Holiday Learning – Focus

So, you’re home for the holidays, and you’re bored and no-one back home plays frisbee. You’re gonna suck when you get back to uni, right? Wrong! Aside from option 1 (take your disc out, throw by yourself), there are many other ways to keep learning about ultimate, even if you’ve got less opportunities to play… Like reading my ideas about defence, say…

Focus – and the weirdest drill you’ll ever do

Last weekend, I played a tournament in the Netherlands with a mixed team, who I had played either little or not at all with. Needless to say, even if I wasn’t pretty crap at indoors, I wouldn’t have been too much use on offence. Mostly I ran around and played D, which was fun – and I was pretty successful, I realised on Monday on my way home. I didn’t get scored on open side the entire weekend.

Now, as defensive tournaments go, I’m pretty happy with that, but it’s also raised an interesting point when talking to Fetu about it, which was the importance of focus on defence, especially indoors.

The last time Squaws were in the top 8 indoors, I believe we got there with defence. We were next to every catch, we were hardly broken, and we were intense. In recent years, we’ve lost that intensity, and you can see it in the footage of the last Skunks possession from outdoor nats – we’re sort of trying to beat our women under, to the open side, but we stuff up quite a few times, before they turn over due to the wind. Mostly, this works for us outdoors – our defence is good enough to force quite small throws, and keep forcing them (even if they are to the open side) until the wind or an error from the other team does our work for us.

Indoors, this defence sucks. There’s no wind, which not only means no wind-assisted turnovers, but also means that errors from the other team are rarer. There are less drops, less turfed discs. Equally, there is far, far less space. The proportion of the pitch our opposition gain outdoors against our D is insufficient to trouble us – the endzone is still at least half a pitch away. Indoors, they’ve scored from about two thirds as many open side throws as we let them make outdoors.

We can play better defence than this – and a lot of it is down to an ability to focus intensely on the job at hand – not getting beaten to the open side. Outdoors, a lapse in focus is a reset stallcount. Indoors, a lapse in focus is a score.

Focus is an odd ability. Some people seem to have it, others don’t. What’s important is not how good you are at it right now – but how much you practice it. Which leads me to the weirdest drill ever.

Next time you’re walking by yourself or on the bus or train, find a sign or point of interest to focus on. Fix your gaze on this object – but don’t think about it. All you’re doing is looking at it, without thinking about anything else, or even about it. At some stage, you’ll either pass this object, or (more likely) lose your focus – a thought will pop into your mind. When that happens, the drill is over. Take a moment to have some scrambled thoughts, then clear them away and refocus on a new sign. Repeat for the rest of your journey, until you almost miss your stop and have to clamber over a pushchair to get out of the train.

You will look weird, and like you are someone who is bizarrely fascinated by mundane objects. But you will get more practiced at focusing, and at blurring out the world around you and your own thoughts while doing so.

Outdoors, you don’t *need* as much focus – there’s bigger spaces involved so the benefits of speed and athleticism become greater in relation to it. But extra ability to focus will always do you good, whatever surface you’re playing D on, so get practicing.

Note – drill totally stolen borrowed from ultimate techniques and tactics.

UWIN Homework: Part 3

Handler Weave: See it in action!

So, turns out that nitty gritty details take a lot of words. The details of what throw to block when, the specific patterns they will be running are less important than discipline and pressure. If you remember anything, remember those.

Because the detail post is so detailed, I thought it’d be better to put up the footage and some comments on that first.

The main things to watch for are what the Skunks D players get right and wrong. Mostly, their pressure is excellent – they’re close the whole time. Where they often go wrong is a lack of discipline – forgetting the force and overcommitting, either as the force or as upfield D players. Also, watch how relentlessly Ro Sham run up the line – expect this from teams playing handler weave.

Final starts @10.49. [times may not match up exactly depending on how well it uploaded – sorry if they’re a little out…]

People to watch out for from Ro Sham Bo: #5 Linda (dark skirt), #8 Georgie (dark shorts), #1 Jools (turquoise skirt). You’ll see these three running the handler weave most of the time.

