Thoughts. » focus

What are you working on?

Mackey — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 12:00:00 +0000

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).

Why You Should Focus on Positives

Mackey — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 04:00:00 +0000

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.

Related posts:

Talk in Positives

Catching Thought: Focus on the spin

Cultivating Focus

Reinforcing Good Habits

Mackey — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 04:00:00 +0000

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.

Related posts:
Balance Revisited: Throwing With Your Weight Set

Use Pivot Planes For Better Breaking

Process vs. Outcome

Mackey — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 05:00:00 +0000

Rock’em Socks-em recently sent me this article about balancing task focus and goal focus.

The short summary (I’ll let you read the article yourself for how it applies):

Recent psychological research suggests one of the keys to getting big projects done is balancing up individual tasks against the grand vision. It’s all about knowing when to flip the frame of reference from looking closely at the details of individual components of a project, and when to look up and see the project’s grand sweep.

Substitute “project” with “season,” or even “game,” and you get a very easy flip to ultimate applicability. I’ve made a few posts on goal setting here, and first wrote about process vs. outcome goals long before most of you read this blog. That said, the notion of WHEN to focus on one or the other is a novel concept to my mind. Generally, I’m a proponent of only focusing on the process goals–let the outcome goals simmer in the back of your mind, leave it out there for your buddies on another team (for me, my buddies on the women’s team) to ask you about every so often and play coy and hedge your bets when they do.

This seems to suggest something a bit more appealing though–dare to dream. Just whooped Regional Rival A? Allow a little glimpse forward to Sunday of regionals, and feel confident. Got your ass handed to you by Small State B? Probably better to back off of your lofty aspirations and focus on what moments of brilliance there were in the prior game (remember, talk in positives), putting the game into context rather than extrapolating.

Keeping performance in mind, it’s not a good idea to get too caught up in the destination when you’re still en-route–such allowances are probably not appropriate for halftime in the game-to-go just because you’re up a few points, but there’s some space to dream.

Outside of games, definitely let those big goals come into sight. Nobody does laps around the track dreaming of early exits or disc defeats…do they?

The effect on performance is probably not too significant (until you get light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel syndrome, that deep well of motivation that bursts forth from months or perhaps years of effort accumulated for the sake of one game or one tournament), but the emotional buoyancy is just as important to having a successful season.

Take the losses in stride, but allow for a little gloating when you find success, too. Evaluate on process, but recognize when you can live a little on the outcome, too.

Thoughts? Opinions? Comment away.

Related posts:
UCPC Review, Part 4 ("Applying Mental Toughness Strategies to Ultimate," Tiina Booth)

On Goal Setting and Planning

Catching Thought: Focus on the spin

Talk in Positives

Mackey — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 05:00:00 +0000

I’ve written about ways to talk to keep your players in a better performance state here already, but allow me to put it more simply:

Talk in positives.

I mean, instead of focusing on what DIDN’T happen when things went wrong, focus on what now needs to happen to make things right.

I mean, instead of talking about what NOT to do to avoid screwing up, talk about what is working well and what should continue to happen.

It’s really, really easy to fall into the trap of saying “guys, we’ve been getting hosed by the deep hucks” but that sort of thing is already understood if it’s so bad. Just get to the meat of it–”we’re going to try throwing more of a straight-up mark early in the count to stop their hucks off of flow they’ve been getting.”

Along the same line, take that same approach when you scout your own team’s effectiveness, too. You might key in on the other team’s 6’7″ receiver who’s bringing down everything in sight, but if you simply think “he’s unstoppable” you’ll be missing the opportunity to key in on those times you’ve pressured the thrower, taken away his deep look with your mark, and D’d up the dump, which is a strategy you can encourage going forward and find some success in.

If you don’t have anything strategic to say, and can’t think of anything nice to say, default to “run harder” or similar energy-boosting rallies. You’re better off saying nothing than calling attention to the negatives.

Live in the positive. And keep playing hard.

Related posts:
Ways to Talk to Encourage Continued Performance

Why You Should Focus on Positives

Cultivating Focus

Mackey — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 04:00:00 +0000

If you really scour my blog, you can find this info on my UCPC post on Alan Goldberg’s talk.

