We are so grateful to all the coaches and athletes who came out to our 4th Womxn’s Ultimate Day. Coaches from Brute Squad, Slow White, Wild Card, and our local grand masters’ team spent the day running skills, mental-resilience, and body mechanics workshops for athletes whose experienced ranged from brand new to ultimate to having veteran club experience.
Athletes split into groups by skill level and rotated through clinic stations on throwing and breaking the mark, cutting, marking, and defensive positioning. Advanced groups learned about throwing windows and footwork for defensive dictating, and beginner groups learned the rules, set their first marks, and threw their first forehands (!!).
After applying new skills in a scrimmage, athletes split into two groups and rotated between mental-resilience and body mechanics workshops. The mental resilience workshop was led by Leila Tunnell and covered goal-setting and tools for refocusing that are key to reaching your potential as an athlete. In the body mechanics workshop, player learned techniques for improving straight-line acceleration and changing directions quickly and safely.
We are already looking forward to Womxn’s Ultimate Day 2021! Although it didn’t work out this year, we’re hoping that in the future, we can add another event with a longer series of workshops on equity in ultimate, leadership, and planning seasons and practices.
The clinic was led and organized by Hannah Baranes and Leila Tunnel. We had a stellar support team of all-star coaches and administrators who helped bring this day to fruition, including Valley Ultimate board members Josh Seamon and Joe Costello. And as always, thanks to Indoor Action Sports in Greenfield for hosting our event!
Our coaches included:
- Hannah Baranes (Slow White)
- Leila Tunnell (Brute Squad, Happy Valley)
- Alex Ode (Brute Squad)
- Olivia Hampton (Slow White)
- Laura “Buzz” Davis (Valley Grandmasters)
- Erin Rea (Brute Squad)
- Sarah Judd (Wild Card)
- Caroline Pellegrini (Happy Valley)
- Tess Johnson (Slow White)
- Caitlin Fitzgerald (Slow White)
Thanks again to all who participated, and we’re looking forward to seeing you on the field again soon!
-Leila Tunnell + Hannah Baranes