Team Bonding - After Tryouts (uk)

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Dec 15, 2009
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Hi all,

We have just done a big recruitment drive after loosing 4 girls (from a team of 19). We have recruited a lot more than we thought, could be as many as 13 as we had a lot of talent come over from a feeder programme that does sideline.

Two of the girls that left after comp left unexpectedly and have since voiced to other members of the team that they didn't feel that they were part of the team as there are a group of 8 or so girls who have been cheering together for 3 or more years and are very close.

I am wary that recruiting so many new people could lead to a divide of newbies and oldies (especially with some of the newbies cheering together in the sideline team) and wondered if anyone had any tips for how we can integrate them seamlessly.

At tryouts I set them up with 'buddies' so each newbie had a current team member to look after them.

All suggestions would be fab! i am positing in international as thought that you guys might have more of an idea of things that would work with small programmes (we literally only have one senior 2 team!).

x
 
We do a couple of things every year. One thing I've found can break up practice and get everyone laughing and mixing is just to throw in a silly game in between changing sections. My senior 4 team ranges from 12-21 and the older ones get seriously competitive over something even as daft as stick in the mud.
We also send a day as a whole program at a local scout centre and do raft building, caving, archery, whatever they decide and the seniors then stay over and do their high ropes course the next day before training on site with some lovely conditioning in the lough and up mountains :)
Good luck
 
Thanks. That's really helpful. I have the same thing with age ranges and think that something like that could help :)
 
My team is aged 17-26. Something I found really helpful was having a session of goal setting and vocalizing the motivation for being on the team. So each person stated an individual goal for themselves for the season, then they collectively had to give me 5 team goals.

As for motivation, it ranged from wanting to be fit, and ultimately the most popular reason "because I love to cheer". I found just having them talk about what we're working towards created the bond. They now toss the word sisterhood and family around about each other.
 
i used to find that every summer there was a new intake of kids and i had the same issue as yourself.

I used to split them into teams where they had to do something every week to win points and they had like a sticker chart (they may have been like 15 but trust me they got super competitive for stickers best 50p i ever spent!) they got stickers for their team if they achieved something new, perfected a skill or were really helpful. i sound found my cheerleaders who had been with me for years were helping the newer kids so their teams could get stickers and they jst kind of merged as one team :) has worked well for the last few years!
 
I joined a new team this season and because I'm older and there were only about 5 new seniors (everyone else knew someone on the team except me) I've found it really hard to fit in. But I'm getting there.

Games and team challenges are always good for bonding. Also I think it's good for the team to sit down with the coaches and discuss what they want to achieve as a team, therefore everyone feels united by the same goals.

scottish_cheerleader You did challenges and stuff too didn't you? Over the summer when you first did j2 I remember some of the girls posting pics on facebook to win points.
 
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