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.