Thoughts.

• Foam rolling and mobility work are pillars of athletic (and general) health.  Do them to warm-up, (and/) or include them as part of your workout itself.
• Follow your “big lifts” with related assistance work (2-4 “extra” lifts after the big one(s)) – for lower body, this means single-leg work and/or higher-rep work; for upper body, this means an appropriate balance of pulling exercises (thin pull-ups/chin-ups and rowing), grip and single-arm work.  If you’re doing full-body days rather than upper/lower split, it’s ok to mix upper-lower assistance work.
• Core work counts as assistance.  Focus on core stability (planks, holds) and rotation for ultimate; situps have less functional carryover.  Recognize that a lot of single-limb work emphasizes core strength/stability too – there are many ways to work “core work” into other exercises and save time and see (perhaps better) carryover.
• Make sure you’re pulling!  This applies to lower-body lifting (deadlifts, RDLs, cable pull-throughs – all technically “pushes” through the feet) but ESPECIALLY to the upper body.  The mirror muscles may look nice, but true power and injury prevention is rooted in the posterior chain.  Balance any upper-body pushing you do with equivalent pulling, if not with extra pulling work for the majority of us who are imbalanced (those with shoulder woes, I’m looking at you).
• Set & Rep ranges: Very much dependent on one’s goals and Training Age.  Some generalities:
  • “Big Lifts” – squat/deadlift/bench should be at relatively high loads/low rep ranges (~5 or less reps/set).  Strength first, here!
  • Novice: Focus on quality technique at relatively low set/rep ranges (3×5 for working sets, perhaps 3×8 if you’re not getting heavy).  Recovery and progress can be made on a workout-to-workout basis, so less variation in exercise selection and intensity is needed for progress – you can do the same routine over and over and still make progress.
  • Intermediate: Technique is less of a concern now, so higher-intensity and higher-volume work can be done (heavy x1,x2,x3 sets – this should be preceded by good fitness base development for any intermediates coming off of some down time).  Total reps generally need to be higher than for novices at similar % loads to generate progress – where a novice would do 3×5, an intermediate is more likely to need 5×5, at a higher % of their 1RM.  Variation in volume should occur on a weekly level (e.g., 5×5 in wk 1, 4×5 wk 2, 6×5 wk 3, and 2×5 in wk 4 to deload).  With greater training stress needed to stimulate progress, greater recovery is needed and this is enabled in part through weekly variation; broader exercise selection is usually necessary as well (even subtle shifts, e.g. from flat bench to incline bench, front to back to box squats, can stimulate new gains).
  • True advanced lifters are competitive powerlifters and the like; they’re beyond the scope of what you need for ultimate and what I’m comfortable commenting on, but adaptation occurs over even longer timeframes than weekly to volume due to the massive loads they can wield (monthly or even annually for the most elite lifters) and rather rapidly to specific exercises (necessitating rapid variation).
  • Assistance work generally operates in higher rep ranges (8-15); this is where you stimulate metabolic changes (ie, muscle growth) – the lower-rep big lifts are for cultivating strength proper.  Novices don’t need assistance work to stimulate progress as much as intermediates do.  If your goals include packing on a lot of weight, doing extra volume here (an extra set or two) can be sufficient to stimulate the extra growth – but keep in mind that most are held back not by work, but by recovery here – eat and sleep more!

There you have some of my current thinking on strength training for ultimate.  I think all of these points apply regardless of where you are in your season, but are easier to not compromise in your off-season.

When in season, keep your big goals in mind – is adding weight to this lift the most important thing?  What do you need to do in order to really thrash this coming weekend?  Keep the big picture in mind – lifting is a means to an end (strength) which is in turns another means to the more relevant end (on-field success).  It is one component.  It is not the only component, and is not the most important one. Set your goals, evaluate the tools that can help you achieve your goals, and never lose sight of that forest for the iron-bound trees you travel within.

Ironside vs. Chain, Semifinals, '09 Club Nationals. Photo taken by Keegan Uhl.

While the college season is picking up steam, a lot of club players are just getting in gear for the coming tryouts and season.

Ballometrics has been maintaining a fitness list for the past few months (tryouts start soon, if you’re interested in playing competitive mixed out of Boston, drop a line); people are starting to do track workouts now that the land is thawing.

I sent the following to the list about doing pre-season track workouts, which segued into a lot of thoughts on running form. As we still have the luxury of training without the constant performance demand of weekend tournaments and practices, it’s a great time to focus on technique and go into the season not only with a good base of strength and conditioning, but efficient form, as well.
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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).

Things the sideline(s–don’t forget to split!) can do:

• Cheer
• Watch (for patterns, for weaknesses, for successes, for clues. For example, Pete’s defender is breathing heavier by the second–yell at him to step up and punish the mismatch!)
• Cue (echoing or initiating mark switches on a force middle defense or dynamic mark adjustments, etc.)
• Guide (the old veteran teaches the young rookie where to stand and when to cut from the wing position in the zone. The captain directs the stack to move closer to the disc after a deep pull in the endzone)
• Recover–both oneself (stud cutter needs some gatorade-water after a couple points in a row) and others (bench-riding rookie brings said stud cutter water on the line so he doesn’t crash playing a couple points)
• Bring the energy level up–see cheering.

