One thing that has worked for us in the past, is to have times where guys are consistently out throwing during times of they day players can come. For college it would be like having 3 guys pick different times of the week where they try to get players to come and throw for a half hour or more. Since they are committed to be there anyway, they work to get more guys there without it coming from team leadership all the time. It really starts to create a culture of work outside of practice which can be nice. Of course this is just one isolated incident so it may not work for everyone.
Along these same lines, I’ve found it helpful to focus more on how to play good zone defense on an individual level. Players in certain zones will get away with poor fundamental defense sometimes, but when they move do a different defense or spot they will struggle. Having everyone able to play good defense, along with the things mentioned above about knowing what they purpose of the zone is, will make it easier to implement new strategies and even adjust strategies on the fly.
I appreciate everyone’s input, Mr. Thompson. I absolutely love what you did and I applaud you for your dedication. 6 a.m.? Wow!
Competition for PT is one of the main motivators we use. And clearly those who do not work out will drop the disc more, play poor defense etc, which will also hurt their PT. I would say it is a constant battle to get individual players to commit but the more you can get them to show up and work out with a teammate, as opposed to trusting them to post on a workout log, the better it will probably be.
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The easy answer is to have them not focus on the other team at all and to go into each game with no expectations. That is much easier said than done. There are a bunch of things you can do before you are lined up against an “inferior” team and people are playing lazy, then getting annoyed when they are getting scored on. That is the worst place to be.
I do not want to do this too much, but taking a look at Dr. Alan Goldberg’s website, competitiveedge.com will give you some good ideas of how to frame each game.
New players don’t help out on the sidelines because, most of the time, they don’t know what to say. Develop a lexicon of perhaps 10 scenarios with the phrase or word that everyone should use all the time for each scenario. Only one person talks at a time. Practice these in practice. It is not a waste of time and when someone hgets a help D from the sideline, make it a big deal.
My team struggles with these same things, and it flows into games. We struggle to play intense when we feel we should win the game after playing great the first few points, and we struggle to keep intensity when things aren’t going our way or there aren’t big plays. What can we do to create an environment at practice that allows players to keep intensity throughout games without it relying on emotion from the moment. Practices and scrimmages that all focus on the same thing, with goals implemented are the only things that seem to help consistently, but it doesn’t transfer to games.
This is a tough one and it changes all the time. My main suggestion is that you give them some specific downtime between getting out of school and starting practice. I used to be annoyed that they were so preoccupied and unfocused when they arrived at practice. I eventually learned to give them the time and space to unwind. "Practice starts at 3:30. You may arrive any time before that, put on your cleats and do every silly throw you have ever imagined, chat to your heart’s content and throw grass at each other. But at 3:25 I will give you one warning that practice will start for real in 5 minutes and you need to take that time to regain your focus. At 3:30 we start and all your energy needs to be focused on making you and your teammates better at ultimate."
I know this doesn’t quite answer your specific question but having dedicated time for being OFF as well as ON makes it easier for people to manage themselves and their energy.
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Yes! Everyone can be a leader in their own way and throwing (or workout) pods are a great way to do that.
Failure is swell. I often do these types of drill and announce that we will try to get a certain number in 3 tries. After those 3 tries, we are done. If we don’t reach the number, and they usually don’t, we stop and they are now carrying the First Failure of Practice with them. Do something else for another hour or so and then, sometimes in the middle of a scrimmage, set them up for the original drill again and see if they can do it. They usually can. Then increase the number they have to reach and only give them 2 tries. If you constantly raise the bar, they will try to reach it.
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Another tough challenge. You are right to not rely on emotion to drive your team’s energy. It is nice when it happens and it may make things easy for awhile, but it is difficult to sustain. My main suggestion is to try to keep practice as tournament-like as possible, particularly as you are getting closer to major tournaments. You really can’t produce what you don’t practice, so my guess is that players are allowed to be unfocused in practice so they know no differently when they get to games.