People to watch out for from Skunks: Em Rees #3 (white skirt), mostly marking Jools. Lou Kittow, #18, playing a lot of handler defence too.

11.20 is your first look at the 2-1-2 handler set up. Jools in the bright blue skirt is the ‘1’ – she’s right in the middle of the pitch like god, with lots of space. Brigid (pink skirt) and Georgie (shorts) are the first ‘2’ – and together they form a triangle.

Here you’ll see them go for the ‘first look’ of the iso throw to Jools (Skunks are forcing to the right of the screen – Georgie is attempting to get the disc to Jools’ left). You can see why few teams still use this start to the play – iso or god throws are high risk throws. If I had to guess at anyone using this, I’d guess Ro Sham (who Squaws 1 may face in pre-quarters if we both hold seed) might open with this look. Fling (who are in our pool) are likely to go straight for the running version.

11.30  – This is our next look at the Ro Sham offence and they’re running. What Skunks do well here is both apply pressure and be very disciplined (note: they are now forcing to the left of the screen). Em (white skirt, on force) doesn’t let the disc swing off the sideline (where Georgie is running), and Lou refuses to get beaten under by Linda and is rewarded with a “run through” D (although she’s never really behind Linda). Most importantly, everyone is remembering the force.

[Note on the Skunks offence here – they are CLINICAL. No jabby jabby straight at the endzone – the disc comes off the line, and move again before the window is wide enough for the score to be thrown.]

11.50. New Ro Sham offence. The running version. Georgie (one of the 2) goes up the line, looking for the disc, then is forced back to the break side. What Skunks do well here is that they’re close (pressure!) and the force isn’t easily breakable. What the marker on Georgie does wrong is over commit to that break side run – and gets beaten back to the open side as a result. Don’t get broken; stay open side. This is one of the trickiest bits of playing D against this offence, because every cut is so predictable that you want to D the disc if it gets thrown there. This is where discipline comes in – remember that force and force yourself to trust it.

Again, after the disc moves to Georgie, watch Jools (in her tiny blue skirt) burn it up the line, just about get marked out by Em and then go breakside. The throw to her isn’t perfect – it’s late, and it gives Em a bid. This is probably due to the force hassling Georgie. Again, this is about discipline: give up open side point blocks in this offence and block the hell out of any breaks they try to throw.

After this pass to Jools, you’ll see Skunks lose discipline: Em (after the break going) over commits to the open side on force and is lucky not to get broken. Lou (marking Georgie) overcommits to the break side as a result of this throw looking easier than it should, and gets beaten back openside by Georgie. Again, after this, Lou bites a little too much open side, and lets the break back out to Jools.

However. Although they’ve lost discipline, Em and Lou are doing a pretty good job of being really bloody close every time their person gets the disc – the last three catches have been pretty close. Pressure time. As well as this pressure making the offence a little jittery and forcing a few poor decisions or throws, there’s another element. Handler weave puts a lot of the workload onto relatively few players – offence are going to be tired after a few turnovers, and they’re playing a tough offence for when they’re tired. If you need a boost mid-point, remember that for a second on D.

12.49. Ro Sham are full on selling out into this offence – you can see not the usual 2, but 3 of their players legging it to the endzone to leave Jools and Linda the entire pitch to work up.

Skunks let a break out immediately, Linda continues the break to Jools, forces a great grab. You’ll see Jools make a lot more of these, and while it says a lot about her as a player, it says more about the gradual consistent pressure of Skunks’ D – as the points go on, Ro Sham will force the disc into smaller windows, or throw too far out in front to get the disc away from the pressure of the Skunks D.

[13.20 – Nice toe in by Jools.]

