CANORA – Team building played a significant role during the Adam Herold Legacy Foundation weekend in Canora.
Participants discovered during the Nov. 1-2 event that while being a good teammate is beneficial for a hockey team, it is just as important in other aspects of life.
Leading the team building sessions was Blaine Duffield, currently an instructor of a program for high school students that mimics a police college. He has been a teacher, a corrections officer, and has played, coached, and officiated hockey for about 35 years.
Duffield started off by telling the youngsters they were going to learn about life skills including self-discipline, teamwork, trustworthiness and accountability.
He had the group line up along the CCS gym wall from tallest to shortest, instructing them to “move with purpose.”
When a group member made a questionable comment, Duffield shot back with, “I’m going to hit you so hard, your hair will be back in style,” and then quickly adding, “I may yell at you, but don’t take it personal. I’m trying to make you a better human being.”
As a way of forcing them to work together, Duffield had the group stand in a circle, and then directed them to jump forward, jump left, jump right, and so on. When things didn’t go quite as planned, he jokingly remarked, “Oh my goodness, the public education system is failing us!”
To encourage taking direction and working together, the teammates spit into groups of five. One from each group would race to Duffield and he would whisper directions to them and they would race back and give the directions to their team. The first team to follow directions correctly was declared the winner. Directions included “Play ring around the rosie” and “Make a pyramid.” If Duffield wasn’t sure of the winner, he asked for assistance from the parental spectators, who were always eager to share their opinions.
In another game, the participants split into pairs. To promote working together, the first wore a pair of dark glass that restricted their vision. They would run toward the sound of their partner’s voice, but between them was a rope, so the one partner had to guide the other under the rope. Duffield kept lowering the rope more each round to increase the difficulty.
In a version of musical chairs but with mats, Duffield promoted competition by instructing players to keep walking until the music stopped and then race to a mat. A player was eliminated after each round. Duffield kept removing mats one at a time until a winner was declared.
“Competing is how you get better at something,” he said. “If you don’t win make sure you tell your teammate, ‘Good job.’”
As the session was wrapping up, Duffield asked the group, “Did you have fun today?”
The answer was a resounding, “Yes, coach!”
As a final piece of wisdom he told them, “You’re going to make mistakes in life. Just own it. Don’t blame other people.”
When the session was over, all the teammates got a choice from a selection of candy.
