How to strengthen team spirit in your club or team

It is rare that you’ll ever be alone when playing a sport (so rare that we have several posts on this topic!). And, when working with other people, we experience the nature of humanity: conflict, confusion, miscommunication… and those are not components of a healthy high-performance team.

Whether you are a team-sport athlete or an individual-sport athlete, you will be working and playing with various other people from all walks of life. That means you can clash on a lot of things, and sometimes it is tempting to let your disagreements leak into training and competitions, which will seriously limit your chances of playing as a well-oiled, reliable machine from the start. 

Sacrificing performance for conflict is something every coach and athlete (and team psychologist!) should want to stop before it even starts. And while there are many ways to strengthen the team spirit in your sports club, let’s be honest: a lot of recommendations are cheesy for non-youth athletes or unrealistic in non-professional settings.

The fact remains, however, that a positive, collective team spirit regularly needs is a little bit of check-in, encouragement, and tune-up. Here are a few ideas to make sure that you, your teammates, and your coaches maintain a hygienic team spirit and stop any divisive issues before they pop up.

CONSIDER HOW YOU COMMUNICATE.

Communication is a two-way street, whether we want to believe it or not (see this old, embarrassing, but incredibly detailed video on Send & Receive Communication from Julia for more tips). The way you talk to other players around you encourages the same kind of feedback from them, so this is always something to stay aware of. Always be aware of who you are speaking with and how that person best communicates; not everyone responds well to harsh criticism, to quick feedback, or to compliments. While it’s easy to say “how they respond is not my problem - I said what I said!”, it is actually still your problem. Everyone is responsible for what the send and whether it was sent in a way the other person(s) could recieve it!

On the other hand, if someone is being unnecessarily hostile in their communication towards you, it’s always a good idea to be the bigger person and not react emotionally, but to let any negative emotions pass before responding logically - and probably at another time! Pull them aside, have a private yet honest discussion, and see if you can work the problem out. If not, ask for a third (neutral) person to join your conversation to help moderate and keep tensions low.

Practicing solid communication and nipping miscommunications or strite in the bud before it turns into a war certainly helps to promote a much healthier team and opens up a dialogue that ensures everyone knows directness and honesty are the most important values of working as a team. 

GET GEAR OR SWAG YOU ALL LIKE.

Team uniforms are commonplace when you are a member of a sports club, and your jersey (or similar) sets you apart as a member of a team.

As such, consider getting a cohesive and well-designed uniform for your own team. It’s a very visual way to signal what team you belong to, who you play for, and even what you and your teammates or club stand for - which all promote a sense of community and belonging.

If you are unable to influence your uniform or jersey decisions in any way, team t-shirts or other communal items can also make an impact on feelings of unity and togetherness. This is a generally cheap alternative and can usually be done online (for example, this Rugby kit designer can help you build a team palette that everyone will love to wear, or use the GI-Shop Designer to build the most ridiculous club t-shirts you can imagine).

When you’re all out there on the field, bedecked in a unique kit that ties you all together, or out for an event in team t-shirts that make clear to what you belong, you will find it much easier to work together as a team and cultivate a sense of unity. 

REMOVE TO THE COMPETITIVE ELEMENT.

Wait, wait, wait… before you click off this website thinking “excuse me, this is sports, are you stupid??”, hear me out! Of course you are going to be competing in some form or another; that is the nature of sport - there is always a race to improve and something to win.

However, the competitiveness should never exist be between you and your teammates or coaches. The focus should be on the competition itself, and on performing your best as a complete team to get as far as you can.

You are all on a team together because you love the sport itself and want to win, and because playing is fun. Even when you are fighting for starting spots, playing time, or trying to stand apart from the rest of the pack, you need your teammates and/or your coaches to help you get there. Working with them makes you look better - I promise.

Make sure that this sentiment of removing animosity and within-team over-competitiveness is routinely shared when things get a bit tense (see this article for tips on that), such as before qualifying matches, and that you are all on the same page. You need each other to win.

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If your team or club lacks a strong sense of belonging and team spirit, take proactive steps to fix that. Whether in training or competition, everyone’s performance will benefit from the unity that a healthy team spirit brings. Without it, you are taking risks you likely cannot afford. Even as a player, you can influence this!