Teaching New People

Teaching new people can be frustrating for some people having little tolerance for those who aren't as good, or have no idea what's going on. Like explaining the force, or how to tell people to clear.

My training log for yesterday would have been 11 hours of walking around at work. In that time I clear up a lot of tables and I get pretty bored. Specifically it involves just taking up all the dirty plates after a meal and then taking them to the kitchen for the kitchen hand, who also gets bored and does weird things to pass the time, like sing songs when I go into the kitchen and swear a lot.

I realised.
A good cut is like a good meal eaten off these tables.
Wheather the meal is good or not, you have to clear the table at the end of the meal just like a cut.
You could try and eat off the used plates, but it wouldn't be as good and all its really doing is getting in the way of any other meal getting placed on the table.

I'll try that one next time someone doesn't understand.

Frisbee Training Log - Alex's

I've only ever done hard training once before in my life. It was many times a week, with 4 organised sessions. 2 Just normal waterpolo trainings, one ground fitness and one pool fitness. It was pretty painful, the guy who ran the ground trainings was an ex boxer and extremely crazy, I dont think I've been put through that much pain in a long time, but his sessions were a lot of fun with part of his fitness sessions being games like theres a big ball in the middle of the room you ahve to put it in your box, team build ups etc, pretty good for increasing pain tolerance, speed and strength. Since then I've been pretty lazy.

I've haven't been challenged for a position in any sporting team.
In year 3 I tried out for a school cricket team and failed.
I tried out for a softball team in year 4, made it, I played pitcher and was pretty damn good at it. We won a lot of games.
In year 5 I tried out for a softball team at a new school, I didn't make it this time.
In year 6, I tried out for a school cricket team, we won our zone comp, carried by Jack Ritchie (our state player) that was a fun season, I remember the last game we lost for the Elders Cup. There was a lot of crying when we lost. We had 3 balls to go, they needed 3 runs, 1 wicket left. Ball is bowled, hit up in the air, a guy drops a sitter and starts crying. In the time he cried he missed any chance of a run out. We lost and a lot of people cried.

In year 7, I tried out for a volley ball team, got in, but was too scared to travel out west on trains to play games.
In year 8 I started playing waterpolo for school, a semi-obscure sport.
We had an awesome team, carried by our solid team work and our state player Tyler. Year 8/9 there was homebush, we lost to them in the finals. Year 9/10 we played opens and got dominated as the smallest team. I did manage to score a goal against homebush one game who at the time were a monster sized team with a lot of skill and aggression.
Year 10/11 was an annoying season, our state player t-mac was poached by the 2nds (we were the firsts), had a semi decent season, but came from 4th position to take the zone title. We won Crawford shield, but got Kincumbered in the regionals of state knockout.
Year 11/12 was a lame/average season. Worst final ever.

The point is, I've never been challenged for a position in a team for 6 years.
This will be something new.
I've started training since then.
Started a log as suggested by Piers a few weeks ago.
Here we go:

Training Log

10/12/07

25 mins Run – About 2 kms + sprints

50 Passes

15 Completions of Wing/Deep Drill

11/12/07

Leage Game: Friskee against No Dice – Lose - Experiment with 2 handler zone - works surprisingly well.

12/12/07

Barefoot Training – 4 Laps of Field (New Experience)

30 mins of game

20 mins of Plyometrics

15 Mins of strength

Run Through Drill x10

Power Play Drill x10

13/12/07

Manly League Finals (worst final ever, except the one against homebush) - Lost by a point 45 mins of running.

14/12/07

1 full lap of Park

Half Circuit of park – Indian File

100 Passes Drill

10 Mins Plyometrics

Injury: Ankle

16/12/07

Longest Day Beach Tournament – 14^th/20

Injury: Needle to Foot

Weight: 84 kgs

24/12/07

Finally started again.

25 mins of running, interval runs.

2x 100 throw sets

Plyometrics 10-15 mins

5 reps of throw/receiver drills with dump.

28/12/07

83kg

100 Throws short with teaching beginner.

25 minute run.

10 minute plyometrics.

Noticing fitness increase.

NB - have been working 8-9 hours every day since 24th standing/walking the whole time.

Juniors training camp here we go.

Test.

