Aussie Spirit

So the Aussie Women won Spirit at the World Beach Championships in Brazil.

This adds to a long list of Australian spirit winners at international tournaments.

Australia has won Spirit in at least one division at an amazing string of World Championships (Worlds, World Clubs and Beach Worlds):

• King Brown - Open - WUCC1997
  
• King Brown - Open - WUCC1999
  
• Thorny Devils - Women - WUGC2000
  
• King Brown - Open - WUCC2002
  
• Thunder - Junior Mens - WUGC2004
  
• Barramundis - Mixed - WUGC2004
  
• Crocs - Mixed - World Games 2005
  
• Thunder - Junior Mens - WJUC2006
  
• Terra - Junior Womens - WJUC2006
  
• Fear Discinsonia - Masters - WUCC2006
  
• Phoenix - Women - WUCC2006
  
• Fakulti - Open - WUCC2006
  
• Blokes and Sheilas - Mixed - WUCC2006
  
• Australia - Women - WBUC2007
• Australia - Junior Women - WUGC2008

Australia hasn't missed out since 1998. Amazing. And there are at least 10 other top 6 finishes in that period too. I think the Wombats realised this pattern only requires winning Spirit at World Championships, so they gave other teams a chance at the recent Asia-Oceania Champs :) Plus they had Woodley :)

Correction: there was no Spirit award in Taiwan - I'd assumed another team won it. You're off the hook for now, Woodley.

And as for what happened before 1997... well, the records for our sport are pretty incomplete. Who wants to be a historian for our sport? I'll back you.

Silver, Gold and Bronze

The Asia-Oceania Ultimate Championships and World Beach Championships just wrapped up, and Australia brought home the medals.

At the Asia-Oceania Ultimate Championships, the Wombats came 2nd.

At the World Beach Championships, Australia came 1st in Open and 3rd in Womens. The women also won Spirit!

The Wombats join an esteemed list of Australian teams to win a medal at a WFDF Championships:

• Return of the Red-Eye (3rd) - Masters - WUCC1999
  
• Dingoes (3rd) - Open - WUGC2004
  
• Crocs (2nd) - Mixed - World Games 2005
  
• Terra (3rd) - Junior Women - WJUC2006
  
• Eastern Greys (3rd) - Masters - WUCC2006
  
• Thong (2nd) - Open - WUCC2006
  
• Chilly (3rd) - Open - WUCC2006
  
• Wombats (2nd) - Mixed - Asia-Oceania Championships 2007

The World Beach Championships aren't WFDF endorsed and aren't regular ultimate, but, crikey, I am proud those Salty Crocs brought home a gold! They ended quite a run of silvers and bronzes.

Australia seems to be doing as well as you can do without claiming a WFDF gold. In fact Sarah Wentworth may be the only Aussie with one (she played with Jinx, a German team and winners at European Club Championships 2005).

And with six strong teams being assembled for Worlds 2008, we may not have to wait much longer to fully close that door.

Melbourne Hat

Some observations from the Melbourne Hat, which I played this weekend.

• The Hat is still a lot of fun, all these years after my first one.
  
• There were four pools of teams on Saturday, and I think my team was in a strong one. The 2 teams who finished 5th (my team), and 6th (Evel Knievel), cleaned up our opponents in cross pool play on Sunday. Our pool winner lost the final by 2 points.
  
• The winds came through again, making Saturday arvo and Sunday morning a zone-fest. Not the most enjoyable conditions for the numerous beginners, because the disc tends to be kept in the hands of the veteran handlers on offense.
  
• A Moulin Rouge party theme is a wondrous spectacle in terms of costumes for the ladies, and is just a token top hat for the men.
  
• Popping is fun, so much fun. I made a point of putting our strongest throwers as middles or poppers to a) give more touches to other players in the handler positions and b) replace the risky dump-swing, go-nowhere offence with a powerful cup-busting, quick-passing offence. I think it was productive. It was definitely fun.
  
• On teams with a wide range of abilities, huck and hope is a winning tactic. It can be unsatisfying for those wanting a short passing game (who get looked off), but it seems to win games. The two teams in the final seemed to be lead by two of the best huckers in the tourney. However, the crowd (and I count myself among them) wants to see teams win using all their players. The eternal juggling act of hat tournaments.
  

Where the toe points

Tommy likes to throw his forehand with his arm inside his non-pivot leg.

Jenny likes to throw her forehand with her arm outside.

Tommy's form is common to most North Americans, while Jenny's form is what Aussies usually use.

Advantages? Disadvantages?

Where you point your toe determines where your knee will go.
Toe pointed sideways -> arm inside.
Toe pointed forwards -> arm outside.

Highlights of Monash at AUG

As a first try at embedding video, here is Monash at AUG, back in October (video by Gubz).

WUGC2008 site gets going

The Worlds 2008 website is updated, and now has some worthwhile content.

