Countless people love playing sports, and they’ll often go for it whenever they can. For most people, they’ll simply play with their friends every now and again, and leave it at that. Others will consider joining a sports team if they’re a little more serious about it.
With how much fun it can be, it’s easy to see why. If you want to go a little further than that, you might want to start your own sports team. There are multiple reasons why you might want to, especially if you’re doing so at work.
It could help you and your colleagues get closer together, and it provides more than a few other benefits. You’ll have quite a few things to get through when you’re doing so, however.
This all seems like it could be overwhelmingly complicated. While there’ll be some work involved, it shouldn’t be as difficult as you’d think. It’s just a matter of taking the right steps, and you’re good to go.
Why Consider Starting A Sports Team At Work?
Before diving in, it’s worth looking at why you should start a sports team at work in the first place. It adds to your schedule and makes you even busier than you are, after all. You’ll want a reason or two to actually justify it. You could even need these to persuade your employer to let you do it.
Thankfully, there are more than a few of these to be aware of. Some of the more notable of these are:
- You and other employees will learn how to work as a team properly
- By playing sports together, you can improve overall office morale
- It can help the company gain more local visibility in the community
- It’ll improve your overall fitness levels
- Everyone can have a lot of fun by being involved in the team
- Employee retention and engagement could be much higher because of it
These can be more than enough to persuade you to start a sports team at work, and they could even help you persuade your employer to give you the go-ahead. Once you’re going for it, you’ll need to take a few steps afterward.
While this can seem relatively confusing, it doesn’t need to be. Instead, it could be much easier than you’d think. It’s just a matter of taking the right steps, and you’re good to go. Six of these stand out because of how helpful they can be.
Start A Sports Team: 6 Steps To Take
1. Pick A Sport
Naturally, one of the first things to focus on when you’re starting a work sports team is to pick a sport you’ll actually be playing. While you could already have a specific sport in mind, it’s worth putting a little extra thought and effort into it. You’ll want to make sure enough people will actually be interested in it.
Sending out a company-wide email and getting ideas from people who’ll actually be interested in playing is recommended. It’ll help you get an accurate idea of roughly how many people will sign up to play it. Though this takes a little time, it’ll be worth it.
2. Start Recruiting
Once you’ve figured out which type of sports team you’re starting, it’s time to get some players. If you’ve sent out an email asking for feedback, then you’ll already have a general idea of who’s already interested in it. It could be worth sending out another email to help with this.
Try to get everyone’s details when you’re doing this so you can contact them regularly about any updates about the team. Once you have your players sorted, you’ll be much closer to actually starting the team and getting going with playing. Thankfully, this part should be relatively easy.
3. Get The Essentials
When you’re about to start a sports team, you’ll naturally need to pick up quite a few essentials. Most of these revolve around what you need to actually practice and play the sport. If you’re starting a soccer team, for example, you’ll need a soccer ball and other equipment.
Then there’s the gear you and the other players will wear when you’re playing. You’ll have to invest in uniforms for everyone, and this could be mandatory if you’re playing in a league. Make sure you invest in these as early as possible. It’ll make sure everything goes as smoothly as it should.
4. Find Somewhere To Play
No matter what kind of sport you’re playing, you’ll need somewhere to play it. Thankfully, getting this step sorted doesn’t have to be too complicated. There’ll be plenty of places you can go to actually play, but it’s worth putting a little bit of thought and effort into it.
Make sure the location is as easy as possible for all of the players to get to. If it’s too far out of the way, then few people will be likely to turn up. Have a general idea of where everybody would be comfortable with, and you shouldn’t have a problem.
5. Get Training
Now that you have your team and somewhere to play, it’s time to actually start training. If you’ll be joining a league and playing against other teams, this could be a necessity. You mightn’t do too well in a league if you don’t put some time and effort into this.
Coming up with a training regime and similar factors will all be a part of this. Thankfully, you can just focus on having fun if you’ve decided not to be in a league. Either way, it’ll be time for you and your colleagues to actually start playing and having some fun.
6. Manage The Finances
Running a work sports team takes a lot of time and effort, but it also costs money. This could be one of the larger areas to focus on when you’re setting it up. Your employer could be concerned about this, as they’ll usually be putting some money towards it. Keep an eye on this.
Usually, that means having a budget for the gear and other necessities while also sticking to this budget long-term. Any kind of equipment or location rental, travel for games, and other expenses will all need to be kept in mind when you’re doing this.
Practical Tips To Start A Sports Team At Work
Each of the above should be more than enough to help you start a sports team. At a minimum, you’ll have the essentials sorted out, and you’ll start playing before you know it. That doesn’t mean they’re all you might want to know before getting started.
Instead, it could be worth picking up a few tips, and everything could go much better than you’d think. Some help more than you’d think, making them worth focusing on. They include:
- Take Advantage Of Online Resources – When you start a sports team, you’ll usually be the one in charge of planning everything out. You could be the coach, as well as a player. This can be tricky to manage, but you can make it a lot easier with online resources. With these, you can come up with training drills and sort out other areas a lot easier than you otherwise would have.
- Sort Out Who’s In Charge – If you’re the one starting the team, you could want to be the coach, especially if you’re one of the better players. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t spend some time and effort figuring this out. Work with the other players to figure out a hierarchy in the team. Have a succession plan in place too, in case any employees leave and aren’t involved in the team anymore.
- Put A Schedule In Place – You and your team will naturally need to practice regularly, which means having a day and time when you do so. Schedule this out as early as you can so there’s nothing to worry about. Make sure it suits all of your coworkers. Your employer might even let you do this practice during certain hours of the work day every week, so it’s worth asking about.
These should be more than enough to help you start a sports team. While there’ll still be a decent amount of work and effort involved, it’ll be a lot easier than you’d think. You shouldn’t have to settle for being overwhelmed or constantly stressed about it.
By making sure you use each of these tips – and get through the steps above – you shouldn’t have anything to worry about.
Start A Sports Team: Wrapping Up
There are multiple reasons why you could want to start a sports team, and you’ll see plenty of benefits because of it. That doesn’t mean it’s the easiest thing to do, however. You’ll need to get quite a bit done if you really want it to succeed.
This doesn’t have to mean it’s an overwhelmingly complicated process. It’s just a matter of knowing which steps to take, and you should be much better off than you’d think. You’ve no reason not to give it a go.
