Thoughts.

Yeah, yeah, throwing and catching. Fundamentals aside, here, let’s talk about one step up–the dump. Absolutely essential as a building block for any offensive strategy (even if you Huck and Hope, you’re going to make some dump-like passes to set that up at some point).

It doesn’t take a team strategist to figure this out. Dumps give you a reset on the count, and, when leveraged correctly, are a WEAPON. Anybody who played against Dartmouth last year (particularly our D line) can attest to the lethality of the dump if you fail to contain it. Conversely, a team that dumps poorly is going to give up its fair share of short turns, and if you can’t dump with competence, then these same dumps will lead to a slower, more predictable (read: easier-to-defend) offense.

You know the whole analogy about how the running game sets up the passing game in football? With ultimate, the dump game similarly sets up the rest of the offense.

There are tiers of dumping. How comfortable are you?

1. The “get a reset” dump. You look dump at high stall, and have to rush a throw. OR the dump cutting is ineffective (you have a “dancer” who doesn’t get open by much, and takes 4 seconds to do it). Either way, the throw winds up more or less shovel passed to the receiver, who gets the disc somewhere within the vicinity of 2-5 yards of the thrower (and likely coming toward the thrower or moving straight back). No advantage gained, merely a new count to look upfield and insist that somebody “CUT!”
2. The early/competent dump. Note that those two terms tend to be synonymous. The decision to dump the disc is established early in the count more often than not (before stall 4 or 5–this will vary depending on your team’s offensive philosophy), and/or the dump cutter has an easy time getting separation from her defender. In this situation, the pass is usually made to a receiver in stride, perhaps going upline with the defender trailing (“power position,” anathema to all defenses–the thrower has a free shot deep, with momentum from the run to put it even farther), or likewise going backwards–in either case, the defender is not in a position to stop the next throw, which sets up a dump-swing style offense or a deep offense (hence the “running game” of the dump sets up the “passing game” going deep or side-to-side). This is the level of dumping which most good teams have; I’ve seen many a team that works the upline dump VERY competently, setting up a very powerful deep offense. Less common these days is the team that really works the width of the field, but your Harvards and Dartmouths will still flash this style with some effectiveness.
3. The skillful dump. Taking the competent dump one step further, this is dumping not just for a reset, and beyond the dump as a building block for your offense. This is the point at which the dump becomes a FEATURE of the offense–the degree of thought and setup that goes into the positioning ensures that (almost) every dump puts the receiver in a position to further the offense. This is the sort of thing that Frank of RSD fame would often go on about with his ambidexterity rants and the like. Being able to run the give-and-go, for instance, not just as a every-so-often technique, but as the basis for your offense (see Minnesota and their often super-quick resets and movement–I don’t know that I’ve ever worked so hard on defense for so little gain), makes it a very potent tool, and can absolutely destroy teams unprepared to deal with it (which is, interestingly, becoming more and more the norm as teams fall into the glamour trap, opting for the big plays and the big players over the big fundamentals).

It’s all about raising the level. I don’t care who you are, you’re not going to go very far without at least competent resents (and you’re not going to thrive unless you can raise it a step beyond that–or you happen to so outclass your competition otherwise that you can make up for it).

If you’re a burgeoning team–high school, club, college–you MUST emphasize the fundamentals. You might key in on the flashiness of it all, the big hucks, the huge plays, but keep in mind that more often than not 90% of the highest-level games are anything but–just good fundamentals, solid cutting, hard defense, and GOOD RESETS. Model yourself after the “boring” parts–the plays that look easy, because they’ve been practiced and polished to seamlessness–and you’ll more often put yourself in a position where the flashy plays actually make a difference, instead of becoming a footnote in your recap of the blowout loss to stud team x.

More on fundamentals next week.

I know what just leapt to mind.

“The lefty backhand, huh? I’ve never thought it was very useful./What a useful throw!”

I’m not going to write on the merits of such a throw (haven’t had much chance to test it myself–though it is ready, should the appropriate situation for its use ever emerge…).

