Category Archives: middle school

2016 USA Ultimate CDP workshop in Seattle

On Sunday February 21, 2016, the USA Ultimate Coach Development Program (CDP) offered a Level 1 Certification workshop in Seattle, WA.  Taught by UW Men’s coach Alex Wells, the workshop was co-hosted by John Leahy and Scott Veirs and took place at Green Lake Elementary School from 8:30-5.

It was a cold, crisp morning (even in the classroom).
It was a cold, crisp morning (even in the classroom).

 

John welcomed us to his awesome teaching space.
John welcomed us to his awesome teaching space.

(We all thank John for helping us access the school where he’s a teacher.  Prior to his help, Scott was really struggling to find a space that met the USAU facility requirements and budget!)

8:30 Introductions

Alex led the group in a quick name-game.  We went to the cafeteria and threw a soft cone in two circles of ~10 participants.  You had to thank the person who through to you (e.g. “Thanks, Alex”), say your name, say the name of a person who had not yet been thrown while making eye contact with them, and then throw the “disc” to them.

Getting to know name-game
Getting to know name-game

The two groups competed to see who could cycle through everyone in the circle and back to the original thrower.  The groups were different sizes, so it wasn’t fair, but it was fun to add complexity to the game — first by speeding up the cycle; then by adding a second “disc” that was started after the first disc had reached the third or fourth person.  We headed back to Leahy Land with a new game that could help a team of unfamiliar players learn each others names efficiently.

IMG_6250 IMG_6237Back in the classroom, Alex had us go around the room introducing ourselves.  This was the beginning of one of the best aspects of the in-person workshop: getting to know other local coaches and sharing ideas with them.  Here are a few topics that folks said they were hoping to learn about during the day:

  • How to manage middle schoolers!
  • Nuts and bolts of running a practice
  • How to get more young girls involved
  • How to teach the rules
  • How to get equal improvement in a group with varied experience or different learning styles (e.g. not leaving passive kids behind)
  • How to “seed” elementary and middle school teams in ways that support the development of high school teams
  • Best practices for coaching elementary school

9:00 Why do people play ultimate

This was a great group discussion.  We came up with lots of ways to “hook” new players on the sport, as well as some shortcomings of the game as it’s currently played by younger youth (mostly grades 3-8).  I’ve listed some highlights (ideas that were new to me), but there were many more that Alex noted and discussed.

IMG_6232Why people play ultimate:

  • The beauty of the disc flying (play Dog on the first practice!)
  • Spirit of the Game (try playing look-up/down to choose throwing partners)
  • More equitable and confidence-building play:
    • Don’t say sorry rituals
    • The “special” (has to be thrown to before team can score)
    • All-touch points
    • Keep away (practice low-emotion mistakes)
    • 2v2 scrimmages (lots of touches for everyone)
    • try mixed and single-gender practices/drills/scrimmages
    • rotate who leads a middle school team each practice
      • girl-girl leadership pair
      • boy-girl leadership pair
      • boy-boy leadership pair
    • Try 4 girl, 3 boy scrimmages
    • Hire more female middle school coaches!
  • Attracting more girls and retaining them through middle school
    • understand other sport calendars and trends
    • market to groups of girls/women
      • classrooms, especially social groups of girls
      • siblings
      • teams from other sports that are burning out
    • Verbal face-to-face recruitment of girls by coaches (helps make them feel valued!)
  • Riot’s 3 tenets: ETL = Excellence. Trust. Love.
  • Team work and athletic development: be purposeful with a charter?
    • Seattle Public Schools has a process to follow for creating a charter (Charlie mentioned it, but I missed its name)
    • A charter should describe how do you want to feel (as players; as a team)
    • Then plan: What do you do to achieve the charter?
    • Camp Orkila has a process for creating a constitution/charter with new campers…
  • Engagement
    • As a coach: watch 1 player for about 2 minutes and ask “Are they engaged in this drill/lecture/game?”
    • TED = Throw every day
    • Experienced parent’s role: teach ultimate culture to other parents

