Boogie 2009-2010

What’s goin on boogie!?! I hope everyone’s summer is going well. I wanted to take some time to let everyone as a whole know what we are looking for when we get back together this fall in Oxford.

Before my freshman year the captain, Mastro, put a list up on here of things that needed worked on for that coming season. I printed the list out and still carry it in my bag as a reminder of what I can do to better myself as a player. When I would go play pickup with friends, or play in summer league, I would look at that list and focus on two or three things to work on that day during the games. When I look at the list now I see that some of those things are still what we need to focus on for this coming season.

The fundamentals of ultimate, throwing and catching. Looking back at the tournaments we played in this year, I was happiest with how we played at Music City and Boogie Nights. When I tried to figure out why those tournaments stuck in my head as the times we executed the best, this is what I came up with. We played good smart ultimate. We weren’t giving the disc away on dropped in-cuts, and we kept the number of throw-aways to a minimum even in the wonderful weather we had for Boogie Nights. Take it upon yourself to say hey, I’m not going to be the guy who turns the disc over; value every possession. Count how many times you turn the disc over in a game or a tournament and look to improve on that number every time you play. Make 100% throws and don’t force anything that doesn’t need to be.

When sectionals and regionals rolled around this past spring it was apparent that man defense was something we didn’t put enough time into. Whether it was conditioning or laziness, the moment we stopped playing lower tier teams and started playing the MSU’s and Dayton’s, we looked sluggish. We would get beat to the open side and wouldn’t even be in a close enough proximity to have a play on the disc. This reminds me of something my soccer coach told my team back in highs school. When the time the first game comes around its ok if we don’t know our exact formation or set plays or your teammates abilities because that will just come with time and practice, but the one thing you as a player have complete control over is your fitness level. We better not get outrun or outworked during any game of the season, not even the first game of the first tournament. Everyone needs to be able to keep up with their man on defense and be able to do it for a few points in a row. Take this summer especially when you might night be able to get even a 5 on 5 game going to go out on your own and do something for your fitness whether its running or plyos, do something. The other part of this I feel like was our tempo at practice. It was extremely apparent that we didn’t practice how we played. We need to practice, and warm up, with the same intensity we have when we play in tournaments. I think this is something that will greatly improve our readiness come game time and get rid of our now well apparent first game of the day, coming out slow, going down 4 points, calling a time out, regrouping, fighting back, and taking half routine we have gotten into. We need to be ready from the first pull.

More specifically, I’d like to see everyone come back this fall and be able to throw the disc 40-50 yards both backhand and forehand. The deep look is such a huge threat and if we can have everyone on the team have that threat we can create some havoc for every defense we see all year. Also, we focused a lot this spring on getting everyone to throw breaks. We need to have more than just the handles be able to break their mark. It’s a great weapon to have in your arsenal of throws and can rip a defense to shreds. All it takes is a good, realistic fake, and you have any throw you want. Also, work one moving off the throw. If you’re a handle and dump the disc, you should be the first person open for a cut. Don’t just pivot and throw but use that pivot as a first step. You are already going to be in front of your man because he didn’t block your throw. Use that pivot to gain separation and after a quick first few steps you should have enough room to be able to get the disc right back.

For the cutters. Field vision is huge. Notice where your other cutters are and use the space they create to your advantage. Another thing the cutters would do would be on deep cuts they would run away and if they didn’t get the disc they would jog back in. being that far away from the play should show you exactly where the space is you should run to. You need to cut back in as hard as you went out. We also need to work on gaining separation to make the handles job easier of putting the disc to the open space. One step fakes aren’t going to do much. You need to take to or 3 steps in the direction your making your fake in to sell it and then go the other direction, you can even throw in a stutter step to keep your mark guessing. When you make your real cut, do it in a straight line towards the handles shoulder this puts your body directly between your man and the disc leaving little to no room for him to D you. It’s simple geometry.

On the other side of the disc, we can’t get broken for the same reason I stated above. Have faith in your teammates that they are in good enough shape that they won’t get beat to the open side and above all don’t get broken. While hand blocks are nice, don’t give a long reach to get one and open yourself up to get broken. The other thing I think defensively we need to work on is getting everyone to layout. It was great at the end of the year seeing some of the freshmen starting to leave their feet. We know you want that glory of chasing down that huck and laying out for it in the endzone, but I want to see it on defense. Bid through your man, and bid at discs you’re not sure if you can get. You’ll be surprised at how much more area you cover and what discs you can get to when you layout. Also, by sticking with our man on defense you will open up more opportunities to layout and get the big d’s we need in close games. Get comfortable with it because it’s just part of the game.

Those of you who know me know I watch a lot of highlight reels. I encourage all of you to do the same. Look at the way the upper echelon cuts, throws, fakes, and bids. Watch how the offense cycles and where the cutters go to fill gaps. You can learn a lot from the upper level club teams as well as from the nationals level college teams, and while you’re at it you can see some pretty sick plays.

I hope you guys start checking back to the blog for more updates cuz I'm going to try to keep up with it. If you want to read Mastro’s full list that I keep in my bag, it’s in the archives and can be found here…
http://miamiultimate.blogspot.com/2007_05_01_archive.html

Also, any incoming freshmen that come across this post please drop the captains an email at MiamiUltimate@gmail.com and tell us about yourself.

More to come,

Dubs