Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Equipment for Ultimate
equipment for ultimate
shoes
shoes
- importance of good shoes
- finding the right shoe
- shoe support
- different cleat types
- hard ground
- soft ground
Clothes
- responding to weather
- sun
- natrual!
Attitude and Intensity for ultimate
Attitude
- Positve, good spirited attitude
- Spirit of the game
- represent Messiah
Intensity
- higher intensity wins--period.
- down by two
- bubbles
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Dealing with Injuries
I just wanted to clarify some points about injuries, so we can keep healthy, and there are no misunderstandings. I hope all of you feel a strong bond and commitment to the team, but I do not want you to feel obligated to put yourself at risk for damaging yourself. Ultimate is a life long sport, and I hope each of you enjoy playing it for many years to come. Also, this discussion is based on my experience as an ultimate player and coach, not athletic trainer or medical knowledge.
So, here are some points about injuries:
First, ultimate is a tough sport on the body, and it is essential to take care of your body. Taking care of your body is the best way to prevent injuries. Taking care of your body to prevent injuries includes good health habits--eating right, hydrating, stretching, resting, sleeping, using proper equipment, etc... More about that in a later post, some day!
=================
Another good injury prevention technique is good fitness. The stronger your muscles and the more fit you are, the less likelihood of injury. Strong muscles prevent joints and ligaments from exceeding their limits of range and flexibility when under duress. Fitness prevents you from being tired--when you are tired, your body is prone to injury. The best way to good ultimate fitness is intervals straight up hills and/or steps. They build strength, fitness, and speed in one nice little exercise. You can read about fitness training in the prior posts.
=================
Some of you may have pre-existing injuries or ailments that may affect your ability to play. If you have any minor conditions that can affect your ability to play or put yourself at risk (e.g., you tore your acl in high school, asthma, etc...), let your coach and captains know. If you have any serious potential health conditions, including respiratory, pulmonary/circulatory or head/neck/back conditions, please consider the risk you put on yourself and those around you!
=======================
If you are injured, it is vital you let me and you captains know! We must know so there is communication and understanding as to the extent of the injury, and there is no undue pressure about playing.
Most serious ultimate injuries ( e.g., a pulled muscle or torn ligament) are not visible. Unless it is Dean's body swelling up. No one knows how much the injury hurts, or the extent of it, except for you. You must make any decision about whether or not to continue to play when injured. Neither your coach or team captain will require you to play when you are injured--that is your decision. Conversely, your coach or captains may insist you do NOT play due to an injury to protect yourself. And know that if you are injured, and feel like you are letting the team down, please do not feel bad or guilty! We all have been injured and in pain, and will be understanding and supportive to you.
The catch phrase for deciding on whether or not to play is "listen to your body!". Pain is your body's way of telling you something is wrong, help brain! Only you know the extent of your muscle pull, bruise on your toe, or whatever it may be, and you must make that decision to rest or to play.
=========================
As far as pain killers (ibu, candy, etc...), I am personally against using them to mask pain in order to play. As stated above, the pain is your body's method of informing the brain that something is amiss. Masking that message may enable you to play, but may also lead to further damage and more severe injury.
I understand that after the play is done for the day, ibu and other drugs may aid in reducing swelling and in recovery. Again, that is your personal decision. Personally, I do not like any synthetic drugs for most anything. Natural treatments, natural drugs, are preferred, if necessary.
===========
Different injuries require different responses. Some ultimate injuries are superficial and can be dealt with easily. These include the various cuts, scrapes and bruises we all encounter. Another set of injuries are pulled or strained muscles. Another set is related to joints, from ankles to knees to shoulders. Another set is related to ligaments and tendons. Another is anything rleated to the head/neck/spine. Each of these injuries require different responses from you and even the team.
