An Old Write-up on Defense...

In Ultimate we have the unique experience of having captains who are not just the emotional leader on the field. These guys are looked to for coaching, coordinating, and competing at a level that is beyond that of their teammates. This view, I believe, is unfair to those that do lead.
I haven’t considered this until I was thinking about the slew of mistakes our captains have made on the field this summer. These are the guys who tell us what we’re doing wrong and set up our game plan, shouldn’t they also be effectively executing that same plan??? Yes, but are they not just another person on the field, just as susceptible to mistakes as everyone else?

My belief is that captains should be very aware of the fact that they are held to higher standards and they should concentrate on playing within themselves and making their teammates better. Too many times have I seen a captain trying to “make something happen,” rather than just taking the easy throws and trusting their teammates. I only hope that I can learn to stay within the limits of my own physical skill, trust my teammates, and lead with enthusiasm, respect for my teammates, and a love for the game.

Now, the strategy. Defense is something we’ve been lacking as of late, and here are three reasons why and some quick thoughts:

1. Positioning (Pertaining to man-to-man defense) - Prior to every point I believe you should have an idea of the most beneficial place for you to be in order to put a bid on a disc. Once you have this place in mind, constantly work to maintain that position. I personally like to be a shade behind perpendicular so I can see the disc and my defender, generally about 3-5 ft towards the force side. When my defender cuts breakside, I need to maintain this position and use the 3rd aspect of defense.
2. Communication - This is mainly for the sidelines. If you’re locked up in a tight battle with a cutter, you don’t want to sneak too many glances at the disc. Your sidelines are doing that for you and should be extremely vocal on up calls, switches, and break calls. I shouldn’t need to find the disc, the sideline should make me very aware of where it is…
3. Trust - The most important part of defense. When playing d, we are not trying to shut down the offense completely, we’re trying to take away half of their game. This “half” is called the “break-side” if you are a marker, and it is called the “force-side” if you are defending a cutter. When a cutter cuts to the break side, as a defender, we need to trust our markers. Too many times we chase the cutter, lose positioning, then get beat easily to the open side (force side) or worse. We need to trust that marker to take away the break throws. In turn, our markers need to trust our force-side defenders. Many times a marker will slide too far across the front of their mark and allow easy break throws in an attempt to point-block the mark. This benefits nobody. Trust is the only thing that truly does take away half of an offense's game plan.

There is always going to be an argument about getting broken. I believe it is impossible for a marker to stop every break throw, but they can take away most low break throws. If both hands are down, the only break throw given is a high, floaty break (it is also easier to swing your hand from low to high than from high to low). The high release break gives the defender a chance to cut off the swing pass, but a low break throw is faster and gives the offense more of a chance for easy break-side continuation. That should make you think twice before telling your rookies to keep the break-side hand high.

Josh Ritter 10/9/2007

Great show last night! Josh brought the audience through the gamut of his albums with a song from just about every one. I really like the stuff from his new album "The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter," but I can't help but fall back on favorites from "The Animal Years" and "Hello, Starling." A few highlights from the show:

Kathleen
Rumors - With the addition of a small orchestra
Monster Ballads - which I got a Sah-weeet video/audio recording of!
The Temptation of Adam
Harrisburg
Girl in the War
All Josh Ritter banter...
And pretty much every other song he played...

On a different note, I ran at practice Monday. I actually feel pretty good this week. My hip flexors had been a little sore to go along with my groin issues last week, but everything just sort of disappeared after I worked it out a bit at practice. I'm not saying I'm healed... it's not quite that miraculous, but I feel good. That's pretty rare, so I'm hoping this is something that stays with me for a while.... maybe there's hope yet.

Ultimate, You are the Northern Lights!

No Ultimate tonight, just music. Josh Ritter should be able to strip me of this anxiety I'm having about our first tourney of the season: Skylander VII on Saturday!

My last experience with John was ridiculous. I just sat in the crowd with a beer in my hand smiling for about an hour while he was playing his set. He's got an infectious energy that you can just feel in the crowd. He definitely loves what he's doing, and it's refreshing to see that.

I'm warming up my cheeks right now, I think I was a little sore in the face after smiling for so long last year...

Bonus: Megan and I have been working to find small holes in each others' schedules that allows for time together and this concert is the first full night in a few weeks. An hour or so here and there is great, but it's nice to know that neither of us will have any prior engagements looking over our shoulders tonight.

Forget vertical, let's go horizontal!

I'm using this blog to organize my thoughts about tomorrow. We're teaching the Ho-stack at practice and I want to make sure I touch on all the important aspects of this offense.

-Revolves around solid handler play. Downfield cutters will have to learn to defer to the handlers more often. Handlers must learn to trust each other and feed off of each others' strengths.
-Cutters have free reign within their lanes. It is necessary for each pair of cutters to use teamwork to split poachy defenders, but it's also important to remember that the full field should be put to use.
-Spacing is extremely important. Handlers must keep this separation as well as the cutters. We can't squeeze together, we're trying to spread out the defenders.
-Remember to drop to the vertical stack when we get close to the endzone.
-Mix in a few different defensive looks to try to throw off the 'o.'
-Quick disc movement is imperative.
-The offensive power position is in the middle of the field. The sidelines are more susceptible to a trap, so let's move the disc!
-More stuff I'll hopefully remember later...

I think our offense has a decent grasp of what we need to do with the vertical stack, but there is still some serious timing issues. I foresee this being a problem with the Ho as well, but since the offense is so wide open there is more room for handler cuts to keep the 'o' from stagnating.

This looks to be a good offense to isolate our cutters and give some of our handlers some room to run.

Stills, Arin, Kyle, Jake, Dan, John, this one's for you.

Spinsational

Or not.

I've been seeing a few too many spinning fakes lately, and it's been making my better players' hands sore!

A few reasons not to spin:
1. We know where you are going! You can't fool us by spinning in circles!!!!
2. You are losing site of your receiver and your mark.
3. My hand is sore from handblocking your highly-telegraphed throws.

Keep it in check, use a meaningful fake, find your receiver, make a throw.

Today we're getting down and dirty with our dump defense. Swings ought to be a little harder to come by for our offense.

Our First Miler

Ranjo - 6:32
Lemon - 6:03
Stills - 6:07
Jake - 5:46
Joe - 6:40
Jim - 6:43
Jimmy - 5:53
Frodo - 6:00
John - 6:08

Lemon, Jake, Jimmy, Frodo with negative splits...

I guess it's a good thing Metz didn't come, we're all under 6:45!

Three quick steps to make a better Ultimate Player

1. Throw
2. Throw
3. Throw

Oh....sorry, three steps starting now.

1. Never treat marking as a rest period. If your man throws, you better be ready to go.

2. Don't get lazy away from the disc. If your man runs deep or break side and isn't getting the disc, this is your chance to regain that optimal position on him!

3. Don't rely on your cutters. Rely on your handlers to be the glue in your offense. If in doubt, holster your throw and look to reset the disc, preferably by stall 5.

I just wanted to blog so I chose the number three as so many have done before me... I'll add more tips later, there is so much to think about on the practice field.