Now that many college teams are nearing the end of the season, what do you wish you had done in the fall or winter that would better prepare you for where you are now? Conversely, what things from your early season really helped your team prepare for competition now?
More conditioning. Even greater emphasis on spacing, somehow. Should’ve played more tournaments in the fall. And on and on and on. Two more practices to try to find the magic.
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Yup and yup. I will compile a list of everyone’s responses so we can look at it next fall. I would add spending more time, more intensive time, working on everyone’s throws. To quote Ben Banyas, #throweveryday
Many of the players on my team formed a low-key club team last summer that I think has paid huge dividends in terms of skill and leadership development. I think it may have been the biggest difference between being a rebuilding year and a very competitive year for us.
As a coach, I stepped back this fall and let the players run everything up to tryouts (mid-November for us). I think this helped develop leadership voices but I have felt less in touch with the new players on the team than in past years.
3v3 fall league!! This is our third year doing it with one of our fall practices each week through tryouts. Great for players at all levels, doesn’t require any strategy knowledge. It is great for keeping new players engaged and giving them touches.
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I think more activities outside of frisbee would be more beneficial. Especially for the younger guys, it would show that a team is a family which is bigger than frisbee. I think it would promote more buy-in the team as a whole. This is also openly welcomed from the transfers or graduate students who join the team for the first time. The depth of the team would not be just a mirage, if life outside of frisbee was close to a priority as life in it. The drive to play for the other guy/girl next to you definitely becomes stronger as a result in my opinion. Hopefully that applies to all levels of the game.
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I think our biggest regret is not giving enough touches to our newer players. We have a lot of people moving on next year from the team and I feel like we could have gotten those players more experience before asking them to take such a large role on the team. I think just playing so many teams around our level rather than trying to take on better teams in the fall really helped us see what we had to do to succeed at our own season goals.
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If I had to rate our season 1-10, I would give it an 8.
Positives:
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Had plenty of options for playing tournaments in the fall which set up buy in from the team leading to our most successful season in the spring
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Had set goals and direction from captains for most of the year. I think from having a mission statement let us focus our A team players.
Negatives
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Had difficulties instituting workout groups. Hurt development this we lacked opportunities to break down concepts for younger players.
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At a school without a coach, we were surprised by how many new players kept coming and they did not get much playing time after High Tide. I think our goal will be is to have an established B team with solid leadership.
Love the 3 v 3 league! May be stealing that idea. And I understand why taking the fall off would be beneficial, but I hear that we have an awesome freshmen class coming in and I can’t see missing the chance to watch them develop.
Positives:
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Gave our rookies alot of opportunities to play and improve in the fall and regular season (and they did much more so than rookies in the past)
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Instituted entirely new offensive and defensive schemes for the first time since before I joined the team (team was less reliant on 2-3 players to run the show)
Negatives:
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Commitment at practices was tough to come by throughout the season (a consistent problem for a coach-less team, our specifically)
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About half/third of the team was unhappy with new structuring of lines and playing time (unsure if displeasure in playing time is greater than past years, I know I was disgruntled my first two years)
This was my first year as a coach and it was amazing to watch the team grow over the year and it made me miss my time in college ultimate like crazy!
We had a difficult time keeping players consistently engaged throughout the year. Some players would come for good stretches of practices and tournaments, and then were absent for 2-3 weeks. This was frustrating for sure, but it improved significantly once we started trying to get outside-of-ultimate events put together.
Being able to play in fall leagues was a huge asset, kept everyone playing and throwing outside of practice, and in a different environment than with their teammates.
We adopted a new style of defense in the fall, and worked really hard at it over the year and made it our primary Zone at sectionals. Definitely some speed bumps, finding the right roles, and covering the right holes, but it will be an immense gain this upcoming year over where we started last fall.
Our most experienced player and one of our better handlers studied abroad during Spring/Conferences, meaning younger players had to step up and take a more active leadership role, it was perhaps the most important development of the year and went a long way towards improving our roster as a whole.
Overall I’d say it was as good a building year as a team can have, not without its struggles, but I can’t wait to get back out there with them in the fall!
Good! i thinks it
Looking back, I wish I had focused more on conditioning and skills in the fall and winter to better prepare for the competition. However, the early season team bonding and strategic planning really helped us build trust and communication, which have been crucial in the tougher matches now.