Specific feedback for your O game

Giving quality feedback in ultimate can be challenging.

Here is a draft of a list that can help selectors, coaches and team leaders give more meaningful feedback to players than "work on your throws and cutting".

Each dotpoint has some specific examples after it.


List of Offence Skills

Players create easy offence by

1. throwing to teammates wherever they are (throw hucks; throw hammers)
2. throwing to make teammates open (throw break or open-side to favour teammates, not defenders)
3. throwing quickly (throw as soon as an opportunity appears; prevent the defence from getting a mark on)
4. throwing safely (keep throwing completion rate high; seeing where defenders and help-defenders are)
5. moving to make teammates open (clear the break side, open side, deep and under as needed; regularly draw their defender with them)
6. moving at the right time (run downfield while their defender watches a huck; get to dump position early; cut one way then another at the right time for the next pass)
7. being athletic (catch swill that is high or wide; outrun defenders; outaccelerate defenders)
8. working within the team O structure (talk to teammates on field; know and use the team's patterns; don't ask teammates to make hard throws or cuts with your cuts or throws)

With eight categories listed, it is now easy to choose, say, two strengths and two aspects to work on. This keeps feedback concise, but specific.

Try them out on yourself now!

Any skills to add or change?

Positions on offence ain't positions on defence

Just because you are a handler on offence, doesn't mean you will always serve your team best by defending handlers.

Just because you are a receiver on offence, doesn't mean you will always serve your team best by defending receivers.

Those were the main messages I got from this article on basketball matchups.

In fact, the traditional convention of 3 handlers, 2 mids/cutters and 2 longs/receivers might have served a purpose for assigning pull reception roles for a few plays in the past, but it doesn't describe what most players are doing in most systems these days.

I know that the 2008 Dingoes had a variety of roles.

Player A: on offence, a handler who didn't huck and was a semi-regular deep threat; on defence he defended handlers
Player B: on offence, a handler and in-cutter; on defence he defended handlers and under cutters, but got blocks when he could afford to poach off his man
Player C: on offence, an in-cutter; on defence he defended handlers
Player D: on offence, a long; on defence he defended handlers or cutters

So a different system might be needed to describe roles, particularly for defence. Being called a "handler" doesn't tell you what your role is on defence.

Motivation

"You can motivate by fear, and you can motivate by reward. But both those methods are only temporary. The only lasting thing is self motivation."
-- Homer Rice, football coach

Fitness for ultimate athletes

There is so much valuable information on ultimate fitness now online.

I have discovered lots of new ideas through Skyd.

Tim Morrill and Melissa Witmer make use of videos to explain how to build fitness for ultimate. They are both professional fitness trainers and ultimate players, who have investigated how to improve your conditioning specifically for ultimate. I haven't seen many others who can claim all three of these things, and are sharing their stuff with the world.

Here's a taste.

Signs of not using the elbow

Here are some signs of a player not using their elbow when throwing a forehand

• The disc turns over in flight (too much outside in)
• The player thrusts their hips forward and shoulders back as they throw a forehand.
• The elbow remains close to the waist before or after the throw.
• The player cannot throw a wide forehand. 
• The player is using a split finger grip (so they can hold the disc out horizontally, without it flopping down). Holding the disc vertically removes this need.

Any others?

To correct this, the player can hold the disc vertically, with their elbow out from their body and back.

Practise a forehand throwing motion several times and then throw, emphasising two things:

1. Rolling your wrist under, not over, so it finishes palm up
2. Moving your elbow through

Practice your action

Tiger Woods, maybe the best golfer ever, practises his golf swing action just before every shot.

Steve Nash, maybe the best shooter in basketball ever, practises his free throw action just before every free throw.

Here's the idea behind it.

What do you do before each pull?

Video analysis

After 10 years of pondering why some people struggle to throw forehands, watching video gave me numerous new insights.

Every ultimate player who wants to play at an elite level needs to watch some basic footage of themselves. Start with throwing. Then you can move onto game footage, and footage of other skills like marking, guarding, positioning for high discs, cutting and laying out.

Even better: organise a videographer for your team for a training or tournament.

Replay and slow-motion give you a chance to see what you only glimpse in real time.

There's a reason dozens of people around the world get paid to edit footage of sports for coaches: video helps you learn how you and your opponents play. And feedback is critical to improvement.

Fixing that forehand

There are 5 fundamental points to throwing a disc: grip, stance, snapping your wrist, angling the disc and pointing on the follow-through.

You can remember it as GSWAP.

Rob and Brodie have demonstrated these points or similar ones.

But have you seen players whose forehands curve over with too much outside in? Despite you mentioning these points? Do they look like this?

GSWAP needs an update.

Number 1: rolling your wrist under, not over

Number 2: moving your elbow through.

These two ideas are linked.

You can practice the first point now: hold a disc (or an imaginary one) in forehand grip, but hold it vertically so your palm faces down. Pretend to throw, and finish with your palm up. This counteracts the outside-in curve that is a regular problem.

To assist this correct rotation, you need to use your elbow. If your elbow is locked in next to your waist, rolling your wrist under is awkward - your wrist prefers to roll over from palm up to palm down.

So free your elbow!

Get into forehand stance again. Hold a disc in forehand grip with your palm down. But this time start with your elbow out, back and bent at 90°.

As you swing your elbow forward, you have more power. Your wrist will more naturally rotate under, from palm down to palm up. Follow through with your palm up.

It looks more like this.

Or you can watch Rob and Brodie. 

Here are the 5 updated fundamental points to throwing a forehand: grip, stance, rolling your wrist under with snap, swing the elbow, and pointing palm up on the follow-through. You can remember it as GSWEP.

