Past Leagues:
How to Captain
So you have agreed to captain a WAFC team this season. That's awesome! Thank you ever so much, WAFC appreciates you and your players appreciate you. But now what? What does being a captain mean? What is expected of you? What are you supposed to do first?
Tips for the Perfect Captain
- Compiled by long-time captain and volunteer Glen R. Goodwin
The key thing to remember is that ANYBODY can be a great captain. It does not take special gifts, talents, or skills. It merely takes a willingness to commit to the team. Despite what that sounds like it does not mean you have to do tons of work, attend every game, or be an expert in all the aspects of Ultimate. Being a great captain is about striving to make the entire experience of Ultimate Frisbee better for everyone participating.
So, how do you go about making a great team experience and what can you do to elevate the game? It starts with solid leadership, active organization, knowing your duties, attending whenever possible, and understanding the social nature of teams.
LEADERSHIP
Simply put, lead by example. You are the first example to which the rest of your team looks. This means that you must set the example for good spirit, open communication, and strong action. Your team will use your example as a yardstick to their own action and behavior. If you are quiet and uncommunicative, your team will be quiet and uncommunicative. If you are indecisive in your action, your team will be indecisive. If you are full of negative attitude, your team will be full of negative attitude. Set a good example and you will have a good team.
Leadership is about demonstrating amazing spirit both on and off the field. Ultimate is a game where good sportsmanship shines and you are an Ultimate ambassador. Show your team great spirit and encourage it in everything the team does. This means making sure you cheer constantly, that everyone gets a chance to play, and that everything handled on the field is done with civility and fairness. A lot of people are down on the spirit of the game, but your leadership changes all that. A team which cheers before games, after games, and at every possibility plays better and is more enjoyable than one that does not cheer.
Also, leadership is not about forcing people to do things. The best leaders listen openly and encourage others to contribute. Leaders learn just like everyone else, and demonstrating a willingness to listen and learn is one of the best attributes of successful leaders. However, at the end of the day, someone must make a decision and that person is you. Not everyone will agree with a decision, but if you give them a chance to voice their point of view they will respect your decision.
Finally, remember to be friendly and flexible in your leadership. There is no need to be heavy handed just because you can. You need to be open to suggestions and willing to work with everyone be they your players, opposing players, inquisitive spectators, other games going on around you, commissioners, whatever. Be open and work together to foster our great sport.
ORGANIZATION
Organization is by far where most people who are captains have the most trouble but it is also the easiest aspect of being a captain to improve. Some believe that it is not necessary, others believe that it takes too much effort, yet with a tiny bit of setup, organization can be a breeze.
So what exactly are you organizing? The easy answer is, everything. Sounds like a lot, so let us break it down for you...
Organizing your Team: To organize your team you must provide a method for your team to talk to one another. Email is great here, but a Mailing List (aka listserv) is even better. Mailing Lists are incredibly easy to setup and provide all the functionality your team should need. All you need to do is pick a service (like Google Groups or Yahoo Groups), create the group, enter everyone's email address, and send a welcome message. It's really quite simple and should take you about 10 minutes total. This is by far the easiest part of being a captain, so get it done right away and save yourself tons of work later.
Organizing your Game: Once your Mailing List is up and running, organizing a game is simple. It begins about a five days before the game is scheduled to take place when you send out an announcement of the game. In your announcement include the Date/Time of the game, the Field Location, appropriate colors to bring, and anything else your team should know. The sooner you let people know about the game, the more likely you are to have good participation in the game. Also, one of the most frequent mistakes is when a captain just emails the schedule out and relies on everyone to make each game. This never works. Take the five minutes to send an email out in advance of every game and we guarantee your turnout will be higher and your team's morale will be better for it.
Another aspect of announcing the game is to collect responses to see who is coming. Response systems like Evite, Doodle or Google Docs Forms work extremely well and are well understood. Another approach is to ask for people to reply if they are coming. Regardless of the method you choose, it is vital that you collect responses so that you can gauge your team’s ability to show up for that game. If you expect poor turnout for any reason, communicate with your opponents so that they are aware of the fact, and alternative arrangements can be made. There's nothing worse than having your entire team show up only to find out that you don't have an opponent.