IMG_6236Things that detract from ultimate:

  • “Disc-organization”
    • soccer gets calendars out 6 months in advance!
    • USAU web site is messy (trick is to google your search term and append “site:usaultimate.org”)
  • General turn-offs
    • Lack of good practice fields
    • Canceled games (because many youth games are played on grass fields which SPS closes when super-wet)

10:30 Ethics

Handout: 25-page booklet — “Coaching Ethics Workshop” including sections on: intro; the sport; Spirit of the Game; Liability and Insurance; Safety; & Emergency procedures; plus 2 appendices on: child abuse reporting agencies; references/readings.

We read  through the USAU ethics pamphlet, discussing each point (many of which originated with the U.S. Olympic Committee).

Key concepts for coaches of youngest youth:

  1. Teach and practice the foul/conflict resolution process (Rules; how to call fouls; how to contest; how to resolve; best perspective)
  2. In game, coach is a resource not a judge
    1. “Do you have a question about the rules?”
    2. “Can I help you with the process of calling and resolving a foul?”
  3. Spirit circles
    1. Use them mostly for compliments and positive coaching
    2. If both teams mis-understood a rule in the game, coach can use as a teachable moment and clarify for all
  4. Pet peeves (of various participants)
    1. Don’t teach middle schoolers to call travels!
    2. Don’t allow kids to kick rolling discs!
  5. Common issues
    1. Playing time: try to keep it balanced by using a sub-sheet
    2. Player is unspirited (cheating): start with a question, like “How did you feel about that last play?”  Then educate about a relevant rule or process.

10:50 Took a 15 minute break for snacks!

Sign-in and snack tables
Sign-in and snack tables

11:15 Parents

11:20 Spirit of the Game

We broke up into small groups to define and discuss SotG.  Then came back together to share and look for commonalities.

  • Try having a spirit “captain” (esp on high or club school teams)
  • Coaches role is as a model of good spirit (calm communication; fairness
  • Incorporate SotG into drills: e.g. high 5s when you enter a line; offering encouragement and compliments to teammates.

IMG_6239 IMG_6243 IMG_6242 IMG_6245

12:05 Liability

5 duties to avoid exposure

  1. Proper instruction for risky activities (e.g. lay outs)
  2. Provide safety equipment (safe field; don’t mix cleats and bare feet!)
  3. ?
  4. Supervise
  5. Provide care (upon injury)

12:10 Insurance

12:15 Concussions

12:20 Lunch

We made sandwiches, ate chips, drank juice, and chatted at our desks.

12:55 Fundamentals

Handout: 76-page booklet “Coaching Performance Workshop” covering: intro; communicating with your school; parents; logistics; growth/promotion; equipment; conditioning; & tips; plus 12 appendices on rules; affiliates; state associations; sample season schedule; sample parent letter; sample med form; intro clinic schedule; 12-week fitness program; injury prevention; nutrition/hydration; injuries; and references/readings.)

We discussed the fundamental skills and knowledge we need to teach in ultimate, then prioritized them into an optimal sequence for new players.

In what order would you teach these fundamentals?
In what order would you teach these fundamentals?

5 steps to learning:

  1. explain
  2. demonstrate
  3. imitate
  4. critique
  5. repeat

Brevity ends with a “Why?”

  • TALK LESS (2 minutes is too long)
  • Why (explain)
  • Use 2 or 3 cues, e.g. for backhand “keep disc level” (see hard-copy handout “Skill Specific Cues” for lots more)
  • Try mnemonics

13:15 Transition to gym

The active portion of the workshop included: coming up with a drill (in groups of ~4 participants) to teach fundamentals; demonstrating how to run those drills to the rest of the group; and Alex demonstrating typical parts of a practice (warm-up/plyos, throw foci; drill iterations).

