Wednesday, June 24, 2009

TEAM BUILDING EXERCISES

To follow are some notes on Gail Goestenkors' team building activities. These notes were shared with my by Latasha Dorsey, my former point guard and current Western Kentucky assistant who saw Coach Goestenkors at the Nike Clinic in Las Vegas. I had the opportunity to observe Coach Goestenkors for three days while she prepared her Duke team to go on an overseas summer tour. I came away seeing an excellent teacher with great attention to detail.

Journals
Every player gets a journal when they get on campus.
Start it off with the words I am…….. (find out who they think they are)
This helps you learn how to motivate them
Give them 10 questions
1. What are your greatest strengths as a person
2. If you could change one thing about yourself physically/emotionally what would it be
Make them write in it following games/practices
Write about goals- individual & team
Keep journals; may give it back to them once they graduate or later down the road

Show & Tell
Players bring something from home with meaning & talk about it

Book Reports
Books are assigned based on their personality and what they need to work on. They are to summarize how this book relates to them and how it can help our team (Verbal Report)

Player + Coach Scouting Report
One of the players help with scouting report. They watch film together, discuss player tendancies and stopping offensive flow. By doing this they are learning the game and developing a better coach/player relationship. It also eliminates them only watching themselves when we watch film of our team.

Discuss Team Identity with Players
Who do they want to be. For example do they want to run more and press etc. Make them write it in their journal and hold them accountable later in practice when they are not running hard etc.