Blog #8: Peck's Theory

When reading about Peck's theory, the first thing that came to mind were the various basketball teams that I played on throughout High School. With team's of any sport there is always a period that the team itself may think they are a lot better than they actually are and have high intentions for the season ahead. This occurred especially in my Junior year. I wasn't exactly the best player so I rode the bench for that year and I saw these stages occur with the starters from the outside looking in. In the preseason, we thought so incredibly high of our team that we thought that we'd walk through competition and make it to our sectional tournament. That dream didn't exactly happen...

Which leads into how for the first five games we didn't record a single win. There was yelling in the locker rooms between teammates and it was simply just not a good environment. Our team continued to butt heads and we fell to a terrible 1-7. As a bench player there wasn't much I could do other than just practice and keep my mouth shut when the Seniors were going on there rants. That leads to the third stage which was us realizing what was working and what wasn't. Our best player was ice cold and obviously needed a reality check. During practice another player called him out, normally this would instantly go south and would end in tempers flaring but for some reason, he took the criticism and changed for the better. That moment is what turned our season around. Eventually we pieced together a record worthy of making the sectional tournament and we were just having fun playing. We ended up losing in our second game but it was clear that we came together as a team and we are all closer friends because of that season.

The biggest key for being on a team is being comfortable enough to give criticism and of course the ability to take it right back. Unless you and your team have played together for years, there is always a feeling out process that takes place. Ours took a little longer than we would've liked but eventually we came together and figured out how to be a team.