Weekend Training Camp 2015“You can’t climb the ladder of success

with your hands in your pocket”

-Arnold Schwarzenegger

Mission Statement of Scorpions Volleyball

“To provide our student athletes with a positive and competitive experience that develops personal values of teamwork, leadership and life long health and wellness”.

Outline for the weekend Develop and enhance team cohesion with every member of Scorpions

Volleyball

Begin effective goal setting

Introduce psychological skill development that will enhance mental toughness and peak performance consistency

Practices

Team Bonding

Parent Info Meeting

Who/What makes up a team? How do great teams stick together?

What is cohesion in sports teams? Team cohesion is the common identity,

common goals and objectives and common fate of all the athletes who are a part of our program

“A dynamic process which is reflected in the tendency for a group to stick together and remain united in the pursuit of its objectives and for the satisfaction of each members needs.” (Eys, Burke, Carron and Dennis, 2010)

Why do we need team cohesion? To establish a system of support and motivation for

every developing member on the team The cohesion-performance relationship in sport

(Carron, Coleman and Wheeler, 2002) High levels of cohesiveness on teams creates high

levels of consistent peak performance from teams

High levels of cohesiveness also relates to lower levels of conflict within teams

The more we build and grow as a team, the more successful we will be!!!

So where do we start? There are four factors that contribute to strong team

cohesion(Eys, Burke, Carron and Dennis, 2010) Team Factors

Roles and norms, group processes and performance outcomes that the team shares

Environmental Factors Teams that are close, define and distinguish who they are

Leadership Factors Leadership of the coach and ownership of the athletes

Personal Factors This is the satisfaction each athlete has with opportunities

to compete, social interactions with each other, improvement of skill and recognition of achievement

Team Factors of Cohesion: Roles To begin we need to establish clear roles and norms for

every member of the team Roles can be formal (team captain, manager) or informal

(leader, mentor, cancer) Take a minute to brainstorm and describe specific

roles our team could possibly have

Can we agree that these roles exist? Why or why not?

How can we avoid the negative roles such as cancer and distractor?

The mentorship role of Scorpions Volleyball members

Team Factors of Cohesion: Norms What is a norm?

A standard for behavior that is expected from each member of the team

As a team we need to establish clear norms for the following sections

Practice norms Being late, effort, behavior, etc

Competition norms Team gear, pre game rituals, etc

Off court norms Academic expectations, social gatherings, ect

Can we all agree on these norms?

Team Factors of Cohesion: Goal Setting “If we are facing the right direction, all we

have to do is keep walking…”---Buddhist Saying

What does that quote mean to you? How is it related to goals, sports and life?

Team Factors of Cohesion: Goal Setting Goal setting has shown influence on the performance and

development of athletes at any age and is very important to creating positive mental traits such as anxiety control, confidence and motivation (Gould, 2010)

To effectively set goals they must be specific and measurable, moderate difficulty and realistic and positive

They can be performance goals (ie. improving serving percentage), outcome goals (winning zones) or process (proper technique when spiking)

As a team, what is a goal we want to accomplish this season? How are we going to evaluate this?

Individually create three personal goals you want to accomplish this season. How are you going to evaluate this goal? Which goal would you pick as your season goal?

Team Factors of Cohesion: Goal Setting But to meet these goals we established we have to

have a plan Goal settings number one failure is not having a

process in place to meet the goals (Gould, 2010)

Using your season goal, create a series of levels you must achieve that will progress you towards your goal. WRITE THESE STEPS DOWN IN DETAIL!!

Now do the process for the other two goals you created

As a team, what levels do we need to achieve to accomplish our season goal?

Team Factors of Cohesion: Goal Setting

As a team we are going to be revisiting and revamping our goals all season

What if some athletes are successful/fail at reaching their goals?

Monitoring and evaluating your goal achievement process

As a team we will also be meeting and discussing our team and individual goals very often

Meetings with coaches and athletes

Team meetings

Personal Factors of Cohesion: Psychological Skills Krane and Williams (2010) have established a list of

mental characteristics that are essential to peak athletic performance

Loss of fear-no fear of failure

Immersion and focus on the activity

Feeling complete control

Feeling performance was automatic and effortless

Control over thoughts, emotions and arousal

High self-confidence

Physically and mentally relaxed

Highly energized

When you are practicing/competing, do you feel these characteristics?

Personal Factors of Cohesion: Psychological Skills To develop these mental characteristics we all need to

develop mental toughness When you hear the term mental toughness, what

does that mean to you?

“the natural or developed psychological edge…that enables you to cope better than your competitors with the demand of performance…and to remain more determined, focused, confident and in control.” (Zinsser, Bunker and Williams, 2010)

To develop mental toughness we will work on some specific psychological skills

The Performance Pyramid

The Mental Toughness Pyramid

Lets go back a few steps… Looking back at your three personal

goals, did you have one goal that targets mental toughness/psychological skills that are in the performance pyramid? If so, create a goal setting process on how

to achieve that goal If not, why? Can you add one more goal

to your development plan or can one goal be removed to make room for mental development?

Evaluation and Progress Tracking To help everyone monitor their progress

and goals for the season you will be asked to complete your own personal report card and evaluation of the weekend This will keep you on track for your task

specific goals It will give the coaching staff feedback

on your thoughts and feelings

Team Factors of Cohesion: Environment The environment that we set and create as a

team is just as important as practicing a skill Creates and establishes an environment for

success and development or one for destruction

What are some characteristics of a team environment that promotes excellence and development?

What criteria would you use to evaluate this environment?

What steps could we take as a team to fix a negative environment?

Team Factors of Cohesion: Leadership Effective leadership and guidance is the starting

point for the development of excellence A team without effective leadership is like a ship

lost at sea How does leadership promote excellence?

What are qualities that great leaders have?

What roles do you think leaders have?

What qualities do you have as a leader?

Question #1 Are the roles of each team member clear to you? Do you think this will

benefit you as an athlete?

Question #2 What did you think about the goal setting process? Does this give you more

direction as an athlete or just confuse you?

Question #3 What do you think about the whole idea of mental training?

Question #4 How can you see the activities that we have done benefit your ability to grow

and develop as a volleyball player?

Question #5 What did you find the most challenging about the weekend and why?

Question #6 What are you most excited about for the upcoming season?

Carron, A. V., Coleman, M. M., Wheeler, J. (2002) Cohesion and performance in sport: a meta analysis. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 24, 168-188

Eys, M. A., Burke, S. M., Carron, A.V., Dennis, P. W. (2010) The sport team as an effective group. In J. M. Williams (Ed.), Applied sport psychology: personal growth to peak performance (pp. 132-148). Mountainview, CA: Mayfield

Gould, D. (2010) Goal setting for peak performance. In J. M. Williams (Ed.), Applied sport psychology: personal growth to peak performance (pp. 201-220). Mountainview, CA: Mayfield

Krane, V., Williams, J. M. (2010) Physiological characteristics of peak performance. In J. M. Williams (Ed.), Applied sport psychology: personal

growth to peak performance (pp. 169-188). Mountainview, CA: Mayfield

Zinsser, N., Bunker, L., Williams, J. M. (2010) Cognitive techniques for building confidence and enhancing performance. In J. M. Williams (Ed.), Applied sport psychology: personal growth to peak performance (pp. 305-335). Mountainview, CA: Mayfield