So, focus. I’ve harped on visualization a bit here…you might be aware that focus, properly applied, can increase ability even without physically practicing. But did you know that focus can be trained, too? (There’s a whole school of Buddhism devoted entirely to the pursuit of better focus, in fact. Perhaps you’ve heard of zen?)

A former captain of mine was once mocked for telling the team to “focus on focus.” While it sounds silly at a glance, there is something to be said for being aware of one’s ability to focus, and there’s something more to be said for deliberately working on improving this skill.

How? That’s the trick, isn’t it. As Dr. Goldberg has put it, it is not the ability to sustain focus, but the ability to refocus, that separates the high performers from the rest. It’s not that Michael Jordan didn’t get distracted; it’s that he was able to put these distractions aside and return to living in the moment that allowed him to thrive in the big moments (granted, a lot of other things went into that success, too).

Any practice on focus and re-focusing is going to resemble meditation in some form or another. You know that whole “flow” thing? Flow is essentially an active meditation. If there was nothing to it, you wouldn’t see so many practitioners still at it today.

So, in short: meditate.

In long: take the time to simply live and breathe. If you need something to focus on, pick up a frisbee and place it in front of you. You only think I’m kidding, Daniel-san. Pick something simple to say and easy to remember (Goldberg suggests “one”).

Look at the frisbee. Breathe. Focus on every detail of that hunk of plastic. Notice the ridges on top, the imperfections from use…hey, that Vegas graphic is pretty cool. I wonder how this whole Conference 1 thing will shake out?–
“One.” Refocus on the disc. Use the phrase (or simply a thought) to cue yourself to refocus. Work your way from a frisbee on the table to a frisbee on top of a TV playing highlights from the club championships, and you’ll have developed a pretty potent system for getting your mind in the right place.

More conventional means: Sit. Close your eyes, or don’t. Breathe. Count your breaths. Count to 100. Count to 200. Count to 300. Start over when you lose track for your thoughts. When you feel good at that, start over when you simply wind up distracted from your breathing and your counting, instead of when you can’t remember the number. But start simply.

Other means: You can practice focus in a wide variety of situations. Read The Inner Game of Tennis, read The Art of Learning, embrace the ability of your body to execute without your mind’s chaperoning it all the time. Focus on relaxing your mind…focus on letting go. When you’re out for a drive, forget the thoughts racing through your mind, and simply let your body drive the car for a while. (driving is one of the most complicated tasks a human performs on a day-to-day basis, and is a great candidate for flow experience)

Rather than subscribe to stress, free yourself with focus. The opportunities to let yourself go and be content to simply live are limitless. You can become a better ultimate player in this way, and a better person, as well.

UPDATE: Micah adds in the comments that Dr. Goldberg has his own site up and running–I haven’t given it an in-depth look to say for or against it yet (it can often be the case that such sites are simply used to hook more customers without offering any of the meat of their ideas), but you might find it helpful.

Related posts:
Catching Thought: Focus on the spin

UCPC Review, Part 3 (Keynote Speech, Dr. Alan Goldberg)

Why You Should Focus on Positives

Ways to Talk to Encourage Continued Performance

Mackey — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 04:00:00 +0000

Do you think about what you say?

I know you think you do. But do you really think about what you say? About how what you say might reveal things about yourself you had no intention of revealing? About how what you say might affect your teammates’ or your own ability to perform?

There are a few ways to cope in ultimate. By “cope” I don’t mean dealing with failure. By “cope” I mean getting by and continuing to perform with the grind of 3, 4 games in a day. I’m talking about the entirety of your day’s experience, not just what you think of as the “critical,” “game-defining” moments (or especially their aftermath).

Largely, I think you can divide coping strategies into two camps. You have passive coping, and you have active coping. This goes a bit with personality types as well.

Your passive copers more or less go with whatever the flow of the moment is. If things are going well and/or the team is getting excited, they (can) get excited. If things are not going as well, your passive types are generally at a loss for what to do to right the ship. On their own, they can’t create much. They’re sheep, psychologically speaking, able to be molded and guided to various ends.

Your active types, for better or worse, help to catalyze the passive types. This is the guy on the other team that’s always initiating the call in the other team’s call and response cheer. This is the guy that rushes the field ahead of the rest. This is the girl that spikes the disc to get her teammates pumped up.

