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.