There are a lot of awesome teambuilding books out there.  Check at your
local library.  I found a ton of them at ours.  You can also just google
"teambuilding" and you will get a lot of ideas too.  For the first two
years, we often tried to do a quick activity either at the beginning, end,
or in the middle of practice as a break.  It's a great thing to do, breaks
it up a bit.  I think one of the key things is to tell your team not to over
think the directions, don't assume there are rules that aren't said.  For
example, one year, the teamwork exercise we did was, surprisingly, almost
EXACTLY like an activity I had done with my team at one of our final
practice sessions, right before the tournament.  I couldn't believe it.
 However, when I had done this with my team, there had been one more rule
added in there, that made it slightly different from what they were asking
them to do at the tournament.  So, they assumed it was like the other one
and made it a little bit harder on themselves than they had to.  I am sure
it was confusing to anyone else in the room but me!  Anyway, the point is,
they want to show the judges that they can work together, delegate, give
each person a voice, figure out problems together, etc.  Check the rubric in
the back of the coach manual and read this to them.  Tell them, this is part
of what FLL is about, learning to work together as a team, stand on each
other's shoulders, value and be open to the contributions and opinions of
others.  We talk about this at most of our meetings.  Especially when the
kids are getting stuck, or disagreeing over something, or feeling frustrated
with each other (which of course will happen in any group!).  In the end,
you can't really plan for this one.  It has nothing at all to do with how
well they do the activity, as it does with "how" they do the activity, if
you know what I mean.

Sonya in Harrisonburg



On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 7:50 PM, David and Susan Brown
<[log in to unmask]>wrote:

>  I’m a new coach and wanted to try a few practice teamwork challenges with
> my group. What kinds of tasks have they asked kids to do at past
> tournaments?
>
>
>
> Thanks for your help!
>
>
>
> Susan
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