Bring Your Disc #zipstips
Carry around a frisbee while you walk from class to class or while sitting and watching TV and just mess around with it.
Offense
Articles on playing offense
Training Hex offence with your team
Hex is a new offence which most of your team will not have seen or played before – introducing it can be both fun and exciting, but will certainly come with its challenges. I’ve had experience introducing the offence to a variety of teams and players, from primary schools through University level teams to …
Strategies for 3 on 3 Ultimate
About a month ago, I received an email from an ultimate player. His name is Daniel and he was wondering what offensive and defensive strategies I would suggest for 3 on 3 since he had a tournament coming up and had only ever played normal 7 on 7 before. I’ve included my response below along …
Exercise Caution With Set Plays
About 5 years ago, I was at a practice for the men’s team I was on. We were working on a particular play. What I’ll never forget is how regimental our play practice was. Literally we were working on player movement as precisely as a few feet rather than having general lanes and letting the …
10 Guidelines for a Rookie Handler
When I was learning to play Ultimate, I didn’t have a coach, mentor, or Ultimate Rob videos. I had to teach myself the game and whenever my friends learned something new, we’d spread the knowledge with each other. I was one of the slower learners on the team and required as much assistance as possible, …
Handler Cutting
The Basics There is a principle I want to start with here that transcends the position on the field that you’re making your cut (downfield, handler, whatever). This is probably the most important cutting principle anyone can learn: take what the defense is giving you. If my defender playing off me 5 yards to contain …
Effective Coaching of Drills
As an intermediate player I used to wonder why our captains and coaches insist on running the same drills over and over again. Frankly, I found it boring! I assumed drills, like warming up and stretching, was a waste of time. I used to be all about the scrimmage at the end of the training …
The Mexican Offence
Many of you are familiar with the vertical, horizontal and spread offence but not many of you have heard about the Mexican Offence. It’s relatively new and was developed by Felix Shardlow from Brighton Ultimate in 2012. It’s not for every team but depending on the types of players you have, this might be a good …
Forehand Mechanics That Aren’t Taught
The best way to describe throwing a forehand is comparing it to a vertical jump. As we know, vertical jumping ability is directly influenced by the speed of the force exerted against the ground during a fixed span of time; the faster the application of that force, the higher the jump. To translate this concept …
Handling and Marking Q&A From a Fan
This post was in response to a fan who had a few questions about handling and marking both on offense and defense. Rob, I’m a combination handler/cutter for I just had a few questions about handling against tight marks and vice versa, marking tough handlers. I’ve only been handling for a few months, and I’ve …
Tips for O Line Handlers
This post was inspired by a question on facebook from one of my fans. Let me know if you have any questions related to o-line handling. Q: Hey bro,could you give me some pointers on how to be an O-Handler? A: Sure thing! Here are some tips on being an O-line handler: 1. Your role as …
Improving Horizontal Offense Initiation Plays
Receiving a pull is an area in which a team should be extremely proficient, as it is an event that occurs hundreds of times over a season. It is a mistake to not take advantage of these moments in which the defense is not entirely set. The ideal situation occurs when the offense initiates play …
Zen Throwing Routine Video
The Zen Throwing Routine, developed by Ben Wiggins, is a combination of a group of exercises that he found to help develop his own balance and versatility in throwing. He was inspired to put this into a cohesive form as a partner-slash-alternative to Lou Burruss’ Kung Fu Throwing, which is a very effective plan with …
Kung Fu Throwing Video Tutorial
Kung Fu Throwing is a system developed by Lou Burruss and Mike Caldwell in 2005. He wanted to come up with a structured throwing plan to help developing throwers. As the only two Seattle Sockeye players who lived on Capitol Hill at the time, Mike and Lou would meet often to throw. Lou solicited Mike …
Timing Horizontal Cuts – Drill of the Week
The drill of the week from Playspedia is all about Timing Horizontal Cuts. I find this drill especially useful since running the horizontal correctly is all about cutting to space and this drill will help your players understand where the space exists and how to move there. Set up in 3 lines. 4 sets up …
Storm – Play of the Week
This week’s play of the week from Playspedia is called Storm. This play, used on a brick pull, is really simple yet I feel that it would be quite effective. Since the cutter is striking deep on the break side, the defender will keep an eye on them but will probably play off a bit. When the …
Frozen Squirrel – Play of the Week
This week’s play of the week from Playspedia is called the Frozen Squirrel. I like it for the name and for it’s ability to score on a zone. The best takeaway from this play is to realize in order to get a good deep huck on a zone, you first need your deeps to come …
Changing the Team Strategy
Malissa Lundgren, Ultimate Canada’s 2011 Female Athlete of the Year, discusses how the Capitals were more successful after changing their team strategy following their 2009 semi final loss in the UPA Championships to Brute Squad. In 2010, they would go on to make the finals where the lost to the powerhouse women’s team, Fury.
Vertical Stack Revisited Part 3
I am going to close the idea of a dynamic vertical with several odds and ends that tie the concepts together. Recognize the strength of your thrower. When your thrower is capable of hucking with precision, delay your strike-cut until after possession has been gained. If the thrower is only comfortably throwing 20 yards, leave …
Vertical Stack Revisited Part 2
The previous article described using a vertical stack that would shift to a position, within an arbitrary boundary, that was opposite the field position of the disc. The rationale behind the lateral shift is to take advantage of the strengths of both centre of the field vertical and vertical side stack offences, while reducing the …
Reading Between the Lines
Whether you’re a player, a captain or a coach, you will have invariably dealt with lines – either being called or calling them. I think there are 4 scenarios for calling lines which depend on the type of game you’re playing: If you are playing a team that is either stronger or weaker than you, …