Throwing/Cutting/Defensive Thought: On Your Toes!
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Loading ...The Huddle already beat me to this, but I’ve been sitting on this thought for a while now.
When you play this sport, you should be playing it on your toes. If there’s a time-out, or when a point is scored, then you can let your heels touch down. Otherwise, get up on ‘em!
When I say toes, I don’t mean tippy toes–I mean the balls of your feet. Maybe I should just say that, but it’s not as nice of a mental check–”toes!” versus “balls!”
You can judge that one for yourself. So why toes? Simply put, you’re more responsive and more explosive, in any situation.
Think about it. When is a defender most screwed? 1) When his hips are committed, sure, but 2)…when he’s on his heels. Some of the most stupidly effective cutting moves are the little chop-steps that put a defender on his heels. Don’t be that guy who gets caught sitting on his heels.
When you pivot, what do you pivot off of? Your heels? No. You pivot off of your toes. If you stand with the frisbee in your hands, and you are on your heels, you will go up on your toes before you step over to pivot. Why not eliminate the wasted motion and just stay on your toes? Your mark will have less time to react to your movement. And it prepares you to run right off of the throw, which is a wonderful way to continue punishing your woman after you break her (or throw to the open side).
When you’re cutting, same deal. Do you sprint off of your heels? Nope! You shouldn’t jog on ‘em either. The more time you spend on your toes as a cutter (and as a defender in motion), the more prepared you are to stop on a dime (your heels can push down when you’re stopping) and explode in a new direction.
Athletic position means being on your toes, knees bent, ready to uncoil. Keep it in mind on the ultimate field. Keep in in mind when you’re tossing on the green or in the park or wherever you happen to get your tossing in. Keep it in mind when you’re in the gym and doing plyos. Develop your strength, and then learn how to channel that strength as quickly and effectively as possible through your toes. And dominate.
Bonus double post: A reaction to the Huddle’s Issue No. 6: "Footwork"
(No Ratings Yet. Click to Rate!) Loading ...Almost all of the authors are very vague about how one actually improves footwork.
“Oh, do ladder/cutting/change-of-direction drills. Think about changing direction.”
Thought-provoking, sure, but some of those articles are not particularly actionable as far as improving as an ultimate player goes. I’m sure it’s all well and good to be able to watch high-level elite players routinely or be covered by them routinely, but your average layperson can only imagine what most of these authors are alluding to, and much of the benefit of such models is lost.
I’m not trying to say such commentary is not valuable, because it is tremendously so–the Huddle is the best thing to happen to the development of this sport yet. Universally accessible, not filtered through the lens of one person (the problem with blogs today as a source of information, including yours truly), and broadly applicable strategy and skills. It’s a helluva lot better than what I’m doing here, which is more of an effort to guide beginner / intermediate level ultimate improvement.
At any rate, sifting through the thought-provoking-ness for the actionable items yields the following gems, in my opinion:
“Get low, chop my feet, and explode…if you can envision [emphasis mine] yourself making a strong cut, you will be able to do that.”
Try combining those two. And then try implementing what you’ve envisioned. Also see my previous entry on stopping for some exposition and a link to some good video on good stopping/change of direction mechanics. Maybe the Huddle didn’t beat me to the punch here after all.
“Planting off your inside foot instead of your outside foot” (shamelessly stolen from L&H F)
Again, visualize this and then try it. Ladders, yeah. Drills, yeah. Good, but I say pah.
Work through it mentally–whether purely through visualization, if you’re comfortable enough with your body to know how it should be working, or through a little bit of trial (you can do this in slow motion right now–if you’re at work, maybe fake a little on your way to the bathroom to save face) to give your mind some reference material–and, once you’ve identified what the key motions to stopping and exploding in a new direction (while maintaining balance!) are in your mind, recreate those motions in your practice and your training. Train them with plyos, train the main muscles with some strength training too (hint: single leg lifting works wonders here, and you can do a lot with just your body weight).
Finally, my two cents about footwork: you can compensate for a lot of errors in footwork/balance simply by being strong(er). I’ve gotten away with being off-balance (sometimes intentionally to bait the man I’m defending) by being strong enough to recover quickly. There’s more than one way to skin a cat. That said, you’re usually better off being strong AND having proper technique. Strive to be your best, rather than simply good enough–there’s ALWAYS room for improvement.
So, you’re interested in training, huh?
