Spirit Time!

[button boy 1100]

hey all you guys and gals i gotta know how to get my team to cheer and be loud any sugestions?!? oh and what type of thing should i do if i get a seperate group of the team just for spirit!?!?!?!? please help im desperate!!! my team has a cheering deficiancy!!!

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by button boy 1100

hey all you guys and gals i gotta know how to get my team to cheer and be loud any sugestions?!? oh and what type of thing should i do if i get a seperate group of the team just for spirit!?!?!?!? please help im desperate!!! my team has a cheering deficiancy!!!

One thing we do is practice cheering every meeting.
It helps gets the team motivated to cheer. Be creative, be crazy. Design noismakers and come up with all sorts of crazy type of cheers (just keep them in good taste). Just have fun with it and spread it to the others.

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

One thing we do is practice cheering every meeting.
It helps gets the team motivated to cheer. Be creative, be crazy. Design noismakers and come up with all sorts of crazy type of cheers (just keep them in good taste). Just have fun with it and spread it to the others.

And if the aforementioned others don't catch what you're spreading, don't let it stop you, either.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Billfred

And if the aforementioned others don't catch what you're spreading, don't let it stop you, either.

We have spirit leaders (aka Cheer Nazis) who will not let that happen.
If the kids don't cheer the spirit leaders will track them down and make them cheer! That's their job and they take it very seriously. If you want your team to be spirited don't discount team spirit as unimportant but make it a priority.

[Rohan_DHS]

At the 2005 GTA regional, a team (I think Theory 6) bussed a huge group of people....(about 200, from what I heard) so you might be able to get a bunch of students to come in and cheer in the competetions.

Another idea might be to bring your school's cheerleading team, if you have 1.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Rohan_DHS

At the 2005 GTA regional, a team (I think Theory 6) bussed a huge group of people....(about 200, from what I heard) so you might be able to get a bunch of students to come in and cheer in the competetions.

Another idea might be to bring your school's cheerleading team, if you have 1.

It was 700 I heard.

[JoeXIII'007]

Probably the biggest thing that can improve team spirit is to have 1 or 2 people on the team who are willing to risk their reputation, go out in front of the team, and start different spirit acts. Whether that means they yell something and the team yells something back, etc. Also, it is an even better idea to have a good dancer on the team to encourage more from the rest of the team.

Other than that, be sure to summon the spirit of team spirit. That may help.

-Joe

[MChapman]

Well my team has a seperate group for a spirit team. They come up with ideas such as dances, posters, noisemakers, anything you can think of to get a team going at a competition. They teach dances to the rest of the team, an get the others involved after everything is done they have come up with. It's definently an expierence. Go crazy an shout any cheer u can, an do fun team stuff such as: hair dye, mascots, make your clothes match...anything u can come up with. Good Luck!!

[BandChick]

We've basically had to push our team to have spirit, though now we're getting a lot better.
For us, doing things that people think are fun is what gets people involved.
We have sound cannons (thick cardboard garbage cans we painted silver) that the guys on our team LOVE.
We use glow sticks which everyone has a great time with.

You have to remember that going crazy is great. Everyone is just as crazy as you are when it comes to FIRST competitions.

This year we're writing cheers and holding a meeting to teach them to the whole team.
We're going to have glow stick routines and things like that.

Just explain to your team how much your dedication to FIRST should be reflected in your team spirit.

[sanddrag]

Spirit is a good thing to have but hard to find reason to put effort into. Especially when it seems like sometimes the reason a team receives an award is because their number is drawn from a hat

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

Spirit is a good thing to have but hard to find reason to put effort into. Especially when it seems like sometimes the reason a team receives an award is because their number is drawn from a hat

I don't think it's luck that we have won team spirit 3 out of the last four years at the regional level.
That would be some luck.
Besides which spirit is a good thing for the other kids to do than just sit there and stare like they've been hypnotised.

[Laura 1547]

Trafalgar is a very spirited school so we're just spirited by nature. I think you could try getting your school involved with robotics to pump up the spirit throughout the whole school - not just the team. Also think up cheers during meetings to have them prepared for during the competitions. When you're at a competition, get somebody to stand up in front of your team and get everybody to yell them as loud as you can...try those they should help

[Karthik]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

Spirit is a good thing to have but hard to find reason to put effort into. Especially when it seems like sometimes the reason a team receives an award is because their number is drawn from a hat

"Hard to find a reason to put effort into"? I can think of plenty of reasons, mainly centering around one thing.

It's fun.

The teams like the X-Cats and Waldo who come to competitions and are full of energy make the event more fun for all the teams, volunteers and fans. One of the biggest reasons FIRST is so different than other similar programs is because of the enthusiasm of it's spectators. The spirit shown by these people help create that "Super Bowl" like atmosphere.

I really don't think the teams with a lot of spirit are doing it to win an award. They're doing to to try and spread some of the excitement that they're feeling, and most of all because it's really fun!

[Beth Sweet]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

Spirit is a good thing to have but hard to find reason to put effort into. Especially when it seems like sometimes the reason a team receives an award is because their number is drawn from a hat

You think that the spirit award is chosen from a hat? You've obviously never sat in front of CD at a regional. The cheering coming from that section scared the parents half to death at our first regional and they very much deserved that award. As to encouraging cheering? I'm not sure why they wouldn't. Talk to the kids and find out why they don't cheer. Is it because their minds are elsewhere? They think they'll look silly? Once you find out why they won't cheer, it will be a lot easier to deal with those issues one on one.

[Nica F.]

Spirit, pretty much starts with motivation. Everyone has spirit but some just cant just make it appear out of air. Put together Spirit Leaders like what other people on this thread said, once they get members involved and into it, it will be hard to get them to stop.