The Keystone to Cutting Moves

Last week I did a broad stroke piece on your move repertoire and some ideas on how to incorporate the idea into drills. One coach in my history, Magnum, gave me a key piece of information that I believe all people should base their cutting-move repertoire on. This applies to both handler reset cuts (dump and sideline) and general cuts.

Initiate a first direction cut at full speed and continue in that direction unless your defender fully commits to defending your initial cut.

For example, when running a sideline reset as a handler, start with a cut roughly 45 degrees moving towards the sideline at full speed. After three or four steps if your defender is not committing to that cut then continue up the line, otherwise reverse the cut and retrace your steps backwards (a full speed reverse).

This is the first move you should have in your cutting-repertoire. It's a very simple idea and very effective, but it's incredibly challenging to become an expert at. The challenge is in reading the situation and developing team chemistry to understand how your move meshes with others.

Imagine this. You initiate your cut from the horizontal stack, at maximum speed, in the direction of a deep strike. Now, what is your response if ...

• ... another cutter strikes deep.
• ... your defender doesn't commit, but a poaching defender is in a good position.
• ... you reverse your cut but find that your lane has been taken.

... and the list goes on. There's an infinite number of "what ifs" that can be made up. Even reading when your defender has committed to your first cut is hard to do, and this skill alone takes practice. In all, these decisions come down to experience and taking advice from more experienced players and coaches.

Still, with one basic cutting-move your repertoire can be very effective and once you add fakes, different movements, and teamwork the repertoire quickly grows.

PJ

Improving Your Move Repertoire - Repeat and Expand

This is a topic I've been meaning to delve into for some time now. The idea of "moves" is that in game situations like breaking the mark, cutting to get open, and running a dump cut we have an internal set of moves that we use to succeed. Today I'll look into what to do with your moves, but first an example.


For example, when I cut for a Berkeley (reset from the sideline) against less experienced defenders, I cut up the line until they look away, reverse the cut back with an exaggerated step (maybe an arm shoots out), and then reverse again continueing up the line for an easy lead pass. I've mastered this move and use it regularly in a certain level of game. Defenders can get completely beaten by this move and end up running multiple steps in the opposite direction I'm cutting.

That's a great move to have, but that move only works a few times until the defender adapts. Then I have to adapt and use another move, and so on, and so on. Hopefully, over a game I'll get different defenders so that I don't have to adapt too much, but as teams get better and people learn your moves and play better defense you need to find more.

Note, the move I describes sounds very rigid, but incorporated in a move is options based on reading the situation and working with your teammate. For example, the above described Berkeley cut is only executed based on a more preliminary setup (I'll discuss this in another article).

The three groups of moves that I allude to at the start of this article are related to a start drill I like to run at practice - Lotto. The problem with teams that I've helped coach is this drill becomes repetitive and the players become bored and go through the motions instead of taking advantage of the practice.

However, the approach you should take to make the drills interesting is to run through your moves similar to classic dribbling drills in basketball or the start of Martial arts sessions (where artists go through standard punches and kicks to perfect each skill). Some suggestions for looking at drills you find boring include:

• Use drill repetitions (i.e. one through three) to practice your classic moves, and use later repetitions (four and five) for new experimental moves.
• Use the X repetitions where each repetition builds on the last to set up your defender. For example, on repetition one of three man throw a flick. On repetition two throw a flick again. On repetition three know that the defender will, likely, over play the flick and use that to set up a nice backhand.
• Drill with the same defender or top quality players so you can't get away with your classic moves.
• Try using a move over and over to perfect it questioning how has the defender adapted, and what does that adaption open up in new opportunities.
  

First, you need to identify and establish basic moves (hopefully, your coaches and experienced teammates can help). Next, you need to practice and refine the moves you have learning when to adapt, and finally, you need to creatively, depending on the read, transition between moves. The larger and better your repertoire of moves, the better you'll be on the field.

PJ

More Mainstream Media Reporting on Video Game Sports Benefit

Another article (here) has jumped on to what I've been pushing for some time now - video games for athletic training. The article is not a full blown promotion for gaming as training. The article describes examples of gaming, but more a focus on how technology has impacted sports and the idea of virtual training. They completely bypass the idea of spacial awareness, which I believe is the biggest benefit for team based athletes.


Also, in the article they make a brief reference to the Wii. Likely, you've been discussing and wondering how the Wii could impact an Ultimate video game. One of the ideas I had was manufacturing a disc in which you could insert one of the joysticks/remotes. Then I wonder if the throwing motions could be captured in a game. Maybe with a Wii fit board you could somehow play a game. I imagine it would be a first-person based sports game similar to EA's latest range of first-person campaings (if you haven't tried one like Fifa'09 then give it a shot. It's a new take on the sports game, and I've taken Andy Johnson and Fulham much further then there real counterparts [though Fulham is having an amazing season]).

I doubt we will see a mainstream Ultimate game in the near or far future. Once again our sport is too small and the game appeal is not worth the game development costs. This is good since you have to go out and run around instead of playing video games simulating your sport in the isolation of your own home. Keep video games for those downtimes, and use them for improving hand-eye coordination and spacial awareness.

PJ

Passive Barriers in Ultimate

Another morning where my daily reading hits on a topic that I think might be interesting to the community. The concept is passive barriers, and I read about it with respect to money in this article.


First, definitions for those of you who aren't interested in the article:

• Barriers: "There are dramatic differences in what we say versus what we do. Often, the reason is so simple that we can’t believe it would affect us. I call these barriers".
• Active Barriers: "Active barriers are physical things like the plastic wrap on my food, or someone telling me that it’ll never work, etc."
• Passive Barriers: " Passive barriers are things that don’t exist, so they make your job harder."

Now to Ultimate - Barriers will affect goals whether they are team goals or individual goals, so we should look into some barriers that may be troubling your goals.

Goal 1, in my case, is an individual effort to warm up properly before games and practice. This is the type of thing I promise to myself every year so that I can last longer into the season. The main barriers to this goal are waking up early after lack of sleep, and focusing on proper warm ups after byes during tournament days. Both of these barriers seem to be passive in that I don't have enough time, and I'm trading off that time for fun. I'm not sure how to deal with these barriers, but we all face it in Ultimate.

A team barrier, for example, is the tendency for the O-line to huck the disc too often and not play a small game. Barriers that cause this can include:

• Individual throwers and team opting for the easy way out via a fast score.
• Individual throwers and team over using one weapon.
• Lack of team confidence in the short game.

The same is true for the opposite where a team never hucks, but we tend to see this less.

Not sure how you solve these, but at least being aware that even though we say we're going to do something it doesn't mean we are. Action should be post evaluated and barriers identified to rectify, if that is the true goal, the situation.

PJ

Efficient returns - good economics for improvements?

In a recent article in the New York times, the topic is how the free throw, in basketball, is a statistic that is not improving for the NBA. The experts claim is that:
"Ray Stefani, a professor emeritus at California State University, Long Beach, is an expert in the statistical analysis of sports. Widespread improvement over time in any sport, he said, depends on a combination of four factors: physiology (the size and fitness of athletes, perhaps aided by performance-enhancing drugs), technology or innovation (things like the advent of rowing machines to train rowers, and the Fosbury Flop in high jumping), coaching (changes in strategy) and equipment (like the clap skate in speedskating or fiberglass poles in pole vaulting)."
That and the free throw is not the main skill to focus on within the sport. I'm sure free throw competitions have better shooters as they focus on this one skill.


This got me thinking about Ultimate. Do we have skills that are maximized? Again, we're in the domain of lack of statistics to even continue the thought experiment, so I won't waste too many words in that direction (4 gone just to finish that sentence).

The question that I thought might be really useful to ask, is there any skill that we are good enough at? Should we be spending time on another skill set? For example, I would argue that many teams spend way too much time on casual throwing, though that's not really a skill.

Another aspect that I think teams spend too much time on is getting faster in terms of top speed. Fitness is important, and fitness should be incorporated in practices. Note, however, that fitness should not be simply sprints; fitness should involve game-used footwork with or without a disc, or sprints with a disc. Speed is one of those areas I feel that you get very little return from in terms of how much you have to put into it.

In terms of what to practice, the best thing you can do is determine what skills to work on will give you the greatest returns in game situations. This isn't a simple problem by any means, but it is something to think about. For example, developing teams love to huck and practice hucking. The reality, in many cases, is that the time spent on hucking will return maybe one or two more deep completions in a game (and that's probably via only one or two players who are good huckers anyway). While developing your endzone and small game skills will result in better team play and more possession for all your players.

PJ

Anyone's PAL - Posture, Arm, Legs

The breathing article I posted lasted month has been very active in terms of comments and views. We all like to look for something to improve on in the off-season, so topics like this can be interesting as we all try to put ourselves on the field as competent athletes. We'll along these lines I've been wondering about running technique in general.

In my search for information, I've found quite a few references to PAL System (Posture, Arms, Legs). This system was created about 30 years ago by Vern Gambetta in his book:

Sport Specific Speed Book: Improve Running Mechanics

I haven't made the leap yet to buy the book, and wanted to query if anyone has read the book and if it has value. That or any other good sources that might help us all.

PJ

Science, Reading, and ...

Actually, I've decided to write about the science of reading the disc. I've read a few posts on the science of baseball, and this post in particular analysed the science behind fielding a baseball.

Pictured Above: The boys I miss. good luck to you all this weekend, and Chua, don't put Martinis in your eyes (photo courtesy of Marc Hodges).

From the above article, it's clear that there is controversy about theories of evolution and how it applies to a specific skill like fielding. There are two things that I think we can take from these ideas.

The first, is that these types of skills are learnt from practise. Each repetition helps you develop your intuition on reading the disc. This is good news since we can train the reading skill. What I think we do wrong in training is we don't vary the reading angles as much as we should. At least in my experience, the majority of reading drills we do are hucking drills. There's nothing wrong with hucking drills, but teams tend to do the same drill over and over from similar angles. I would suggest, reinventing a few hucking drills to improve disc reading skills.

Pictured Above: A joust between Bodhi and Goat. I like the Bodhi jerseys, and once again VC shows off more exciting jersey desgins (photo courtesy of Marc Hodges).

The second idea that might be useful to take from the science of fielding is rethinking the mechanics of reading the disc. How can we break down the read a little more? My first thought is on the release of the disc, like the crack of the ball off the bat, the throw is probably the most important thing to see for your read. How many times have you seen a misread disc based on the receiver not seeing the initial huck? Along the above lines it might be useful to train the read from a disc already in the air to develop that second chance intuition.

PJ

The logic of life ... Ultimate?

I read one of those books that makes you think. I really enjoyed "The Logic of Life" by Tim Harford much like I enjoy most economic conversation books. I could talk about some of the fascinating ideas that the book brought up about prostitution, why we live in cities, and how neighbourhoods work, but this is an Ultimate blog, so let's relate it to Ultimate.

Pictured Above: More great GUT shots. Here we see the eventual winners, team USA in white, setting up for the throw.

One of the driving concepts in book is the rational approach we, people, all take, whether conscious or unconscious. This rational choice dictates how we behave. This concept when applied to Ultimate might give us some insight. If we could break down and understand why we play the sport at different levels, then players and coaches might have a better understanding of how to drive teams and individuals towards their goals.

With Ultimate, the starting point lies in the fact that we don't make money in this sport (or generate a gross income). This means we need to examine the other base costs of our game.

First off, we can look at the negative costs:

• Time - practice, travel, weekend and holiday time, league nights, socializing... It's a major cost that trades off friends and family for Ultimate (which includes some friends and family).
• Money - equipment, travel, fees, and, arguably most important, lost opportunity cost (my friend Phil's thinking).
• Body Damage - this sport can hurt.
  

There are all sorts of other costs, but these costs drive us away from playing the sport (especially at a high level). The key thing is we need to understand what are the positive counter costs.

• Social - the people that play Ultimate, and the people you meet make this game great. Also, the events that we participate including tournaments and games are fun.
• Health - pretty simple statement is Ultimate is a great form of exercise.
• Competition - Ultimate and it's developing stage means you can experience competition at a high level very quickly. Regardless of level, we all like to compete.
  
• Fame - we all like to be known. Ultimate is no exception, and people like to be famous. It's always fun to tell someone outside the sport, such as friends and family, that you play Ultimate at a regional, national, or international level in a sport.
• Challenge - learning and achieving bring great joy to most people.
  

Again, I'm missing all the factors, but for all of us that play Ultimate, we play because group 2 out weighs group 1. If you question why you are playing Ultimate, then the advantages of group 2 are not big enough compared group 1.

The next question is, can you use this knowledge, if you could understand these costs realtive to yourself and your team? As a coach or captain, it does help to understand how much social versus how much competition a team needs. If this is unbalanced for your team, then you'll lose people as their cost functions shift to group 1. This emphasizes the importance of making a team ethos so that up front people know what they're getting involved in.

The unfortunate reality, is that all these costs both in group 1 and group 2 are not independent of one another. As usual these things are comples. More competition means more costs since you, likely, have to travel further. Health and body damage are in direct contrast to each other.

I'm still working out how to evaluate myself and my teams in terms of my/their motivations, but being aware of these concepts gives you a rough tool that can help you understand team and individual behaviour, especially in tough times.

PJ

More about fakes...this time without the disc

I watched UFC 84 this weekend, and one of the fights was Tito Ortiz versus Lyoto Machida. One of the comments during the fight was how Lyoto's style was elusive, because of all the fakes. I started thinking about some people I've defended in the past. Some were elusive, but were any of them elusive because of their fakes?

Pictured Above: Phil Watanabe making a big cut (though it could be reversed) to commit his Johny Bravo defender in the opposite direction of his cut (photo courtesy of Lisa Di Diodato)

If you dominate in terms of athleticism (meaning you can simply out sprint your opponent), then straight cuts work, and fakes are unnecessary. If you can't outright dominate in athleticism, and you're either matched or potentially outmatched then fakes are a useful tool in getting open.

Before cutting fakes come into play, the basic step of getting open is making your defender commit to something while you're going or doing something else. For example, simple V cuts (or boulder cuts) work on the principle that the first cut is a legitimate option that the defender must commit too. As the defender commits, the second part of the V cut is the reversal.

The main problem with simple commit cuts is that human defenders adapt and learn to predict. They learn to guess where your cuts will go and your particular movements the more you play them. This adaption against a good defender can happen during the first point you match up against them. This is where things get interesting and you need more options to get open - in comes fakes.

As with all fakes, they're a means to an end. Faking for its sake alone is useless, but with team chemistry (needed so that the thrower understands your fakes), fakes can open up the field. The cutting fake comes from jukes, body position, eyes, head movement, and arms among other moves. The problem is, nobody that I know of has studied or broken down the good fakes and how to use them. My guess is cutting, like fighting is a stylistic art, and I'm not sure you can develop a Lyoto of cutting, since each person will develop their own arsenal of fakes.

The thing I'm really interested in is the coaching progression of fakes. How do you teach individuals or put them in the right environment to increase the quality of their fakes, quickly?

When you get matched up against an opponent who you can't seem to shake using your current bag of tricks, then you try new things to see if it works. Each time something works you might add it to your arsenal and improve that new move. Your opponent learns your trick, and then you have to adapt again.

My first thought to teach this is to match players up with smart, athletically equivalent (or better) opponents and allow simple evolution of skills (including the fake) to improve. This seems to make sense, but I'm not sure the progression will be fast enough.

PJ

Tryouts or Politics

Here in the UK, the season is heading into Tour 2 in Cardiff this weekend. Meanwhile in North America the college season is heading into the eight regionals and the Canadian and US Club teams are starting to have there tryouts. Additionally, Team Canada is making picks for world teams. One question I've always had about tryouts (both trying to be picked and picking) is, how much politics plays in the game versus skill?

Pictured Above: An old photo of Scotty Nichols throwing around Shaky at CUUC'06 to Inian.

It's obvious that when it comes down to a player with almost the same skill level as another player, who you know and how well you are liked is likely the biggest factor in making a team. Of course, if you're known as an abrasive player or someone who doesn't get along with people this will be a major drawback.

Another situation that can come up is when you're deep into a roster (let's say 20 through 25 on the bench), how much does skill matter versus how you are known by the people picking the team. I think your community status within the ultimate scene is probably a bigger factor than how you performed at tryouts (assuming that your skill level is reasonably close to the teams level).

Based on these scenarios, what can you do. Number one, because we are based in an amateur sport you need to make friends and be nice. Unless you are a dominant player or superstar, you're not going to be playing with your Ultimate team of choice unless you fit in. Number two, if you get typecast as a certain style of player (maybe "the dropper", "the pressure failure", or "the inconsistent") you need to focus on that aspect of your game and change it. This change won't be doable in a year, but you'll need to take whatever opportunities you get this year and make the change for next.

Good luck on whatever road you're taking. If you're a coach remember to open your mind to players year in and year out, and if you're a player then relax and just be yourself.

PJ

5 hour energy drink?

I haven't seen this drink in the UK, but I've seen it lots in North America - the 5 hour energy drink, one of many such drinks called energy shots. For a sport that enjoys its energy drinks including the likes of Gatorade, Red Bull, and Colas we might as well give this latest product a quick look. Here's a review of one of the shots targeted to athletes.

It sounds like these drinks are an intense caffeine and caffeine like substances with some other chemicals. I don't really know the difference between these shots and the energy drinks minus the sugar and fluid. Safety wise, it sounds like these drinks are pretty intense, but I have no real feel for these sorts of issues - it's the classic consult a physician before proceeding. Benefits...unknown.

PJ

Add to the skill set - The sideline

It's great to have the throws, the catches, the speed, the cuts, etc. A skill which I consider one of my better abilities is being a sideline player.

Pictured Above: The sideline watches on as a Shazam Returns player and a Slow White player joust in the air (Photo taken by Me and that's why it's blurry).

One of the key advantages Ultimate teams have over other sports is that there is no restriction to where the players need to stand when they're not on the field. Most competitive teams tell their players to spread out around the field. The benefit being extra eyes and motivation all around the field, but the question is, what should you be doing?

The best advice I've ever had on how to sideline talk is from a former teammate Greg Lang. He made the comment that the sideline tells you what is happening, but doesn't make decisions for the onfield players. In other words, the sideline player is an extra pair of eyes to help out, and yet you'll hear many a sideline player telling the guys on the field what to do. In many cases, field perspective is different than sideline perspective, and it's better to provide additional information (with the exception of things like a player striking deep or an incorrect mark).

So, how do you practice being a good sideline player. The first thing is fitting into the team structure. I remember in my early days on Grand Trunk that my sideline chatter was too much for some of my teammates. Depending on the structure you might adjust and fit in with the team. In that case, I chose to stand my ground because I felt that my skill was useful for the team, but I stopped talking to those particular teammates when they were on the field.

Next, you need to develop you sideline style. Will you be a stream of consciousness, announcing everything that you see on the field. I think this is a poor choice since too much information for field players will be filtered out. You, also, need to pick your moments, and equally, you need to pick how much to emphasize different situations. This means you can't yell at full volume all the time, or like the boy who cried wolf, your cries will have no results. Tone and volume are useful in expressing the importance of the information to the guys on the field. I like to keep my instructions calm and positive when I can.

The other key to being a good sideline player is developing a feel for the game and learning to predict or detect certain developments on the field. What I like to do is pick a spot on the sideline (for me it's near an endzone line) and I watch all my games from that perspective. This is how I like to see the game unfold, and it is familiar setting that I've learned to watch the game from and read the situation.

Any team can use the sidelines as an advantage. The key is to use that advantage and avoid the desire to walk off the field and sit in a folding chair with your friends, screaming across the field about what's happening. There's nothing wrong with this in casual games, but at higher levels you've got to have as many eyes on the field as possible.

PJ

I was lost but now I'm found

Hey Folks,

I've been questioning my direction in Ultimate as of my recent move from Toronto to London. If I was in Toronto, I would most likely be preparing to captain GT, but my new postal code eliminates that possibility.

Ultimately lost!

Sunday morning, on my way to a Clapham practice, I was transferring from my 2nd bus to my 3rd bus (the tube/subway line I needed was closed on Sunday). As I waited for the bus I realized that I was going to be doing this 3 to 4 times a week. This is what I've done for the past 7 years in Toronto, but I didn't move to England to practice and play every weekend. The reality is I'm here to see and experience new things.

This realization meant that high-level Ultimate with a great team that pushes hard doesn't make sense at this point in my life. I really like the Clapham guys and their attitude toward the game, but I don't have the motivation to push hard and make the sacrifice without some driving goals (Steven was right in his comments about needing new goals after my recent success - his blog).

Instead, I've found an alternative team called ABH. For those of you in Toronto, ABH reminds me of GT/Roy mixed with Zen. The good thing is the team is local (close to Imperial), and seem like a fun bunch that I should mix with well, but I still get to play organized competitive Ultimate. That along with continuing to help out with Imperial's team will be my focus on Ultimate this year.

Now, the next challenge will be not being a coach/captain. It's funny how hard it is to see drills and game play that are significantly different than the philosophies I'm more used to. We'll see how interested people are into letting me teach, but I'm happy to have less responsibility and just play Ultimate for a change. Of course, with my personality I'll see how long that lasts.

PJ

The hand warmer - neat little package

As the spring season seems to be moving into full swing, you might find yourself playing in very cold weather (depending on your location in the world). Even last week, I was playing in a game or two in London where by the end I was having trouble closing my hand on the disk because of the cold. Personally, I'm not a glove guy (although I'll consider wearing a glove on my non throwing hand).

Pictured Above: some action at Snowplate 2002.

A solution: this Christmas I got an interesting little gift from my stocking - reusable hot packs. They come in many forms, but essentially you have a pack of fluid with a metal disc inside. You snap the disc causing a reaction and the liquid quickly turns to a solid generating lots of heat (it gets hot). This lasts for about 10 to 15 minutes, and you need to recharge the pack by putting it in boiling water until the solid completely turns back into a liquid.

It's a simple solution to give your hands a quick heat boost. It's somewhat environmentally friendly since you don't throw it away, but you are paying an energy cost to recharge the pack.

If you're interested in how the pack works, take a look at this blog. This is at least an introduction to the sodium acetate solution and how it works.

PJ

Poll Thursday - Am I old?

I'm 31 going on 32 in November. My 2008 Ultimate season started last Saturday and Monday joining two Open practices in London (one University and one Open). This is actually a little early for me to be playing, and normally, I would be spending February, March and April ramping up for the season by lifting waits and getting some plyo work in. I guess things happen a little earlier here, so I'll have to adjust fast.

In other words, I'm not in shape. The change of location has thrown off my phased based workouts significantly, and I'm trying to determine the safest training plan to get in shape without getting injured. My biggest concern is my achilles acting up again, but already I have a cold after not having a cold for almost 2 years.

The funny thing is I look at other similar sports (lets say both UK and US football and basketball) the age of 31 is not the dominant age in terms of numbers of athletes, but there are still lots of them still playing. In many ways, the slight decrease in your physical skills is greatly compensated by your experience in sport.

The real thing I've noticed is that pushing yourself to stay in top shape is harder. I know that I'll be in pain after a tough workout, and that pain will last longer than it did in my twenties. I know the risk of injury is greater and the recovery will take longer. The question then is how do you motivate yourself to push on.

At UCPC, Dr. Goldberg made it very clear that you need to have a goal, and if you don't have a clear goal that motivates you to play the sport then you, likely, won't get better. Right now I'm searching for that goal. I would be interested in hearing other people's drives. I've made some suggestions to the right in the poll.

PJ

Eastbay savings and more...

People who run websites can get affiliate status by advertising for products on their website. For example, my blog has google adsense, which has generated $12.55 for my blogs lifetime (of course you only get paid if you hit an increment of $100). For other sites that have traffic and related advertising they can make a hefty second income stream.

So, why is this exciting for the Ultimate community? Well, my lab mate, Ian, and I once came up with a scheme whereby we would become affiliates to many different companies, and then allow people to sign up and buy things through those affiliate links. The catch is, we would share the profit between the buyer and ourselves passing on savings to you the buyer, and making profit for ourselves.

Well, it turns out that someone also had our idea, but they actually acted upon the it. Check out:

• Great Canadian Rebates

I haven't made an account yet, but some of the highlights for ultimate players are:

• 2.2% back for priceline airline bookings
• 1%-3% back on hotel bookings
• 3% back on Eastbay purchases
• These rebates can be combined with other coupons (and the site includes some of these too)
  

The other news is that both Canadians and U.S residents can sign up. Now if only VC, Gaia, or UltiVillage would run an affiliate program, then maybe my blog would support my Ultimate career. At least now, I'll get my cleats and books a little cheaper.