This is simply a suggestion. If you’ve ever hurt your throwing arm or dislocated a finger on your throwing hand and hurriedly rushed to learn how to throw off-handed because NE ’07 Regionals was only a week away (before finally resolving to grit it out with the right, because you could make due with the pinky in a splint), then you might appreciate what I’m getting at here.

Teaching yourself how to throw off-handed is like teaching a rookie how to throw, but with the slight leg-up of your extra experience with the other limb. Through the lens of what you’ve already learned, can you apply your knowledge and discern what the real keys in throwing are?

It’s hard to teach any skill, especially if you’re far enough along in your learning that you’ve forgotten how you learned in the first place…with throwing, however, you have the luxury of another novice–your off hand. If you can teach your off-hand, you can teach a rookie.

Perhaps more importantly, if you can teach your off-hand, you can learn how to improve the consistency of your dominant hand. How is it, exactly, that you’re able to determine where your forehand goes when you let it go? Is there something in the grip that lets you keep your backhand flat?

It’s also a good way to keep casual throwing interesting. In addition to throwing some game-time visualization into these situations, you can take a step back and re-examine the fundamentals through use of your off-hand. If you’re looking for a slightly more practical carryover, you can do a lot worse than having an off-handed backhand in your arsenal (particularly the high release, which is to date the most consistent advantage for the lefty backhand vs. the righty flick I’ve seen).

Try it. Re-learn how to learn.

(And then teach)

UPDATE: Check the comments for some more thoughts about in-game applications of off-hand throwing.

What the hell does that mean?

I mean, when you pivot from forehand to backhand (or vice versa), you should:

A) Throw a fake to initiate the pivot and

B) Make the fake on an upwards trajectory, using the fake’s momentum to kickstart your pivot over to the other side.

Think about it. Try it. The trick is to make your fakes still look convincing. The “upward trjectory” refers more to your body than your arm.

The next step (or perhaps concurrent step) is learning to throw with those same motions. Convincing fakes are ones that you can actually throw from.

The arm sock.

Underrated and under-appreciated, in my humble opinion.

Yeah, maybe you play in the s’th and you don’t have to worry about things such as warmth. But if you’re up in the still North, why, good insulation is the difference between a great practice on the turf or a frustrating one in the cold. Or more importantly, the difference between throwing with confidence as New England turns cold and stormy and shanking a flick because you couldn’t open your hand in time to throw it.

It’s an easy accessory to make. Get a friend (or don’t, if you want to cover both your arms) and split the cost of some long socks (soccer socks do the job very well). Cut the sock before it reaches the bend for the foot. Cut a small hole in the side that your thumb can fit through. Bam!

Keep your arm warm, throw with comfort. If you don’t like the thumb hole/partial hand cover, fold it down. Pop this bad boy on top of some underarmour, and you’ll never have to worry about cold hands again.

We say lots of stupid things on an ultimate field.

I can tell you until the cows come home that you need to take more care when you throw in the wind, but if it were so simple as simply saying to yourself, “let’s throw better in the wind,” it wouldn’t be a mantra amongst college teams in New England year after year.

What really needs to happen, is that people need to develop a checklist of tweaks to their throws that can be applied to varying degrees in various circumstances to ensure good throwing.

What do I mean? I mean things like:

• stepping out
• flicking the wrist harder
• gripping the disc harder
• tilting the nose of the disc downward slightly to keep the lip from being exposed to the wind when throwing upwind (“staying over the throw,”)
• tilting the disc upwards slightly to avoid the turf (“getting under the throw,” though this is more often an error than a correction in my experience)
• throwing from a lower release point (“getting low”)

When my throws suck, I run through my checklist–are my throws working differently than I wanted because I’m swinging my arm (“hooking it” on an arc) instead of coming through in a straight line ? Is it something as simple as needing to grip a little more tightly?