13.37 – the camera fades in as Jools fakes the swing pass to Linda, which Em has done a good job  of taking away at the force, and the upfield D player has done a good job of being reasonably tight on. Whoever is marking Brigid (pink skirt) upfield has lost a little focus, perhaps given themselves not enough of a buffer and let her run at the open side to get the disc (sidenote: I think that’s Anna who now plays for Brighton Women). She also lets that swing off the line go back to Jools, who you’ll notice Em has marked out on the up line cut. You’ll then see Em help out her other upfield D player from getting beaten open side by getting a point block. All coolness of point blocks aside: no open side point blocks. Hold your force.

14.28 – the break sideline is probably the hardest place to play the Ro Sham offence from – your upline cut is now breakside, it’s hard to hit the iso throw and the swing cut is also open side. Icky. Linda’s force makes the error of giving a stuff about the open side and getting broken in a pretty devastating manner. It’s a great throw but that should never be an option. It’s worth also noting that the disc is in the air for a reasonably long time – if the endzone D players are certain they can get a D on it, they should go for it – and until the disc is that close to the endzone, they should be heads up to see if they can help out on discs like this.

[14.55. Whoaaaah. Big hammer.]

14.59. More handler weave – here you can see that they’re back to having 3 handlers, with Linda (#5) in the ‘iso’ or 1 spot. They’re going for the running offence, and Georgie’s mark overbites on that break cut again, and gets beaten open – discipline fail. Having said that they’re playing with 3 handlers, Linda shifts out the way pretty sharpish and is far more inactive than you’d usually expect in this offence.

15.16 – another overbite on force (up the line), after getting beaten to the open side. This lets out the killer break to Linda – it’s overthrown but this is the throw they wait pretty much the whole offence for. Don’t OVERBITE on force!!!

15.35 – Lou gets beaten by a circle cut from Georgie. Em gets beaten up the line by Jools – note that Em gets beaten here because she doesn’t move AS SOON AS JOOLS HAS THROWN. You know where they’re going – up the line. Beat them there.

16.24 – The Skunks D player beats Georgie open side under, but turns her back on Georgie in doing so. This is a BAD THING. In this offence, you’ve gotta be real focused on your man (the disc is useful to watch to a lesser extent), and you need to have your hips and footwork helping you out with this.

17.18 – Skunks get beaten up the line, after a swing to a poached off player. This is naughty. Don’t poach off, and don’t get beaten up the line. Em has a little moment where she sort of forgets the force and lets Jools sneak up the line away from her. This is a pretty important part of defence against the handler weave – no dozing off. You must remain focused, more so than pretty much any other time on defence.

18.23 – Ro Sham are a little bit back into the game – primarily because the Skunks D players are looking tired – where previously they’ve been close if beaten they’re now just beaten. They’ve had a lapse in pressure, and the other side effect of getting tired is often a lapse in discipline – you forget the force, you overbite on cuts when you should be shadowing. Ro Sham are still turning over though, because this is a high risk offence, and it is tiring for them as well.

The next point though (8-7) and Skunks are back on it – they’re real close, and there’s a lot more pressure at the point of the force, which leads to mounting pressure – Ro Sham don’t turn over on a swing, but they’re worn down by that pressure, and the lack of free passes.

Skunks get a little looser again on the D – and Ro sham work it up the pitch up the line and into the endzone. 8-8.

[Now watch the exciting conclusion!!!]

UWIN Homework: Part 2

Handler Weave: How do we beat it?

First up, a quick point on tactics – FM vs. One Way.

Force middle is often suggested as an option against this offence, but I tend to dislike this as an option. When playing D against handler weave, you want to be able to predict where they’re going, and whether you need to beat them there (because it’s the open side) or if you just need to track them closely (because it’s the break side). FM switches the force too often for you to be able to fully ‘sell out’ to either direction of forcing, reducing your ability as an upfield player to know where to run hard to and where to just shadow your person to.

Having said that – if other stuff ain’t working, try it. If your one way force is sucking, something else might work better. Equally, there is nothing wrong with switching force mid-point (but staying one way), if they’re picking up a turnover on a sideline. This offence runs smoother when the up line cut is to the open side, so forcing them OFF the line that they’re on (and back into the pitch) is a very good idea. Make sure this is communicated loudly and clearly to your whole team however.

