Thursday 11 March 2010

The Kangaroo Court!

Sticking with the theme from my previous post on team cohesion this post is going to look at a really fun way of developing a really tight cohesive community at your box. As I mentioned before, my experience with some of the best coaches in Welsh rugby has thrown up some great ideas that can easily be incorporated into a CrossFit community.
One of the first things you need to do is set up a "committee". The roles within this "committee"can include anything you like, but the best "committees" all have some common roles!!
  • The Judge - as the name suggests the judge rules on EVERYTHING his word is the LAW(this could be you the affiliate owner or one of your senior members)
  • Entertainment Secretary - responsible for organising any social events for the members.
  • The Prosectution - Put forward any "cases" to the Judge (chalk on floor, bars not stripped and weights returned to stack after every session-repeat offender!!!!)
  • The Defence - Defend any cases that the Prosectution put forward
  • Cheif Weights & Measures - Ensures what exactly the punishment will be (50 burpees. 2 pints, 2 shots on the head etc etc)
  • The Bailiffs/Enforcers - Ensures that punishments are carried out by whatever means nesscessary!!
  • Chief Snitch - Reports/spies/rats on/ snitches on EVERYONE except the Judge and reports to the prosecution, their identity must remain hidden from other members.
Once you have assigned these roles you can hold a monthly "Kangaroo Court" maybe at the same time that you annouce your member of the month and basically let rip!!! You can deal with all sorts of stuff - turning up late to class, not putting euipment back, knocking teeth out on the pullup bar, innappropriate / offensive workout clothing(Ron Hills) the list is endless.
I think the best way to explain what I mean is to show you a clip of a real old school Kangaroo Court! Have a watch and post your thoughts to comments!!!

Thursday 4 March 2010

Team Cohesion

During my rugby career I was fortunate to play for 2 of Welsh Rugbys most famous clubs (and most bitter rivals!) - Llanelli RFC "The Scarlets" and Swansea RFC "The Whites". I consider myself extremely lucky as during my time at both clubs I was coached by not 1 but 2 British Lions - Scott Quinnell and Richard Webster. Both coaches had extensive technical knowledge but very contrasting ways in which that information was delivered. However it is some of the off field "team building" strategies that were used in an attempt to forge a happy, cohesive and ultimately winning team that I believe can help us as affiliate owners.
Our members, our communnity are basically a team and if we can develop a strong cohesive team then the community element of our boxes will flourish.

Team cohesion can be defined as "a dynamic process that is reflected in the tendency of a team to stick together and remain united in pursuit of its goals and objectives despite difficulties and set-backs. It is distinguished from group cohesion by the importance in team cohesion of dynamic processes and the pursuit of team goals".

I am sure you are all familiar with the "man of the match" concept, the media were usually responsible for selecting a "Star Choice" during our matches and it did serve as a good motivational tool. However one really clever take on the "man of the match" tag was introduced by Scott. After everygame he would get the players to vote on who their MOM was, coaches and technical staff had no input only players. To recieve that acolade from your fellow players took the meaning of the award to a whole new level, there were no extrinsic rewards just the respect from your teamates and this sent motivation levels through the roof!!

So how does this relate to our boxes?
Consider having a "Star Choice" or whatever you want to call it that is voted for by your members after every WOD. Put that name all over your whiteboards and blog and let them select it using whatever criteria feels right for that WOD. It could be a firebreather that has hit a new PB, the new graduate from your On Ramp who has just "gutz out a workout" or your member who has hit one of their targets from their individual programme that they have been working on for months and performed a WOD RX'D for the first time.
Track who wins what and have a overall member of the month who gets certain privelges e.g best car parking spot or all their bars and equipment loaded and stripped for them by others, t-shirt whatever, the prize is irrelevant. If you can arrange a few beers together or something similar you can then present the "Member of the Month" and make it a real highlight of your community. This will start to form a very tight cohesive team! My next post will look at some other fun/beer related ways to develop team cohesion at your box!
"The magic is in the movement, the art is in the programming, the science is in the explanation and the fun is in the community.” –Greg Glassman