Team Building

[pinklemonadeliz]

Our level 4 team (ages 7-13) seems to be having some difficulty just plain old being nice to each other lately.

The last couple of weeks, there has been a significant increase in girls belittling each other ("you only got ____ on beam, I got 2nd - that makes you a loser", etc) during workouts.

I talked to the coach this morning because it is really getting out of hand. I know it is the first year any of them have competed so they are really proud of their accomplishments, but they don't seem to "get" the way the scoring works and that just because the medaled in an event doesn't mean a team-mate in another age category didn't score higher.

Our head coach has always really stressed that scores aren't important and that how hard they tried & if they are improving is what they should be paying attention to - but the level 4 coach doesn't seem to be stressing this enough.

I'm thinking this team needs some good old fashioned team-building to strengthen that bond and put them into the "team" mentality because at our gym, the vast majority of our girls are not going to be elite tracked so they need to start thinking of gymnastics as not only an enjoyable sport, but a way to possibly help them get the education they need later on (where it is ALL about the team not the individual).

I'm looking for some team-building activities that the girls can do during their monthly gymnasts dinner next week that will accomodate the wide age range and be something we can do sort of quickly during dinner.

Any ideas??

 

[Deanna]

I actually just posted this a few days ago.
Sorry, Im feeling very lazy today, and didnt want to type it all back out..so I'll just link ya back to it.
Link Removed

 

[Aussie_coach]

This is a common problem, a sport like gymnastics attracts naturally competitive kids. Naturally competitive kids often show it. In some ways its a great thing, its what pushes them to achieve and in some ways its a not so great thing like when they belittle each other.

The age has a lot to do with the issue's as well. Pre teens are very much in a competitive time of their lives, they are always going on about who is better, who is more popular. They put others down to make themselves feel big, important or special. The younger ones usually don't realize the impact of their words. Mainly the 7-9 year olds, they say "I came 2nd and you came 5th so I beat you" in a very matter of fact way, they are pointing out facts they are not deliberately trying to hurt other kids. They have not yet developed the forethought to think "well I had better not say that because I might hurt that childs feelings". The older ones (usually about 10-13) have worked out that words can hurt big time, but they are experimenting with it. They have only just learned that they can use words to have power over others so they use this new tool.

I don't know how it works in the USA but in Australia we have separate competitions for teams and individuals. It may help to enter team competitions for a while. That way they win as a team and lose as a team, and learn that they need each team member to succeed.

Also it can help them to set other goals for competitions besides winning places, have a personal best score register on the wall and each child can put up their personal best score at a comp on the wall, and then when they beat it they put the new score up. This way kids are focussed on their own best at each comp, rather than comparing themselves to others. Or have team goals like each girls gets a point for every beam routine with no falls at comp, or each connected bar routine with no stops and so on. And when the team reaches a certain number of points they go for a special treat. If you do this avoid saying things like the team gets a reward if everyone sticks their routine. Because then they will belittle the child who didn't. Focus rewards on more open goals.

Another key is to keep the kids really busy at training, the more downtime they have the more time they have to dig at each other. Keep them going strong, always ready to go, the moment the kids before them has their feet hit the mat the next one goes and lots of drills in between.

 

[pinklemonadeliz]

Thank you both! Deanna - I love the game ideas. I think we will do one of them on Friday night. Aussie_coach - thank you for the insight, you are very correct about the ages and how they deal with these things. I wish we could enter some team only competitions, but here (at least where I am) the meets are both individual and team at the same time. I do think personal bests & goal setting are great ideas and I will work with the coach to try to implement them.

Thank you again so much!!

 

[txgymfan]

Here's an idea. After a meet have each girl say three things that a teammate did will. Maybe have the team pull names out of a hat so no one gets left out. When our family is stressed it help to laugh together, have each girl bring a joke to the team dinner and go around the table.