Train Like A Champion: Consistent, humble, curious, supportive: Grut 2024 by Maartje Keulen

I have been playing with GRUT since their first European Club final in the mixed division in 2016. Back then I was 23, had little experience, but felt super welcomed by this young group of friends. We had players like Anne Minnaard, who was just 14 years old at the time, Floor Keulartz, Lola Dam, Janne Jansen, and Benjamin Oort, all 16 years old, who started playing at a young age, and had more experience than me. They affectionately gave me the nickname “Oma” (grandma) and I have been a proud team member since.

There was a lot of chaos and joking around, a lot of competitiveness too. We have grown and changed a lot since those days, and much of this culture is still the same, and there are plenty of stories to tell. This one is about our last season, where after 8 years at the highest European level in the Mixed division, we took on a new challenge to compete in the Women’s and Open divisions. Our Women’s team took gold convincingly in our first season, and I’m giving you a look behind the scenes to share how we accomplished that.

Trust

Winning isn't just about putting a bunch of talented players together; it's about creating an environment where everyone can perform at their best. At GRUT, trusting each other is our most important value. We give feedback all the time, and that can be intense. We believe everyone is trying their best and help each other to improve. We are constantly analyzing ourselves and our teammates at practice, discussing how each action could be improved or if it was the right decision. This could be intense, as it might feel like constant critique, but it’s really about supporting each other to grow further. We celebrate each other's wins and put a lot of energy into showing trust, creating an environment where it’s okay to make mistakes—a difficult achievement when competitiveness is high. We regularly discuss goals, expectations, and individual roles, with coaches and captains setting the overall guidelines, but the finer details are filled in collaboratively by the team. Players who have also played with other high-level teams often express that the trust they feel in our team really stands out, which I believe is a significant factor in our success.

Take Flora Hay as an example. Imagine you are joining a new team and you are put on the O-line that has been playing together for ages, and on top of that has all these big names like Floor Keulartz, Anne Minnaard, and Sarah Eklund, just to name a few. Would you dare to take a dominant role? Flora surely didn’t during the first half of the season and she was doubting how useful she could be there. However, the other O-line players just kept talking to her, encouraging her, giving her feedback and giving her the space and trust to grow. Guess what, she was our biggest target during the semi-final and final, scoring 10 points against BFD Shout and Mooncup, making big and dominant plays when the pressure was on.

Trust in a receiver gives confidence to the thrower and makes plays like this look effortless

Investing in the Whole Team

Our team doesn’t just rely on star players; if someone is well-defended or not at their best, others are ready to step up. In some crucial games, with Anne and Floor struggling or having double defense for example, Iris Leinenga and Fiona Mernagh suddenly were the ones making the big throws, showing our depth and resilience. This also means giving other players the space to develop and shine when needed, recognizing that empowering others helps everyone in the long run. Many talented and experienced players want to keep playing for this team, because they appreciate the opportunity to learn and strengthen each other at training without the pressure of being the sole star.

Investing in the whole team also means not only investing in playing offense. We spend a lot of time and effort to improve our defensive strength. Some of our best players play on the D-line, because we don’t just want to rely on our O-line not making any mistakes to win games. This also leads to great battles at training, playing O-line against D-lines, pushing each other’s levels up. There have been various important games where our O-line wasn’t performing well, but our strong defense won the game anyway. It is an amazing feeling to know that your teammates can still make up for your mistakes. Both for offense and defense, we spend time getting to know each other's strengths and weaknesses, and combining them in the best possible ways. We try, talk, adjust, and repeat.

Coordinated end zone offence is the result of hundreds of repetitions with teammates

Purpose-Driven Training

The way we spend our time at training is also crucial. We never just play around; every drill and game is focused and purpose-driven. We have fun and we joke around a lot, but when active in a drill, it’s with full commitment. This consistent approach has helped our team grow quickly. The switch is either on or off, no doing things halfway. Same with analyzing and helping each other improve, doing this consistently is what helps us to grow this fast as a team.

Our coaches — Hans Lommen, Chris Lee, and Igno van Hees — drafted a season plan that included many new tactics and strategies, which really challenged our brains and definitely caused some chaos in our games throughout the season. For example, during trainings we don’t really do set plays. Instead, our coaches let us do drills that practice thinking and grow a common understanding of the spaces we want to attack. This means we sometimes practice situations that don’t happen in games, but force us to identify the spaces we want to attack and act on that. We only started with the women's team this season.

Our first tournament and spring invite we played okay, but our play was quite chaotic and we lost to BFD Shout twice. We really hate losing, so this really was motivation for us to keep improving, and also pointed us to the things that needed work. Even in the games we lost, we always had moments that we could dominate, so that gave a lot of confidence that with the right adjustments, we would be able to win later in the season. At Windmill, we already grew throughout the tournament, beat Jinx once but lost in the final. At the European finals, we stepped it up even more. It was amazing to see this much growth in one season, both in a team and for individual players. This combination of our coaches pushing us to see the game in different ways, and everyone’s commitment to work on this together, ultimately made us a stronger team and helped us perform that well at the finals.

Consistency in Training

Consistency in training is another crucial element. Building a strong foundation in the winter and finding a sustainable training modality prevents frisbee burnout. Sometimes that means players take the winter off from team trainings, skip some tournaments or do other sports to become fit instead. We allow flexibility in how each team member trains, but we all motivate each other to be fit and prepared when it counts.

Athletic development is the base for intense defence like this

The Role of Sports Psychology

Sports psychology plays a big part in our success. We always aim for gold, but try to focus on the things we can control during games. It makes us more resilient, helping us to manage pressure and allows these comebacks in tight matches.

For example, thinking about the score and results doesn’t help you during a game. Instead, we try to focus on executing your own task well, and on what’s expected from you as a player. This can be basic things like working hard and always keep the same distance as a defender, taking the deep shots, or maybe only the 100% depending on your specific role. If everyone executes their role like is expected from them, we can trust that we can play in the best way we can. At the end we’ll see if that’s enough, but that’s all we can do at that moment.

As Coach Chris Lee says, "Dare to win." If you are afraid to make mistakes, you won’t make the winning plays. So we want to take the risks that we need to win.

Advice to Aspiring Players

For new players, building a strong physical foundation is vital. Join a workout program, ensure you get enough rest, and continually challenge yourself to improve. Even if you are training with a lower level team, or playing a fun tournament, find small things you can focus on to try your best at. Small improvements, day after day, lead to significant long-term growth. Staying consistent, humble, curious, and supportive are qualities that make not just a good athlete, but a great teammate. And most importantly, the only way to keep it up for long enough, is to make sure you enjoy it and have fun!

Celebrating another gold at Tom's Tourney