Coach Pat
So, here are some points about injuries:
First, ultimate is a tough sport on the body, and it is essential to take care of your body. Taking care of your body is the best way to prevent injuries. Taking care of your body to prevent injuries includes good health habits--eating right, hydrating, stretching, resting, sleeping, using proper equipment, etc... More about that in a later post, some day!
=================
Another good injury prevention technique is good fitness. The stronger your muscles and the more fit you are, the less likelihood of injury. Strong muscles prevent joints and ligaments from exceeding their limits of range and flexibility when under duress. Fitness prevents you from being tired--when you are tired, your body is prone to injury. The best way to good ultimate fitness is intervals straight up hills and/or steps. They build strength, fitness, and speed in one nice little exercise. You can read about fitness training in the prior posts.
=================
Some of you may have pre-existing injuries or ailments that may affect your ability to play. If you have any minor conditions that can affect your ability to play or put yourself at risk (e.g., you tore your acl in high school, asthma, etc...), let your coach and captains know. If you have any serious potential health conditions, including respiratory, pulmonary/circulatory or head/neck/back conditions, please consider the risk you put on yourself and those around you!
=======================
If you are injured, it is vital you let me and you captains know! We must know so there is communication and understanding as to the extent of the injury, and there is no undue pressure about playing.
Most serious ultimate injuries ( e.g., a pulled muscle or torn ligament) are not visible. Unless it is Dean's body swelling up. No one knows how much the injury hurts, or the extent of it, except for you. You must make any decision about whether or not to continue to play when injured. Neither your coach or team captain will require you to play when you are injured--that is your decision. Conversely, your coach or captains may insist you do NOT play due to an injury to protect yourself. And know that if you are injured, and feel like you are letting the team down, please do not feel bad or guilty! We all have been injured and in pain, and will be understanding and supportive to you.
The catch phrase for deciding on whether or not to play is "listen to your body!". Pain is your body's way of telling you something is wrong, help brain! Only you know the extent of your muscle pull, bruise on your toe, or whatever it may be, and you must make that decision to rest or to play.
=========================
As far as pain killers (ibu, candy, etc...), I am personally against using them to mask pain in order to play. As stated above, the pain is your body's method of informing the brain that something is amiss. Masking that message may enable you to play, but may also lead to further damage and more severe injury.
I understand that after the play is done for the day, ibu and other drugs may aid in reducing swelling and in recovery. Again, that is your personal decision. Personally, I do not like any synthetic drugs for most anything. Natural treatments, natural drugs, are preferred, if necessary.
===========
Different injuries require different responses. Some ultimate injuries are superficial and can be dealt with easily. These include the various cuts, scrapes and bruises we all encounter. Another set of injuries are pulled or strained muscles. Another set is related to joints, from ankles to knees to shoulders. Another set is related to ligaments and tendons. Another is anything rleated to the head/neck/spine. Each of these injuries require different responses from you and even the team.
Coach Pat
Tuesday Practice Handler Cuts and Defending Them
At practice last night we discussed making and defending typical handler cuts.
The four basic cuts for a handler are:
1. upline, also chainsaw (fist)
2. dump (thumb up)
3. vee, also composers (two fingers)
4. flare (open hand)
-------------I realize there may be different names for these cuts, but we will use the above for uniformity.
Each of these cuts are available on most field positions, even when we are trapped on the sideline. We can even evolve to using some hand signals () to improve communication between the thrower and the cutter. Practice these cuts! Use fakes--these cuts work because of the threat of the other cuts.
===========================
For defending these cuts, remember the most important thing--positioning! The first rule of defensive positioning is to put yourself in a stance that enables you to see your mark and the disc. Seeing the disc is vital to defending handler cuts (think about how many dump passes you see that some defender just misses because they did not see the disc soon enough), and it increases your overall awareness of the flow of the game.
The second rule of defensive positioning is to put your body in a position that takes away one of the cuts/open areas that a handler can cut to. Generally, the best position is one that takes away the upline cut. The upline cut is typically the most dangerous, giving up the most yards and an open throw. Use your body position to deny the upline cut. If you take away one of the areas they can cut too, it is much easier to defend a handler.
