Rampage's Ramblings 1

I’ve spent all of my time on the sideline this fall, so excuse me if my observations sound a little negative, it is probably just my frustration of not playing with Haze. In any case, here are a few of my ramblings (which I wanted to think of for the end of season meeting), which kinda turned into general tips.

We’re getting broken too much (not as much as last year, but we haven’t faced many good throwers yet). I think to remedy this, people have to come to practice ready to play to win and it starts with marking more aggressively in practice, which will carry over in games. Hold the force, make the thrower’s life hell, and trust your teammates will beat their man under to the open side, because they’re trusting you not to get broken. Also, get low and bring your hands up to force the higher throws into the wind. Don’t try to swat on the mark. Watch where your opponent releases and adjust accordingly. It’ll be easier to move and hand block your man than trying to wind up to hit the disc.

Throws always need work. Period. In order to be a flexible team offensively, every one of us needs to have solid throws off both sides and the ability to recognize the easy throw. When (not sure how many people go out and work on their throws) you go out and toss, throw for real.(as if someone's trying to footblock you) Vary your release heights, snap your wrists, bend your knees…
I don’t want to sound super negative, but too many of our players have bad habits that get amplified by our ME wind. I don’t expect everyone to be star handlers by the spring…but we should all be confident in all of our throws before our first tournament…

keep your head down
if you are running deep (either to defend or to cut) put your head down and run. trust that you will hear an up call and then turn briefly to check where the disc is (I think this will be better once our sideline becomes louder and more active and smarter). as you get better and better at reading the disc, this quick check will allow you to know how fast and where the disc is going and you can put your head back down and run some more. it is extremely hard to run (and even harder to run fast) with your head looking back over your shoulder. There were so many times this fall season where I watched from the sidelines and cutters were running with their eyes on the handlers…sure know what they’re up to and where the disc is, but don’t focus so much on them so that you have to slow down.

Sprinting down on the pull during practice (and games). Start back so that you are sprinting off the line when the disc leaves the pullers hands. Doing this in practice will strengthen you to do it during a game.

Sideline, sideline, sideline, sideline, sideline, sideline, sideline, sideline, sideline, sideline, sideline, sideline, sideline, sideline, sideline, sideline, sideline, sideline, sideline, sideline, sideline, sideline, sideline, sideline, sideline, sideline, sideline, sideline, sideline, sideline, sideline, sideline, sideline, sideline, sideline, sideline, sideline, sideline, sideline, sideline, sideline, sideline, sideline, sideline, sideline, sideline, sideline.
I can’t say it enough. When you’re not playing, you ARE playing. Your teammates are busting their balls for you so you can get some rest on the line and do your job when you’re on the field. When you’re on the sideline, you have to be helping them and be loud so they can hear you. Easiest thing in ultimate is an UP call. Too many times this fall, I noticed people just chilling on the sidelines, I guess it’s okay for the fall, but this spring it is essential that people give up calls and intelligently help their teammates out playing. Everyone on the sideline should be following the play, b/c it’s pretty damn frustrating to be asked several times a tournament “what happened I was looking away!” when one of our teammates made a sick D or catch. You can relax at the hotel.

Another thing we need to work on is running into a stack. When running vert O, and someone sets the stack there should be no walking/jogging to places in the stack, doing so wastes about 4 seconds of a stall count and the handler only has about 2 more seconds to wait for the first cut. So we have to get into the stack fast and start our O fast.

Seeing as Nova is still injured from Ryan's hit, if you can make the play...make it.... I mean if you always held back, you wouldn't get to look like this....or this

If you read thru all that. you've got a lot of time on your hands...i apologize for the bad writing. i'm not used to this blogging thing.

~Qtma