Group dynamics and how they affect sports
Group Processes
There are 4 stages of group development in Tuckman’s belief that he made in 1965.
Stage 1 - Forming
This is when the group first meets and they get to know each other. For example, this could
be a football team that has an organised preseason meeting. The team may lack chemistry
due to new changes in the team, such as new players and new staff members. These
sessions can include anything that offers the team to get together and know each other.
Stage 2 - Storming
It is when individuals seek their roles and status within the group. There is usually some
arguing in this stage because each individual exposes their ideas and thoughts, and these
may clash with one another and create conflict.
Stage 3 - Norming
Team members start to settle towards the norms of the group, this means that their ideas
start to come together and they agree with one another. This creates a group which
everyone knows their roles and status, with a leader that can help them with anything that
they have a problem with, within the team.
Stage 4 - Performing
This involves the team progressing and working together effectively as a unit. They will
hopefully be able to perform or compete as a team, this is when they stop being individuals
and become a team. For example, they should be able to treat each other with respect, have
a winning mindset as a team and know their objectives that they have to meet.
Ringelmann effect
The Ringelmann effect is the tendency for individual members of a group to become
increasingly less productive as the size of their group increases. Ringelmann found that
having group members work together on a task results in significantly less effort than when
individual members are acting alone. This shows that when a group is working together,
most individuals are relying on others to do the work for them. This is the main reason why
many teams in different sports have certain numbers of players in their squads. For
example, football teams have a certain number of players in a team, usually around 25-30
players in the whole squad. This is the number so that they have enough players for a
starting 11 for a match, 7 substitutes and the remainder of the players act as reserve players
that would regularly play in the U23 team and would come into the squad if there’s a serious
injury. If football teams would have more than 30 players in their first team, it would be
challenging as more players would want to play regularly which would cause disturbance
that could have a negative impact on the match and an unhappy changing room. It could
potentially result in arguments and conflicts between players and staff.
Cohesion
Group Processes
There are 4 stages of group development in Tuckman’s belief that he made in 1965.
Stage 1 - Forming
This is when the group first meets and they get to know each other. For example, this could
be a football team that has an organised preseason meeting. The team may lack chemistry
due to new changes in the team, such as new players and new staff members. These
sessions can include anything that offers the team to get together and know each other.
Stage 2 - Storming
It is when individuals seek their roles and status within the group. There is usually some
arguing in this stage because each individual exposes their ideas and thoughts, and these
may clash with one another and create conflict.
Stage 3 - Norming
Team members start to settle towards the norms of the group, this means that their ideas
start to come together and they agree with one another. This creates a group which
everyone knows their roles and status, with a leader that can help them with anything that
they have a problem with, within the team.
Stage 4 - Performing
This involves the team progressing and working together effectively as a unit. They will
hopefully be able to perform or compete as a team, this is when they stop being individuals
and become a team. For example, they should be able to treat each other with respect, have
a winning mindset as a team and know their objectives that they have to meet.
Ringelmann effect
The Ringelmann effect is the tendency for individual members of a group to become
increasingly less productive as the size of their group increases. Ringelmann found that
having group members work together on a task results in significantly less effort than when
individual members are acting alone. This shows that when a group is working together,
most individuals are relying on others to do the work for them. This is the main reason why
many teams in different sports have certain numbers of players in their squads. For
example, football teams have a certain number of players in a team, usually around 25-30
players in the whole squad. This is the number so that they have enough players for a
starting 11 for a match, 7 substitutes and the remainder of the players act as reserve players
that would regularly play in the U23 team and would come into the squad if there’s a serious
injury. If football teams would have more than 30 players in their first team, it would be
challenging as more players would want to play regularly which would cause disturbance
that could have a negative impact on the match and an unhappy changing room. It could
potentially result in arguments and conflicts between players and staff.
Cohesion
