Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #11: Gill1918 presents Jacob Wichelns "Culture Building-Team Cohesion"

Transcript

#11: Gill1918 presents Jacob Wichelns "Culture Building-Team Cohesion" · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  Welcome to the Gill 1918 Project, a podcast series by
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  coaches, for coaches, powered by Gill Athletics.
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  Think of this as the Ted Talks of track and field coaching.
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  Short, insightful, and packed with valuable strategies to help
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  you grow as a coach. We're bringing the once a year
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  track clinic straight to your ears daily.
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  Interested in creating your own episode?
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  Everyone's welcome to participate.
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  Check out the show notes below For more information.
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  Now let's get into today's topic.
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  Hey everyone, my name is Coach Jacob Witchels.
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  I'm the girls head track coach at Daniel High School in Central
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  SC Today I want to talk about culture, building and building
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  cohesion behind it between the different groups, event groups
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  on the track team in order to create that, you know, united
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  culture, but also be more of a team and less of separate
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  groups. And so I guess in order to tell
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  the story, I'd have to back up with just a bit and talk about,
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  you know, my first year taking over, it really did feel like we
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  had five or six teams, separate groups, right distance throws,
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  jumps, sprints, hurdles, whatever you whatever may have
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  you right? They they almost practice
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  separate. They have their own mannerisms.
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  They have their own areas in competition where they end up at
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  the meats. I can vividly remember us being
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  at meats and you know, you're you're at your team camp and
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  there's people running around the track wearing your colors
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  and they talking about, Hey, coach witch, who's that?
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  Right. Hey, who's that?
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  They just did pretty good. Who's that?
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  Who's that? I'm sitting there thinking, man,
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  this is not a team. Like we don't, we don't even
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  know each other, right? And so there was a lot of
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  talent, right? But there was no shared identity
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  between us, all, right? And it matters like it really
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  does. And so I think that obviously
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  performance is not just physical, right there.
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  There's a whole mental aspect of performance and this team
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  concept, right? This idea of having something
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  you're competing for that's bigger than yourself, like that
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  can be a challenge in track and field, a sport that is viewed by
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  many as individual, right? I mean, obviously as coaches, we
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  know it's not an individual sport.
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  All those points get added up together.
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  And in that sense, it's, it is a team.
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  But I, I do think there's an uphill battle to building that.
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  And so that's why I wanted to come talk about some of the
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  things that we've done in the last couple years and the result
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  of those things in terms of our success.
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  You know, I think that it matters because performance is
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  obviously not just physical like we just mentioned, but but
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  additionally it, it felt like there was we had disconnection
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  right at the meets. It's hard to unify your energy
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  toward a collective goal when we're not all competing as one,
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  right? So I think one of our biggest
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  turning points was we created a leadership council.
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  Well, I'll back up just a bit. We had we had some groups that
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  would practice at different days, different times, different
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  locations at times. And I thought not necessarily
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  that that was a huge issue. It took us a couple years to
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  figure out a solution to it. But I started to ask myself the
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  question of why don't people know each other?
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  And also, you know, the harder question of why do some events
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  not necessarily have the same respect for others, right.
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  You know, we've all been there. You see that the flowers are
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  sitting there, you know, wondering why, you know, the
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  pole vaulters are are not in the weight room or whatever may have
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  you the distance is running, wondering why the sprints are
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  only running 80 meters at a time.
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  The, you know, the sprinters are looking at everybody else
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  thinking like man, y'all don't know how to use blocks or
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  whatever. And so there was almost this
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  disdain, almost a rivalry, yeah, almost a rivalry, rivalry
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  between the different groups. And so it bred just a little bit
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  of toxicity. And so something that we did was
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  we decided to say, OK, well, why are they not practicing here?
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  Why can we not all be on the same facility at the same time?
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  And what we realized is it was just too crowded, right?
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  The distance would they'd much rather go to the park down the
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  road, which was what they do during cross country.
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  And there goes, you know, 1/4 of your team.
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  And So what we did was we got much more specific on lane
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  assignments during practice and additionally created different
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  groups between a devo or an AB, whatever you want to call it,
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  doing different workouts, different days.
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  So that we managed the amount of people on the track and
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  incentivized these groups not just to be forced to be here,
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  but to want to be here and all kind of buy into that idea of
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  pressing together. That was the first step.
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  Next comes the leadership council.
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  This, I can't, I, I can't speak highly enough of what this group
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  has done for our program in general, but this group is, it
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  is player LED, it is player chosen, right?
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  So you have two representatives from each the throws, the jumps,
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  the sprints and the distance. And I believe this year we added
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  two senior reps and a middle school Rep just to make sure we
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  have representation on both ends on top of that.
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  And so this group, they get better done by their peers.
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  There's about two week window right after tryouts, during the
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  evaluation period right after that where they're able to vote,
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  make their choices, make their selections of their nominations,
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  and this group then all gets in the same room together.
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  We meet about once every two weeks and we talk about things
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  like creating goals, like what it takes to achieve them.
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  Where are we headed, right? What is the culture and climate
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  of our team right now? What do we want to become?
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  What are our core values, right? And it's it.
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  And it's also a top between the leadership of the team and the
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  leadership of the program. Additionally, it's a tie between
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  the different groups. So you get them in the same
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  room, you treat them as equal. And before you know it, we're
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  starting to build this unique camaraderie and team aspect.