The dump cut is typically the least dangerous, because it is negative yardage, and you should NOT allow the swing pass, and keep the force on. So our opponent dumps the disc, lost five yards, and is still trapped on the sideline. However, we do not want to casually allow the dump pass, especially when most teams look to dump when the stall is high or just to get the disc back to their best thrower. DENY and CONTEST EVERY PASS! If you do allow a dump to go to your mark, make sure you establish your mark positioning by stopping the break force swing pass as you approach the disc. (of course, when we are on offense, that is exactly what we want to do on the sideline, dump, and a break force swing to open up the field!)
The second most important aspect of defending a handler is teamwork. To emphasize the irony of the Santa Barbara video"if win we our individual battles....."--you cannot win your individual battles without help and support from your team! When you are guarding a handler, and they are making a cut you MUST shout out to the marker for help (the sideline should also being doing this). Strike for the upline cut, no dump for the dump, no break for the flare. The maker then MUST shift/shuffle/move to stop the pass to the handler.
As a tactic, I would rather deny the disc to a handler (i.e., the BEST, most experienced thrower on the other team) by temporarily losing our force, and even allowing a break force throw to a less experienced thrower on the other team. In the college ultimate world, this can work to our advantage. They can throw to their freshman all they want :). If we deny the disc to the other team's main handlers, we will win the game.
=========================
As counterpoint point to good positioning, a poor position to take as a defender is to stand directly behind your team mate that is marking. Making a short throw threw a maker is difficult! There is no reason to stand there! Especially if you are playing off your mark a few yards, trying to poach. If you are going to poach when we are trapping, then get all the way in the throwing lane up the line. Or just get back on your handler and deny the dump.
This is also true for cuts that we make on offense. If your cut ends up behind the other team's mark, and you are poached, and wondering why your team mate is not throwing you the disc--it is because you are standing exactly where they cannot throw it to you! MOVE-make a cut upfield or go for the dump/swing. Do not stand behind the mark yelling 'poach'.
Another tactic we use on defense against a hozo stack handlers or a split stack handlers (what long beach used against us in Vegas), is to have the defender on the force side poach off their mark into the upfield throwing lane. This is what Issac (and others) did successfully this weekend. When we poach into the lane, we are denying an upfield pass, and allowing the swing. However, the swing is in the direction we are forcing, and if completed, narrows the amount of field we have to defend. Further, our defender we be in position to approach to deny a break force swing, especially since the break force swing pass would have to be right back to the opponent that just threw it--who should be well covered!
Ironically, in this defensive set-up, the handler we need to most closely guard is the one on the break force side. We must not let them get open, slashing across the handler in the middle for an upfield/upline cut, or a break-force dump cut. Deny all passes to them! Make them throw to the force side, where we can trap them and have less field to defend.
As a final note on defending handling cuts, it is an art. It takes a lot of heart, fitness, intensity, awareness, experience and anticipation to guard a good handler. You will also over the game have to learn how each different handler cuts, where they like to get the disc, and even how they throw (if you are unfortunate and you let them catch the disc). Even beyond one game or one tournament, you will face these players again and again over the years. If you are good, you can learn how to shut down a team's main handler one tournament--and the next time you face them you can mentally take them out of the game before it even starts! LENNY IS IN THEIR HEADS!!!!!
Coach Pat
The four basic cuts for a handler are:
1. upline, also chainsaw (fist)
2. dump (thumb up)
3. vee, also composers (two fingers)
4. flare (open hand)
-------------I realize there may be different names for these cuts, but we will use the above for uniformity.
Each of these cuts are available on most field positions, even when we are trapped on the sideline. We can even evolve to using some hand signals () to improve communication between the thrower and the cutter. Practice these cuts! Use fakes--these cuts work because of the threat of the other cuts.
