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Archive for the ‘Team chemistry’ Category

10 Essential Characteristics Of Winners

07 Dec

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“I want winners!” –Mike Singletary, former Head Football Coach, San Francisco 49ers

Recruiting is any team’s lifeblood.  You need new people for different ways of looking at things, different skill sets, and to take your team to the next level.  Beyond the measurables, what makes one player a winner and another fall short?  If I knew the definitive answer to that one, I could retire in the south of France!  I’m sure most coaches and leaders believe that there’s more than just skill that contribute to making someone a winner.  Let’s use the book Values Of The Game by Bill Bradley to help shed some light on the intangibles that separate those who are just highly skilled from those who carry the qualities of a winner.

1.       Passion: A winner loves to play and they have fun playing, they’re what some coaches call gym rats.  No one to play with?  They’ll play alone…the opportunity of playing the sport brings them joy.

2.       Discipline: Winners follow the game plan.  Think about the running back that has to patiently wait for the offensive line to open up a hole…that’s discipline.  Winners understand that they need to not only discipline their bodies through practice, they also know that their minds need to be reined in through that same practice.

3.       Selflessness: Winners know their role on the team and are inwardly and outwardly happy with it.  You won’t find them grumbling in the background or trying to get others to be disgruntled with them, they put the team first.  If you’ve got a team full of folks willing to sacrifice personal glory for the good of the team, then you’re well on your way to a close-knit team and a team of winners.

4.       Respect: Winners respect their coaches, their teammates, the department’s support staff, the officials.  Beyond that, winners are students of the game.  They love watching video, studying up on the next opponent, and working on any weaknesses within their own game.

5.       Perspective: Winners know two very important things.  They know that they need to practice…no matter how good they are and they know that they need their teammates…no matter how good they are.

6.       Courage: Winners have the courage to give 100% for their team, to risk failing or falling short.  They courageously play through the times when their game is “off”, because they know that the team is counting on them.  Winners are willing to take chances.

7.       Leadership: A winner knows that it’s their job to get their teammates to truly believe in their team goals.  Beyond that, they’re usually your most prepared players…for preseason, for practices, and for games.  Finally, and most importantly, winners are respected by their teammates…after all, can you really be a leader if no one follows?

8.       Responsibility: Winners know that they owe it to their team to complete their off-season workouts, to follow the rules, and to be a friend…not just a teammate.  They also understand that it’s their responsibility to stay mentally and physically focused at practice.

9.       Resilience: Defeat, bad games…winners know how to let those go.  As a matter of fact, the game right after their disappointing performance is likely to be one of their best.  Winners know how to bounce back.

10.   Imagination: Winners are winners in their minds way before they win on the court.  They visualize their success and then go about the hard work of making it happen.  Winners imagine themselves as great.

There you go coaches…now go out and find some winners!  (Click here if you want to recognize a loser when you see one!)

Coach Dawn Writes has interesting and challenging writing, don’t you think?  Well then you should sign up to get the articles emailed directly to your inbox…it’s free and easy.  Just click here and you’re all set!

 
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Posted in Team chemistry

 

10 Traits Shared By Losers…and Feared By Coaches

05 Dec

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When you hear the word “loser”, you think of awful people with no ambition in life.  But that’s not always the case, sometimes they are incredibly talented, charming, and fun people to be around.  Sometimes they’re your captains, your leaders, and the people of influence on your team.  They’re tricky, those losers.  They can sometimes even look like winners…until you delve a little bit deeper.  Both winners and losers are skilled, but losers have an innate quality that will eat away at the fabric of your team.  Want to learn how to stay away from those losers?  Well, read on!

10 Traits Shared By Losers…and Feared By Coaches

1.       Indifference: While winners are passionate about their sport and getting better at it, losers are just “meh”.  They’re the folks you look at and think, “if only they would work hard, they’d be so good.”  But they won’t work hard, because they’re fine with just getting by.

2.       Disorder: Winners thrive on discipline…of mind and body, while losers are free wheelers.  You may think that your player is a winner because you haven’t done anything that negatively impacts them.  But bench them for a play or sub them out of a game and you’ll see that they are unwilling to follow the game plan…which will of course lead to disorder.

3.       Selfishness: Losers are selfish, it’s all about them.  If they do something great in a game, they’re excited and seeking out high fives.  But if they make a mistake, they withdraw and reject any efforts by their teammates to console them.  These are the players that make it difficult to maintain any sort of team chemistry.

4.       Disrespect: While winners spend tons of time studying film and finding out how to be a better athlete, losers slide by on natural talent.  As the rest of the team is scouring over their scouting reports pre-game, the loser sits in the locker room texting their friends…they don’t respect the game or the effort that is essential to become good at it.

5.       Narrow focus: You can tell a winner that their teammates are essential to the team’s success and they’d agree, but a loser?  They’re so focused on themselves and what they need that they may have forgotten that they even have teammates!

6.       Fear: Winners take chances while losers hold back.  Losers are afraid to take risks, so they do things that they’ve always done that have always worked…they are firmly entrenched in their comfort zone.  Their coaches will scratch their heads wondering why the player hasn’t gotten any better, but unfortunately they will be the dreaded player with “potential” that is never realized because they’re afraid of making mistakes.

7.       Weakness: Sometimes losers can camouflage themselves as winners…until crunch time.  While winners will rise to the occasion, losers inevitably shrink under pressure.  They don’t mind being “the man” when everything is great, but when you need them to make their free throws…you can’t find them.

8.       Freedom: Leadership is something that winners willingly take on, but losers will shirk this responsibility.  Don’t get me wrong, they may be a captain, but that certainly doesn’t make them a responsible leader.  Losers want the freedom to slack off on their summer workouts, go halfway in the weight room, and be contrarian in practice.  With all of that freedom, who has time to be a leader?

9.       Defeatism: As we talk about these losers, I don’t want you to think that these are bad people.  It’s probably quite the opposite, you probably really like them.  Sometimes a player becomes a loser because they’re soft-hearted and can’t let go of a mistake or a loss or a criticism.  They ruminate, they play it back in their heads over and over…they’re so stuck in the past that they’re of no use to your team in the present.

10.   Reality: Losers can only see what’s in front of them.  The winners on your team can close their eyes and see their goals coming true in the future.  Losers only see what is instead of what could be.

There you go coaches…now stay away from those losers!

 
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Posted in Team chemistry

 

Keeping Our Players Engaged With Their Teammates

26 Nov

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Over the course of a season, we have the opportunity to deal with lots of personnel issues.  Some of them are easy, some of them are quirky, and some of them are tough.  One of the tough ones, in my opinion, is when a player suddenly withdraws from the team.  I saw a great article called, Shutting Others Out, that talked about the reasons that this could happen.  Read on for three of the reasons that a player could isolate herself from you and her teammates.

3 reasons a player may isolate herself from her teammates

1.      They may want something. Some of our players will be passive aggressive by nature.  They’re afraid to come directly to us, so they stew.  In the personality assessment that I use, they’d be the S…resigned that no one wants to hear what they have to say anyway, so what’s the point?  Action item: Reach out to them.  They have things on their mind that are very important to them, but don’t know how to properly assert themselves.  And when you talk to them, reassure them that they don’t have to be nervous about talking to you about anything.

2.      They may have something to hide. If your players think they’ve let you or the team down, they may withdraw.  They’re probably embarrassed at doing whatever it is they did…and they’re surely afraid of the consequences that may follow.  This player is of the “why do today what I can put off until tomorrow” mindset.  They know they’ve screwed up, they know they’re going to get in trouble for it…so they’re going to let you find out any kind of way except from them!  Action item: Get behind the scenes.  Someone on your team knows what’s going on.  So talk to your captains or talk to her bestie on the team to find out what’s happening in her life.  That way you can approach her and come up with a plan of action so that she can be herself again.