TITS123

Some Beach Fitness

28\12

Throwing with Max - no wind at the beach today, unfortunate, forehands are giving me trouble but there's signs of improvement in both accuracy and distance. 4km beach run after, competent pace, although I had to stop after 2kms to swim as I am almost fanatically unfit. Need to work on that, a lot.

Played some sweet 3v3 beach ultimate with a guy from Boulder, Colorado (College Champions 06, anyone?) and an English dude he was travelling with, as well as a few of my mates. My toe got extremely injured in the first point but I still played okay.

T.

A Tiny Bit More Training

23/12: I forgot about this one. I dragged Clare down to the beach and practiced throwing for about half an hour in extreme wind. Got my backhand flat, able to travel a reasonable distance. It floated too much and had a tendency to 'catch the wind' and get carried away, but I was fairly happy with it. Forehands I had much more trouble with. I had no idea how sloppy my technique was and I use way too much much outside in curve. Easily rectifiable, will attempt to adjust. Clare was throwing really well, too - and she was drunk, which I didn't even realise until later. The Womens team have a pretty good receiver in her, although from everyone I know in it they probably are already inundated with receivers.

26/12: About 15-20 minutes of swimming, nothing huge, just an attempt to make my muscles ease up a bit. I did some rockrunning, though. What's rockrunning, and how does it translate to Ultimate? Well, I started doing it to see if there was a pool on the other side of my local beach, but I started thinking about focus and balance halfway along the way, and I sped up. While I wouldn't call it training as such, there's a lot of things at work during a run over rocks - it's not actually 'running' as such, but jumping, so you get some sweet vertical/horizontal workouts. There's the rapid start/stop action you get in Ultimate (and in netball) as well as a heightened acknowledgment of how important balance and subtle adjustments of the body are - a point I find often overlooked, even though it seems pretty important (to me) in terms of cutting and throwing: a lethal fake, the kind I see people much better than me doing (and I constantly fail to defend against) involves lightning-quick change of direction, usually achieved by planting a foot and turning. There's balance at work! - likewise in throwing, where lazy folks don't pivot, or pivot extremely slowly, allowing the mark to shut down the break throw before the offence even reaches it.

So yeah, balance is important and rockrunning helps you balance. Go out and try it. It's really dangerous though so be careful, pace yourself to begin with.

T.

Training with Tiger

From now I'm going to use this weblog as my training diary: an idea that makes sense to me because this way other people can see what I'm doing, give me advice/help if I need/they want and most important of all I probably won't lose it. Highly likely if I attempted it on paper.

So, it's time for a State of Le Tigre address:

In the cooldown period after my Tuesday and Thursday night League games (as well as Wednesday night training with Fakulfoot) stopped - my ideal time to start training - I got very sick. I wasn't quite all right (the usual, coughing fits late at night which led to vomiting, leading to no sleep or energy, so the cycle began anew) until Christmas Eve. Here we go.

24/12: First Big Training Session: Joined by my main man Semfel, we started off with 100 throws, which led to a 1k? (not sure of the distance) jog which I varied with some sprinting to challenge myself. Then a water break. Plyo's Semfel and I stole from Barefoot - we looked very silly but I could definitely feel the plyometrics stimulating muscles I use while jumping. 100 throws, again. Interval running ('Let's sprint to this cone, walk to the next, two cones length of jogging after that then sprint for two!') for a very long time. Water break.

As far as I can recall, the next and last thing we did was a modified shuttle run/kill drill: five cones, three in a stack about ten metres away from the two 'throwing cones' (the cone on the left for righty backhand/lefty forehand, the cone on the right for righty forehand/lefty backhand). It was the receiver's job to start in the middle of the three cones, which were about 5m away from one another. Starting at cone 2 (middle) he would sprint out to cone 3 (furthest away from thrower) as a deep fake, turn and sprint to cone 1, get the disc from the thrower, dump it immediately, sprint to cone 2, fake open-side cut then sprint to the breakside for a dump, then jog to cone 2 and bust deep past cone 3 for a huck/score. Repeat with the thrower on the other side.

We did that drill with about six lots of two reps each, and later made the thrower have to cut to the first cone instead of staying stationary.

