Knowing when to quit with team sports

[Absinthe]

I joined a dragon boating club about 3-4 months ago. I come from an endurance/triathlon background, in which I trained on my own steam. I decided to give paddling a whirl because I was injured.

 

I LOVE the sport, and my teammates are awesome. The training is brutal, my physical fitness has improved by the bucketload, and I have defined abs for the first time in my life.

 

There's just one thing - I signed up for my first race this weekend and, despite my commitment to training and feeling as though I was improving, I only raced twice (most other teammates raced at least 4-5 times, with the exception of one guy whom they put on reserve because he'd hardly been training). The rest of the time I was drumming, so at least I was involved in the races. At the end of the event the captain told me this was because I wasn't good enough, and I'd be holding the crew back in a race.

 

I'm trying to be rational here, but it feels like a kick in the teeth, especially after all of the work I've put in, and I know that because of a business trip I will miss two weekends of training and likely end up drumming again in the next race (in one month).

 

This is my first time in competitive team sports since high school, when I was forced to endure the whole URGH YOU'RE BRINGING THE TEAM DOWN "camraderie". Now I'm back to it and it feels like...well, should I perservere with the training? Am I THAT bad, if they won't let me race?

 

Just curious about when you should draw the line and accept you're not cut out for something. I didn't think I was that bad, but apparently, I must be! Or maybe I'm being too hard on myself...Curious to hear from others who have more experience of team sports than me.

[anne1707]

Good grief man! You have only been training a very short time and there were others who did not race as much either. Stick with it and you will get to full race standard.

 

Or you could just quit now, give in and then just blame the captain and team mates for you not getting on the team. Whereas they will know it is because you gave up and did not earn that place.

[Absinthe]

Good grief man! You have only been training a very short time and there were others who did not race as much either. Stick with it and you will get to full race standard.

 

Or you could just quit now, give in and then just blame the captain and team mates for you not getting on the team. Whereas they will know it is because you gave up and did not earn that place.

 

Thanks for this answer. On reflection (following a snooze) I think I'm being too hard on myself in thinking I could be up to the standards of the others in such a short time...

[anne1707]

Being hard on yourself is fine as long as you use that to push yourself harder. You have worked hard for this and you will get a full time place on the team if you carry on like that.

 

[Emilia]

There's just one thing - I signed up for my first race this weekend and, despite my commitment to training and feeling as though I was improving, I only raced twice (most other teammates raced at least 4-5 times, with the exception of one guy whom they put on reserve because he'd hardly been training). The rest of the time I was drumming, so at least I was involved in the races. At the end of the event the captain told me this was because I wasn't good enough, and I'd be holding the crew back in a race.

 

I'm trying to be rational here, but it feels like a kick in the teeth, especially after all of the work I've put in, and I know that because of a business trip I will miss two weekends of training and likely end up drumming again in the next race (in one month).

 

This is my first time in competitive team sports since high school, when I was forced to endure the whole URGH YOU'RE BRINGING THE TEAM DOWN "camraderie". Now I'm back to it and it feels like...well, should I perservere with the training? Am I THAT bad, if they won't let me race?

 

Just curious about when you should draw the line and accept you're not cut out for something. I didn't think I was that bad, but apparently, I must be! Or maybe I'm being too hard on myself...Curious to hear from others who have more experience of team sports than me.

Are you a woman? this is a very female view of competitive sports. Guys wouldn't usually take offense at this.

[Shepp]

I think any team, in any sport, has to decide whether they want to win or whether they want everyone to have a touch of the ball - because its not the same thing, which ever strategy a team picks will take them in completely opposite directions.

I know I certainly wouldn't stay in a team where I had to sit on the bench and watch the team lose when I know I could of done better but it was someone else's "turn" - that's the difference between the teams you play in in junior school and competitive sports team.

 

 

Hence why I think kids should play team sport more competitively from younger - sport teaches that 'performance = success' lesson, which is a hard line but no less accurate than in any other area of life. If someone has been at a company less time but performs the best then the promotion is going to be there's - that's life.

 

 

That said performance is something you can influence!

Talent counts of course - probably more in sport than most things - but its like they say "there's always going to be someone with more natural talent than you but there's no excuse for anyone to ever work harder than you do".

Practice will improve performance, if you keep training hard, and don't jack it in, it'll come - and it'll feel better cause your worked for it!

David Beckham is one of the greatest examples of all time - he lays it out that that practice took him to the top of his sport not talent. Where as someone like Cipriani has talent in spades and hasn't achieved half of what he could of.

Any captain worth his or her place will be happy to help you - ask them outright where he feels your weak or need to improve and some tips to do just that! I've done loads of one-to-one sessions with new guys on the footie team and it helps them improve but also helps me work out how best to use them!

 

 

I think you're jumping the gun anyway its much too early to know where your going to sit in the team - you have to climb the ladder, you cant come in and expect to get the same amount of races as everyone else - there's guys who join my football team who are really good and I know that with time will contribute brilliantly but we wouldn't stick them in the starting line up because if nothing else they would suffer from a lack of actual match experience. And on top of that a lack of...team chemistry, for want of a better word because they haven't played alongside us enough yet, you could be a better rower or striker or fly half or whatever but make up for in 3-4 months the kind of unspoken team understanding that only comes with time.

 

 

Even if you were running fantastically in training you haven't run enough competitive races (which in any sport is a totally different feel to training) to jump straight in the deep end. Any coach worth his salt would build it up slowly, stick you in for a couple, see how you perform - some people perform 10x better in a competitive environment, I know I'm one of them, but others the pressures too much and they need to slow it down and build confidence.

 

 

 

 

Lastly, it should be fun, competitive, but fun! Cause if you love it then just have a blast and a race is a bonus not a given!

Throughout my time at senior school I captained the football team (played semi-pro too), captained the swim team, did U18 MTB racing up and down the country - I was used to being good at sport, but I joined an Ice hockey club (literally I learnt to skate just a few weeks prior to join it) I was rubbish - really really bad (apparently skating is just not my thing and is pretty essential in hockey) - I still loved it though... it was fun at the end of the day, and so yeah, no one was chanting my name in the arena but so what really!! I got some minuets on the ice in matches and I did my total best during them.. and at the end of the day if your giving it everything then no one can ask anymore of you than that!

[Absinthe]

Are you a woman? this is a very female view of competitive sports. Guys wouldn't usually take offense at this.

 

haha yup I am a woman, but I have known male friends take a similar view...I think it all comes down to how much experience you have with team sports. I don't have all that much, all of my experience goes back to high school when it was pretty much "you suck, get out". I used to play squash in a mini league with my classmates in uni but that became about thrashing your opponent rather than improving and playing a decent game, which got old pretty fast. After that I trained solo, doing running, cycling and rock climbing, so I had only myself to compare with.

 

Thanks to the poster above, this was very insightful.