Scouting Success with Emma Klima

Hi, I'm Emma Klima (Reading Ultimate),

I started playing in year 7 in our school team (catchily named Wobbly Hedgehog Syndrome) and quickly fell in love with the sport. I didn’t know anything outside of this until 2012 when I discovered GB and club teams existed. Since then I’ve played for a number of club teams including St Albans and Reading, my current team who I also coach.

I’ve represented GB in both the mixed and women's divisions across u20’s, u23’s/24’s and Seniors, and played for uBu during my time at Birmingham Uni.

Recently, I was part of the coaching team that led the GBU24 Women's team to bronze medal success at the 2025 World Championships. 

What is scouting

Scouting doesn’t need to be complicated. In its simplest form it is just figuring out how your opposition plays, so you can prepare your team for the defences they may come up against and plan which defensive looks from your playbook you think will most successfully stop the opposition being able to score. 

If you can also work out who their key players are, and which of your players are stylistically suited to stopping them being able to be used effectively, you can build this into a game plan for how you’re going to manage the game to get the best result for your team. 

Why should you consider scouting?

In close games, scouting can be the difference maker. 

Going into a game prepared for what you’re going to face and with a plan to counteract it means you don’t lose valuable time in the first few points working out how your opposition play.  Getting an early break can completely change the momentum of a game and give your team a psychological advantage.

How to scout

I like to keep things really simple, as otherwise you can get caught up in forcing the information into a set template or stressing more about how it looks and lose the true purpose. 

If you are scouting in a group it is helpful for you all to be on roughly the same page around how you want to summarise the data you collect, but this doesn’t need to be super regimented in my experience.

It can seem really overwhelming trying to collect everything at once, but just be prepared to do lots of pausing and rewinding. 

It can feel like you’re not spotting the key players to start with but as you get further through the footage these players will make themselves obvious. I like to use stats to help inform this, but just be aware that sometimes the players getting the stats are not necessarily the key drivers of the offence, so don’t be blindly led by this. I also rarely pull out more than 6-7 people for matchups as this too many becomes tricky to manage.

What information to collect

I try and collect info broken down into 5 categories:

Matchups: Record their name, number, any distinguishable playing gear that makes them easier to spot/point out to players, how they like to play, and the type of player who would be able to negate them. In my experience it’s better not to select specific player matchups from your team before the tournament/game, as it allows you flexibility to give matchups to those performing well at the time.

Defensive looks: Record the look and if it’s played by the O line, D line or both

Offensive looks: Record the structure, if it’s played by the O or D line, any initiation plays you can spot, notes on how best to defend against it. This should also include EZ set ups

Turnovers: Keeping track of how the team you’re scouting is turning over can be extremely valuable. Is it from defensive strategies like a particular force or zone etc? Is it a type of throw they’re struggling with, e.g. hucks, swings, break throws? Other things like weather can play a factor also.

General thoughts: literally a brain dump of anything you think might be helpful that doesn’t fit into the above 

How to use and prepare your team

People learn and absorb info in different ways, so be conscious of this and share the info in a way that works for you and for the majority of the team. It’s unlikely to be useful to share all your collected information with the team as it just won’t be remembered, draw out the key themes to share with everyone and address matchups on an individual basis. I’ve used two different methods over the years, either in isolation, or combined:

Pre game/tournament summary sheets: A one page guide that highlights the main O and D looks the opposition team will use, so players can mentally prepare. You can then include a quick link to the relevant areas of your playbook for the defences/looks you’ll be using against them. Summary sheets are especially useful if you want to be able to draw out an initiation play/provide short clips for everyone to see, but keep them short and brief

Pre game huddles: If your team are less bothered with the details a pre warm up or pre game huddle can be a good way to share the information. Again keep this brief and share 1-2 key offensive and defensive foci for the team to remember and deliver on. You can always call a TO mid game if you need to change or adapt these.

How to use and prepare your team

Italy (15:7 win to GB)
We identified they had strong backhand huckers and they turned more often on flick around throws when under pressure. We utilised a flick no IO force in the game to encourage these shots to be taken more often. We also knew they had some very good huckers and receivers, so stuck out a deep poach to discourage their preferred route to a goal. 

Austria (15:9 win to GB)
We knew this team had some phenomenal stand out players who were real drivers of their offence. We used the footage to stylistically match these players with our defenders, to make sure we could negate their impact on the game from the start, reducing the natural flow of the offence and therefore reducing the confidence of the O line.

You can find an example of scouting notes here, where you can also download your own blank template if you need some help to get going!