Thoughts.

Simple question. What’s your answer when you’re:

• Tossing with your buddy at the park?
• Warming up for your third game on Sunday?
• Walking to work?
• Getting up to go to the bathroom?
• Standing on the line waiting for the pull?
• On the way home after practice?

If the answer is ever “nothing,” you’ve got room to improve your improvement. Better your better.

What are you working on today–right now–to make yourself better?

Sorry for the lack of substantial content lately; first week of classes. Been taking a page out of Seth Godin’s writing of late; working on brevity and a bit of thought provocation, which is convenient since it takes less time to ask questions than answer them (admittedly the pet peeve that leads to the long drawn-out posts I often write–I’ll get back there in due time, hopefully with more read-able content).

Things the sideline(s–don’t forget to split!) can do:

• Cheer
• Watch (for patterns, for weaknesses, for successes, for clues. For example, Pete’s defender is breathing heavier by the second–yell at him to step up and punish the mismatch!)
• Cue (echoing or initiating mark switches on a force middle defense or dynamic mark adjustments, etc.)
• Guide (the old veteran teaches the young rookie where to stand and when to cut from the wing position in the zone. The captain directs the stack to move closer to the disc after a deep pull in the endzone)
• Recover–both oneself (stud cutter needs some gatorade-water after a couple points in a row) and others (bench-riding rookie brings said stud cutter water on the line so he doesn’t crash playing a couple points)
• Bring the energy level up–see cheering.

Continue Reading »

This Wired article about why we sometimes slip up and do the things we’re trying so hard NOT to do hints at the power of the human subconscious and its relation to sport. It’s definitely worth a read, especially if you’re a Neuroscience/Psych nerd like me, and points at two big takeaway points for ultimate.

Wired.com: It doesn’t seem practical to say, “Don’t try to think about not spilling wine on the carpet in a stressful situation,” when being at the party in the first place is stressful.

Wegner: Sometimes you’re stuck. The great leveler is making these processes automatic. In sports, people do things over and over until the action is automatic. It becomes so automatic that you don’t have the same mental process to engage. The whole thing has become unconscious. That only comes with practice.

The person who wants to avoid saying awkward things on the first date — well, by the 30th date, they’re not doing it anymore. They have to just brave it. In sports we know this, but we don’t think of social life the same way.

There’s one big takeaway–you need to hone your skills to the point that you stop thinking about them.

The other takeaway? How you phrase and frame your efforts (more particularly, how you talk and how you think) has a huge effect. Going into a game thinking “I can’t drop a disc” means you’re gearing your subconscious to think about dropping a disc and stopping it–all it takes is a tight moment, some extra stress, to engender exactly the outcome you’re trying to avoid. Thinking “I will catch every disc” doesn’t generate those same connotations. Talk in positives.

I started typing this out as a response to Brad’s comment on the last post about goal setting, and it grew into its own post.

Brad,

Thanks for the link.

I agree that flexibility with goal setting is important; I find that this comes naturally when you add timeframes. If my goal is to train twice a week for a month, I naturally have to re-evaluate it at month’s end (or perhaps sooner, if I can’t meet the weekly requirement). It’s important to note that a lot of research out there has goal SETTING as the important thing–as they say, shoot for the stars and you might land on the moon. We don’t have to do everything we set out to do, but it gives us much-needed direction. It’s OK to change direction to continue working towards what makes the most sense for you.

A lot of issues that the article you linked gets at have to do with the nature of the goals set. For one, they’re entirely outcome-based. Profit. Market share. These are goals that depend on somebody else, namely the consumer, to meet. They’re also goals that are handed down from on high–so you’re setting goals that may or may not be realistically achieveable, are not entirely under the control of your employees…and then expecting magic. It’s no wonder indeed that it leads to problems.

I’m a really big fan of focusing on process. The example of Southwest, who worked to cut down their turnaround time to 10 minutes–that’s something entirely in their control, something their employees can manage with enough practice and improvement (assuming 10 minutes is not a wholly unrealistic number), is a good process goal. They didn’t say “let’s double our profits by reducing turnaround”–that doesn’t necessarily follow, but because they focused on the process they still made good things happen.

There’s a saying, “that which is measured, improves.” It doesn’t say it improves organically, just that it improves, and I think that’s the trap a lot of the corporate goal-setting falls into (and incidentally is why I’m very, very leery of incentive-based restructuring of the American healthcare system). We need to be very careful of what we choose to place stock in measuring (this same warning applies to stat-keeping as well).

This is a fairly old article, but one that bears continual revisiting.

Researchers looked at perception and elite performance and found all sorts of clues that the elite see things more clearly and decisively (and can therefore respond earlier) than novices (I’d suggest Blink if you’re looking for a more in-depth treatment of the matter). They also found that things like field sense are absolutely not innate, and suggest that free, unstructured play is key to getting the experience and developing a broad, flexible sense as opposed to a narrow-minded one. Check out this blog post for a bit on the difference between explicit and implicit learning–remove coaching and especially structure from the equation, and you tend towards the implicit–given that something like “field sense” is rarely taught explicitly (if I asked you to explain “field sense” to me–what to look for, when, what leads you to make one decision over another–would you be able to do it? In a way I could understand and apply?), you need to go the other way.

