Thoughts.

In lieu of a conditioning workout (if you want to mix it up, I suggest applying any of the previous formats with different exercises, or running hills), this blitz will have some ideas for strength training using your bodyweight.

Stay Strong,
Mackey

I spent more time recovering from this workout than I did doing it:

How it works:
This is pretty straight-up General Physical Preparation (GPP) work, what most of us just call “conditioning.” The point of doing this kind of work is to improve your capacity to do work–ie, to do more work for longer. Having a strong base of GPP to work from will let you put more in to every workout you do, allowing you to get more benefit when we get to doing more specific ultimate work. GPP is in contrast to sport-specific training, eg for ultimate, throwing. throwing is a skill you have to learn by practicing–whereas if I have a high level of GPP, I might be able to run or do jumping jacks well without having to practice the motion, to get good at throwing requires consistent practice. Practicing skills I leave to you–GPP makes you a better athlete; improving your skills makes you a better player of whatever sport you’re in. Anyone can develop skills, and anyone can put in the work and push themselves to become a better athlete–are you willing to put in the effort?

If you don’t know what a burpee is, look here.
It’s like a squat-thrust or up-downs, for those of you familiar with them, but it’s a bit more fluid. check the video clip.

This is a wonderful “in-shape” litmus test–it’s quite likely you’ll have trouble getting under 10 minutes. Use it as a benchmark–come back to this workout in a month or two and see how much progess you’ve made (or haven’t made). I managed to get this done, but I was seriously out of it for a few minutes following. It’s a fun workout!

I’m going to start posting some of the workouts I sent to the team over last summer to people who wanted to get into shape. Without further ado…

Essentially, doing this interval a) forces your body to use the glycolytic pathway and b) pushes it harder than it’s used to going (provided you’re running hard). The net result is that you kick the crap out of your body and tell it it needs to get better at going harder for longer. Blitz me if you want some more reading about energy systems and how this interval (the tabata interval–20s on, 10s off) works.

This is more or less the compilation of all the useful ultimate-related links I’ve read.

I did a lot more blog reading last year and especially the year before that, which is when I came across most of these–that was the golden age of ultimate blogging, when nothing was recorded yet (outside of UT & T, which was not comprehensive) so what was put down was often the most authoritative info out there. Nowadays everybody’s run out of ideas and all you get is hype and tourney recaps.

Without further ado, here’s the list. This is culled from a blitz I sent to the mens’ team last spring:

the main compilation of ultimate bloggerdom

UPA rules blog (this is where I get all those “actually…11th edition says…”s from):

Jim Parinella’s blog (former DoG player, co-writer of Ultimate Techninques and Tactics–one of the best and brightest ultimate has seen)
highlights from his blog:

• this describes VERY well my cutting philosophy (MUST READ)
• more on cutting (MUST READ. Take these bits of cutting advice and really, reallly think about them. See yourself setting up in various situations. This WILL make you a better cutter)
• ideas for hucking practice
• simple thoughts can make a big difference
• players make plays
• drills to try alone/with a friend
• decision-making
• conflict resolution (hi Lamar)

Idris Nolan’s blog (former Jam player…thought to be one of the better/best handlers in club ultimate)
lots of good stuff to see here, too:

• on hucking (2nd is a MUST READ)
• >learn by watching
• defense in the air
• IO flick/breaking the mark, hammers/blades, throwing in general(the four-finger flick has your pointer and middle against the rim and holds the bottom of the rim with the ring and pinkie) (MUST READ)
• making secondary cuts (again, this describes my cutting philosophy very well)
• field sense and throws to space

Ultimate player on Training
just a few highlights this time. Start at the beginning of this blog and scan through if you have time and interest in different training styles (check out the stuff on tabata intervals):

• on crossfit (where I get a ton of training info from), “what is fitness?”
• hip flexor streching and a better vertical

Ultimate Strategy/Coaching blog

• broad progression for throwing a forehand

Occasionally entertaining, but not often useful

And then there’s RSD. some useful discussions (but do more research yourself, there’s TONS of gems to find):

• Ben Wiggins on throwing, esp hucking(UPDATED–missing RSD link has been redirected to a collection of Wiggins Writing)
• hammers
• laying out
• pulling
• scroll up for a bit on good forehand throwing

That caps it off. Sorry if the formating isn’t the most user-friendly to read.
-Mackey

PS For aspiring avid blog readers, check out feed readers at google reader or bloglines. Also give technorati.com a look for searching purposes.

