Workout:
None
Reading:
None
Notes:
Today was day 2 of regionals with NUT.
On NUT 2017:
We did not achieve our goal of winning our quarters game at regionals. Purdue played very well and Specs turned in a performance for the ages. There were countless times when Purdue dealt a blow that would have been backbreaking to a mentally weaker team. Each time, NUT 2017 dug their heels in, swung back, and pushed a historically talented Purdue team ranked #20 in the nation to the brink.
2017 NUT was resilient, hungry, and deep. With personnel losses due to injury that would scuttle a lesser team, with a consistent desire to improve, and with a commitment to effort down the roster. But most of all, 2017 NUT was a powerful community of great friends.
I am proud to have coached them, and I will miss them.
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On the Future:
After some discussion with KB, here is my recipe for NUT going forward:
Thesis: Forget about trying to "steal a game" from Michigan (or Illinois, or whoever), and focus on legitimately being a truly great team. If you are a truly great team, you will earn a bid because of how great you are and you will be able to take that bid because of how great you are. So focus on actually being great.
How to be great:
- Build a great culture
- Be mentally resilient
- Invest in athleticism
- Have at least a few power throwers
- Understand Zone (O and D)
- Understand how to play in the wind
- Try not to suck at throwing down the roster
- #14 on the roster needs to be able to play legitimately great defense on #1
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On Volume of Work:
This summer I talked to my boy Pat H. about what the level of work was like for the Notre Dame Men's squad he captained in 2015-2016. He said that they'd be doing something ultimate-related with the team 6 days per week in a typical week. This would include practices, lifting, track workouts, throwing, and mini. This is from a program with consistent coaching, a good B team, tall athletic rookies, that had managed to make back to back GL regional finals. This team was not particularly close to qualifying for nationals. ND Men's in 2015 and 2016 were good teams (better than NUT), but not quite great teams.
Last summer C
posted a snipped of a chat with JJ (Flywheel '14) about her senior year experience. Flywheel in 2014 was a great team that qualified for nationals out of the GL and finished T-5th in the nation. The level of work that a starter on Flywheel put in that year was 20 hours/week of actually doing something ultimate related. 14 hours of this included going to crossfit with the entire team 3x per week, practices, throwing, sprint workouts, and the additional 6 hours were spent reading articles, watching tape, talking strategy, etc. This does not include commute times, as JJ notes that it took them 40 min to get to/from crossfit (Three times per week).
In the Fall, NUT had practice or mini 3x per week (3/7 days). On tournament weeks, we would be at 5 days per week. In the winter, including pod workouts (2x per week), practices (3x per week), and throwing (1x per week), we were at 5-6 times per week (& about 9 hours of activity). In the spring, we dramatically ramped up throwing efforts (yes!), had practices (2-3 per week), and pods (1-2 per week), leading to 3-5 days per week not counting throwing. All of this means we were working at a level about 83% of what ND was doing during the Fall and Winter, then a bit more in Spring.
My feeling on all of this is that the level of work it takes to be a truly great team is no joke, and may be difficult for many to comprehend. I think that truly great teams are at a level of work about 1.5x higher than we were this year. I don't know if that is a fair thing to ask of a team, I think the desire to reach that level has to come from within. I also don't think that this level of work is a guarantee of greatness, but I think it is probably necessary to have a shot at it.
Here is a basic graphic:
Bonus - Approx. base odds of a matchup between teams:
- Matchup within level: ~50/50
- Matchup with difference of 1 level (i.e. great vs very good): ~70/30
- Matchup with difference of 2 levels (i.e. great vs good): ~95/5
