After a long absence, I was finally able to get back to the beautiful islands of the Philippines. With help from the Philippine Ultimate Association, we ran 4 clinics this past March.

Our first and second clinics were on the island of Boracay. This 4 mile stretch of sand and forest is home to a massive resort community, some of the best watersporting in the world, quite possibly the most luxurious beach in existence, and a thriving local Ultimate community.

Less than 8 years ago, members of Manila’s Ultimate community brought the game to the locals, many of whom were young, extremely athletic, and excited about a sport to fit into their schedules between kitesurfing, wakeboarding, and Dragon-boating. The Boracay Dragons were born. This is the same team that has lost only once on sand (in the finals of the World Beach Championships, in Brazil) and who has never lost in Boracay. Today, the Dragons are the tip of an iceberg that has 6+ teams on a tiny island, excellent support from local business leaders (some of whom play as well) and a growing reputation in Asia for a truly incredible level of skill.

Why so incredible? In any Ultimate community, we tend to see growth of skill in response to competition. The more high-quality opponents there are, the greater the ease with which players and teams can improve. In Bora, however, the Ultimate is extremely home-grown. The influences from top teams, even those throughout Asia, is present but light. The consistency of skill and organization of the Dragons team (and the 2nd Boracay team, and 3rd, 4th, etc) seem almost out of place in such a small Ultimate community. It is special, and it was fun to see firsthand.

Our first clinic was with approximately 15 of the Boracay locals, going through a 115 minute set of marking, throwing, cutting, and team defense drills (most taken directly or adapted from curriculum developed with Sockeye). This was the morning before the Boracay Beach tournament, and we didn’t want to overly tax anyone that was about to play 7-8 beach games.

The tournament was tremendous, and as part of the first American team there, I think we will start to see more North Americans making the trip. From the West Coast, the cost is comparable to Paganello, and the experience is just as unique and memorable. See future Huddle features on “The World’s Best Tournaments” for more information. One of the directors, PUA’s Mel Lozano, has written an excellent synopsis of the tournament which is posted here on the weblog as well.

Our second clinic was on the Monday after the tournament, and a not-too-hungover group of 25-30 adults stayed to work through 90 minutes of pivoting exercises, cutting techniques, clearing strategy, and zone offense. A special highlight was working with Scott Berens’ layout D drill where players were able to work on timing, taking aggressive-yet-safe lines to the disc, and contorting their bodies to get the block while avoiding contact. The sand takes a lot of the sacrifice out of this drill!

Afterward, we worked with the Dragons, who are heading to Paganello. All I can say to Paganello is, “Heads up!.” They’ll be coming into the Open Division seeded about 25th out of 48, and I (and anyone that has seen them play on sand) will be shocked if they don’t beat that final seed by a long way. Gauging their finish is an interesting question (and one that filled many post-tournament hours in Boracay). With only 8 players, it is going to be a tough weekend. But, until you see them run on sand, you really don’t understand the advantage that speed can be.

Don’t be shocked to see them make a run into the brackets. I would be surprised if they won the whole thing, since they are going to be giving up huge advantages in experience and height. Semifinals, however, is a distinct possibility. I will be following along with great interest this coming weekend.

The following Friday we rolled into Manila for a long day of Ultimate. In the morning, we ran a Team Philippines practice for 3.5 hours in the hot Manila sun. We started with a discussion of vertical stack and flat stack offenses, and we talked about trying to make practice as efficient as possible. Then we ran through the following practice:

• Dynamic Warmup
• Box drill, working on footwork, timing, and head-and-hand positioning
• 1v1 D Drills:
• • Without a disc, to work on positioning and footwork
  • With a disc
  • With a disc, including a ‘pre-run’ to work on the footwork out of motion
  • On deep cuts, focusing on running while finding the disc and boxing out
• Vert stack plays, focusing on handler motion and clearing cuts
• Vert stack 5-pull scrimmage, focusing on efficiency of practice time
• Playing while tired (this was extremely revealing for us!)
• Flat stack plays, focusing on clearing from the sideline
• Conditioning

Ultimate in the Philippines is young, and was driven by the work of very committed expats and the original group of talented local players. The biggest question for the team right now: who will be the second generation? That question was answered in the afternoon.

We ran a 60-person clinic for 2 hours that afternoon for players from the greater Manila area. We started with possession offense, working in groups of 4v3 and 4v2, using short-sided defenses to bring the focus to spacing and field vision (as opposed to simply running hard). We continued through stack cutting drills, where we applied cutting fundamentals to team timing. Adding in a single defender against 3 cutters allowed some read-and-react looks, and also brought home our points on clearing.

Heidi-Marie Clemens (my partner, and partner in crime on this oversea adventure) ran an excellent series of ‘buttonhook’ cutting and throwing drills, where we were able to focus on faking as throwers and cutters together. We scaled this up into 2v2 and 3v3 drills working on handling concepts and deep throwing vision and techniques. Then we conditioned until it looked like further pick-up was unlikely….then we played pickup for another hour. Good day, no matter how hot it was. Really good day.