3.      They may be hurting. Something happened to them.  Whether it’s a bad grade, a fight with a good friend, or a sick relative…they’re sad, but they really don’t want to talk about it.  These are your independent players who are used to doing everything themselves…and usually they do it pretty well.  They have a tough time admitting that they’re having a problem that they can’t solve…this player will say they’re “alright” if you ask them how they are doing.  Action item: Ask once and then step back.  Alert your captains, have them keep an eye on her and chat with her.  You’ll check in with your captains about how this player is doing, because they’ll just get annoyed if you keep asking them what’s wrong.

We’ve got to keep our eyes peeled for these things…and also know our players personality type so that we can correctly address the situation.

 
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Posted in Mental game, Team chemistry

 

5 Qualities To Be Thankful For In Your Team Leaders

21 Nov

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Great leaders .  Everyone’s looking for them.  Check out this list for a good start at creating the type of leaders that will put your team on the road to success.

5 things that coaches look for in captains and team leaders

1.       Integrity: Who are they when no one is looking?
A great team leader will be committed to working out in the off-season, hosting recruits, and being a good example for the rest of the team.  They have a sense of humility about them, never wanting to abuse their perceived power position.  They hold themselves and their teammates accountable to a very high standard of excellence in the classroom as well as on the field.  They are motivated to portray a positive image of the student athlete: hard working, active on campus, and involved in the classroom.  Finally, they are prepared.  They know the scouting report, they come in early to help with whatever the coach or team needs, and they let the coach know of any problems that may be brewing in the background.

2.       Awareness: Are they willing to be who their teammates need them to be?
There’s been a shift in the business world from following The Golden Rule (Do unto others as you’d have them do unto you) to The Platinum Rule, which says that we should do unto others as they would like to be done unto.  That goes back to the different personality types that you’re sure to have on your team.  The thought is that doing what I want could very possibly be exactly opposite of what you want and therefore the bridge isn’t passed.  The good leader knows their teammates well and how they communicate.

3.       Inspiring: Can they help focus the team on the common goal?
When they sit down with the team at the beginning of the season, they are the folks who are actively submitting ideas for those goals.  They’ve been thinking about this for a while and have a vision that is as big as the coach’s and encompasses the whole team.

4.       Straight-forward: Will they squash small issues before they become major drama?
I’m sure all of us coaches meet with our captains pretty regularly.   And I’m sure that most of us ask them about things that are going on behind the scenes that we should know about.  The straight-forward leader will have noticed any issues that are rearing their heads, respectfully gone to that teammate, and will have gotten it taken care of before we even know to ask.

5.       Confident: Can they rally the troops in good times and bad?
Being a team leader is a tough job!  We require them to be the vocal leader as well as to lead by example.  We ask them to commit to working hard toward an unseen goal.  And we ask them to keep their teammates motivated even when their classes are killing them, the team has just lost a big game, or the pressure’s on because you’ve won a lot games in a row.

Coaches, we can’t do it alone!  We need great team leaders and captains for our teams to function at a high level.  So let’s all agree to nurture these qualities on our teams.

 
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Posted in Leadership, Team chemistry

 

Why Personality Assessments Could Be The Key To Your Team’s Success

19 Nov

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As coaches, I think we all know that we’ve got different personality types on our team and I’m sure we’re all pretty conscious about how those personalities will interact.  When we bring recruits on to campus and we sit down and chat with them, we wonder about their “fit” with our teams…how their personalities will mesh with the current players.  Sometimes we don’t want to rock the boat and try to recruit like-minded players.  Other times, we want to shake things up a bit…whether it’s bringing more toughness or more fun…we know that the team needs a different makeup.

But do you think that your team recognizes that some folks are just made differently than them…with a whole different perspective on things?  I’ve used personality testing in the past with pretty good results, because the team gets to hear about themselves and also put the people that they know into categories.  The testing is pretty informative and can help them with their relationships outside of their team as well.

There are lots of personality tests out there: Myers-Briggs, colors, animals, and DiSC…and that’s the one that I use.  DiSC breaks the personalities down into four different categories.

