Roles in a team

Success for a team is about the team members working for each other.

Individuals taking it upon themselves to do the things that need doing. Now this can happen spontaneously in many cases. However, success comes along more often when these things are articulated, planned for and recognised.

I realised there a lot of roles that that can be filled in a team, and if you don't have a manager or coach, players step up to do them. Particularly when you let them know that the work is valuable and they are trusted to do it their way.

Player roles

• puller
• first cutter
• dump denier
• long cutter
• hucker
• aerial defender
• finishers/goal catcher
• disher
• structure setter

Coach roles

• skill teacher
• motivator
• organiser
• optimist
• reviewer
• line caller
• sideline talker
• tactician

Manager Roles

• finances
• food
• uniforms
• venues
• registration

At the representative level, Australia is steadily delineating these roles, and finding the people who will be managers and coaches, so the players can focus on their playing roles.

Got others?

Pathways

The key to getting more people playing your sport is creating and publicising pathways. You want every player to start playing, and then move up to the next level of competition that suits their playing ability.

Some questions to spark your thinking on this:

In our region, how do players enter the sport?

How do we identify all talented beginners, offer them a taste of higher level ultimate, and ensure they can access the next level if they want to?

How does a player move from one team to another?

Are there pathways for both men and women? For 12 year olds? For those who start playing at age 30?

Do the coaches and administrators know what the existing pathways are?

Are there pathways within local clubs? Or leagues? 

What is the best way to communicate with coaches and players?

On a related topic, designing pathways for administrators and coaches will help the organisation and coaching of ultimate. But we have even more work to do in that area.

Starting a season

Last weekend, Heads of State had their first event of the season, a training camp out at Halls Gap.

Our season will culminate in Nationals at the end of April: about 5 months long in total.

Having a camp to start the season is great because you can set your team up for a successful campaign. You've got a whole weekend to work with, and a chance to be with your team without the daily distractions of life.

We set goals for the team, we planned, we did skill and fitness benchmarking, we welcomed and introduced new players, we set expectations for training commitment, and we got excited about what we're gonna do.

If your team doesn't start the season with a plan and expectations that the team knows, you are playing blind.

Ro and Dan atop the mountain we climbed

"But I thought we would..."

Sometimes you experience several lessons on a topic before you feel you learn something.

I think Worlds 2008 gave me a few more lessons on a topic I thought I knew, but actually have much more to learn about.

Expectations.

Each of the six Australian teams at Worlds had to deal with unexpected surprises. Things that threatened to put a spanner in the works. In fact, the ones I am thinking of are six very different surprises.

The teams got to North America... and boom!

Events happened. People reacted. And for some teams, the players weren't clear on what should be done, or what others expected to happen.

Setting expectations is a key task for a coach. There are numerous ways to do this.

• Have a team meeting at the beginning of the campaign. Ask players what they want out of the experience. What would be unenjoyable? What would be exciting? What are the risks?
  
• Draw on past experiences. Discuss what happened last year with leadership.
  
• Group discussion of scenarios. Print out simple, realistic scenarios on slips of paper. Discuss in pairs, then come together to discuss as a team.
• Meet with coaches of other teams and find out what they have experienced, and how they plan.
  

You need mental toughness, but you also need systems. What have you seen go wrong? What steps have you taken that will ensure your team knows what to do if the wheels fall off?