Tuesday, April 5, 2016
Community
When I was a diving coach last summer at a local private pool, I considered my team to be a community and it relates to Pecks theory. I have around 15 kids on my team aging from 6-15 yrs old. Every summer I have a handful of kids that just joined the team and have never step foot off of a diving board before. Also I'll have divers that have been involved in the sport for years at an advanced level. There are a lot of emotions during the first few days of practice. Everyone there are typically scared/ nervous/ intimidated. I believe this to be apart of Pecks first stage of a community. The kids are trying to get to know each other and make each other feel comfortable without really know who each other are. As the summer progresses, chaos, Pecks second stage of community building, also increases. With 6 yr olds running around the diving well and cliquey teenage girls bossing the other divers around, things get hectic, and everyone seems to test my patience a little too much. This is where the organization steps in, rules are defined, time out area are set in place, and practice becomes a time to improve instead of social hour. It isn't until the diving competitions against other local teams that I can notice our community coming together and the energy forming in a positive direction. After the divers get in their matching team suits, chant the team cheers before the meet and motivate/ support their teammates during and after meet I can see everyone comes to a general consensus that they are a team, they are one. And, as a team you need to work together, encourage other, and provide support, even if it is an individual sport. By the end of the summer, everyone on the team has new respect for each other and new friendships are defined.
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Kellie, the job you had last summer seems very chaotic but also fun and rewarding. I'm sure organizing a group of young kids can be very stressful at times, but the sense of pride you get when they succeed out weighs that. When participating on a sports team, things never seem to go as expected from the start. It takes hard work and failures to eventually reach success. I can perfectly relate to this with my senior year of track. At first we were way under performing, but once we all came together and bonded as a team success shortly followed.
ReplyDeleteKellie,
ReplyDeleteI like the example you used to describe what type of community you were apart of. I agree that it can be intimidating and scary the first day you join a team or group and are meeting new people. I have experienced this before when being a freshman in high school and stepping on the basketball court and trying to fit in. At first, the team does not work together because that one person just wants to show off. Eventually, the players become teammates and everything falls into place.
Kellie, I think this describes Peck's theory very well! It is interesting that through this process, a team can be created through such an individual sport, like you said. Without organization and rules set in place, I don't believe an part of this process would work. As in most situations, chaos remains chaos until some type of order is created.
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