A couple of weeks ago I had the privilege of attending Midwest Throwdown in St. Louis, MO. This tournament was quite inspiring for what a grassroots model of growth can accomplish. Other groups around the country are also taking up the call for spreading ultimate; the efforts of Emerald City Ultimate offer another good example.
Michelle Ng was the driving force behind the Midwest Throwdown, although she had a lot of support and help from other great organizers, including Keely Dinse (Michigan), Anna Nazarov (Zeitgeist), and the Washington University Women's Ultimate (WUWU) program. What they came up with was a model for how to run a "teaching tournament." There were two main components that went into making this tournament all about growth in women's ultimate: the Round-up Division and the skills clinic.The Round-up division of the tournament paired 8 un-coached and developing women's teams with a well-known women's player who would coach them throughout the weekend. The 8 coaches have all played for top college programs and club teams and were able to bring their expertise to the developing college team through a series of drills and game rounds.
A great idea on paper, but an even more amazing idea to be a part of. The camaraderie between the coaches was wonderful--sharing ideas, supporting each other during the weekend, and strengthening connections between club teams across the country. But truly, the way the college women responded to the experience was tremendous. Two sentences in an evaluation from one team say it all: "We are a completely different team after participating in this tournament...It made our team want to become more competitive and help the world of women's ultimate continue to grow." Each of the 8 teams can go back to their communities armed with new drills, new concepts, and new confidence.
The skills clinic was another great touch to the weekend. The tournament format was designed to leave an hour and a half at the end of Saturday open for a skills clinic for which anyone was welcome to register. Clinic attendees could attend 3 different sessions covering a wide range of topics. Again, top coaches were recruited for the 12 different topics and they designed each session to offer concrete pointers and drills for players to take back to their teams. Players got the chance to meet opponents from other teams as they went through the different stations, enhancing the community feel of the tournament overall. Hand-in-hand with the skills clinic and teaching focus of the tournament was a hardcopy Resource Manual that was distributed to each team. Video footage was taken of each of the clinic sessions as well, so my hope is that information can also be widely disseminated.
The tournament organizers raised funds for this project in two main ways (1) they hosted a fund raising tournament in the fall and (2) they received a UPA innovation grant. This seems like the perfect use of UPA grant funds: piloting a program that has a broad reach and also has plans for how to become self-funded in the future. Hosting a tournament to fundraise for outreach efforts helps ensure the sustainability of the program and also offers the ultimate community another opportunity to play.
I was particularly interested in seeing this "teaching tournament" reach so many women because encouraging the growth of women's ultimate is an important part of the UPA's strategic plan. In fact, I am a part of a task force convened to develop a women's leadership program and hope to draw on many of the concepts already being tested by individuals like Michelle Ng (also recruited for the task force). If you have specific goals or ideas for women's leadership programs, please let me know.
In the Pacific Northwest, visionary thinkers have also been dedicating countless hours to help spread the sport. Emerald City Ultimate (ECU) is the brainchild of Danny Karlinsky and Chris Kosednar and has created a model for a "teaching team" by bringing together competitive club players and underserved youth populations.ECU is partnered with Ultimate Peace, an organization that has used ultimate as a way to build bridges between Palestinian and Israeli children in the Middle East, through a new US-based program called Ultimate Change. The concept that ECU will be piloting this year is having a team of high level open players host 15 clinics for middle and high school aged children in areas that have not had much exposure or access to ultimate. 10 of these clinics will be in Seattle, where the team is based, and 5 of the clinics will be held in areas where the team will travel to play in tournaments. For instance, the team will hold a clinic in Oakland, CA, the day before the Labor Day tournament in Santa Cruz.
At each of the clinics, both in the Seattle area and elsewhere, ECU will be teaming up with other club teams and players. By including local women's club teams as co-coaches, these partnerships allow the team to target girls as well as boys at the clinics. ECU is hoping to affect communities across the nation through its traveling clinics and, more importantly, by creating a blueprint for other teams to follow in their own communities. To offer the clinics free-of-charge to the youth participants, ECU will also be testing out various fundraising strategies that will hopefully be replicated elsewhere as other teams get involved.
ECU's "teaching team" model also aligns itself with multiple tactics in the UPA's strategic plan. As the UPA continues to move forward with implementing all the different parts of its ambitious strategic plan, partnering with groups with similar visions for the growth of ultimate will be critical to the UPA's success.
Gwen
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