Oh, and one other thing... an email sent two hours before the game doesn't work for anybody. Try to give your team and your opponents at least twenty-four hours notice of any changes.
Organizing your Field: Once you are at the game it is up to you to work out all the details about the game. Yes, this will take a little extra effort on your part, but strong direction can do wonders. Take charge about getting things setup, flowing smoothly, and ensuring that everything comes together. This includes setting up the field, flipping with the opposition, getting your team together, reviewing strategic goals, building positive spirit, and cheering. We will cover a lot of these things below in the next section (see DUTIES).
DUTIES
Your duties represent all the things WAFC and the members of your team expect you to perform. Each duty outlined below represents one facet of the game without which your team will suffer. Resist the urge here to pick and choose from this list. Each item presented here is equally important as the next.
Pre-Game Planning: This comes down to what was covered in the ORGANIZATION section. Announce the game well ahead of time, get a participation count from your team, and coordinate any changes with your opponents. Make sure to give your team at least five days of lead time and your opponents as much notice as possible if you need to make changes.
Show Up: While your attendance is not required for every game, try to make as many as possible. For the games you cannot make, appoint a replacement captain (a co-captain or a team member with experience) to serve as your replacement. Even if not attending the game, you can still do the pre-game planning parts described above.
Arrive Early: Try to get to the field early and organize your team. Encourage your players to arrive at least thirty minutes before the posted start time of the game for gearing up, stretching, and strategic discussions. This is doubly important for the first few games where everyone needs to introduce themselves and work out team details. Also, if you are in a learning league like Rec or Intermediate, use the time before the game to teach tactics and technique.
Field Setup: If the other captain has not yet done so, grab your cones and throw down the field. This is easy and should take you only a few minutes. That said, make sure the sizes are as accurate as the space allows. Be flexible with regards to setting up the field and other games playing nearby that are also trying to setup fields. Make sure to leave room for other games that might be playing around your game. Work with the other captains on the fields to setup the best alignment possible for all the games.
Arrange the Game Details: Find the opposing captain and introduce yourself. Discuss shirt colors (flip if necessary), flip for pull/receive and field position, discuss any gender issues, and settle on the rules. Make sure both teams agree on all the rules such as number of time outs, final score, halftime score, dropped pulls, poaching, allowing zone defense, foot blocks, etc. Specific WAFC leagues have specific rules, so make sure everyone is on the same page.
Keep the score: This is an easy one... pull out a pad of paper and keep score. A small college dorm room white board with a magnetic dry erase pen is a cheap and easy alternative. Whether paper or white board, just make sure to keep the score up to date between points.
Ensure a good game: As we said before, you are the leader of the team, so lead by example. Play with spirit and friendliness, and your team will as well. If there are any disputes on the field, make sure they resolve in the appropriate Ultimate Frisbee fashion. Remember to be open and flexible, discuss the rule in question, and don’t be afraid to just have a Do Over. Just make sure that everyone is respectful of everyone else.
Teach whenever possible: Nobody knows everything about Ultimate Frisbee. Anytime you see someone who does not know some aspect of the game, that's a teaching opportunity. Take the few minutes to share your wisdom and talk things through. In most cases a teaching opportunity will turn into a conversation and is an excellent way to guide those less knowledgeable. Be receptive to questions and ideas, and work through the answers together. Also, as a general rule of thumb, try to ask people if they are open to some advice before trying to give it to them.
Make a weather call: Cleats are not very friendly to grass fields. While WAFC tries to update the hotline early and accurately, storms are unpredictable and there will be times when you have to make a weather call on the fields. Yes, it is a pain to drive an hour to a game and not play (or play half a game), but it’s up to captains to make the call and up to you to show players that it is a responsible decision. Many non-ultimate leagues have lost valuable field space due to playing on in bad conditions; don’t let WAFC be one of those leagues!
Cheer: Cheer before the game, after the game, at half time, at time outs, from the side lines, on the drive to the field, and at dinner afterwards. Cheer every chance you get. Also, organize and lead your team in cheering the other team after the game, even in the tournament. Cheering is one of the greatest parts of Ultimate and has gotten short shift lately. Changing this begins with you.
