TEAM....

TEAM... what it means

well here we are at the end of the first year of competition for the newly formed "SHOGUNS" team and what a year it has been. It has been a year of good fortune for some, and of mixed fortunes for others. But, i am certain it has been a year of hard work and of learning and of understanding the way a TEAM functions.
Many times i have watched how everyone acts or reacts to differing situations in various competitions only to ponder if we are truly a TEAM! Often i have listened to comments from members or parents and been astounded by the lack of understanding of the need for us to work and compete as a team.
It has been some 22 years since i was first tempted into the mealstrom of Freestyle competition by Shihan Roy Stanhope who then as now as head of U.K.A.S.K.O. suggested i take my very young and incredibly inexperienced students to the new F.S.K. circuit. In the rearly years we were seduced by the excitement and possibility of glimpsing the World Champions ,we were mesmerised by the skills and ability of so many amazing martial artists who seemed to be unbeatable and who had seeming armies of supporters. We were very inexperienced and it showed because it took many years until we produced our winners and heard the cries of support from our followers. Why?...because it took us THAT long to become a TEAM.
Long gone were the days students booed and shunned a fellow student who dared compete with another clubs TEAM and WIN, gone were the days we fought only as individuals thinking only of "self" instead of all of us. Now we stood shoulder to shoulder and worked with instead of against each other because now we WERE a Team.
Yet, here we are again, a new generation of students but the same narrowmindedness that holds us all back from all that awaits. Here we are once more ready to cast aside our team mates and think only of self,and why?..because we are not yet a Team.
Now in the weeks that lead upto the New Year and new competions we should look deeper at what it means to be part of a team, what it means to be part of something bigger than just the self.This is the time for all of us to sit down and think of how we can all succeed as a TEAM and not just how one of us can outdo our friends and win more than they.
As i write this blog i am reminded of the motto of my first club when i was a total beginner with Kirkby Jiu Jitsu Association. As many of you already know my dear friend Shihan Wayne Foulkes you will have heard him quote it a good few times..."In Skill Opposed..In Spirit United" this was the one thing that bound us all each to the other. This was the thing that made us a TEAM because we understood its meaning and significance.
Now WE should learn to understand it too and from that understanding begin afresh and with a bond that makes the " SHOGUNS" a force to be reckoned with in the years that follow. Each member of the team should decide that no longer is it merely about winning a trophy for themselves but about being the best Team member they can possibly be. That from now on they're mission is to become a part of something that is far bigger than just the 1 that now they understand that there is no " I" in TEAM and that as a team far greater success can be achieved than can ever be achieved by just 1. Each of you should be proud of each others achievements and supportive in each others defeats. You should look at how you can help your fellow TEAM members become better, because by doing that you ALL become better and that makes the whole TEAM better and stronger.