Coaching small teams

Lee-annes NetballCoach, Australia

when im coaching my netball team and only half the team turn up i just have most of my attack players (or defence) depending on which players turn up, and do half court, and i help (and get parents to help out too) on the courts to just pressure the passes.  you dont need all the players to turn up to get a full game.  whats the reason they arent turning up to training?  how old are they?  if they are just kids, then id be talking to the parents (or sending out an email) explaining the importance of training, if they are adults, its pretty pointless as they probably just want a hit and giggle and arent serious anyway.

Hockey CoachCoach

Working together as a team is very important and you can to teambuilding exercises to get them to work together and talking to each other.  There are plenty on the internet but we do things like making a rope into a loop and making everyone grab a hold on the rope.  Then they have to run holding on to the rope and work together, then make it harder by making the lead runner change while still running in the same direction.  Fun stuff liek that to get them working together.

Ian MarshCoach, England

A great team-building exercise a teacher of mine introduced me to was the Helium Stick. For a seemingly simple task it's incredibly difficult, especially when competing against another team - details of this exercise below:

"Introduce the Helium Stick - a long, thin, light rod (can be any sort of stick) and get players to line up in two rows which face each other.
Ask your players to point their index fingers and hold their arms out and then lay the Helium Stick down on their fingers.  Get the group to adjust their finger heights until the Helium Stick is horizontal and everyone's index fingers are touching the stick.

Now the challenge begins! Explain that the challenge is to lower the Helium Stick to the ground. The catch: Each person's fingers must be in contact with the Helium Stick at all times. Pinching or grabbing the pole in not allowed - it must rest on top of fingers. Reiterate to the group that if anyone's finger is caught not touching the Helium Stick, the task will be restarted. Let the task begin..."