Team Charter Meeting
First practice — the team writes its own charter on a whiteboard, in their words, and it stays all season.
Ownership beats compliance. A standard they wrote is one you can point back at all season — because they said it, not you.
Starting at Core — your team is set to mixed.
10–15 min · Whole team
- U11–U12
- Whole team
- 10–15 min
- Whiteboard and a marker
Grab A whiteboard and a marker.
Build Nothing — pick a spot where the whole team can gather.
Place Put the whiteboard where every player can see it.
The team gathered in front of a whiteboard, no balls out.
- 1
Organize the players
Bring everyone in close, sitting, no balls.
“Everyone in. Leave the balls.”
- 2
Show the jobs
Explain what a charter is in one breath — their list, their words, kept all season.
“This is our team's list. You're writing it — I'm just holding the marker.”
- 3
Play
Ask the three prompts one at a time and write their answers verbatim. Do not edit their words.
“What makes a great captain? What makes a great teammate? What are we like when we're at our best?”
Look for Every player getting at least one word onto the board.
- 4
Switch and repeat
Read the finished board back to them. Afterward, laminate copies and keep one in the team bag all season.
“You wrote this. It comes to every practice, and we hold each other to it.”
If the answers stall, make it concrete: "Think of the best teammate you've ever had — what did they actually do?" Write whatever comes.
Go deeper · 3 notes
Why it works
It is also the thing you point back at later: "You all said you want to win games. You all said you want to have fun. Can we do both? How?" The charter turns those moments from a lecture into their own words.
What they learn
What this team values, said out loud, owned by the players who said it.
What's next
Revisit the charter mid-season, especially the week something wobbles.
Where does this come from?
From RecHero's own coaching corpus — the transcripts this framework was built from.
Written by RecHero from the coaching material this framework was built on.