I’ll do more explanatory posts on some things later (cutting, how I teach throwing), but all of what you’ll hear here stems in large part from what I’ve read above.

Any of the guys on the team will attest that I tend to harp about visualization a lot, particularly leading up to big tournaments or when I am, say, teaching somebody how to lay out (because botched or successful layouts hurt a lot more than visualizing a perfect one–perhaps a post on that later).

So, what is visualization? This and this sum it up pretty succinctly. But how do you then apply that to ultimate or whatever endeavor you want to pursue?

There are a couple ways to go about it…

If you’re a team leader of some sort (coach, captain), consider leading a guided visualization for the whole group. Have everyone lay down or otherwise get in a comfortable position, close their eyes, and then you (or whomever is doing the guiding) will slowly describe a situation–if we’re talking ultimate, go through game preparation (warming up, taking some throws, drilling) and in-game situations (making a cut–playing good defense–laying out, etc.), describing everything in detail–morning dew on the grass soaks your cleats, notice the lining of the fields, see how bright your light looks as you pull it out of your bag before the game–and keying in on important in-game details: you notice your man’s hips are committed, so you plant and go the other way. You recognize the thrower is going to pass to your man, so you prepare to make a layout.

If you’re on your own, or want to visualize more than that, you can do the same sort of thing on your own, right before bed, or when spacing out in class. See from your mind’s eye–visualize situations through your own eyes, don’t see yourself from a distance. Feel the way your body feels; slow down time and key in on every crucial detail, from your running form to the finer points of your throws to cues from your man that reveal his intentions. You can use a cutting schematic to help mentally set up situations to visualize yourself in.

This is probably the single most efficient tool you can use to make yourself better at just about anything. It takes no physical effort! A guided visualization can take anywhere from 10-30 minutes depending on how long you make it; personal visualization can be much briefer than that, visualizing on a situation-to-situation basis. It WILL make you better if done correctly–just think about it. If you’ve already seen every situation imaginable (literally), nothing will surprise you. If you’ve already seen yourself running through and layout D’ing your man in your mind, you’re going to be that much more comfortable doing it for real.

Keep in mind visualization isn’t just for rehearsing–it has an actual training effect on your body. If you’re hurt, for instance, and can’t squat due to an ankle sprain, etc, visualizing a squat–feeling the tension and increased effort that go with it–can sustain your training more so than if you do nothing while you recover. The mind is a powerful tool.

So, I went to a reunion for my fall’s senior seminar yesterday–we had a good class, maybe 15 of us total, and we got to travel out to San Diego for a neuroscience conference there. We all got along pretty well, so we decided to have a reunion and our professor came too, with a slide show he had prepared.

The slide show had pictures of each of us in turn with one or two distinctive quotes–one of our students, an overachieving junior, was quoted with “Hey, I read 10 extra articles on today’s topic, even though they weren’t assigned, and I have about 70 or 80 extra questions to ask you so…can we talk after class?” Hilarious, coming from a professor.

Anyways, his quote for me (since I often spoke to him about ultimate rather than anything relating to our shared field of study) was “Check it out, I just did a search on PubMed for ‘Frisbee’ and there’s actually an article on it!”

Naturally, I immediately checked PubMed afterwards and found said article, published in 2006.

If you’ve ever wondered just what kind of toll this sport takes on one’s body, this is a good article to read. Of note:

• 88% of the 135 players surveyed had missed playing due to injury, and half of all of the players had recurrent injuries
• 65% of the 135 reported ankle injuries at some point
• 53% reported knee injuries at some point

I don’t know if anybody cares to look up statistics from other sports to compare, but those all strike me as pretty high percentages.

Try and take care of yourself.

Some stuff about running form and speed training today.

Part of the plan for track workouts this year is to get people doing some form work before they run (and get to speed work as well)–the more efficient we can get, the better we’ll be.