Do you get together with you [tag]basketball[/tag] [tag]team[/tag] AWAY from the court?

I never used to.

I liked to keep my coach-player relationship
clearly defined.

Two years ago I completely changed.

I had finally built up enough [tag]practice[/tag] plans
that I wasn’t killing myself each week trying
to figure out what I was going to do in practice.

Without having to spend hours planning practices,
I had freed up time to take my Freshman team
on a hike on Saturday morning.

Just me and the guys, no parents, no balls, no basketball.

It was 2 hours well spent.

I got to know the players AWAY from basketball, and
they got to know me a little better too.

That hike completely changed my approach to
coaching.

The next day at practice was amazing.

No bad attitudes during [tag]conditioning[/tag].

[tag]Teamwork[/tag] on the court.

They were more focused on basketball than ever.

I was amazed.  My 2 hour investment in time
(doing something that was *fun* anyway) made
a huge impact on these guys.

Teambuilding is never easy.  I certainly hate teambuilding
activities at work- yuck!

But going for a hike IS EASY.  Don’t force anything,
and you’ll be amazed at the result.

If your team needs to learn to work together,
try getting your team in a completely different setting.

Talk to you soon,
Pat