Then to finish it off we did a modified 100 throws: two 'throwing lanes' erected with cones, every throw has to be caught within the lanes otherwise both people's set of 10 throws starts again, and you have to do pushups as punishment. Pushups work on an increment system - first mistake = 1, second = 2, etc etc, all the way up to 10 whereby they go back down: 9, then 8, then 7 for every mistake. The idea was that if one managed to make 20 mistakes (travel the whole way up to ten then back to zero) then you start the entirety of 100 throws all over again.

That drill sucked, and my arms still hurt. Although it led (on my side, Semfel was understandably more tired than I from a 9 hour shift and too much noodles the hour previous) to a much greater appreciation of the disc, and made me really concentrate on catching the disc with two hands wherever possible (because I am weak and hate push ups). Despite doing it while physically exhausted, this drill made me extremely mentally focused.

Cooled down with a bit of a run and lots of stretching. I'm going to notch that one into the 'highly successful' column. I learnt a lot.

T.

How To Get Awesome At Ultimate Part I

Have a pre-game ritual, and perform it at every game, whether it's a pick-up game or the final of Nationals: it will help you get in the zone and make you less nervous for those first few points in a game where it really matters.

But, and here's the important part, make sure that this pre-game ritual is something like stretching or doing a lap of the fields, and not drinking Sunnyvale Fruitylexia out of a goon sac.

T.

Think Positive

Run hard. Run smart. Dream big.

This signature appeared at the bottom of an email Piers sent me once, and it struck me as just the sort of thing Piers - not a particularly tall man (like me) who still maintains a competitive edge at the peak level of Ultimate (unlike me) - would have as his signature for all his emails.

And on the surface it seemed great to me. But I've been thinking about it more. Run hard: no problem here, anyone who can still stand after running you to the ground wins games, and I've lost track of the times I've wanted to kill myself when athleticism and fitness have won over my year-odd's worth of playing time and experienced. Run smart: again, can't argue - smart running, while not as important as fitness, is definitely right up there, unless like my co-blogger Alex you use 'smart running' and 'short deep' as excuses to laze around.

But dream big? This sort of thing is what we call positive reinforcement. I've heard the spiel many times - think about it Tiger, visualise yourself skying the Gack or getting a footblock on Matt Dowle, beating your man deep, scoring on anyone, breaking the mark: the list goes on. At first, positive reinforcement seemed like a great idea during fitness training, where repetitive tasks make you lose your focus - we need that carrot dangling in front of us. But there are some negative effects of this sort of positive reinforcement that I'd like to address under the delusion that anyone apart from myself actually reads this blog.

Unrealistic expectations. Let's be honest, I might as well accept it, I'm never going to get a footblock on Matt, or even sky anyone. If I'm constantly visualising this and - gasp - start to believe it, then pretty soon I'm going to lead on to the next effect:

Reduced efficiency on the field. So let's say I think I got this guy. We've just scored, I got this guy. I have the disc in my hand, I'm about to pull and I just look at him. Yeah. I got this guy. I pull and I run down hard and then he joins the stack and I'm facemarking him and I'm thinking I got this guy. Then, all of a sudden, I don't - I don't have the focus, I'm too busy thinking about how much I'm all over him. He fakes in, I commit too hard, he cuts long to score. Leading to my next bad thing about good thoughts:

Demoralisation. We've all been here. I've seen it a lot. Games where the sure winner is up 13-9 ending 13-15 because the defence chokes, or when a timeout is called and the losing team comes out stronger to win. If you spend your time thinking about how good you are and then all of sudden you're burned by some chump, it's hard to get your head back in the game.

Wow. This ended up a lot more serious than I intended. I guess the point is that positive reinforcement is a good enough incitement to put in more effort in training, but an attitude of assumed superiority won't win you any games once push comes to shove.

I want to do a beer stand at Longest Day 2007.

T.

Aspirations and Memories

The past few weeks have been relief after stress after relief as I powered through the last few exams of the HSC assessment block.

Not only did my social life, health, and free time suffer immensely (I spent a week stuck in bed having to study with the feeble energy I had remaining) but I've lost time to play as much Frisbee as I had before.

It brought back a few happy memories.

Longest Day 2006:
This was my first tournament that I played, I remember the night before I couldn't sleep I was so excited to be out having this sort of fun and time with my friends.
The day of sand surf and beach ultimate was sweet. Things that happened in no particular order:

• I lost my first ultrastar that I'd bought in the surf. Andy told me that's why you don't use white discs at the beach.
  