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I’m a bit on the other side of things. I recently started up an ultimate frisbee team at my high school in Arizona (we only have about 4-5 schools that play, and are all spread out, so it’s hard to play each other often). Since this is our first year, and in a sort of developmental stage, I recruited as many people as I could to get the club started up (expecting the initial number to drop). We signed up over 120 high schoolers within the first week of school, during those days when everyone is looking to sign up for clubs. Now, 7 months later, we have dwindled down to about 30 kids, and most of these kids play other sports than Ultimate, and Ultimate is not their first priority. As a senior, I’m not sure if the club will survive into next year, and we only have a few [less dedicated] underclassmen that would even be able to lead the club. How do I go about growing the sport within my high school, and how do I keep players interested after almost a year of pickup?
You broke this down nicely. One way we approach this topic, is allow the captains and coaches to meet together to discuss possible new plays. Ideas can range from traditional styles to the unorthodox, but as long as the leadership is on the same page on how to explain these ideas, and construct possible drills to work on the positioning.
After that, another possible meeting is constructed with the top 7ish guys on the team. For me we used a room that included a white board, so we can draw the ideas we talked about with the leadership. Once leadership is done explaining, we allow the floor to open up to discussion about the possible schemes which includes different scenarios. This allows us to answer a lot of questions asked by the newer players. We also have one of the players present during the meeting to document the plays (whatever type of program available) and save it for later to make a playbook.
Then comes explaining to the rest of the team during a team meeting/practice. Implement drills and upload the playbook in Facebook groups, emails, etc. so everyone has access to it.
That’s how my team approached certain schemes during this season, which was first for us.
Haha thank you very much. I’m more pleased that you accepted “Miss Booth” on the forum than the compliment you handed me. This went better than our meeting in Queen City, when I couldn’t help but say ma’am when our teams faced each other. The result led to me slightly getting chewed out (all fun). I know Queen City is a bit faded as a memory, but I’m from the VCU team you guys rolled.
Thanks again for the useful information you provided.
Our team is having a lot of trouble with consistency. We are a relatively young team with a lot of great athletes that are still developing. When we are firing at all cylinders, we look fantastic. When we aren’t on it, we fall to teams that should never beat us. Do you have any suggestions for ways to foster more consistent play?
I’ll speak from experience on this topic. We approached this at first by talking about it at tournament weekends, after a signature win followed by a disappointing loss (or vise versa). Some people begin to attempt to implement changes into their style. But like other times, did not consistently stick. We did not have a quick fix anywhere near.
After that (weeks later possibly) we tried talking about the issue outside of a tournament/game setting. Either it would include a team hangout or meeting. This was to get everyone to talk about what bothered them, or how they can see the team improve and move to the next level. This allowed everyone to be on the same page and verbally talk about their goals. Not only that but possible suggestions related to drills or fundamentals were also taken. Everyone is now on the same page and know what standard is being held for the person they play with.
Finally, we gained the ability of filming our games. We were able to visually see ourselves making mistakes or doing something well. Developing a film culture was the next step. It can involve watching your own team play or watch other teams that play at a high level. Discuss and compare the differences between those teams and yours. Have the team visually acknowledge the lack of fundamentals, and that it is not a quick fix. Develop drills and habits to focus on certain inconsistencies with fundamentals.Communication is the biggest part of making it work.
For actual game play, I would suggest mini scrimmages of (4v4), possibly on a big field. It can be stop and go or make it take it. The players will quickly realize what works and what doesn’t along with what is efficient and what wastes their energy. Exhaustion is a great teacher if used the right way.
Ask the team if they are content with where they are, if this is a level everyone is happy with playing with. Are they ready to move on? In my opinion, I feel this is the first step.
I think one of our big challenges is not having guys who have “been there before”. We can’t use previous experiences of winning key games in bracket play, beating teams on universe because we simply lack that experience.
I have three questions, and I realize they might be a lot to tackle, but would really appreciate the advice (all comments are welcome).
I’ve been trying to think about ways to not pay attention to national rank while still celebrating our team’s achievements so far this season. For example, I think that our national ranking shows our team that we’ve been working really hard, and that hard work does pay off. However, I do think it would be easy to let this kind of ranking go to our heads and that we could consequently ease off the gas. How do we reconcile celebrating our accomplishments while still playing in the moment?
