Good news!

I made the A-team of my school. It was tough, painful, and I reaped the rewards. But it's not only good news for me, it's also somewhat good news for you the reader. Presumably, it gives me some credibility. I mean, considering that my muscles atrophied considerably over the course of several months, as I sat behind a desk for my internship, I think I can say a few things about making a team. If it works for you, good for you. If it doesn't, well that's unfortunate. Anyways, some more advice: this time on mismatches. Many times, I've had a severe mismatch (since I'm basically the only one out of shape), and I had to figure out how to best keep up, or beat them. Offensively speaking, I've been able to beat someone who was more athletic than I was, and was about a foot and a half taller than me. Tricky. Additionally, I'm the handler, so I need to make the dump cut (if you don't know what this is, look it up; it's a keystone to any offense) no matter what. I was able to beat him, but only by stepping next to him with my first step, and around him with my next step. One of the goals of any cut, is to get past a person, and run in the opposite direction that the person's hips are facing, and then you should have a successful cut. Don't run through the paces of a cut, just because; there's a reason for cutting, don't forget that.

Okay, defensively, how do you defend this? First of all, you need to have a good distance. This is pure judgement. Make sure that they can't step past you, but also, you need to block any easy lanes that they might get if you get too far. And then, when they start the cut, get in the way. Ultimate is not a non-contact sport if you play it right/smart. You need to make sure that your man (or woman, man is just a term) is running into essentially your torso. Your man can easily run through either of your arms, and beat you. If you feel like you have a really bad mismatch, then instead of standing next to your man in the stack, move further downfield. Not too far, but enough so that your man can't make a comfortable deep cut, and instead will have to cut in to have any chance of getting the disc. Now, if you're guarding a handler, you should know essentially what the handler is going to do. If you haven't heard the term "traintracks" before, then you need to familiarize yourself with the dump cut. Essentially the handler is running the same track to get in front of the handler, and back to the original position. Once the handler starts making this cut, you can face the handler with the disc slightly, and look for a fake. That will usually signify the dump to start running back along the tracks, and so you can anticipate it. Better handlers will know to make fakes with their cuts, and so they will generally get the disk. All you can do is get there quickly, and setup a hard mark.

A lot of content this time, let me know if you have any questions/comments/suggestions for further posts or if you want me to get off the internet. I can't make promises, but I can try.

A bit of knowledge

So, it's tryouts, and a bunch of new people are trying out with you. The captains gather everyone around, and explain the offense. Two handlers, and a line of people called a stack who take turns 'cutting'. When the returners demonstrate, it's neat, and there's only one person cutting at a time. But, when it comes to scrimmaging, everyone is everywhere it seems. You know it's not right, and don't know how to stand out, in a good way. Staying in the stack won't prove anything, and probably not too many people will notice you. What do you do? Now, it took a while to set up this hypothetical situation, but it will happen. Almost guaranteed. In such a case, do not go running around with everyone else, shouting that you're open. Instead, look around, and look for open space. Often times, there's open space in front of the handler with the disc. If you wait until stall 4, maybe 6, you are essentially acting as a dump for the handler. This is considered to be at least an intermediate kind of move, and should impress captains. It shows that you have field awareness, a very valuable skill. When the stack is working well, listen to the sideline, often times people will be saying "Someone cut in!", or "Under! Under! Cut under!". In which case, cut in. Captains also like to see people who actually listen to them. When you're on the sideline, watch the game carefully. Give up calls (saying up when the disk is thrown, specifically when it is hucked), and study the players. Look for matchups that favor you, so that you might be able to go deep and catch the point. You need to prove to the captains that you are either athletic, or really know your stuff.

The beginning

Hello readers, my name is Tim, I'm currently 18, and a freshman at the College of William and Mary. I have played ultimate frisbee since my sophomore year in high school, and have thrown a frisbee for a lot longer than that. My sophomore year, I played for the B-team, as a handler. I was pretty upset, considering that I thought that I could make the A-team. However, it turned out to be a really valuable experience. Because I was one of the better players on that team, I got to play a lot. I played as a handler, and began to learn, and love the game. The playing time I got on the B-team was so much more valuable than if I had been on the A-team, and got no playing time. My junior year was exactly as I had worried my sophomore year had been. I got on the A-team, but didn't get to play that much. But, I did learn to play as a sideline player, giving callouts and such, and staying engaged. By the time senior year came around, I was named captain. I was a pretty bad leader, I mean, I was nice, but I didn't know how to teach anything, or how to enforce people to go to practice. But I understood the difficulties of being a captain, and found out what it was that I looked for, and probably what other captains look for. So, continuing to the present, I just recently had my first day of tryouts. I was incredibly out of shape, gasping for air after just a little sprint. However, the captains were (or at least seemed to be) impressed with me.

So, that tryout was really what inspired me to start this blog. The captains said in the email, that they were looking specifically for athleticism. I am a 5'8" freshmen who sat at a desk all summer, and somehow, it seemed like all of them were going to remember my name. I'm not being cocky (hell, I haven't even made the team yet), but during the tryout there were stations, and at every station, people were asking me if I had played before, because it was evident that I had. So, you're a beginner. You're an intermediate player. You're an advanced player. You'll find my advice useful. You'll find my advice to be worthless. Whatever it may be, the tips that I give here are what I have observed during the past couple of years. I have a perspective from both the player, and the captain, and so can tell you what you can do to make yourself stand out, or how to become a better player in general. So yeah.