Ok, tactics over – they’re useful to think about, but they’re not what beats this defence. Two things will beat handler weave: discipline and pressure. I’ll explain what I mean by each of these separately…

 

Discipline

Handler weave is an offence which, against a defence who are all trying to do different things, will mostly win. Discipline is about taking the tactics you’re using and focusing on your element of it. It’s about remembering your job right this second on pitch, not trying to do anyone else’s job, and executing on that job. The key points of every job are 1) don’t get broken on force and 2) don’t get beaten to the open side.

Sounds simple, huh? But when your mark is running around like crazy, it’s difficult to remember these.

On force, it’s important to be aggressive towards anything that might be a break, but leave the open side the hell alone. Going for point blocks open side, or trying to cover the open side to stop someone being beat is going to screw up the rest of the team. Playing D against this, you need to know that your force is going to if not stop all break throws, at least make them difficult and a little bit rubbish – perfect for you getting blocks on.

Where you’ll see Skunks fail in the video (currently uploading!) is that their forces often forget where they’re forcing and let out cheap unpressured breaks, mostly by over-biting on the open side.

Upfield, you have to trust the force, and remember it. Always assume that they’re going to be running at the open side, and give yourself enough of a cushion or buffer to stop it – this is most important on the upline cuts. Take away the open side with your body positioning, and shadow them when they cut break side – breaks are still sometimes going to go (even if they are rubbish) so be as close as you can, without being able to be toasted back to the open side. The key here is anticipating their next move, so that you’re ready to react, without over-anticipating it and biting too hard on stuff you shouldn’t be going for (break side!). Again, you’ll see Skunks players in the video run too hard with the break side cut, because their forces have been letting it out, and then get toasted back to the open side. Remember the force. Take away what the force does not.

 

Pressure

When I talk about pressure, I’m meaning not necessarily getting run through Ds or flyby layout blocks (although those are always handy), but being incredibly close all the time to your mark (note that this means NOT bidding on breaks that you have no chance of Ding, so that your force is set as soon as they’re ready and you don’t let out a cheap break), so that the offence have no rest and no easy passes.

Important note on ‘poaching’: if you’re marking a handler, don’t even THINK about poaching. When I say ‘poaching’ I mean leaving your own mark *before* the disc is in the air. By all means, if they throw a pass close to you meant for another player, D that thing. But poaching is especially important NOT to do in the first few seconds of their offence – if you poach off the swing handler (ie. the one that’s going to run up the line), you give them a free pass. This is in direct opposition to the idea of PRESSURE – no free passes (you’ll see Skunks get this wrong in the video and let that swing out by poaching several times – naughty Skunks).

You’ll see in the video clip that Skunks (D team, black shirts) get turns not always through actual blocks – often it is from wayward passes or errors from Ro Sham (O team, white). These look like unforced turnovers, but they’re not. By being close to the handlers the whole time, and gradually piling on pressure, Skunks unsettle the Ro Sham offence and break up its flow. The Ro Sham women’s adrenaline increases with every ‘almost-D’ and every hotly contested catch, which makes them nervous and jittery. Jitters and nerves are going to make you overcook throws and make bad decisions. Get close to your mark, even if you can’t get the block.

 

Obviously, discipline and pressure are two pretty important components of playing defence on any type of offence. Against handler weave they are crucial. Against other offences, fast players can compensate for poor discipline by running after their player and being fast enough to get blocks; slightly lazy marking or being a bit dopey is punished less severely. Against handler weave, you will be punished for laziness, and you will be punished for dozing off.

Homework: Again, we’re going to visualise the cuts the offence are going to make. But now, we’re going to imagine we’re playing D on each of them, and apply the principles of discipline and pressure. Imagine marking someone making each of those cuts and taking them away – work with your force to apply pressure, stay close to them. Imagine them getting a closely contested undercut catch and putting the force on right away, giving them no rest.

