Thoughts.

More often than not, I find myself completely agreeing with what she says, and there are some great gems in her bit on subbing:

Divide your handlers up into groups of those who generate offense with their throws (big breaks and/or big hucks) and those who generate offense with their legs (effectively get the disc up-the-line and are always open for resets). You’ll want some players from each category on every line.

Divide your downfielders into groups of those who can get open with jukes off of a stopped-disc and those who are great at getting open in flow with timing and filling spaces. Again, you’ll want some players from each category on every line.

The whole issue on subbing is a great opportunity to apply a new lens to yourself as a player: how would somebody in charge of subbing view your abilities? Gwen’s bit here touches on it the most explicitly, I think…what kind of player are you? Do you create offense or augment offense? Are you a big playmaker or a solid contributor? How versatile are you, offensively, defensively? What are some flaws that might lead to you getting less play time (e.g., lack of height/athleticism/conditioning, inconsistent throws in the wind, an inclination towards high-risk shots, etc)?

What kind of player do you want to be? If you’re a coach or a mentor for other players, what kind of player do you see them becoming/what kind of player would make them the most useful? The notion of subbing also harkens to making cuts and forming your team’s identity and strategy in the first place. Lot of good stuff to consider for anybody who fancies themself a team leader/decision maker.

A few things that are important for throwing the hammer:

Grip. If you can hold a frisbee to throw a forehand as I’ve described previously, you’re probably in good shape. As I touch upon briefly in the video, it’s not so much the grip that matters as the fact that the grip allows you to hold the frisbee in line (parallel) with your forearm. If you can hold the disc, however you can manage, parallel with the forearm, you’ll be able to learn and maintain a consistent hammer.

Grip is also essential for throwing in the wind or throwing for distance. You have to be able to hold the disc firm in windy conditions, lest it be blown off-track before it even leaves your hand, and you also need to grip the disc tightly enough to transfer power to your throw.

Arm angle (tilt). This will change depending on the situation. How much you adjust this angle will affect the flight path of the throw–do you want a low, fast trajectory? A double-helix that floats? Something closer to a blade? Develop this sense with trial and error. This also affects how the disc flies in wind. Throwing upwind, you want to stay over a hammer like you would any other throw–this means a slight alteration in the tilt and follow-through of your throw so it flies lower (see arm action below). In a downwind, you want to throw with a bit more touch so the wind doesn’t turn your hammer into a sinking rock. Crosswinds are perhaps the most difficult to gauge–depending on the intensity and direction of the wind, you will need to tilt the disc so it comes out more like a blade (if the wind is blowing from your left for a righty) or with more of a flatter profile (if the wind is blowing from your right). As a general rule (this applies with “normal” throws, too), try not to expose the underside of the disc to the wind. If anybody has more insight to offer to this end, feel free. I find I have to calibrate my hammers for the wind more often than not instead of knowing right off the bat, but it doesn’t take more than a handful of warm-up throws to get to that point.

Related note about the wind–wind is not a nonstarter for over-the-tops or hammers; GUSTY wind is. The change is what makes the throw unpredictable–if the wind is consistent, you can make a consistent adjustment and maintain effectiveness.

Body angle (tilt). I’ve found a slight lean (to the left for righties) aids in-wind adjustment of the disc’s flight path. This follows pretty naturally from the footwork of the push-off described below.

Arm action (trajectory). This ties in to the above. How you project the frisbee–in my mental lingo, I cue myself to “project” rather than throw the disc–makes a big difference. Again, how do you want the disc to fly and arrive at its target? You can project the disc with a higher trajectory so that it takes longer to arrive at its target or a lower trajectory to try and speed it along. This is critical to throwing a hammer successfully in a game (particularly outside of zone situations with stationary targets). You have to learn to appreciate not only the spatial aspect of the throw–throwing to your target–but also the temporal aspect–throwing to your target in such time that it can be caught. I feel like, with hammers more than any other throw (ok, I’m really just talking about forehand and backhand) in ultimate, you need both to be successful. This is why defenses will concede the hammer more readily than the rest–the skill and sense to consistently place these throws is hard to find, and the margin for error creates easy turnovers/turnover opportunities.

I emphasize placing the hammer and projecting the disc here, because hammers are all about touch, in my opinion. This is not a throw that can simply be “gripped and ripped.” You might get the disc to fly somewhere close to where you intended by doing so, but you have to be able to control for the temporal aspect–putting the hammer in such a way that it is catchable by your receiver, ideally in uncontested fashion. A quick-moving hammer is one of the hardest catches to make for a moving receiver unless it’s placed perfectly (hi, Misha!).

Release point. I snap my wrist and release somewhere above my head/right shoulder. How soon or late you release determines in part how much (or how little) touch the hammer will have, so keep that in mind when you project this throw.

