Its a big psychological thing to get into the habit of laying for the disc, one of the most fun drills I've done in a while, introduced by I think it was Rhys at Fak training "The Circle of Pain," or as he described it "Circle of Fame," for the women.
Its just you make a big circle, one disc, one person in the middle, feet on the ground disc is throw at the person in the middle, and they have to dive for it, with no steps towards it except the lay out.
It was a lot easier to hit the ground for the disc and the adrenaline was already flowing as it got close to my turn to step up, I didn't feel the ground and I bounced right back up as a combined Fakulti yelled at me "BACK UP ON YOUR FEET QUICK QUICK!"
Hell it was the first time I'd ever seen Fakulti genuinely fired up at a training session. Big circle people laying left right and backwards and some amazing grabs, nor did I realise the whole team was so adept at diving for the disc.
I know myself I wouldn't have before so willingly just jumped out as far and as high as I could onto the ground, one bruise came up on my thigh today as well and to be honest I didn't even know I was capable of one of the grabs that I did. Usually I wouldn't even have bothered. I didn't even know that catch was within my limits, but I learnt yesterday it will often take a mistake or a bit of pain to learn those limits, and to be able to play a perfect game to your limits always will make you an unstoppable force in any competitive sport.
It's not always easy to find those, we're taught always catch with two hands if you can, and I wouldn't argue with that, I don't want someone dropping the universal scoring point because he made a lazy grab. It is part of your training to practice 100% completion and never play lazily.
Last nights training session was something new, two of the drills we did were about testing and finding your limits.
I remember Pier's at the Youth Nats camp saying he had two modes for us to work in, experimental and completion modes. Experimentation was about finding what you could do and completion was about working it to 100%.
Since then I don't think I've done enough experimentation work. We had one drill last night just someone throws the disc to you, and puts a mark on and you have to throw it as quickly as you can. One of my throws I had Matt Dowle on the mark, went around for that backhand and thought that his long arms were too far in the way and I took a lazy forehand option (not the point of the drill) Ken yelled out at me "Why didn't you backhand you were already around him!"
I didn't even know the extent of my own reach. The next time that mark came on, I reached that point and thought hey, Ken was probably right and threw it. It came out as a pretty dodgy just catchable throw, but still there.
Learning those limits I just found out was crucial and its always important to not fear that failure or drop. Its all about learning.
The other thing I learned was the power of the crowd.
Being able to fire up your friends and team mates can be such a powerful tool.
Not just from getting from really good to amazing but sport is so often about psychological game and who wants it most. If a team thinks it can't win, it won't win. Ever.
We had some unfair come backs at Youth Nats last year, from 7-3 half times to 8-7 wins. The change in the pace of the game was every single time when we as a team realised that this was our game and we could take it if we wanted it. One game I remember being on the field against Church St, someone yelled at one of they're players "CUT CUT CUT," to which he replied "I can't! I can't!"
When our whole team circled up breaths heaving, sweat dripping down our faces exhausted, savouring the brief moments of rest a look of defeat across everyone's faces. It's hard having 5 points in a row scored against you. It took that moment of realisation and empathy to know that we'd been playing for 3 days (the training camp) and it was our last game. It wasn't time to stop now. Hell we were tired, but one look at the other team and the things they said and that moment of realisation that they, they're only human can do an amazing thing to a team.
I remember at the training camp, one of the scrimmmages we had, I was handling. Disc on the sideline of the field, man defense, I look at the stack. They're all waiting. I wait for the stall count a little longer up to 4 before I look to dump. The front of the stack runs forwards on a half arsed cut, blocked off clears slowly into the dump lane, high stall count forces a crappy throw which is d'd.
We stop for halftime, I think I told people what had happened, and they realised it too, it was the last game of the day before we all headed home so everyone wasn't trying. A quick reminder about the selectors watching and the few minutes left needed was enough to make everyone realise what they needed to do.
Its amazing what a simple realisation of the reality around them that can so heavily effect a person's psychological approach to a game.
Same situation after the break. Alex Allan makes eye contact with me, busts deep, but I know what he wants, I fake down low to the break side as Allan turns around again burning his defender for the in cut, the man at the front of the stack see's it and busts deep, an easy clean open side throw to Allan as he turns and looks upfield to the deep cutter. In a moment the disc goes up as the close defenders stop running to change direction as the field screams "UUUUUUUP!" it's too late. It won't make a difference. The disc floats down gracefully into the possession of one of the screaming, sprinting and sweating White players.
Yeah Thunder.