Next post: The Nitty Gritty Details (and the video – hopefully!).

UWIN Homework: What is handler weave?

So, with nationals rapidly approaching, I thought it’d be worth having a shot at picking apart one of the most common (of the top 8 last year, 5 teams played this offence near exclusively) and worst defended offences of women’s indoors…

The Handler Weave (or 2-1-2)

In the next three posts I’m going to explain what it is, how to beat it, and also give you a chance to look at some footage that shows key parts of it in action (as well as a team beating it on defence).

So, what is Handler Weave?

The 2-1-2 tell you how the formation is set out on the pitch. Firstly there are two goons in the endzone. They’ll normally be in a tight stack.

The other three players set up in a triangle – 2 flat back handlers, and one player isolated in the middle of the pitch. This person will often be referred to as ‘the iso’. You’ll notice that they’re in lots of space, similar to our ‘god’ play.

The original version of this offence (which few teams play anymore) starts with a move/look identical to the god play – which I will refer to as ‘the iso throw’. The handler throws the disc to the break side for the iso to go fetch. This throw would go in the original Ro Sham offence ONLY if the iso’s D player was sitting underneath them (ie. open side under – which incidentally is where we plan to be when playing D on a stack).

If this throw wasn’t on – taken away by either the force or the upfield D player – Ro Sham would transition into the form of the offence that most teams go straight for today – which I will call the “running offence”.

The play start is the handler (of the flatback 2) without the disc running up the line (referred to as the “up line” cut). After this handler has gone, the iso will cut back towards the handler, into the centre of the pitch (this is the “swing” cut and pass). If neither of these options works, the next option is the original running handler bouncing off the line and “wrinkling” back into the centre of the pitch (filling into the iso’s space) – this would usually have to be hit with an overhead to clear ‘traffic’ (bodies in the way).

Check out my super high tech pic of this – blue circles are O players (they’re scoring ‘up’ your screen), white circle indicates who has the disc, lines and arrows show who’s running where.The principle component of this offence is throw and go – as soon as your mark has released the disc you can expect them to be running at top speed up the line.

Why does it work?

Because the offence is cutting hard (due to having an easy pattern to follow), defence often find themselves on the back foot when O change direction. A key element to playing defence against this is knowing where they want to go, and beating them there.

However, once they’ve worked out the predictable pattern of cuts, defence may over-commit to the break side if the force has been beaten before, leaving easy open side cuts. Equally, the force may know that the upline cut is coming, so may over-bite onto the open side fake of the handler, leaving the break throw free – you’ll get to see both of these in the video I’ll be uploading for later posts (some tech issues!).

Fundamentally, handler weave works because its high tempo encourages the defence to run brainlessly after the offence, forgetting the usual rules of defence, like say, the open side. *They* are playing fast, which cons *you* into thinking you don’t have time to think or to even remember the force. This is untrue – thinking will give you more time and will get you blocks, often through them having no options and facing a stallout or a throw to a marked player.

Homework: Visualise this pattern of cuts – handler runs up the line, iso runs back for swing cut, handler wrinkles into the pitch. Draw it on paper with x’s or lines. Talk about it with a team-mate. Make sure your brain knows what they want to be doing – this step is crucial to working out how to stop it.

Next up, I’ll be talking about how we’re going to play D on this offence: it’s all about discipline and pressure.

 

Waiting for a Rainy Day— Stars and Stripes and…

Hello Mohawks!

So it’s been a bit longer than I planned before updating you on my year abroad at UC Davis, California. I have been able to come up with an excuse though, I was simply waiting for a rainy day. Yesterday it rained for a first time since I arrived about 5 weeks ago. Don’t get me wrong it is not just the rain that reminds me of Frisbee in Brighton! I do miss all you lovely hawks, way more than British food or weather and almost as much as Fifa :p

So Frisbee in the States, where to begin?

