Communication

Communication sets the great teams apart. It takes 7, no, twenty-seven people, and turns them into a unified whole, acting with one intent and one understanding. You hear it all the time - talk more, talk to the mark, talk to the thrower, talk to the deep, talk talk talk.... but the problem is not the act itself, but rather what does one say to be an effective communicator?

Let's break it down:

First, you need to know your team strategy. You need to know the plan in order to weigh the choices in what to say. Are you a team that baits the deep throw, or one that forces all cuts under? If the mark gets broken, will it be the inside-out or the around?

Second, what terms does your team use? "Home/away" has become nearly standard, but even 5 years ago it was still "force forehand/backhand." Learn (or establish) the lexicon for your team so that we're all speaking the same language.

Third, what are you trying to tell your teammates? Make sure the information that you give is useful and clear. "No break" is a pet peeve of mine; for goodness sakes tell me which break (the inside or the around) is the threat, because my reaction to each is different.

Last, learn to call it early. You need to give your teammates time to react, whether you're calling for a switch, the dump, or "man!" Start to recognize patterns in ultimate and see the entire field - it is extremely hard to communicate with others when all you know is the location of your cutter/defender and the disc.

So how do you actually start communicating well on the field/sideline? For me, I started emulating others - I would watch the men's team in college walk the sidelines, talking to the mark and the deep, and I started doing the same. Unfortunately it seems that the default these days is a more silent player/sideline, and especially as I've begun coaching club women's, it's become apparent that many players are coming to the club level without this important skill.

For less experienced players, they need to first learn the lingo, and learn to see the field. For more experienced players, I incorporate communication into drills: practice talking to the mark during marking/breaking drills, talking to the thrower during cutting drills, calling "switch" can be integrated into multi-player defense drills. I also expect that they practice talking to the mark/deep during scrimmages and games - not necessarily loudly yet, but at least begin verbalizing because it does take practice.

But for all that, unless communication becomes part of the team dynamic and a skill that one is expected to develop, there is little incentive for a player to focus on this. And that lies upon you.