Recently I've been playing in a few teams where I was one of the dominant players. Now this in itself is pretty kick-arse, there's nothing more satisfying than being the go-to thrower or receiver. However I'm beginning to notice that I'm finishing games feeling like I haven't played more than a couple of points, despite being on field for as much game time as I could get my greasy mitts on. And this is because of the number of inexperienced players on field.
As such I've been thinking pretty heavily about the arguement between development of players Vs recruitement of players. The question is "Is it more important to develop players into high level players, or to recruit new players to the sport".
I feel that the recruitement itself leads to further development. In a "trickle up" effect, more begginers will eventually lead to more high-level players. However, this requires experienced players to give up time from playing a higher level to train newbies.
Which in my experience ranges from easy to excruciatingly difficult. I mean, who wants to give up being able to play hard games of ulti to teach people what a mark is.
It's this point that is critical. In SA especially where we have a limited number of experienced players who are willing to give up their time to train new players. I think that it is extremely important that older, more experienced players give up their time to coach new players, both in groups and 1-0n-1, in order to grow the number of mid level players who can then play leagues and tournaments without the hand-holding, leading to more high-level players and better games for everyone.
So for any SA players out there, if you're an experienced playe, get off your arse and go teach someone how to hold a mark, or throw a kick-arse forehand; and if you're a begginer, don't be afraid to grab an older player and DEMAND that they teach you something. In both cases you're only helping yourself by creating a higher level of competition.
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also by spending time helping someone learn a new skill, you may find you analyse the way in which you perform said skill, leading to an improvement in your own game so it's win-win really. (There Sammy, a constructive comment, I suprise myself more than anything)
ReplyDeleteOi, sammy. As someone who has spent HEAPS of time developing people, and also pushing others to do the same, my comment is that I often find people with the experience to develop others are scared of giving it a go, or just wait for someone else (namely me) to do it. I figured out the best ways to explain concepts and analyse a persons throws by doing it a hundred times. Anyone in this situation reading should understand that at some point they need to give it a go. Foley is a perfect example of someone who until recently sucked quite a lot at frisbee (at this stage he probably won't make our AUG team) but he has done absolute wonders with William Light and Flinders Partae!
ReplyDeleteIn addition, there is plenty of support for people to develop AS INSTRUCTORS; for instance, discussing your approach with me or others, or attending AFDA frisbee coaching courses that run regularly these days (talk to our Development guy, Sammy, about that :))
joel i'm going to cut you from my aug team and you're gonna have to go form your own uni and you will lose.
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