Showing posts with label practice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label practice. Show all posts

Hitting a Plateau (and getting over it)

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So as of late, I feel that I've hit a plateau as far as improvement. This is obviously frustrating, and my initial reaction was to just blame it on the lack of ultimate (and players to aspire to play like). But this is nought but a rationalization: As always, the answer lies in no other than myself. Moreover, I feel that I played the worst ultimate in recent history last Sunday.


So what do I do? I could sit around and mope about it, then be frustrated when I suck on the field, but that's not fun and does no one any good. What I have to do is pick a focus. Lately, I've just been so happy to be on the field, that I've let myself slip into a nonchalant way of playing. It's mostly more like organized pick up (and mixed, not to knock on mixed but) and I've found it really hard to focus on my game. I let myself get sort of swept into this lull, because the people around me aren't as focused on improvement (so much as just playing). I never want to play ultimate just because "that's what I do". Don't get me wrong, its not just situations like these that you can get into this mode; You can totally be in a rigorous program, say elite college or club, and still let this happen. My point is that humans are creatures of habit, and its easy to get sucked into a habit. Just don't let yourself think that you are trying to improve, when improving yourself just become a part of your routine. Or to sound more articulate, don't let improving become the status quo.
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Niji: Number of Touches

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I was talking to a Japanese women's player, and she mentioned that American teams in general don't touch the disc as often in practice compared to Japanese teams. Basically, American drills are focused on certain situations and the application of set plays than getting a high number of touches. I thought about this and I would have to agree.

(Kind of like Soccer.)

Drills run at WM are a good example; there are very few drills that focus on getting a high number of touches and throws. Even the ones that do are hampered by the fact that you have a lot of wait time. My friend even related this to the difference in the way Japanese players develop their throws versus American players. While this is a little iffy, the point that catching and throwing 5 times more would make you better at catching and throwing seems to be fair.
More Touches! (actually those are iPhones but we can pretend)

So, what can be done? The answer is elegantly simple: Just more run drills that involve more throwing and catching per minute. One such drill is where you are in groups of three, and basically do the box drill, just with 3 people. (this is also a great warm up drill) 10 flicks to the open side, 10 io flicks, 10 open side backhands, 10 io backhands, 10 hammers, and adjust cuts to make sense.
Basically, this is part of the puzzle of how to develop players faster that I've been overlooking.

So, what I would recommend, is getting drills that focus on touching the disc often and quickly (with actual catches and realistic throws). I think that it would especially help if captains would take a moment to explain what is being accomplished in each drill, and what skills one is supposed to glean from each. This will help players focus on what they are doing, as well as actually help improve players, rather than drills just being a glorified and prolonged warm up.
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Niji: Change of Pace & How to Practice It

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One of the things I pride myself on is getting rid of the disc as fast as possible. Though I am still not mature enough of a player to always heed by this, as long as I am playing with players I am comfortable with, the disc rarely stops in my hands. In fact, one of my biggest pet-peevs in ultimate is someone holding on to the disc for no reason.


Fact: You do not need to look up-field every time you get the disc.
Fact: If the dump is poached, you should hit it right away.
Fact: While "looking dump by 5" is a good benchmark, it is not an excuse to look upfield even if there isn't anything there until then.
Fact: Waiting on a cut leads to poach D's.
Why?
Cuz other smart defenders are watching you wait on a cut, and since its probably the only thing happening at the time (cuz otherwise, why would you be waiting for a cut to develop, right?), its easy to see coming.

So this is a change of pace, compared to most American style teams, that tend to wait longer on cuts, and dump on a higher stall count. Japanese teams are different from this in that they always hit a poached player right away, especially dump or IO break. They like to get rid of the disc quickly, and to capitalize on the break side. I think this play-style would really fit WM and would love to see it implemented.

So then how do you practice this?
Well, its not too hard if you keep the above facts in mind, but a great way to get it across team-wide is to make the stall counts come in at 6. Basically, with a shorter amount of time to do something with the disc, you force players to move the disc quickly and thus, naturally generate a less stagnant offense.

