Drafting Balanced Teams

1
Drafting Balanced Teams

• Elizabeth Murray
• San Francisco Ultimate League

2
Playing ability

• Novice- haven't played much, or at all
• Beginner- know the rules some throws
• Intermediate- some tournament experience
• Advanced- lots of tournament experience
• Veteran- played at regionals or nationals

3
Issues

• The more the league grew the ability to know
  every person that signed up to play diminished.
• Player self assessments arent always true.
• When a team wins everyone shows up
• When a team loses attendance drops
• Good attendance is necessary for retaining
  beginners and keeping Spirit positive

4
WAFC Ratings (2003)

• Player Ratings Please circle the level that best
  describes you in each category. Accurate player
  ranking ensures that teams are reasonably
  balanced by skill level. Please be honest, and
  keep in mind that these descriptions are
  guidelines. WAFC reserves the right to adjust any
  player's ranking if we feel a player has ranked
  him/herself too high/low.

5
Playing Experience

•  1 - None 2 - Pickup/informal play 3 - 2 years
  or 4 seasons of league play 4 - 2 to 4 years or
  4 seasons of league play 5 - College play w/
  some league play 6 - Competitive college or 4
  years league play 7 - Advanced league player 8
  - Travelling club player retired 9 or 10 9 -
  Competed at regionals 10 - Competed at Nationals
  or Worlds

6
Disc Skills

•  1 - Can't throw at all 2 - Learning to throw 3
  - Solid backhand or forehand 4 - Solid backhand
  and forehand 5 - Consistent backhand and
  forehand against a mark 6 - Handler familiar
  with zone defense 7 - Consistent throws in wind
  good defense 8 - Some break-mark throws strong
  defense 9 - All throws accurate great defense
  10 - Exceptional skills in all categories

7
Athleticism / Physical Condition

• 1 - Poor 2 - Okay 3 - Average 4 - Good 5 -
  Great

8
Commitment

• 1 - Almost always 2 - Better than half 3 -
  Casual attendance 4 - Once in a while

9
Modifications to WAFC ratings system

• We realized that in a beginner friendly league
  like ours its important that the handlers be
  identified and evenly distributed among the
  teams.
• Neither our original rating system nor the one we
  borrowed from WAFC reflected this.
• Changed the Disc Skills descriptions to more
  explicitly capture handling skills.
• If you play handler regularly in SFUL, you are
  automatically a 6 or higher.
• 6 - 8 all mention the word "handler"
• by the time you get to 9 or 10, it's pretty well
  understood.
• If you dont yet play handler in SFUL, you're a 5
  or lower.

10
Disc Skills

• 1 - Have tossed a disc casually (beach picnic
  etc.)
• 2 - Learning to throw and catch for ultimate
• 3 - Solid backhand or forehand
• 4 - Solid backhand and forehand
• 5 - Consistent throws against a mark
• 6 - Handler against man defense
• 7 - Handler against zone defense
• 8 - Solid handler consistent throws in wind
• 9 - All throws accurate consistently breaks mark
• 10 - Exceptional accuracy dictates offense

11
Other Modifications

• Separated athletic beginners from true novices.
• Therefore, ratings "2 - Some ultimate no other
  team sports" and "3 - Some ultimate and other
  team sports" came into being under experience.
• Athleticism/Physical Condition
• 1 - Poor
• 2 - Okay
• 3 - Average
• 4 - Solid
• 5 - Exceptional

12
Defense

• Separated out Defense from Disc Skills.
• Defense
• 1 - None or learning man defense
• 2 - Familiar with man defense force and stall
  count
• 3 - Average skills in man defense learning zone
• 4 - Solid skills man and zone defense
• 5 - Exceptional defender gets the D

13
Experience

• Changed the progression up to "7 - Advanced
  League Player."
• Left how it was from 7 - 10, but added the word
  "recently" to 9 and 10.
• Experience
• 1 - None
• 2 - Some ultimate no other team sports
• 3 - Some ultimate and other team sports
• 4 - Some league, club, or college ultimate
• 5 - Current club/college or 2 years league
• 6 - Competitive club/college or 4 years league
• 7 - Advanced league player
• 8 - Advanced club/college player or retired 9 or
  10
• 9 - Competed recently at Regionals
• 10 - Competed recently at Nationals or Worlds

14
Player Self Rating
15
Player Rating Instructions for Captains

• Please rate your players according to their
  skills/abilities at the end of the current
  season. Do not rate a player according to his/her
  past reputation.
• A player's ratings are not complete unless you
  enter a rating for all 4 categories Experience,
  Disc Skills, Athleticism/Physical Condition, and
  Defense.

16
Player Rating Instructions

• You can also complete a rating by simply writing
  a Comment. If you feel you do not have enough
  basis to rate a player in any one category, or
  all 4 perhaps (because player did not play very
  much), please make a note of it in the Comments
  section. Comments are optional otherwise.

17
Player Rating Instructions

• More on Comments - these are welcome, but
  remember they are really meant to be input into
  future drafts, so be brief and to the point.
  Abbreviations are good. Try to write comments
  only when describing why you upgrade or downgrade
  somebody. In exchange for your candor, we promise
  to keep these comments confidential.

18
Captains Rating Page
19
Events the Ratings Used
20
(No Transcript)
21
Rating Alert Column

• Four possible values
• "up" means the captains have slightly upgraded
  one of the player's skills (difference lt 1).
• "UP" means the captains have upgraded the
  player's Experience or Disc Skills (difference gt
  1).
• "(down)" is a slight downgrade (difference lt
  -1).
• "(DOWN)" is a major downgrade to the player's
  Experience or Disc Skills (difference gt -1).
• A blank value means captain's rating agrees with
  self-rating, or captain's rating n/a.

22
Next Steps

• Draft is exported into Excel spreadsheet
• Spreadsheet ranks each gender in the following
  order based on the player self ratings
• 1. Experience
• 2. Disc Skills
• 3. Defense
• 4. Athleticism/Phys. Condition
• 5. Height
• 6. Games missed

23
Next Steps

• The spreadsheet for each gender is reviewed by
  the director(s) conducting the draft and players
  are moved up or down taking into consideration
  the rating alerts.
• Teams are generated using a snake format draft
  (1-8, 8-1, etc)
• Baggage is discouraged since all games are at the
  same time and place each week.

24
A Word About Baggage

• Goal is to create balanced teams for competitive
  play
• distribute players able to teach or coach those
  new to the game throughout the league
• couples who bag each other are likely to miss the
  same games
• only consider bag requests in mentor situations
  when an experienced player is bringing someone
  new to the sport.

25
Next Steps

• Each team is given a reality check
• Make sure people that plan to miss several games
  distributed evenly
• Make sure the jerks are distributed evenly

26
Conclusions

• The new system has allowed players to more
  accurately rate themselves.
• The new system has allowed captains to correct
  player self ratings
• Attendance improved since there were fewer
  blowouts
• Beginners were coming back because their
  experiences were more positive.

27
Conclusions

• Players of all skill levels were improving more
  rapidly because the games were more challenging
• Overall Spirit, bar attendance improved
• Consolation games during finals are now always
  played out
• More teams cheer.