Leg Update

So I went to the doctor this past weekend. Turns out the bone in my leg has decided to heal. Hopefully I can get a picture up here in the next couple of days. This is exciting news, and I’m pretty stoked about it.

I’m dedicating the rest of my semester to getting strong enough to play again. I won’t be practice ready til we move indoors, but don’t you think I’ll be taking it easy. Lamp and I will still dominate all of the crossfits.

Get excited. February and Las Vegas are closer than you think.

The Basics

Every player in this sport always strives to make him or herself a better player. So, how does a player become better? The greatest players in our sport aren’t known for having trick throws, a signature move or some other unnatural characteristic that sets them apart. They’re known for doing the basics better than everybody else. So, what are the basics?

I like to break it down into offensive skills and defensive skills. Don’t focus on just one skill set. You need both to become a great player. If all you do is catch goals, what happens when your team turns the disc? Offensive skills include forehand and backhand throws, sharp cuts, catching and good decision making. Defensive skills include marking, positioning, acceleration and reaction time. That’s only eight things to focus on.

Think about that. You only need to get good at eight things in order to become a great ultimate player.

Offense

You don’t need fancy throws and amazingly long hucks in order to become a solid thrower. When I think about the best throwers on our team, I think of the people who will throw an incut or an upline pass and complete it every time in stride. I don’t think of the people that put it deep every time just because they can. Work on consistency and accuracy. Start slow. Get your completion rate at ten yards to be 95%. Then work on twenty yards. Then thirty yards. Having a 95% completion rate at thirty yards should be the goal for anyone who wants to step on the field as an A team player.

Now that you have the throws down, you need the other half of playing offense: becoming someone who gets the disc thrown to them. Sharp cutting is the first step. How do I get open? By staying one step ahead of my defender. How do I stay one step ahead of my defender? By changing direction faster than he can? How do I do that? By being more efficient in my footwork. As an offensive player, you have an advantage. You know where you’re going. You get to be proactive. Don’t waste this advantage. Always take the shortest path from where you begin your cut and where you want to catch the disc. Rounding your cut elongates that distance. Taking three steps to make a cut instead of one elongates that distance. You don’t need more speed than your opponent to be a down field threat. You just need more efficient footwork.

Catching the disc involves more than just getting your hands around the disc. Two hands are always better than one, but that won’t make you the best receiver. Accelerating through the disc on an incut, reading a disc and catching the disc at your highest point on a huck separate mediocre players from great players. These skills mostly come from experience. It also comes from watching experienced players. Seek to identify and imitate the veterans on our team that come down with the disc more often than not.

Making a sweet cut, catching the disc and having the throw to put it where ever you want means nothing if you make the wrong throw. Good decision making is key to becoming a great player. Throwing the dump instead of the sweet huck or invert may seem to be a waste of your talent, but turning over the disc is worse. Vets tend to be over confident, especially if they come from a mediocre team where their decisions were never questioned. Rookies tend to make hurried decisions and hold the disc too long. The best way to make better decisions is to learn from your poor ones. Ask a vet what you should have done after you make a mistake. Even I still ask other vets to correct my mistakes. (Example: “Hey Lamp, how could I have avoided getting my leg broken?”)

Defense

I love defense, and I have an inherent bias towards defensive players over offensive players. Our team has a motto: Murder, Bury, Desecrate. Defense murders. Becoming an excellent defender puts you on the fast track for making the A team. Defense means a lot of running, so a team naturally has more spots reserved for defenders on its depth chart.

The most fundamental part of defense is having a good mark. Letting off break throw after break throw gets you sidelined faster than any other mistake you could possibly make. Make sure you know the force first. That’s key. Second, use your feet not your arms. Leaning to get the hand block will put you out of position every time. Keep your knees bent and your weight over the balls of your feet. A good mark doesn’t get the hand block every time. A good mark stops the invert and the break throw.

Being faster and more athletic than your opponent means nothing if you are 10 yards out of position. I’ve written a post about defense and positioning before. Look this post up for a pretty detailed description of different situations and the positioning that works best for each one. I will also say that field awareness naturally enhances your positioning ability. We play defense as a team. Know where your help is. Know where your threats are.