This is also the type that most strongly influences the team’s level of arousal–how up or down a team gets for playing. Most teams will have more than one of these, but how these individuals respond to the team’s fortunes–whether that be success or setback–will tend to set the tone for the rest of the team. As a general rule, you can get enhanced performance out of getting “up” for a given moment or game, but over the course of a weekend this level of intensity is near impossible to sustain and will be prone to crash downwards (usually responsible in some form or another for most comebacks in ultimate). Rare indeed is the individual who can sustain themselves purely out of emotion, so learning to guide the team towards a more balanced state of mind is the ideal here.

Whether naturally inclined to be more passive or more active, you can still learn to talk and carry yourself in such a way that your teammates can more easily remain at a balanced level of arousal.

For a bit of a discussion on the notion of psychology and performance, check out my UCPC recap from two years ago of Alan Greenberg’s talk on performance psychology.

The key thing to note here–optimal performance comes when a player is fully invested in the experience at hand (literally, if we’re talking about catching or throwing). Players who focus too much on what just happened, or what might happen, rather than on what IS happening, are the sorts of players who wind up in their own heads, botching easy plays or attempting the sorts of actions that you normally wouldn’t expect from them. The score, for instance, has nothing to do with your performance on the field. So you were just broken–so what? Other than perhaps making strategic adjustments, there’s no need to dwell on the matter. So your team will go to nationals if it can just close out this game–so what? You haven’t closed it out yet. Don’t start dreaming about Nationals, and don’t start dreaming of what might happen if you don’t make the cut. Get your head in the game, while cliche, is totally appropriate here.

So how do you talk to encourage continued performance? Some do’s and don’ts:

DO

Focus on the process rather than the outcome. If you’re a captain or a coach (coaches can afford to think a bit more broadly, as they don’t have to perform), and have to give the team guidance, to some extent you need to be aware of what parts of your team’s process are or are not working. This manifests in talk to the effect of “our dump motion is good; we’re having a few miscues with our handlers, so handlers need to focus on making one hard cut and clearing out to create space for the fill cut,” rather than “we’re getting beaten on short turnovers on the dump. Last point Mackey was dancing out there in the lane and clogged it up for everybody else.” With the former the focus is on improving the process; in the latter it is on the outcome, and additionally focuses on a single individual and a single situation–as soon as you get your athletes thinking about specific incidents in the past you’re taking them out of their game-ready state.

Avoid talk on the line about anything other than the next point’s strategy. Yeah, you joke around on the line a bit. But at some point, your need to focus on what’s going to happen in the point–you’re going to have to get your mindset ready to play at some point during the point; it’s usually best if this point is before the pull instead of during or after. On Dartmouth this year, our O line cued themselves to get their head in the game and focus on the next point with an all-together clap, in much the same way a football huddle breaks. You might think it’s silly, but all it takes is something as simple and consistent as that to get your head right.

Cue everyone to keep focused. You don’t necessarily have to do this by explicitly stating “hey guys, let’s focus,” but there are far worse things you can say than that. Your team should want to stay in the game–if they’re reluctant to, you’ve got bigger problems than simply player focus–so it shouldn’t take much to cue players on the sideline to stay focused on the now rather than getting caught up in whatever the day’s drama (or cool play, etc) is.

Talk in terms of actions the team can take, rather than describing a situation. It’s all well and good to recount what just happened in the first half, but really, that doesn’t help your team out nearly as much as describing to them what should be focused on in the second half. Generally speaking, you don’t need to justify why certain adjustments are being made (you can simply offer, “we’re going to try zone” if they’ve been burning you in man–nobody needs to be reminded to know the reasons for which the change is occuring), simply give instruction and trust your team to execute. Keep the focus on the field in the current point.

DON’T

Be “that guy.” The one who’s always talking. Even if you’re encouraging your teammates to stay focused, realize that if you hassle too much (and lack the authority/respect of a coach or captain–and sometimes even if you do have it) you might take their minds off of whatever they were thinking about, only to divert those thoughts to resentment of you. Develop a feel for your teammates and what they need to cue focus, and strive to help them keep themselves in line too–this is not a one man job, by any means, but avoiding pitfalls is a team effort.

Bring up specific incidents on the field until after the game is over (the need for performance has ceased). I’m talking about call-outs here, not the sort of discussion you have with a teammate after a point ends to clarify when the miscommunication occurred and what could be done to correct it next time. Like the example above, there is little to no productive effect to calling a player out for a bad play, and generally little gain from calling a player out for a single exceptional play (if your goal is learning, however, it might be wise to point out examples of the behavior you want all of your players to model).

