Thoughts.

I plan to disseminate all the information I gleaned from this weekend’s Ultimate Coaches and Players Conference (UCPC) on this blog; I’m going to break it up into parts for (hopefully) easier reading.

Let me first say that the UCPC was a great success. All of the seminars I went to were very helpful and informative, and I’ve come away from the conference with more new knowledge to apply than I know what to do with (thankfully, I have pages of notes to refer back to). Tiina and George definitely surpassed what I think anyone was expecting for the first time a conference of this kind was ever put on, and I’m looking forward eagerly to see what they do with it in years to come.

I’m going to start my recaps with the part I’m most likely to forget detail about soonest, the seminar on training for ultimate. You might think I’m most likely to forget about it soonest because it’s harder for me to remember, but it’s more the opposite–I’m so familiar with a lot of the material that if I wait too long to go over it I’ll confuse what I learned with what I already know.

The presentation was definitely useful–given almost entirely by Bryan Doo, a former DoG player who is now the trainer for the Boston Celtics (Dan was there, but he seemed to be playing tech support…I’m sure what exactly his role was in the program, actually). Just one look at him would tell you that he’s a pretty fit guy, but he continued to put it on display for us through demonstrations of his athleticism in the various drills and exercises he went over for us.

Doo opened by saying that Ultimate is, by far, the hardest sport to train for, and I’m inclined to agree. Given that in a single point, you can be running, sprinting, stopping, changing direction, jumping, laying out, and throwing, and that you have to maintain this level of performance over the course of at least a minute or two, oftentimes longer, before you can get a break, and that while most sports have single games, ultimate has players going for a full day or weekend, it’s definitely unique in that it requires great conditioning as well as great strength and athleticism to excel (or a deep roster so you can sub out often).

He began his discussion of fitness by talking about the two most under-worked (and under-appreciated) muscle groups in the body: the hamstrings and the gluteals. The majority of people are quad-dominant; with better hamstring strength and better gluteal activation, you’ll take a lot of strain off of your quads and enable yourself to go harder for longer, as well as reducing injury risk.

Doo strongly advocated against using simple leg curl machines for training the hamstrings, emphasizing movements that involve eccentric contraction (legthening the muscle under force), as the hamstrings are your primary decelerators when running. He pointed to leg curls with the legs on a stability ball and deadlifts (I volunteered “deadlifts” when he asked what people did to train their hamstrings and got a cry of “Yes! It’s like I plant them out there!” in response) as great exercises for exercises to train the hamstrings. With stronger hamstrings, you’ll be better able to stop–I shouldn’t need to say how important being able to stop is for cutting in ultimate; additionally it’ll reduce your injury risk–if your hamstrings aren’t strong enough to stop you at a full sprint, you’re more likely to be slowing down/stopping/planting and tearing/straining your hamstrings.

For the glutes, Doo took a different approach. The thing with the gluteal muscles is not so much to work toward strengthening them as it is to work towards activating (ie, contracting) them better. Proper gluteal activation ensures proper hip function, and weak glutes will force your quads to work harder and heighten your injury risk in the back and hamstrings, as they’ll have to compensate as well (an aside–this illustrates why it’s important to not simply “treat the symptom” with regards to injuries. Your hamstrings can get tight or be strained for any number of different reasons–don’t just do leg curls and expect it to get better, because it won’t fix the true problem. Look to the rest of your body for the cause and treat that). Doo had a number of different exercises and drills to work towards better gluteal activation–leg bridges, single leg leg bridges (going up and down or holding them, and putting your hands on your butt to feel the glutes and make sure they contract), and a couple of drills I couldn’t possibly do justice trying to explain here. Check out the UCPC’s download page for a link to the videos we saw (I haven’t checked the links myself, but you should be able to find them directly or in the powerpoint) to see–Doo definitely emphasized the importance of these drills for becoming more athletic.

He also made it a point to mention that when doing these drills (some of which are plyometric in nature), they should be done when well-rested and NOT as a conditioning tool unless you’re already very good at the drill. When done as conditioning and form breaks down from inexperience, you’re increasing your injury risk.

The other major training facet he emphasized was core strength, especially rotational strength. As an ultimate player rotational movement is a fact of life, and it also comes into play whenever you run, jump, or really do anything with one arm or one leg. You can train rotational movements any number of ways, I won’t go into them here. He also emphasized general core strength, as a strong core makes your whole body more efficient and stable.

The last two parts Doo spoke about were injuries and general training strategies. On the topic of injuries, Doo spoke briefly, mentioning things like RICE (rest, ice, compress, elevate–the hierarchy of treating minor injuries (minor meaning you don’t have a broken bone sticking out–in cases like that, a trip to the hospital is best)) and the need to maintain conditioning, with lower-impact activity if necessary such as swimming. He also emphasized the need to work slowly back towards athletic activity–with a mantra of “stability before mobility,” Doo said that an athlete should be able to hold a position before doing exercises that move through a position. He also stressed the importance of getting one’s range of motion back after injury–if you fail to do your rehab correctly, for example, you’ll wind up compensating elsewhere and increasing your injury risk–if not at the first injury site, then elsewhere.

Finally, he spoke in broader terms about training well. He started by attaching static stretching in your warmup, as lengthening your muscles before you do activity actually decreases the amount of strength you can apply (think of how much force is applied by a rubber band you pull apart at two points close together vs. at two points farther apart), and instead recomended low-intensity, range-of-motion type movements to get the blood flowing and the body ready to compete–he also differentiated between an “active” warmup where there is light jogging and dynamic stretching from standing position, and a “less active” warmup when you’re already warm (say, between games) and want to conserve energy and instead do less engaging dynamic work sitting or lying on the ground.

He talked for a bit about speed, agility, and quickness, and he went through some drills that work on these aspects; he emphasized a few qualities that will enhance these traits, namely that: an athlete should have a strong base (think of how you stand when getting ready to mark/guard somebody–you should be on the balls of your feet, already applying pressure inwards toward the ground. This gives you a stable position from which you can explode in either direction without having to waste time moving from some other ready position to this one); an athlete should have awareness of where his or her center of gravity is; and that an athlete should apply force to the ground. The last one is of particular importance. The more force you apply to the ground, the farther and faster you go (This is why I place weight/strength training above any other training modalities for becoming a better athlete).

The last thing he mentioned was the need to cool down, admitting that he’s not particularly dilligent about it himself. At this point, it’s OK to do static stretching to increase your range of motion, because you (hopefully) won’t be doing anything too high stress for the rest of the day. It’s important to use the cooldown as a time to relax and get your heart rate back to normal, as these things will enhance recovery.

Related posts:

1. UCPC Review, Part 4 ("Applying Mental Toughness Strategies to Ultimate," Tiina Booth)
2. UCPC Review, Part 5 (the final: "A Season of High-level College Ultimate," Nathan Wicks)
3. UCPC Review, Part 3 (Keynote Speech, Dr. Alan Goldberg)
4. UCPC review: Part 2 ("Marking: Techniques and Tactics", Ben Wiggins)
5. Fitness Goals