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How your team looks is another factor that influences team cohesion. Investing in team warm-ups, shirts, suites, caps, etc., will go along way in helping your athletes identify with their team. Think of a professional sports team: each individual wears the same uniforms as the other members of the team – this is how we, as fans, identify the team, but it is also how the team itself creates an identity.
Remember that hazing is not teambuilding! In fact, hazing is illegal. You should never allow you team members to haze or initiate new members to your team. The effects of hazing can be extremely detrimental to building team cohesion.
(Mike Lewis is the Director of Sport Development for USA Water Polo. He holds a Masters Degree in Sport Psychology and has over 15 years of coaching experience)