Report the final score (including spirit score): Just because the game is over does not mean you're done. Most leagues have some sort of scoring system which needs you to report your score. Take the five minutes to email the commissioner, update the spreadsheet, or whatever the league has asked you to do to report the final score. Nothing is more depressing to a commissioner than to check out the scoring spreadsheet and find it 90% blank. And, this includes a spirit score! Most leagues will ask you to rank your opponent on a scale of 1-5; this is just as, if not more, important than a game score.
Report any other issues: Occasionally there’s an argument or injury during a game. If something occurs, please email the Commissioner(s) with the details of the date/time, location/field, names/contact info for the persons involved, and any information you think they’ll need about the incident. For injuries, this information must be passed along to the WAFC Board for insurance purposes; for other incidents, WAFC leadership likes to know what happens on the field in case a Conduct Policy complaint needs to be filed.
Work with the Commissioners: If for any reason you encounter any problems along the way, the league commissioners are there to help. They can provide advice, support and suggestions on all the aspects of managing your team. Please do not hesitate to ask for assistance. However, do be mindful that the commissioners are volunteers just like yourself and they may not respond immediately. Be patient and friendly and treat these hard working volunteers with the respect they deserve.
ATTENDANCE
As a captain WAFC does not expect you to attend every single game your team is scheduled to play. Yet, for some reason many think the opposite is true and they are expected to be there all the time. The number one reason most people say they do not want to captain is because they cannot attend every game. The reality is that all captains miss games during the season.
A simple way to handle the fact that you cannot make every game is to have a co-captain. A good friend can do this or even someone you have been playing with for a few years. So long as you both communicate with one another, the co-captain thing can be very successful. If you work together with your co-captain to ensure that at least one of you can make most of the games, things will go nicely. Just coordinate in advance and make sure to let your team know.
If you decide not to have a co-captain or you both cannot attend a game, appoint a captain for the game. Ask a knowledgeable player on your team to step in as captain. Make sure they know what they are expected to do and if they need to do anything special. In most cases, you will continue to organize your team and announce games and collect responses, but your temporary captain will be responsible for the field duties (see DUTIES above). This is a fine arrangement and works very well.
SOCIAL
The social aspect of Ultimate is a big part of why people love to play in WAFC. It is a chance to meet new people, develop new friendships, and create a passion for a game we all love to play. As the captain of the team, your job is to help foster all of these things.
It begins with the very first email you send out to your team: introduce yourself and encourage others to do likewise. Be friendly with your new players as they have no idea who you are or what you are all about. When the first game rolls around take the time to introduce yourself, learn your player’s names, and demonstrate your excitement of the game. Do this also with your opponents and show them that you are looking forward to playing a fun, spirited game.
As a captain for WAFC you are not expected to take your team out to dinner or anything like that. However, grabbing food after a game will really encourage your team to bond and ultimately lead to better play. Cohesion on the field stems from friendships built off the field. Encourage it at every opportunity. Just remember, everyone pays their own way; you are not financing the team. Also, if there are players on your team who are under-21, be mindful and chose a location that allows minors.
SIGN UP TO CAPTAIN!
So that is everything you need to know about being a captain: Lead by example, make decisive choices, organize in advance, teach when given the chance, understand the duties, listen to your players, play with spirit, cheer often, and encourage cohesion. In many aspects it sounds like a lot, but ultimately it does not take that much work. And once done you will immediately understand how easy it is to be a truly amazing captain. WAFC will give you a team of twenty or more individual players. It is your job to lead and shape them into a team.
THE DO'S OF BEING A CAPTAIN
DO send out an announcement of upcoming games. We suggest at least five days before each game.
DO teach when the opportunity arises.
DO learn from your team and from the opposing captains.
DO setup a mailing list.
DO write a recap of the game after each game if you can. Players love to get shout outs of their on-field exploits.
DO cheer and then cheer more.
DO love the game.
DO have a positive attitude.
THE DON'TS OF BEING A CAPTAIN
DO NOT send out an email three hours before the game asking who is coming. This should be done days before the game. In fact, email three hours before a game will actually worsen your team’s attendance.
