aimeeadams

Thanks for your help. I never thought of a formal questionarre. I did ask them at the beginning what their goals were and I stated mine - I even put mine in writing so the parents know what is going on, too. As for the music - I went further and asked each of the girls to suggest a favorite pump me up song. I added some of my own and created a unique CD to play at practice. It goes along with the routine and at the end of the season each girl will get a copy to help remember the season. I've done this with past teams and they seem to enjoy it. Each year the CD is a little different, of course this way I can also screen the songs for appropriate lyrics as well!!

My 5th grade team has 4 very athletic girls and 2 OK players and the last 2 players are trying! My question is how do I get the entire team motivated? We won our first 4 games and suddenly lose two in a row and now they are pretty down. I want to stop any negative feelings before they begin. Winning was not my goal at the beginning of the season, but after the first few games I realized I may have a pretty good team here and the girls enjoyed winning. I am stressing passing and serving so by the time these kids are in 8th grade they will have a very good skill base. Our practices are becoming very routine and probably a little boring and predictable. What can I do? We practice for 1 1/2 hours 2x a week. Any suggestions on motivating would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.