Thoughts.

Wisdom from the Art of War applies to pretty literally everything you can think of. The implications should be fairly clear for ultimate–do you focus more on playing to your strengths or exploiting your enemies weaknesses when you make adjustments?

I’m not actually going to tackle that one in this post. It is, however, a question fundamental to any team’s strategy, and any team leader should have an opinion there.

What I want to talk about is with regards to applying said philosophy as an individual and within individual matchups. Example:

Player A has spent countless hours refining and perfecting his throws, to the point where he can almost universally break the mark. Inside-outs are a cinch, and if the mark thinks to take that away, the around quickly becomes a weapon (and attempting to take away both only allows him to take what he wants). Because he has invested so much time and developed so much confidence in this aspect of his game, in real game situations he will often look directly to the break side when receiving a pass, even to the detriment of flow on the open side.

Player B is a reasonably competent player. He has no one skill that is particularly stellar, no single game-changing trait, but in games, he can take what he’s given. If he has the frisbee and the mark is conceding a break, he’ll throw if the cut is there; if there’s a cutter on the open side he’ll throw there, too.

Obviously these are extreme examples. But most of the Dartmouth-affiliated readers will recognize player A. We adjusted to his particular proclivity (and to other players’ proclivities as well–almost everyone has a preference, whether it be preferred throws/looks, cutting direction, etc). But to what extent does one favor one’s own strengths over exploiting the opponent’s weakness/what the opponent is giving you? I feel as though I trend much more towards player B (any of you who have seen me play, feel free to claim otherwise).

Ultimately, I think it’s important to cultivate an awareness of both-know what things you do really, really well, and strive to cultivate such game-changing tools. However, at the same time strive to develop a full skillset so that you’re prepared to exploit as many weaknesses as possible. And be prepared to play to both ends. As a role player (or even as a stud), you may be asked to simply play to your strengths, but complications inevitably will arise and you need to be prepared to take the easiest route to success, even if that means getting away from what you do best. Of course, applying your strongest skills to exploit your opponents weaknesses is the perfect solution, but that’s not always possible.

the workout:

a) in 10 minutes, do 100 burpees–I suggest doing 10 sets of 10, starting at the top of each minute (ie, one set a minute)–if you can’t get them all in under 10 minutes, still do 100 as long as it takes.

or, if you’re so inclined, you can do

b) tabata burpees (tabata= 20 secs hard, 10 secs rest, 8 sets).

Stay Strong,
Mackey

notes:
-seriously, look at the clip linked above. It’s a fluid motion, not stop-and-go.
-you’re going to tire on the pushup portion a lot sooner than the jumping portion, so really strive to quickly jump as high as you can with each rep.
-once your arms tire, form will sag–I’d rather you do half-pushups and keep the pace than grind through one pushup for 3-4 seconds.
-keep flowing from landing to landing, don’t stop at pushup position. it helps you push through it if you don’t stop.
-I did a), getting each set of 10 done in about 30 seconds each time (the last few took closer to 35 seconds). If you’re doing b), getting 6 or so in on your most tired sets would be pretty decent, I think.

how it works:
a) is a strength endurance workout–doing pushups with essentially your entire bodyweight to support is a strength movement–the jump up is more explosive, and is more speed endurance. what that means is that with a workout like this, you’re training your body to do the same thing (in this case, exerting upper body strength or lower body explosiveness) for longer, rather than increasing strength or explosiveness directly (though it’ll likely do that too if you’re not in great shape).
b) is similar in what it works, though the shorter rest emphasizes pushing through fatigue more than a).

Brief but intense:

8 sets of
20 seconds hard running, 10 seconds jogging/rest

aka Tabata sprints. More details below for those who are interested.

Stay Strong,
Mackey

Notes:
-This workout takes 4 minutes. That’s all! Push as hard as you can.
-You will tire quickly. Focus on form (relax your upper body and face, swing your arms straight forward and backwards)
-I do this with a watch I can set a timer on–set the timer for 10 seconds and repeat, run for two beeps, rest for one beep.
-Make sure you warm up well! Dynamic stretching is great (blitz me if you’re not familiar with them), as is doing some fartlek running–jog, run, jog, run–to get your body ready to sprint
-Think just faster than 200 pace (or just slower than 100 pace) as a target speed
-Warm down well. You’ll get pretty tight in a hurry if you don’t.
-I got through 3 1/4 laps or so on the track, if you want a standard for comparison