• Tom did a keg stand.
  
• Noble found some 2 year olds bikini and wore it to get sweet tan lines. He later had to stay home bceuase of sunstroke and severe peeling.
• Mango eating competitions
• Fruit eating competitions
• So much fruit.
• Fun games, good spirit.

Mixed Nats was good. Played with Manly.
Shirts were fun.

Aspirations

We finished the HSC and this means I'm going to try and be drunk for as much of the next week as possible before embarking on a personal development program.

Goal:
Tomorrow night is my first NSL Summer League 2008 game. To celebrate and get drunk, every time a certain event happens I have to take a shot/swig of whatever I'm drinking. I have Mark and Tiger in on it as well.

However, I don't want to annoy my team or the other team which may mean some bench time.

The Perfect Throw

It's an outside-in backhand. We've all been there. Before we even get to the disc, walking in the stack, we can hear our heart pumping full to burst with the sheer immensity of life. Teeth clench and muscles stretch and fire - the cut is on. Faking out, wildly, six steps in their immensity. Could it be? asks the defender; not a cut to the endzone! The world slows as the D stumbles haphazardly, staggering and lurching down the field while our legs on O like razors plough the ground. Like lightning, cleats dig deep into the ground. The earth becomes raw and bleeding with the severity of the change in direction - the defender now stalling, backpedaling, oh-so-slowly realising he has over-committed and now seeks far too late to reverse his direction.

But there's nothing he can do. We're already open.

Screaming for the disc now. Eye contact is made - the throw is completed for a ten yard gain. We take the three steps, establish a pivot and scan the field for an option. There - the world is quiet over the screams of our sidelines and we are filled with an unimaginable celerity. The mark stumbles towards you - stalling one stalling two - but what he doesn't see as you fake a low breakmark forehand lavishly - languidly, you have all the time in the world - is a deep threat, his defender face-marking him.

Again, our cunning ruse has broken the defender - his limbs too splayed and tangled over one another, desperately trying to stop the break throw - and a small smile creeps upon our face as we can feel something primeval: this is what all the practice has come to. We don't even think now, we react - the front-marked deep threat fakes to the back-left corner of the endzone. Knuckles clenched white-hot, one solitary finger curled around the rim for stability, our arm sighs softly through the wind for the backhand. Bang. There it is. Chest height. Slicing through the air. Will it land out? The front-marked cutter doubles back to the front-right corner, his eyes alight for the score. It won't land out. The slightest kiss of an outside-in curve as it spins and spins towards the score. Our sideline stands at attention, roaring, thrusting exclamation out into the cool air. The cutter now open - his defender moving in slow motion 'no!' - runs towards the disc, arm outstretched. The whole world waits on its knees.

The disc is dropped. Two hands, buddy.

T.

To Do List:

Mixed Nats NSW Qualifiers (25th/26th August 2007)
Melbourne Hangover Hat (Dec 2007)
NSL Summer League (2007/8)
NSL Spring Hat (2007)
WJUC 2008 (Also making the sqaud/team)
Learn to run
As many release points for backhands. (In Terms of Height/Reach/Orientation to the body, of throw)
As many release points for forehands.
Smart D
Anticipation D
Fitness

Longest Day 2007 :

To be held 15th/16th December.
Team: 300
Colour: Red/Black/White

Aim: To dine in hell (Living forever = Spartan Failure)

Method to Achieve Goals:

• Rock Hard Abs
• Pile of dead bodies
• Spears
• Slow motion
• Swords
• Leather underpants
  
• Learning to throw spartan shields as weight training for beach tournaments field length.
• Making full use of Athenians despite their unwarrior-like atitudes.
• Spartan women at home to take care of politics (Particularly the future People's Republic of Endzone)
• War cries, ie "Tonight we dine in hell," "Come back with your shield or on it," "For Sparta,"

Playbook will involve such moves as the slow motion offense and offering our Spartan women's bodies for political gain and gold. Furthermore large botomless pits will be engineered in the endzones before matches for their pre-arranged use.

Of course, it can't all be revealed now.

I believe that this is a surefire way to succeed in Longest Day 2007.

Improving at Ultimate

It won't happen if you don't get off the computer.

Get outside and run, idiots.

T.