While Ultimate programs are growing steadily in Manila and the watersport paradise of Boracay Island, the Visaya region (central Philippines) and Mindanao region (southern Philippines) are following close behind. Small to medium size cities such as Dumaguete, Davao, Iligan, Iloilo, and Cebu City can boast of almost 1,000 total active players with a handful of teams traveling to regional and national tournaments. There are discussions within the national organization, Philippine Ultimate Association, for more outreach programs and an eventual sectionals, regionals, and nationals play-off format to include all the teams of the Philippines.

Scott Berens and I spent a total of two months in the Visayas before and after Boracay Open, an amazing beach tournament previously described in The Huddle April Issue, 2009. We made Cebu City our home-base due to family connections and for its excellent location as a hub to the rest of the Visaya islands. While there we made contact with a relative who runs a community organization for the urban poor called Alay Kapwa. The members live as squatters in makeshift homes on empty lots between buildings and over water channels in very poor housing and sanitary conditions. Alay Kapwa provides the organization framework and monetary assistance for community run daycares, livelihood programs for the adults, and cultural and character building programs for the youth. We organized a series of clinics for middle-school aged Alay Kapwa members at one the few city parks, located just behind the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines, Fort San Pedro. Three of our teammates from Dragon Lovers (the US team that played in Boracay Open), Sarah Blyth, Kiran Thomas and local Cebu player Vicmar Tirambulo, helped run some of the clinics. Our strategy was to keep things simple and concise due to a slight language barrier and the fact that the kids had never even seen a disc before, much less the game of Ultimate.

The two hour clinics began with a “field clean up” warm-up in which each player ran around to pick up five pieces of trash. After dynamic stretching, basic drills included 30 seconds forehand/backhand completion contest and the box drill with emphasis on sharp cutting and timing. To teach basic vertical offensive we used the snake stack drill: The instructors moved the disc around the field making sure the stack adjusted, meanwhile, when a name was called the iso player would make a single or double cut into open space. We used the international youth favorite “go long for a huck” drill to bring up the energy and enthusiasm when necessary. After drills we introduced three new rules and setup a five team round robin of 4 v 4. Games were short to keep the kids engaged and ready, and we made sure to start each one with proper hand shakes and disc flip. Since many of the Alay Kapwa families live beneath the minimum income level necessary for proper and regular nutrition, we provided a hearty picnic lunch at the end of each clinic.

During the five-week period in which our clinics were held, Cebu City’s annual tournament Ultimo Abril took place.  Twelve teams from the Visayas and Mindanao were in attendance, plus Roaches from Manila and Dragons B from Boracay. We invited the Alay Kapwa kids to watch the Saturday games so they could get a better idea of how Ultimate was played. This tournament was a well-timed learning opportunity for the young ones. In the finals, Boracay continued their winning streak (specifically against Scott and I) with a one point win over our team, the Cuernos Mountaineers from Dumaguete.

As luck would have it, before we left Cebu a very new team called Fasa gained regular access to coveted Cebu City field space. Fasa’s first tournament and first win was at Ultimo Abril. The team is organized and coached by Vicmar Tirambulo and Malcom Reroma and consists mainly of 12 to 17 year old high school kids. Since we left Cebu, five of the most interested and most talented players from the Alay Kapwa clinics are now regularly attending Fasa practices. There they will continue to develop their disc skills as well as have an opportunity to meet other young people from outside of the slum areas. I am confident that the challenges of sport and new friendships will provide much needed reprieve from the harsh realities of urban poverty and has opened the door to what good may come from the larger Ultimate community.

If you are interested in learning more about the Alay Kapwa youth and how you can help support their education please contact me at aberens@fundafuture.org. Special thanks to Five Ultimate and Cultimate for donating discs for the Alay Kawpa clinics and the larger Visaya Ultimate community.

..The this is how we’d use it.

