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The Huddle

Safe And Sensible Scheduling

by Mike Mullen

Last year at a UPA sanctioned high school event in Washington there was a format that forced teams to play five games in one day. This was not the first time there was a youth tournament in Seattle or other areas that required three, four, and five games in a day. In fact it is pretty much standard operating procedure to schedule that way. The problem with the whole system is that it is fundamentally unsafe.

It is shocking how naive the Ultimate community seems to be about sensible scheduling. If Ultimate wants to gain acceptance in mainstream America it will require school and community athletic administrators buying into the sport. The first thing they will look for are liability concerns. Unsafe operating procedures lead to preventable injuries which justifiably lead to lawsuits. Parents rightfully have the expectation that the youth sports organizers are making reasonably safe decisions. Only when there are reasonable scheduling guidelines will athletic administrators consider supporting youth Ultimate in their communities. Is it reasonable for youth to play three plus Ultimate games in a day? The answer can be found by looking at examples from other youth sports.

In fall 2008 Washington State Youth Soccer Association (WSYSA) moved the U15-U19 girls select soccer programs into the spring due to the concern about how many HS girls were getting overuse injuries when playing concurrently on select and HS teams. Quite often HS girls were playing two or three games during the week for their HS team and one game on the weekend for their select team. It was a huge adjustment but the overuse injury issue was so serious that all parties agreed to it. US Youth Soccer has put a lot of thought into the issue of how many games should be played in a day.

Sam Snow, the Senior Assistant Technical Director for US Youth Soccer writes in his blog: "Both US Youth Soccer and U.S. Soccer concur in our recommendations for no more than one match per day… We believe that the optimal playing and learning environment includes participating in no more than two matches per week. We also believe that players should not compete in more than one full match per day and no more than two full matches per weekend. There must be a day of rest between full-length matches. We strongly oppose the practice of scheduling regular season and/or make-up matches in a manner that results in four full matches in the same week… We believe that players under the age of 12 should not play more than 100 minutes per day, and those players older than 13 should not play more than 120 minutes per day..." (http://www.usyouthsoccer.org/Blog.asp?post_id=749)

US Youth Soccer is not alone their concern for how many games youth should play in a day. Most high school sports in the state of Washington are governed by the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA). Basketball and soccer are generally pretty even to Ultimate in the amount of running required. The WIAA mandates a maximum of one soccer or basketball game in a day. There are limits on the number of non-playoffs games teams can play during the regular season. The soccer limit is 16 games and the basketball limit is 20 games. (WIAA Handbook: http://www.wiaa.com/pub/handbook/)

Though protecting the safety of young competitors is the main reason for the limits on numbers of games in a day, there are other benefits that the youth Ultimate community can gain by having sensible scheduling. Costs would be lower for tournament events because there would be fewer games meaning fewer fields needing to be rented. Accessibility would be increased because tournaments wouldn’t need to leave the city to go to large regional sports complexes. Less travel and less games would also lead to a more sustainable model for coaches, players, and parents, because whole weekends wouldn’t have to given up for out of town tournaments.

So what should youth Ultimate sensible scheduling guidelines look like? Below are my recommendations:

Mike Mullen’s Youth Ultimate Sensible Scheduling Guidelines - February 2009

Elementary and Middle School Aged Participants

High School Aged Participant

Mike Mullen has been one of the most forward thinking and progressive organizers of the sport for the past 10 years. As a coach and administrator with Seattle's DiscNW and the very successful Northwest School Boys Varsity, Mike has shown his ability to not only come up with ideas, but also develop them for larger implementation. Mike comes from a more general sports background than most Ultimate players, and he brings that wide-ranging and valuable experience to his discussions.