Talk about the other team. Strategically, you can certainly talk to your team with new objectives in mind, but remarking on the team’s: relative level of ability (“we should beat these guys”); personality (“these guys are assholes”); stud players (“#33 is really good!”), etc.

Tolerate comments or behavior which focuses on results or anything other than the situation at hand. Obviously, social decency means you tread carefully on this rather than stomping on somebody who’s talking–remember the first bullet for “Don’t”‘s–but to the extent that you can eliminate the tendency for your team to, for instance, go on and on about what specifically went wrong in a specific instance or players to offer comments that aren’t specifically geared towards focusing on the game at hand and what actions need to be taken in the huddle, the more your players will be able to remain in an optimal performance state.

Call players out for good/bad/whatever play while they are on the field. It’s one thing to give feedback after a point is over. One of the worst things you can do to a player who is in the flow of a point is force them to think about something they did previously by referring to some incident in the past or to what you expect them to do in the future. This does not mean you can’t offer encouragement and helpful information–”left/right shoulder” in a zone is helpful; “I expect another hot D this point, Kell” is not. Under no circumstances should you force a player to think on the field! I don’t mean the cognitive processes necessary for a given point, reading one’s man or the defense, etc, I mean thinking about that cute guy on the sideline, or about the last sweet play she made–the play has already been made. Relive it later when she doesn’t have to play.

Ask what the score is right before the pull goes up when you’re on the line. Big pet peeve of mine. If you think being down by one or up by one should make a difference in how you play, note that you just agreed to thinking–the anathema to performance. The ONLY time score should be relevant to you as a player is in situations like universe point, where you know that you do not need to conserve your energy for another point following this one. Thinking about your team’s lead or deficit is otherwise a pretty fruitless endeavor. Leave the score keeping to your coach, or to somebody who isn’t you on the sideline.

You get the idea. As a general rule, don’t think, do (note that this was one of the first posts I made on this blog). Don’t talk, instruct. Don’t recap…refocus. And execute. It’s that simple (and that hard).

Related posts:
Talk in Positives

UCPC Review, Part 4 ("Applying Mental Toughness Strategies to Ultimate," Tiina Booth)

Process vs. Outcome

Ultimate is a Biathlon.

Mackey — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 04:00:00 +0000

Run. Accelerate. Sprint.

Catch.

Stop. Assess. SEE.

Throw.

Run. Accelerate. Sprint.

Lather, rinse, repeat. In order to be successful at this sport you have to hone two divergent skill sets–you have to learn how to play two different games.

There’s the running game–you exert yourself, often in coordination with those around you, frequently at high or full effort.

And then there’s the throwing game. You calm yourself, and the efforts of your teammates only matter in the context that you devote your attention to them and choose to give them the frisbee. You execute, not a brute force, explosive movement, but a well-refined, controlled one.

Running takes effort, but it’s the effort of willing your muscles to do more. You will them to apply more force so you can run faster and jump higher.

Throwing takes effort, too, but it’s the effort of focus. You will many muscles to do less–to get out of the way–so that the main players can do their job and deliver the disc.

Both of these are automatic processes to a point.

Running amps up with exertion.

Throwing with exertion leads to stiffness and bladey, ill-placed throws.

Both benefit from a performance-oriented state of mind. Focus. However, the foci are different.

Running, you focus on the situation, you recognize opportunities on O and D, but more than anything else you push your button to kick your body into overdrive when it counts.

Throwing, you focus on the situation, you recognize opportunities on O, but more than anything else you let go of your body, allowing it to perform what you ask, when it counts.

Both have their limits.

Running, the limit is your body and its energy reserves. When those run out, you can keep hammering away at that button, but your body won’t respond.

Throwing, there is a theoretical limit from your body, but above that threshold the limit is your mind. When you lose focus (and the necessary level of focus may increase with fatigue), you lose execution. Form gets sloppy, or you tighten up, and throws become a hope rather than a certainty.

Practice.

Train your body so the energy reserves run out more slowly and regenerate more quickly.

Train your mind so you can maintain focus even as you fatigue. Train your mind as you train your body to throw, learn to let go. Learn to trust your body. Learn when and how to guide it.