There are descriptions of the accom (way cheaper than Finland 04), schedule and likely attending teams. I also expect the forums to get a workout from some Aussies - as soon as you can register for them. I got stuck at the security question: What is 1+1? The answer is 2, right? I swear it's 2. I've been to Canada. 1+1=2 over there, I'm positive. About = aboot, a buck is a loony, and 1+1=2.

There could be about 8 Junior Girls teams, which would lead to better draws than 2006 (with 4 teams). And 12 Masters teams, also an improvement on 2004.

Colombia could enter 5 divisions. They are obviously growing the sport over there: 3rd in Juniors 2006, regular blogging, Colombians regularly showing up in Australia and a bit of online presence.

And apparently Australia has expressed interest in entering the Guts division. Considering I've never seen or heard of a single guts game in Australia, this is unlikely. And any team we do send could get hurt :)

Medicine disc

Many professional footballers, tennis players, baseballers incorporate a medicine ball into their plyometric strength training.

Free weights such medicine balls are more popular due to the bigger emphasis on compound exercises, core strength and training with movements that mirror the movements of thesport.

Hucking, pulling and catching are three of the actions which benefit greatly from upper body core strength. I want to train with something more specific than a medicine ball - I want a medicine disc.

Basically a disc that is about 3-5 times heavier than a 175g ultrastar. But can still be held comfortably in a backhand grip.

You can practise your pulling, pivoting and catching with it. Come game time, a 175g disc will be a piece of cake.

If you can see, you are responsible

I have seen my share of collisions and excessive contact in ultimate over the years.

Most of my time out of action has been from injuries sustained in collisions.

I believe you should avoid unnecessary contact in ultimate. In many cases it is a foul. In the other cases, it still probably puts people at risk of injury.

One example is a dump cutting up the line for the disc, while a poaching defender from upfield comes in for an intercept. The dump usually cannot see the defender, while the defender usually can see the dump. I feel the defender has more responsibility to avoid contact here. Personal experience: as a dump, I have been slammed in the back by a defender who I never saw, as I was looking at the disc. They claimed they got the disc first, so all was ok. Also, I have been the poaching defender and bailed on bids because I couldn't get past the dump without a collision.

Another example is a player running past the thrower from behind. If the thrower suddenly pivots sideways, there can be a collision. All players should keep a safe margin between themselves and the thrower as they run past from behind.

Parinella, veteran of the US scene, multiple title winner, etc, reported this in a recent post:

"Oh, I also took out a pivoter. The lanky opponent had caught a disc near the line and I thought he may have been out, so was thinking about that a little as I jogged downfield with my guy. I think I followed in my guy’s steps, a foot or two outside the pivot foot (but six feet from the thrower’s body), only to be surprised by a rapid pivot back to the forehand side, and I bowled him over. Whoops. I should have been more alert and known that was a possibility. I apologized to the guy on the other team who yelled at me about it, to the thrower, and again later to the thrower, and now to the unwashed masses."

So a highly esteemed player publicly apologises for creating a collision. He felt responsible because he was sighted, and the other guys wasn't. Kudos to Parinella here.

My general principle is that if you can see the possibility of a collision, you have a responsibility to avoid it.

Marking the disc

There are some key tips for marking the disc, that most experienced players know: be on your toes, arms out, watch the thrower's navel or body language, learn their fakes, etc.

But there is another I never hear mentioned: keep your arms back. By this I mean, don't wrap. Ah, those Queenslanders need to practise this.

If you do wrap your arms around the thrower, they will throw under your arms or draw a foul easily.

Let's see how these markers are doing:

• Pete
• Lisi
• Drucey
• Stephanie
• Johnny

Frisbee DVDs

Here are the DVDs out there that introduce and explain Ultimate.

Whammo
If you buy a Whammo disc at Rebel Sport, it comes with a DVD. Moses, Fortunat and others demonstrate backhands, forehands and hammers as the narrator explains them. The basic rules are explained as well, from memory.

Play Ultimate & Beyond The Stack
According to playulty.com, this DVD includes:
* History of Ultimate Frisbee
* How to play
* Basic throws
* Proper catching
* Offensive and defensive positioning
* Strategic formations
* Introduction to Spirit of the Game
* And much more...

How to throw a frisbee
The website looks a lot more amateur.

Any others out there?

5 good drills

jdr asked me what my 5 favourite drills are, since I called for a fatwa on dump-swing-score.

I haven't done an exhaustive look through the drills I know, so here are just 5 that I like. In no particular order.

Thrower marker drill aka 3 man drill
Anecdotally, I have marked the disc better in games where I do this drill before the game. I also like doing it with a one-way force and copping pushups for getting broken. Also, see an animation here.

Bzzzt
This drill teaches a guarder to constantly get into good position relative to a cutter. It is a bit like mirror drill except the guarder aims to always be between the cutter and a thrower standing at one cone. There is a pushup for the guarder, each time the cutter gets on the wrong side of the guarder, announced with a "bzzzt". And on 10 seconds the thrower has to throw to the cutter. Extra pushups if the disc is caught - more if the disc is caught "under".