D’s are dominant.  They’re what folks would call Type A personalities.  They like to get immediate results, make quick decisions and love to manage trouble and solve problems.  They’re decisive and competitive…natural born leaders.  That’s the good stuff.  The down side to D’s are that they are too self-reliant, the one’s who hate group projects in the classroom (can you see how that could negatively impact your team?!), and can be so blunt that they’re hurtful to others.

i’s are your people of influence.  They’re the one’s who everyone gravitates toward, the life of the party.  They’re your players who will pull the team aside in practice and fire them up if they feel that the effort isn’t where it should be.  They’re the folks who will immediately walk up to the newbies on your team and make them feel right at home.  i’s just need to remember that life isn’t all play and no work…that they’ve got to get down to business at some point.  And they try so hard to be everyone’s friend and not to hurt feelings that their teammates may not feel a true connection with them.

S’s are Steady Eddie’s.  They’re quiet, but very loyal and love the teaminess of teams…the one’s who stay on your team even though they know that they’ll never get any playing time.  They are skilled at calming an explosive situation and calming the scene down while others are freaking out.  S’s need to learn to assert themselves in group situations so that their teammates don’t overlook their contributions.  Since they can be overthinkers, S’s should learn the difference between the time for thinking and the time for acting.

C’s are your conscientious workers.  They’ll drill all day long and never feel as if they’ve gotten it down…they’re perfectionists.  C’s are good in the film room because they’re so analytical.  Come game time, they’ll know the opponents tendencies without a doubt.  Their downside is that they ask so many questions that they may drive their coach to drink!  And they have such high standards for themselves and their teammates that they may be destined to fail.

As you were reading this, I’m sure you were thinking of your team and where they fit.  Obviously, having a strong mix of folks is pretty key…but most important is that your team understands to positives and negatives of their personality and how they can be perceived by others.  Also, it’s pretty huge for us coaches to know the rough mixes.  Your D’s are going to think your i’s are screwing around too much and that your S’s need to toughen up.  Your i’s will constantly get their team in trouble for getting practice off-track with their incessant yapping.  Your S’s will either toughen up or continually get their feelings hurt by the too-blunt D’s and the hard-to-read C’s.  Speaking of C’s, should you deign to change the lineup or change a play without significant notice, get ready for their world to be spun off kilter and they’ll be pretty useless to you for a few plays.

Do you use personality tests with your team?  How do they respond?  At what point in the season do you administer your test?

Click here to learn how knowing your personality type will help you manage your team.

 
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Posted in Personality tests, Team chemistry

 

Creating A “No Excuses” Culture On Our Teams

16 Nov

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During the summer, I work lots of camps, which generally means working with middle and high school aged girls.  As I get to know them, I usually ask them about their teams and how they think they’ll do in their conference.  Inevitably, a girl will say that she’s not looking forward to her season because she doesn’t think her coach likes her.

Then the talk progresses in the same manner, no matter who I’m speaking with:  I tell them it doesn’t matter if the coach likes them or not…the coach wants to win!   Sport isn’t some sort of popularity contest where coaches bench their best players in favor of less talented girls whom they really like…that makes no sense.  I finish my talk with three ways they can “make” their coach give them playing time.

3 areas our players should focus on to be the best they can possibly be

Effort.  I don’t know of a coach alive who doesn’t love a hustler.  I’ve coached (and I’m sure you have too) players who aren’t gifted with obvious natural talent, but who will figuratively run through a wall in every drill during practice.  These players don’t slack off during warmups, but are focused on performing the skill correctly.  When coaches show them an area where they need to improve, they work on it furiously.  They quite literally don’t understand why anyone would walk onto the court/ice/field without giving their full effort for the entire practice.  The beauty of effort is that it is 100% within the control of each athlete…even the coach who “doesn’t like them” is bound to be impressed.

