Preseason is more than making sure your athletes are in shape and teaching them the X's and O's before the first contest. It is also a time to get the team on one accord and working as a unit.

Take it from Dr. Colleen Hacker and Tony DiCicco, two of the coaches for the U.S. Women's National Team during its ultra-successful run in the 1999 World Cup. DiCicco was the USWNT head coach, while Hacker was the sports psychology coach.

Hacker presented "Beyond Bonding: Critical Elements for Effective Team Building" at the 2013 Convention in Indianapolis. In her presentation outline (which is avaialble in the Online Resource Library), Dr. Hacker presents the elements of a successful team building program. Some of those elements include trust, communication, fun, leadership and role clarity. She also presents her APPLE model of team building:

• Assess: What is the makeup of the team? What do they want to accomplish?
• Plan: What activities will focus on those issues? How many and how long?
• Prepare: Assemble materials, write brief scripts, confer with co-leaders
• Lead: Invite don't impel, build trust, make players feel comfortable
• Evaluate: Monitor throughout, make adjustments, debrief when appropriate

Also in the Online Resource Library is DiCicco's "The Coach and Team Leaders Sharing the Leadership" article. In it, he opens up saying that top coaches are experts in dealing with people and facilitating performance. Using "emotional intelligence," a coach can affect leadership throughout the layers of the team and creating a team culture of leadership.

DiCicco goes on to say that coaches must assign roles, establish leadership space and utilizing reserve players.

There are many other articles related to leadership, developing team culture and management in the Online Resource Library.

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