XC is a collective of individuals. Being your best is only good for the team.
How or why do people think "sacrificing" individual goals could ever help the team?
I don't get it.
http://www.flotrack.org/video/1011853-grant-fisher-gave-up-individual-goals-for-the-team-this-year
Not skipping NXN for footlocker, unlike a certain douchebag...
Moving up in mileage despite being a 400/800 or 800/1600 guy and hurting your speed.
running smart to not get injured
race smart dont go for a pr
I don't get it? wrote:
XC is a collective of individuals. Being your best is only good for the team.
How or why do people think "sacrificing" individual goals could ever help the team?
I don't get it.
http://www.flotrack.org/video/1011853-grant-fisher-gave-up-individual-goals-for-the-team-this-year
Pack running at Regionals to ensure a better team score would be one example.
That just happened.
Instead of going for a win you could drop back and help your team mates by pacing and encouraging them to a better performance.
This one is easy. A hypothetical: CU Buffs women look good for the win. Say Clark or Benner take a risk and try for the win. She could do well (1-5) and the Buffs win, or she could also blow up, drop like a rock through the pack, finish 50th, and the Buffs are 2nd by 2 points. Team goals indicate that each run conservatively.
Competing as a team is like "manufacturing runs" in baseball.
Yes, the most efficient way to win is for each player to hit a home run, just like in XC it would be every runner trying to win the individual race.
But a lot of players can't hit home runs every at-bat, nor can every runner win a race.
In both cases, "swinging for the fences" carries some amount of risk. HR hitters tend to strike out more often than guys who produce regular singles and doubles. Going out in a 10k XC to try and get top-3, when you have a huge pack of all-American runners waiting for you to fall off pace is equally as risky.
So the coach and player capable of producing home runs must assess the situation at any given point in the game and say "swing away" or "put the ball in play and let's narrow/widen the lead."
TL;DR
Stanford must see themselves as being down by 1, with runners in scoring position, 1 out left in the game. Fisher is at the plate. A home run would win for sure, but so would a base hit to right field.
Maybe you're not a team player? Selfish prick.
Though it seems selfless, I hate it when runners mention it-that seems selfish. Like when people say they tempo"Ed a race where they beat you, yet you beat them at nationals later in the year. Was that a tempo too then? When running smart (for the team) chances are you will have a good individual result. So you didn't go for the win? Yeah, You would have blown up anyway if you did! You would not have won! Why don't people realize this! They like to imagine an ideal situation which was probably impossible anyways to hype themselves up! If someone gets 5th and says they ran for the team, that's an excuse because they would not have been better than 5th anyways if they were excessively aggressive. They would have been 10th. Racing smart = team racing and is the best strategy for the team AND for the individual