13:15-14:30 — Coming up with a drill to teach each fundamental

Groups formed up, took 10-15 minutes to prep a drill, and then demonstrated it (for a few minutes).  [I have video of some of these if folks want to see themselves in action!]

IMG_6252 IMG_6254 IMG_6253 IMG_6257 IMG_6255Cues and notes on each demo:

  1. Backhand
    1. level the release by thinking of serving a glass of water on it
    2. Step out
    3. Snap your wrist (like snapping a towel?)
    4. “pull through” (not uncurl, that’s the “BBQ throw”)
    5. hinge from the shoulder
    6. “buckle the seatbelt
  2. Forehand
    1. booger flick
    2. outside edge down
    3. finish with palm up
  3. Mark
    1. hips low, shoulders up
    2. arms active and low
    3. “low hands”
    4. high energy
  4. Pivot
    1. “land” then throw
    2. be clear with language
      1. “pivot on foot opposite your throwing hand?”
      2. “move foot on same side as your throwing hand?”
  5. Force — emphasize it is a form of team work
  6. Cutting
    1. Sharp change in direction
    2. Clap near end of cut?
    3. Chop stop (NOT 1 big stop and step)
    4. Go/fake away from target area, then cut back
    5. “Cut to a cone” (e.g. any corner of the endzone)
  7. Defense
    1. 3D: defend, deny, deflect?
    2. dictate (instead of chase)?
    3. But be careful with language and younger players!
    4. “head up”
    5. backing, fronting
    6. stop the under; stay between receiver and disc
    7. shadow movement; dance
    8. “be the mirror (image)”

14:30-15:00 — Demonstration practice (by Alex)

  1. Started with a cheer: e.g. “1, 2, Learn!”
  2. Do a lap while tossing with a partner (take note: 40 throws/lap x 10 practices = 400 extra throws per season!)
  3. Warm-ups
    1. We’re teaching movement (to protect bodies over a lifetime)
    2. The goal is to talk about and practice movement (e.g. running form)
    3. Think of plyos (dynamic warm-up) as movement puzzles
    4. Have a base warm-up; make small changes; add new challenges
    5. Practice names of muscles and parts of bodies
    6. Go from small, low intensity to big, high-intensity movements
    7. Practice names of muscles and parts of bodies
    8. Science shows: static stretching is good for flexibility after exercise (not before when a dynamic warm-up is better)
    9. Sequence of plyos (from toes to head) [we did these as a big group lined up across the gym]:
      1. Toes out; heels back
      2. High knees; lunges
      3. Airplane; picking dandelions
      4. Close the gate; open the gate
      5. Torso twists
      6. Arm circles (forward, backward)
      7. Fast feet out; high knees back
      8. Butt kickers out; Door busters back (toe pointing to sky; hit door with sole not toe)
      9. Leg swings (with partner or fence)
      10. Side shuffle
      11. Kareoka (or Kareoke)
      12. Run @67% out; 42% back
      13. Skips (emphasize height, or distance, or both)
      14. Jump and land (prevent ACL tears [7x more prevalent in girls than boys!]: quiet; soft; knees over toes, NOT knocked-knees)
      15. Proplyoception => challenges (do it backwards; close eyes); try airplanes w/eyes closed; fast knees backwards (and eyes closed?!)
      16. Retro-runs (forward, backward)

IMG_6259 IMG_6266 IMG_6267 IMG_6272

15:00 Drilling

  • Choose high repetition
  • Prioritize familiar drills; then build on them
  • Lots of iterations w/small changes and limited focus (2-3 cues max)
  • Examples of coach challenges and nuanced skills:
    • How to counter blacksmith leg (from always pivoting on leg opposite dominant throwing hand)?
    • Catch with dominant/throwing hand under in the alligator (so grip is ready to throw)!
    • Step back to throw hammer.
  • Variants on paired throwing drill (we tried these with a partner)
    • 3 forehands; 3 backhands
    • vary release points (regular, high, low, wide)
    • vary release angles (inside/out; outside/in;…)
    • Goofy foot compass throws

15:20 Overhead throws

Normally discouraged with youth, but Alex likes them for fun and to help handlers practice decision making.

