Team Cohesion: Ithaca Women's Indoor Track And Field Team

Sport’s are an aspect of life that affect societies across the globe. Athletics affect everyone's life, whether that be playing the sport, watching games, or hearing about a sporting event. There is a big difference between playing an individual sport and players relying on their own athletic abilities versus a team sport when members of the team rely on their teammates to complete each individual's specific responsibility to reach the team's goal. Team sports bring people together in countless ways, and they teach many life skills for the athletes that participate in them. Some of these skills include communication, teamwork, discipline, work ethic, dedication, leadership, and numerous more that will help them in their personal and work

Team Cohesion in the sport setting is the most important factor for group effectiveness, being influenced largely by leadership people. Homogenous attitudes and goals, personal sacrifice, and training and instructing coaching tactics are positively linked to team cohesion, and therefore performance. Cohesion is a dynamic and multidimensial process, and these methods could change depending on initial levels. By examining two scenarios of teams having significantly different levels of cohesion, it can be determined how these tactics are used in contrasting contexts. It was concluded the same tactics were used regardless of initial team cohesiveness, and performance was improved in both cases. A single coach administered these methods, but a case study revealed that multiple team leaders can change the different factors enhancing cohesion and still gets the same performance enhancements. Thus, cohesion does not have to rely on a single leader but multiple figures can have a combined effect.

| “The top 10 features of an effective team are: * clear purpose; * open communication; * constructive conflict; * effective problem-solving and decision making; * defined roles, responsibilities and accountability; * strong relationships; * systems and procedures; * experimentation and creativity; * measurement and self-assessment; * shared leadership.” For a team to be effective, they need to have clear

One of the more important skills students will learn outside the classroom is teamwork. This quality can not be taught it must be learned by experience. Members will be on teams to compete in competitions. Students must learn the limits and strengths of their team member if they wish to succeed. This skill prepares students for the team work assignments which will be required in classes, as well as in everyday

Often, cohesion is viewed from an affective perspective; as interpersonal attraction among members or to the group. However, cohesion can also be envisioned as "attraction to a collectivity" as opposed to an attraction to the individuals who make up that grouping. (Ratzburg, n.d.) It is important that every single member never work against each other but strive to work with each other toward their shared goal(s). Any negative force that threatens the team's success redirects itself into something positive as long as team members share the same purpose. Cohesiveness is a process whereby a sense of we-ness emerges to transcend individual differences and motives (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2004, p. 15). Some of the teenagers in the families did not approve of how their parents were acting on decision making. Since these people were actually neighbors in real life, these teenagers were friends with the other teens in the game. This caused problems because some of the parents were being immature and this caused the teens to rebel against their own family. In certain challenges the teens would not try as hard as they should because they disapproved of what their parents were planning. Finally, one of the mothers talked to them and explained that it was only a game and more than anything they needed to work together as a family first. The teen realized that this was more important and strived to help his team out.

In the environment today, it is not unusual to see people working in teams to accomplish certain goals and tasks. During our youth, parents and teachers encourage us through various methods to work as part of a team. Whether a sports team, classroom team, or after school activities, parents and teachers and other authority figures start the introduction of working in teams and teaching the value of being able to work together to accomplish a common goal. As people progress through the various stages of their lives, everyone continues to strive to communicate. Communication is a part of everyday life. It may be overlooked in some areas, but when dealing with a team environment, communication is vital. One

In this documentary there was a mental skill that stood out the most, in particular, group dynamics/ cohesion. Throughout the team’s football season coach Courtney helps the boys feel closer with their fellow teammates, thus, resulting in each individual to look out for one another. With that said, in the movie the team worked together to achieve a common goal which was to win a playoff game while also working on individual interpersonal relationships with other teammates. With that in mind, different elements of task and social cohesion are emphasized in this documentary.

We lean on each other just as much as we strive individually. Together we are stronger and bring out the best in each other. We win together and lose together. We have girls that are our Moms, they keep us under control. Then we have the loud ones, they are the girls that talk when they should and even when they shouldn't. We have the quiet ones who keep to themselves and hardly engage with others. We have the academically talented and the students who can't hand in assignments on time. The one thing we all have in common is our drive and determination towards this team. The second we step over that white line all our lives change. We don't care about anything besides each other in that moment. All of our differences vanish and the one thing that brought us together in the first place takes over. We come

The four main aspects that were tested in this study by Burner et al. were gender, tenure, group size, and sport type. The expected results were that females place a greater importance on fitting into a group and that tenure, or the amount of time an athlete has worked with a team, would result in veterans knowing their roles and having a higher perception of group norms than the rookies who do not know what is expected of them. The experimenters also believed that the situational factor, a larger group size, would lead to lower perceptions of norms as it is difficult for each teammate to interact with one another and work as a cohesive unit. Previous research by Carron and Eys (2012) suggested

Cohesion is critical in a team sport; therefore Sport Psychologists have group exercises, and leadership meetings to gel a team. Through the cohesion sessions players will learn to trust, set common goals, find positive team identity, and synergy. This will enhance a team’s performance and mentally make them sharper as a whole. (Sugarman).

Having played a variety of team sports throughout my life, I saw a lot of parallels throughout the class work on team building between positive teamwork and success. Reading Five Dysfunctions of a Team and then applying what we learned from the reading into several team building exercise gave me a unique perspective on how to create and identify key team building skills.

This directly translates into their studies and their lives. In these team sports, success or failure in competition depends on many variables. When these variables align through effective teamwork a successful play emerges as the teammates work together through coordination, communication and cohesion in training to achieve this result. Everyone has a role in the team and is expected to execute their task effectively. Any sort of individualism proves detrimental to the team as we all know, there is no “I” in

Communication is the key to success. A team without communication could never be successful. Communication is important because the group needs a clear goal and also they need to have shared objectives. For example, in football a defense needs to be on the same page; if two players on the defense are on different pages then the defense will not be successful. You need everyone to share the same objective in order to succeed, not just a few people but all as one. To ensure a team’s success, everyone on the team has to be accountable. Everyone has a job on the team to contribute to becoming successful as a whole. Also you need trust in order to become successful; you have to be able to trust in your team that they will give their all for the team.

Group Organizational Structure/ Member Status: Throughout the 5 years on my high school competitive cheerleading team the team’s structure varied in size anywhere from 24 people to 8 people, but the member status was always the same. The seniors on the team were the captains that ran the team under our two head coaches. Each member had a role and a purpose on the team that all related to a very high interdependence between members.

Creating a successful team is not always the easiest thing to do. Before building a team, you must first establish the purpose of that team and the goal the team is to work toward. Not all teams are successful. It is important to be able to regroup once a team fails. Understanding conflict and how to move forward is essential in building a strong team. A self-directed team is composed of individuals with different backgrounds, knowledge, and skills. With this type of team, there is little to no management involvement. These individuals work together toward a common goal. This leads to a high performing team as they are highly motivated on the goal and achieve that goal successfully.