sports 5

• Framework for cohesion

  • Group integration task
  • Group integration social
• Group integration task


  The extent to which a team works together to achieve performance-related goals
• Performing stage


  • Players fulfil their roles and team energy is channelled towards task performance
• Norming stage


  • Team members begin to accept each other and roles and norms are established within the team. Players feel able to communicate their personal opinions and "in-group" feelings start to develop
• Key research - Smith et al (1979) - Coach effectiveness training: a cognitive-behavioural approach to enhancing relationship skills in youth sports coaches
• Team cohesiveness

  The strength of the bonds between each individual team member and the team, allowing them to "stick together"
• Research evidence by Carron et al. - Positive correlation between team cohesiveness and successful performance, but correlation does not show cause and effect
• Group formation, a stage theory - The sequence of stages remained the same for all groups, but the duration of each stage varies across teams. A fifth stage, adjourning, was later added to account for team termination
• Storming stage


  • Teams undergo a period of interpersonal conflict, for example hostility towards team members stemming from learning new tactics or challenging each other for positions or tasks
• Group integration social


  How well the team gets together away from the sport context for social purposes
• Task cohesion


  The extent to which members work together to achieve shared and specific goals
• Attractions to the group social

  How integrated and motivated a team member feels towards making friends and spending time with others on the team
• Group formation, a stage theory

  1. FORMING

  2. STORMING

  3. NORMING

  4. PERFORMING
• Types of cohesion in teams

  • Social cohesion
  • Task cohesion
• Difference between a team and a group - Teams have a collective identity, common purpose, and depend on each other to achieve objectives. Team cohesiveness is a major variable affecting team performance
• Social cohesion

  Players' attraction toward the group's social activities and the extent to which the group integrates around those activities
• Coaching efficacy - The extent to which coaches believe they have the ability to influence the learning and performing of their athletes
• Role of a coach - Sports coaches assist athletes in developing to their full potential, training athletes in a sport, providing guidance in life and the sport, supporting them emotionally, setting performance goals, and building team cohesion
• Forming stage


  • Team members meet one another and adjust themselves to the task and the context of the team. Relationships with leaders such as the coach and other team members are established. Players familiarise themselves with normal standards of the team
• Attractions to the group task

  How motivated a performer feels towards the performance-related aspects of the team
• Importance of understanding the stages of group formation - Tuckman suggests that team processes evolve over the course of team development, and a knowledge of the stages is useful for coaches to anticipate problems and intervene to meet the specific needs of the team at specific times
• Early research suggested that inherited (biological) qualities distinguish leaders from non-leaders
• Procedure for experimental group coaches

  Attended a 2-hour Coach Effectiveness training session focusing on increasing positive interactions & decreasing negative interactions, monitored behavior after the first 10 games, urged to increase reinforcement rate to 25%
• Personality traits were driven by the idea that a great leader was a great leader in ALL situations
• Method: Field study with independent measures design, IV: Training program or not, DV: observed behaviors of coaches, players' perceptions, attitudes towards coach, teammates, baseball, and self-esteem
• The aim of the study was to make coaches more aware of their behaviors and the consequences, increase their desire and ability to develop positive interactions between themselves and their players
• Interactionist theories: Contingency model of leadership


  Effective leaders are those whose personal traits match the needs of the situation rather than being modified by the situation
• Coaching efficacy


  The extent to which coaches believe they have the ability to influence the learning and performing of their athletes
• Conclusion: The training program had a significant impact on coaches' behaviors towards players, affecting players' self-esteem and attitudes towards the coach and their sporting experience
• In a review of leadership, it was concluded that a great leader in one situation may not necessarily be a leader in another
• Sample: 34 male Little League baseball coaches from Seattle, coaching 10-15-year-olds
• Leadership qualities


  • Intelligence, academic and athletic achievements, self-confidence, responsibility
• Effectiveness of the training program was assessed by comparing experimental and control coaches in terms of observed behaviors and players' perceptions
• The study aimed to see if Coach Effective Training (CET) would promote positive changes in coaching behavior
• Application: Improving team cohesion by establishing a team code of behavior and working together to improve social cohesion
• Differences in attitudes toward trained vs. untrained coaches would be most pronounced for low self-esteem children
• High impact coaches


  • Have high self-esteem and enjoyment of their coaching
• Interactionist theories by Zaccaro

  Leadership emerges from a combination of multiple individual traits such as motivation and problem-solving, then situational influences change the effects that certain attributes might have on leadership
• Findings: Coaches who undertook the program were more likely to use positive reinforcement and encouragement, less likely to punish children, and players showed greater improvement in self-esteem
• Mr Cook, a school PE teacher, wants to improve the performance of the school's football team