Team Building

Our team did an all day canoe trip last year.

Gater,

Those are good ideas.

I highly recommend the book: "Championship Team Building" by Jeff Janssen. Got it about 6 months ago and couldn't put it down.

Some other ideas:

On goals- Make sure your team sets your goals and not you. You want them to have something invested.

Pick 3-4 captains and give them ALOT of responsibility. These guys will feel very important and can be like coaches on the field. Let them help with decisions.

I sat down with my seniors and let them make the team rules before the season started. They even stated the consequences. I had no say so at all. All of this was very reasonable and some even stricter than i could have been.

All of this gives them ownership and helps bring the team together more than any car wash or canoe trip in my opinion.

I agree with jo. A must read, all applicable to HS Baseball too. You won't just learn one thing from this book, it's tons of good info.

3 or 4 captains?????

Which one is the leader?

thanks... good info. as for 3-4 captains, i think i agree with TRHIT... i prefer only 2 captains. I usually call them co-captains, unless one is a hands down leader, in that case i will call one kid head captain and a second assistant captain (ive only done this once)

we don't name captains, but we let our seniors play that role. i meet with them regularly, let them make decisions on colors of spirit packs, what type of cleat, etc. give them the leadership - its their team. it has worked out well and keeps a little pecking order in place.

I'm going to have the players fill out the Captains application (From Coach Knight on this Board, Thanks Coach) this spring if they desire to be a Captain. Reason is we have let the players vote, and have just let them develop, and have not always gotten good results.

To be honest TR, I never picked captains.

I have 6 seniors. I have 3 who are very outspoken and lead with their actions and communicate well. 2 of those guys has been starting since the 8th grade so they have credibility. The other is one of our top pitchers and hitters. He was also all district center on the football team.

When I need something done, I go to them, Those THREE. I see nothing wrong with three captains at all. They are all very good leaders.

Another idea for team building...say 20 players. Two teams of ten...20 snow shovels. A little competition...which team can clear the biggest area of the outfield. GO!

i'm going to have players keep a notebook this year. this will not only include baseball handouts, but motivational stories, quotes, etc. i'll try to give them something everyday to add to it. at the end of the year the seniors will keep theirs and the other guys will turn it in and get it back the next season to keep adding to it. i know a lot of colleges do this. ohio state football for one. i've been wanting to do this and going to actually do it this year. pitchers will get things position players don't, etc.
has anybody else done this? ideas?

Last year we had an 0-6 spot early in the season, but I knew we were a good team, they just needed to believe it. So, we began doing a daily "process goal" notebook. At the beginning of each practice they wrote down one O and one D process goal. Then at the end of practice they recorded how they did, and listed other possible future goals that they saw in practice, or that the Coaches may have suggested to them. It took about 1 week, then they turned it around and went on an 11-2 roll. They reviewed their full notebook weekly. It took 2-3 min a practice. But they had something that was their own, and showed them how they were doing. Our managers stored the notebooks nightly.
We are doing that again this year. I am going to do some training with them on process goals, what they are compared to results goals, and how to write them clearly.