Demanding the best

Despair

A truly terrifying emotion
Conceivably a consequence
Of complete and utter dedication
To a goal with no recompense.

ARC

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Demanding the best

For me this has seemingly always been part of my mentality. From the first time I picked up a basketball in 1st grade, I have always held myself to the highest standards I could. I've always known that I'm not good enough to achieve what I want. Don't get me wrong, there have been moments when I've fallen off that wagon, as there are with every human being, but I always had someone to kick me in the ass and rattle my head around a bit to get me back to the place I need to be. For most of my life, it was my step-dad, who was a great athlete in his day. In college, it was Bruns telling me I was fat and bad at frisbee. It occurs to me that this isn't true for everyone. Complacency is the norm and my mentality is the exception and people don't always have those people to nudge them back in the right direction.

So how, as a coach or leader, get your players to demand the best of themselves?
Most of the time, you can't just yell at them to do better. See Jevons. I've yelled at him a hundred times for jogging on the field, but it still happens all the time. I think the demand for one's best has to come from someone within their circle of trust, someone they believe is in the arena with them, taking hits and protecting their back - see Daring Greatly for an in depth explanation of what I mean here. I want to get to a point where I am that person for my players like Bruns was for me. It doesn't seem like I'm there yet with most of the players on NUT.
The answer for me then is simply to become Bruns - everyone loves him. No, but seriously the answer is to have your players believe you are in this with them so they trust the things you ask of them are important I guess. More work to do here.

Why is demanding the best something to strive for?
Year after year, NUT leadership has said they want NUT to reach the next level of competition. To do this, we have to get better at playing frisbee. If you don't demand the best from yourself and those that follow you, you fall into a place of complacency. From 2012 to 2014, our regionals finishes went from 10th to 5th to 3rd (after losing in the 1st and 2nd place games). From 2015 to 2017, our regionals finishes have all been 5th (aka losing in quarterfinals).
Perhaps there is more than just correlation here. 2012-2014 correspond to Ben's leadership years on NUT. Ben didn't accept losing as a legitimate option. And though he may not have held himself to the same standard, he held NUT to this standard of not losing. There hasn't been the same demand for the best from each and every player since he left. There has been more of an acceptance of failure and losing. Some times this acceptance is by choice - leadership choosing to prioritize development in the fall and winter over winning games has created an environment in which NUT players are used to losing games. Other times this acceptance is by ignorance or apathy - no one holding players accountable for jogging in drills, perhaps not even noticing.

ARC

Tournaments II

Update to Tournaments

Playing
2016
Lei Out - Visser Three
  First Lei Out experience. Fun meeting Ben's HS friends. Girls had to play savage all weekend.
AUDL Season - Wildfire
  Commuting from Madison the whole season. We were awful.
Elite-Select Challenge - Black Market
  I only really remember spending time with Haj and Mick. I think we lost to MKE twice?
Select Flight Invite - Black Market
  I remember dropping a disc after a tap in and someone else posting about it on Reddit.
Club Sectionals - Black Market
  Finals got rained out.
Great Lakes Club Regionals - Black Market
  What a trash heap of a weekend
No Wisconsequences - Yolo Swaggins University Alumni aka Pharmer Boone: Return to the Pharm
  Got to the finals and lost to eventual college champion Carleton 13-10.

2017
NaperChill - BoomHouse
  Mostly Illinois folks with some NUTHOS and assorted extras thrown in. 3rd place I think. Lots of
  fun
Lei Out - NUTHOS
  Died of food poisoning. Terrible weather. Justin was also super sick.
AUDL Season - Wildfire
  Trent is awesome. We stunk.
Potlach - Pussy Control
  Most fun 'fun' tourney I've ever been to. Camping around the fields. Great team. Can't wait to go
  back.
Pro-Elite Challenge - Machine
  Much stiffer competition than Potlach the weekend before. Felt great to be playing for a team I
  believe in and care about again.
Elite-Select Challenge - Machine
  Felt like I played worse than the previous tournament. Kleptos claim Hater tanks for life.
Pro Championships - Machine
  Tons of fun making it all the way to the finals. Loved playing a ton in that game.
Great Lakes Club Regionals - Machine
  Tourney win over High Five in the Finals.
Club Nationals - Machine
  Disappointment with the way the team played. I have to be better next year. I don't like riding the        pine.

Coaching
2016
All Bets Are Off - Madison West HS JV Team
  First coaching experience at a tournament. This was outside in Madison in February and was 
  beautiful somehow. The kids played well esp considering they were playing mostly against Varsity
  teams.
Wisconsin High School Spring League - Madison West HS JV Team
  Weekly games against other JV and Varsity teams from the Madison area. The kids got so much
  better playing against better players each week.
Wisconsin High School State Championships - Madison West HS JV Team
  Some of these kids are gonna be good someday.
Windy City Invite - NUT Split Squads
  First experience coaching NUT. Team did pretty well. Definitely had some moments when I forgot I
  wasn't still a player.
Missouri Loves Company - NUT 2017
  I remember being blown away by Jeff's improvement. In April at Regionals, he was a nonfactor, and
  now he was dominating good players.

2017
Florida Warm-Up - NUT 2017
  Every person on the team played a bit better than I expected. Each person really bought in and
  pushed to improve.
Midwest Throwdown - NUT 2017
  Got to the finals mostly by playing lesser teams. Our weakness throwing in the wind came into play
  all weekend, and then completely exposed us against Purdue in the finals.
Indy Invite - NUT 2017
  I remember thinking during the Michigan game that competing with them come regionals was going
  to be very tough outside of Spielman going crazy. Poor throws in the wind again killed us.
Huck Finn - NUT 2017
  No one wanted to be there. Disaster of a weekend minus 3/4 of the Minnesota game. Unbelievably
  frustrating to play Grey Duck to 14-11 with a chance to tie at 11s and lose to Illinois by like 6.
Illinois Sectionals - NUT 2017
  Story remains the same. Playing lesser opponents. Still got the 3-peat thanks to Illinois falling off
  the map.
Great Lakes Regionals - NUT 2017
  Disappointing weekend. Played a good game against Purdue, but came up short. Specs had like 8
  blocks in this game.
Missouri Loves Company - NUT 2018
  Great competition. Sometimes we looked like we belong with the top teams, and other times we
  look like that JV team I coached.

ARC