First off people actually know what it is.  If you tell people you play Ultimate Frisbee here almost everyone has heard of it or knows someone that plays or even played it in school. No more long winded explanations and answering questions about if dogs and special tricks are involved.

The other major difference is that the girls play for a completely different club, the Davis Pleiades. They train at different times and have a different social calendar. Mixed Ultimate does not exist at College level in the States and Indoor does not exist at all.

We now have trainings in the American Football stadium which can hold over 10,000 people! No one comes to watch us train obviously but I went to the homecoming football game which was packed. Its a really cool facility to have on campus. The synthetic rubber crumb turf does give nasty burns on occasion but a good thing is it’s kind of sheltered because of the stands around it, so wind is reduced.

The players are very similar, my favourite kind of people. Committed and competitive and most importantly, know how to have fun. The main difference is that there are more of them. The Davis Dogs get about 40 guys coming to two 3hour training sessions per week. A couple of these are of course the experienced hangers on, long graduated but still more then welcome. About half are freshers, which shows it’s still growing fast. I would say due to having a bigger selection pool, plus the fact that lots of them played at school, the standard is slightly higher. I felt like a fresher not knowing the drills or appropriate terms at first but everyone is so welcoming and friendly you soon feel comfortable. I still get laughed at every time I say pitch, queue or side arm (field, line and flick).

I would still say honestly Mohawks have the better parties. Seeing the pics of the last few socials it seems that this year is no exception. It’s weird being one of the oldest, especially since 90% of the team are unable drink out. There are no bars on campus either, so everyone was very jealous when I explained how the Falmer bar pint after training is basically compulsory.

Like Sussex they have a disc golf course around campus. Its bigger, full 18 holes including a bonus shot (If you get it in the fountain you take a shot off). Also If you eagle the 11^th you have to streak trousers down from your last shot to the hole! (A guy did this on my first round).

We just had our first tournament, a beginners/ fun one, a couple of hours north in Chico. It was incredibly similar to beginner tournaments back home. A tiny difference being that the opposing sidelines get together and play fast paced calls during timeouts. It was also full size outdoors ultimate. The party also provided all the alcohol in kegs (most players can’t legally buy it) so it is all free 🙂

Congratulations on all the recent tournament results and I look forward to meeting the new fresher Mohawks!

Joe

“Once a Dog but always a Mohawk”

What We Leave Behind: Part 3

Fill Those Boots or Change The Shoe Size

Last year the first team had a play called skittles. I’m not going to tell you what it is or how it works (in case they wanna use it again; ask a first teamer if you’re a Mohawk and curious), but what I am going to point out is that it is a play built around Callum’s throws. Most plays ‘require’ stuff without us really realising it – God, for example, requires handlers with reliable overheads and a goon also capable of throwing – and this one requires Mancake’s particular abilities. It would require quite significant adaptation to work for our women’s team. For the open team this coming year, they face the choice of training someone to match Callum’s throws (a tall order), adaptation, or simply junking it.

It’s difficult to junk a play, or even an entire strategy set, that has worked for you in the past. It’s difficult to remember to return to strategies which you did not have the personnel for in previous years, but now may have. But in university ultimate, with player turnover and variability what it is, it’s essential to keep evaluating what you have in your skill set as a team.

Some skills and player positions are vital. You need people who are cool and collected on the disc. You need players who are going to get free for you upfield. You need players who are going to get you blocks. You are going to need some people with longer throws and some people with breaks. And to an extent you can train this stuff in your players – you can put an emphasis on teaching second years to huck, to break, to get free as a dump, in order to replace yourself as a handler. You can in effect hope that the kids grow into your boots.

But some boots are just too big to fill in one go. As an example for the first team, it is entirely feasible that we could train someone up to have as good breaks or handler movement in general as Callum. But it’s more difficult to train someone for the same monstrous distance, or to have the natural advantage of being a lefty and therefore getting several cheap backhand hucks each game before teams cotton on.

The trick then is working out what is teachable and moulding your team plays and strategy to what you have this year. The big trick is working out what you’re gonna have the year after that and making sure you’re training people up for that too.

