Cliques Can Destroy Your Team (Part 3)

It is now time to look at the third phase of eliminating cliques form your team. At this point, you gave your team the Vacation activity to complete and you broke down the data using the web technique. You have determined your problem areas and now you need to address them.

Most players on your team do not want to be part of something that can be destructive to your team goals. The cliques that you have are mostly Natural Cliques and easily dealt with. They are not created under the premise that anyone is better than anyone else. They were created as a means of being accepted, which is really what we all want. When you begin the process of knocking down the walls of Natural Cliques, it will be embraced because the players will begin to fell accepted by even more of their peers.

Your Cluster Cliques will be harder to break up and may never be eliminated. The key to these groups is to get each one blending into the others and be accepting and accepted by the others. The following are three ways to work toward eliminating cliques on your team.

1. Forced Groups – Break your team up into two groups and mix your clique members up between them. Label the groups in your school colors. You might end up with a Black and a Red group. Use those groups to run drills. If you coach football or another sport with a lot of players, break it up into four different groups. The point is to split the cliques up during sport specific drills to force the players to start to rely on players outside of their clique.

2. Team Buddy – Give every member of your team a “buddy.” Explain to them that each and everyone one of them is responsible for their buddy. If their buddy is not at practice, they need to pass on all information to their buddy that night, etc. When you assign each “buddy” make sure that you are splitting players up. Put a senior with a freshman. A defensive player with an offensive player. Make sure that your Cluster Cliques are splits up.

3. Compliment Game – At the beginning of practice, tell your team they have 20 sprints at the end of practice. Tell them that you are playing a new game, the Compliment Game. Choose one player on your team and don't tell the team who it is. Instruct your team that every time you hear the chosen player receive a compliment from a teammate that they lose one of the sprints at the end of practice. It gets the team talking and paying attention. They hear everyone complimenting them and creates a great sense of camaraderie.

All of the above techniques and activities will help with Fringe Players on your team, but you may want to do more. The best way to engage Fringe Players is to enlist the help of your leaders. Talk with your leaders and explain the situation to them. The Fringe Players may just not have any friends on the team or may be new to the school. They might be the only freshman on the varsity squad. Whatever the situation is, your leaders can help. Simply tell your leaders that this player(s) needs to feel the love. Tell them to make sure that they start feeling like part of the team. You will be amazed at how fast that player becomes engaged when the All-Star sits next to him/her and talks to them during stretching.

Cliques can destroy your team and the techniques in this article will help you to eliminate them. Even if you feel that your team is void of cliques, everything discussed in this article will make your team a tight, cohesive group.

Cliques Can Destroy Your Team (Part 2)

You have collected the data about your team by using the “Vacation” activity. You need to now analyze the data that is on each individuals sheet. To do this you need to get a blank sheet of paper and take the first Vacation sheet. Let's assume that the first sheet belongs to Molly. Write Molly's name on the sheet near the middle of the page and circle it. Molly chose to bring Kelly and Tina on her vacation. Write Kelly and Tina's name on the sheet and circle their names. You will now draw arrows from Molly to Kelly and Tina to represent the relationship. You will then do the same thing for each player's sheet. When you are done, you should have what looks like a web on your paper. Please see Image 1. 

Image 1

If it looks like a spider web then you are likely to have very few social problems with your team. It shows that everyone is friends with everyone else and you should avoid major conflict with your team.

There are three common issues that are exposed during this activity.

1. Natural Cliques. These cliques are not a big deal. They are generally created by situations that the athletes have no control over. If you have a middle school team, the 7^th and 8th graders will generally spend more time with their classmates because that is who they are friends with. If you have a high school team that draws from two different buildings you will have the same result. In Image 1, you will see that there are two groups of 6 or 7 players that created two separate webs. These are Natural Cliques.

2. Fringe Players. This activity will also expose players that are not generally accepted or possibly even liked by the rest of the team. In Image 1 you see that Megan wasn't listed on anyone's Vacation sheet. On the web, she doesn't have any arrows pointed toward her. It is possible that she is accepted by everyone, but just isn't really tight with anyone. That's ok. This activity will identify players that you need to make sure are included and accepted.

   

   Image 2

   3.  Cluster Cliques. These are the ones that can destroy everything that you have worked for. If you look at Image 2, you will see that there are basically four small cliques that only listed each other on their Vacation sheet. These cliques can be determined by other sports, economic status, type of student that the players are, race, etc. There are many determining factors. Natural Cliques can break Cluster Cliques into even smaller groups. 

The great thing about this activity is that once you draw the web, your social issues are right there in front of you. It will verify problems you knew you had and it will expose others that may be disasters in the waiting. In Part 3 of Cliques Can Destroy Your Team, we will discuss how to break these cliques up and how to start to mold your team in that cohesive unit that you need to be successful.

Cliques Can Destroy Your Team (Part 1)

It's the first day of practice and the faces are all familiar to you, but you know that like every year, the dynamics of this team will be different and unique to any team that you have coached before. That is the nature of what we do. It doesn't matter if there are only two new players or twenty. The culture of the team is going to be different and you need to find a way to blend everyone into a cohesive group ready to attack the new season.

It is natural for athletes to hang around other players that they are friends with. That is common for all people, including us coaches. The problem arises when these groups are defined by ability, socio-economics, or any other element that makes the individual groups stand out from one another. In these cases, measures must be taken to eliminate the boundaries that are quickly being drawn on your team. Each day, that a clique is allowed to survive, it becomes harder and harder to create the cohesive unit that you need.

This brings us to two questions.

1. Do you have cliques on your team?
2. How do you fix it?

The best way that I have found to determine if cliques do exist on your team is to do a small activity called “Vacation.” You give each of your athletes a blank sheet of paper and ask them to write their name at the top. You then tell them that you are sending them on vacation to a spot of their choice. It can be Disney World, the Caribbean, Europe, or any other place that they would like. Have them write the location on the paper. Having them write and think about the destination deflects from the real purpose of the activity. Finally, tell them that they can bring three teammates on the trip with them. Have them write those names on the paper and ensure them that no one other than you will ever see the papers.

Your players will want to know why they are doing this activity. DO NOT tell them until after you have collected them. It is alright for them to know that you are concerned about cliques because it shows that you care about them and the team. You should keep this information from them until the exercise is over, so that it doesn't impact their honesty when filling out their Vacation form.

In Part 2 of “Cliques can destroy your team”, I will discuss how to analyze the data that you collect from the Vacation activity.

Building a Close and Cohesive Team

I place an enormous emphasis on the concept of “team.” I believe that our success as a team will be in direct relation to each individuals willingness to put the team above their individual wants and needs. I preach that each individual must improve and contribute for the success of the group. I put such a large emphasis on this concept for three reasons.

1. The team will be more successful.
2. The athletes will learn life skills that will help them become successful adults.
3. The concept helps all team members feel that they contribute.

The following are activities or philosophies that I use to improve our team cohesiveness:

Team Building Activities – Early in the season, I will do traditional team building activities such as the human knot, hula hoop chain, etc.

Forced Groups – When I have athletes that are in different grades playing with each other for the first time, I create work groups based on ability. I make sure that there is a mixture of each grade in each group.

Belonging – Our athletes love to play, but as important to that is a sense of belonging. I am honest with my athletes as to what their ability is and what I expect from them. I make them realize that no contribution is too small. If they have limited skills and they do the smallest thing in a game, that is great! We will then work on them doing it twice during the next game.

Team Time – The day before a game, we start practice by circling up as a team for Team Time. Holding hands, each individual announces their personal goal for the game. It must be something that is measurable. For example: a touchdown or 10 saves or 6 rebounds. If the majority of the players reach their individual goal, we know that the game will be a success. The day after the game, we will review who met their goals and see the correlation between that and the outcome of the game. This also allows us to be successful even if we lose the game.

Locker Signs & Announcements – Each day of a game the athletes find a sign on their locker. The sign wishes them good luck and always has at least one motivation quote that ties in to what we have been doing at practice and/or during our classroom time. The day after the game there is always an announcement regarding the game.

Caring – Each day during warm-ups, I make sure that I get around to each and every player. I ask them how their day was and other questions about them. It never has to do with the sport. I make sure that they understand that I care more about them as a person than I do as an athlete. My concern for them is genuine and it contributes to a very cohesive team.

In upcoming articles, I will break these activities down in greater detail and address other topics that are critical to being a successful coach.