Do Team Dynamics Affect Performance?

Whenever you have a team sport, “team dynamics” is often referred to as having a positive or negative affect on overall performance. However, with an individual sport such as Skeleton, does it really matter if you get along with the people you travel with? I’ll get to my opinion on that later but first, a little background…

I’ve been involved with team sports my entire life and I can honestly say that Skeleton has been the hardest transition into what most would consider an individual pursuit. Unique sports attract unique people and for the last 6 years, I’ve been thoroughly entertained by the variety of personalities. Throughout this time, I’ve realized that everyone has their own agenda and reasons to be involved in Skeleton. Some are chasing a childhood dream to be in the Olympics, some are just avoiding the “real world”, some are looking to better themselves and pursue excellence… and there are those that just slide for fun because it’s a great thrill. The bottom line is, everyone has slightly different motivation but hopefully we all have the same ultimate goal of competing to the best of our ability while representing “Team USA”.

Sliding is my main focus on tour but unfortunately I’m only on the ice for 2 minutes out of the day. There are 1438 minutes left in that day that I need to prepare myself off the track. During that time, the people you are surrounded by can be a big influence on your attitude. My first few years on tour, I couldn’t have hand picked a better team to travel with. We had amazing chemistry, which produced a lot of great results (without a coach) on tracks we had never been to before. We were able to motivated each other and feed off of each other’s positive energy/excitement and remind ourselves why we were there. I can recall times where we laughed so hard my abs were sore the next day. The past few years I have noticed a change on every tour. Athletes aren’t working together as well and poor attitudes spread like wildfire. Lately, I’ve seen bigger rivalries develop within a team than with other nations. Perhaps it’s because the Games are getting closer and people are feeling the pressure to do well. I couldn’t say what the exact reason for it is but it’s not healthy for producing results.

I’m not going to get into details but I can say that I was not welcomed to the World Cup team with open arms by all. That wasn’t a very good feeling to have after I had traveled so far and was excited to be here. But I had heard that there was quite a bit of drama surrounding the team that I wasn’t involved with and planned to remain that way. I definitely didn’t take any of it to heart since I had a job to do here and I was already two sliding days behind. It appears that things have been getting better with the team since I’ve gotten here so I hope that it continues that way. We’re already thousands of miles from home… there’s no need to make it more difficult to be away.

So in a nutshell, YES… there’s no doubt in my mind that team dynamics can affect performance. When teammates get along (and I’m not saying they have to be best friends), it makes everything so much more enjoyable and creates a better bond within the group. This would make an interesting study… anyone need a sports psychology project for school?