Mini Camp, Week 1

Greetings Campers,

We hope you are as excited as us for our first event this evening.  Sorry in advance for such a long email but the simplest things are often the hardest to write about, future emails should be more succinct.  Here’s what to expect tonight.

Please arrive at least 15 minutes early, that is by 6:45pm.  We only have 2 hours, our schedule is full and we want to pack in as much playing as possible.  This is not a league game or pickup, this is a club practice experience and we will start running at 7:00pm sharp.  Along those same lines, I (and the other organizers) intend to maximize your playing time with our preparation and time management.  In order to minimize standing/talking time, each week you will receive an email such as this with teaching points for that week’s skills and explaining the drills.  Please study these points to be as prepared as possible.

Every Sunday we will spend the first 15 minutes on a basic warmup including a short jog followed by dynamic stretches.  We’ll then go straight into a drill reinforcing the skills taught the previous week (for Week 1 we will be doing a simple throwing practice).  At 7:35pm there will be a 5 minute water break during which the skills of that session will be demonstrated by volunteers and coaches.  Then, we will drill those skills until 8:00pm at which point we will start games.

Our player development program starts with the fundamental skills of ultimate, catching and throwing a disc.

Drill #1 - 30-30 throwing

Description - 30 forehands and 30 backhands (10 outside-in, 10 flat, 10 inside-out)

Detail - Use this time to really break down your throwing motion and make sure you are executing fundamentally sound throws every time.  Try to complete each set of 10 without a turnover.  The goals of basic throwing technique are:

• Proper footwork
• Start from a balanced standing position, knees slightly bent
• Step directly sideways as far as you can while maintaining balance and keeping your torso upright
• If you’re unbalanced at any point, start over
• Disc spin
• Grip the disc as firmly as is comfortable
• forehand - both middle and index finger should be up against the rim of the disc, no “training wheel” index finger toward the middle of the disc
• backhand - no finger on the outside rim, get a strong, fist grip
• Disc spin comes from a snap of the wrist, this can be difficult before the muscles in the wrist are developed,  Practice by holding the disc far away from the body and throwing with zero arm motion, trying to isolate the action of the wrist.
• Release
• Keep your eyes on your target
• Flat
• Release point directly aside from body
• Aim for target’s belly-button
• Inside-out
• Release point slightly in front of body
• Aim for target’s opposite side (disc should cross the invisible line connecting your belly-button with your target’s)
• Outside-in
• Release point as far from body as possible
• Aim for target’s outside shoulder (disc should not cross that invisible line)

Drill #2 - Straight-ahead catching

Description - Catching a disc while running straight towards the thrower

Detail - Catching a disc is actually the primary skill of ultimate, nothing can happen without it and therefore it deserves the utmost focus and attention.  Most people believe there are two ways to catch a disc, a pancake or a rim catch, but these are actually two halves of one catching form combining the strengths of each.  This is likely new to most people and will be demonstrated thoroughly on Sunday.  Here is a breakdown of these different techniques and general catching principles:

• General rules
• ALWAYS catch with two hands, as in NEVER catch a disc with one hand that can be caught with two
• Attack the disc, with arms out-stretched and hands together without slowing down
• Pancake catch
• Pros
• Wide arms make for the largest possible catch-zone making it good for windy days when a disc can move quickly vertically
• You can use your chest/stomach as a back-stop if your hands miss
• Generally the way people are introduced to catching
• Cons
• Hands starting far apart means greater chance of missing their target
• Hands clapping onto center of disc not as reliable as gripping the rim
• Timing the clap is difficult on hard-thrown discs
• You’re not catching the disc as soon as you can
• Rim catch
• Pros
• The rim is the most reliable place to grip a disc
• Both hands moving together means greater chance of hitting their target
• Able to catch the disc with arms out-stretched
• Con
• Catch-zone is limited to the length of the hand, making it difficult to catch a bouncy disc
• Hybrid (Pancake-rim) catch
• Pros
• Using one technique every time will most quickly commit the skill to muscle memory
• The reliability of a rim catch and the security of a pancake catch
• While catching with two hands you are actually training each hand to catch independently of the other so when a one-handed catch is necessary both hands already know what to do
• Cons
• You may have never been shown this before and new tricks, old dogs, etc.  
• While learning this your catch-rate may drop initially before eventually reaching unseen levels

Among you are players of a very wide skill range.  I ask that you focus on what you can get out of each drill.  No matter what level you are in your development you can always catch a little more reliably, run through a disc a little harder, or throw more consistently.  If you see an opportunity to tweak something to make it more difficult or accessible for you, please do so, it is our goal to make this a high-yield learning environment for everyone.  This is not a try-out and it is perfectly ok for you to drop a disc because you ran too hard or to fall over because you stepped out too far, this is how we learn.  We want to do things right, then do them well.

Please bring a dark and a light shirt as well as water and all your spirit.  You can bring a disc if you like but we have plenty for use during the drills.  For our first scrimmage tomorrow we will mix the teams around a bit to try to find the most competitive combinations.  Starting Week 2 you will be assigned to practice squads and we will play a three week round-robin.  

As always, please email us with any questions or concerns.  And don’t forget, Pyramid Brewery (just three blocks from the field) has donated a banquet room for our post-game socials.  Don’t worry, they close at 10 so we won’t be staying out late on a work-night but we’d love to have everyone hang around to get to know us.