After a successful first season of instructional videos, RISE UP is looking towards this June. This summer, a collection of top US coaches will travel to Amsterdam for a 3-day camp, conference and film shoot prior to the popular Windmill Windup tournament. Registration only opened a couple days ago on Monday, January 14th, the camp is already half full and is being touted as a “world class coaching experience”. Along with registration, RISE UP Amsterdam announced a “coaching workshop” specific for those coaches in training. We caught up with Ben Wiggins and Mario O’Brien of the RISE UP crew to hear a bit about how camp planning is going and find more details.
Skyd: What has changed since first announcing the camp?
Ben Wiggins: We’ve had a strong first wave of registrations. In 24 hours we were half-full. We aren’t going to expand the camp in any case, so we hope everyone gets in soon that wants to.
Tell us more about what the coaching camp is about.
Mario O’Brien: We’re so excited to provide this unique opportunity for the European Ultimate community. The Coaches Workshop runs concurrently with the main camp, and is all about improving and developing as a leader of an ultimate team, be it as captain or coach. Participants will
- Learn, study, and critique the content and teaching methodology of the RISE UP coaches during the camp, as well as self-critique their own strengths and areas for improvement.
- Delve deeply into team strategy, from the intricacies of running and executing an effective junk defense, to reacting in real-time and making adjustments to game situations, to using players effectively, as well as many more topics.
- Assess and hone their abilities as teachers, goal setters, motivators, vision carriers, program/team builders, practice planners/facilitators, and leaders of an ultimate team.
This is one of the elements of our program that I feel will distinguish RISE UP camps from others around the world. We believe empowering good leaders is what makes communities grow stronger, and that’s what we want for ultimate.
The last day of the camp is being called a conference. What will that entail?
With such a great tournament starting on that Friday, we needed to make sure that we could teach while still being sure to rest our campers’ legs. Luckily, there are many ultimate-related subjects that are teachable without cleats on. In particular, issues of mental toughness, mental preparation and team strategy came up repeatedly in discussions with some of our contacts in Europe. Each of our coaches has a few topics they are excited to teach for this.
What planning still remains?
Ben Wiggins: Tons! If we had to start the camp two days from now, we have the plans and the coaches in place that would make it great. But we want to be organized enough that we can improv on the fly, and our coaches are trying things out on their home teams already. We’ll have a detailed plan ready a few months before the camp. If you haven’t run one of these before, that might sound excessive. But it really helps to give coaches the perfect environment to focus on their teaching and their interactions with players to the fullest extent possible. Also, depending on numbers we may also be able to add a few more coaches.
What should people know?
Ben Wiggins: Windmill has been an amazing sponsor. They have worked with us tirelessly through translation issues, budgeting meetings and lots of focused discussions to make sure that our goals are the same and we are working towards the same thing. Windmill is special, and that is why we chose to work with them at the start.
Camp Registration Links:
Camp Registration <— Only 150 total camp spots available
Coaching Camp Registration<— 15 spot coaching clinic
Conference Registration <— 50 “conference only” total spots available
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