DO NOT use Facebook or Google+ as your Mailing List. Not everyone uses these services.
DO NOT be indecisive. If you do not know what to do, ask your team for advice and then make a choice.
DO NOT dictate what roles people are playing. Ask what they want to play.
DO NOT be derogatory of ANY OTHER player whether they are on your team or not.
DO NOT just send out the schedule and assume your players can figure it out and will show up to every game.
DO NOT hit on your players during the season. It’s skeevy.
DO NOT ignore cheering.
DO NOT discount a player for a better player. Everyone gets an equal chance to participate.
USEFUL LINKS
http://www.wafc.org - Obviously, it all starts here.
http://www.wafc.org/page/recrules - The WAFC Rec League rules (these apply to rec league only. The other leagues may have other rules they use in addition to the 11th edition, but the commissioner will send those to captains).
http://www.wafc.org/fields - A list of all the WAFC Fields with Links and Maps.
http://www.wafc.org/rules-strategy - Additional Rules and Strategy information from WAFC
http://groups.google.com - Google groups for organizing your team.
http://groups.yahoo.com/ - Yahoo Groups for organizing your team.
http://www.montrealultimate.ca/en/rulesofultimate - Ultimate Frisbee in 10 Simple Rules including a field layout diagram.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimate_%28sport%29 - Wikipedia Entry on Ultimate Frisbee including some basic strategy.
http://www.ultimatehandbook.com/uh/strategy.html - The Ultimate Handbook Strategy Section, a great resource for teaching.
http://www.usaultimate.org/assets/1/Page/11th%20edition%20%28pdf%20for%20web%29.pdf - 11th Edition Rules in PDF Format for printing.
http://www.montrealultimate.ca/files/visual_rules_0.pdf - A Visual Flowchart of rule resolution. A must have!
http://www.evite.com - Evite, a good system for collecting responses.
http://doodle.com/ - Another system for collecting responses.
- Compiled by long-time captain and volunteer Glen R. Goodwin
The key thing to remember is that ANYBODY can be a great captain. It does not take special gifts, talents, or skills. It merely takes a willingness to commit to the team. Despite what that sounds like it does not mean you have to do tons of work, attend every game, or be an expert in all the aspects of Ultimate. Being a great captain is about striving to make the entire experience of Ultimate Frisbee better for everyone participating.
So, how do you go about making a great team experience and what can you do to elevate the game? It starts with solid leadership, active organization, knowing your duties, attending whenever possible, and understanding the social nature of teams.
LEADERSHIP
Simply put, lead by example. You are the first example to which the rest of your team looks. This means that you must set the example for good spirit, open communication, and strong action. Your team will use your example as a yardstick to their own action and behavior. If you are quiet and uncommunicative, your team will be quiet and uncommunicative. If you are indecisive in your action, your team will be indecisive. If you are full of negative attitude, your team will be full of negative attitude. Set a good example and you will have a good team.
Leadership is about demonstrating amazing spirit both on and off the field. Ultimate is a game where good sportsmanship shines and you are an Ultimate ambassador. Show your team great spirit and encourage it in everything the team does. This means making sure you cheer constantly, that everyone gets a chance to play, and that everything handled on the field is done with civility and fairness. A lot of people are down on the spirit of the game, but your leadership changes all that. A team which cheers before games, after games, and at every possibility plays better and is more enjoyable than one that does not cheer.
Also, leadership is not about forcing people to do things. The best leaders listen openly and encourage others to contribute. Leaders learn just like everyone else, and demonstrating a willingness to listen and learn is one of the best attributes of successful leaders. However, at the end of the day, someone must make a decision and that person is you. Not everyone will agree with a decision, but if you give them a chance to voice their point of view they will respect your decision.
Finally, remember to be friendly and flexible in your leadership. There is no need to be heavy handed just because you can. You need to be open to suggestions and willing to work with everyone be they your players, opposing players, inquisitive spectators, other games going on around you, commissioners, whatever. Be open and work together to foster our great sport.
