One of the great fallacies of team sport is that by improving an individual athlete’s skill, you make your team better by the same amount of improvement.

Anyone who has coached will tell you this is entirely untrue.

A team’s ability to navigate complex environments with adaptive precision relies on the relationships between teammates far more than it does on an individual’s isolated level of skill.

The mythology of individualization — of individual brilliance — is strong and has somehow become ubiquitous with team development. We use terms like ‘upgrading the position’ and ‘getting more skilled at the position’ to describe team improvement.

Our practice sessions are really a set of individual skill drills that are conducted in close proximity to others who wear the same color shirt.

This is not teamwork.