Thoughts.

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.

I’ve been doing this since my freshman year, and I didn’t realize until recently what a help this can be for the burgeoning cutter-type (or really any type).

I’m going to give a fairly simple picture demonstration of what I mean. For me, at least, it’s absolutely perfect for those times when I get bored in class–the margins of the pages make an excellent setting.

So, Cutting Schematics(TM?):

Start off with a fairly simple field setup. Start with the basics–one thrower (the O), one mark (the line, indicating which way he’s forcing).

In this case, we have a force flick.

Then….

…a straight stack, complete with dump set up slightly upfield (your team’s offensive set may vary). Note that I’m only adding two extra defenders here–for this particular cutting schematic, we’re only concerned with the last guy in the stack and the first dump. This particular schematic is working through a situation where the handler cuts upline…

…while the last cutter in the stack, recognizing the imminent power position, sets up a continuation with a good, hard in cut.

When the handler gets the disc in power position…

…the cutter, whose defender is at this point chasing him and likely not in a good position to defend the deep (or at least compromised enough that it can be attempted), plants and makes a good deep cut into the space he’s just set up–heading straight backwards to leave a lane for the huck to go into, rather than flaring out into the lane and making the huck more difficult.

It’s that simple. I’m positive I’m not the only one who does this, but I’m also fairly sure that there are lots of people out there who could make good use of it if they knew to.

Other situations you might want to consider using a cutting schematic in:

• As a general thought experiment for situations you don’t normally see/aren’t used to yet–what if the force is straight up on the mark? What if your man is forcing you out to the point that you have to run around him to get in? What if there’s a poach in the lane? What do you do if you’re the second-to-last in the stack and the power position huck doesn’t come?
• For handler cuts–again, run the various situations through your mind. When do you throw a juke to get open effectively (i.e., at a position where the throw to you is easy to make)? When do you clear out, hard?
• Defensively. What situations should you expect to see when playing a force-middle defense, when you’re guarding a downfield cutter? What sorts of adjustments do you have to anticipate making to compensate for these situations? When are the situations in which a smart poach can get a D? When are you most vulnerable, and why? When do you have to just buckle down and beat your man?

It’s very versatile as a tool to guide visualization. I’ll elaborate on the general notion of visualization and how it’s one of the most powerful tools you can use to improve yourself in any sport (e.g., ultimate) in a later post.

One of the things that I feel like is a great strength for me as a player is the ability to quickly move from catching the disc to throwing it again–and not just a swilly upside-down backhand or a rushed toss, but legitimately stepping out and throwing a backhand or a forehand.

It’s to the point for me now where I catch the disc and can immediately go into stepping to make the next throw–between my catching the disc and my being fully extended the disc goes from ‘caught’ to ‘ready to throw,’ and there’s no time lost in transition (the step is the limiting factor). I actually need to work on right-handed catching more now, as my instinct is to always go with the left and I need to re-learn which situations require right hand just (like layouts for a Callahan against one of the best teams in the country).

I thought of this whilst sketching out some different offensive sets in my notes at the Neuroscience 2007 seminar in San Diego, and I think it very aptly sums up my philosophy/thought process with regards to cutting.

“It” is the notion of Threat Points, places on the field where, given your position and motion and the position of the disc, you can choose to cut in at least two directions and reasonably expect to get the disc–which way you cut, then, is a personal call depending on how you’re being played defensively and perhaps other concerns like the skill set of the person with the disc, weather, etc.

This is perhaps best conveyed by means of visual aid…

The simplest setup for this might be the dump. Let’s say we have a fairly typical dump setup like below:In this particular instance the force is forehand (player with the disc is on the right), with the black lines being defenders. The red line is the cut/clearing out that the dump cutter has just made (I’m assuming a following-the-play scenario where the dump is moving, not starting from standing), and the blue line is where the dump should cut to next.

By making a hard cut to that space…
…the dump cutter is now in a position where he can do one of two things.

• He can continue cutting to space upline, or
• He can plant and cut backwards at an angle to get the dump in ideal position to swing it.

Which option he chooses depends on a few factors, notably which option his defender is giving him (it could be both), what’s happening downfield (is the upline lane clogged?), his team philosophy (perhaps the dump-swing is their bread and butter) and how the defense is playing their team (again, perhaps the dump-swing is the necessary tool to victory against a lane-poachy D, or perhaps the mark is taking away the backfield and upfield is the most viable option).

What matters most is that, more often than not, this puts a cutter in a position where he can effectively “threaten” two areas. This usually means that the cutter can get open in at least one direction, given that the two positions are not simultaneously defensible (some defenses/situations will prove this wrong of course).

