Tomorrow I am devoting much (if not all) of our practice to "team-building". I have quite a few things we'll do. As an example, our league does not allow hand-offs to the Center. Howerer, in every game we've played, our opponent has done this, so I think it's one of those rules that really isn't a rule.
Because of this, I never designed a running play for my Center. Tomorrow, one of the things the kids and I will do is design a play for the Center to run the ball. I'm actually going to let the team design it--with only a few "suggestions" from myself. I'm sure they will come up with a pretty "interesting" play, and when we run it on Saturday they can say that is the play they all designed. ;-)
I'm looking for any all suggestions as to what you coaches recommend for team-building excercises, as I'm always looking for great, new ideas. This really won't be the type of practice where I have the kids fall backward into a teammates arms or anything like that, mainly just a loafing session to do some fun things. Kind of an "all-skate" if you will.
Thanks!
2 replies to this topic
#2
rushbuster70
-
- Members
-
- 517 posts
MVP
- Gender:Male
Posted 08 May 2008 - 01:14 PM
I like to use water balloons...I'm in AZ and obviously its hot here.Its a good way to start or end practice.We used it as an ice breaker for the kids to get them to oepn up and also at the end of the year when the season was ending.This next season for the summer I plan on having a dinner night were we all go out to eat for dinner or bring Pizza at the end of practice.Something like that.Other than that at this point in the season your team should already be were it needs to be.It might be too late in the season to do a "team bulding" practice.I like to do that at the beginning of the season because it makes much more sense.
AZPanthersFootball.org
#3
Johnp2
-
- Members
-
- 818 posts
MVP
Posted 08 May 2008 - 01:33 PM
It might be too late in the season to do a "team bulding" practice.I like to do that at the beginning of the season because it makes much more sense.
Agreed. We definitely do this in the first practice, and I like to "treat" the kids throughout the season. Remember, we have three practices per week, so it's more of a "let's do something different today" type thing.
After games, a lot of us will go have ice cream or something, so it's not so much that we NEED to work on our team-dynamics, but rather I want to continue to stress it.
We have the "circle of trust". I start every practice with it. Basically the kids form a circle around me, we pitch the ball around and just chat about anything. In the first practice of the week, I present the Player of the Week award (POW). This player is the captain for that week, and he get's to wear a special jersey that week's practices (which he can autograph).
I asked the team what we should do with the jersey at the end of the season (which will have all the POW's signatures on it). Last year I kept it and framed it. However, this year the kids think we should put it in a time-capsule, which is a cool idea. So in our FINAL practice, we'll bury it in a time capsule in the middle of our practice field. ;-)
p.s. I like the idea of water balloons. Every now and then I'll bust out a water gun on them, and they go BONKERS. Haha.