The following is our incredibly biased, totally subjective first take on the Callahan voting for 2009. The Callahan is a special award, and the voters (current college division players) are an extremely varied group. They’ve proven that there are many ways to win the Award in the past 10 years…

Best player on the strongest team? Check.
Leader of a rising team? Check.
Attention-grabbing surprise run to Nationals with an unheralded squad? Check.
4-5 year history of dominance in the division? Check.

This is a subjective award. We repeat; this is a SUBJECTIVE award, and there is no combination of factors that should give any candidate an expectation that they are supposed to win. Which makes it unpredictable, and fun, and irreplaceable as an icon of the similarly quirky, cutthroat, up-and-coming, competitive and passionate brand of Ultimate that we see in the College Division.

To sum it up; the Callahan doesn’t always go where we think it should, but it always goes to a great player that is a role model for the division and the sport.

With that said, here is our ballot if we were voting. Each college player gets only 3 votes, so that is what we are holding ourselves to in each division. Deciding between candidates was brutal. So brutal, in fact, that once we got to a top three we couldn’t bear the thought of trying to decide what order they should go in. Total cop-out…but it’s just too hard. We hope current college players go to www.callahan-mvp.com to vote, and that they vote for someone that they think deserves it and that would be a great role model for the next generation of players, as Jody Dozono, Justin Safdie, Fortunat Mueller, and Johanna Neumann (among others) were when we were just learning to play.

Women’s Division Ballot

Georgia Bosscher, University of Wisconsin
Georgia has been an absolute beast of a defender throughout her career (since the first time we watched her play at Team USA tryouts in early 2004). She’s an offensive star as well now, and her team has had great results as of late. She plays fair, she plays hard, and she changes the shape of the field for the opposing offense.

Andrea Romano, University of Santa Barbara
UCSB is a fun team to watch play Ultimate. You can see Dugan’s fingerprints all over an offense that takes the easiest pass available, even when that pass is a bomb. Andrea does the big things and the little things, and she is a leader off the field as well, as anyone that has worked with her can tell you.

Claire Suver, University of Washington
Interestingly, we had the same thoughts about Shannon O’Malley (the other Element player we thought might be nominated). Claire’s throws, intelligence and defensive experience make her an outstanding talent…but that has been true since her freshman year. In leading UW to a Regional Championship this year, though, Claire seems to have mastered some of her weaknesses as well. Spirit comes naturally to some people…and some people (like Claire, or Shannon) have a hot temper that they have to, for the better of their game, learn to master. Claire has done this, and that commitment has rubbed off on the way UW plays the game. We think highly of the Spirit portion of the Callahan Award, and we hope this vote is taken as the compliment it was intended to be.

A Brutal Decision
We can’t believe we don’t have a fourth vote for Emily Baecher. A testament to the level of players in this division.

Men’s Division Ballot

Steven Presley, University of Texas
Noted Ultimate serialist “Match” gets a lot of things wrong. In his endorsement of ‘Franchise’, though, we absolutely agree with the end result. Presley has been a force in the Southern Region for years, and he always seems to play his best when it matters most…we see shades of a Michael Zalisk here in his game and his attitude. That’s a very high compliment, in our opinions.

Mac Taylor, University of Colorado
He’s huge, he’s intense, and he is very, very skilled. Credit both his coaches and his own personal drive to improve that he has the kind of athleticism that can take over a game, but that he has forced himself to develop the skills to contribute equally. Watching him churn through the mud in Vegas when many teammates and opponents were huddling in their rainsuits was a glimpse into his determination.

Brodie Smith, University of Florida
His team didn’t make Nationals. He might have played his worst tournament at Regionals. But has any player more comprehensively dominated the division throughout the year? When we think about ‘best overall player’, it’s hard not to gravitate towards a player against whom other teams game plan for him as a handler, as a comeback-cutter, as a deep…he draws 7 pairs of defensive eyes when he hangs out on the far wing. Brodie has infrequently been labelled as ‘eloquent’ or ‘diplomatic’, and for many that will lose him their vote. And probably rightly so. But the dude wears his heart on the front of his jersey between the O and R in Florida. And this was supposed to be their rebuilding year.

