Team building is about camaraderie, it's about a team's foundation of motivation, communication, trust, unity, and fellowship to push one another to strive for each individual's interpersonal and team relationship. Individual and team growth can provide another basis for sustained motivation. When players feel they are moving forward, learning new concepts, adding to their skill base, and stretching their minds, motivation tends to remain high. Personal growth adds value to the individual, enhancing self-esteem and self-worth, in turn motivating the team. A team whose players are aligned with its purpose, take on challenges, have a strong sense of camaraderie, feel responsibility for the outcome, and experience growth as a team and in their personal lives, will tend to sustain motivation and that drive to succeed on the pitch and in life. This is why CRSA promotes teams to participate in team-building sessions outside of their normal practice and training routines. Not to mention, the players just like to have a great time and value their teammate's friendships.

The CRSA U11Girls take part in various team-building activities such as yoga, sleep-overs, birthday parties, watching games, and of course hotel room hopping at tournaments. But when it's time to play, they have their game-face on and pull together as a team and communicate through their bond on the pitch. Off the pitch, they are your typical smiling, giggling, chatty pre-teen girls that just love to have fun. Recently, I was able to set up a unique team-building multi-session. I thought it would not only be fun and educational, but also a life-tool that they could take away from it with a sense of awareness of themselves and their surroundings. 

First, all of us (24 girls) got together in our CRSA uniforms and training-suits to represent our club, and met to watch the Jefferson vs. Xavier girls varsity game at Xavier High School. They were able to all sit together, chat, laugh, and watch older teams' dynamics, tactics, positioning, and techniques that they could then apply to help their own game.

Lastly, we recently organized a special two-hour session for "Young Women's Self-defense, Safety, Assault & Abduction Prevention." with the assistance of  Master Tim L. Taylor. He is a 4th Degree Master Blackbelt, 3rd generation Tang Soo Do Moo Duk Kwan instructor  and president of the Cedar Rapids Karate Institute (CRKI). The session covered the serious subject of female/child assault and abduction. Its intent was to provide crucial information, evaluate awareness, and provide them with the knowledge to maintain their safety and to defend themselves if required. It was a no-nonsense, straightforward, and candid approach with child and parent discussions, demonstrations, and physical participation. CRKI also covered the R.E.A.D.I. (Response, Education, And Defense-tactics Instruction) methodology, which covers situational awareness, home security, date safety, assault dynamics, mental and verbal abusers, Self-defense techniques, psychological impact of assaults, personal boundaries, confidence development, stranger-danger, safety devices, Amber Alert Laws and system (for parents).

The girls had an awesome experience with Master Taylor and his staff, and it really helped in bonding the team even closer. They still light up and talk about it at every practice and match. All of the parents were appreciative and enjoyed it as well. It also helped spark more in-depth family discussions on the ever-serious subject of personal safety and assault prevention and to help educate them on their life's path. In which, Parents received additional information to relay to their children as they deemed appropriate. Being a parent myself, I greatly appreciated the session and handling it in a fun yet delicate manner that brought awareness to our young women, all while having a great and memorable time.

Team building sessions are designed as a fun, hands-on team bonding experience to improve team effectiveness, team awareness and team leadership on and off the pitch. If you would like to set up a team building session through CRKI, please feel free to contact me (sean@webberwerks.com) or Master Taylor direct at  MasterT@cr-ki.com. Our mutual inerest in seeing the girls learn and retain this invaluable information resulted in Master Taylor and I working together to established a CRSA club-wide flat team rate for a special team-building (two-, four-, or six-hour) session. I would encourage any CRSA team to take advantage of this opportunity. The sessions will be geared appropriately to the gender and age level, and everyone will be able to take something from it. Have a great season, see you on the pitch, and bring on the nice weather! If you would like more information on additional courses offered at CRKI please visit www.CR-KI.com for more information.