Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Alisa Silverstein
Professor
ENC 1101H
9 December 2016
Freshman Lacrosse Players: Adjusting to More Than Just School
I have played lacrosse for 7 years, and there is no doubt that the
lacrosse community has been a large part of my life for quite some time.
During these 7 years, I learned terminology specific to the team I was on as
well as communication strategies, which have both factored into making me
successful in the sport. Since deciding that I wanted to continue playing in
college, I have noticed that within the discourse community of lacrosse
players, each team is another community itself, with its own version of each
of the six characteristics of a discourse community. More specifically, I
realized this during my transition from playing lacrosse at West Orange High
School to playing lacrosse at UCF. I became curious as to whether or not
this applies to other people as well, and set out to answer the question: How
well can new players adapt to their new team, and do their prior experiences
help them to be successful on said new team?
Method
A discourse community as defined by John Swales, has a broadly agreed
set of common public goalsmechanisms of intercommunication
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Figure 2: Document with key defensive terminology used by the UCF women's lacrosse team; it is sent
to every player on the team in order to help them with learning the terms
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Kristy is an attacker from Vero Beach, Florida, who has been playing lacrosse
since she was in the 6th grade. Her team at Vero Beach High School was
crowned state champions for three of the four years she played there. Kristy
has exclaimed that she feels extremely welcome to the team, saying that
Everyone was so nice right off the bat, and practice is always so fun with
them. She has enjoyed playing at UCF, and likes how easy it is to work hard
and still have fun.
Terminology and Feedback Mechanisms
Kristy explained that although there havent been many similarities between
the terminology that she used in high school and the terminology used at
UCF, she hasnt had a lot of trouble adjusting. She did mention however that
whenever she did need help, an upperclassman, Hayley, was more than
happy to assist her in any way possible. Kristy said Hayley plays attack like
I do, and always tries to nicely correct me and help me out whenever I have
a question! Whether it be a question about positioning during a certain
play, or what she can do to improve her skills, Kristy always has someone
who will help her within reach.
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to the team as well, and mentions that her transition to the college team has
been easier because a former teammate from high school is an
upperclassman on the UCF team. She enjoys playing on the team, and has
loved how everyone plays for the girl next to them as opposed to for just
themselves.
Terminology and Feedback Mechanisms
Due to the position that Brittney plays, she must learn both new defensive
and offensive phrases. However, she says that she hasnt had too much
trouble learning the new terminology. She mentioned that the terms used for
the different types of defense at her high school (white man, silver zone,
black backer) differ from how we refer to them at UCF. At UCF, we simply
refer to the type of defense by its given name. On the offensive end,
Brittney has to learn terms for plays in addition to how to execute those
plays. On her high school team, red and green was associated with stall and
score respectively. At UCF however, red and green are associated with
specific plays in order to score. Similar to Kristys case, Hayley has been a
huge part in helping Brittney adjust to the new team. Hayley is a former
teammate of Brittneys, so she was able to explain phrases and plays in
terms of their high school terminology. This resulted in Brittney learning
everything at a faster rate, and she was able to adjust without much
problem.
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Work Cited
Swales, John. The Concept of Discourse Community. Writing About Writing:
A College Reader, Wardle and Downs, Second Edition, Bedford/St. Martins
2014, p.221-222.