Maybe you're new to the sport of Ultimate or you've never been in the role of coaching a team. What follows are some simple ideas that can help you build a program and help players learn to play Ultimate.

• Don’t shy away from coaching because you yourself are not a player. It is perfectly fine to have coaching assistance from your experienced players. Players teaching players combined with your practice agenda can work well.

• The key to a strong team is to find strong athletes. Many schools will not have a plethora of skillful Ultimate players waiting to jump onto the team. Obviously it helps to have a handful of kids that know the game and have a better than basic skill level. However, when tryout time comes, I look for strong athletes. Along with their athleticism I want players who have a good attitude and the ability to adapt their knowledge of another sport to Ultimate, and that show me that they have the ability to catch a disc. The rest seems to come.

• I also recommend the following book by Harry Sheehan, the Athletic Director at Williams College, as a helpful guide for working with students in an athletic context: Raising a Team Player: Teaching Kids Lasting Values on the Field, on the Court and on the Bench

Coaching Tips: (Nothing original, just worth repeating…)

How to avoid "handling" errors:

Keep It Simple
My players all have become familiar with the phrase “Keep it simple.” When deciding on the next thing to do in a game, always look for the simplest or easiest step to avoid making an error. Knowing what that is always involves my other two most voiced phrases: “know your limits” and “play the odds.”

Know Your Limits
Every player has his or her limits. Some are definitely more accomplished than others, but all have limits. It is my role as their coach to help them identify those limits. Most all players, new and old, can see what they want the disc to do when they are about to throw it, but many times what they see and what actually happens are two different things. I tell all my players to know what they can do with a disc, not what they think they can do.

Play the Odds
Every player should know what the relative odds are of completing a 5-foot dump and of completing a 50-yard forehand or hammer into the wind. Plus everything else in between.

When players are making a decision to “keep it simple,” they always have to “play the odds” and “know their limits.”

How to avoid catching errors:

Keep your eye on the disc.
Watch it go into your hands.
Use two hands and your body.

Then…Practice, Practice, Practice, Practice, Practice, Practice, Practice, Practice, Practice!