Acceleration and change of direction go along with becoming a good cutter in the offensive skill set. The only difference is that you are now reactive instead of proactive. The key here is keeping yourself in a position that allows you to go any direction. Keep your hips square to your opponent as long as possible. Committing to one direction before your opponent allows your opponent to get open while you have to change direction. Once again, efficient footwork is key. If you take one step, while he takes three, then you can make up the distance a lot faster even though you started your cut a half second later.

Greatness

Each one of these skills takes time to development. You don’t need to become a great player tomorrow in order to be good at ultimate. This sport is fun. Always keep that thought in the front of your mind. Coming to practices regularly will make you good at the skills I’ve outlined above. The purpose of this post is to get your mindset geared towards improving these skills at practice.

For those that want to do more than what we do at practice (if you have time), I suggest doing sprint workouts. Usually one or two vets show up about an hour before practice to do some speed and foot work drills. Also, you get plenty of endurance work at practice, but getting stronger tends to fall to the wayside. Find a partner and get in the weight room. Even if you’re by yourself and you can only go once a week, do it. Your improvement will rise exponentially.

As I’ve said before, Ultimate is all about having fun. The better you get, the more fun it is.

Top Ten Reasons I Play Ultimate

10. The Crowds. Notice how this is number ten.

9. Cause I’m good at it.

8. Rookies. Everyone needs an ego boost now and then. Seeing a rookie’s forehand (read as shitty throw) boosts my ego.

7. Competition. Yes, I find it ironic that we have a Spirit of the Game clause, and yet, we’re some of the most competitive people on the planet. By the way, joining an ultimate team will make you good at everything. Seriously, it’s your UPA membership contract.

6. Exercise. Yeah, I’m a health nut.

5. Road Trips. I get a warm, fuzzy feeling every time I get to say, “I’ve been to Vegas, New Orleans, Atlanta, Austin,…”

4. Nicknames. Sometimes, even a real name can become a nickname. Example: b rad.

3. Sweat Bands. I don’t care what other people say; sweat bands are badass.

2. Mohawk.

1. Laying out past chumps.

Rip's Rookie Survival Guide, Autumn Edition

Being a freshman is tough. Add to that the pressure of being a rookie on one of the premiere ultimate teams in the country, and your first month here can easily be overwhelming. Hence, I give to you, “Rip’s Autumn Installment of Rip’s Rookie Survival Guide”. I should charge money for this, but I don’t.

Who We Are

We tend to come across as young adults who don’t wanna grow up and are obsessed with a silly game. This stems from our competitive nature and fun loving spirit. To us, Ultimate is fun, and we make it more fun by being good at it. We also want others to have fun and be good at it too. This is where you come in.

Who You Are

As a rookie, you’re in one of three categories: high school athlete, frolfer, or an upperclassman looking to join an organization. If you think you fit into a different category, you don’t and I don’t care. No matter what category you’re in, you can become a really good ultimate player.

High school athletes have the easiest transition. You probably either played soccer or you ran cross country and track. If you were lucky, you played on a UPA youth team, but if you did, then this guide isn’t for you. Yours truly played football in high school. Your athleticism and history of team sports gives you an advantage over the other two categories, but your lack of skills can make you look foolish on the field. You’re good, but not that good. You have one job in these first few weeks: develop a forehand.

Frolfing is not ultimate. I’ve had to explain that to a lot of people, and half of them still think I play disc golf. I will play disc golf when I retire from ultimate, and I won’t before then. Frolfers, ultimate might seem like a lot of work to you. The running will be your biggest obstacle. Do not let this dishearten you. You have superior throwing skills that we need and will use in important games. That’s the beauty of ultimate, you don’t have to be overly athletic in order to be good.

Upperclassman, you guys usually come in one of two categories: dedicated or not. We have no hope for the nots. They usually quit after a month, and we are better off without them. The dedicated know what it means to be part of an organization in college. They manage their time well. They work hard. They really don’t need my guide, but they’ll read it anyway. Their biggest obstacle is dealing with the people who are younger then them giving them advice. Getting past the seniority complex will definitely make your life and ours easier.