===========================
For defending these cuts, remember the most important thing--positioning! The first rule of defensive positioning is to put yourself in a stance that enables you to see your mark and the disc. Seeing the disc is vital to defending handler cuts (think about how many dump passes you see that some defender just misses because they did not see the disc soon enough), and it increases your overall awareness of the flow of the game.
The second rule of defensive positioning is to put your body in a position that takes away one of the cuts/open areas that a handler can cut to. Generally, the best position is one that takes away the upline cut. The upline cut is typically the most dangerous, giving up the most yards and an open throw. Use your body position to deny the upline cut. If you take away one of the areas they can cut too, it is much easier to defend a handler.
The dump cut is typically the least dangerous, because it is negative yardage, and you should NOT allow the swing pass, and keep the force on. So our opponent dumps the disc, lost five yards, and is still trapped on the sideline. However, we do not want to casually allow the dump pass, especially when most teams look to dump when the stall is high or just to get the disc back to their best thrower. DENY and CONTEST EVERY PASS! If you do allow a dump to go to your mark, make sure you establish your mark positioning by stopping the break force swing pass as you approach the disc. (of course, when we are on offense, that is exactly what we want to do on the sideline, dump, and a break force swing to open up the field!)
The second most important aspect of defending a handler is teamwork. To emphasize the irony of the Santa Barbara video"if win we our individual battles....."--you cannot win your individual battles without help and support from your team! When you are guarding a handler, and they are making a cut you MUST shout out to the marker for help (the sideline should also being doing this). Strike for the upline cut, no dump for the dump, no break for the flare. The maker then MUST shift/shuffle/move to stop the pass to the handler.
As a tactic, I would rather deny the disc to a handler (i.e., the BEST, most experienced thrower on the other team) by temporarily losing our force, and even allowing a break force throw to a less experienced thrower on the other team. In the college ultimate world, this can work to our advantage. They can throw to their freshman all they want :). If we deny the disc to the other team's main handlers, we will win the game.
=========================
As counterpoint point to good positioning, a poor position to take as a defender is to stand directly behind your team mate that is marking. Making a short throw threw a maker is difficult! There is no reason to stand there! Especially if you are playing off your mark a few yards, trying to poach. If you are going to poach when we are trapping, then get all the way in the throwing lane up the line. Or just get back on your handler and deny the dump.
This is also true for cuts that we make on offense. If your cut ends up behind the other team's mark, and you are poached, and wondering why your team mate is not throwing you the disc--it is because you are standing exactly where they cannot throw it to you! MOVE-make a cut upfield or go for the dump/swing. Do not stand behind the mark yelling 'poach'.
Another tactic we use on defense against a hozo stack handlers or a split stack handlers (what long beach used against us in Vegas), is to have the defender on the force side poach off their mark into the upfield throwing lane. This is what Issac (and others) did successfully this weekend. When we poach into the lane, we are denying an upfield pass, and allowing the swing. However, the swing is in the direction we are forcing, and if completed, narrows the amount of field we have to defend. Further, our defender we be in position to approach to deny a break force swing, especially since the break force swing pass would have to be right back to the opponent that just threw it--who should be well covered!
Ironically, in this defensive set-up, the handler we need to most closely guard is the one on the break force side. We must not let them get open, slashing across the handler in the middle for an upfield/upline cut, or a break-force dump cut. Deny all passes to them! Make them throw to the force side, where we can trap them and have less field to defend.
As a final note on defending handling cuts, it is an art. It takes a lot of heart, fitness, intensity, awareness, experience and anticipation to guard a good handler. You will also over the game have to learn how each different handler cuts, where they like to get the disc, and even how they throw (if you are unfortunate and you let them catch the disc). Even beyond one game or one tournament, you will face these players again and again over the years. If you are good, you can learn how to shut down a team's main handler one tournament--and the next time you face them you can mentally take them out of the game before it even starts! LENNY IS IN THEIR HEADS!!!!!
Coach Pat
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