ORGANIZATION
Organization is by far where most people who are captains have the most trouble but it is also the easiest aspect of being a captain to improve. Some believe that it is not necessary, others believe that it takes too much effort, yet with a tiny bit of setup, organization can be a breeze.
So what exactly are you organizing? The easy answer is, everything. Sounds like a lot, so let us break it down for you...
Organizing your Team: To organize your team you must provide a method for your team to talk to one another. Email is great here, but a Mailing List (aka listserv) is even better. Mailing Lists are incredibly easy to setup and provide all the functionality your team should need. All you need to do is pick a service (like Google Groups or Yahoo Groups), create the group, enter everyone's email address, and send a welcome message. It's really quite simple and should take you about 10 minutes total. This is by far the easiest part of being a captain, so get it done right away and save yourself tons of work later.
Organizing your Game: Once your Mailing List is up and running, organizing a game is simple. It begins about a five days before the game is scheduled to take place when you send out an announcement of the game. In your announcement include the Date/Time of the game, the Field Location, appropriate colors to bring, and anything else your team should know. The sooner you let people know about the game, the more likely you are to have good participation in the game. Also, one of the most frequent mistakes is when a captain just emails the schedule out and relies on everyone to make each game. This never works. Take the five minutes to send an email out in advance of every game and we guarantee your turnout will be higher and your team's morale will be better for it.
Another aspect of announcing the game is to collect responses to see who is coming. Response systems like Evite, Doodle or Google Docs Forms work extremely well and are well understood. Another approach is to ask for people to reply if they are coming. Regardless of the method you choose, it is vital that you collect responses so that you can gauge your team’s ability to show up for that game. If you expect poor turnout for any reason, communicate with your opponents so that they are aware of the fact, and alternative arrangements can be made. There's nothing worse than having your entire team show up only to find out that you don't have an opponent.
Oh, and one other thing... an email sent two hours before the game doesn't work for anybody. Try to give your team and your opponents at least twenty-four hours notice of any changes.
Organizing your Field: Once you are at the game it is up to you to work out all the details about the game. Yes, this will take a little extra effort on your part, but strong direction can do wonders. Take charge about getting things setup, flowing smoothly, and ensuring that everything comes together. This includes setting up the field, flipping with the opposition, getting your team together, reviewing strategic goals, building positive spirit, and cheering. We will cover a lot of these things below in the next section (see DUTIES).
DUTIES
Your duties represent all the things WAFC and the members of your team expect you to perform. Each duty outlined below represents one facet of the game without which your team will suffer. Resist the urge here to pick and choose from this list. Each item presented here is equally important as the next.
Pre-Game Planning: This comes down to what was covered in the ORGANIZATION section. Announce the game well ahead of time, get a participation count from your team, and coordinate any changes with your opponents. Make sure to give your team at least five days of lead time and your opponents as much notice as possible if you need to make changes.
Show Up: While your attendance is not required for every game, try to make as many as possible. For the games you cannot make, appoint a replacement captain (a co-captain or a team member with experience) to serve as your replacement. Even if not attending the game, you can still do the pre-game planning parts described above.
Arrive Early: Try to get to the field early and organize your team. Encourage your players to arrive at least thirty minutes before the posted start time of the game for gearing up, stretching, and strategic discussions. This is doubly important for the first few games where everyone needs to introduce themselves and work out team details. Also, if you are in a learning league like Rec or Intermediate, use the time before the game to teach tactics and technique.
Field Setup: If the other captain has not yet done so, grab your cones and throw down the field. This is easy and should take you only a few minutes. That said, make sure the sizes are as accurate as the space allows. Be flexible with regards to setting up the field and other games playing nearby that are also trying to setup fields. Make sure to leave room for other games that might be playing around your game. Work with the other captains on the fields to setup the best alignment possible for all the games.
Arrange the Game Details: Find the opposing captain and introduce yourself. Discuss shirt colors (flip if necessary), flip for pull/receive and field position, discuss any gender issues, and settle on the rules. Make sure both teams agree on all the rules such as number of time outs, final score, halftime score, dropped pulls, poaching, allowing zone defense, foot blocks, etc. Specific WAFC leagues have specific rules, so make sure everyone is on the same page.