(No Ratings Yet. Click to Rate!) Loading ...Just how interested are you?
Do you like working out? Are you the sort who prides himself on out-working your teammates (and especially your opponents)? Is the main thing for you how HARD you work?
Are you more of a “work smarter, not harder” type? Do you prefer the newest training modalities and exercises? Are you concerned more with efficiency (perhaps you have time constraints) than brute force of volume of work?
Do you simply like the idea of training, but struggle to put it into practice? Do you strive to be the second type I’ve described, but lack even a modicum of the motivation of the first?
Motivation is key. There are definitely goods and betters with training (and bads, too, but generally speaking, you’re better off doing something than nothing at all), but none of it matters if you’re not properly motivated to train and improve yourself (or inspire the same motivation in others).
My motivation took me a few routes. I certainly have worked hard in my time, putting in the time and the intensity of work, to get into the shape I’m in (or was in–I’m definitely falling out of shape now that I’ve stopped training regularly for ultimate). But I’ve also spent countless hours looking at resources on the internet, as well as simply trying out new routines and structures.
If you’re interested in following the same path, I have some recommendations for you. Much of my fitness knowledge has come from time spent perusing the following sites:
Almost all of what I’ve learned about fitness has come either directly from these sites or from other resources I’ve found through these sites. Look for common themes and threads throughout–if something is repeated by several different individuals, it’s probably got a lot of truth to it–and don’t be afraid to learn by doing.
Summer Workouts: Crossfit Style
(No Ratings Yet. Click to Rate!) Loading ...Hi, 07X fuel cell,
Just finished up this guy. Without further ado:
5 pushups
10 lunge jumps*
15 situps**
all of that constitutes 1 set.
Do 20 sets or go for 15 minutes, whichever is sooner.
Stay Strong,
Mackey
Notes:
-Keep pushing! Don’t take breaks between exercises or sets, just go straight into the next one.
-If you get too tired to do regular pushups, go to your knees and keep going; if you can’t keep doing lunge jumps, regular lunges or jumping in place is ok too, just don’t stop for more than a second or two.
-I got through 20 sets in 14:12, if you want a standard for comparison.
*5 each leg. Start in lunge position, push off, switch legs in midair, land in a lunge w/other leg forward (we’ve done these in winter conditioning before). repeat.
**whatever kind of situp you like–crunches are ok, doing “runners,” cycling your legs in midair, is probably easiest to maintain. Count one for every other leg if you do those.
How it works:
I like these kinds of arrangements for conditioning workouts, as they’re quick and efficient. By pairing different exercises and not taking breaks between them, your body is always working, but the individual muscle groups worked get a short break (a la circuit workouts). Nothing special to note here in terms of energy systems or the like, but doing a workout like this is superior in terms of general conditioning to more stop-go types of work (those have their role too for more specific conditioning, however–more on that if you blitz me or wait until the winter), as you hit more or less your entire body in short order doing this.
If you’re so inclined, you can improvise using a similar structure in your own workouts. As a general rule, you want to pair exercises that work different muscle groups (i.e., you don’t want to do lunges followed by squats followed by jumping in place, as it will overwork your hips/quads in short order), and you want to keep the reps on the low end of things so you can keep working through it when tired. I like this workout a lot as it hits the upper body with pushups (a vastly underrated exercise), works your legs explosively with lunge jumps, and then gives you some time on the ground doing situps to work your core.
If you’re feeling ambitious you can try to overload a single system, just be prepared for the consequences. Sometimes killing your legs is just what they need to bust through the plateau you’re resting at.
Throwing/Catching Thought: Grip Training (Types of Grip)
(No Ratings Yet. Click to Rate!) Loading ...So, how you grip the disc is important. However, as with just about anything in sports, it is not enough just to know how to do it right. You must possess the requisite athleticism to execute–knowledge alone can only take you so far.
So how do you train your grip to be stronger? I actually don’t do a ton of grip training anymore–I’m at a good baseline level, though I imagine a bit more training would help with my forehand hucking in particular–but when I did do grip training, I considered a few things when I planned my grip workouts:
There are different kinds of grip strength.
Pinch: Between individual fingers and your thumb.