Learn to debug your own throws. And learn how to teach other people to debug theirs. Part of my pre-game routine is tuning my throws for the day’s conditions (the day’s conditions include my own condition), running through a mental checklist that includes all of the things mentioned above. If it’s windy, I put a lot of effort into adjusting my tilt to compensate during warm-ups, so I don’t have to think about it when I catch a swing pass and only have a split-second to decide whether to throw the continuation or not.

When you get comfortable debugging the mechanics of your throws, think also about things like how the weather is affecting touch, how gusty it is (as I alluded to in my post about hammers, consistent wind can be accounted for–gusty wind, being harder to predict, can wreak havoc. Recognize which throws are less havoc-prone in these conditions), and even things like how your cutters are running today and how you expect the defense to match up (do you want to err on throwing with more float for your receiver to sky for, or with more lead for him to run on to/bid for? Do you laser the pass to the in-cut to minimize the window a defender can make a play, or do you lead with float to give your receiver time to catch and set up his continuation throw more effectively?). How confident are you in your ability to place a throw with touch?

Run through your checklist, fix what you can, recognize what you can’t, and adjust your in-game decision making accordingly.

Bring the disc back as far as you can as soon as you can.

EDIT: Likely also inspired by the huddle, Muffin offers his take on throwing for distance. He articulates the nuance of the shoulder load (he calls it the shoulder jerk) a bit better than I do.

I’m just going to stop commenting and tell you to read Gwen’s stuff. She nails it.

Be a good thrower for your decisions, not your throws. Put your throwing practice in the context of a game-time decision to make it that much more of a seamless process in high-pressure situations.

My two cents on forehands…first, read what Miranda Roth has on long backhands (she covers it very well–all of the articles in this issue have gems):

I’m all about maximizing torque when throwing—using rotation to generate power flowing into your throw. On a long backhand the first point is to step out so that when you twist your body you’re not killing your defender with a giant elbow to the face (this is easier for tall players—shorter players should focus on a quick stepout). While stepping out, I also reach the disc out as far as I can to create the longest lever possible (thus creating the most force). The last major step is to rip it—use your abs to pull your arm across and really focus on opening your body all the way toward where you are throwing.

A lot of the same rules apply for forehand hucks. Take into account your grip and your arm action, but the power all comes from the torque of the hips and torso transferring to the disc (this occurs through your arm and grip, so those things are not trivial: refine your mechanics if you find your best effort still yields poor (wobbly) results), with your core as a mediator (and mover–train your core rotationally).

The key difference between the backhand and forehand hucks is how the body generates power and how power is transferred. Forehands are much more of a finesse throw, but you can still generate a very significant amount of power using your body properly. For me, this means stepping out to the side, even slightly back, as I torque my torso back slightly, particularly at the shoulder (to load the scapula). Using my step slightly, I use the momentum and transfer that energy up from my foot to my body, as my body undulates–leg, then hip, then shoulder torque forward in time, and as the next link in the chain comes forward the previous link comes back, creating a whipping motion (Which is to say, as my shoulder is coming forward, my hip has begun to move back).

The essential component is to relax. Whereas you can usually brute force a backhand, too much tightness on a forehand will sap your power. Allow your body to flow, to seamlessly send the energy up through your body and into your arm. You will be tense at the core, but your arm will be very loose up until the moment of release (but your grip will remain tight throughout). Unlike the backhand, where the arm can do a lot of work, the arm can really only hinder a flick. You’ll see a lot of people throw with their elbow on the hip, which displays the lack of necessity for the arm very nicely–the ideal, however, is to get the elbow off the hip and leading the throw, much the same way a pitcher like Chad Bradford throws (but with more upright posture). Get that extension, but relax and let your body (esp. your shoulder) whip the disc.

If you’re a baseball fan, watch the outfielders closely next time you catch a game. If you’re not a baseball fan, watch a game and pay attention to the outfielders anyways.

EDIT: CP brings up an excellent point–this applies not only to catching, but to throwing too. Check the comments.