Welcome to the September 2003 Coaching & Sports section and for many of you the beginning of a new season and school year! We hope that the promise and optimism that you are feeling at this time energizes your athletes and leads you to a fun and successful season. Please join us as we continue our tradition of bringing you useful coaching information from a diverse group of professionals in coaching and sport psychology.

We start with Kurt A. Krueger, M.S.Ed., Director of the Institute of Sports Psychology, who contributed an article about achieving peak performance through the regular and consistent practice of mental strategies. For those of you unfamiliar with the growing field of Sport Psychology, Kurt also provides an easy-to-follow discussion about Sport Psychology and its potential. The second article is written by Tim A. Hamel, MS. Tim has conducted several workshops on team building and promoting positive team dynamics to teams throughout the state of California. In his feature article, "Pre-Season Ideas for Creating Team Unity" he shares this expertise and provides information that coaches can use to get their season started in a positive way. Sarah M. Meyer, a graduate student in sport psychology at California State University, Fresno, is the author of our third article this month. Sarah, a former community college athlete, has written about injury, and what coaches can do to help their athletes make a full recovery and return to competition as soon as is appropriate. Finally, this month we feature a web site that provides you with many practical drills and ideas for your upcoming practices and training sessions.

We hope you enjoy this edition of the Coaching Section and wish you the best of luck on a fun and rewarding season! Please don't hesitate to contact us if you would like to comment on these articles or submit your own ideas for publication.

Jenelle N. Gilbert & Wade Gilbert
Coaching & Sports Section Editor

Tim A. Hamel, MS
California State University, Fresno

I have had the privilege to serve as a sport psychology consultant for numerous types of athletic teams and have discovered that my favorite time of year for consulting with teams is during the pre-season. Although this is often the most difficult time to consult with athletes, I have found that the coaching staff loves the pre-season due to the emphasis on the "fundamentals" of their sport. However, the challenge lies in the fact that athletes tend not to value mental training when they are not playing against an opponent. From my perspective, the essence of the pre-season revolves around the cohesion of a team. In this article, I use the terms unity, chemistry and cohesion interchangeably to define the togetherness or closeness of the entire team, coaching staff included.

I have a few basic questions when I talk with a coaching staff during the pre-season. The first question is, "How is your team going to be this year?" Typically, the response goes something like this: "If we come together, we're gonna be tough to beat." Then my follow-up question is, "Other than physically practicing, how have you practiced 'coming together?'" Usually the coach will ask, "How can you practice coming together?" There are several reasons why I focus on team cohesion in the pre-season. First, it kills me to hear a coach at the END of the year say "we had the best talent in the league but we had a bunch of individuals." If I do hear this statement, I follow-up with, "Did you know this going into the season?" Generally the answer is, "Yes, but I thought we could pull together if we won some games." This is where the old cliché that "winning masks a lot of problems" comes into play. In other words, some coaches think that talent will promote team unity. However one must keep in mind that a team represents a large dynamic relationship comprised of a series of smaller affiliations. If one of the links in the bond is damaged, the entire system fails. Winning does not address the problem in a strained relationship, it simply covers it up. Coaches must therefore deal with the problem before it becomes an irreversible issue that has the ability to ruin the entire season. Thus, winning by itself will not fix a team unity crisis. Furthermore, team unity does not magically appear. If it is present at the beginning of the pre-season, it has the ability to be there for the duration of the season. Conversely, if team unity is not apparent at the beginning of the season, it can be worked on and improved. If a coaching staff sees a technical/mechanical flaw in one of their players, do they wait until the end of the season to correct it or do they try and address the problem immediately?

As a consultant, I try and take a proactive approach in promoting team unity. Too often, I have heard coaches tell their athletes to be a team without offering any solutions or suggestions on how to accomplish this task. Would a pitching coach tell a pitcher that he/she needs to develop a certain type of pitch without demonstrating how to perform the desired pitch? The final question I ask to the staff is, "What did you as a coaching staff do to promote team unity?" Because coaches are sometimes baffled by this final question, I have provided practical advice on how a coaching staff can promote team unity. This information is based on my experience in group cohesion and team building with a wide variety of teams from high school to NCAA Division I.

As a sport psychology consultant, I start with an initial team meeting to introduce myself and share my background information including education and my experience working with other teams. Coaches will have the advantage of familiarity and will not necessarily need to start at this step. Once introductions are complete, I then get down to the topic at hand, which would be techniques on how to enhance team cohesion. In the role of a sport psychology consultant, I have found that my best assets are empathic listening and asking simple yet thought-provoking questions. For example, I like to provide questionnaires to every member of a team. Some of the questions might include, "Can you describe the ultimate teammate? What are you going to contribute to the team? What are you going to sacrifice for the team? What is your best asset to give to the team? What aspects of team unity can you improve upon?" Coaches can use similar questions with their athletes. The questions provided above are straightforward, yet influential and can have lasting impressions on the team. The main purpose in addressing these questions is to see how important the athlete values the team concept. More importantly, I need to see how the athletes value themselves in the team concept. Responses to these questions force the athletes to be reflective and really honest with themselves. I want the athletes to think about how vital and powerful their role can be on the team even if they are relegated to a back-up position or have limited playing time. Coaches always comment on how important it is to "be on the same page." This brief exercise gets the entire team (coaching staff included) on the same page and establishes a team page. It provides a team reference point that can be revisited at any point during the season. It holds the athlete accountable for actions that might be detrimental to the team later on during the season. More importantly, it has the potential to address team conflict issues during the season. Dealing with team chemistry problems during the season takes away from valuable practice time. Therefore, I like to get all the potential chemistry problems out in the open. It is basically a three-step approach: (1) identify the issue or problem, (2) create solutions and (3) clarify potential misunderstandings.

