Post 13

Originally, I had planned on writing about the struggle for leadership and its impacts on the functionality of the OU Women's Cross Country team.  I still am waiting for one more of the four interviews I emailed to different girls on the team.  With the three I have received, this direction for my paper is no as strong as I anticipated it would be.  Since I left the team, leadership of the new captain seems to have been more accepted.  Though, I did find a new angle for paper.  Running is both an individual and team sport.  One interview question asked if this positively or negatively affects the team.  One girl interviewed was the team captain, and she extremely optimistic so she only saw positive outcomes.  The other two who responded felt his was a negative aspect because girls will focus more on their individual success on the team rather than the success of the team as a whole.  Some girls have the goal of being varsity so they concern themselves with placement based on their teammates around them.  Concern for their placement against other individuals from other teams lacks.  It is more beneficial for the team when its members are focused on beating other people rather than its other members. They also focused on the idea that there is a lack of encouragement among members as most are focused on themselves.
 I would also like to look at the coaching where the relationship between the coaches and the athletes is minimal.  The coaches do not understand their athletes or "read" the runners.  They focus too much on the team rather than the individual.  There are no specialized workouts so to improve everyone.  Not everyone responds to the same training in the same way.  I would like to look at how the individual and team divide, resulting from both coaches and athletes affects the performance and unity of the team.