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  So when we start talking about, hey, we want to win the county,
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  we want to win the region, we want to win the state.
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  It's not just one group. It's not just something that
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  someone says. It's, it's the same message
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  being relayed to the different groups.
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  And that's important. So I'll just go in a little bit
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  deeper on some of the things that we've accomplished through
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  this time, right? So this is year 4 of leadership
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  council first year, just working through all the different, you
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  know, challenges of, of starting something like this, as well as,
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  you know, a new, new coaches and, and program and all those
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  things, right. So we, that year we finished
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  third in the region, 6th place at state meet.
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  And you know, obviously we just wanted to build upon that,
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  right? The next year we got second
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  place at region, 5th place at state meet and doubled our
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  points to the state meet from about 25 to 50, right?
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  Great progress. Talk about leadership council.
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  Now we've got people who've been on that council for multiple
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  years in a row. They've seen what it takes.
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  Now they're able to mentor the young ones across different
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  event groups. Now at this point, year 3 of it,
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  we're not necessarily in a position where we're at these
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  meets and people don't know each other anymore.
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  Now we're in a position where we're at these meets and you
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  have not just support from different groups, but
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  accountability for everything that's going on within our
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  program as far as taking steps to achieve our Team United
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  goals. And then the third year of the
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  Leadership Council, that was last season, we finished region
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  champions and state runner up, doubled our points again from
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  about 50 to about to up to 90, right, just under double big
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  jump. Great progress.
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  And we're seeing it continue. Right now.
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  We've got people who I would call them founding members of
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  the Leadership Council who are seniors and this is kind of
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  their last breath. They're, they're one of the
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  things they're most proud of at this point in their career is
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  not necessarily all the accomplishments we just talked
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  about some of the individual titles that they've had.
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  It's not really that it's the fact that they can really feel
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  not just through the leadership council, but through the
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  cohesion of the team and the development we've had towards
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  building a united culture that that's their impact, right?
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  Their impact is that they are changing the program for many,
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  many years after they're gone. And it couldn't be more true in
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  what we've noticed in between the correlation between all
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  practicing together, creating with team unity, having a
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  leadership council break different barriers between
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  different groups and the result that's had not just for the
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  years, the current year, right, but for the future year.
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  And down the road, you watch some of these athletes grow and
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  develop emotionally, right, and socially.
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  And we just talked about how that that's just as important
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  when you talk about competition and performance as the physical
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  side. And so that is in a nutshell,
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  the, the journey that we've been on.
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  And, and I will say like we're still working on it.
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  It's, it's, we're still trying to get it right.
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  This is we're chasing continuous improvement and we always want
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  to be better with it. But I do think that we've made
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  great strides in creating a unified team culture in a sport
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  that is not necessarily natural for it to happen.
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  And so that's just one way, one path, one thing you could do,
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  think about doing to put yourself towards that.
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  You know, I think that my takeaways and just closing
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  thoughts would be culture doesn't happen by accident.
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  It's intentional, it's built and it happens every day.
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  It's not something where you can say, OK, now we have a
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  leadership council, we're all one team.
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  And then you just soon bye. Ah, and leave it there.
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  It's something that you it's continuous, right?
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  And, and, and that's the mindset you have to come into it with
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  leadership from the team from within is, is key, right, to
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  success and being at your best and having those peak
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  performances, but also to buy into some of these team goals.
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  And then unity helps performance, but it also helps
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  people belong, right? To have this team unity makes
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  people want to be here and it gives them another reason rather
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  than just skip mine, right? Or to I want to be the
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  individual state champion, right?
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  And so this unity, it, it gives them a sense of belonging.
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  And you talk about high school athletics or just
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  interscholastic athletics in general.
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  That's, that's one of the main goals, right?
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  Is lift them up as individuals for life after track.
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  So, you know, I will say in closing, at this point, when we
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  show up to meet, we don't, we don't come as event groups.
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  We come as a team. And that's something that I'm
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  extremely proud of. I know the girls are extremely
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  proud of. It's it's resulted in great
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  success for us both on the track and off the track.
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  And you know, I'm I'm more than happy to talk to anybody out
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  there who's looking to do something similar, whether that
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  be a leadership council or just the idea of how can you build a
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  culture in a sport with so many different event groups that are
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  naturally separated. So appreciate y'all listening to
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  this. Again, my name is coach Jacob
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  Witchels. I am our girls head track and
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  field coach at Daniel High school.
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  You can reach out to me and find me on Twitter at at J at Coach
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  JWICHI appreciate y'all. Another thing that we do to, you
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  know, create this culture and the sense of unity is provide
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  shared experiences for all the groups.
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  And so whether that be like group ABS at the end, we did a
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  team movie night, we've done different things like that, but
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  also we've added a strength incorporation to our training
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  plans every single week. Now that obviously the distance
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  is not doing the same workout as the sprinters or the jumpers or
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  the throwers, but all having that collective sense of we do
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  this and we do it together has gone a long way as well.
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  So it's also been the shared, unified experiences as well.
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  Hey gang, Mike Cunningham here. Hey, I hope you enjoyed this
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  episode of the Guild 1918 Project series.
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  It's really my mission, my passion to bring you massive
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  amounts of value and I hope this one hit the mark.
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  see you tomorrow.