If you consider yourself an upper level player (or handler) on the team, try this one for kicks:
Make yourself get rid of the disc within the first 3 counts. Remember, this is not to *look* dump by 3, it is to *hit* the dump by 3. It's a tough job, but I believe that you can do it.

Anyway, if you try it out, let know how it goes. Individually, and as a team.
'Till next time.
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Niji: Nittai Recap 7/6

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Yesterday's practice went with decidedly unstable results.

I rushed into scrimmage since i was late, and started playing without doing any active warm ups or throwing, save biking a couple of km (google maps says 3.9km). This had immediate effects...

Right away, I dropped two throws to me, perhaps in a row? First point on, throw to me from the catch off the pull, and then a dump throw to me right after we got the turn back. To my defense, the first was lazered to me from point blank, and the second was thrown to me as someone was clearing out from in front of me. But, to my not-defense, I should have caught both. Obviously, the cause of these drops was an inadequate warm up and mental preparation, and perhaps the giddiness that remained from sprinting 4km through traffic on my bike. I haven't dropped a disc like that in a long time, and I was pretty pissed at myself, to say the least. This led me to commit other simple mistakes, such as rushing a throw to an in-cut and launching the disc a little too high for my receiver (another mistake I hadn't committed in a long time). But I recovered somewhat quickly, and got my head in the game. I proceeded to forget about my drops, and thus, never dropped after that.

As the first 50 minute game progressed, I started making more and more plays, which was nice. But, at first, I had committed a couple of turnovers, where I threw deep (break side) to a streaking cutter (who had beat his man by probably 5 paces at least every time) only to be poach D'd by a vigilant defender. Now, obviously this is my fault for putting it, but had those defenders been more occupied with defending their man, the result surely would have been different, too. Especially since the throws would have been easily completed if not for the poach. They were really pretty throws too... :/ Anyway, I had a chance to layout on this senior kid, which I should have done, and I rued it even more when he turned around and threw a blady flick that I forced him to throw with a lot of pressure that somehow still landed in his targets hand with 3 defenders on him. Note to self: lay out first, ask questions later. I started getting a bunch of D's deep, by positioning myself well and baiting throws to my man, as well as help D'ing by poaching.

Important point to take away from today: All my upwind hucks, most (all?) of which were flick puts worked. Perfectly. Hit my targets in stride. On the other hand, my downwind hucks, perhaps from fear of putting the disc too far, did not work as well, and in fact would end up a little too short, and a little too floaty. Now that don't make no sense at all does it? Oh well. I'll figure it out. I also had a couple of miscues to freshmen who didn't know where I wanted them to go, but then they adjusted, so its all good.

Cool new thing I did today: IO flick half-field+ in cut throw. In a ho-stack, everyone was cutting into the open side (in and out), but this left the break side wide open. So, I made eye contact with a senior cutter who had been cutting deep until then, and preemptively threw a low IO flick to the break side for at least a half field gain into that receiver, who had started to cut into it. Then I did a similar thing but with a high IO flick for 1/3 of the field, to an in-cut. Boom, roasted. 0 comments

Practice: Maintaining Intensity

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Maintaining intensity; how do you do it? During practice, one pet peeve of mine was that we would never be on the sidelines the way we would (or should) be at tournaments! Practice is practice: Even if you aren't on the field playing as one of the 14, you better get wise to the fact that you're still playing as a part of the team on the field. People sitting down, n00b who aren't watching, talking idly, wasting time, dicking around... Pay attention to your teammates, pay attention to the game. You're fully expect to help out the defense by yelling up calls, to help out the mark by telling him what to watch out for, and help out someone stuck with the disc without any options. If we don't do this during practice, we wont be able to do it properly at a tournament.


So then what? How do we do this? I have some theories of my own, but I'll let you guys come up with some ideas of your own first.

So, maintaining intensity during practice: Discuss.
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