Weekend Training Camp 2015
“You can’t climb the ladder of success
with your hands in your pocket”
-Arnold Schwarzenegger

Mission Statement of Scorpions Volleyball
“To provide our student athletes with a positive and
competitive experience that develops personal values of
teamwork, leadership and life long health and wellness”.

Outline for the weekend

Develop and enhance team cohesion with every member of Scorpions
Volleyball

Begin effective goal setting

Introduce psychological skill development that will enhance mental
toughness and peak performance consistency

Practices

Team Bonding

Parent Info Meeting
Who/What
makes up a team? How
do great teams stick together?
What
is cohesion in sports teams?
 Team
cohesion is the common identity,
common goals and objectives and common
fate of all the athletes who are a part of our
program
 “A
dynamic process which is reflected in the
tendency for a group to stick together and
remain united in the pursuit of its objectives
and for the satisfaction of each members
needs.” (Eys, Burke, Carron and Dennis, 2010)
 Why
do we need team cohesion?
To establish a system of support and motivation
for every developing member on the team
 The cohesion-performance relationship in sport
(Carron, Coleman and Wheeler, 2002)




High levels of cohesiveness on teams creates high
levels of consistent peak performance from teams
High levels of cohesiveness also relates to lower
levels of conflict within teams
The more we build and grow as a team, the more
successful we will be!!!
 So

where do we start?
There are four factors that contribute to strong team
cohesion(Eys, Burke, Carron and Dennis, 2010)

Team Factors
 Roles
and norms, group processes and performance
outcomes that the team shares

Environmental Factors
 Teams

that are close, define and distinguish who they are
Leadership Factors
 Leadership

of the coach and ownership of the athletes
Personal Factors
 This
is the satisfaction each athlete has with opportunities to
compete, social interactions with each other, improvement
of skill and recognition of achievement
 Team
Factors of Cohesion: Roles

To begin we need to establish clear roles and norms
for every member of the team

Roles can be formal (team captain, manager) or
informal (leader, mentor, cancer)

Take a minute to brainstorm and describe specific
roles our team could possibly have

Can we agree that these roles exist? Why or why not?

How can we avoid the negative roles such as cancer
and distractor?

The mentorship role of Scorpions Volleyball members
 Team

What is a norm?


Factors of Cohesion: Norms
A standard for behavior that is expected from each
member of the team
As a team we need to establish clear norms for the
following sections

Practice norms
 Being

Competition norms
 Team

late, effort, behavior, etc
gear, pre game rituals, etc
Off court norms
 Academic

expectations, social gatherings, ect
Can we all agree on these norms?
Team
Factors of Cohesion: Goal
Setting
 “If
we are facing the right direction, all we
have to do is keep walking…”---Buddhist
Saying
 What
does that quote mean to you? How is it
related to goals, sports and life?

Team Factors of Cohesion: Goal Setting

Goal setting has shown influence on the performance and
development of athletes at any age and is very important to
creating positive mental traits such as anxiety control,
confidence and motivation (Gould, 2010)

To effectively set goals they must be specific and measurable,
moderate difficulty and realistic and positive

They can be performance goals (ie. improving serving
percentage), outcome goals (winning zones) or process
(proper technique when spiking)

As a team, what is a goal we want to accomplish this season?
How are we going to evaluate this?

Individually create three personal goals you want to
accomplish this season. How are you going to evaluate this
goal? Which goal would you pick as your season goal?
 Team
Factors of Cohesion: Goal
Setting

But to meet these goals we established we have
to have a plan


Using your season goal, create a series of levels
you must achieve that will progress you towards
your goal. WRITE THESE STEPS DOWN IN DETAIL!!


Goal settings number one failure is not having a
process in place to meet the goals (Gould, 2010)
Now do the process for the other two goals you
created
As a team, what levels do we need to achieve to
accomplish our season goal?
 Team
Factors of Cohesion: Goal
Setting


As a team we are going to be revisiting and
revamping our goals all season

What if some athletes are successful/fail at
reaching their goals?