Learning.  One of the more frustrating players to coach is the “I know” player.  This is the player who says “I know” to your correction before the words have even exited your mouth.  When I encounter players like this, I typically have a conversation about how I like to coach…it goes like this.  First, I tell them I need them to look me in the eye when I’m talking to them.  I’ve found that the “I know” player sees correction as bad, rather than helpful.  I want them to see that I’m not angry with them.  Second, I tell them I want to see some sign that they’re listening.  Head nods, questions, whatever.  Finally, I acknowledge that someone else may have taught them a different way to perform a skill and that it probably works…I’m just more comfortable teaching in this manner.  A player who is willing to learn different techniques, especially one that her coach prefers, is more likely to get some PT.

Mistakes.  This is a big one for me.  At my opening meeting of the season, right before preseason starts, I tell my team that they’re going to make mistakes over the course of the season.  Some mistakes will be insignificant, some of them will happen on game point and they’ll be crushed.  And I tell them that I’m alright with that.  I don’t want my team playing scared…afraid to make a mistake.  I want my teams to be brave players, willing to risk disappointment (and maybe even embarrassment) on the road to success.  If we make space for our players to have to take risks and make mistakes in practice, they’ll be more ready to do it during games.  They’ll learn how to manage their emotions and their breathing.  Most importantly, though, they’ll know that both you and their teammates respect them for taking the risk.

A lot about teams and sports are out of the player’s control, but these three things (effort, learning, and mistakes) are squarely within their control.   If you’d like to read more about this, check out Coach Lok’s series called Creating Confident and Coachable Players.

 
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Posted in Team chemistry

 

Using Meetings To Increase The Success Of Your Team

12 Nov

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I love the individual meeting.  It’s my time to chat with players, find out how classes are going, how they’re feeling on the team.  All sorts of stuff.  It’s also a time for the players to get to know me a little better, so I think it’s a win-win.  For me, the meetings can take lots of shapes.  Let’s talk about them.

During preseason This is typically a very informal meeting conducted right there in the gym.  Whatever drill we have the team participating in, my assistant and I will call out a player and have them come and chat with us.  When we’re finished with that player, we tell her to grab someone else.  It goes like that until we’re finished with everyone’s meetings.  This meeting will address whether we thought they came in to preseason in shape, what we think their strengths are and how they can be an asset to the team,  and what we think their weaknesses are…or potential barriers to court time.  They should walk away from this two to three minute conversation knowing where they fit into our team’s depth chart and should understand what they need to do to benefit our team’s success.

In season This is a scheduled meeting where the student athletes sign up for meeting time with me.  I typically ask them to come up with 2-3 academic goals and 2-3 individual volleyball goals.  This is important time for me to demonstrate to my athletes that I care about them beyond what they bring to the court.  I believe that it’s important for your athletes to know that you care about them as people…not just players.  We talk about their academics, their majors, the classes that they’re worried about, professors that they’re worried about, their goals beyond college.  Armed with that knowledge, you’ll understand how to handle each of them.  Some are just like me (poor souls) and come in to the meeting with their planners out, notes neatly typed, and good answers for all questions.  Others come in and can’t find the paper they wrote everything out on, and you’ll be able to tell that they haven’t actually thought about your questions until they were sitting right there in your office.

And of course we hit their volleyball goals.  Some may be tangible…I want to be the  starting setter.  While others are intangible…I don’t want to be as nervous as I was last year when we played our arch rival.  Either way, it’s the coach’s job to help the student athlete navigate through this maze.  What steps does he need to take in order to be the starting setter?  What are his strengths that make him an asset?  What are his weaknesses that make him a liability?  Armed with that knowledge, the athlete is free to sink or swim.  I always make sure that they understand that I want to put the best combination of players on the court.  I’d love it to include him, but if he’s not willing to put in the work…I know of others who will.

The impromptu Years ago, I had a player who came into practice with the super red eyes.  I looked at my assistant and said, “uh oh, we’ve got a crier.”  I sidled up next to one of my captains and asked if she knew what was wrong.  Nothing.  Another player that this girl was close to…again, nothing.  I left it alone.  Later in practice, I was giving her instruction and she started crying again.  Not sobs, just slow tears trickling down her face while she nodded at what I was saying and apparently hoped that I didn’t see her crying.  I asked what was wrong while my assistant ran the drill and she said she didn’t know.  I asked again (class? boyfriend? parents?) and she said she didn’t know…just was feeling kinda blah.  To which I said (and I’ll never forget), “it’s every woman’s right to cry for no reason, you just have to let your team know so that they don’t think you’re mad at them.”  That was it, she was fine…all was right with the world.

