Tyler Kinley
I like to imagine a team’s culture as its spirit animal.
Furious would be a rabid dog: Fierce, foaming at the mouth, and angry.
Revolver would be a cobra: Patient, calculating, and deadly.
Chain is like a big gorilla: Powerful, intimidating, and brutish.
Sockeye is like a monkey: Playful, goofy, throwing its own feces, yet strong.
Okay, Tyler. What in the hell are you talking about.
Well, think about it this way. Imagine if the monkey tried to be the rabid
dog. Instead of being goofy, he foamed at the mouth, acted incredibly fierce,
and was super aggressive… well, he would get killed. It wouldn’t work. It’s
simply not him.
Similarly, Sockeye did best last year when we were goofy, played with smiles
and positivity, and failed when we got angry at each other or our opponents.
On the contrary, Furious was best when they were angry and fierce, thriving
in that team culture.
So, how do you recognize what your spirit animal is? Well, reflect on your
season thus far, as well as last season. Remember the games you won? What
would you characterize the vibe as? What about when you lost? Nurture, then,
the characteristics and habits of your successful moments.
But what does nurture mean in practice, and how? I like to use warmups/1st
drills before practices and games as a means to set the tone. On Sockeye,
where the joy of playing was valued over extreme intensity, we started
practices and games with small-sided games that everyone enjoyed. It set a
tone of enjoyable competition. On Furious, I’d instead have a serious huddle
talk begin the day with high expectations, goals, and a series of drills where
winning was rewarded and losing was punished.
Finally, every culture has strengths and weaknesses. The monkey lacks the
intensity of the rabid dog, the cobra lacks the playfulness of the monkey, the
gorilla lacks the cunning of the snake. Your goal is not to find the perfect
spirit animal and apply it to your team– there isn’t one, and you can’t be
something you’re not. Your goal is to recognize that one that creates the most
success for your team, and nurture and engrain those habits.
Tyler Kinley
1. Write it down.
This helps you remember your plan, creates a document that you can return to,
and can be emailed to the team beforehand if you feel it would help.
2. Specify time allotments for each segment of practice.
This creates a schedule, and is easier on you (you know when to start/stop a
drill) and your team (they know there’s a plan to stick to).
3. Don’t perform a drill for more than 15 minutes.
Attention spans are short. Realizing this, and not fighting it, is important.
However, running a drill for 10 minutes, then adding a new element/twist, can
allow for longer drilling on a certain skill while keeping interest level
high. Say, drilling a skill first without defenders, then adding a mark, then
adding full defense, can give three iterations of a drill over three 10-minute
periods while still changing it enough to maintain interest.
4. Allow for feedback… after practice.
Everyone’s a critic. When someone tells you how a drill should be run, or why
it sucks, remember that they want the same thing as you – to have the best
practice possible – and let them know that their criticism is valuable, but
best heard after practice is over, when you can spend time discussing how to
improve or add drills. Giving a critic the responsibility of planning a drill
often opens their eyes to how difficult running a practice is, and is a
valuable tool to getting them on board.
In addition, seek feedback from the team. Ask players what they think of
practice, what they want to work on individually and what they think the team
should work on. An “open mic” team meeting can often be a great means of
soliciting ideas for drills, for skills to focus on, and for team buy-in. When
a player sees the drill s/he recommended use at a practice, they are that much
more invested in the drill’s success and will show it in their own effort.
5. Let practice plans come from strategy meetings.
Assessing the goals, strengths, and weaknesses of your team as a whole can
often make practice planning seem easy and obvious, whereas before it seems
daunting and complex. Early season? Use practice time to assess your strengths
and weaknesses with ample scrimmage time. Mid season? Use early tourney
performance to guide what you need to work on and reinforce. Late in the
season? Write down everyhting you’d like to work on, then look at how many
practices you have left, and create a plan for what you most need to work on
and focus on that.
6. Feeling overwhelmed?
Ask for help. In many ultimate communities there are some really smart people
out there that would be both flattered and excited to help you out. Buy ’em a
beer and chat about what you’d like to do, and what advice they have for you.
