S1-03 ∙ Painting Dirt

Before the season we sat down with the captains, Mia, Krisztina and Amanda to plan for the next two years. For the Femmes to even be in a position to contend for a Nationals bid, they had to significantly change the way they perceived the team and ultimate. Zac and I wanted the players to know exactly what they were getting into. Everyone needed to be on the same page about our goals and what it would take to make the transition from a fun, laid back team to a serious Regional power.

A week later, Zac and I waited outside the Kimmel Center as the captains pitched the idea to the team. We were reasonably certain that everyone would be on board—after all, the captains had approached us—but they did have a lot to decide. The practices would be composed almost entirely of fundamental drills and repetitive walkthroughs with little to no scrimmaging. The time commitment would increase with a playbook meeting and track workouts in addition to two to three practices a week, and there would be no guarantee of playing time at tournaments. While a few people stopped coming due to commitment issues, even they agreed that this was something everyone wanted to do and take seriously.

The most important thing that we as coaches did the beginning of Season One was instill an attitude of professionalism. We changed the tone of the team virtually overnight. We treated the Femmes like they were Nationals contenders rather than a team with zero Regionals experience. This attitude was largely manufactured, but since it was so prevalent in every little thing Zac and I did, it eventually flowed over into everyone on the team. I strongly believed that if we acted and worked like we were the class of the Metro East, eventually we would actually be the class of the Metro East. Zac and I would balance all this seriousness with our own brand of humor and outward silliness, but when it came to logistics and preparation, we took it almost too seriously.

Practices became extremely efficient with no wasted time. Attendance was mandatory, barring sickness or an email at least one week in advance with a good reason. Injury was a good reason; a hard midterm the next day was not. If anyone was late, we would run sprints. If we could not complete a drill effectively, we would run sprints. It was a calculated buildup of “expecting success” and nothing less. I recall a night practice at McCarren where we could not complete fifteen passes in a row on a basic in cut drill, partly due to conditions, focus, and the composition of the players at practice. We let the drill run for a full forty minutes and there must have been at least a hundred dropped passes. It was frustrating to watch, but I was happy to see that the Femmes did not want to move on, even to do punitive sprints, without completing the task at hand.

The weekly playbook meeting, cheesily dubbed "Femmes Foundations," was usually held in the Weinstein lounge amid food and couches. I spent quite a bit of time producing a professional looking playbook—bound, copied, and ready to be distributed at the first meeting, complete with inspirational quotes from current and former captains and a personalized front page. I tried to make the playbook as individualized as possible, with a "Unicorn" font, NYC themed playcalls, and the Femmes logo plastered everywhere. We concluded the first Foundations session we showed game footage from the UPA Club Championships, and for many of the Femmes it was the first time they had seen elite ultimate.

This top-down approach of acting like the best team without actually being anywhere near the best team seemed ridiculous. Zac and I would make our share of hype-machine and smoke-and-mirrors jokes, but by artificially producing an atmosphere that was special, unique, and professional, we would tangibly contribute to our long term goals. NYU needed to believe it could get there. In a way, Zac and I needed it too. We were both very skeptical, pragmatic people, and we hated the NYU ultimate culture of failure and disappointment. We had to convince ourselves just as much as the team.

The players fully trusted us. How could they not? Zac and I acted like we were authorities on Ultimate. We acted like we had all the answers. We had put into motion these new and exciting ideas and treated our methods like they were time-tested and proven effective. We spoke with the confidence of wise old masters, but in reality we had no clue half the time during Season One whether what we were doing was right. We were just scarily good at improvising the pretense of confidence. In a way, our coaching style was like a front yard. The Femmes could only see a well cut perfect lawn, and they believed it was the best in the neighborhood. In reality, it was just painted dirt. It was very convincing looking green paint, but it was still dirt underneath. Zac and I had planted seeds, but we truly did not know what would grow out of them.

Next Chapter

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

there are hidden words in this entry

dusty.rhodes said...

dude... they're in PURPLE.

em-PHASIS.