Helping the Team

Team Organization

Writing new/cleaned parts of a dance- I feel like most times when we clean a dance during the week, we often forget those minor changes made by Mrs. Reynolds when the time comes to perform the dance and often have to rush to remember them. The night before any performance, I suggest that each squad creates a google form requiring us to list all the parts of the dance changed or cleaned that we can recall. Writing or typing serves as a great way to jog and improve memory, and in doing this we wouldn't be taking time out of practice. We would be more compelled to remember minor details and wouldn't be taken by surprise by the time we perform the dance. During my independent research project last semester I had the team write out the corrections they remembered after a dance was cleaned. Although seeing if it improved memory wasn't the point of the experiment, I noticed that those that filled out the form were more likely to remember said corrections.

Reinforcement- As I've mentioned before, this year I feel like excessive talking and lack of focus has really been an issue. While positive incentives and reinforcement are always good to help these issues, I feel as though holding ourselves accountable is also very important. I suggest that during a practice if Mrs. Reynolds or one of the officers has to tell the team to be quiet over 3 times, there should be some sort of collective punishment that the team works to come up with whether it be a short 3rd quarter or running laps. Although this doesn't need to last the whole year, I think if we notice practices start to get more difficult due to excessive talking then these measures could be implemented.