After a discussion of the above questions, I ask the athletes to formulate a team pact. A team pact is a code of conduct by which each player must abide. This pact must include how the athletes will act towards each other and should also include potential consequences for a player who violates the rules of the team. After the team has established their own set of consequences, I always ask the input of the entire coaching staff. To me, team unity also includes the coaching staff. Therefore, all the athletes and coaching staff must be actively involved in this vital decision making process.

Another active approach to enhancing team unity is through the use of a portable low ropes course and/or cooperative games (see bibliography at end of article). These activities: (a) provide a series of challenges for the team to complete, (b) have the ability to promote "togetherness" in the face of adversity, and (c) can emulate certain aspects of a season such as a team's emotional (or psychological) reaction during a losing streak. The activities are simple. For example, the athletes may be charged with passing a teammate through a four by four-roped pit without touching the ground or the ropes. The task requires all of the participants' cooperation, and to me, the most important variable to a cooperative activity is failure. I want to see how the team responds when they have difficulty accomplishing a task. I want to see which individual begins to withdraw or becomes negative or in other words, quits being a team player. I also want to see which player takes charge. Some of the same characteristics that athletes display when they fail at a simple challenge activity or cooperative game have the ability to surface when they face a mid-season slump or are benched and these examples have the potential to affect the entire team's chemistry.

After a series of challenges, a debriefing period takes place. During this discussion time, I ask all the athletes to write down five to ten words that described their experiences with the chosen activities. Generally, the first five words on an athlete's list are frustration, trust, commitment, communication and perseverance. This list can become a reference point for the season as these words describe what it means to be a team and have the potential to describe a team's entire season. Coaches can remind athletes about these words and their importance throughout the season. Each athlete has to understand the essence of trusting one another; each athlete must have faith in one another to come to practice both physically and mentally prepared each and everyday. More importantly, all athletes must understand that they can have an active role in the team even though they might seldom step on the playing field during a game.

Although I have witnessed numerous successes during team cohesion exercises, I feel it is important to warn a coach about potential pitfalls that may accompany this delicate process. First, it has the potential to take one day out of a team's practice time. I am well aware of the time constraints placed on an athletic team by the CIF and NCAA. However, think of the athlete's frame of mind: "Wow, coach really is trying to stress how important team chemistry is this year." I have witnessed unbelievable unity after a team accomplishes an activity with players hugging, cheering and high-fiving each other. Also, some coaches might consider these activities as "toys" with little to no influence on the team bonding experience or consider this process as "touchy-feely" or "warm fuzzy." From my perspective, these exercises are tools that have the potential to draw a team together in the hopes of accomplishing a common goal. Another potential hazard is that during debriefing some players might become very defensive based on accusations made by other teammates. It is extremely vital to get all potential team conflicts out into the open and discussed in a civil and professional manner. Some coaches might not want to deal with the emotional aspects that might arise. To me that is the essence of sport - i.e., feeling all the emotional components involved with being a team. Sport is pure emotion. Effective team chemistry is a process of keeping the team's emotional relationships in tact.

In conclusion, I would highly encourage a coaching staff to give their team an opportunity to explore the strategies mentioned in the article. It does not matter which type of exercise you choose. What is important though is that you are emphasizing the importance of team cohesion. Again, the exercises have the ability to establish a team page where everyone can give their opinion about any aspect related to team cohesion. It is important to focus on the precise words the athletes' state during the debriefing period; write these words down and revisit them any time during the year, not just when there is a potential team conflict. Members of a team must realize that team chemistry is all about managing relationships. Relationships, just like all the physical skills needed to perform the chosen sport, require constant monitoring. As a coach, how are you practicing or promoting team unity? Coaches always preach the importance of practicing physical skills, yet how many teams have ever had a team cohesion practice other than the traditional pre-game meals? It is my experience that less time spent worrying about team unity conflicts result in a more productive season.

Bibliography

Orlick, T. (1978). The cooperative sports and games book: Challenge without competition. New York: Pantheon.

Orlick, T. (1982). The second cooperative sports and games book. New York: Pantheon.

Rohnke, K. (1984). Silver bullets: A guide to initiative problems, adventure games and trust activities. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt.

Rohnke, K. (1989). Cowtails and cobras II: A guide to games, initiatives, ropes courses, and adventure curriculum. MA: Project Adventure.