Keep the score: This is an easy one... pull out a pad of paper and keep score. A small college dorm room white board with a magnetic dry erase pen is a cheap and easy alternative. Whether paper or white board, just make sure to keep the score up to date between points.
Ensure a good game: As we said before, you are the leader of the team, so lead by example. Play with spirit and friendliness, and your team will as well. If there are any disputes on the field, make sure they resolve in the appropriate Ultimate Frisbee fashion. Remember to be open and flexible, discuss the rule in question, and don’t be afraid to just have a Do Over. Just make sure that everyone is respectful of everyone else.
Teach whenever possible: Nobody knows everything about Ultimate Frisbee. Anytime you see someone who does not know some aspect of the game, that's a teaching opportunity. Take the few minutes to share your wisdom and talk things through. In most cases a teaching opportunity will turn into a conversation and is an excellent way to guide those less knowledgeable. Be receptive to questions and ideas, and work through the answers together. Also, as a general rule of thumb, try to ask people if they are open to some advice before trying to give it to them.
Make a weather call: Cleats are not very friendly to grass fields. While WAFC tries to update the hotline early and accurately, storms are unpredictable and there will be times when you have to make a weather call on the fields. Yes, it is a pain to drive an hour to a game and not play (or play half a game), but it’s up to captains to make the call and up to you to show players that it is a responsible decision. Many non-ultimate leagues have lost valuable field space due to playing on in bad conditions; don’t let WAFC be one of those leagues!
Cheer: Cheer before the game, after the game, at half time, at time outs, from the side lines, on the drive to the field, and at dinner afterwards. Cheer every chance you get. Also, organize and lead your team in cheering the other team after the game, even in the tournament. Cheering is one of the greatest parts of Ultimate and has gotten short shift lately. Changing this begins with you.
Report the final score (including spirit score): Just because the game is over does not mean you're done. Most leagues have some sort of scoring system which needs you to report your score. Take the five minutes to email the commissioner, update the spreadsheet, or whatever the league has asked you to do to report the final score. Nothing is more depressing to a commissioner than to check out the scoring spreadsheet and find it 90% blank. And, this includes a spirit score! Most leagues will ask you to rank your opponent on a scale of 1-5; this is just as, if not more, important than a game score.
Report any other issues: Occasionally there’s an argument or injury during a game. If something occurs, please email the Commissioner(s) with the details of the date/time, location/field, names/contact info for the persons involved, and any information you think they’ll need about the incident. For injuries, this information must be passed along to the WAFC Board for insurance purposes; for other incidents, WAFC leadership likes to know what happens on the field in case a Conduct Policy complaint needs to be filed.
Work with the Commissioners: If for any reason you encounter any problems along the way, the league commissioners are there to help. They can provide advice, support and suggestions on all the aspects of managing your team. Please do not hesitate to ask for assistance. However, do be mindful that the commissioners are volunteers just like yourself and they may not respond immediately. Be patient and friendly and treat these hard working volunteers with the respect they deserve.
ATTENDANCE
As a captain WAFC does not expect you to attend every single game your team is scheduled to play. Yet, for some reason many think the opposite is true and they are expected to be there all the time. The number one reason most people say they do not want to captain is because they cannot attend every game. The reality is that all captains miss games during the season.
A simple way to handle the fact that you cannot make every game is to have a co-captain. A good friend can do this or even someone you have been playing with for a few years. So long as you both communicate with one another, the co-captain thing can be very successful. If you work together with your co-captain to ensure that at least one of you can make most of the games, things will go nicely. Just coordinate in advance and make sure to let your team know.
If you decide not to have a co-captain or you both cannot attend a game, appoint a captain for the game. Ask a knowledgeable player on your team to step in as captain. Make sure they know what they are expected to do and if they need to do anything special. In most cases, you will continue to organize your team and announce games and collect responses, but your temporary captain will be responsible for the field duties (see DUTIES above). This is a fine arrangement and works very well.
SOCIAL
The social aspect of Ultimate is a big part of why people love to play in WAFC. It is a chance to meet new people, develop new friendships, and create a passion for a game we all love to play. As the captain of the team, your job is to help foster all of these things.
