Meet Them With Motivation
The dance season varies state to state but most teams work several months longer than the traditional sport season. Several of you may be experiencing team burnout due to this long season but motivation from the beginning of your season to the end can be the driving force that keeps you going through your busy performance and competition schedule. The enthusiasm it creates can be a key to influencing your team's success and lack of motivation can lead to even the best team's failure. Keeping your team motivated is a daily challenge but one that is extremely important and invaluable. Ability x motivation = quality of performance. This is why sometimes those with less ability, who are more motivated, can eventually outdo their competitors.
There are many different things you can do with your team to help them stay motivated. Here are a few tips to help alleviate some of the burnout and motivate your team. Find the ones that work best into your team's schedule and make sure to implement them. You will see a change in your team's enthusiasm when you mix things up and try new ideas. They will see that you genuinely care about their love of the sport and you will be a hero in their eyes for breaking up the monotony of the regular practice day.
Watch Half and Half: When you feel your team needs a little extra motivation, let them watch half and half. They will perform better for their peers as it gives them an audience. Set them up in pairs and one group watches their partner.
Team Coaching: Designate time for "team coaching." Similar to watching half-and-half, but instead of watching routines, work on technique such as kicks, turns and jumps.
Video Tape Regularly: Have dress rehearsals and tape them. Then go watch and critique yourselves. Compare your present team to previous years or other teams in the area. Point out your strengths and weaknesses. Look at the choreography; see what works and what does not. Check to see if you are using your uniforms to their fullest. Change the ordinary into the extraordinary.
Watch Videos: Do this at the party or just during practice. Watch different championship videos from local, state, or national's competitions (at least one of your girls has a copy of the tape). Talk about what you see, the good, the bad, and the incredible. Talk about your expectations and theirs. Point out what you have been trying to get across all season through examples on the video. The girls love to watch these and they will be motivated to improve when they are through.
Try Something New: Even though it may seem that you are time-crunching to get those routines learned and perfected, take a minute to try something fun. It may be a team game (these usually can turn into a team learning experience by the way), a chant, a cool new move that you just want to try out, whatever! It might take fifteen minutes to a half hour, but it will be well worth the time.
Set Goals: Without goals your dancers will have a hard time finding a team vision. When goals are set it puts everyone in motion to move ahead. Remind and encourage them often keeping them focused on that goal and implementing techniques into your practice that will lead you to accomplishing this goal. Once you set this in action you will see your team reach new levels.
Talk Behind Their Backs: It is not as it sounds. It is a wonderful experience for your group and it will bring your squad closer. Use this prior to any major competition since many teams experience team tension around that time which can translate into conflicts among the girls. This is a way to turn negative energy into something positive. Sit in a circle. Have one girl at a time turn her back to the inside of the circle. Go around the circle one by one and take turns saying a sentence about the dancer whose back is turned. Of course it must be something positive. Even those girls who do not know or like each other very well are required to say something nice.
Have a Party: Schedule in a pizza party for an evening. Help the girls relieve some stress and be with each other in an unstructured environment. As you know, not everyone on your team hangs around each other. Some of the "veterans" hardly know the "rookies." Require everyone to be there but schedule it far enough in advance so that everyone can attend.
Here is a breakdown of motivational tools
to use at various stages in your season.
Daily
1. Every day do a "quote of the day."
2. Team cheers.
Weekly
1. Have the dancers come to circle and take turns responding to questions.
2. Play games to have a little fun and to stay motivated.
*Team Drill Downs: This is a series of commands that progress in a certain sequence.
*Furniture game: All the girls get together to make a room and create furniture out of their bodies, either alone or with others. Two designated people wait outside of the area and come in to guess what room and what furniture the team has designed. This is great for working on teamwork.
* Maze game: All the dancers except for one rookie and one vet create a maze with their bodies. The rookie is then blindfolded without ever seeing the maze and the vet has to guide her through the maze by clapping in front of her. This is a great game for teaching rookies to trust vets and teaching vets to lead rookies.
*Circle game: Just for fun play a circle game called "We're Going To (your town name)." The lyrics are:
We're goin' to (your town name), to see a team prepare,
They're called the (your team nickname) so other teams beware.
Shake it, shake it, shake it. Shake it if you can,
And if you cannot shake it, than do the best you can.
Round, round, round she goes, where she stops nobody knooooows.
You may have heard it before to "We're Going to Kentucky" but change the words to personalize it. Begin by standing in a circle with one dancer in the middle. During the song she closes her eyes an turns around. When she stops the person she is pointing at joins her in the circle. Do this over and over continuing to pull more dancers into the circle. Continue until the whole team is in the "middle."
Monthly
1.Goal setting: Every month set a personal and team goal in writing and then write a plan to achieve that goal. Then team hands them in and the coach reviews them. At the end of the month, the coach gives them back and the dancers check to see if they met their goal. Then they write a new one if they have achieved it. If they have not achieved the goal they figure out a new plan to achieve the past goal.
2. Secret Sis: Choose a name from a bucket and give motivational notes or treats to that person all month. At the end of the month share who your secret sis is.
Seasonally
1. Birthday buddies: This works the same as secret sis but is only done once a year. If a dancer has a birthday outside of season then she makes up an alternate birthday date. On the practice closest to the birthday, her buddy brings treats and the team sings to her.
2. Secret Santa: This works just like secret sis as well but at the Christmas party you bring a present for your buddy and take turns guessing who your secret Santa is.
3. Talk Behind Your Back: Explained in the earlier section.
4. Spirit Days before your biggest competition. Have a countdown and give all team members a number. (If you have 30 team members than all would have one number from 1-30) Look on the calendar of days you have practice and designate which day is what number. The practice day number that corresponds with the number each member has, is their "Spirit Day". They can bring treats or sing a song, or make a personal note whatever. It is their choice!
Outside Of Practice:
Spend quality time together outside of practice to really develop close relationships with each other. You need to experience all team members and coaches on a personal level to really know your team. A close team with well-developed relationships will work harder for each other and will therefore be more successful on the whole. Once you are true friends you completely understand that there is "No I in team"! Your team will not only work hard to achieve their personal goals but also the team goals. Some things to do outside of practice:
1. Go to camps
2. Hold slumber parties
3. Lip sync parties
4. Pizza parties
5. Go to dances or watch movies together
Angela Lund is the author of Reach For The Stars.