Managing Trials: Team Goals
Managing Trials: Team Goals
Embedded Files
Defining your Team Goals
Defining your Team Goals
We’ve written this to show you two paths: a higher-level ultimate team, where most athletes have competed at National and European levels, and a developing team, where most athletes have just a few years or months of experience.
Our elite group is TeamNads, and our development-focused group is TeamBrew (creative, we know…).
Everything here is based on our experiences as players, coaches, or captains of these types of teams. A development-focused team can share the same vision as an elite team if that’s realistic and motivating for you and your leadership group. We’ve included a profile for each team, but the main thing is that you go through the process of creating your own vision. It’s not about right or wrong; it’s about defining the goal that drives you and your team.
Trials are your chance to see which players best advance your vision. Before you assess them, clarify the roles you need to fill and set criteria for evaluating player attributes that align with your goals.
Planning Funnel
Planning Funnel
Be as transparent as you can
Be as transparent as you can
Delivering bad news can be the toughest part of trials, but staying transparent about your decision-making process makes it easier and more fulfilling for everyone. Clear communication helps you give constructive feedback, so players can better understand and learn from the experience—rather than leaving with a sour taste and damaging future relationships.
A good way to start with transparency, is defining the goal and how you want to achieve it, then you can measure whether players are able to contribute to that.
The way we have designed and executed trials in the past has been to follow this structure, which we guide you through below with some examples.
Create your team vision
Define your “how's"
Identify key player attributes
Establish measurable criteria for each attribute
Design drills and games to evaluate these criteria
Observe and evaluate each player
Select the team! 🎉
Team Vision
Team Vision
Culture & performance
Culture & performance
A good starting point can be to layout what you want your team to achieve and how you want them to achieve it. Don't forget to build in behaviour expectations that enact your vision of the culture too. If this is important to you and your team it should be integral to your planning process, not an add-on to help you decide between equal athletes later on down the line.
It doesn't have to be complicated and can be on a piece of scrap paper, some notes on your phone or a perfectly organised Google drive folder, but have a good think about what you want for the team. If you're the team captain, coach or manager, this can be your go to reference for the year when you're making tough decisions,
“is this contributing towards the vision?”
TeamNads Profile
TeamNads Profile
This team has competed in every UK national event since its creation. It has won multiple times but not consistently. You have a strong heritage and are well-known at the European level. IT is based in a population dense area of the country and typically has a good proportion of the team travelling from local towns and cities to train. A large number of players typically apply to join, so there’s no need to focus on team PR—players already know who you are. You have a well-known, performance-based culture, with many of your players representing their nation across various divisions and age groups.
TeamVision
TeamVision
Train and perform as a team expecting to win a gold medal at UK Nationals and to be on the podium at the European Club Finals. providing a positive and encouraging environment to ensure a performance based culture with strong individual buy in for the team’s performance.
How
How
Provide intense and engaging training sessions
Attend high level practice tournaments
Facilitate consented feedback frameworks for players to support each others growth (more on this another time…!)
Create a performance based culture
Recruit or refine highly skilled athletes
Player Attributes
Player Attributes
A driven player who visibly works hard and looks to always develop their game
A player who is supportive of their peers through positive and consented feedforward
A player who is receptive to feedback and visibly attempts to implement it
A player who has great fundamental skills and hasn't “skipped” the base of the skills pyramid
A player who can demonstrate adaptable thinking and knowledge of the game
TeamBrew Profile
TeamBrew Profile
This team is focused on growth and development, steadily building its presence in UK ultimate. It’s a geographically focussed team with all of it’s players based in the same city. While competing against the best is valuable, the team prioritise entering events where they have a real shot at success. Learning how to win as a team, regardless of the division, helps develop a winning mindset and builds the foundations for future challenges as they continue to climb the ranks. They want to make sure they provide a competitive “winning” based environment for players they are trying to retain but make it accessible for newer players who have less experience.
TeamVision
TeamVision
Train and perform as a team expecting to qualify for a higher level tournament and improve their ranking from the previous season., whilst providing a competitive and development focussed environment that encourages retention and ownership over the team identity.
How
How
Provide intense and engaging training sessions
Attend key warmup tournaments with appropriate level of competition
Create a development focussed and supportive culture
Recruit or refine highly driven athletes with growth potential
Provide an environment that retains your top players
Player Attributes
Player Attributes
A player who has some strong areas of their game and have the drive or potential to excel in other areas
Have a strong work ethic and spend time on their own development
Actively seek and are receptive to feedback and proactively offer their own development thoughts and plans
Adaptability, roles can tend to be less defined on less established teams, giving the opportunity for players to hone skills in different aspects of their game
Leadership potential, players who show signs of creating and development a strong performance based culture to help the team reach their goals.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse