News For SwimParents
Published by the American Swimming Coaches Association

Being on the Team vs. Being a Teammate [Thoughts NOT just for athletes….]
compiled by John Leonard from InSideOut Coaching by Joe Ehrmann

Being on the team benefits your personal goals and ambitions.  Being a teammate benefits the goals and ambitions of your team and your teammates.

Being on the team can make you a bystander.  Teammates intervene in the lives and actions of their teammates.

Being on the team involves personal effort.  Being a teammate involves the efforts of every player.

Being on the team means doing what is asked of you.  Being a teammate is doing whatever is needed for the team to succeed.

Being on the team can involve blaming others and making excuses.

Being a teammate involves accepting responsibility, accountability, and ownership of the team's problems.

Being on the team makes you "me-optic," asking what's in it for me?

Being a teammate makes you "we-optic," asking what's in it for us?

Sometimes players on the team are drawn together by common interests; teammates are drawn together by a common mission.

Sometimes players on a team like one another; teammates respect one another.

Sometimes players on a team bond together because of a shared background or compatible personalities.

Teammates bond together because they recognize every player is needed to accomplish the goal of the team.

Sometimes players on a team are energized by emotions; teammates energize one another out of commitment.

[Editor’s Note: When I was a swim parent (and not coaching at the time) I always felt like I was part of the team… but in retrospect, this article reminds me I wasn’t always a good teammate. I wish I had thought about it a little more back then. Guy Edson]