Coaching Volleyball Magazine June / July 2015 - Page 21
Building a Better World
Building a Better Team?
By Cara Cocchiarella, Ed. D.
A
s a head collegiate women’s basketball coach, I found myself doing everything I could to strengthen the bonds between the players on my team. I tried all of the traditional
team-building activities including game nights, team dinners, challenge courses, retreats, etc. Some of our efforts seemed to be fairly
successful … which, like any coach, was never enough to satisfy me.
While I continued to employ team building activities at practically every possible turn, I really never could tell if the impact
was positive and, if so, to what degree. After doing considerable
research, I discovered that I was not alone in this venture. While
there is research to support the efforts of coaches aiming to maximize the cohesiveness of their teams, exactly how to do so is unknown. Studies have shown that coaches actively strive to promote
cohesion in teams on a regular basis and that the results of such efforts are positive (Carron, Brawley & Widmeyer, 2002), but what
does that mean to those of us in the field?
www.avca.org
In following my passion for team-building, along with an appreciation for the role of community service on college campuses, I
conducted a study to examine service work as it relates to collegiate
volleyball. Specifically, I investigated civil service as a potential teambuilding activity. With the help of 512 NCAA Division I women’s
volleyball coaches and players, I discovered a handful of trends beneficial to any coach striving to maximize team cohesion and to incorporate meaningful community service in team activities.
In order to fully understand this research and its origins, I ventured into the world of existing research pertaining to both service
work and team cohesiveness. The findings of that investigation, as
well as the results of this study, may be combined to paint a comprehensive picture of the potential for employing community service as a team-building activity. A few of the questions addressed
in this study include the following: Do teams that conduct service
together score higher on measures of cohesiveness than those that
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