What are some creative ideas for strengthing a team's relationship?

Question

I am the captian of my volleyball team, and are team could barely be considered a team. They scatter everywhere as soon as the ball is served, and last time we had two of the girls run into eachother, and one of them sprang her ankle. The coach tells them what to do, but they get so confused so easily. I have also tried to explain to the girls, but most of them are very ditsy, but they were the only ones who tried out this year, so we had to choose them. Most of the girls are beginners, and I am a long-time player, so when I explain something, they don't know what it is I'm talking about. Same thing with the coach. She played varsity through high school and college. We need some help!

Answer 1

For my team one season we weren't communicating with each other at all on the court, so our coach had us run around the football field screaming "outside", "Got it", "Middle Hit", "cross hit", "line", "back it",

and our personal favorite and the hardest to say after a while "Outside hit, cross, its good, got it, cover".  We hated the drill while doing it because its tiring, but looking back on it it brought the team closer together and we laugh about it now.  It really got us to talking on the court.  

Another thing that my coach does is she makes evveryone serve once on one side of the net and everyone serve on the other side of the net so that everyone has to make 2 serves over the net without missing.  For every missed serve its a sprint.  Then she'll hit at the lebaros and make them dig 8 out of 10balls or make the hitters kill 8 out of 10 balls.  If they don't do it it's sprints.  It causes everyone to really depend on each other and really focus mentally.

Also one thing we did when we were younger we'd have just a training day where we'd practice without touching a ball and go over different plays that we were running and basic rotations and serve receives.  Also pasta parties are a good team bonding experience where you can have fun and talk about the game too.

Answer 2

Sleep over!!! =]

Our team was sort of the same. 1 was a bossy ball hogger... 1 had anger issues... the others gossip about each other... one didnt even look like she wanted to be around us so she goes to the varsity team and bonds with them instead...and i'm the slow one (mentally lol). Our team barely got along with each other so we ended up not playing as a team. We lost our first game and that was a heads up for us.

So what we did was go to a football game and hung out together then had a sleep over at our school gym. We talked about what we needed to do better and had a little truth circle. Then in the morning everyone pranked each other while they were asleep. We bonded so well that night, after that we got a little better. Not completely but we started playing as a team.

bonding time might help so talk to your team about it...

about the drills...

play queen of the court with 4 people... it will get them to hustle more.

do drills WITHOUT the ball... so start out with your regular rotation and practice offense and defense postions. so like... "outside hit!" "weak attack" "middle attack" "tip!!!" you guys should be moving to your correct positions on each of those. Do it until everyone stops scattering... it's tedious but if they dont want to do it anymore they have to COOPERATE. After that, start adding in the volleyball and have the coach do several of those situations.. have her/him hit outside or do tips... again.. tedious but keep on doing it until your team gets it together. After that play a scrimmage with the other teams.

Answer 3

My team did that too. Our coach made us get into our position and then go into serve receive and all that stuff and she would either serve it over or give us a free ball and if we didn't call it or communicate we would get a punishment like 10 push-ups and let me tell you we got pretty tired of push-ups and we started to communicate. We also do a drill where 3 people lay on the ground and the coach slaps the ball and throws it and the 3 have to get up and call out the ball, if we don't call the ball we have to do 5 crushers for the whole group. I hope it helps a ton, it helped us a lot. We also did things like say "Aww Ace" when we got an ace and when we were ready to serve we would say "Lets Go _________ Lets Go (clap clap)" it gave us so much confidence and encouragement and even if we missed the ball we would go to the middle and say "Awww Team" to get our mind off that we messed up and that also helped. I hope it helped you like it did us and there are many more fun little cheers and stuff that you could use or make up so I hope it helps you a ton!

Answer 4

team:

to be a team encouarge them, then they will start encouarging each other........make up cheers for whenever someone gets an ACE

drills:

a site that has alot of good drills is  this one...........http://www.y-coach.com/CD/Volleyball_Dri...

:)

Answer 5

You can make-up some sheets with a volleyball court showing your rotation and what you play for defence and offence in a play-by-play picture.  It will help the girl to understand alot better of where they need to be in order to function properly.

If you want to become more of a team i would suggest encouraging each other.  If there is a girl in particular on the team that has a bad attitude or talks about other girls on the team in a negative way, she needs to be talked to.  You all have to get along on the court and off.  Getting pumped up with music and singing along with the lyrics that everybody knows is a good way to have fun and start building a team.  

When somebody does something wrong, don't get mad at them help them out and tell them how to do it better or properly and show her.  Your whole team just needs to help each other out and be respectful of one another to be successful at a tournament.