As frustrating as low-level, amoeba play (or loosely organized summer league, etc.) can be, or as much as you might think your disc-using non-ultimate games (I’m thinking of boot in particular, but schtick counts too in its own way) are not going to help you improve, recognize the opportunity inherent in these games. Try throws and strategies you wouldn’t normally. Experiment with new positioning and decision-making processes. Expand your repertoire and your mind.

What sorts of games do you play to grow?

Been working hard lately, with the wonderful weather ¹ and the prospect of playing some good ultimate when I return to the states as motivation.

That said, there are still days where I’m not feeling it. I get home from work and my body says, “meh!” and my mind says, “ehhhh. Just take it easy today.”

In those situations, there are two things that keep me working:

1. Having a plan. This is essential to keep you from dogging it repeatedly–if you have at LEAST a general idea, some goal to strive towards, you’re more likely to get there. It’s easier to say “eh, today will be an off day” when you haven’t already planned it to be a workout day. Plan against your future apathy.
2. At least do the warm up! This is a rule I made for myself a couple years ago (I may have read about it somewhere); even if you don’t feel up for a full strength workout or conditioning set, etc, get your butt off the couch and into the gym. Do your warm-up (I’m fond of the Crossfit warm-up or similar derivation). Feel better? Do the workout. Still not feeling up for it? Take it easy.

At the very least, you’re boosting recovery by getting the blood flowing. Ideally the physical act of getting up and out will be enough to get you over your motivation hump and get you working, even if you opt to scale things back a bit–you’re better off doing something than nothing.

¹As I type this, of course, it’s pouring–rainy season here. Soon to be unbearably hot season.

Means practicing them ALL THE TIME.

If you’re trying to improve your pivot, even your casual tossing around should always include a good, hard pivot. If you’re trying to improve your catching, you should ALWAYS be focusing on attacking the disc when it comes to you.

The key here is to focus–if you’re pivoting lackadaisically when you toss, what makes you think you’ll be able to suddenly pull it together when you’re trapped on the sideline and trying to dump it in a game?

This all harkens back to honing your instincts using deliberate practice–it’s not enough only to toss, or only to run…you need to invest your attention in it. Whether you’re consciously evaluating yourself or not is something of a question (you should not, however, be judging–i.e., “Man, I suck” or “Wow, I’m perfefct,” as either is distracting, a focus on result over process. More on process here), but your body and mind will not be able to make the necessary adjustments, or reinforce the good habits, if it’s not taking in sufficient amounts of information.

So if you’re trying to reinforce, say, a good step out on your throws, you need to be paying attention to stepping out–this doesn’t mean a microscopic focus on the minutae (your body can sense and sort those things out on its own to some extent), but merely that you have the intent to step out, and the intent to do it every time. Take this intent, and track your throws–do they go where you want? Keep focusing on what you want to happen until your body makes it so–or, if you’re a tinkerer, keep focusing on the adjustments you want to make until you likewise have agreement between what you expect and what you get. Repetition reinforces habits. Repetition of poor form or lazy mechanics will reinforce the same…develop good form through attention, and reinforce it with continued, deliberate effort.

You already know where I stand on spirit; I’m not the sort to get involved in pissing matches over calls, or get caught up in the ticky-tack. I state my case and move on–I show up to play, not to talk.

Even so, I love it when I’m slighted on the ultimate field.

When you push me, challenge me, you set an emotional charge. I get some indignance (“how dare you disrespect me!”), but that emotion doesn’t have to manifest in anger, nor need it be wasted on words.

I keep my calm and wait, for the disc to go live again, for my next chance to play.

Emotion is volatile, and when left unchecked, can cloud your judgment and screw with execution–it makes you tight. However, when channeled in the right ways, it borders on unbeatable.

When we’re back at it on the field, I take that slight–this new, extra energy source you’ve so graciously given me–and proceed to run you into the ground with it. Hacking at me on the mark? I’ll throw and run so quickly you won’t get another chance. Really think you had the D on that strip? You won’t even be close next time. Gonna argue about up/down calls? The D I’m about to get will be definitive.

Michael Jordan’s intensely competitive nature manifested in all facets of his life; on the basketball court, this meant that even cheaters couldn’t prosper–try to force your way with him, making some hacks while the ref wasn’t looking, and his desire and effort would redouble–with you at ground zero. His emotions let him tap into an inner reserve, bettering his better. He wouldn’t just beat you. He would destroy you, crush your will with his overwhelming energy and talent, and you wouldn’t be able to do a thing to stop it.

That’s the mindset to take to heated exchanges and tense situations. And it’s not just for when that jerk on the other team starts spouting off–anything beyond your control on the ultimate field can be your trigger. Your body has hardwiring to exceed its day-to-day limits; you simply need to find situations powerful enough to spark your inner superman. Your buddy just bonked an easy catch? In a tight game, the need to help him can be enough–time to pick him up with some balls-to-the-wall D. Flip that kill mode switch when your team needs you, make something happen. Force your opponent to fight for every inch he gets; even if he succeeds despite you, leave him worried about the next time. And the next time. And the next time.