15:30 Practical aspects of drills

  • Clear wide; yell “Safety” to prevent collisions
  • Alex led a “Go to” drill (2 sets of participants) as an example of how to iterate w/distinct cues
    • chop feet; go to disc; ready; eye contact
    • alternate sides to give drops a chance to clear
    • different focus point each day
      • 5 full steps = deep cut
      • chop feet; get low; rotate hips; explosive first 3 steps; drive knees.
      • challenges: pancake every disc; non-dominant hand catch
      • add a mark (open side; break mark)
      • different cuts (out/in; handler cut = fake to open side, cut to break mark side)
      • competitions; games

IMG_6282

15:45 Return to classroom to discuss practice planning and structure

15:50 Practices

  • Set expectations with players and parents
  • Pre-season “goal setting” (+ a mid-season check-in)
    • will this work for elementary?
    • best practices for goal-setting are still developing
    • SMART = specific; measurable; A?; realistic; time-bound
  • Map out general plan
    • How many practices before first game?
    • How many practices in the season?
  • Plan season (to some extent)
    • Next 2 weeks?
    • Next month?
    • Make list of 5-10 skills to work on next
    • Plan specific practices to tick off skills; select specific drills
    • Planning process should help clarify goals…
    • For each practice, don’t forget:
      • Talk about Spirit of the Game
      • Specific over-arching concepts: e.g. throwing skills, or a particular defensive strategy

Every good practice looks like — group brainstorm:

IMG_6285

16:30 End with evaluation forms, handing out coach bags, discs, FiveUltimate coach benefits (CDP Odyssey 1/4 zip, other gear if your team orders gear thru them), etc.

Resources to share

Good ideas?  (Some voiced; some just in Scott’s head)

  • What about a dual-model for coach development by USAU (and/or local organizations)?
    • Youth only (grades K-8): FREE workshop (maybe requires a coach membership, but fee is subsidized) for volunteer coaches of elementary/middle players, camp counselors, etc.
    • Level 1 (high school, college, club, pro): ethics and performance workshop for new coaches (typically paid, not volunteer?) of teams that may have some players who are new to the game
    • Level 2 (high school, college, club, pro): strategy workshop for advanced coaches of more competitive teams
  • Ways to boost girl recruitment and retention
  • We should have a community brainstorm or survey on these topics
    • 10 most commonly confused rules in youth ultimate
    • 10 favorite ways to promote spirit of the game
      • games (and how to play them safely)
      • spirit circles (real examples that work)
      • cheers & songs
      • sideline roles

Post workshop activities

  • Alex emailed an awesome list of resources to all participants
  • Suggestions for future workshops or subsequent activities
    • General
      • Management strategies (logistics; behavior)
      • Spirit of the Game, & fairness (case studies; examples)
      • More practice design details
      • How to prevent injuries
      • How to teach specific skills
        • more examples for new coaches
        • advanced examples for experienced coaches
      • Develop more tools for coach community, conversation, networking, peer-learning (Inter?National?)
      • Move some of morning activities (liability, insurance, ethics?) to online format; use workshop for more active learning, coach sharing/discussion
    • Elementary school
      • More drills
      • Strategy or not (horizontal, vertical, neither, something?)
      • School relationships
    • Middle school
      • Demo games to keep practice extra fun!
      • Age-appropriate drills?
      • How to teach offensive strategy to beginners
      • Drills that also help teach the rules?
    • High school
      • Fitness progressions
      • HS-College strategies (D, O) and process for developing them
      • More discussion of increasing/nurturing diversity (racial, gender equity)

Early 2016 coach training options in Seattle & beyond

As we prepare for another spring season of youth ultimate, a growing menu of “professional development” opportunities have arisen.  First — a new, potentially annual, coaches conference is being offered in February by RiseUp in south Seattle (WA).  Then in March the third annual Youth Ultimate Coaching Conference will take place in San Jose (CA).  If you can’t make these in person, both will offer video content from the speakers after the event: RiseUp for a small fee; YUCC for free courtesy of Bay Area Disc and all the YUCC partners (see Skyd Magazine for archived YUCC talks from 2014 and 2015).