Monitoring and evaluating your goal
achievement process
As a team we will also be meeting and discussing our
team and individual goals very often

Meetings with coaches and athletes

Team meetings

Personal Factors of Cohesion: Psychological Skills


Krane and Williams (2010) have established a list of
mental characteristics that are essential to peak athletic
performance

Loss of fear-no fear of failure

Immersion and focus on the activity

Feeling complete control

Feeling performance was automatic and effortless

Control over thoughts, emotions and arousal

High self-confidence

Physically and mentally relaxed

Highly energized
When you are practicing/competing, do you feel these
characteristics?
 Personal


Factors of Cohesion: Psychological Skills
To develop these mental characteristics we all need
to develop mental toughness

When you hear the term mental toughness, what
does that mean to you?

“the natural or developed psychological edge…that
enables you to cope better than your competitors
with the demand of performance…and to remain
more determined, focused, confident and in control.”
(Zinsser, Bunker and Williams, 2010)
To develop mental toughness we will work on some
specific psychological skills

The Performance Pyramid
 The
Mental Toughness Pyramid
 Lets
go back a few steps…
 Looking
back at your three personal
goals, did you have one goal that targets
mental toughness/psychological skills that
are in the performance pyramid?
 If
so, create a goal setting process on
how to achieve that goal
 If
not, why? Can you add one more goal
to your development plan or can one
goal be removed to make room for
mental development?
 Evaluation
and Progress Tracking
 To
help everyone monitor their progress
and goals for the season you will be
asked to complete your own personal
report card and evaluation of the
weekend
 This
will keep you on track for your task
specific goals
 It
will give the coaching staff feedback on
your thoughts and feelings
 Team
Factors of Cohesion:
Environment

The environment that we set and create as a
team is just as important as practicing a skill

Creates and establishes an environment for
success and development or one for destruction

What are some characteristics of a team
environment that promotes excellence and
development?
What
criteria would you use to evaluate this
environment?
What
steps could we take as a team to fix a
negative environment?
 Team
Factors of Cohesion: Leadership

Effective leadership and guidance is the starting
point for the development of excellence

A team without effective leadership is like a ship
lost at sea

How does leadership promote excellence?

What are qualities that great leaders have?

What roles do you think leaders have?

What qualities do you have as a leader?

Question #1


Question #2


How can you see the activities that we have done benefit your ability to grow
and develop as a volleyball player?
Question #5


What do you think about the whole idea of mental training?
Question #4


What did you think about the goal setting process? Does this give you more
direction as an athlete or just confuse you?
Question #3


Are the roles of each team member clear to you? Do you think this will benefit
you as an athlete?
What did you find the most challenging about the weekend and why?
Question #6

What are you most excited about for the upcoming season?
Carron, A. V., Coleman, M. M., Wheeler, J. (2002) Cohesion and
performance in sport: a meta analysis. Journal of Sport and Exercise
Psychology, 24, 168-188
Eys, M. A., Burke, S. M., Carron, A.V., Dennis, P. W. (2010) The sport team
as an effective group. In J. M. Williams (Ed.), Applied sport psychology:
personal
growth to peak performance (pp. 132-148). Mountainview,
CA: Mayfield
Gould, D. (2010) Goal setting for peak performance. In J. M. Williams
(Ed.), Applied sport psychology: personal growth to peak performance
(pp.
201-220). Mountainview, CA: Mayfield
Krane, V., Williams, J. M. (2010) Physiological characteristics of peak
performance. In J. M. Williams (Ed.), Applied sport psychology:
personal
growth to peak performance (pp. 169-188). Mountainview,
CA: Mayfield
Zinsser, N., Bunker, L., Williams, J. M. (2010) Cognitive techniques for
building
confidence and enhancing performance. In J. M. Williams
(Ed.), Applied sport psychology: personal growth to peak performance
(pp. 305-335). Mountainview, CA: Mayfield