It begins with the very first email you send out to your team: introduce yourself and encourage others to do likewise. Be friendly with your new players as they have no idea who you are or what you are all about. When the first game rolls around take the time to introduce yourself, learn your player’s names, and demonstrate your excitement of the game. Do this also with your opponents and show them that you are looking forward to playing a fun, spirited game.
As a captain for WAFC you are not expected to take your team out to dinner or anything like that. However, grabbing food after a game will really encourage your team to bond and ultimately lead to better play. Cohesion on the field stems from friendships built off the field. Encourage it at every opportunity. Just remember, everyone pays their own way; you are not financing the team. Also, if there are players on your team who are under-21, be mindful and chose a location that allows minors.
SIGN UP TO CAPTAIN!
So that is everything you need to know about being a captain: Lead by example, make decisive choices, organize in advance, teach when given the chance, understand the duties, listen to your players, play with spirit, cheer often, and encourage cohesion. In many aspects it sounds like a lot, but ultimately it does not take that much work. And once done you will immediately understand how easy it is to be a truly amazing captain. WAFC will give you a team of twenty or more individual players. It is your job to lead and shape them into a team.
THE DO'S OF BEING A CAPTAIN
DO send out an announcement of upcoming games. We suggest at least five days before each game.
DO teach when the opportunity arises.
DO learn from your team and from the opposing captains.
DO setup a mailing list.
DO write a recap of the game after each game if you can. Players love to get shout outs of their on-field exploits.
DO cheer and then cheer more.
DO love the game.
DO have a positive attitude.
THE DON'TS OF BEING A CAPTAIN
DO NOT send out an email three hours before the game asking who is coming. This should be done days before the game. In fact, email three hours before a game will actually worsen your team’s attendance.
DO NOT use Facebook or Google+ as your Mailing List. Not everyone uses these services.
DO NOT be indecisive. If you do not know what to do, ask your team for advice and then make a choice.
DO NOT dictate what roles people are playing. Ask what they want to play.
DO NOT be derogatory of ANY OTHER player whether they are on your team or not.
DO NOT just send out the schedule and assume your players can figure it out and will show up to every game.
DO NOT hit on your players during the season. It’s skeevy.
DO NOT ignore cheering.
DO NOT discount a player for a better player. Everyone gets an equal chance to participate.
USEFUL LINKS
http://www.wafc.org - Obviously, it all starts here.
http://www.wafc.org/page/recrules - The WAFC Rec League rules (these apply to rec league only. The other leagues may have other rules they use in addition to the 11th edition, but the commissioner will send those to captains).
http://www.wafc.org/fields - A list of all the WAFC Fields with Links and Maps.
http://www.wafc.org/rules-strategy - Additional Rules and Strategy information from WAFC
http://groups.google.com - Google groups for organizing your team.
http://groups.yahoo.com/ - Yahoo Groups for organizing your team.
http://www.montrealultimate.ca/en/rulesofultimate - Ultimate Frisbee in 10 Simple Rules including a field layout diagram.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimate_%28sport%29 - Wikipedia Entry on Ultimate Frisbee including some basic strategy.
http://www.ultimatehandbook.com/uh/strategy.html - The Ultimate Handbook Strategy Section, a great resource for teaching.
http://www.usaultimate.org/assets/1/Page/11th%20edition%20%28pdf%20for%20web%29.pdf - 11th Edition Rules in PDF Format for printing.
http://www.montrealultimate.ca/files/visual_rules_0.pdf - A Visual Flowchart of rule resolution. A must have!
http://www.evite.com - Evite, a good system for collecting responses.
http://doodle.com/ - Another system for collecting responses.
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"Spirit of the Game: Ultimate relies upon a spirit of sportsmanship that places the responsibility for fair play on the player. Highly competitive play is encouraged, but never at the expense of mutual respect among competitors, adherence to the agreed upon rules, or the basic joy of play. Protection of these vital elements serves to eliminate unsportsmanlike conduct from the Ultimate field. Such actions as taunting opposing players, dangerous aggression, belligerent intimidation, intentional infractions, or other 'win-at-all-costs' behavior are contrary to the Spirit of the Game and must be avoided by all players."