Footwork and Shoulder Use. I’ve seen/heard a few different schools of thought on footwork. I’m of the opinion that you should be able to throw a hammer from a standing, balanced position, and also capable of throwing it out of a forehand pivot. For me, my footwork requires pushing off with my right foot a little (really, it’s more of a shift of weight to the left), usually ending on my toes or with my foot slightly off the ground. I find, however, that the importance of footwork tends to pale in comparison to the importance of loading the scapula. A hammer more closely approximates a football or baseball throwing motion than a forehand or backhand, so the shoulder loading really enables one to put a lot more power behind the throw. When you generate power from the shoulder, rather than the arm, it allows you greater control over how the disc is projected–it allows you to put touch on a powerful throw.

Me, circa summer 2007.  Albany Summer League.  I must’ve thrown at least 3 or 4 goals (or should-have-been goals that were flubbed) off the hammer this game.  I also threw a greatest for a goal this game to force universe point, which we then won.  That was a fun day.

Wrist snap. Remember that the wrist snap is what puts rotational force on the disc–it does not project the disc forward. That’s what your body and shoulder are for. Impart a velocity to the frisbee with your body and shoulder, and then snap your wrist when you’re ready to release and not sooner. It’s a nice, compact motion (as it is for all throws, but it’s harder to get away without doing for a hammer).

Troubleshooting:
If you find your throws wavering or wobbling (in the wind), examine your wrist snap, but also examine your grip to make sure you’re holding the disc in proper, parallel alignment with your forearm.

If you find your throws double-helixing when you don’t intend them to, or doing just the opposite–too bladey, mind the wind first, and mind how much you’re tilting the disc second.

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.

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)

1. The position of the disc on the field relative to you and your man
2. 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?
3. 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?
4. 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?
5. 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?
6. 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.
7. 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:

1. What cut you choose to defend primarily–what’s the biggest (and most viable) threat at this moment?
2. 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).
3. 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.
4. 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.

Catching. Such an essential, fundamental component of ultimate, non? Jesus Christ, just think–250 thousand hits. Already! I hit 2,500 last month and thought I was doing well.

I almost always catch in stride on a small hop for “good” passes that hover from chest to head height for me to run onto. This prevents any ground-up turbulence (uneven fields, while not ideal, are not uncommon in this sport) from throwing off my catching motion, and generally allows me to continue at the speed I was already cruising at to make the catch. Sometimes you want to accelerate through the catch, but I have yet to find myself caught and D’d up because I catch this way. Perhaps I just need higher-level competition, though. Small, but significant when you consider the sheer volume of catches you make.

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.

The Huddle already beat me to this, but I’ve been sitting on this thought for a while now.

Athletic position means being on your toes, knees bent, ready to uncoil. Keep it in mind on the ultimate field. Keep in in mind when you’re tossing on the green or in the park or wherever you happen to get your tossing in. Keep it in mind when you’re in the gym and doing plyos. Develop your strength, and then learn how to channel that strength as quickly and effectively as possible through your toes. And dominate.

How small of a margin between receiver and defender are you comfortable throwing to?

One step? Two steps’ gap? What is your primary consideration when you assess whether or not you’ll throw to an in cut?

Don’t think just in terms of gap. Consider your receiver–if you know he’s faster than his man, trust him to accelerate to the disc (and conversely, if the defender has been baiting the throw all game and getting it, perhaps you should reconsider). A very important consideration, and the focus of this post, is the relative positioning of the receiver and his defender, as well as the trajectory of his cut.

Assuming your receiver is making a good cut (vertically/slightly angled, rather than horizontally–more on that in a later thought), you can throw to her with a remarkably small margin and complete the throw successfully. The number one deciding factor in whether a throw is a completion or not (from a thrower’s perspective, and assuming basic competency; obviously there are other considerations) is not the margin between receiver and defender, but where you place the disc relative to the receiver and her defender.

Some visual aid:

This is where you want to place the disc to prevent a D. The receiver is led to space , with the disc coming in to him on the side opposite that of the defender. With the disc placed in such a manner, a defender is forced to go through the receiver for the D. Particularly on cuts that don’t cover a lot of ground (such as handler cuts), it’s nearly impossible for a defender to get around the receiver sufficiently to make a clean D (otherwise, he needs to lay out through the receiver, which is very obviously a foul. In some instances it’s possible to get a D, but with proper catching technique this is nearly impossible. More on that in a later thought, too).

With placement like this–either heading towards the receiver instead of leading him, or placed such that the receiver’s body is NOT between the disc and defender–a defender can move in and get to the disc before the receiver (this also happens commonly with horizontal cuts, which is why those are not the most reliable cut to make, especially at a low level). In the picture above you can clearly see that the disc placement more or less negates whatever advantage the receiver has, essentially placing the two at an equal distance from the play.

Placement is not a universal cure–even with the right intent to your throw, sometimes players will make plays (if there’s a speed disparity, this can negate good placement on longer cuts). However, an awareness of disc placement by both thrower AND receiver (I’ll touch on it more later, but you can cut with this positioning in mind) can make tight defense beatable. It can almost swing to the point of being a disadvantage for the defense to be too close if you place it properly, as overzealous defenders can be baited into failed bids, giving the receiver a few free counts to do whatever she wants with the disc.