Last Saturday I traveled up to North Jersey with some of my teammates (all of which are officers on the team) for a coaching clinic. The clinic is designed to give members of the Ultimate Frisbee community the necessary knowledge and tools in order to do basic coaching, specifically at the Youth [High School] level. The clinic was lead by a well known player/coach in the Ultimate World. Upon completion, all attendees are considered level I certified.
The clinic was broken up into two parts; ethics & performance. The morning was designated toward understanding the ethics and basic structure to building a program, specifically at the high school level. This section was very interesting to me. I never knew, nor thought about, anything that was discussed about building a program, recruiting, fund raising, parents, traveling, etc. Being one of a very few players on my team that did not play in high school I never experienced most of what everyone else had experienced in high school, at least at a player level.
The afternoon was focused on performance, which basically means running practices and how to lead a team throughout a season. This section was not as informative from my point of view. This part was mostly the guy telling us what he though was the best way to do things (which I trust considering how successful this guy has been as a high school coach, as well as, the captain of a team that went to nationals. Actually, he was the [former] captain of my coach's team that went to nationals last year.). Most of what he told us what not news to me, mostly because I think my coach (who was also attending this clinic to get certified) has done a great job at coaching my team and already informed us about most of the performance section.
Overall, definitely a rewarding experience. I did not think that there was too much that I could take away from it and bring back to my current team. However, I believe that if I ever start a youth program (at West or some other HS) I now have a HUGE advantage on how to do this. I would have been completely lost without this clinic, but now I feel like I definitely have the tools and resources to do it. Plus, I can say I have a level I coaching certification.
The clinic was broken up into two parts; ethics & performance. The morning was designated toward understanding the ethics and basic structure to building a program, specifically at the high school level. This section was very interesting to me. I never knew, nor thought about, anything that was discussed about building a program, recruiting, fund raising, parents, traveling, etc. Being one of a very few players on my team that did not play in high school I never experienced most of what everyone else had experienced in high school, at least at a player level.
The afternoon was focused on performance, which basically means running practices and how to lead a team throughout a season. This section was not as informative from my point of view. This part was mostly the guy telling us what he though was the best way to do things (which I trust considering how successful this guy has been as a high school coach, as well as, the captain of a team that went to nationals. Actually, he was the [former] captain of my coach's team that went to nationals last year.). Most of what he told us what not news to me, mostly because I think my coach (who was also attending this clinic to get certified) has done a great job at coaching my team and already informed us about most of the performance section.
Overall, definitely a rewarding experience. I did not think that there was too much that I could take away from it and bring back to my current team. However, I believe that if I ever start a youth program (at West or some other HS) I now have a HUGE advantage on how to do this. I would have been completely lost without this clinic, but now I feel like I definitely have the tools and resources to do it. Plus, I can say I have a level I coaching certification.
Comments