This season the individuals in my Gold group have had a difficult time finding their roles within the group. Leaders have not emerged and no one seems to want to step up and take a chance. Some followers are simply looking to the person next to them for guidance while others are completely in "la-la land". This is somewhat normal for 9-10 year-old children, but I still expect the group to balance itself out by finding its leaders and developing great followers.
Earlier this week, I kicked my Gold group out of practice 30 minutes early for this exact reason. I had talked quite a bit about leadership and being a good follower in the pursuit of developing a great team atmosphere where each individual worked to help the team. Unfortunately, my kids were missing the point and perhaps underestimating my passion for the importance of teamwork and leadership. Sometimes it is important to SHOCK the system and create an unmistakable and very dramatic point. While I believe I accomplished that goal by sending them home early for the first time in their swimming lives, I wanted to back it up with a positive experience that would help bring the group together in a fun way. So, the following day I had them go through a team building exercise which forced them to work as a team to accomplish a singular goal.
First, I gathered up some paper plates. Second, I thought of a phrase that the kids would recognize. In this particular case I decided on "What team do you swim for?", which is a little team cheer we have. I took the plates and wrote the phrase, one letter at a time on the back of the plates. Then, after mixing and shuffling them up, I numbered the plates on the opposite side. I added some dummy plates without letters on the back to add to the total number of plates. I then cut the phrase up and broke them up into four stations. Station 1 consisted of the plates that spelled out the word
What, station 2 had
Team, 3 had
Do You and
4 spelled out
Swim For. Each station ended up having 8 plates each, some with letters and the remainder were the decoys. From that point all I needed to do was place the plates number side up on the ground in random order and space them out about 3-4 feet away from each other for each station.
The kids picked one "runner" per station to run the course and tag each plate in numerical order while the remaining kids cheered and helped direct the runner to the correct plates. Once all the plates were tagged they could gather them up and start on the second station. This went on until all the stations were complete and all the plates were gathered. At this point, the kids took the plates, flipped them over to reveal the letters and started working on deciphering the puzzle. Once they figured out the sentence and lined up the plates to spell it out, they were done.
They were told that if they could do all this in less than 10 minutes, they would be rewarded. They did great, worked together as a team and spelled out the sentence in under 4 minutes. They were all very proud of themselves and their teamwork. The natural leaders took their place, the followers were helpful and important, and the sense of accomplishment was felt by each one of them. It was a lot of fun!
10 & Under 50 Butterfly: It seemed like a long shot to win since the girl that beat her out in the 100 IM was seeded first with a very impressive and intimidating 29.93. However, Jessica seemed to be in complete control of her emotions. She was smiling and focused. Again, she jumped in and competed her heart out...and won...with a 29.03 by two tenths of a second and over a full second faster than her seeded time. What was most impressive about this win was her composure. She raced smart! She didn't thrash and power her way through the two laps. She swam like she does in practice with a focus on distance per stroke and timing - less strokes per lap combined with an optimal tempo and good breath control in and out of the walls lead to a new Mission Viejo Team record and a first place finish against the toughest competition she has faced this season. 
