scholarships to play in college, but this did not affect playing time at tournaments. On our team, it was well known that you must earn court time, and if you are playing poorly, you will be taken out of the game. Therefore, if the scholarship athletes were the most qualified for playing time in a certain tournament, they received it, however, this was not always the case.

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