This is how you find success in the biathlon. Lose sight of neither your focus nor your drive.

Related posts:
Catching Thought: Focus on the spin

Throwing Thought: Throw Off-Handed

Throwing Thoughts

Defensive Thought: Anticipation

Mackey — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 04:00:00 +0000

The Huddle’s Andrew Fleming has a great analogy for this, in his article on being the deep defender when you hear the “Up!” Call:

Have you ever sat a stoplight and watched the light for the other direction turn from green to yellow to red? When your light finally turns green, it’s just a confirmation of what you already knew was about to happen. How much quicker are you off that line if you’re peeking at the other light versus waiting for yours to change? That’s the difference between reacting and anticipating on D. When I hear that “up” call, I want to already know what throw is coming and already be poised to jump on it.

He very succinctly summarizes the components of good, anticipatory D.

Anticipation means not only knowing the current situation and recognizing which throws are most likely, but also learning how to read people and recognizing opportunities to make the play.

General things you should be aware of as an anticipatory defender, as much as possible (in rough order of importance–feel free to dispute my rankings or add others in the comments)

The position of the disc on the field relative to you and your man

How long the disc has been in that position–is it in motion for a potential unmarked huck/throw? Is it stall 7 or 8, so you should really be heads-up for a swilly bail-out throw?

The capabilities of the thrower. Is it the stud thrower, who can not only jack it, but break the mark to do so? Is it somebody who’s only going to throw to under cuts?

The force (the person on the mark). Which side of the field should passes be going to? How likely is it that the mark will hold and not get broken?

The conditions. Is it rainy? Are you going upwind and can dictate out with more confidence? Is there a crosswind that would cause a throw to your expected side of the field to float or sink more than usual?

Your man’s preferences. Are they a relentless deep threat? Do they prefer to stick around the disc? Keep in mind they may still take what you give them, even if it’s not what they prefer.

What, if anything, has the other team as a whole been beating you with? If they’re exploiting the around break, be prepared to pounce on a somewhat floaty around throw (and adjust when you’re on the mark as well). If they love to jack it, start backing your man or otherwise make sure you’re always in a position to strike on the huck.

All of these bits of information, summed together, should allow you to make a few adjustments:

What cut you choose to defend primarily–what’s the biggest (and most viable) threat at this moment?

What cuts you choose to respect–if it’s really windy and the player with the disc does not look confident in her upwind forehand, you can give a cushion of at least a few steps when your woman goes deep (but beware the dump/swing to a more confident thrower in motion).

Where you expect the throw to go to. This is particularly important at high stalls, when a less-than-perfect throw might come suddenly and surprise you. If you expect to see a throw to the forehand side of the field, allow for the possibility of a stall-9 blade.

Whether or not you poach off of your man (!). If you’ve evaluated your man to be less of a threat in their current position than some other play–your man prefers to cut under, but their big thrower has the disc and you see somebody setting up the deep cut–you can sometimes get away with devoting less attention to your man and more attention to the play in action.

This is a lot of information to process at once on the field. It’s impossible (In my opinion) to consciously take in all of this information and still play at 100% intensity (you’ll be thinking too much). However, you can learn to intuit things, or give yourself reminders before the point. The disc’s position should eventually become a natural sense; for me, I can often discern where the frisbee is by the sound of a catch or reading my man and, if in a straight stack, the other men on offense (be wary of eye fakes). You can cultivate an internal stall clock to anticipate high-count situations (or perhaps your teammate will count loudly enough for you to know with certainty). Conditions and the force, you should be aware of before the point begins(or at least before the disc is tapped in on a stoppage). Strive to cultivate an intuitive sense of what space is threatened and in which space (and at what times) your opponent is not a threat to get the disc. I find it usually helps to remind myself of the force on D just before the pull goes up (if I’m starting on D or O), and to spend some time (doesn’t need to be more than 10 seconds or so) trying to visualize the wind vector and anticipating which throws will float or sink on D (and how to compensate with my own throws).

You can, of course, rehearse a lot of these situations through visualization. Cutting schematics can go a long way towards guiding you here–draw up novel situations, impose different conditions, and then try and picture yourself in them.

