"Clash of the Egos"

[DracIV]

No, this isn't a ripoff movie of "Clash of the Titans," but instead a short question on how best to deal with team problems.

When you gather a group of 15 people, many of whom are already part of a seperate heirarchial social structure, what is the best way to forge those people into a team? What do you each think is the best way to overcome the web of social jabs, dominance, and teenage egos to make every person act smart (in judgements), work hard, and rely on teammates?

Background: This is a question dealing with problems on my soccer team where the players are highschoolers of all ages and can't seem to unify. I am hoping that the critical thinkers here can help where my own thoughts and attempts have failed.

[Tasselfoot]

RE: "Clash of the Egos"

are you a teammate, or the coach? this seems to be an issue that the coach should easily be able to handle... running laps works wonders on forcing people to behave. nobody likes running.

[DracIV]

RE: "Clash of the Egos"

Teammate. Running laps wasn't good enough- that stops active quarreling and such for the most part, but doesn't help people unify and begin working together as a team. The problem so far is a near inability to work as a team or play smart/hard/together instead of an active unwillingness. Our coach has been running through every idea any of us can come up with to solve the problem, but to no avail.

[Tasselfoot]

RE: "Clash of the Egos"

i know that the pledge process works wonders for unity... myself and all my pledge brothers in my fraternity are very close because we all went through the agony of pledging together. but, that doesn't help you, sinec your coach would get into alot of trouble doing the stuff we did....

maybe try benching the players that are the biggest problems? reward those that are team players...

[GuidoHunter]

I would think that, on the field, the problem of egos and social hierarchy would disappear and the problem would reduce to a simple difference in skill. If I thought a guy I didn't like could score a goal, I'd pass to him before a friend of mine who I think would lose the ball.

What are some of the specific problems that are going on?

--Guido

http://andy.mikee385.com

[RenmazuoGK]

Indian Runs, 3v3 scrimmeage and wall ball kept my team together. It helped us all to realize what we were capable of and to build reliability.

[zajac]

Watch some of those really emotional team sport movies... They usually give good ideas on drills that show a lot of teamwork and have a lot of morals behind it or whatnot...

[Tasselfoot]

play gay chicken.

[rtt7]

Nowhere do you see this problem more than in the military. In a partiular platoon you have dozens of ethnicities, backgrounds, and cultures. Even religion can become a barrier to unit cohesion as the army likes to call it.

The way they combat this problem is Basic Trainning.

The purpose is three-fold. First and foremost, it gives the soldiers common ground and experiences. Also, they have mutual respect for having endured a difficut time and hanging with it. Lastly, the activities at basic trainning are to some degree group oriented. They find out that without each other they will be nothing.

The same holds true for athletics. The most notable example is football. Two-a-days are difficult, challenging, and full of activities specifically designed to force teamwork. Many teams have these practices during a week where the entire team lives at the school. This forces teammates to focus entirely on the game and each other.

Not knowing all the specifics of your situation, I can only give the general suggestion that you need to force the players to do things that they wouldn't be able to do on there own. They will only rely on each other when they have to, and only trust each other after they see that the others are trustworthy.

[Tasselfoot]

rtt7... see my post above about pledging a fraternity... same thing.

[DracIV]

Yesterday just before going to soccer practice I read some of your comments, specifically your suggestion to bench the problems and reward those who worked as a team, and it worked! During practice yesterday the coach went for some extreme teamwork drills and began picking out the problem players and switching them to different spots in drills to force them to rely on teammates.

During the game today (I just returned) we played a school 15 times our size and about 3 divisions ahead of us, but after a bit more fiddling to get it right (sadly they scored 3 points before we got it perfect) we finally worked together and we totally controlled them. Although we only got 1 goal and 17 near-goals (they were playing 6 defenders, we were playing 2 forwards, not much room), the team pulled together and worked as a team. Three guys were sitting on the bench who rarely do, two men were moved from offense on the right to defensive positions on the left, and one defensive man was moved to offense and everything finally matched perfectly and everyone was forced to rely on teammates and petty feuds over bad passes and such from nearby players totally disappeared. Thanks for the advice; we have a game tommorow so we'll see if we can keep it up.

[rtt7]

Keep us posted!

[DracIV]

It looks as if the improvement is permanent; the clashes between people have been forgotten for the most part and we played together very well in our Friday game. The first time we played LU, they beat us 2-1. When we played them on Friday, we slaughtered them 11-0. Our offense finally did great plays from the start, working together well; The defense finally began working with the midfielders. Everything has worked out- thanks again for the advice!

[Unit000]

Find the nuetral kid (if it's you this'll be easier), I've been caught in this situation before, in bands and LAX teams before. If you're nuetral in the quarrels just telling the opposing sides to "shut the fuck up and work together if they want to get anything accomplished" usually works, or if you don't present it right it could backfire horribly and you could be the focus of the anger. 8D