My Tournament Bag
What I bring to tournaments
Why not hop into my discord and give your input on what you bring to tournaments?
I focus a lot on the theoretical aspects of coaching, but here’s something much more basic and practical. One of the joys of moving from playing to coaching is that your bag empties a lot! But what exactly should you be putting in it now? I can only tell you what I bring, and what I don’t.
Essentials
Notebook
As long as I have my notebook (and a pen) I’m probably happy to leave anything else behind. This is what I’m usually writing:
Available players (and if I’m on my own I try my best to track the playtime by marking how many points they’ve played).
Pregame, timeout, halftime, post game notes of what I want to say. If I don’t do this I will say too many things, and for anyone when you speak off the cuff you are going to be overly influenced by recency bias - what just happened is going to be the first thing in your head. Writing the notes applies a filter between your brain and your mouth.
Listing out all the tactics I want to use for the game
I’ll often write these out in the basic shape of the tactic. Particularly for zones I find it much easier to make changes to the default lineup because I can see quickly what position I’m trying to fill.
My preference is for a 6x9 inch lined notebook. Big enough that I can generally fit all the information I want for a game across two pages so I don’t need to flick back and forth, small enough that I can find pockets big enough to put it in.
Why a notebook over a tablet or something similarly advanced? Well: maybe it’s just that I’m old. My brain to page connection is seamless, and I find it much easier to write notes quickly and representative of what is in my head. I also find it easier to flick back and forth to find things than searching through a document on google docs or similar. Plus of course it’s not breakable, doesn’t need charging and can just happily live in my frisbee bag for the year.
I also find a much more permanent connection to things written in a notebook. I often pick them up, read a page at random and am able to walk down memory lane, or read something that I learned and since forgot.
Waterproof Notebook
Did I write this post purely to extoll the virtues of a waterproof notebook? Pretty much.
I LOVE THIS THING.
I don’t need to repeat everything I said about why I use a notebook. This does all that but you can use it in the rain. This notebook has been through hell and worked perfectly in all conditions. The 4 days of constant rain in Bruges for EUCF 2021? Destroyed everything else but I was happily scribbling notes in this with no problems. Did I feel smug watching everyone else struggle to keep paper functional, or keep a phone or tablet covered from the rain? You can bet I did.
The one I have is from Rite in the Rain. You can buy a special pen to use with them (a regular pen won’t stick in the wet) but you can also do what I do and use a pencil.
Cap/Hat
Keeps the rain off my face when it’s raining, protects my head in the sun. I’m there for my brain so I need to protect it. I really notice my brain slowing down when I don’t have a cap in the sun.
Phone
My phone lets me check the schedule, message the team, check our playbooks and see how my fantasy football team is getting on.
When I’m buying a phone I only care about two things:
Battery life - I don’t want to have to worry about finding a charge point at a tournament
Size - A compact size because I want to be able to have it on my person on the sideline
Water Bottle
I used to be terrible for forgetting to drink water. I still am. A good water bottle that I like has made it a lot easier though. This water bottle has survived 5 years despite my best efforts to lose it. It’s distinctive enough to find it’s way back to me. Yellow + corgi + scoober + Ireland narrows the potential owners down a fair bit.
Waterproof Jacket, Pants, Shoes
It rains a lot in Europe. Being dry > being wet by a significant margin. I have very lightweight raingear (thanks Decathlon) which makes it a no-brainer to store in my frisbee bag all season no matter what the forecast says.
Also I love how yellow my rainjacket is.
Jaffa Cakes, Bananas, Coffee
The top 3 sources of energy
Nice to Have
Cones
I always regret not bringing a few cones to tournaments. And yet I never remember.
UV Protection Gear
I count my two patagonia UV protection sun hoodies amongst my most valuable possessions. They genuinely make me feel cooler when I put them on and provide really good UPF protection. But they’re now discontinued so the value of the two I have has skyrocketed for me.
Zipped Pockets
Can’t get enough zipped pockets. Love a hoody/zippy with generous pockets (big enough for my notebook) and luckily those are easy to find. Shorts with pockets are oddly difficult to get a decent pair of - these patagonia ones are easily my favourites. Please sponsor me patagonia.
There are essentially zero good offering for coaching clothing amongst the frisbee apparel companies for what I want.
Sunglasses
These should probably be an essential item really.
Laptop
I only pack this if it’s a long tournament, where there are only 1-2 games a day so there is the space and time to watch video or hook it up to a screen for team meetings. For shorter or more packed tournaments the extra mental energy isn’t worth it in my experience. Both myself and the team need sharp brains more than we need information. It’s astonishing to me how many teams try to squeeze in tactical planning meetings during a busy schedule when every sport psychology book will tell you that overthinking cripples performance.
Items I Don’t Use or Want
Tactics Boards
I’ve tried out a few versions of whiteboards or magnetic tactics boards. The effort:usefulness ratio isn’t worth it for me.
Camping Chair
I do like to sit down sometimes. But I can usually find somewhere to sit during breaks and I don’t enjoy bringing a chair around and packing it up. I’m also way to mentally focused on the frisbee and I’m quite inclined to forget the existence of objects that aren’t important to it.
Discs
Not my job
The Bag Itself
This isn’t my perfect bag, although it’s served me extremely well. A waterproof, 70l duffel bag that’s comfortable to bring around is ideal for me. Anything bigger is too big. This one could be more waterproof and it would be ideal for me.