PJ

Can't get high, then sleep there

In relation to my article on college in the mountains and how to prepare for the mountain's environment change, I fell upon a possible solution.

Many of you are aware, I'm one of those couch barbarians who likes to watch fighting, that is professional human fighting, and my favourite is mixed martial arts. In anticipation for last weekends fight, UFC 80, I watched the UFC countdown. The countdown is a show that sets up the main fights for the weekend's fight card with back and forth jawing between fighters. Then they show how the guys are training for the upcoming fights.

I saw two really interesting things in this show that I think are applicable to our Ultimate training. The first one I'm keeping a secret for now, but the second one is in relation to BJ's training versus Joe Stevenson's training. Joe is training in Big Bear, California, because it provides high altitude training with little distraction. The theory behind high altitude training is the decrease in oxygen supply causes your body to adapt and become more efficient using oxygen in the energy making process. Joe is the equivalent of Colorado in Ultimate.

Pictured Above: Your chance to be a bubble boy.

BJ Penn lives and trains in Hawaii, and therefore, can't do high altitude training (like the majority of us). His solution is the high altitude sleep tent (Men's health article). For anywhere from $900 up you can sleep in a high altitude environment and get many of the high altitude benefits.

It's expensive, but at least it's an option for those of you who have lots of money. Maybe the contending college teams should fly to one less tournament and each buy a tent. It's something to think about.

As for changing the flight of the disc due to different air pressure (as some have commented on), I'd consider using these indoor bubble spaces with some industrial fans. Another solution not many of us can afford.

PJ

My latest chemical saviour

I'm a sweater. I don't know why, but I'm sure it has something to do with genetics. Fortunately, sweating is rarely a problem for me on the field except when it comes to my hands. I wear armbands which stop the sweat on my arms from dripping onto my hands, but at certain temperatures and humidity levels my hands get too wet (almost like bathtub hands). When this happens, it usually results in one flick turnover in a game where my grip can't hold for the throw I'm making, and the disc slips out resulting in a horrible wobbling throw thats off target.

Gloves are not the answer for me, but maybe this product is: dryhands. Dryhands can be purchased from an Ultimate distributor, here.

Pictured Above: A catch I made in the Jam vs. Goat game (my best game by far). Photo courtesy of Lisa Di Diodato before the batteries died.

How does dryhands work? Will it help my sweat problem? Are the chemicals safe? These are all questions that I can't answer yet, and I would be interested in hearing opinions from chemists and people who have used the product, but I, likely, will get some product and review it in the future.

Maybe those of you going to Trouble in Vegas can try it out. I'll be at UCPC that weekend.

PJ

The ?New? Layout

I have no fear of laying out, but for me, the layout usually hurts. I've asked goalies how they learn to make those high layouts, and so far I haven't gotten any good tips from them.

RSD has an old thread about the topic:
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/rec.sport.disc/browse_frm/thread/ec85af727cd18710/8e5320db17a5d87b?hl=en#8e5320db17a5d87b

Maybe the martial artists are the guys to talk to. This dive roll has potential, but you have to imagine potentially catching the disc too.



PJ

Video Games - more reasons

I push the use of video games for all sorts of reasons. Just to review some of my reasons why video games are great for sports:

• Great for practicing decision making
• Low impact and never get tired (maybe your thumbs)
  
• Practice teamwork
  
• Visual space practice
• Improves reaction time
  

My latest idea is that the game Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) is a great agility and footwork trainer that is more fun than most agility training.

For those of you who aren't in the know, DDR is a rhythm matching game where you dance to the beat (by pressing on squares on the dance pad) at a specified rate and sequence. The game is fun and challenging with a variety of different modes and music for all levels and tastes.

It turns out that DDR is very similar to ladder agility drills except that you're not moving forward. In addition, DDR requires both memorization and reaction, which are both simple skills to practice. In other words, you've got a home training system that disguises itself as a game.

I, personally, haven't had my pads out for a while. This is, mainly, due to how loud it is on a second floor living room with wooden floors. Some day I'll have my pads back out, and I'll be following the paths of the many who use DDR as an exercise program. Consider this as another training option as silly as it sounds.

PJ