Amazing Women's Nationals & Notes from Coaches & Captains workshop at OWN
Marlise Richter
From: Marlise Richter <marlise...@gmail.com>
Date: 20 August 2017 at 22:17
Subject: Notes from Coaches & Captains workshop at OWN
To: "saf...@googlegroups.com" <saf...@googlegroups.com>
Bafazi Development Fund
Captains/Coaches workshop
11 Aug 2017
Port Elizabeth Polo Crosse Clubhouse
19h00-20h30
Sponsored by the Bafazi Development Fund, OWN TOC and SAFDA
Background reading:
· On Being a Woman at Pickup (Ultimate): https://medium.com/@changamanda/on-being-a-woman-at-pickup-ultimate-f2832a39583
· We Don’t Need Saviors, We Need Proponents: One woman’s experience as a player and coach of ultimate: https://medium.com/@claudiaeleni_20565/we-dont-need-saviors-we-need-proponents-578d79b01823
· On Gender Lines: http://skydmagazine.com/2016/05/on-gender-lines/
· Skyed by a girl: http://www.mngupi.org/news/skyed-by-a-girl
Big sheets of paper that people were invited to write thoughts to the following questions:
o What are the qualities of the best captain you have had?
o What are the qualities of the best coaches you have had?
o What are the worst qualities you have experienced in a coach?
o What are the worst qualities you have experienced in a captain?
Some Answers by participants:
1. Introductions and Welcome = Katie
Ice-breaker exercise - Join a group with a Yes/No/Sometimes answer for each statement and motivate why
A. To be a good coach, you have to be an excellent player.
B. Captains and coaches generally talk too much = TMI
C. Teams don’t really need to have a coach and field captain, a truly committed person can take on both roles successfully.
2. Why did you come to this workshop? = Question posed by Katie
Some answers:
o Learn from people’s captain and coaches experiences; get tips and grow; how to structure knowledge to teach/coach
o To better understand the experience of captains and coaches
o To support women’s development in leadership; to learn as men how to support women’s leadership development; contribute to lifting women up in Ultimate community
o Learn how to best coach women: in the game and in leadership
o Be part of the conversation around women’s development and leadership
o Need to see many more female captains in the mixed division, and many more female coaches
3. Guest speaker input from various coaches and captains
Framing questions to Coach/Captain Guest Speakers:
· What led you to (want to?) be a coach or captain?
· What does it take it to be a good coach or captain?
· What were/are the barriers that you face in taking up coaching or captaining positioning, and how can they be overcome?
· What was/is the greatest source of support on and off the field?
· Jenna: Got into captain/coaching: played for years, but once starting moving into mor3e development communities, was often the most experienced player and no one else willing to do it. Has been learning along the way. Good coach/captain: dedication – takes a lot of time and effort; a process of constantly learning, adapting, changing: learning what works for your team; Communication – psychologist; admin; explain strategy: different communication hats
· Corne: The lines between coach and captaining are often blurred in Ultimate, but are separate; driven to understand the intricacies of the game; captaining is an opportunity to serve the team – for Corne an opportunity to give back; PLANNING: know at the start of season the plan; know what you are teaching inside and out; captain – lead by example: not the big player, but arriving early, running harder than anyone else in the drill,; best represent the ethos of the team
· Thuli: Become coach through seniority in UCT; need passion; be organised; helps to be outspoken
· Sandra: Captaining for a season/tournament vs. for an established team - these are different responsibilities (more than just 2hrs once per week).
o Often people get the coaching or captaining hat because of the work they have done – dedication: put the time into admin, reading up, watching Ultimate, planning sessions, etc.
o Marlise & I co-established a women's team and I started "coaching" by planning practice sessions.
o Got involved with coaching mixed, largely due to the encouragement and support of our (male) head coach, who is hugely supportive of women in leadership.
o For successful coaching programs, it's important to have admin and captains support; captains must buy into the strategy.
o As a developing coach, it helps to show appreciation to players for their patience and cooperation, as we learn from players as much as they learn from us.
· Cron: Passion for the sport; became a coach out of necessity: everyone was inexperienced, so people shared on particular skills they had, and for Cron it snowballed from there; a drive to learn more about the sport and how it functioned; Confidence: can come from putting yourself in positions that are uncomfortable. Don’t need to have it at the start of coaching etc so don’t let that be an insurmountable barrier.
o Worst thing to do as a coach is to be a know it all, and not listen to other thoughts/ideas: shutting people down, leads to them being inhibited.
· Dale: Starting as a young player, but needing to step into a void of leadership; Motivating your players
· From the floor
o know your players (know what works for them – on and off field; strategy and motivation)
o Give players opportunities to grow
4. What are the barriers to women taking on coaches and captains roles? = Katie
Breakaway small group discussion and feedback to plenary, with discussion on strategies on how to overcome
· Motivating women to take the lead; step up – what is that catalyst for taking up a new role?