The first (annual?) RiseUp Seattle Coaches Conference will happen on Saturday February 13, 2016, from 11-6 at the Rainier Beach Community Center (in south Seattle).  The cost is $100 and registration is prioritized for female coaches and coaches of females and/or disadvantaged Seattle communities.  While the web site speaker list and topics suggest the content may be most useful to higher-level coaches (e.g. high school and above), the conference Program Director Mario O’Brien assured me that it would also be “valuable for coaches who work with the youngest spectrum of youth” (elementary and middle school coaches and teachers).  He pointed out that it would be a great networking opportunity for any coach — which I believe after reviewing this impressive speaker list:

  • Heather Ann Brauer (YCC coach, GUM chair)
  • Age Up (Seattle Youth)
  • Ren Caldwell (Ren Fitness) – 3 Strategies to Promote a Team Culture of Better Health and Performance 
  • Melissa Witmer (Ultimate Results, Ultimate Athlete Project)
  • Frank Nam (Franklin HS, South Korea National Team)
  • Dr. Ben Wiggins (Sockeye, Riot, RISE UP)
  • Mario O’Brien (RISE UP, Sockeye, Cascades, University Prep)
  • Other Seattle coaches

The 3rd annual Youth Ultimate Coaching Conference will follow the theme of “”Gender Equity and Girls Ultimate” and is scheduled for Saturday March 5, 2016, from 8:30-5, at Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose, CA.  The cost is $65 before Feb 29 and $95 thereafter.  The keynote talk will be by Marlene Bjornsrud, Executive Director of Alliance for Women’s Coaches.  The conference looks like it will be very valuable for coaches at all levels of youth ultimate — primarily because the program portends a broad contemplation of girls and youth sports:

The 2016 exciting program includes:
– USA Ultimate unveiling the latest on Gender Equity and GUM curriculum
– A panel featuring non-Ultimate organizations working with girls
– Qxhna Titcomb reporting on her successful All-Star Ultimate Tour

SCHEDULE

8:30-9 | Registration
9-9:45 | Keynote
10-11 | USA Ultimate Gender Equity Guidelines
11-12 | Panel: Non-Ultimate Girls Organizations
12-1 | USA Ultimate GUM curriculum
1-2 | Lunch Break and Networking
2-3 | All-Star Ultimate Tour
3-4| Panel: Girls Programs and Play opportunity
4-5 | Panel: How to Grow
5:00 | Closing 

As of Jan 28, round-trip tickets to San Jose from Seattle look to be about $200-250 ($220 same day flight, or $170 Fri pm – Sat pm RT + hotel)…

William Bartram’s Perspectives on Youth Ultimate Programming for Coaches

William Bartram (aka “Bunny”) had been Executive Director of the Northwest Ultimate Association (aka DiscNW) for almost 10 years when he gave the following presentation at the inaugural 2014 Youth Ultimate Coaching Conference.

Below are the notes I took (along time stamps) while watching the recording archived by the Bay Area Disc Association and Skyd Magazine’s YouTube channel.   The first slides offered a little background on Bunny (which is otherwise hard to find):

Brief ultimate bio of William Bartram
Brief ultimate bio of William Bartram

“Perspectives on Youth Ultimate Programming for Coaches”

