Introduction
Sports science is one of the most accomplished fields in American research due to the historical and cultural importance successes in sports hold for the United States. It is, therefore, not a surprise that theoretical frameworks have been developed across fields to analyze the famous successes and failures of American sports teams in international competitions. And no international competition is more well-known and prestigious than the Olympic Games. This paper aims to discuss the success of the Olympic US Women’s Soccer team and the poor performance of the Men’s Basketball “Dream Team” within the principles of International Change Theory.
Main body
International Change Theory, or ICT, studies the underlying social and psychological patterns in a group’s collective development. Depending on a model within the theory, the overall approach might stick to the progressive change paradigm or the punctuated equilibrium paradigm. Furthermore, within the progressive change paradigm, the linear additive model, recursive model, and morphing model are established (Akrivou et al., 2006). One can argue that the Olympic US Women’s Soccer team was following a linear additive model, whereas the “Dream Team” was following the recursive model.
The linear additive model assumes that a group is developing gradually and in a positive direction, overcoming the appearing obstacles and finding resolutions to its issues. This structure corresponds to the history of women’s soccer in the United States, which has consistently occupied high competition slots despite the conservative backlash against women in athletics (Lisi, 2012). Other key features of the model include progressive step-by-step development and internal conflicts between independence and interdependence, allegedly common and most often met in large-scale sports competitions. The linear model also assumes that after reaching the peak of its effectiveness, the group stays at its highest, maintaining its momentum (Akrivou et al., 2006). Despite understandable questions about the realism of this concept, it fits the consistent success story that has been Olympic Women’s Soccer in the United States.
In contrast, the recursive model adds to the linear model the stage of a symbolic death of the group. It assumes that at some point, after reaching its maximum potential, the group stops its evolution and progress and enters the phase of decline (Akrivou et al., 2006). This re-evaluation of the perspectives and productivity potential a group dynamic has fits well with the failing performance of supposedly brilliant basketball players of the Dream Team. The results of the matches turned out to be disappointing for the public, despite the key performance indicators of the players remaining consistently high (Leicht et al., 2017). Under the ICT recursive model, the defeat makes sense when supposedly placed into the decline stage of the group development.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the International Change Theory has the potential to be widely utilized for the analysis and forecasting in Sports Science. It provides a psychometric perspective on the teams as separate entities with unique and complicated dynamics. However, it is still unclear which models are best suited for which scenarios and how to differentiate between all the relevant factors. Researchers might speculate on the potential of separate players, and the individual talent of a sports person often greatly influences the outcome of a single match. But to understand the bigger picture and the existing statistics on the matter, it is essential to successfully analyze the groups of players in team sports.
References
Akrivou, K., & Boyatzis, R., & McLeod, P. (2006). The evolving group: Towards a prescriptive theory of intentional group development. Journal of Management Development, 25, 689-706.
Leicht, A. S., Gómez, M. A., & Woods, C. T. (2017). Explaining match outcome during the men’s basketball tournament at the Olympic Games. Journal of Sports Science & Medicine, 16(4), 468–473.
Lisi, C (2012). The U.S. Women’s Soccer Team: An American Success Story. Scarecrow Press, 2nd edition