Brutal Decisions
Tom James is a quiet, confident leader and he makes his mark in huge ways on O and D for Regional Champs Stanford, a team whose season-long record would not have seen them as a high seed at Nationals were it not for their Regional performance.

Joe ‘BJ’ Sefton was an inspiration. Had UW made Nationals he would have been our top vote, as this year’s UW team was a fun team to watch, and a team that played the way that old folks like to see.

Speed, acceleration, and endurance are some physical skills that allow you to be successful on the field. You only have a finite amount of time and energy to invest in training and improving yourself in these skills. How much energy would you invest into each? How would you train effectively to see gains, season after season?

Of these three attributes, lets take a closer look at endurance. Teams and players spend a great deal of resources (time and energy) into endurance training every season. Track workouts sound familiar? Year after year, it seems like every team – coed, women, college – is doing the track workout of the previous year’s UPA champions! Typical Ultimate track workouts seem to be running repeats of distances between 800 meters down to 50 meters. In the beginning of the season, longer runs (400-800 M) and it tapers to the short stuff (50-100 M) as the season progresses.

Since they are so prevalent, track workouts must be effective at improving the specific endurance required for Ultimate at the elite level. To look at the validity of that statement, I analyzed 86 elite men’s Ultimate points to look at the specific endurance demands of the game. After quantifying the specific demands of elite Ultimate, I propose track workouts at longer distances (more than 200 M) do not meet those demands well.

Definitions

Stoppage – timeouts, calls, injuries, lengthy turnovers. If there was a turnover and it was a quick transition, I did not count that as a stoppage.

Active Play Segment – when disc is live and in play.

Total Point Time – the sum of 1 or more Active Play Segments.

Methods

Duration of an Active Play Segment was recorded with a stopwatch. Total point times were calculated by summing up all Active Play Segments for that given point.

The clock starts with a pull or resumption of play after a stoppage. The clock stops when there is a stoppage or a score is caught. Many points had no video of the pull and just a player starting the disc in their territory. I added 6-7 seconds to those points to account for the pull. Without the footage of the pull, I had to make a judgment call on whether or not it was the true start of the point.

Analyzed video footage of 85 Elite Ultimate points – 20 points of the 2005 UPA Club Open Final (Sockeye vs Furious George), 20 points of the 2008 Dream Cup Open Final (Sockeye vs Buzz Bullets), 17 points of 2007 ECC Final Sockeye vs Buzz Bullets, 12 points of the 2008 Worlds Open Final (Canada vs USA), and the remaining 16 points came from 4 separate games (Labor Day 08 Final, Dream Cup semis, Dream Cup pool play, and NW Regionals game-to-go).

Results

Figure 1. Total Point Time in 85 Mens Elite Ultimate Points.

The total point time for each of the 85 points were sorted in ascending order and then charted. Each point also shows the number of Active Play Segments and the duration of those segments. For example, the longest point was 122 seconds. There was 90 seconds of play after the pull (blue), then stoppage 1, then 7 seconds of play (red), then stoppage 2, and finally 25 seconds of play resulting in a score (yellow).

Figure 2. Distribution of Active Play Segments in Mens Elite Ultimate Points.

In 85 Ultimate points, there were 138 Active Play Segments. This histogram shows the distribution of those Active Play Segments as a function of their duration. The X-axis are bins of time. 0-5 seconds, 6-10, 11-15, 16-20, and so on.

The average Total Point time was 34.4 seconds. The average Active Play Segment was 21.2 seconds. 75% of all Active Play Segments were 25 seconds or less. A player does not sprint for the entire Active Play segment either. A player switches between starting a cut, stopping, or changing direction quickly with rest (standing, walking, jogging). A player expresses maximum intensity in brief intervals during a point.