How it works:
The point of this workout is to progressively overload your body’s energy systems. Starting out, your body will be running anaerobically on its short-term energy system (the phosphagen pathway), which is good for about 10 seconds of hard work (it’s also what you use when doing any kind of explosive activity, like jumping). It takes a while for this system to recover to full though, so after a few reps this system will be drained and you’ll be working primarily in the other anaerobic system, the glycolytic pathway (if you’ve ever noticed a drop in energy from the first couple points of a game to the rest of the game, it’s because you’ve used up your phosphagen and have switched to lower-power glycolysis). This is the single most important energy pathway for playing ultimate frisbee; it powers any moderate-powered efforts (anything above jogging) up to a few minutes. Ultimate by and large consists of these sorts of sustained high efforts. The 10-second break is just enough to get your wind back and prevent your body from forcing you to slow down considerably/stop.

1) Cuts where you attack space to get the frisbee
2) Cuts where you threaten space to create attackable space elsewhere

The second is referred to by some as “a clear,” but this category also includes set-up cuts, which is what I’m focusing on in this post.

What do I mean?

Cutting, simply, is creating space and attacking space. The sooner you can stop thinking in terms of “beating your man” and can start thinking in terms of “getting to space first,” the more effective a cutter (and defender) you’ll be.

When I cut, my first motions are always of the two categories above. If my defender is behind me and is behind me by a step or two (such that he won’t catch me in a straight sprint), I won’t bother with setup and will take the opportunity cut in if the situation is appropriate (ie, player with the disc is looking upfield and there’s enough space for me to run into).

If the situation is not appropriate, that’s where things get more interesting. Instead of just running to space, now you have to run with a purpose–you run deep to set up space to attack underneath, for instance. The finer points of ensuring your man is out of position to defend both options is something I’ll flesh out over time, but fundamentally, if you don’t like what you have right now, then you need to cut to get somewhere you DO like and can attack from. We often talk about “7 hard steps” as the rule of the day for setting up your cuts and it’s no lie–if you run hard in one direction for 7 steps you’ll be setting up space for you to attack in the opposite direction.

Also, note that category 1 cuts can quickly become or can overlap with category 2 cuts. If I make a hard cut in and get looked off, my cut attacking space has just created space deep which I can now attack. This is the principle behind butterfly cutting–as you run hard in one direction (in) you’re a threat to get the disc and you’re also setting up space to go the other way and be a threat (the “butterfly” term comes from the fact that you don’t just do this on one side of the field, but switch from open to break side as you go). Threatening more than one area is key to good cutting–when you’re making a cut to create space, you should almost always be moving in such a way that you can threaten multiple directions at once. If you’re only a threat one way (you’re too deep, for instance, so all you can do is run in) a smart defender will take it away and leave you with nothing.

It’s easy to learn to throw by pinching the rim, and flicking your fingers to propel the disc. Much harder, but much more rewarding, is to use your thumb on top and your ring and pinkie fingers on the bottom of the frisbee’s rim to hold the disc with your ENTIRE hand, using your full grip instead of your pinch grip.

The way I’ve started explaining it is by pointing out that, with a pinching grip, the disc tends to rest in your hand at an angle that is not parallel with your forearm–often much closer to perpendicular in fact. When your arm is out of line with the frisbee’s plane, any throwing motion will naturally confuse the path of the disc as you’re giving it two different planes to work with–often leading to the wobbly, unstable, difficult to control throws (some of this is also arm motion–more on that later–but even that can stem from the fundamentals of how you grip).

Holding the disc with your entire hand–use your thumb on top of the disc and really dent the rim–keeps the disc in line with your forearm, and the frisbee becomes an extension of your arm and your throwing motion rather than working in poor harmony with it. Throwing with touch becomes a lot easier, making IO and OI throws consistently becomes an option…it’s the most important thing for throwing a forehand/blade/hammer.

If you’ve never done it before, give it a try next time you toss. Stand on your pivot foot, pick up your other, and throw, backhand or forehand. All sorts of flaws in one’s throw come out when throwing like this–the “step-and-arm” types invariably have trouble directing the disc, and your more violent arm-thrower types tend to have difficulty completing passes and keeping balanced.

Embrace the zen of throwing. Relax your arm, and pull the disc through in a whip-like motion, following through towards your target. Grip the disc. Relax your arm. Load the scapula. Feel the power and control you can generate from your core.

Slowly, slowly re-integrate your step, your two-footed balance. Slowly tune your body so that shifting of weight moves seamlessly from base to hinge to release point. You can develop control and power–with the arm properly isolated, simply repeat the same motion with more powerful force supplied from the base, and watch it fly.