Team Chemistry

With the track and field sport, team chemistry can be a quite difficult task because of its individuality among competing. The average track and field team consist of a huge amount of individuals. Within the program I competed in the team was composed of almost one hundred members. Of those one hundred members they were divided up among the different events (throwers, jumpers, and runners). Even within those specific events they were divided up even more. In track and field you can throw, jump, run, or even a combination of the three but within that specific category you have a specific area which you focus on. Within the throwing events you can throw discus, javelin, shot, or hammer. In the jumping events you can compete in the high jump, long jump, or triple jump. And with the running events you can either be a short sprinter, long sprinter, or a distant runner. With all these taking into consideration you have to wonder how do teammates and coaches find a way to connect with one another as a whole if groups are so divided? Well the answer is not so simple. Seeing that many of the individuals on the team only deal with those who are specifically in their same events the coaches and athletes have to find things to do as a team collectively. Every now and again the coaches would make sure they took the time out to do team building exercises where all the athletes of different events would interact with others outside of their specific events to learn more about each other. We also would attend team dinners and we would sometimes be paired up with different team members when traveling and staying overnight in hotels. For overall successful team chemistry every one needs to work cross-functionally together. The team cannot succeed if everyone a part of the mission does not have the same common goal.