Tag Archives: team building

Team Bonding Winterim Video Compilation

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General Information about Item:

  • Tradition 
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: USA
  • Informant: LL
  • Date Collected: 11/12/19

Informant Data:

  • LL is a ‘21 on the Dartmouth Track & Field team from Delta, Colorado. She has been on the team for five years, she is a graduate student, and participates in the throwing events, specifically hammer, shot put, discus, and weight throw. She began competing in track and field in the seventh grade.  

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: Most athletic teams have team specific traditions and activities that occur annually to help build cohesiveness, comradery, and teamwork. Team spirit is crucial and shared traditions and experience help promote the relationships between teammates. Traditions that are held specifically for the athletes by the athletes when coaches are not present are especially impactful in increasing team bonding and feeling comfortable with one another. 
  • Social Context: This tradition is a fun one that brings the throwing squad (the members of the track team that compete in throwing events) together. Both the men and women in the throwing squad are a part of this tradition. It is done during Winterim (the time between terms when mainly winter athletes are on campus) and is a fun way to tease your teammates while also becoming much closer. It is fun and humorous and a lighthearted way to make fun of one another and become more vulnerable and closer before the indoor season begins. 

Item:

  • LL says that during Winterim before the season begins the throws squad puts a video compilation together using a few funny viral videos and memes to describe each member of the team. It can be embarrassing but it is incredibly fun and lighthearted and makes the team much closer. It creates a better understanding of your teammates and their quirks as well as creates another form of folklore, inside jokes, between the team. 

Associated File: 

*Informant did not feel comfortable being recorded or sharing any past videos. 

Informant’s Comments:

  • LL said that in her five years here this ritual has been done within the throws squad. It has become much easier to do over time with the increase of social media activity but it’s impact on the team has remained the same. It allows for a good laugh and is a fun experience for the team to share.  

Collector’s Comments:

  • My volleyball team in high school had a similar tradition where every year we would make a video which shows each member of the team acting out a funny scene from a movie that the rest of the team would pick as they felt it represented that person. I think these kinds of traditions are really fun and helpful in creating an environment for team building and where people can feel comfortable being vulnerable and a little bit embarrassed in front of their teammates. It also creates a better understanding between teammates. 
  • This would fall into the categories of customary folklore, as it is an annual tradition that has unknown origin and has been passed down through its practice over many years. 
  • This is Dartmouth throwing team specific tradition/superstition, but other event groups have their own similar traditions like puppet shows and lip sync battles that occur annually during Winterim before the season kicks off as a way to build team relationships. 

Collector’s Name:

  • Madyson Buchalski 

Pre-HEPS Dinner and Cheer

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General Information about Item:

• Ritual / Tradition
• Language: English
• Country of Origin: USA
• Informant: TBS
• Date Collected: 11/15/19

Informant Data:

TBS is a ‘23 from Portland Oregon on the Track & Field team. She has been on the team for three years and participates in the throwing events, specifically hammer and weight throw. She began competing in track and field her senior year of high school.  

Contextual Data:

• Cultural Context: Dartmouth is one of eight colleges in the Ivy League. The Ivy League is a Division I athletic conference made up of colleges and universities all located in the eastern U.S. and extremely rigorous academically. The biggest competition each season for the track and field and cross-country teams that compete in this conference is the Heptagonal Championships, or HEPS for short. This meet is referred to as the heptagonal championships because there used to be only seven teams in the Ivy League. Throughout the years some schools left the league and others joined to create a total of the eight teams there are today, however the name of this championship stuck. This meet is the only one all year where only all eight teams compete against each other, and it is extremely important.
• Social Context: Although not every athlete on the team qualifies to compete at HEPS, the whole team comes together to send off those competing. It is important for overall team comradery and spirits going into the competition. It is also very common for all athletic teams to eat a meal together before competition so they can form deeper connections with their teammates.

Item:

• The tradition is that before the HEPS meet, the whole team comes together and has a team dinner at 53 Commons and does a team cheer at the end as a sendoff for those competing.

Associated Media File: 

Video of the 2010 Dartmouth Track and Field Team doing the team cheer before the 2010 Heptagonal Championships.

Informant’s Comments:

TBS says that before every big meet, specifically HEPS, the whole team sits at the “track team” table at 53 Commons and eats dinner together. At the end of the meal, one of the captains begins the team cheer and the rest of the team joins in and chants together. This is done in front of all the other people eating in the dining hall. While it can be somewhat embarrassing to draw attention to yourself by participating in the cheer, you know you are not alone because the whole team is participating in it. It is a great bonding experience and one that makes you feel really special and proud to be a part of the Dartmouth track and field team.  

Collector’s Comments:

  • As a newer member of the track and field team whose experience has been heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, this is not a tradition that I have been able to participate in yet. However, I am very excited to do this before the indoor HEPS this upcoming winter. The cheer is something that all new athletes on the team learn very soon after arriving on campus. This is a great example of verbal folklore because the author is unknown, it is passed down orally through generations, and it doesn’t have any true meaning other than for the team itself. The team dinner is also important because of the bonding it encourages between event groups and upper/underclassmen.

Collector’s Name:

Madyson Buchalski

Wake-Ups

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General Information

  • Tradition
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: USA
  • Informant: LS
  • Date Collected: 11/9/2021

Informant Data

  • LS did three sports in high school before she talked to a private coach and began to like running more. At Dartmouth she runs the mile and 3k races.

Contextual Data

  • Cultural Context: Lots of sports teams have traditions that are meant for team building. These traditions bring the members of the team closer together and help build comradery.
  • Social Context: Freshmen in college can sometimes be nervous about joining a new team or coming to college generally. Activities that bond the team together can help them mesh into their new environment and upperclassmen can act as guides.

Item

  • Everyone dresses up in flair (colorful clothes) and go to the dorms of freshman that they are assigned to. They wake them up and pretend that the coach wants to do a morning workout. They then run around and sing songs.

Associated Audio Recording

Informant’s Comments

  • This tradition builds comradery among the team. It makes sure everyone has the mindset and brings people together regardless of ability or status.

Collector’s Comments

  • Team building activities like this are great for building team morale. They help participants feel like they are part of a large organization of which they are an important part.

Collector’s Name

  • Alex Printsev