THE ARMY CREW TEAM CASE

INTRODUCTION:
The key players of the army crew team are Coach Preczewski, the varsity team and the
Junior varsity team.
COACH PRECZEWSKI: Preczewski coaches the army team at the west point of the US for
the United States Military Academy. He formed two crew teams with the names of Varsity
(V) and the junior Varsity (JV).
The Varsity team: It consists of the top rowing group which comprises of the main eight
individuals with brilliant quality and conditions however, this crew team had no team leader
and a little team commitment.
The Junior Varsity: It comprises of bottom eight rowers with strong commitment and
motivational values and attitudes, which was expected to perform better than the varsity
crew team.
The Army Crew Team of varsity is in absolute dissatisfaction because of lack of rowing
technique; and mental measurement kept habitually losing the JV group before the national
title race. Confronting with this problem, Coach P. held a meeting with the colleagues to talk
about the issues among the group. Presently on, he needs to settle on a decision among the
decisions of exchanging the Varsity and Junior Varsity vessel, exchanging singular
watercraft individuals or interceding to enhance the Varsity watercraft's execution.
The objective of the case is that Coach P is facing a challenge of improving the Junior
Varsity (JV) team in comparison with the varsity team that is outperforming consistently. The
coach P has to make decision to turn the situation within four days before the National
Championships start.
Problem Identification:
The coach P was the main reason that caused rift between the JV and the V team due to
lack of leadership quality. His goal was only to organize the teams in rowers and to train
them as a manger of production line does. He used to select the team by considering the
physical performance of the individuals rather than psychological performance. He was not
successful in building a kind of team in which all top talented individuals were chosen for the
varsity team with the closed eyes towards the performance of the team. As a coach, he
should first identify the problems. 
If we talk about the Varsity crew team, they had behavioural issues towards each other
regarding relationships, rewards and responsibilities, as they were operating as a group of
individual persons rather than a team, and they were lacking in trust, motivation and other
several communication barriers. Therefore, the following two categories caused the problem
identification

1. Group Dissention: it led to many team disruptions, including, harsh individual

critiques and passing blames to others, and the varsity team (V) was less oriented as
compare to Junior Varsity team (JV).

2. Lack of Motivation: Due to incompatibility among team members, the rower down
team was always blamed that led to result in failure of V team.
ANALYSIS:
The Varsity team was consistently losing from the JV team due to the following issues-
(a) TEAM PLAYING VERSUS INDIVIDUALITY:
The varsity team was selected based on physical strengths and capabilities and they
were not playing a team - rather an individual. They could not identify themselves as
a team.

(b) THE LACK OF COHESIVENESS IN TEAM – there is no bond in team members.

There is blame game, severe criticism of others performance. Sometimes, there is
self-criticism too.

(c) LACK OF TRUST - led to greatest failure. Earlier they believed that if one rower is
going out of sync, he would correct himself in the time.

(d) LACK OF SHARED GOALS: the Varsity team only wanted to win with no solid team
targeted objective or goal. It was too egoistic and centrally focused for their individual
success of their personal goals and they could never better themselves as a team
unit.

(e) FAILURE OF COACH AS A LEADER –

 The coach had failed to identify the problem the moment it arose – it was the time
when the Varsity team members were upset why they could not beat the JV Team
with a higher margin.

 He failed to intervene when the team had started the practice of blame game &
criticism of team members. He should have nipped the bud of criticism there only.

 Focus on only Physical strength training & ignoring mental strength of players.

 Inability to motivate the players when their morale was going down.

 Too many experiments – switching the players, switching the positions.

(f) MOTTO – “Nothing to lose “for JV, it was like a boost. If they win – very good!! If they
lose – they had nothing to lose. So, it was like a psychological boost for them to work
with full spirit.On other hand – Varsity Team kept changing their mottos.

WHAT CAN A COACH DO IN LAST 4 DAYS??

1. FOCUS ON MENTAL STRENGTH OF PLAYERS-

Coach should be less bothered about the physical strength of the V- Team members.
They have already been tested on ergometer and he knows who is the best in
physical strength & technique.
He can have a session on – Letting the differences go. LET’S DO IT TOGETHER.
Move on.
Destress them.
2. TEAM BUILDING ACTIVITY –

Coach should give an opportunity to the Team members to pour out all the hatred
and criticism they have for each other through activities like –
- Choose the best bullshit words for the team members whom they want to
criticise, write it on a piece of paper and put it anonymously on a board.

- Kill the criticism once and for all – No further criticism allowed till race ends

3. TEAM MOTIVATION –

 Coach should take the command in his own hands. Show some authority to the
DISRUPTORS. Tell them they would be dropped off if they don’t behave.

 Remind them WHAT VARSITY TEAM IS & what it did in past and what it is capable
of doing. Tell them how they had been winning in the past & they can still do it!

 Since this is an ARMY crew team and not just any team, coach needs to show them
the clarity of the goal – WINNING. He should give them a motivating speech so that
they forget about the differences and rise above it.

 He should have given them a common motto that would inspire them eg.

Row Till the End

Don’t give up
One for all -All for one

 He needs to stand by the Team & say that he still trusts them and they just need to
unite & focus.

 He should make them realize that this is not an individual game. They have to work
as a Team else there is no option.

 He should make them feel- it’s a mission, we have a competent team- every member
is important and they need to stick to each other.