Summary: The Smart Coaching Series on the Coach and Coordinator Podcast is designed to help coaches improve over the course of the season in the areas outside of the X&O’s. Coaches need to be able to take care of people and this podcast will give pause for reflection and well as generate ideas for the coach to be smart about how he improves his players and team. Today’s Podcast focuses on team cohesion. We have finished up the portion of our season where players are fighting for jobs and now everyone is understanding their role. Cohesion is important and we need to think about how we install it as coaches. Grabowski, Gearity, and Kuklick share specific ideas and strategies to build a more cohesive team over the course of the season. 01:00 Shift in fighting for a job to settling into roles and coming together again 01:30 Our responsibility to be sure we don’t drive the team apart 02:24 Setting the stage for bringing creating a cohesive team – mental, social, emotional 03:08 Building upon the existing relationships 03:38 Setting up a plan early on to keep the team aligned 04:58 Using time available to implement tasks, problem solving to enhance communication 06:35 What academic literature says about building a cohesive team 07:12 Definition of team cohesion 09:05 Negative behaviors to avoid as coaches and players 10:30 Dr. Gearity’s example with Philip Fulmer and a display of interpersonal relationships 12:33 Research suggests coaching staff cohesiveness is highly correlated with cohesiveness of the team 13:18 Rituals with the team hazing vs. awarding/fulfilling rituals 14:50 Seniors being servant leaders 16:50 Figure out what they want to do and tie a reward to it 17:31 Define roles and look for ways to recognize the role players 18:59 Grabowski’s example of celebrating role players and bringing a unit together 21:35 Connecting celebrating roles in the offseason as well through video to lay a foundation 22:35 Using social media to celebrate role players 23:03 Getting guys to fight for each other 24:08 Communication and cohesion are skills to be developed 25:19 Little things that build cohesion 25:50 Reinforce behaviors that promote cohesion 26:35 Celebrating as a team 27:34 Installing and practicing celebration 29:40 Example from a high school team in Missouri – “What do you like about being on this team?” 31:31 Recognizing contributors…Who is a teammate who helped you out today? 32:35 Drills/strategies to implement during practice to build cohesion 33:40 A star and a wish 35:03 Embedding a questioning strategy 36:43 Reflective and tips 37:17 Can’t get carried away with this stuff…too much conformity is problematic 40:00 Must practice being a cohesive team