End of the season This can be an awesome meeting or an awful one depending on the season and the person.  It’s awesome when season went well and the player had a tangible contribution.  It’s awful when the player doesn’t have a proper view of their skill level and how they could have impacted the team.  It’s good to be prepared for the tough ones ahead of time…don’t be caught off guard by a disgruntled player.  Anyhoo, this meeting is meant to fire them up for the next season…whether that’s spring ball or fall season.  We talk about their practice and game contributions and how those impacted the team positively and how they could get even better.  We look at their goals again and figure out how they did with those.  If you think they’ll be chosen as captain by their teammates (or you just want them to be), I talk to them about acting like a leader before they’re chosen…and what that leadership should look like.  For seniors, it’s never a happy meeting.  They’re sad because there’s no more volleyball and no more team and now they’ve got to go work in the real world and everyone knows that that’s no fun.  I talk to them about what a joy it’s been working with them (it almost always is) and how they’ve changed the team dynamics for the better and that they should believe that they left the team better than they found it.

So that’s that!  How do you handle your individual meetings?  I’d love to hear your ideas!

 
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Posted in Meetings, Team chemistry

 

Motivating Bench Players

05 Nov

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Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

The takeaway?  We’re all in this together and everyone’s role is important…different, but vital.  I’ve used that quotation with teams before, especially those teams where a couple of folks have risen to the top of the metaphorical heap.  And if you’ve got a situation where playing time may be hard to come by or younger players who have supplanted your veterans, it’s a good idea to talk to your team about embracing their roles.  That quotation is from the Bible and if your campus isn’t particularly churchy (like mine) or you just don’t feel comfortable citing where it’s from, I’ve found that the quotation is powerful enough that it stands alone.

No athlete wants to hear from their coach, “Your role is going to be sitting here next to me cheering on your teammates.”  Though someone has to fill that role on every team, most folks assume that it will not be them.  Once it sinks in that they will get limited playing time, how do we, as their coaches, keep them motivated, mentally engaged, and most of all…how can we help them to maintain a positive attitude?  Some of your most engaging and fun and strong personalities will come from your bench players.  If you want their impact to move your team chemistry along in a positive direction, rather than becoming cancerous, here are three ways to motivate them and make them feel as if they are an integral part of your team.

Make the team better:  Imagine if you had a track & field athlete who could go hard rep after rep…but just couldn’t make the leap from middle of the pack to the best on your team.  I mean, this girl is like clockwork…you tell her a time to hit and she nails it, every practice.  Now imagine if you could embolden this athlete to see her role as making her teammates better, that while she may not have that “next gear”, she does bring something very valuable to the team which will ultimately make the big dogs more competitive.  Now she’s not the girl who just isn’t good enough, but she’s your All-American’s training partner.

Be better than the competition: Hype up your reserve team!  Empower them to challenge your starters…they know their strengths and weaknesses better than anyone else.  While you certainly don’t want to develop any animosity between your starters and non-starters (that can be alleviated by moving people freely between the two sides…and maybe not calling them starters and non-starters), you do want to create a spirit of competition where your young ladies are getting after it in practice.  Then your bench players will feel proud because they’re giving your starters a run for their money and your starters will feel well prepared because they’ve run the gauntlet everyday at practice.

Learn the game and be ready: How many times have we seen one of our better players get hurt and have to sit…and all of a sudden, she’s the smartest player in the world?!  We all know that sitting back and becoming a student of the game is helpful, but it’s a luxury our top players cannot indulge in.  But our reserves can, and they should use it to try and work their way into the starting lineup.  If they’re just standing around yapping with the other ladies who aren’t starting instead of watching the game and trying to figure out how to get on the court, then they’re probably right where they deserve to be!  As much sense as that makes to coaches, you probably will have to let them know that you expect them to fight for a spot…that it won’t be handed to them.  You must also get across to them that it’s not personal.  I always tell my team that I love all of them and think they’re all great, but starting spots are not gifts…they’re earned.

