8 Fun Team Building Activities Your Team Will Actually Love
Fostering an actual connection between your team members is the best way to raise your team spirit and make your team more successful.
However, training and regular practice, while necessary, is not enough to build real connections between team members, especially if that’s the only time your team spends together.
Luckily, there are a number of team building activities you can do that will not only allow you to build team spirit but your team will also enjoy doing them.
In this post, we’ll share the top three benefits of team building activities and the best team building activities for your sports team.
Top Three Benefits Of Team Building Activities
Team building activities are not everyone’s favorite activity, mainly because they are perceived as silly and childish or as a complete waste of time. However, done correctly, team building activities are a crucial part of an ongoing process to increase your team’s efficiency and foster a sense of community.
Team Building Builds Trust
The most important benefit of team building activities is that they build trust between team members. There are numerous activities your team members can do to build trust in one another, such as the famous falling exercise.
Once your team members trust each other, they will know that each team member will have their back which in turn makes it easier for them to work together towards a common goal and act as a unified group.
Team Building Can Give You A Fresh Perspective
If you do nothing but meet up for regular practice and matches with other teams, you run the risk of playing each game the same way and using the same tactics. While a routine is good, it can also get stale rather quickly.
Team building exercises will give your team members to approach problems and challenges in a different way which can lead to implementing new tactics and strategies during the next game.
Team Building Builds Relationships
Lastly, team building activities will help your team members to improve their relationship with one another.
Doing various activities together and simply spending time together will help them develop long-lasting friendships that will go beyond weekly practices.
Eight Best Team Building Activities For Sports Teams
So now that we’ve covered the benefits of team building activities, let’s go over the eight best team building activities for sports teams.
1. Weekend Getaway
Weekend getaways are always fun, especially when you throw in outdoor sports into the mix. Keep in mind that you don’t have to go to an exotic location. You can look for fun sports-related activities in your local area and book a weekend trip.
Make it fun by splitting your team into two or more groups and challenging them to see who will finish first or who will get the highest score. This allows the team to have fun, stay active, and enjoy a little friendly competition.
2. Scavenger Hunt
Come up with a list of fun things to do or missions to complete. Then, meet up with your team members in a suitable location such as your local park or the mall for a day or an evening of fun.
Your team members have to take photos of the things on the list (with them in the photo) or a selfie as they complete each mission.
3. This Or That
Challenge your team members to think creatively with this challenge. First, you’ll want to come up with a disaster scenario. This can include being stranded on a desert island or saving the Earth from aliens, Will Smith style.
Then, divide your team into two groups and give each group 4 different objects. They have to describe how they will use the objects to get out of the sticky situation and save the day.
4. Mentor Together
Have your team members mentor young members of your community. They can mentor them in physical education or the sport you’re playing as well as in other activities and subjects that they are good at.
This gives your team members an opportunity to spend time together as well as to give back to your community.
5. Game Night
Have a get-together in your house, coach’s house or your team member’s house. Order pizza or have each team member bring their signature dish, bring board games, and spend time together.
You can opt for a team member’s favorite game or you can go through a variety of popular games that are both luck-based and skill-based. This can become a regular weekly or monthly activity, depending on your team members’ schedule.
6. Weekly Stand Up Meetings On Skype
The activities we listed above are a great choice if you want to get together with your team members or if you want to go away for the weekend. But what happens when external circumstances don’t allow for social gatherings?
For example, what do you do in times of crisis like the current COVID-19 pandemic? While we all need to practice social distancing (or as some argue it should be called physical distancing), that doesn’t mean team building activities need to stop.
You can, in fact, move your team building activities online. For example, you can organize weekly stand up meetings on Skype or Zoom. Simply schedule a regular time each week where you and your team members will get together on Zoom. You can chat about your week, share what you’re doing to keep yourself occupied or simply discuss game strategy.
7. Weekly Quiz
Another fun team building activity that doesn’t require getting together in person is a weekly quiz. All you have to do is come up with a few fun questions that can be used as ice-breakers and email each of your team members.
They send in their replies and then at the end of the week, host an online meeting where they have to guess how each team member replied to what question.
8. Remote Or Virtual Training Sessions
Just because you have to stay at home, that doesn’t mean you have to be inactive. You can get creative and have training sessions via Skype or Zoom. Simple stretching exercises are easy to demonstrate and follow along and can be done in the comfort of your living room so there’s no reason not to do it.
Final Thoughts
Team building activities are not just for corporate organizations. Sports teams can benefit from them as well as team-building activities will improve trust between team members, foster friendships, and provide you with opportunities to come up with different strategies for your upcoming matches.
Be sure to download our cheatsheet of seven team building activities for your sports team and start implementing them.
