Reflections on Teaching Hex to Middle School Students
Introduction:
Welcome ultimate frisbee coaches and players! Thank you for taking the time to look over this resource. I am a middle school ultimate frisbee coach and have been working with that age group on and off since 2015. My cocoaches and I are all middle school teachers (ages 11-14) and coach a team for our school. Up until this year (2023), I have taught my teams vertical stack, as I felt it was the best introductory offense for teaching many of the principles of the sport. This year, however, my cocoaches and I decided to try teaching hex instead, to match the shift made by the high school team in our district. We kept notes of our teaching progression and thoughts as we went to make adjusting our ultimate frisbee curriculum easier in the following years. This is a modified version of that document that omits identifying information. Please note that most of these reflections are my own, as my cocoaches and I have not yet discussed our big picture thoughts in depth. We may add/change notes once we have those discussions.
Our Programs:
We run two programs (open to all gender identities) at our school. Our casual, non-commitment club meets twice per week and runs from September to March. It is welcome to all students grades 6-8. At the end of March, we run a competitive Spring team that meets four times per week for approximately two hours. This is only open to 7th and 8th graders.
The 2023 Team:
Every team has a different feel and culture. It is important to have this context when reading our notes. This year’s team was invested in the sport and had great physical and cognitive potential. They struggled with carrying a focal point into a scrimmage, drill, or game, and had issues with team culture. I bring this up because some of the challenges this team faced were characteristic of these kids and their classmates as a whole, and were not specific to our hex for the first time.
Training Tier patrons can access the training plan here.
Reflecting on Hex