This week's prompt was slightly confusing to me and hard for me to really grasp. The idea of team production with gift exchange as well as making connections with the news articles made this weks post the most challenging one yet. However, after pondering this question and the three articles for awhile, I believe I was able to make a connection. I know I must sound like a broken record at this point, but since I have a lack of business experience, I again see a clear correlation between what this post is asking for and college tennis. Not so much the game of tennis as a whole, but college tennis specifically. Let me elaborate.
College tennis players, and all student-athletes for that matter do not get paid. In tennis specifically, my eleven teammates and I get the same amount of clothing, racquets, shoes, string, and everything else needed to participate in our sport. The only thing on paper that sets each of us apart is the amount of scholarship money we receive each year. You see, before committing to a school to play collegiate athletics, the coach will give you a four year offer. Each year can be a different amount of scholarship money, but this is pretty much agreed upon before you step on campus of the university of your choosing. With this in mind, there are student-athletes everywhere that take advantage of this gift and "coast" after their NLI (national letter of intent) is signed. Sure, we win an lose as a team, but tennis, being a very individual sport, is hard to look at as a team sometimes. These "coasters" knowing they have their scholarship money in pocket no matter what, simply go through the every day motions and put in a very mediocre effort. No matter if the guys with little or no scholarship money are the ones grinding on the courts day in and day out, the "gifts" given by the coaches are given to the guys who were just ranked higher in the juniors, not the ones who really deserve it. In some rare cases, coaches find the funds to give deserving individuals more scholarship money, but that doesn't happen every day.
College tennis, being and individual sport, is easily relatable to Jonathan Haidt's "How to Get the Rich to Share the Marbles." Like I said earlier, tennis is a very individualized sport, even if there are tennis teams. To really grasp what I am about to say, one needs to know the basics to college tennis. The dual match (where teams face off against teams) starts off with three doubles matches. The team who wins two out of the three doubles matches gets one point. Following doubles, six singles matches start and each match is worth one point. The team who gets four points total wins the dual match. It's important to know the format because college tennis is a lot like the marble experiment with the three year olds. When the kids both pulled on the string, marbles would come out to each of them and most of the time, they would even out the marbles so each of them had the same amount. Similarly to dual matches, if everybody pulls their weight by training hard, puts the team in front of themselves and leaves it all out on the court, if you happen to lose your individual match but the team wins, it truly feels like a victory to you. On the other hand, if there are guys who only care about themselves and put in a sub-par effort, it never feels nobody is going to end up satisfied because with that culture, winning is scarce. This is similar to when each kid pulls on the rope individually, nobody wins and nobody is satisfied.
What counts as pulling a string to release the marbles in the competitive tennis setting? Is it preparation during practice? You didn't say whether the matches are seeded or not (#1 doubles for U of I plays #1 doubles for opponent, etc.) but assuming they are doesn't this induce some internal competition? You also didn't say whether players play both doubles and singles or if they specialize. And then you didn't say whether seniors have different responsibility from freshmen.
ReplyDeleteI encourage you to look at each aspect of these and then ask where shirking is likely to come in, if it does come in, and what prevents it from happening when that is not the case. You did say some players basically took the scholarship but then zoned out. You didn't give any reason for this. So I'd like to pose one other consideration.
The time commitment to be really good at the intercollegiate level might be such that you can't be both a good student and a good player and graduate in four years. I believe the revenue sports recognize this and keep the scholarship for a fifth year, but if I'm wrong about that please correct me. In any event, if the team doesn't internalize the student's getting a degree that is a potential source of a player going through the motions, especially if the player is quite sure that this will be it for competitive tennis - a pro career is not in the cards. Perhaps you can work through that to get some more out of this particular assignment.
In collegiate tennis, internal competition is a huge part of playing or not playing. This causes a lot of tension among teammates at different points in the season, but it's necessary to see how we are going to place each individual; for instance, top 3, bottom 3, singles and doubles, just doubles or just singles.
DeleteWe are one of the few teams in the country that does not elect captains because we feel as if everyone should be leaders whether you are a freshman or seniors. Obviously it's important fort the seniors to show the freshman the way things are supposed to operate, but after a month or so, they should have a good general idea of how to positively impact the team.
Probably the most reoccurring reason for "zoning out" is that individuals do not want to put in the countless hours of work because their education has already been paid for. They pushed themselves day in and day out to get that scholarship, and not that it's in their possession, the desire for success has diminished substantially.
5th years are given for numerous different reasons. Most of the time, 5th years are given because the coaching staff feels like this particular player will not be able to impact the program in his first year on the team, so he just practices with the team every day but does not compete. Secondly, many 5th years are awarded to student-athletes who have gotten seriously injured during the first 30% of their season. In that case they are awarded a "medical redshirt" and can have an extra year of eligibility. I'm not sure if that clarifies your question, but coaches do not extend 5th years so student-athletes can have an easier work load and graduate with higher marks.
Collegiate athletes are in a somewhat unique situation when it comes to performing in their respective sport. As high-school athletes, students work with the end goal of performing at a high enough level to not only have the opportunity to play for a respected college program, but also earn a scholarship to said university. Once this goal has been accomplished, the incentive to continue to push, and improve, for the betterment of the team, is hard for many to see, or simply does not exist at all for some college athletes. An incentive must be provided for athletes to continue their performance development, because in the absence of one, complacency is too tempting of a virtue.
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