· Creating a safe space (free of judgement)
· Encouraging women to stay on leadership positions
· Daunting to have to prove yourself to the team
· Self esteem: internal and external; lack of confidence in abilities to coach/captain; thinking you have to be an excellent player to be a leader
· Few female leader role models
· Women’s Ultimate seen as “lesser” form of the sport
· Female leaders have sometimes been seen as responsible for female players rather than for the whole team; male players not always respecting the female leadership
· Need information on how to structure a coaching session and necessary strategies
o Lack of understanding of the differing roles between captains and coaches
· Lack of opportunities: even in small ways – men always being used as demonstrators during drills
Possible strategies of overcoming these problems
· Coaching clinics
· Drawing women players into discussions around drills/strategy
· Pair Senior and junior players to coach/captain together
· Mentor
· Rotational coaching
· Men to consciously create opportunities for women to lead drills, to be used as demonstrators of drills and asked for opinions
o consciously step back, trust women and support where needed
· Women seize and ask for opportunities/ step up!/ be confident!
· Men model respect for female leaders
· Skills development clinics for women
5. Claiming your space as a coach or a captain = Marlise
Starting off with a Quiz – Questions to the Audience:
Raise your hand if this statement applies to you:
· How many people have set up a WFDF-standard size field?
· What are the dimensions of an Endzone?
· How many people have pulled to start off a game?
· Who has taken the disc from a man to do the Pull?
· Who has caught the Pull?
· Who has given a perspective on the field that was not in your team’s interest during a call (for example, your team mate didn’t catch the disc inside the field, and you had the best perspective)?
· Who has spoken to an opponent privately about the opponent’s poor spirit?
o To a team mate about a team mate’s poor spirit?
· How many cones do you need to set up a field? (assuming a pristine field)
· Who owns 8 cones?
· Who has 8 cones in their bag that they always bring to the field?
· Who has their own disc?
· Who has led a warm-up?
· What has served on an Ultimate committee of any sort?
· Do you have cleats?
· Do you have any Ultimate-specific gear? (i.e. you sometimes play Ultimate with some Ultimate-specific clothes – not your hockey or jogging clothes)
Comment by Marlise: Some questions had answers with a distinct gender dynamic with proportionally more men answering yes than women.
What some of these questions try to describe are the following qualities:
· Knowledge of the Rules
· Confidence
· Respect
· Proactiveness
· Commitment
· Tact and Communication
· Conquering fears
· Integrity
· Organisation
· Interest
· Self-reliance
· Looking the part
These are qualities that describe some aspects of Ultimate leadership
You aren’t born with these – they can be learnt , or adopted and practiced
Some tactical tips for claiming your space as a coach or a captain:
i. Decide that you are taking on this role
a. Visualise yourself in this role – what type of coach/captain do you want to be?
b. Embrace this role
c. Tell others about your new role
d. You are now leading a team and are in many ways the face of the team
e. This is a Big Life decision – you will likely double the amount of time you spend in Ultimate
ii. Get Team Buy-in
a. It helps to have a clearly defined team that you are leading – people who want to be part of a team of people who want to build a common identity
b. Call a meeting of the team and set team goals through consensus
c. Does your team?
i. Want to improve their skills; or
ii. Win a tournament/league; or
iii. Attract more people into the team?
d. Above will determine you plan of action
e. If a team has set goals, communicate these back to them, how they could be auctioned, and how different people will contribute towards them
iii. Set an example
a. Commitment to practices, games and tournaments/league games
b. Come early and be the first one ready
c. Do everything with full attention – warm-up, drills, games etc
iv. Clarify roles between captains, coaches, team leadership and team committee members and document who does what
a. There are various important tasks to have an effective team
i. Who communicates mainly with the team
ii. Who arranges fields and friendly games
iii. Who arranges kit
iv. Who decides on a training plan
v. Who registers the team for a tournament/league
vi. Who leads warm-up
vii. Who keeps time during training and during games
viii. Who sorts out the team roster and who plays when
ix. Who organises travel and accommodation (for an away game)
x. Who calls strategy and lines on the field
xi. Who keeps the team up-beat and positive?
xii. Who keeps score during games? Who maintains the team archive?
xiii. Who does team finances
b. The captain should ideally only take on one or 2 of these tasks
v. Know how to maintain the flow of information, and ask for feedback
a. A feeble captain/coach is one who talks down to the team, and who is a dictator - respect for players and asking for their input is important
i. Useful exercise to do from time-to-time is the Stop/Start/Continue pop quiz – players have to take 2 min to fill in an online survey/slip of paper on What should Stop during Practices/Games; What should Continue during Practices/Games and what should Continue during Practices/Games
b. At the same time, Practices and Tournaments are not the time for democracy
i. The team leaders should make executive decisions during these times
1. A Leaders Huddle (small quick discussion of the captains and coaches) during time-outs and half-time helps to put a filtering mechanism in place that assists captains to go back to the team with 2-3 max points to discuss
a. Research shows that people can only remember 4 max points in any one session
vi. Grow leaders
a. Always be aware of your Exit Plan –help to grow new leaders all the time
b. How best can you support new captains/coaches?
vii. Get support within the team
a. Encourage women to take on leadership roles and support them
b. Ask for support from people within your team
c. Importance of mentoring
6. Concluding thoughts - everyone in the room has to complete the following sentence:
A Captain is______
A Coach is _______