Overview of youth ultimate in Seattle

  • Time line — Screen Shot 2015-10-25 at 11.14.32 PM
  • Early youth scene in Seattle was all coach-driven.  Key coaches were teachers who formed teams independently at their schools and eventually organized scrimmages
  • Mary would photocopy rules & newspaper clippings and send to PE teachers around town
  • Over time a league developed (MS in lat 1990s)
  • Those middle school players drove development at HS level because they wanted to keep playing
  • Jeff Jorgensen, Mary and Joe started Spring Reign [in 1998?]
  • Joey Gray and others formed DiscNW (mostly focused on adult players)
  • Mike Mullen and Roger Crafts start summer camps (originally in partnership with Seattle Parks with 40 players; 10 years later it would partner with DiscNW serving 900 campers each summer )
  • Over time, DiscNW took on administration of youth programs (web site, registration tools, insurance, communication, scheduling, etc.)
    • 2004: first full-time staff
    • Eventually hired admin assistant
  • League thrives due to DiscNW handing logistics so coaches can focus more on coaching
  • Financial story
    • Originally subsidized by adult leagues
    • Now many youth programs are self-supporting
    • Youth Development Fund provides financial aid and important programs that might otherwise be unsustainable
    • Fall Bid fundraising event
    • Hosted youth summits (to get feedback from community)
  • (6:10) Overview of DisNW youth programs
    • (6:30) Leagues
      • Good financial performer
      • Spring elementary and middle school
      • Fall boys HS; spring girls HS
      • Fall middle school league with Seattle Public Schools
        • Started when Joey Gray & others lobbied District to use funds from the Families and Education Levy
        • SPS pays for fields and coaching stipends
        • Principals love it because $ comes from District budget, not their own, and it’s a great after-school program
        • DiscNW provides expertise, scheduling, free discs
      • Spring club league (but most teams still based on school affiliations)
      • Summer league leads towards YCC; 2014 new winter club league also popular with the U16 crowd
    • (8:45) Camps
      • Very successful as a learning program and financially
      • 2013: 255k$ revenue, 150k$ in expenses (100k$ profit supported $16k financial aid & 4k$ for south Seattle free camps [led by Sam Terry])
      • Camp directors, counselors, leads all paid
      • More popular with MS than HS, but elite HS players getting new elite & leadership training during summer 2014 implemented with Lou Berris (sp? skilled coach)
    • (10:33) Tournaments
      • Many run but most discontinued because they aren’t profitable & sustainable
      • Usually take a lot of energy and serve teams that already have regular playing opportunities
      • Trying now to serve teams that have fewer options?
      • Spring Reign is largest
        • 96 teams (8 elementary, 40 MS, 48 HS)
        • Last week of April
    • (11:45) Elite Club
      • Started with MoHo in late 1990s
        • Not affiliated with DiscNW initially
        • Started when NOMS MS players wanted to keep playing together as high schoolers
        • Interest has waned, but spirit of that program guides current programs
        • Elite player development centered on Youth Club Championships
          • Early summer club leads into Championships in Minnesota
          • League incorporates YCC and other high-level teams
          • Hiring committee for coaches who select assistants
          • Coaches paid by DiscNW and travel with teams, manages player fees, order uniforms, logistics
          • Rusty Brown serves as general manager
    • (14:25) Beyond DiscNW (filling gaps, developing new programs)
      • Fryz – Started by Randy Lim (over 200 players in 2014; travel to play teams across U.S.)
      • RiseUp
      • Ultimate for Peace
      • All Girl Everything
      • Future YUCC focus?
      • Up Dawg (UW Element)
      • Fall Drizzle (WWU Chaos)

(16:20) Conceptual Framework for Events

  • Build it and they will come works for a while; but long-term growth requires more planning
  • Focus here is on local or regional level (not National like RiseUp)
  • Ultimate does not yet enjoy “Varsity Status” — Screen Shot 2015-10-26 at 12.05.22 AM
  • Ultimate can grow within a club sport setting with key advanatages:
    • Self-officiation, Spirit of the Game
    • Strong community
  • (22:19) Youth ultimate event components
    • Spring Reign as an example with goal being “celebrate community”
    • State Championships
      • in fall for boys and spring for girls
      • (31:30) tried co-ed a couple times, but interest wasn’t there