Gear You Should Get

Cleats. Cleats. Cleats. If you are going to make one purchase all semester, then buy cleats. Everyone’s foot is different, but soccer and football cleats tend to work the best. Look for ones that are lightweight. I own a pair of adidas soccer cleats. Next, buy a disc. We sell ‘em for 10 bucks. If don’t want to buy them from us cause you think it’s a rip off, then buy from somewhere else. You should find that our price is good. We also offer deals for multiple disc purchases (if you buy more than one at a time, we give you a deal on every disc after the first one). Discs will break and get lost. I’d buy three, but maybe you’re better at not destroying things. If you buy a disc from somewhere else, make sure it’s a disc craft brand (Wham-O sells Frisbees, not discs. Don’t buy Frisbees.).

Then there’s the stuff that may or may not help but looks cool (sometimes). Trucker hats seem to be all the rage in the ultimate community. They’re light and block out the sun. Sweatbands also give you a look and can be useful. Football receiving gloves have been known to help some players, especially in chilly weather, but wearing them on warm days just looks stupid. Sunglasses are pretty much a no unless you complete 100% of your throws 100% of the time.

We do have some team gear: sweat pants, hoodies, track jackets, and polos. These do cost money, but as young freshmen, most of you can still get money from your parents for “books”.

Practice

Some college ultimate teams cut people who don’t demonstrate superb skill in the first few weeks. Illinois is not one of those schools. We prefer to teach and cultivate talent. We can make you a baller if you’re willing to learn.

Do not be upset if you can’t learn throw a forehand in one day, or even one month. If you’re new to the game, your forehand will be embarrassing. Trust me. I lived in “noforehandville” for a semester. I have a museum named after me. You should check it out while your there. Other sites of interest include Mickey’s Hall of Shame, Mickey’s Library of Bad Jokes, Mickey’s House of Talking too Much. Don’t forget to check out the statue of Chuck and Troy in the town center. They were the only two residents of noforehandville to play on the A-team while still living in noforehandville. I digress. My point is: your forehand will suck. It will only not suck if you keep practicing it. Don’t let the embarrassment stop you from throwing it. Us vets see the effort you’re making. We like to see effort. Don’t be afraid to ask veterans for help. It makes us feel important when we help out rookies.

Besides learning how to throw effectively, you’ll be taught our offense and rudimentary fundamentals of the game. We will throw a lot of information at you. Don’t be concerned with memorizing everything on the first try. We go over things a lot. Some of the vets still don’t know our plays. (Hey lefty, alpha six means you don’t throw deep, but thanks for the broken leg anyway. Really, I appreciate it.) Just do your best to learn the overall principals of good cutting, positioning, and defense. The rest of the game will flow from that.

For our practices, you’ll want to bring a water bottle (medium to big, I like gallon size: 69¢ at Wal-Mart), a white t-shirt, and a dark t-shirt. Grey is neither white nor dark. Do not wear grey. Camouflage isn’t a good idea either since we won’t be able to see you (that’s a joke, but seriously, don’t wear camo).

It’s a good idea to get to practice about half and hour early. Now, we understand if you have conflicts, especially if those conflicts are classes. Just make it to as much of practice as you can. The more time you spend with us, the better you’ll get.

Extra Stuff You Can Do

We like to work on stuff outside of practice as well. This usually means tossing a disc out on the quad on nice (or not so nice days). One of us will often send a email out to the listserv (need to sign up for the listserv? pripsky@gmail.com) stating a time and place. Show up, make a new friend, and learn how to throw a disc. Also, don’t be shy. Email the list yourself. Coming out to these throwing sessions is good for two reasons: better throws, girls tanning (yeah, I said it.)

Other Activities

Ultimate is not the only thing we do. Occasionally we’ll party, and by occasionally, I mean at least 3 times a week. Not everyone goes to everything, but someone is usually doing something that involves drinking and other teammates. We also tend to make this competitive as well. Hang with us and you will get good at drinking games. You won’t beat us, but you’ll amaze (or dominate) your non-ultimate friends.

When you come to these events, bring a garbage bag with you. This is what’s known as the Chuck Rule. Chuck, as a young, arrogant youth, drank more than he could handle and ended up ruining the entire wall of a teammate’s apartment.

Tournaments

You’ve already signed up for classes, but if you can still change your schedule, I recommend having no classes or early classes on Friday. The sooner you can leave on Friday, the more sleep you’ll get the night before a tournament. Also, having late classes on Monday is highly recommended. Always check the weather for the weekend. It really sucks when it’s raining and you have nothing but shorts and a t-shirt. Sunscreen and lip balm are also essential.