In addition to recognizing situations in terms of general expectancies, strive to learn the signs that a play is coming–learn to read throwers. You can do this on a team-by-team basis if their system is transparent; you can also learn to read individuals. Eventually, you will start to pick up on tells that are more across-the-board; players who are not skilled in showing fakes or making quick decisions in particular become easy reads with enough attention. There’s a certain look–not quite “Deer in the Headlights”, but a similar single-minded tunnel vision, when a thrower goes from “scanning/evaluating” mode to “preparing to throw” mode. Mid-level cutters get a similar look when they’re in the lane, if you’re trying to read their fakes.

Don’t think too much on the field; simply pay attention and make associations through experience. Eventually, you’ll develop an intuitive sense and good defense will become more automatic (it never becomes fully automatic–invariably there’s always some external condition you should be taking note of). Learn when you can afford to think on the ultimate field, and learn when you need to stop thinking and just make the play. Anticipation will put you in position, but you still have to execute.

Related posts:
Defensive Thought: Spacing

Defensive Thought: Peripheral Vision

Defensive Thought: Enter Their Spirit

Confidence

Mackey — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 04:00:00 +0000

I don’t know that there’s a player in ultimate frisbee who’s sucessful that doesn’t have confidence. More often than not in surplus; occasionally fragile and easily broken, sometimes shelved for the appearance of “spirit’s” sake, but always there.

You NEED to have confidence to be successful. But you also need to be successful to have confidence, don’t you? How do you develop one without the other?

A few thoughts to this end.
1)You can learn it elsewhere. Even without much success as an “ultimate player,” prior success as an athlete is transferable. Being successful outside of the athletic field can also be transferable, but in such instances the transfer of confidence has less to do with your body’s performance and more to do with your ability to plan, work, and execute (perhaps more important to long-term success in this sport).

2) You can get lucky (or have some natural talent). It’s astounding how much of our lives are decided by a couple fluky moments. Gamblers–”beginner’s luck” is not so because all beginners are lucky, but because the lucky beginners wind up sticking with it and getting hooked. Same with ultimate, or any other endeavor you pursue. Think back to your first experiences with this sport. It’s very unlikely that you struggled greatly out of the gate–too much discouragement would’ve sent you packing. It’s much more likely you found some fascination in your ability to throw a frisbee the right way every once in a while, or played in a tournament early on and caught or threw a goal or something similar.

3) You can persevere. Typically if you don’t get lucky, and don’t have another field to draw confidence from for prior experience, you’re in it for your friends, or the girls (guys), or some other extrinsic reward (perhaps another successful player inspired you to aspire for similar heights). This leads you to playing and improving.

Ultimately (pun intended), you work. Natural gifts are not the rule, and there are so many dimensions to this sport that nobody steps in with a complete toolset. You work, and you improve, and seeing this improvement gives you confidence. You know, when you step on to the field next–”I have worked and I have improved, and I will see better results as a consequence.” And this positive mental feedback often leads to better performance.

Issues come when adversity or bad luck gets our mental cycle off track–a few bad throws, you get burned deep despite feeling faster than you ever have, etc. Doubt creeps in, failure continues to grow, and a negative feedback cycle leads to diminished performance.

You MUST develop a strength of mindset to weather these rough patches. When I talk about confidence, THIS is what I’m really referring to. A lot of it comes from experience, but you can compensate for a lack of experience with a healthy mindset. By “healthy” I don’t mean “positive;” only a fool or a hopeless romantic will continue to see daises when the weeds are growing. But you cannot let the weeds dominate the landscape, either. Simply get to work removing them, eliminating negative thoughts and taking action to correct for perceived shortcomings.

I feel as though one of my best assets as a player is my mindset; as a very analytical person, I typically remain emotionally detached with regards to my performance–sure, I want to do better, but I don’t ever get too high or too low on myself, merely motivated to do better.

In times of struggle, find something to latch on to that you know to be true about yourself. If you find your throws failing you, invest more in your legs. If your offense is suffering, redouble your focus on your defense. Draw from one well of confidence and don’t dwell on your drought elsewhere; while you can tend to the drought directly and, slowly, refill the well that has emptied, it only needs a little guidance to get on the right track (if you’re self-aware enough, you can diagnose what needs to be done yourself; otherwise, get some coaching or let it be). You can channel your emotions more productively into a different aspect of your game, instead of struggling against the force of those emotions in the aspect that’s created it.

