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 Factors of Cohesion: Norms  What is a norm?  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 late, effort, behavior, etc  Competition norms  Team 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  Goal settings number one failure is not having a process in place to meet the goals (Gould, 2010)  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!!  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  Are the roles of each team member clear to you? Do you think this will benefit you as an athlete?  Question #2  What did you think about the goal setting process? Does this give you more direction as an athlete or just confuse you?  Question #3  What do you think about the whole idea of mental training?  Question #4  How can you see the activities that we have done benefit your ability to grow and develop as a volleyball player?  Question #5  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, 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 ). 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 ). 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 ). 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 ). Mountainview, CA: Mayfield