Athletics is not a team sport.  Success calls for individuals who are self-motivated to a ridiculous degree and totally selfish, to the point of obsession, in pursuing training schedules that will allow them to achieve the ultimate goal of the PB , the personal best.

 Spear-headed  by Jessica Ennis, who combines astonishing athleticism with steely competitiveness, all the British athletes who performed great feats in Barcelona did so as individuals. Team mates can’t help you jump higher. Well, not usually but this time there was another factor at work. It was camaraderie.

In various interviews, carried out in predictable fashion by the BBC, the athletes paid genuine tribute to the happy sense of team and the unusual level of camaraderie. Even ‘bad guy’ Dwain Chambers, who failed by 1/000th of a second to win a medal, was gracious to fellow team members in defeat.

They all felt this camaraderie, fostered by the ‘tough love’ of Head Coach, Charles van Commenee,  boosted individual performance. Compare and contrast with Capello and England’s so called ‘team’ in South Africa!

In any good business developing camaraderie is a given.  Sharing the adrenaline of competitive pitching is a great way of doing it.