Many people play sports and are on teams, which is why teamwork is important. I play on at least two or three teams every year, and we must function as a team in order to play our best. I have learned over the years the importance of teamwork, and now it is something I believe in.
One of the many activities I participate in is volleyball. Our coach tells us everyday, ‘the team is your family so put the team first.’ Every practice we work on our skills and are told we must act like a team, if we want to do our best. When we are on the court the teamwork takes place and everything we have done in practice becomes real.
About a week ago we had a game and we were playing as a team, we were talking and calling the ball, giving others encouragement, and whenever they aced a serve we would pat them on the back and do one of our cheers. At the end of the game when we looked at the scoreboard we had won.
The next day we had another home game and we were pumped and ready to play. The six people marched onto the court and were ready for an easy game. We were doing so well at the beginning, but once the other team had the serve it went down hill from there. It seemed like we had forgotten what we were taught during practice. We hardly called the ball so no one knew who was getting it, this caused quite a bit of head butts and shanks. Altogether we didn’t do to well on the serve receive because we weren’t acting like a team and giving it our all. When the game was finally over we didn’t even have to look at the scoreboard to know we had lost the game. Our coach was not happy by any means, and we knew we were in trouble. After those two games I knew teamwork was definitely important.
Another experience of teamwork I had was when I did Odyssey of the Mind. About a year ago, I was on a team with some friends and some people who were the exact opposite of me. About a month into the competition we had not made any progress and so we spent practice learning about teamwork. Our coaches had us do an activity called the Gordon’s Knot, a game where players have to get untangled but had to keep the other hand they were holding. This activity taught us a lot about teamwork and even after all of our hard work we didn’t make it to state, it was a thrilling experience.
Certainly, I now know the importance of teamwork, and how important it is when playing a sport. After all of those experiences I believe teamwork will help out a lot in life.