Scobel Wiggins Photography

As a college captain, I had a strong desire to transmit as much of my Ultimate knowledge to the younger players. I was one of the few players on the team with experience outside of college Ultimate, so I felt that I had a lot to offer. I was consistently and constantly giving pointers—how to bend and float throws, defensive positioning, when and how to make cuts, how to play various junk defenses. Sometimes I gave advise in emails, sometimes in practice, and sometimes right after my teammates made mistakes. We had no coach, and I felt like I had to double my teaching efforts to make up for this lack. In short, I supplied a constant and steady barrage of information, and I thought I was doing the right thing to make the players and the team better.

I learned a lot my first year as a coach. The first thing I noticed is that college Ultimate is a much more simple game than I had previously thought. The great college teams often don't do all the little things right. You can have a successful program if you focus on the fundamentals: marking, resetting the Frisbee, and spacing. Most of all, playing with energy and focus counts for more than anything else.

I also realized that the constant barrage of information method didn't help much with energy and focus. In fact, with too many instructions, tips, and ideas in their heads players would lose focus. They would think too much, or worse, lose confidence in their abilities. Even more, I noticed that players learned better from watching and doing, not listening to me.

So I changed my style. In huddles, I threw out the talk of intricate minutiae of the game and kept the players focused on marking hard, getting the right spacing down, and playing with energy. I talked less and demonstrated more. Drills focused almost exclusively on spacing and movement. I would only correct players when I saw bad habits forming and rarely, if ever, during tournaments.

This coaching strategy went a long way. My guess is that there are many other teams out there that would benefit from similar tactics.