Opinion / Columnist
A Motivational Lesson I Learnt From The Arrangement of Relay Team Athletes
01 Jul 2016 at 14:23hrs | Views
There was once and there still is an argument as to which is the most effective arrangement of athletes in a relay team. Some say the best athlete (fastest runner) should be the starter and second best runner should be the finisher in the relay team. Others say second best runner should be the starter and the best or fastest runner should be the finisher.
Over a decade ago when I was at United College Of Education, one of my projects was to 'Investigate The Most Effective Arrangement Of Athletes in a relay team. I took the same relay team (athletes) and made them to complete against other relay teams. On different days I changed the arrangement of athletes in the relay team which I was investigating. Sometimes I made the fastest runner to be the starter, at times I ended with the slowest athlete in the team. I reshuffled the team for several weeks and observed the time that the relay team took each day to finish the race.
My findings were that the major effect in any relay team is largely dependent on arranging the athletes according to their stature. If your fastest athlete is heavily built, he should not be the starter. He should either be the second runner or the finisher. Why? Because the first lap on the athletics track is a curve. A heavily build athlete won't do best in the curve. Yes, if he is really good he can still run faster than his competitors despite his stature and come first in that curving lap. However if you time his runs during practise sessions you will notice that he takes lesser time to finish a straight lap than he does to finish a curving lap. If you put him on a curve you wouldn't have maximized his potential.
Are you placed in the right lap on your track? Khune (the South African goalkeeper) spent so many years as a youngster playing inside the field as a striker, not knowing that he was a great goalkeeper or he did much better at goalkeeping. Sometimes we need to reshuffle things a little bit, try something different, re-arrange the athletes. We get stuck at places where we are doing well, not realizing there are some places we could do great. Some ushers in churches may be doing well in their departments, not knowing that they can be great musicians because they have never tried running a different lap on the track! Take that microphone and 'interview your voice', if you find that you sing like a male frog, tough luck, but you would have tried running a different lap.
What's the use of being stuck on what we can do well when there is something else we can do great? And how will we know which lap we can run best, if we have never tried it?
The other point to note is that the fastest runner shouldn't necessarily be the starter or leader of the team. The most gifted musician should not necessarily be the leader of the music team, the best player should not necessarily be the team captain, the most gifted employee shouldn't necessarily be the supervisor. It's not about being the most gifted, there are other considerations to be taken into account before we are placed into our appropriate laps on the track. God bless you.
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Over a decade ago when I was at United College Of Education, one of my projects was to 'Investigate The Most Effective Arrangement Of Athletes in a relay team. I took the same relay team (athletes) and made them to complete against other relay teams. On different days I changed the arrangement of athletes in the relay team which I was investigating. Sometimes I made the fastest runner to be the starter, at times I ended with the slowest athlete in the team. I reshuffled the team for several weeks and observed the time that the relay team took each day to finish the race.
My findings were that the major effect in any relay team is largely dependent on arranging the athletes according to their stature. If your fastest athlete is heavily built, he should not be the starter. He should either be the second runner or the finisher. Why? Because the first lap on the athletics track is a curve. A heavily build athlete won't do best in the curve. Yes, if he is really good he can still run faster than his competitors despite his stature and come first in that curving lap. However if you time his runs during practise sessions you will notice that he takes lesser time to finish a straight lap than he does to finish a curving lap. If you put him on a curve you wouldn't have maximized his potential.
What's the use of being stuck on what we can do well when there is something else we can do great? And how will we know which lap we can run best, if we have never tried it?
The other point to note is that the fastest runner shouldn't necessarily be the starter or leader of the team. The most gifted musician should not necessarily be the leader of the music team, the best player should not necessarily be the team captain, the most gifted employee shouldn't necessarily be the supervisor. It's not about being the most gifted, there are other considerations to be taken into account before we are placed into our appropriate laps on the track. God bless you.
To join one of The Motivator's whatsaap groups, whatsaap your name to +27719393146. For feedback contact us on +27719393146/ gwizimotivator@yahoo.com/ www.gwizimotivator.com
Source - www.gwizimotivator.com
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