Standards

Worlds is over. Time to get ready for Worlds.


For frisbee players a (North American) ‘Summer of Worlds’ just happened. The World Games was held in July and team Australia came second, then the World Club Championships happened a few weeks later and Australian clubs placed from 3 on down in Mixed, Women and Open play.


We’ve never won one of these senior World events. The next chance is in 2024 and we’ve got to get started soon.


20 years after my first exposure to international play I’m still thinking about it, this time I’m thinking about standards. One avenue that an Australian team could take to win a gold medal is to lean into standards and accountability, I think.


In the first phase of preparation after the team is selected (January next year) the playing and coaching group could follow a process that established their training and performance standards. This would be guided by study of exemplar players in our community and how they prepare.


The second phase would last up to 18 months, through the Asia Oceanic Championships and most of the way to the World Championships (July or September 2024). This phase would be all about vigorously pursuing the team standards and holding each other accountable through direct and supportive feedback. I don’t believe we’ve (Australian Mens teams) done this well in the past.


The final phase would be at the championship and would be all about playing with confidence and joy made possible by months and months of reflection, feedback and growth.


I think it sounds good on paper. I also think it might be pretty challenging to do well. The magic would be to create a cultural space within the team that allowed everyone to hear growth based feedback and not have their feelings hurt. It’s hard to be told that something you did doesn’t meet a team standard, however with the right balance of honesty and support all focussed on the team standards of skills, behaviours and attitudes that are strong enough to win the championships it might work.


Training starts soon. The Australian teams with have to do something to make a leap for the gold medal. Maybe clearly defined and passionately pursued standards could help.