Thanks to Mama for demonstrating the throws.

What Xs and Os miss

Consider a coach diagramming a play on paper.

For a 20 metre pass, whether the thrower has a backhand or forehand stance is usually irrelevant. The thrower is a small dot on a diagram and that is that.

But when the throw is 3 metres or even 1 metre, how the thrower is standing, or how wide apart their feet are, or exactly what angle the marker is taking away, are critical points. The Xs and Os of a written diagram don't point out where the thrower's left foot, right foot are, or where they are holding the disc.

Footwork becomes more critical when the throws are smaller. And where to land your feet. And where to hold the disc. And the reduced reaction time of defenders.

This is really apparent in the short range passing of popping against a zone. I've never used a diagram to illustrate tactics for popping. You cannot show the smaller scale, for instance, how footwork can move the disc 8 metres, even when the disc is only passed 1 metre.

Learning patterns

My approach to team tactics has changed over the years.

I am now thinking in terms of patterns instead of rules.

In our club trainings, we train certain cuts for the dump for instance. But it is a pattern of behaviour that we encourage and repeatedly practise - not a rule.

We have patterns for scoring in the redzone, starting a defence point, playing in a zone, cutting to set up power position and cutting long. But these aren't phrased as rules or set plays. Big advantage - just about any one-off behaviour/cut/action is fine. What is focussed on is building habits we desire. We talk about and praise players using the patterns effectively, but we can improvise if needed. Our feedback conversations sound like "You can cut long using diamond cuts more. It was so easy when you did it that first point last game."

In contrast, a set play can set up teammates for criticism: "You were meant to cut break, then long." "But John cut to the wrong place first." Built into the feedback are ideas of what is right, and that one person did the wrong thing.

So many players accept entering a major tournament when a set play is barely mastered by half the team, and only sometimes successful. I want every completed pass to be viewed as a positive, and the best connections viewed as big wins for our team.

Only recently have I been able to recognise and articulate what this philosophy is: patterns instead of rules.

It works because we have an established group of players who have experience together. We can now predict where each other will go on the field, and we have made conscious decisions in planning sessions about the best positions to encourage players to go to.

Roles in a team

Success for a team is about the team members working for each other.

Individuals taking it upon themselves to do the things that need doing. Now this can happen spontaneously in many cases. However, success comes along more often when these things are articulated, planned for and recognised.

I realised there a lot of roles that that can be filled in a team, and if you don't have a manager or coach, players step up to do them. Particularly when you let them know that the work is valuable and they are trusted to do it their way.

Player roles

• puller
• first cutter
• dump denier
• long cutter
• hucker
• aerial defender
• finishers/goal catcher
• disher
• structure setter

Coach roles

• skill teacher
• motivator
• organiser
• optimist
• reviewer
• line caller
• sideline talker
• tactician

Manager Roles

• finances
• food
• uniforms
• venues
• registration

At the representative level, Australia is steadily delineating these roles, and finding the people who will be managers and coaches, so the players can focus on their playing roles.

Got others?

Forehand grip angles

Rob shows how lots of forehand snap equals more spin on the disc.

The part I am interested in is the plane of the disc: like many experienced ultimate players, just before throwing, the disc is held vertical or past the vertical. At release, it is horizontal.

Beginner forehands usually have too much outside in, because the thrower rolls their wrist over: palm up to palm down. Expert forehands are thrown flat, generally because the wrist rolls the opposite way: palm down to palm up.

Try it now without a disc.

Yet who has ever taught players this, after they have mastered the GSWAP basics of throwing?

My big question is how early (first lesson, first month, first year) do we need to teach this wrist roll to those learning ultimate? I know some experienced players who need to try it, to see if their forehands will benefit.

It starts with holding the disc vertical, or even partly upside down. Like Dan does here.

Have you ever played gritz?

I have played mini, schtick, flutterguts and other games. I'll have to try gritz.


GritZ from GriTz on Vimeo.

Tournament wish list

A few months ago, I got to attend two amazing tournaments: TEP and Lei Out.

Looking back, I would say they are definitely on my list of all-time great tournaments. So I started a wishlist of other great tournaments I wish to play at one day.

• Bar Do Peixe (in Portugal)
• Paganello (Italy)
• Poultry Days (USA)

Any others that I ought to put on my list?

WUCC2010

World Clubs 2010 wrapped up just over a month ago.

It was the biggest WFDF championships I can recall. I caught up with friends from Germany, UK, Canada, USA, Colombia, Mexico, Hungary, New Zealand, the Dominican Republic, the Netherlands and Italy. It's a great social event.

HoS and Skogs sky for a disc

USA won the Open, Womens, Mixed and Masters divisions. UNO from Japan and Onyx from Canada prevented American hegemony by making their respective finals, and preventing 4 all-American finals. UNO won over the crowd in the Women's final, and a dropped hammer in the penultimate point seemed to be the difference as Fury squeaked home on universe point (note - if you are playing league and it is 15-15 and next point wins, I'd call it golden point or last-point-wins. "Universe point" is better reserved for winning, say, the World Championship final).

The Spirit rankings are online too: Open, Women, Mixed and Masters.

Standout Australian spirit rankings finishes were Colony (6th), Heads of State (8th), Smurf (8th), and Eastern Greys (3rd). Unfortunately, Australian finally broke its run of winning Spirit in minimum one division. Meanwhile the Germans backed up a first and second in WUGC2008 spirit by winning spirit in Mixed and Womens in 2010.

The individual stats are at the bottom of those pages, lead by Masahiro Matsuno (Open), Becky LeDonne (Womens), Tim Lavis (Mixed) and Tom Rogacki (Masters).


The Open final between Sockeye and Revolver