Don't Let Throwing Get In Their Heads

by Lindsey Hack

What sorts of drills do you set up in the first days and weeks of practice?

It is appropriate to set up drills during the first few weeks of practice that break down the game into smaller components that are still fun. For instance, to teach cutting (change in speed, change in direction), you can run the square drill which also gives players the opportunity to work on their throws to the space the cutter is running to. To work on catching and going to the disc, you can run the go-to drill This will also teach players how to throw a disc directly into the bread basket. Finally, another favorite of mine during the early days is the flow drill—which I think has many other names in many other areas of the country. Basically, it is a vertical stack and players have to time their cuts off one another to advance the disc down the field. It teaches timing and how the vertical stack can work, which are invaluable.

What should be the progression of introducing a new college player to Ultimate (i.e., what skills do they learn when and how)?

To be a successful offensive player, in the beginning, you need to know how to do three things: cut, catch and, throw. Cutting can be taught early, and catching can be worked on early. Throwing is something you must focus on early, but do not let it get to the new player's head if they are not immediately successful.

When and how much of your winter/spring offense/defensive system do you introduce to them in the fall?

As mentioned in the previous article, UNC women have a B-team. Therefore, we teach a great deal of our offense and defense in the fall as we have had generally, little turnover. Also, if we get a player from the B team, typically they are very familiar with our systems. So, our job, as far as introducing our basic offenses and defenses is relatively simple.

For those young veterans (say, second- and third- year players coming into their first returning fall but not yet in charge) what should they be focusing on? Where can they improve the most?

Well, first of all, I think it is important that those individuals understand that they do not need to be a captain or a senior to be a leader. All captains should be leaders, but not all leaders are captains. A player can lead on the field in many, many ways. When I have a second or third year player, typically, I ask them to start rounding out their game. In the beginning, I tried to help them find what they were really good at, and be really good at that for the good of the team. Now, in this intermediate phase, I ask them to dig deeper and find another skill they could contribute to the team and work on that particular skill.