So Nationals 2008 was a month ago, but a few thoughts have been floating around in my head, at least regards team management and so forth. The following is provided to get them out of my head - whether they're of any value is up to you.
Youth Wings
I figure in the next year or two, many of the regular Open clubs playing at Nationals will have some sort of Youth squad, and within a year or two after that, the benefits will start to be seen for the main team, as strong fit young fellas start coming through a more structured development. The Youth Wing will be involved in squad training in the lead up to Nationals, play Regionals (and possibly make Nationals in their own right) and then keep training with any NUFLers and build up to Youth Nats each year in June.
Long Calendar
Its been a given for the last few years that preparation for Nationals is starting earlier. I think now its stablilised in mid-November - a couple of weeks after Mixed Nats. But Clubs are also starting to sort out their calendar or plan before that, so that when the preparation physically starts in mid-November, the long plan is in place, noting training sessions (and not just "every Wednesday ... but counting down as "Training Session NatsMinus18, Training Session NatsMinus17, etc), tournaments, away-weekends (becoming more common as squads grow to allow scrimmaging), local scrimmaging, and also Club social events that build bonds through the season (including with ladies). Some plans are even now going post-Season, with post-Season social event, come-down weekends, and just plain "lets play fun Ultimate now" sessions. These plans of course have some flexibility in them, but they help people work out their commitment, budget their time and money for the season, and maintain a group sense of buildup.
Planning Non-Playing Time
I've noticed teams planning their non-playing time at Nationals. The old style was "here's the draw and there's a party some night". Some teams are now timetabling the whole thing (with room to move and adjust of course), but factoring in longer warmups at the start of the day, good warmdowns at the end of the day, warmups and downs between games, lunch and snacking, team meetings, and also socialising in the evenings (including with the ladies).
Apparently when FU went to NZ, they emailed one of the women's teams and asked them out to dinner on one of the non-party nights, and apparently had a great time as a group. I think they then took Raging Wahine out one night at Nats? Having this planned ahead seemed to be a good idea - people knew what they were doing each night etc, rather than drifting from the fields and doing whatever, or pissfarting about trying to work out what they're doing.
Stats Collection
As selection becomes much much tighter, teams have turned to using stats to help justify selections. But we all know (even though most of us don't do it), stats can provide a lot of help in both training and determining tactics (recognising strengths and weakness, providing goals) as well as learning how to ignore reputations and recognise form and improvement instead.
A suggestion I have picked up for teams with a long calendar - have a stats-taking roster so that for each training session (and most scrimmages), it is someone's turn to sit out the session (or have two people and sit half out each) and take stats and post them the next day on the team e-list and insert them onto a database.
Training and game stats don't need to be taken for everything, as while its good that some drills are played for 'perfection', other drills need to be open for people to stretch themselves - so as part of planning a training session, confirm that there are some "no stats" drills. Keep stats also on the fitness elements of training and do this about once a month leading up to Nats and see how people change.
With a roster, the "missing out on training" load is spread evenly, but also everyone gets to look at each other with different, stats-focused eyes. People can also trade their places on a roster, and this helps motivate people to come to training when they were injured or crook - they can trade and take stats that time around.
Individuals use the stats to motivate themselves and plenty of humour can used between players to motivate each other, and some boffins can get keen and generate graphs and such to show improvement over time.
Stats also help drive decisions about which drills to run at subsequent training sessions, and obviously to guide selections.
A/B - X/Y
I've said before and I'll say it again - I reckon Clubs should articulate an alternations over a series of years between A/B/C/etc teams, and "even" teams. Players benefit from both setups, as do Clubs. Agreeing the plan over multiple seasons (it doesn't have to be one year of one, and then one year of the other) lets people know what they're working for over the long term.
Mid Way
Make sure you have a good social event, like a Club dinner, say half-way through the season. Maybe use it to announce selections rather than email - make an event of it and recognise people who've been working hard. Build the team's vibe and use this as the point from where individuals were working on getting selected to now working on doing well at Nats.
Traveling Together
FU having a bus and Firestorm carpooling to Coffs really showd the benefit of doing the travel. A strong bond develops between players, and lots of the talk of the previous six months becomes more and more focused.
I still remain stunned that team air-travel remains really disorganised. Partly this is individual circumstances (people can fly at different times due to work/life demands) and partly this is budget (some people find cheaper flights at different times). Now, its not really feasible to book as a group, but it is doable to, the day after Regionals and confirmation that you're going to Nationals, and/or at the time you confirm your squad for Nationals, someone in the leadership group can book their flight (an after-work one) and tell everyone which one it is and encourage them to book now and get on it (or one about the same time). If its more expensive for individuals, yes you will save money anyway by travelling together to and from the airport in shared cabs, and yes, you will have a much better tournament and its worth it.
Scrimmaging vs Punching Bags (aka local pickups)
I've mentioned elsewhere that, back in the day, prep for Nationals was about going to tournaments. This was partly because of a lack of quality local people to scrimage against. Nowadays, there's plenty more. Rather than always scrimmaging within the Club at training sessions, its now very possible to organise scrimmages against local punching bags. Punching bags do unexpected things and teach you to react better as a team than you would scrimmaging against your Club-mates.
In Brisbane, an idea before the first BPL season of the year starts, to ask work with the BPL TD to set aside two empty Thursday nights, which would be used to have games between the Firestorm teams and Punchingbags of BPLers who aren't going to Nats. The Punchingbags would probably enjoy a hard run at their regular time, but this time with different team-mates and playing different teams (this is also easier than trying to arrange games some other time, via "please help" emails).
Three team scrimmages are also really valuable at training. Set up three teams, play games of first to five, and then the losing team rotates off. This challenges whole squads against fresh opponents (ie if you'd just played five points and then the opposition went entirely off and a new team came on, having had a good rest together).
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