Crush: Between your fingers and your palm (the “standard” grip when you think about grip–think handshake)
Support: Not a gripping motion, but the ability to maintain one’s grip (think holding on to a heavy bag full of groceries by the handle)
It’s my opinion that the first and the last are the most important for ultimate. The former is particularly important for catching (think about it–attacking the disc, you should be using your thumb underneath/on top to go with your other fingers), while the latter comes into play more for throwing and transferring power from your hips to the disc. Crush grip really has little relevance to ultimate, and it is not something you need to emphasize in your training (though you should still include it for completeness’ sake from time to time).
So, how do you train pinch and support grip? By gripping, of course!
The easiest way is simply to find a gripper or a grip machine at your local gym. these lend themselves fairly easily to a variety of gripping motions–really think about using your thumb–when I talk about support grip, it’s essentially support pinch grip. Start with a relatively manageable amount of force/weight, doing sets in the upper end of the rep range (think 20 reps), and work down to doing a few reps with higher weight, for reps and for time held closed. Pinching and then holding (whether you pinch with one, two, three, or four fingers simultaneously with your thumb is your prerogative–I prefer two fingers, with middle and pointer, as I think they are the ones that do the brunt of the catching work) allows you to work both types of grip simultaneously.
Another exercise I’ve done for supporting grip is holding plates. Grab a 5 or 10 lb plate and simply hold it with four fingers flush on top and the thumb on bottom (or vice versa). Hold for time. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Other options for grip training:
-Sand/Rice gripping. I’ve never done this myself, but others have.
-Fingertip pushups. I used to do these with regularity. But consider the range of motion in which you’re training your grip by doing these (see below). If you can get to the point where you can do them just on your thumbs or on three fingers (thumb+pointer/middle), you’re on the right track.
More conventional thought says doing things like farmer’s walks and deadlifts are good ways to train grip, and this is true–but it’s not as specific to ultimate (often training primarily crush grip, and in a range of motion unseen in ultimate). I do think, however, that learning to use the hook grip, with your thumb under your fingers, will emphasize strength of the thumb more and will carry over to your grip in ultimate though (to at least some extent).
Another thing to consider is that grip strength is highly specific to the range trained. I can do grip training for climbing, working on gripping at the outermost edges of my hand’s extension (think a hold several inches thick, so there’s a lot of space between your fingers and thumb), but, despite possessing phenomenal strength on the wall, have little to spare when gripping a disc with very little separation between fingers and thumb.
I couldn’t tell you what the exact range for the specificity of the training effect is, but the more you can work your grip in the range you’ll be using in-game (ie, closer together), the more you’ll find the results carry over to throwing and catching in game. That’s not to say you should avoid training grip at the edges of your range–to the contrary, a balanced program necessitates it–but pick your focus wisely.
Finally, grip strength fatigues easily, and recovers slowly. If you’re some kind of superhuman, perhaps you can train grip every day and continue to see improvement. For me, a good grip workout would actually leave me worse off for at least the day following. Some of my best throwing has come after taking a couple days off from throwing and grip training–my hands can recover fully, enabling more confident, sure throws. Keep this in mind when planning your training. Grip training is, primarily, a secondary focus for workouts, so I usually save it for the end of workouts where I won’t have to worry about a fatigued grip affecting my other lifts.
You’ll be surprised what a big difference this can make, though you might not notice the gradual improvement over time.
Summer Workouts: Speed Work
(No Ratings Yet. Click to Rate!) Loading ...I’ve pretty much gone through the different types of conditioning workouts I wanted to send out (again, if you want more conditioning, try to do old workouts faster/better or mix up the exercises. I can give you more ideas if you blitz me).
So, a different kind of workout. Speed Training. For example:
doing 4-6 repeats of:
-Sprint 40 meters
-Rest ~3 minutes
Would constitute a speed training workout. You can do longer distance with a bit more rest if you so desire. You can also do more reps as you get more used to doing speed work, depending on how you feel.
As you get more comfortable, you can throw in a second (or if you’re really ambitious, a third) set, too.
Stay Strong,
Mackey
Notes:
-The main point is to go as hard as you can over that short distance.
-Focus on really getting a good start
-Really focus on good running form. DRIVE with your arms, focusing on driving them forward in front of you as fast as you can (don’t swing them side-to-side). Really think about driving your legs down into the ground, too. But above all, go HARD!
-I find for ultimate it’s more realistic to start by taking a hard couple steps and planting as though you were cutting, but do a couple straight to get a feel for it first.
How it works:
When you’re conditioning you work on little to no rest–the point is to progressively overload your body’s systems and force it to adapt and be able to do more than it previously could.