So, how do you handle playing time issues?

 
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Posted in Team chemistry, Team roles

 

Instantly Bond Your Team

31 Oct

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The concept: Think of something you’ve always wanted to do…and try it.

Who: Our teams.
What: 30 Day Challenge
When: A thirty day period during our seasons.
How:  We’ll talk about that in a moment.

What if we created a shared experience for our teams that would unite and bond them for the short term…and ideally, long term?  That’s what the thirty day challenges could be for our teams!  I’ve heard of teams giving up fast food for the season, I’ve heard of departments giving up complaining…all sorts of stuff.  The idea is we can do anything for thirty days.  Also, you can add or subtract activities, it doesn’t always have to be giving something up.

In a short TEDtalk (under four minutes!), Matt Cutts challenges his listeners to Try Something New For 30 Days.  He was speaking of challenges for individuals, but I think this would be cool to do with our teams.

Brainstorming ideas (finish all ideas with “for 30 days”)

  • Give up fast food.
  • Study nights together.
  • Partner up and say something positive to your partner.
  • Partner up and give partner small gift.
  • Give up complaining.
  • Stop cussing.
  • Stop negative attitudes.
  • Partner up and send each other positive texts or FB messages.
  • Eat dinner together.
  • Partner up and share a song you like.
  • Give up sugar.
  • Eat a vegetable at every meal.
  • Tell coach how awesome she is. (Just kidding!)


The beauty of this is that it can be student led.  They could brainstorm the ideas and even have more than one challenge per season.  They’d police themselves and be on the honor system, so the coaches wouldn’t have to worry about keeping track of everything.  Perhaps there can even be some sort of celebratory “yay, we did it!” event at the end of the thirty days.

In the video, Cutts talks about some of the benefits of his previous challenges: his confidence grew, time became more memorable, he learned that small changes are more sustainable.  I’d add that, for teams, we’ll grow together through our shared experiences.  And that’ll create amazing team chemistry!

I’ve not tried this with any of my teams before, but I’m willing to give it a whirl to see how it turns out.  How about you?

 
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Using Photos To Increase Team Chemistry

05 Oct

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Did you know that there are billions of photos on Facebook?  I can’t help but to wonder if that’s a major part of the allure of that particular social media site.  I, for one, love when people update their status with pictures.  Whether it’s an “in the moment” photo from folks who are out on the town, or they are posed up photos…like wedding, engagement, or professional pictures of a friend’s kids.

Photos have power.  According to David Griffin in his TEDtalk titled, How Photography Connects Us, pictures tell a story.  And we’re all interested in each other’s stories.

How can we use photos with our teams?

For years, I’ve given a few of my players disposable cameras to take candid shots of the team.  I enjoy seeing pictures of the players in more casual settings than I’m used to seeing them in.  Once I get the pics developed, I cut them up (scrapbook style) and make a collage that goes on my office door.  I think everyone enjoys seeing the pictures.

What’s the benefit?

Selfishly, I think it helps with recruiting.  My office is full of pictures from years past of players being silly, having fun, smiling…and also winning.  I think it sends a powerful message that we can have fun…yet work hard and excel also.

I also think the players love looking at themselves and get a kick out of seeing (and taking) the photos.  And by giving a camera to a young player or one who is particularly shy, they’re able to get out of their comfort zone and get to know their teammates a bit quicker.

What the pictures become, is essentially a highlight film of off the court fun…they’re a great way to document the season.

Investment in team

In his TEDtalk, Griffin has a phrase called flashbulb memory.  He says it’s when elements come together to not only define an event, but also our emotional connection to it.  As we’re putting together our teams and trying to help them play hard for one another on the court or field…I think this is a great way to start the team bonding process.

 
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Posted in Team chemistry, TEDtalk

 
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