Creating a champion team

2007

Sport: Volley Type of tournament: School championship Sex: Female

Goals set:

Stay in the top three places.
Group union.
That the whole team participate during the tournament.
Increased confidence in their own abilities and possibilities.
Fair Play Ethics or Fair Play.

Pre-competitive work:

Fathers:

Individual meetings.
Permanent attention.
Group talks.

Directors:

Meetings.
Permanent attention.

Coach:

Meetings.
Consulting.

With the players:
- training
- Preparatory skills.

Group cohesion : There was an indirect rejection of a team member for not being from the original group, and at some point this rejection was mutual, but not explicitly but covertly. It was decided to put this athlete as sub-captain, with the support and support of the captain, for whom the desire to be a champion was more intense than the feelings towards her new partner. The first was always the most important thing to her.
Search, development and establishment of leaders: 3 leaders were developed in the team, each with different characteristics on and off the field and very important for the coach and the team. Until the end of the championship, the three of them were fighting for the best player award, this is an indicator that their choice was correct.
Behavior observation:
Mental toughness: The best team of the tournament was beaten thanks to mental toughness. Coming from behind, he turned the game around and won at rally point by two points. It was the first time in history that something like this had been achieved. A record of losses had been unconsciously inherited in their minds, believing that there were impossible opponents even before the games were played. A lot of work was done to achieve this result.

Competence:

Strengthening leaders : Individual conversations with them seeking to engage them and communicate to them what is expected of them individually and collectively.
Behavior observation :

Training.
Competence.

Advice : Constant advice with the coach and assistant. It must always be borne in mind that the coach is competing, so they are also subjected to high levels of stress and anxiety about the results, so they must be guided and advised so that their speech goes on the most appropriate path and is the most effective possible according to what you want to achieve from the team. Let us remember that it is not only what is said, but how it is said. During communication, verbal language only implies 7% of importance, the rest is in tone, strength, intensity and non-verbal language, so it is vitally important to guide coaches in this.

Concentration : It is very common in the volleyball school modern day , the harsh cries of the opponent when you have both the serve and when not. Shouts such as ” bolaaaa easy ” or “get out strong ” are very common in school volleyball . That is something with which our fair and fair game policy does not agree, so we worked so that our players did not fall into the provocations of entering the shouting game, which constitutes a separate game and that there is also to know how to play it, otherwise it can be counterproductive. There are two points regarding this: the first is that it seems to us that these attitudes take away the beauty of a great sport and transform an attack on the rival, and on the other hand, from past experiences we realized that our players lost a lot of energy and concentration in these struggles for the screams, something also for which they were not prepared because they did not train him. Remember that what is practiced in training is done in competition. In this way, we decided to work so that the players did their thing, focus on their game and not on those traps that different teams wanted to put on them to fall into deconcentration and anger.

Injuries :

Injury of the best player, captain recognized by the group and coach. The group was afraid to face the competition without her. It affected the group a lot because they had great confidence in her, but her absence helped other players to assume greater responsibilities and get the best of themselves, assuming prominence. The first two games were not there and the team responded very well, the other leaders appeared and the sub-captain took responsibility very well. The captain never stopped being part of the group, she went to training sessions and games to support the group, she was the leader on and off the court (something rare in the middle). They worked on the return of the leader on and off the field, so that she did not fall into a dependency as she was before with her that she had to rejoin the group without taking away their confidence, nor that the game focused only on her. He understood it and quickly caught up with what the DT wanted, that is, individual talent at the service of the group and not the other way around. He had to put his qualities at the service of the team to get the most out of it and he understood that.
Four more players were injured during the tournament, two a week before it started, another between the first and second dates and another three dates before the end. Three recovered during the tournament, but they were very hard emotional blows for the team, which however they knew how to assimilate.
The team had developed a great mental strength to overcome the adversities of injuries of important teammates, they managed to understand that the team was more important than the individuals. This was also understood by the substitutes, who incessantly supported their teammates from the outside, knew what was happening in the field, they fought to bring water to their teammates at all times and at all times they felt they participated in the achievements and failures.