Apologies if I’m getting too metaphorical. Know that confidence is a skill like any other; it can be practiced and improved. Being confident in your own capabilities will always lead to better performance; it may not always manifest in success (this is an important distinction), and there may come a time when you need to re-evaluate your approach and change it to get better results for your team. But never lose confidence in your ability. Work hard, develop confidence, and hold it tight.

Related posts:
Ultimate is a Biathlon.

What makes a good player?

Defensive Thought: Anticipation

Catching Thought: Focus on the spin

Mackey — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 04:00:00 +0000

See the frisbee clearly when you catch it.

This comes inspired by the Inner Game of Tennis, which I just read recently (if you fancy yourself an athlete, this is mandatory reading. If you hope to learn anything from athletics you can apply to the rest of your life, this is mandatory reading). Galwey, after an initial explanation of some fundamentals of tennis play (which is all tied in to performance and performance mindset), suggests simply to focus on the spin of the ball as a means to concentration, getting your mind out of your body’s way.

Have you ever dropped a disc because you were thinking about your next throw or how you were going to spike it or some other facet of the moment not directly related to the catching of the disc? I should amend that to “have you ever dropped a disc because you were thinking,” because all thoughts are a distraction.

It’s a bit tougher to constantly focus on one thing in ultimate–unlike in tennis, in which the ball is a constant object of focus, in ultimate the frisbee is really only your primary concern when it is in the air. With each facet of ultimate, you have to focus on the cues specific to that facet–the hips (interspersed with awareness of the frisbee’s location and the play developing around you) for defense, space and the thrower when cutting–and when you’re receiving and the disc is in the air, you should have little else on your mind beside the spin of the disc.

I don’t mean contemplate the spin of the disc, thinking about the disc’s spin. I mean, simply, noticing how it is spinning and moving in space. Let your body find and attack the frisbee (these are skills you develop with focused practice–perhaps more on that in a later post), and keep your mind out of it by devoting your attention to the disc’s spin.

Give it a try sometime when you’re tossing. Don’t judge based on initial results–you have to learn to trust your body, and your body has to learn that you’re trusting it, which can take a little while–but let it go for 10, 15 minutes and see if you don’t notice a difference, an extra ease to your motion. And then see if you can’t carry that same ease and relaxation into your in-game performance, too.

Related posts:
Catching Thought: What’s your first instinct?

Catching Thought: Receiving Under Pressure

Cultivating Focus

On intensity

Mackey — Sat, 17 Dec 2005 06:18:00 +0000

Been thinking on the topic a bit lately.

A few things. I think intensity is one of the main factors separating the contenders from the pretenders, and the ability to play intense and maintain intensity is key to having success at a tournament (or really, any sort of high-level athletic competition).

I also think that a lot of people mistake intensity as being really “into” what you’re doing, frothing at the mouth, a win-at-all-costs sort of mentality. That’s not the right mentality, I don’t think.

Put simply, intensity is being extremely focused, blocking out any and all extraneous factors and focusing fully on one’s play.

I don’t think it’s something that comes naturally; the natural urge is either to be carefree (in low-level play) or to be anxious/overwhelmed (in high-level/important games). Intensity is something that is practiced, something you learn, and only then does it come “naturally.” It takes a strong motivating force to be intense. If you don’t care about the result, if you’re not fully invested in the consequences of your actions, then you will be unable to convince your body to push itself to its uppermost bounds and you will underperform.

I know I’m not the only one who’s gone to a practice or started the first game of a tournament with my mind elsewhere–the last class I was at, how tired I am, whatever happened at last night’s party–and that, coupled with a lack of devoting time to refocus on ultimate (maybe you missed warm-ups, or the team arrived late and didn’t have time to run endzone drill for more than a couple touches per person) leads to a completely, utterly flat first point. If you survive long enough maybe you’ll come out of it and start playing for serious mid-point; other times you’ll set up on the wrong side and give up an easy break huck for the goal, or make a drop on a routine catch 10 yards from your endzone and give up the quick score. Then you come out for a point, whip your ass into gear, and get your a-game going. Maybe it still takes a while longer. Maybe you’ve just planted the seeds of doubt that have you playing tentative all day.

Or maybe you’re just playing in your summer league, pickup with some buddies, whatever–and you just play abysmally. Your throws all go to shit, you’re making crap cuts, whatever. It’s a lack of focus.

