Team Chemistry

[Razor]

I dunno. Look at the Razorbacks.

Two years ago, Houston Nutt left to Ole Miss, a heated rival of ours in the SEC. Fucking Ole Miss.

Anyway, the team was in shambles. People were leaving because their coach left. Our new coach, Bobby Petrino, came on to a team that had relatively good recruits considering everyone knew Petrino would be on for his first year. A lot of seniors left, and we had a few transfers. Petrino was on the hook for a team he didn't mold himself, and a team that was decaying rapidly.

In Arkansas, we value teamwork and community. We do. Just ask the gangs in Little Rock. They love working together down there next to the Children's Hospital. So we all assumed the Razorbacks were working together under our new coach to show everyone we didn't need Houston Nutt to really accomplish anything.

...Take it from a kid in the student section. The team chemistry wasn't there. The defense was the lowest ranked in the entire SEC. We were giving up 60 points to teams that we could have shut out, or at least kept to 30. (Cue pained smile.)

This past football season, season of 2009, we did a lot better. We made a bowl game. We would have beat the Florida Gators if not for the refs fucking up about 6 different calls and awarding calls to the Gators that were confusing the announcers themselves, and us back home. Those same Gators that were under the helm of Tim Tebow. A senior Tim Tebow. Our defense, surprise surprise, wasn't ranked last. Great. They did horridly in parts, but they did a lot better.

And I argue that the better performance was wholly because the Razorbacks, under the guidance of Petrino, more experience for the new rookies, and a stronger sense of team chemistry, flourished. The defense spoke to each other. The offense worked together. No more walking through our offensive line if you weren't Alabama.

Sure, in a perfect world we wouldn't have needed that chemistry to win any games. But honestly, we did. We were on the ropes. No one honestly considered us a threat to any team. We needed that chemistry to show our true potential, and to get to our true capabilities as a football team. Without that chemistry, we wouldn't be counted as a contender for teh SEC West. We'd still be considered a small road bump for Ole Miss to roll past while on their way to being trounced by Alabama, or a short vacation for Florida while they're still getting over a tough win in Auburn.

 

[D-Man]

I really like the idea behind this thread. Everyone can relate to it.

We've all been on teams before. Whether we're football jocks, baseball freaks, in the drama club, the chess team, a part of a family, or are the members of a workplace, we've all had the chance to be a part of a "team." The most similar synergy that exists in all of these types of teams is chemistry.

I read on a website that team chemistry has been defined as "a group dynamic that occurs when members of the team work together and make a united effort to accomplish the goals and objectives of the collective whole." In my own words, I believe chemistry is the natural, unspoken ability to "gel" with the other members of your team in order to succeed in their ultimate goal.

Either way, if you break it down into its simplest form, a group of individuals under one collective name that act selfishly cannot be categorized as a "team." On almost every occasion, those types of "teams" rarely succeed in reaching their goals. We've all heard the phrase, "There's not 'I' in 'team.'" That couldn't be any closer than the truth. There isn't one single person that could carry an entire team.

Sports that rely on group (or team) efforts are rarely dominated by single individuals. Michael Jordan, Babe Ruth, Joe Montana, Wayne Gretzky... even though they were trailblazers and dominated their individual sports, they couldn't have done it without a team effort. When their individual stats grew, the team assisted. But when these men won their sports' championships, it couldn't have been done without their teams collectively working as a unit and demonstrating team chemistry. No single man has ever won a Superbowl.

Therefore, my answer to CH David's question can be explained like this: How big of a factor does chemistry really play in professional sports? It's probably the biggest factor that can exist on a team. Without team chemistry, you're basically dead in the water.