It looked and felt like a team, togetherness, all pushing the cart to the same side. The substitutes supported, encouraging from the outside, reaching out to them with water, providing confidence and calm to those who had to play, there were no envies or differences, they were all the same.

I work with the coach:

Speech management:

Topics:
Intensity.

Anxiety management:

Injuries of important players.
Good results.
Good performance vs. erratic performance.
Irregularities of important or key players.
Handling of victories by the group.

Work with the group:

Workshops: It was sought to get the athletes to understand each other as a team, reaching the level of integration necessary to achieve joint objectives on the basis of mutual trust, cooperation and solidarity. In the same way, it was sought to lay the foundations so that they can develop the necessary qualities to increase their levels of self-esteem, self-confidence, identity and mental strength.
Anxiety management:

For winning the games.
For wanting to get the title.
Points celebration. Relaxation.

Group cohesion:
- Support before the partner’s mistake.
- Leadership.
- Teamwork.
- “All for one and one for all.”
- “The whole is more than the sum of the parts.”
- Respond to unforeseen events, which will always occur, no matter how well organized the scheme and / or plan is.
- Fighting to the end, despite having everything against it, never ends until it ends.
- Individuality = selfishness.
- You can always improve and change, as long as you have not finished everything.
- Internal conflicts in the team, you always have to know how to handle them.
- Confidence : Developing confidence in your physical, technical and mental abilities.
  Identity:

Group support.
Constant support.
Support for the partner’s error: They managed to understand that the problem is not in making a mistake but in stopping trying and that the partner should never reproach the attempt but rather the passivity.
Teamwork: It is easier to achieve something if everyone puts their effort and does their part. If each one works on their own, they will not be able to achieve the objective.
Mental toughness: Fight to the end, matches don’t end until they are over.
Humility : It is the first time that they saw themselves in a winning situation, it is not easy to know how to win, you have to know how to cope with victories.

During the course of the tournament, we realized that the goals set no longer implied a challenge, so we changed to obtain the first place of the tournament, since these must always be realistic but at the same time imply a challenge. Paradoxically when we climbed the fence we lost the first and only match of the tournament.

Resetting the goals by setting a higher one generated greater anxiety in the coach and players, something that at first we could not handle. A mistake was made when preparing the group for the fourth game, since the coach had the concern that the team was underestimating the other teams for their good results, something with which we agree, that at some level they were not expected, for the poor results of the institution in its history in this sport. Telling them that all rivals are complicated and that everyone should be respected equally and indicating that the upcoming matches would be four finals made the group paralyzed the next match, losing with a much inferior team, they were afraid and could not change that chemistry in the game. The coach’s anxiety was lacking in this speech.

However, it was possible to make the corrections of the case for the next game, changing the discourse, focusing on the confidence they should have, mental strength, claw, temperament, in their quality and technical level.

They won the first three games, missed the fourth, then won the fifth against the toughest team in the tournament and won two more games to get the title.

Integration and trust within a sports team is of vital importance to achieve the joint objectives that have been set. This facilitates cooperation and commitment on the part of individuals, forming a cohesive group.

Conclusions of what we are looking for and what was achieved:

Leadership:

Creativity.
They play for the best player, the individual talent put at the service of the collective.

Management:

Stress
Anxiety

Concentration.
Activation : They are always on the go, staying warm, activated and in control of anxiety and fears.
Group cohesion:

Safety.
Solidity.
Organization.
Solidarity.

Mental strength:
- Individual.
- Collective.

Effort:
Self-confidence.
Fight to the last ball.
Always celebrate the points.
You do not criticize .
You don’t fight.
Cheer up through thick and thin.
The last points play better: Mental strength to close the sets and matches.

Goals achieved:

Group union.
Let the whole team play.
Best volleyball of the tournament.
Passion for volleyball (fun).
Confidence in your abilities.
Fair and fair play ethics.
Championship.