We’ve seen how incredibly our team plays when we have the right attitude and are playing in the moment. However, that mental frame tends to be relatively inconsistent, and hard for us to recover once we lose it. How can we work to recover mental toughness in our teammates, especially when we aren’t feeling it ourselves?
Additionally, what can we do if a member of our team (especially one with a lot of influence) resists these changes, making it more difficult for the rest of the team to get on board?
I would say it all depends on the culture of your team. As a captain and ultimate junkie, I constantly look at the national rankings on usau, the power rankings on ultiworld, and some high level videos uploaded during the season, but take it with a grain of salt. We had the privilege of playing some of the top teams in the country this year too. When I look at the rankings, I also look at the film of the top teams, then the film of us playing some of those top teams. I think to myself, on our best day, if our execution is clicking on all cylinders, we can hang with these top teams. This is what you tell your team, not to show where they are as a team, but to set a goal for a level to attain as a team. Usually only a few people on the team look at these rankings like I do. The tough part is whether to announce the rankings to the rest of the team. But by this time, you spent a lot of time with your team. You should know how they react if they encounter good or bad. You can celebrate moments with team hangouts: bowling, parties, super smash bros tournaments, etc. It’s up to you and the culture.
Mental toughness starts on how you run your practice. Some teams don’t have the luxury of time (like mine), so they make conditioning a priority outside of practice. During practice we sometimes do some high cardio drills that don’t involve a disc: Serpentine, suicides, agility drills, etc. With little rest in between each rep, immediately move on to minis or normal scrimmaging. The focus is to play while exhausted and fatigued. After the scrimmage if there is time, possibly try to work on fundamental throwing drills. This practice can be done often in this order or even reverse, but it depends on your team structure.
For the member who resists change. Simple conversation involving the team leadership. The conversation should involve what direction they want the team to head towards. Ask if they are ready for the next stage. Respect their decision and try to make it come true. Next approach the member with high influence. Ask what vision does he have for this team. Does his views coincide with the leadership? Try to make sure everyone is on the same page. It all starts with communication, before action is made.
Sorry for the long answer. Hope it helped.
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How do you handle the last week and a half leading up to Regionals?
Some back story, we just finished sectionals and were a bit exposed in some areas (depth, strategy, mentality, defensive assignments, etc.) especially against the top half of our section. We aspire to punch that hopeful bid in.
We compete in a region where perennial national contenders (UNC/UNC-W) exist, and it’s a two bid region.
I understand there is no magic bullet, but any hints to becoming a successful giant killer is most certainly welcomed.
Depth-
Harsh reality, not being able to rely on a tight rotation of 8-10 players. It’s not realistic if you want to save your legs for a later run. Do we rely on our younger talent or just become more efficient (easier said than done)?
Strategy-
Being in the heat of intense points, halves or the game itself, it’s hard to come up with a strategy that will become an instant effect. Our main defensive schemes are not as effective as the previous games. Do I suggest a scheme that works similar fundamentals even if we haven’t worked on the actual scheme?
Mentality-
This runs from the freshmen to the top core that are critical to the team’s success. For sectionals, I feel it was a blessing in disguise that we didn’t do as well as we hoped. I felt we lost sight of doing well, and looked too far forward to Regionals. This allowed for us bring our true identity, “underdogs”. This identity is exciting and full of intensity, but is a double edge sword. It relies on high emotion, but how do you pace the team so that you are ready against that critical giant?
This is a tough question (in my opinion) for a teams in the underdog role or the teams of a loaded pedigree (coaching or team) to answer. This post both asks for preparation for how to make the final push into possibly the last tournament and also put in perspective, issues of mid to upper mid tiers. Thanks again for reading.
It is very tough to replicate actual experience but there are certain things you can do. Make practices really hard and replicate “in-game” situations during scrimmages, such as being down 3-6 in a game to 8. It is not exactly like actual competition but if you can convince your team to buy in, this may give you a step up at your next tournament.