Finding Threat Points like that and exploiting them is the essence of my cutting strategy, especially when it comes to secondary cutting–very often when clearning out deep or back towards the stack there are positions where I can make a cut back into space and be open for a gainer/swing. Generally I set up my cuts by cutting to a space where I can pick one of two directions to go in and still get the disc.

In cases where a defender is on you such that they’ll be with you in whichever direction you choose to go, you’re very often still in a position where you’ll force a defender to turn his hips, in which case the cutting 101 rule of “get him to turn his hips, then go the other way” applies.

Thank you, Ben the instructor.

It’s the sort of (re-)realization that makes me love the sport I play. You can learn in the most unlikely circumstances, sometimes–you just have to know how to look for it.

Another Email cut & paste. I’ll try and make more posts as the inspiration hits me, I do have a few thoughts/topics mulling around in my head.

-That said, practice things with focus first, then work on integration into context once you actually have the skill down. There’s little sense in trying to learn how to throw a leading hammer to space if your hammer sucks, you know? You know this already too.

Some specific stuff I’ve picked up on that’s made a big difference in my play:

-Release timing. This made a huge difference in my throws. Previously, I’d always have my release starting somewhere in the middle of my throwing motion, the wrist snap completing at the end of my arm motion. Ideally, though, the wrist snap and release are all one motion at the end of your throw–rather than start the disc rotating before you’ve fully set the trajectory, impart as much spin as possible at the end of the disc’s motion, and it’ll fly with much tighter spin, and thus more stability and better control.

-Grip the disc properly. Generally, get a tight grip you can throw fakes with and not lose the disc with.

-Cock the wrist back farther.

-Always be on your toes, whether cutting, defending, marking, pivoting, whatever. You’ll respond faster.

-Move, don’t reach. Use your body when you’re on defense.

-Have a plan. Whether it’s just “look for/force x. if x doesn’t work, then do y,” or something more complicated, have some idea of what you want to do and you’ll be more likely to be succesful and less likely to wind up confused.

Thinking about it, I imagine there’s gotta be some fundamental difference in the way people perceive and play the game that makes some people decidedly D players and some decidedly O (beyond factors such as “well, he’s got throws, but can’t play defense worth a lick. o-line it is!”).

And I think I might have something. Well, maybe. I figure, the fundamental difference lies in how one thought processes playing the game–generally speaking, your D-types are better/more inclined to be reactionary players, while your O-types are more…manipulative? subversive?

Whoops, my D player is showing. But seriously. When I’m playing, I’m aware of a few possibilities that might happen/things to look out for (such as helping when last back), but largely I’m simply reacting to what’s happening. That makes intuitive sense, of course–it carries over to when I’m playing O to an extent, though, in that I’m usually looking and reacting to what’s happening (which is why I tend to better with continuation cutting than initial cutting–opportunity cuts, and setting up for them, comes more naturally to me), rather than “creating” offense so to speak. When I go to cut I’m usually cutting to a point to see what my defender gives me, and then I’ll take it, rather than thinking where I’d be the biggest threat and setting my cut up to get there–I often find myself cutting from the back, faced with a halway decent face mark, and starting a deep cut from 25+yards away from the disc–not ideal at all.

I figure effective O-line players (at least, a good portion of them) tend to be more ‘in control’ of their games so to speak, knowing what needs to be done and doing it.

I feel like this is really well embodied by the stack of inaction. A combination of factors–defensive positioning, disc position, timing–and a lack of anybody willing to just bite the bullet and try and make something happen leads to a bunch of players standing in the stack waiting for somebody to cut off of. This also has a cousin, the stack of one mind, where several people all make the same cut simultaneously, reducing the effectiveness had just one cut (you see this often with the break-side continuation cut off a dump).

Anyways, I doubt very seriously people are locked in to one style of play or the other, though I suspect some are more inclined towards one, with the reactionary mindset being easier and more common.

It ties into why I think Offense is more highly valued than defense, and what all that VORP stuff is getting at–any decent athlete can run around and chase a disc with a bit of positioning, but it takes a lot more practice to develop one’s throws and cutting and field sense and all that jazz that makes for an effective offense.

Took yesterday easy, and got in a weightless workout again today. Pretty much the same as Monday’s workout so I won’t bother retyping it, though I did replace handstand pushups (too hard to do several before burning out) with a modified version of an elevated pushup. Basically just tried my best to put as much weight on my hands as I could…needs some tweaking, but it’s got potential. Upper body lifting session tomorrow…it’s supposed to be above freezing, too, so I’m considering giving running another try tomorrow, see how the ankle responds.