Hey, don’t look at me like that. I didn’t say it was easy.

What We Leave Behind: Part 2

Pass the Baton Before You’re Ready

One thing I’ve noticed as Uni Women’s coordinator, going into my second year of the role, is that a lot of teams have the same women’s captain two years in a row. And I can definitely see the advantages: you’ve already blundered through the main mistakes of being a captain and learned from them, you’ve refined the systems you have in place for getting people to pay, getting people to training, getting people to tournaments.

But from my perspective as a non-graduater (actually I’ve graduated twice already, so ha), it’s pretty clear to me that one of the strengths of our club is that if we can absolutely avoid it, we don’t have the same captain two years in a row. Not because any of our captains in recent years have been outright terrible and you wouldn’t want them to do it again – on the contrary, we’ve had some fantastic tacticians and motivators – but because captaining is a skill, building a team is a skill, and it’s one we need to keep passing on to future generations of the team.

I’m not saying I wouldn’t love another shot at captaining – mostly to implement the lessons I learned the year I was captain. But actually, I can implement that learning by helping our new captains, and that’s going to be way more useful for the club.

Yes, this system means our new captains often have the challenge of working out how to captain their old captains, and sometimes even how to captain their coaches, and how to manage players who are often more experienced than themselves, but it keeps us getting fresh blood into the committee. Fresh blood means new ideas; it means innovation. Innovation means improvement.

Bringing in new people to the ‘inner circle’ is critical if you’re going to keep your club going after you’re gone. Sure you need some overlap: you need the old hands who know exactly what they’re doing and can register and pay for a tournament with their eyes closed, but you also need the people who are going to become those old hands in a year or two’s time. With a few exceptions, we only get players for 3 years, so you need your second year players learning as much as possible so they can pass it on in their third year. University ultimate is relentless in its turnover rate, so you have to be relentless not just in your recruiting but also in your training and knowledge transfer.

Captaining is an obvious ‘baton’ that I believe needs passed on, frequently, and it’s the one we’re good at passing on as a club. I think the more subtle things to pass on are some of the more difficult ones, like game planning, strategising, tactical knowledge and understanding.

Personally, I am a bit of a nerd in all areas of my life – I learn things better by both doing and thinking about them – and I’m also a little bit obsessed with ultimate. It means in my years of playing ultimate I have watched literally hundred of hours of game play, and spent lots of that time working out what I’m seeing tactically on the pitch. I’ve pestered more experienced players than me to talk about tactics, to explain why certain stuff works. I’ve analysed the differences between tactics for mixed, vs. women’s, vs. open, and have tried to work out what works in each and why. Really, I felt like at undergrad I ended up with a joint degree – in psychology and ultimate.

But not everyone is a nerd about ultimate. This is definitely a good thing, but it also means that for the Squaws teams I coach I need to work out a way to pass on tactical understanding and the ability to strategise without the players I’m trying to teach being as obsessed as me. Lots of people learn by doing, rather than thinking, so I need to think about getting our returning players to do tactics in games, to work out in the middle of the action what might work better. It’s going to be tough, and I love the tactical side of the game, so I’m going to have to remind myself again that it’s not about me having fun being a brain, it’s about training up some brains to replace me.

I can think of plenty of ‘batons’ that need passing on – the main handler, the key upfield receiver, the tactician, the team idiot (although I hear we’re getting Fluff back next year)… As an experienced player, sometimes it’s about going out and making game winning plays. But sometimes it’s about making space for the less experienced players to learn how to make those plays, and learn how to fill those roles – and helping them along the way. Yes, it’s your final year, and you want to dominate, but you also need to teach others to dominate, which means passing on the baton before you’re ready, so that the new recipients get a chance not only to learn how to do all this cool stuff, but also how to pass it on when it’s their turn.

 

Note: Sorry for the delay – been doing some real actual academic work for a few weeks, so been behind with posting. My bad. Expect more (and better!) posts in coming weeks…