Chapter 17: Team Cohesion And Sports Performance

Question 1

• Define group cohesion
• Define task cohesion, how do you develop it and provide a sporting example?
• Define social cohesion, how do you develop it and provide a sporting example?
• Explain the three categories of interaction.
• An individual who plays for a club under the ‘father son’ rule best explains which of Carrons factors affecting cohesion?
• In Carron’s model of group cohesion factors such as individual and group sports are examples of characteristics that affect cohesion. Carron classifies these as what factors?
• Before a match, a player starts thinking about the last time he played in a final, he is worried that if he loses again, he will be heavily criticised by the media and labeled a choker by other players. Identify and define the mental skill which is most likely to be negatively affecting his performance.
• Why might teams like the Chicago Bulls, despite not getting along, still be able to enjoy success on the court?
• Identify and explain 1 mental skill strategy a gymnast who has fallen off the beam could use before resuming their routine.

Answer 1

• Degree to which a team has bonded or is demonstrating collective cooperation.
• Degree of commitment to group tasks and goals. Developed by identifying group goals eg discussing tactics between points in tennis doubles.
• Degree which team members enjoy being together. Developed by creating opportunities for social development eg hi5s between points.
  1. Co-acting: little team interaction for success eg golf
  2. Mixed activities: Both co-acting and interacting traits eg cricket
  3. Interacting activities: working together to achieve goals eg soccer.
• Environmental/situational
• Team factors
• Concentration: ability to focus on relevant cues whilst ignoring irrelevant cues.
• Due to high levels of task cohesion, which refers to how committed team members are to achieve their predetermined goals.
• Relaxation: Try to remove tension from their body and forget the fall by centered breathing

Question 2

• Explain the four factors that affect group cohesion (task and social)
• Define and explain social loafing
• What are three behaviours of social loafing?
• Explain three main reasons why athletes are likely to lessen their effect when placed in a group.
• What are 4 strategies to minimise social loafing?

Answer 2

1. Environmental: forces that hold a group together eg contracts, organisation orientation and facilities.
2. Personal: individual member characteristics eg individual differences, orientation and motivations.
3. Leadership: style of leadership and relationship developed.
4. Team: relates to the characteristics of the task eg team stability and team ability.
   - Decreased effort by an individual within a team. If the efforts of an individual within a team are not clear, and overall performance does not depend on their performance, then team members lose the motivation to work as hard and decreases group cohesion.
   - Arrives late/leaves early, doesn’t train hard and doesn’t encourage.
   - Individuals don’t believe their input will have an impact on the result, avoid hard work assuming no-one will notice in a large group and others aren’t working hard so gives them an excuse to not work hard.
   - Increase accountability by evaluating individually, break squad into smaller practice groups, set individual goals and set roles for members

Question 3

• How can group size contribute to cohesion?
• How can leadership contribute to cohesion?
• How can goals contribute to cohesion?
• How can roles contribute to cohesion?
• What are 5 qualities of a cohesive team?
• Identify, and explain 3 ways in which group cohesion can be measured

Answer 3

• There is an optimum group size that will vary according to the activity. When a group gets too big, sub-groups can form. Problems arise when the goals of sub-groups do not match those of the group.
• Lack of leadership and its style towards a group can cause the group to become disgruntled, clash personality and communication breakdown.
• Groups without goals can question their purpose, cause goals to conflict and players putting their own ambitions above others.
• When roles are not clearly defined, group members can become confused or contradict each other.
• Ability to place team goals before personal goals, shared understanding of strategies and tactics, work together to achieve full potential of each players strength, good communication and respect for each other.
  1. Questionnaires: A series of questions which over factors surrounding task and social cohesion.
  2. Socio-grams: A diagram showing the relationships between individuals in a team. Used to find potential leaders, popularity of players and potential negative relationships.
  3. Observation schedules: using checklists to observe how players in the group relate to eachother, who they mix with, who they avoid and how they interact.

Question 4

• If the coach was to use a sociogram as an alternative tool for measuring cohesion, how might he construct this?
• The coach of a 15 year old basket-baller in 2014 set goals for her to make the 2016 Olympic team in 18months time. 2 months later the player wants to quit basketball.
• Explain your best two goal setting techniques to help the player mentioned above to get back on track.
• Suggest a strategy that could be applied to the 4 factors affecting group cohesion.

Answer 4

1. Obtain info by asking each member in the group a question such as ‘name 1 person you get along the most and least with’
2. Place the people who most get along with towards the centre of the sociogram and the others on the outside.
3. Draw solid lines representing attraction between players and dotted lines representing rejection.
   - The goals are not achievable in the timeframe. The workload has either scared her or broke her motivation as a result.
   - Set goals to be attainable/achievable in a reasonable time frame eg Australian u/17 team by 2016. Put measurable outcomes on the goals in terms of skill development eg lay up from both hands by Christmas.
4. Environmental: Provide opportunities for members to get to know each other eg team dinners or room with people they don’t know.
5. Personal: positively support each member and use their nicknames.
6. Leadership: Establish a leadership group and roles for each member
7. Team: Set team goals and discuss team strategies and tactics.