(32:00) Building a Coaching Community

  • “Finding coaches to meet player demand is one of the biggest hurdles to growth in our area.”
    • We try to find coaches within our membership
    • Low rate of success, but matches are valuable!
    • Learning ops for coaches
      • Host USAU clinics
      • Educate PE teachers
    • Development ops
      • YCC coaching ops
      • Many returning players choose to coach
      • Fall 2015 Disc NW starts paying stipends to fall HS boys coaches
    • Role of coaches to make organizing easier — Screen Shot 2015-10-26 at 1.04.14 AM
    • (40:00) Couple anecdotes about coaches
      • Ken Round
        • Didn’t know ultimate when he formed MS team and brought to Spring Reign (caused friction)
        • Parents brought RVs, set up tents
        • Took 6th grade cohort through 12th grade
        • Some players went to YCC and Westerns (2nd)
      • Fighting in ultimate!
        • Seattle team and less experienced Vancouver team
        • Fisticuffs in 2nd half
        • Spirit circle later in the weekend (including some parents)
        • Vancouver team made finals on Sunday playing OR team
        • Foul called on final point; resolved without violence; came back to win!
      • Help find more coaches! Builds resiliency
        • Mr. Jamsheed
          • Large program at Bailey Gasherd (sp)
          • Terrible at administration (e.g. Spring Reign registration)
          • Started team at Jane Addams and recruited team parent to handle logistics

(45:00) Q&A

  • (47:00) How do transition from volunteer to staffed organization?
    • (47:25) DiscNW example
      • Managing DiscNW was done by operational Board and voluntary E.D.
      • Lot’s of uber-volunteers doing things, but buy-in from Board and understanding from the community that there was going to be a paid leader
      • 2001: Part-time E.D. Mike Keiran (main job was to figure out how to fund his position!)  IT guy, so he made changes to web site and forced payments (via a waitlist).
      • As you get organized, you can deliver higher-quality events and therefore raise fees.
    • Youth director was hired because Bunny was doing it on his own, but youth was a different customer!
      • Hired a part-time organizer and lost money, but promoted youth programs, and hired Wynne and later an assistant to 3.5 FTEs…

 

Matt Tsang on coaching middle school ultimate

As I launch into the fall season of coaching at Eckstein Middle School in Seattle with a great group of new and experienced coaches I’ll be reviewing helpful resources, including curricula, drills, and videos.  To set the stage and delve into how to develop team culture with middle schooler, here are some notes on this great talk by Matt Tsang, a coach and teacher at a middle school in Berkeley, from the 2014 Youth Ultimate Coaching Conference.

Matt’s goals (and talk outline):

  • Team Culture
    • How to be a good teammate
  • Expose diverse group of kids to a new school
    • Gets them hooked
    • Goal was at least 1/3 girls
  • Teach ultimate

Ways to build team culture

  1. Make good mistakes
    1. In drills, explain that some mistakes still leave a play possible (while others are worse).
    2. For example, in a passing drill over-leading a player is better than throwing it behind them.
  2. Learn from your teammates
    1. Encourage players waiting to run the drill to actively observe their peers.  (This gave me the idea to ask them to line up along a sideline so they can all see, rather than orthogonal to it where the end of the line has nothing to do but chat.)
  3. Acknowledge players at the end of practice
    1. Not just for skill, but more importantly for spirit or team work
    2. For example,
  4. Talk it up (14:00)
    1. Demonstrate and incorporate supportive phrases to say when someone makes a mistake (important in middle school dynamic which is often critical or judgemental)
    2. For example:
      1. Good bid
      2. Nice try
      3. Way to go to
      4. Plus let them invent their own (builds team identity)

How to teach ultimate (23:30)

Goals for his 8 week season (most coaches try to teach too much in Middle School)

  • Throwing
  • Catching
  • Stack (these are the types of cuts you do from the front/back of the stack; front into the lane; back downfield for yardage)
  • Switch fields (when trapped on sideline)
  • Mirror defense
  • Force
  • Not zone.  (Instead counter zone offense with a dump swing and turn the corner)
  • Not plays, except maybe a pull play (what should be happening in our normal offense) to ensure we don’t always turn it over near our end zone
  • Don’t talk about positions.  (Everyone or no one wants to be handler.  Habitual cutters won’t even look up field!  No dumps to habitual handlers.  Rotate to build depth.)

