we did this
we did this
Simple but effective wrote:
team dinners. Make them themed. BBQ night. Pasta night. whatever you wanna do.
Movie nights. Off season camp-outs, if that's something you can do in your area. Sports parties (football sunday, etc.)
Give them a space that is available to them whenever they need it. Your office, for example. If you feel comfortable with this, make them feel welcome in your home.
Some of the best team bonding is unplanned. This could be hard to participate in if you're a coach, but late-night food runs with the boys were some of the best team bonding we had.
The key is to spend as much time with each other as possible.
Great ideas and suggestions that work.
I would also add to let them plan team activities and you just assist in facilitating.
While activities outside the sport are necessary, the team should also coalesce around the sport you are doing. Start talking about what is happening in meets where your rivals ran. Start talking about what events you think their top runners will do at the conference meet. Find out what your athletes' high school rivals or teammates are doing. Get them talking about what is happening in pro races. Make Kipchoge jokes, make Usain Bolt jokes ... in short, get them to be fans of the sport, I believe that will help them concentrate on improving.
More great stuff--thanks, all!
--little help? wrote:
More great stuff--thanks, all!
Okay--are you gonna use it? That could mean changing . . .
A 3 day camping trip can be fun. You can also get in a bit of jogging. But first, do you have a good feel for the pulse of the team? Why don't you pull aside your team captains and solicit ideas from them?
Training together is the best team-building exercise.
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Again, thanks to all--some terrific suggestions here!
Yes, we have good captains who are helping with their input. In addition, because I don't have a great sense of what's fun for others, I'll be relying on a small Fun Committee to generate ideas. I'll also ask students to oversee our social media and generate content for them--just have to make sure that they (and I) are very clear on what the NCAA allows.
teamsoft wrote:
Training together is the best team-building exercise.
^^^^
THIS!
--little help? wrote:
Okay. Our director of T&F/XC left unexpectedly. I was a part-time event coach and I've now been put in charge of track (another assistant will now be head for xc). This may be a long-term thing, or just for the coming year; a new director may be hired and bring in his/her own assistants.
But either way, I want this coming year to be a great experience for the athletes and for them to build a lot of enthusiasm, so that if someone else does take over next year, s/he'll have an easier situation to work with than we've had.
Problem: I don't have a good grasp on team building. And I'm lousy at making things fun. I always thought running and training and getting better and competing were a lot of fun in themselves, and never understood some other runners' need for that. (To me, that would be like making sex fun--isn't it already?!?) But I know that some athletes do need that.
If it makes a difference: It's a medium-size D3 school in a metropolitan area. Most but not all students are commuters.
TLDR: What team building and fun activities have worked with your college teams? Much thanks for any help!
Have you tried having an orgy?
Easy long run on mushrooms in the woods.
Interesting thread.