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The Huddle has an issue on Zone O.

My favorites (Ryan Morgan’s assertion that wings are not just a throwaway position for rookies is worth repeating, too); again, they put things a lot more succinctly than I.

I don’t see a ton of revolutionary (compared with my experience) information there, apart from the number of endorsements of the two-handler set; this says to me that zone O really comes down to a good, solid fundamental approach/understanding.

On the skill spectrum, a quick catch-throw turnaround and composure with the disc in your hand are great for any zone handler (and by extension, all players) to have–the former can be worked on pretty much anytime, while the latter would come with more throwing experience/confidence, both under pressure (ratchet it up in practice/drills) and in conditions (find it, and do it).

Knowledge goes hand in hand with skill. Recognizing what kind of zone you’re facing and where the weak points are, along with knowing what your own team’s assets are, likewise will do a lot to prepare for success. Insert Sun Tzu quote about knowing your enemy and yourself.

Jeters hits on an important notion for developing your repertoire as a cutter (and, by extension, with any other skill involving adjustments), namely the need to develop a decision flowchart to guide your in-game actions (and especially reactions).

Imagine this. You initiate your cut from the horizontal stack, at maximum speed, in the direction of a deep strike. Now, what is your response if …

• … another cutter strikes deep.
• … your defender doesn’t commit, but a poaching defender is in a good position.
• … you reverse your cut but find that your lane has been taken.

… and the list goes on.

What eventually becomes “instinct” on the field is honed through lots of trial and error or prior thought. (Stop thinking when you play).

To aid that sort of thought process (which is to say, to aid visualization), I’d offer that these sorts of deliberations are exactly why I started drawing up cutting schematics in the margins of my notebooks, and I’d also offer an older post on Threat Points^TM for a bit of this thought process with crappy MS paint schematic to boot (that notion is one I plan to revisit and put more succinctly at some point, as it’s a powerful one).

Gwen’s point about a 4-person cup being able to push the disc back on dump/swings more than other zones brings up an important facet of any good cup–the ability to, at minimum, keep the disc from moving forward on dump-swing looks.

If a team can’t work the disc up using the easy dump-swing you’ll force them to resort to other methods–generally speaking, “other methods” means methods you’re more prepared to D and/or riskier throws, so this is a good thing.

As Gwen alludes, it’s the responsibility of the far point in the mark to lock down on the swing, or at least cut off the upfield passing lane:

As the disc is thrown to another handler, (assuming it is not on the sideline yet) the pusher/point on that side takes an angle to cut off the next swing pass, then closes in–sometimes to mark, sometimes to just take away the passing lane (depending on the positioning of the other pusher/point and the threats on the field).

This, I’ve found, is an often-neglected but crucial skill to teach your cup players–to not focus on where the disc is going, but where the disc might go next.

Other things I would list as “cup fundamentals:”

• Responding to actual threats, rather than the marker’s fakes–that is, knowing where the targets are behind you and ignoring the fakes to where they aren’t
• Along the lines, ‘flaring out’ as a cup to take away continues if the disc is swung all the way across the field, rather than sprinting straight to your ‘position’ and leaving somebody open in the backfield.

What’s on your list? How do you go about teaching this to your young cuppers? I’m traveling in Taiwan this week so I don’t (or rather, won’t–I’m typing this on Sunday) have time to do longer posts right now, but I’ll be back with clam/junk sets and transition zones next week.

I’ve written about the importance of balance before, but it’s a very broad concept, its applications diverse, and bears revisiting.

In the context of throwing, balance comes in to play a few ways–generally speaking, you want to keep your torso balanced by using your core. A good example of this is throwing with your non-pivot foot picked up off the ground. Can you still throw a forehand and backhand on target? How dependent are you on your legs for not just power, but the general trajectory of your throw? Can you balance without your legs? Work this from standing at first, and then mid-pivot–don’t wait for your foot to set down, but throw midway.

You should be able to make passes at 10 yards with touch, without using your legs. This is a pretty essential skill to grasp, as throwing without your legs leads to throwing with touch from any position your body is in. It will vastly improve your dumping efficiency (and resets are the most important thing in ultimate).

Balance comes in to play from your legs, too. One of the best nuggets of wisdom I received when working on my hucking (I was trying too hard, muscling up, and hooking my attempts to throw 60+ yards outside-in instead of the nice float I was looking for): “try to hold your body position at the end of your throwing motion.” I was stepping out to huck, but continuously moving through the whole step and throw–by forcing myself to wait at the end, to find balance in that final, extended position, my throws improved immediately.

Part of it was still that core balance to gain touch, but a lot of it was finding a balance point through my legs–a lunge position I could hold (incidentally, lunging is an underrated component of ultimate training–more on that later).

Find your balance points to master your throwing.