A 6th grader might start with the just the first 3, but would tackle most of these topics by the time they’re 8th graders.

38:00 Groups share thoughts about a few key middle school issues

  1. How to deal with disparate skills and size?
  2. How do you get a couple disrespectful kids to not poison the whole practice or team? (42:00)
  3. How to convince kids to share the disc to develop other players and their team. (44:15)  [Try drills without a disc, or scrimmage with 2 discs!]

Good ideas:

Warm up with Monarch or tag.  Don’t limit throws, at least during free play.  Part of the joy of throwing is all the creative ways you can throw the disc.

Seattle parent’s guide to DiscNW accounts and child registration

Parents: jump to the 2015  2016 2017 DiscNW registration guide

As a coach and team manager I know it’s always a challenge to efficiently use the cool tools that DiscNW offers to the parents of of elementary and middle school players.  The process of rostering players and getting parents and players to all sign their on-line waivers and concussion forms is the logistical crux of the spring season.  But it’s worth it, because if you do it right the web site will do wonderful things, like automatically sending out game reminders with RSVPs, and bypassing reams of printed paperwork.

So, here’s a guide to creating a parent account at discnw.org and then adding your child to your account.  If you can get through this step, then it will be easy for your coach to put your child on the team roster.  Only after the coach is done will e-waivers auto-magically appear in your account for you and your player(s) to read and sign.  The good news is, once the process is complete, you’ll get nifty functionality, like: automated game reminder emails; handy calendars with all your game times and locations; and RSVP emails and back-end so the coach knows who is playing in a particular game.


2016 DiscNW registration guide

Get your child ready to play in a DiscNW leage by following one of the following options, depending on if you DO or DON’T already have a parent account on the DiscNW web site.

(If you’re not sure if you have one or not, you can go to this link and enter emails/usernames to see if you’re in the system and/or to re-set your password.)

If you DO already have a parent account
  1. Login to the DiscNW site here — https://www.discnw.org/login
  2. Click on the Hello message in the upper right corner to reveal a menu like so — Screen Shot 2015-02-18 at 12.32.45 PM
  3. Click on “Your Profile” and you should see a page with an “Edit profile” menu which — if clicked — will show an “Add child” option like this —Screen Shot 2015-02-18 at 11.49.09 AM
  4. Click on the “Add child” link and fill out the form that loads.  It should look like this:Screen Shot 2015-02-18 at 11.52.26 AM
  5. Email your coach or team manager to let them know your child is ready to be added to the team roster.  To grease the skids, be sure to give them the first and last names you entered, and the child’s gender.  That way they’ll be able to quickly add the right child to the roster (by using the nifty auto-complete functionality provided by the DiscNW rostering tool).

If you DON’T already have a parent account
  1. Create one here — https://www.discnw.org/@@create-account
  2. After you create your account you should see a handy link (within a light green highlighted message) offering to “create a player record for one of your children” like so — Screen Shot 2015-02-18 at 11.37.03 AM
  3. Click on that link and fill out the form loads.  It should look like this:Screen Shot 2015-02-18 at 11.52.26 AM
  4. Email your coach or team manager to let them know your child is ready to be added to the team roster.    To grease the skids, be sure to include the first and last names you entered, and the child’s gender.  That way they’ll be able to quickly add the right child to the roster (by using the nifty auto-complete functionality provided by the DiscNW rostering tool).