Communication and co-operation in overdrive

Team Building with Ellesmere Titans

The Ellesmere Titans swimming squad have a training camp running this week. Much of their time is understandably spent in the pool but, even for them, all day in the water gets a bit much. Consequently, the programme has been split up to include a variety of other things. I was asked to come in and provide 3 hours worth of team building exercises for the 30 or so swimmers involved.

We started off with 4 groups doing a round robin of 4 tasks for about 10 minutes each. Some were more difficult than others, but the idea was simply to get them into the swing of working together. They may know each other quite well through their swimming training, but not quite so well in a more general sense. This gave them a chance to identify each others strengths and weaknesses.

Communication and co-operation in overdrive
Communication and co-operation in overdrive

We then moved on to another round robin of 4 more involved tasks for about 20 minutes each. With them being such a competitive bunch, it seemed appropriate to introduce a degree of competition with them being marked depending on how fast they were able to complete tasks, if they managed to complete them at all.

Finally, all of the groups were given the same task to complete simultaneously. This one involved building the tallest free standing structure they could with the materials provided. This turned out to be a very close run thing with only centimetres between some of the groups. However, it has to be said that on this occasion, they all failed to impress. However, a lot of fun was had in trying!

It’s always a bit strange for groups like this, that are used to a small close knit group of coaches, when a ‘stranger’ turns up to work with them. It can often fall a bit flat. But, to everyone’s credit, the squad got stuck in to the team building session and seemed to make the most of the afternoon. Thanks for accepting me into the clan for a few hours.

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