Circle drill
A good drill for introducing the idea of a cup, and for learning how to throw through a cup. Has the disadvantage of a bit too much standing around, so I prefer to run it with no more than 10 players.

One Chance
This drill has a thrower, a cutter and guarder. From a stack, the cutter moves out horizontally to a cone. They can then only cut vertically: either cut in, cut out, cut in then out, or cut out then in. They only have "one chance" to change direction. The guarder tries to get the D. This helps the cutter with sharp 180 degree cuts and communication with a thrower. It also helps the guarder judge the threat of an in cut versus an out cut, and judge who the thrower is.

3 man weave
A simple way to warm up, get some throws in and practise give-go skills. Doesn't require any cones to set up.

The first 4 drills let O and D practise their skills simultaneously. And a drill with D is more realistic.

Of course, I really like scrimmages with rule modifications, but I don't know if that is a drill. Examples are here and here. Hmmm, that looks like another post. "Drill" seems to imply rigidity, rotating strictly through the roles and a sharp focus on one skill, unlike a game/scrimmage.

Aah, I've been meaning to compile the ideas of others and my ideas into a central AFDA resource - a handbook or wiki or database or some combination. I think having it easily printable is valuable. Drawing on what is out there. Who wants to help (contribution or organisation)?

Queueing in drills

Let's say the aim of a drill you're running is to improve skills (as opposed to say, getting warmed up for a game).

Ideally the players get lots of opportunities to practise the skill you want them to improve. Improvement requires practise of the skill. This is not rocket science.

To do this, you should minimise standing around and queueing.

One of my bugbears is seeing drills run for beginners that require only one disc. Not only is 18 players using 1 disc an inane idea, if there is a drop or poor throw, 17 players get to stand around even longer watching one player jog over, pick up a disc, then jog back to the drill. The drill is stopped by an error. And errors happen with beginners!

Therefore I am proposing death to dump-swing-score. There are so many better drills out there.

In general, pick a drill that requires multiple discs. The drill usually won't be held up by an error. And the number of disc touches per player per hour (TPHs) will be much higher.

Symmetry

When playing against an inexperienced team, have you heard teammates say this:
"We should should force forehand, because their forehands are weaker"?

I have. Lots.

This makes sense if your aim is to choose a D that will make it harder for the opponents. The forehand force and backhand force will produce different results. In this situation, the two options are not equal or "symmetric".

Yet experienced teams sometimes forget this when designing or choosing other tactics.

Examples

• which is harder to throw: a forehand dump, or a backhand dump?
  
• if you put the disc into play on the left hand side line, should your horizontal stack have the receivers equally deep on the left and right hand sides?
  
• if a player has better offence than defence, should they start more O or D points?
  
• if an elite player can have more impact on offence than defence (since they can throw up to 50% of the passes, but can only defend ~1/7th of an opposition team), should they start more O or D points?
  
• if the disc is put into play on the sideline, should your zone's wings be equally deep/in-field?
  
• if a zone defender is covering two opponents, should they stand closer to the deeper player or shorter player?
  
• if your team is forcing straight-up, and you are guarding a cutter out in the open, should you position yourself between the cutter and the stack, or position yourself so the cutter is between you and the stack?
  
• if your team has a handler with a strong forehand, should they play more left point or right point?

To summarise: if there is a imbalance in some team strength or weakness, consider choosing an imbalanced tactic that advantages your team. Instead of just choosing the default symmetric option.

You know they're good when...

You know a play is good when it is so impressive you had never even contemplated someone could do it.

Here are some of the most impressive plays I have seen or heard of:

• layout D by the dump defender - to handblock the thrower
  
• the soak: a handblock that gets caught
  
• layout catch, but flying out of bounds - touching down with the hand on the way out, to prevent the turnover
  
• leaping up for a catch, missing, but catching the macked pass on the way down
  
• 2 handblocks in a point - on the exact same point on the field
  
• no-look upside-down shovel pass into a running, yet unsuspecting, teammate's lap for a goal
  
• a footblock at waist height

The Fields for Worlds 2008

I have just returned from my AFDA endorsed trip to the venue for the 2008 World Ultimate & Guts Championships.

Worlds will be hosted at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. The university boasts some of the Vancouver's best attractions, including the Museum of Anthropology, the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, and the UBC Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research.

I can confirm that field layout that is proposed in the bid document can be accommodated by the venue. There is adequate parking, and it is only a short walk to the accommodation.

Most important of all is the grass itself. The turf is low cut, even and lush, yet on a firm base. Prospective players at this tournament should definitely bring cleats. Coaches and support staff should wear footwear that can cope with some moisture yet has a good grip - you don't want to slip while walking to your team's timeout.

Looking through to where Disc Central will be. Players will have to navigate their way through these trees to reach food, water and marquees.

A blade of the grass, carefully removed without affecting the field's integrity

Looking from Field 6 across to Field 3. Beyond the fence is the Beer Garden.

The turf in the Beer Garden venue will provide excellent suitable foot support after a day's play.

Fields 11 through 14