With speed training, the point is not to overload your body, but to work more on your body’s “ideal” sprinting, so to speak–you push as hard as you can over a short distance and focus on keeping good form, and your body gets used to doing both. With conditioning, you get tired, you don’t run as fast as you’re capable of (I don’t mean at that instant when you’re tired, I mean overall), and form suffers. You don’t want your body to only learn to run at less than full speed and with poor form, so doing some speed work to remind (or teach, as the case may be) your body a) that you can run really fast and b) what it feels like to run with good form will help to make you faster.
Your body is a finely-tuned machine–the connections and associations that your nervous system makes are very specific to what you do. If you don’t practice running fast, you body won’t be used to the motion when you try to sprint. Any sprinter in track & field worth his salt does speed work routinely in order to run faster. Ultimate players should, too.
The Importance of Overload
(No Ratings Yet. Click to Rate!) Loading ...So, it’s important to take things step by step when learning a new motion, right?
Sure. Maybe. It’s also important to kick your own ass sometimes, too. You know what I’m talking about–those workouts that leave you feeling sore for days in spots you didn’t even know could BE sore.
It’s the same thing. When you do progressions, you can activate muscles you don’t normally use by really focusing on form. But when you overload, you can do the same thing out of sheer necessity.
I’m not saying you should kill yourself by squatting heavy (bad form will kill you)–but if you do some strength endurance work, repeated sets of 5 or 10 reps on short rest at a respectable weight, you are gonna make some wonderful progress. It’s exactly this sort of trend of thought that makes Crossfit so effective. Just browse their Workout of the Day (WoD) archive.
Try one of them with half as much weight as they prescribe. Recover. Rinse. Repeat. I started crossfitting a couple years ago and saw some immediate, tangible benefits on the field and in the mirror. If you want to be an Athlete (with a capital A, suited to all domains, not a sport-specific athlete), give crossfit a go.
The Importance of Progression
(No Ratings Yet. Click to Rate!) Loading ...I’ve been thinking about this a bit over the course of the past week, and it really hit home with me today as I was working out.
It’s really really important, when working out (particularly when it comes to lifting), not to overdo it. I was going through a fairly routine warm-up routine for me (including barbell complexes–45lbs, doing some shrugs, cleans, presses, and front and overhead squats), then proceeded into a workout intending to get my legs back under me doing some lunges. About 8 reps in with a manageable weight, my legs were screaming at me. Not in the “something’s wrong” sense, but in the “what the hell is this?” way that your body uses to let you know that you’re doing too much too soon and you’re going to be sore the next day.
That’s usually ok if you stop there. I left my legs be and went to work on the abs. How much I have lost! Muscles I used to know and love regarded me as strangers. And therein came to me the importance of progression.
I was trying to do some simple hanging leg raises, engaging my deep abdominal muscles…and I couldn’t. Not without bending my legs and doing hanging knee raises instead of straight-legged ones.
When you’re just starting a training program, or attempting to master a new movement or skill, unless you’re in top form in terms of general physical prep (and even then, be careful), you’ll almost ALWAYS benefit from starting with the basics and working your way up. The best trainers won’t sit you down and squat you straight away, they’ll evaluate your basics and get you VERY comfortable with the basics before putting you through your paces.
If you’re working hard this summer, and feeling a lack of progress/developing injuries, consider taking a step back instead of a step forward. Focus on the basics. Go a little lighter and really develop an awareness of how your body is moving instead of pushing through those dicey points where it hurts or it doesn’t feel quite right. Your body will thank you and respond accordingly, letting you bust through that plateau in front of you. You’d be surprised at all the different muscles and their uses you’ve yet to discover. Seriously, muscles you didn’t even know existed can quickly become prime components of your athletic posture and execution (going from unknown to very well known back to anonymity when you reach an automatic, natural level of use).
Oh, and stretch too.
On a related note: I haven’t posted anything involving weight training on this blog lately, because last summer’s workouts were geared towards those without weights, but it really is a critical part of my training repertoire. Check out Crossfit and T-Nation for some real in-depth analysis and discussion of both, as well as some of the links on my sidebar for good info (Frostillicus, while relatively new to the blogosphere, has some VERY potent thoughts and great info, as well as Lean and Hungry Fitness). It’s a little beyond the scope of what I’m currently doing to get too into such things myself, though I am a practitioner.