7. You’ll be fine.
Planning a practice, then running it, are difficult, and can be scary. When I
helped plan and run drills for the first time as a second-year player / first-
year captain on Sockeye, I was nervous and felt out of my league. But, after
time, and after some successes and some failures, I realized what I could
offer and what I should and could rely on others to offer, and established a
place for myself as a practice leader. Being nervous means you care; don’t let
it prevent you from running great practices.
Tyler Kinley
Most offenders will tell you that yelling instructions to them on the sideline
when they’re on offense is annoying, if not worse. When you’re on offense,
sideline chatter is best saved for positive encouragement and celebrating a
goal scored.
However, on D, the sideline is an incredibly powerful tool, able to create
momentum on your side, stop momentum for the other team, and create blocks
that otherwise wouldn’t happen.
Now, a good sideline voice has a few characteristics.
First, the voice has to be heard. Duh, right? But if you’ve got five teammates
on the sidelines all yelling at you on the mark, you hear them all and none of
them at the same time, and any usefulness is lost. Having individual players
talking and listening is crucial.
Second, the talk itself must be clear and concise. One syllable is best–
“Up!” is quick and immediately recognizable. ““Heytakeawaythebreakside!” is
not.
Finally, you must create a team language and practice it. If you say “Looking
break!” to a mark, do you mean an inside-out or an around break throw? Which
should he take away? You must decide upon, teach, and then practice sideline
voice for it to be effective, but if you do, it can do wonders for a defense.
Next, what situations are best aided by help from the sidelines?
The major help comes when your field of vision is limited, and the sideline
can inform you of what is happening in areas you can’t see.
The mark is the easiest example. You are facing the thrower, and cannot see
what he is looking at. The sideline can tell you what his options are, or
instruct you what to take away, ie “No inside! No around! No huck!” I’ve toyed
with the idea of practicing an active sideline voice helping the mark to the
point that there is no force, simply a sideline instructing the mark what to
take away and making every throw a “break” throw. Certainly not a go-to D, but
maybe a good stunt to mix things up and create some chaos.
Downfield defenders’ field of vision can also be limited in a hard man
defense. Often if a cutter is being face-guarded (defender staring only at
cutter, never checking to see where the disc is), a savvy cutter can move this
defender into a place far out of position once the disc has moved, and create
an easy opportunity to get open. While the defender should check to see the
disc’s position, this is an opportunity for sideline voice to be incredibly
effective, informing him when, and where, the disc has moved and letting him
reposition without taking his eyes off the cutter. Of course, this information
must still meet the criteria above (heard, clear, concise, and practiced), but
it can be done.
One caveat– don’t tell the defender where to go, tell him what to know.
Yelling “move left” is nearly worthless, but yelling “not looking” as his man
cuts deep to tell him that the thrower is staring backwards at the dump and
the huck is not a threat is very useful.
Finally, how do you encourage sideline involvement?
After creating, teaching, and practicing your sideline voice, you still gotta
have guys do it, and after your offense grinds out a long grueling point with
multiple turnovers and are absolutely gassed and your motivation is lacking
because you’re down 3, how do you bolster the energy?
First and foremost, the effect of sidelines needs to be made clear and
important by the captains. A good captain knows how strong a vocal sideline
voice can be, and by encouraging it positively (it will helps us) rather than
negatively (come on guys what the hell we need to be louder!) you will see the
best results.
Second, good sub-calling that involves the whole or most of the team early on
goes a long way in engaging the entire team. If a guy hasn’t played in the
game, it’s tough for him to engage as much as he could. If he is subbed in
early on, not only does he know he’s getting crucial PT, but he is excited for
the rest of the game on the sideline.
To conclude:
A strong sideline voice can be the difference between a near-block and a
block. It must be heard, concise, and understood quickly through practice.
There are many defensive opportunities for sideline voice to help, often by
seeing what the on-field defender can’t, and communicating only the most
useful information. Remember, don’t tell him where to go, tell him what to
know. Finally, instill an appreciation for the importance of sideline voice
early and often, and involve people early in games to help create energy from
everyone.