I think a lot of people pair intensity and focus, in the sense that, they need to have that fire churning and (perhaps) their more unrelenting, assholish qualities expressed in order to sufficiently focus on their play (there’s always at least one on every team; some keep it in check better than others). I usually try and keep the fire and the focus as separate entities (though not wholly separate). Most people who know me know I’m not overly emotional, I’m very analytical, I like to keep things in perspective as much as I can.

I’ve found, though, that usually when I’m playing at my best it’s because I let go of that more laid-back mentality and fully invest myself in what I’m doing. I came to the revelation that I needed to amp up my intensity probably mid-late winter last year, when we were playing on the turf fields and Watson was just playing out of his mind, laying out for this and that, really busting ass. I took great offense at the fact that I was getting out-bid by him (the bid was pretty much my domain on the B-team last year) and I came to realize that while I was running around, keeping warm, and touching the disc every now and then, mostly just tossing on the sidelines, Watson was sprinting, making the most of every chance he had to push himself and get better on the field, even if it was a 3v3, relatively low-key practice (we were all freezing).

So it was that my number one goal for the spring became to play with more intensity. It came a little over spring break, but I don’t have any particularly strong recollections of good, strong intensity over the course of the week and a half (the focus was fun, especially for the b-team, after all), but I distinctly remember the breakthrough, playing at Burple Valley that spring.

We had a couple (dare I say it, even a few) close games that weekend. We were throwing our better players out about as often as they could take it; I wound up playing 80-90% of the points out of necessity, being one of a few ‘quality’ handlers (read: consistent flick) and a bit of ego, not wanting to come out after giving up a point or when the score was close, and only subbing out for a point when I did sit.

Those were some great games. I think we wound up going 2-1 or 2-2 that day (I forget if it was a one-day, party that night tournament, or perhaps the Sunday games weren’t notable), winning our games on universe point or something very close to it. Anyways, I was really, really happy with how I played. Fully invested in the game when it was happening, really letting it all out, especially on defense (offense got to be frustrating when I was stuck making handler cuts when I wanted to be burning my man deep–but alas, we often lacked the depth on a line to run a consistent deep game). That was really my breakthrough; after that, I’ve never felt disappointed with my intensity level at tournaments (practices can vary widely).

I think it’s really important as a leader, or really for anybody on a team, that you’re able to play intense, inspired ultimate. Not necessarily being rageful, but intense enough that it shows. Intense enough that everybody knows you’re not about to let the other team beat you on anything other than your own terms. If you can carry yourself with that sort of intensity, have that level of confidence, teammates will definitely see it and feed off of it. If you let your play sag, if you’re tentative, unsure, noncommittal, your teammates will see that too. Morale is an amazing thing–keep a positive attitude, always.

I read Buster Olney’s Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty not too long ago, and one of the things he pointed to as a contributing factor to their world title run in the late ’90s was their unwavering confidence (exemplified by none other than pretty-boy, how-the-hell-did-you-win-another-gold-glove Jeter), the feeling that, even if the opposing team was ahead, invariably they would make their comeback. They never gave in, and they expected nothing less than victory. Expectations of such great magnitude have their own ramifications, but such a mentality has its place.

I think it’s a great mental framework to work with. I did my best to keep up this mentality (and do my best to inspire it in others) at Brown, and I think it worked great. Particularly in the UMass game, it would’ve been very easy to roll over, down 9-4. But we stuck to our guns. We came back to force universe point, and after we’d gotten our first break I knew we could win it. That was simply how it had to be; once we got fired up and took the impetus off ourselves–we’d nothing to lose, coming from behind; it’s all on them to make their plays, to shut us down, to put us away–once we made a crack in that dam, the doubt began seeping through, and it eventually came crashing down. Even though we lost it on universe point, we’d gotten the turn and gotten the disc within 10 yards of their zone–we both know they lucked out, escaping by the skin of their teeth. An all-around great game.

There’s no doubt in my mind that Dartmouth is capable of taking the region. I’m sure the other teams will be working hard, but I just look at the team, and at the talent of the players we have, and I know we’ve only scratched the surface of our full potential. We’ve got to bust ass and train diligently to get there, but that mountain isn’t too big. We’ve got the gear, put it to use the right way and we’ll work our way to the top in no time. I’m excited.