Analysis

At the elite level, Ultimate’s reputation for being an endurance sport might need to be revisited. When you take into account the average length of a point, 25-plus player rosters for seven spots on the field, 2-minute breaks between points, D-only players and O-only players, the term “Frisbee Football” becomes strikingly appropriate in certain ways. Total point times and average Active Play Segments suggest endurance is not nearly as important as speed and acceleration. Training for speed and acceleration should become a much higher priority and “running” more track workouts are not going to improve either skill significantly. I emphasize “running” because it is extremely rare for any player to be able to maintain max sprint speed for any distance beyond 50 M. Professional sprinters train all their lives to do this and this skill does not come from running long distances over and over again at slower than max speed. Some experts suggest you must run at 95% or higher of max speeds to effectively train for higher top end speed.

Track workouts do not optimally train for the endurance demands of elite Ultimate – which are multiple bursts of maximum intensity in a brief interval. They do not optimally train for Ultimate because most track runs are longer than 20 seconds, max sprint speed drops off early and can not be maintained for the entire run, and acceleration occurs only once while there would be multiple bursts in an Ultimate point. Although track workouts are difficult and can increase endurance, they should be just one training tool that is utilized out of many. There are non-track training methods that would demand maximum intensity in brief intervals and would produce more favorable gains in endurance, speed, and acceleration.

About Training

There is no “one size fits all” training program! Also, be wary of emulating your favorite elite player’s training regimen & nutritional practices…results may vary!

Your own current fitness and athletic background is a critical element in how effective a training program might be for you. The more of a novice you are with physical training, the more likely any random program will work for you. If are a beginner with relatively little athletic experience, you will see measurable gains in speed, acceleration, and endurance from just playing Ultimate. However, that will soon taper and you will need to work differently off the field to improve. You might decide to do the latest track workout, it kicks you in the arse, and you notice better performance on the field. As you reach the elite level, you will notice that most players are about the same speed and quickness on the field. The advantages you might have enjoyed earlier in your career are now gone and you want to reach the next level in speed and acceleration.

Without being too specific, improving the weaknesses in your strength and body control capabilities will lead to noticeable improvements with on field performance. If you pursue a solid strength foundation (i.e. 2x bodyweight squat, 3x bodyweight deadlift) and train your body to produce dynamic and explosive movements in all planes (i.e. Olympic lifts), it will build a foundation from which you can support the pursuit of higher levels of speed and acceleration.

In my next article, I will explore in detail one particular training program, CrossFit, and how it is effective at building the foundation from which you can pursue higher levels of athletic ability.

Xi Xia is a Coach and Co-Owner of Crossfit Portland in Portland, Oregon as well as a long -time coach and player. XX learned the game while playing and coaching with the University of Illinois.

Sometime on Saturday, May 2nd we hosted our millionth pageview. This is a big milestone for us!

Having it come on a Saturday (our normal lowest-traffic day) makes this even sweeter. We are especially excited about the increase in ‘background’ hits, as we are now taking nearly 2,000 hits per day on Saturdays. We’ll keep trying to pump out the quality content, so please keep reading!

This is why we keep going:

“I’ve been playing and coaching for a good bit now. While my collection of strategies, insights, anecdotes and drills learnt on the field, passed down from vet players or poached from other teams keeps growing, every issue of The Huddle that I read has something I had never thought of or helps illuminate a concept in a different way. The site is always great to read through as a player, but it’s been an amazing help to me as a college women’s coach.

Like all things disc, I know you guys do this for the love and not the money, so thank you for all the hours and hours of work you do on such an awesome site, I know it’s made a huge difference to me and to my team.”

— an East Coast reader

More to come soon, and a big thanks to everyone that has helped us along the way.

P.S. If you want to help, there is a way: thank your local Huddle Author! Let them know how much you appreciate their volunteer effort and time.