Improving your Club’s Culture
The end of the school year is fast approaching which means club season will be wrapping up soon too. This is a great opportunity for coaches, directors, and families to reflect on the culture of their club. A positive…
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Continue ReadingThe end of the school year is fast approaching which means club season will be wrapping up soon too. This is a great opportunity for coaches, directors, and families to reflect on the culture of their club. A positive atmosphere in a club is one thing that can boost every aspect of a program. Parents want their children to feel like they belong and coaches want to feel appreciated, all while trying to improve skills. Club culture can fall down on the list of priorities; however, creating a positive culture for everyone is essential to success. Here are three tips that can help you improve the sense of culture within your club.
1 Surveys
While it may seem like a scary thing to offer, an end of season survey can help take the temperature of a club, without opening the flood-gates of criticism. With a little time and planning to form appropriate questions, you may be able to uncover areas that have been overlooked within your club. For example, a survey could help you understand why you may be having a hard time getting parents to sign up for tournament duties. Likewise, it could shed insight on issues with coaching staff.
There are several sites that help you create simple surveys. Survey Monkey is a great free generator. It is easy to customize responses or use number scales to avoid complaints. The main thing when using a survey is to NOT get defensive. Everyone answering has chosen to be a part of the club. A survey is just a tool used to help improve.
2 Skills nights/Open gyms
Team bonding is an necessary activity to most coaches, so why not create that same bond within the club. Instead of pitting team against team, try joint practices where players can intermix. They will see different things and hear new things.
We love the thought of the team bonding taking place in the gym versus some overpriced attraction or restaurant. Having skills nights is one way to help grow these relationships. For example, having positional practice nights where all players who play a given position can come and work on things specific them. If your 16-18’s teams practice Tuesdays and Thursdays, you could make Wednesdays the “outside” skills night.
Also, open gyms are wonderful thing – not just for the beginning of the season. Those players are there because they love the sport. So let them play and have fun with others from the club. The pay-out will be when individuals are invested in another team’s success.
3 Social media
If you don’t have someone in your club in charge of social media – get one now. This is the athlete’s world and a free tool for promoting your club and players growth and success. Once this job is assigned, make sure everyone knows they can forward pictures, results and highlights for posting. Then, be sure that person can be objective and works to include all teams at various levels. Parents love to see their daughter’s team on Facebook. It is a digital world, so promote your athletes online.
Every program has it’s strengths; improving club culture will ensure volleyball’s popularity among young female athletes continues to grow.