Soccer Coaching - Advice on Team Cohesion

Development of team cohesionother is a brilliant way to improve team cohesion
Team Cohesion is the interaction and communicationwhich can then be taken onto the playing field where
of a team who all focuses on the same goals andthey will do the same and work well together. With
work as hard as they can for each other to succeedthe semi pro club the bonding is done in a very
those goals. Team cohesion affects everythingdifferent way but maybe still the same outcome will
throughout all means of team sports and socializing,occur. Instead of taking the players for a team
this then obviously shows that it can be improvedactivity week the players and staff bond together
through doing activities as a group but also canoutside of the training pitch and into the bars and
increase tensions between certain "clicks". "Clicks" is aclubs not the best pre match session but great
term for groups forming within groups (teams), whenbonds can develop from such an activity. However
members in the team stay with their selectedsuch a way to increase team bonding is not the best
members and do not mix with the others in anyidea as players who do not drink and do not go to
activity.the pubs and clubs can suffer and loose out on this
This can happen in newly formed teams, if someteam bond. I believe the most ideal type of social
players know each other outside of the team theybonding you can do to achieve the best team
will obviously form a certain click which will makecohesion is the Lions activity team week.
them stay in their own selective group. A very goodFactors influencing cohesion:
example of this can be found in the 1997 Lions rugbyThere are a lot of other ways of influencing and
team where at first you can notice the differentdeveloping team cohesion than participating in a team
nations of players kept with their own countrymen.activity week and they are making sure the team is
However this does not just affect big professionalall focused on the same goals and not trying to
sides it can happen in any level of sport. A semiachieve different things. Once the mind of the team
professional football club, clicks are very noticeableis set on one particular goal whether that is winning all
between players through all 4 sides in the club fromof your games i.e. Arsenal or just playing your best
the Youth team right up to the First team. It iseach match at least the players in the team all know
mainly as the local players all know each other aswhat they need to do to achieve it.
they socialize and grew up together whereas a lot ofThe Lions Rugby team set their goals and then sat
new signings to the squad can come from anywheredown and discussed what they had to do to achieve
in the UK meaning it hard for them to be acceptedthe goals. I found this to be a great way of getting
by the local players which can cause tensions and notthe players to feel they had a say and it was up to
a strong bond between the team.them it was their own responsibility what the rules
Ways of which team cohesion can be developed iswhere, while they were on tour. The reason this is
too make all squad members get out of their ownso affective is because it has been produced and
comfort zone and get them to interact with playersaccepted by the players meaning if a rule is broken
in the team they don't know or don't usually workthey know they are in the wrong rather than feeling
with. This can increase bonds within the team andhard done by and dropping their moral.
also increase respect for the players they at firstAgain this is seen very differently at the semi pro
knew nothing about. However this does not have toclub it seemed the goals are always set by the staff
be done on the rugby or football pitch it can be done(manager, Assistant manager) they tell you at the
in social environments. For example the Lions wentstart of the season what we need to achieve rather
away for a week doing team activities which hadthan the players saying what they think. This means
nothing to do with rugby but all these activitiesall the players in the team may have different views
where team worked based.of the potential productivity of the squad and that
By seeing all the nations of players mixing with eachmeans all players will set their own personal goals
other laughing and joking helping and motivating eachmeaning team cohesion is lost.