Stacking in a row,the D is forcing away,over the head we throw,the hammer is on its waythe sun on bessie can sting,the dogs too can bite,what fun it is to cramp and cringewhile the disc is in its flight,

Oh, ankle swells, ankle wellscan’t walk all the wayOh, what fun HENCE… it is to rideIn a one horse open sleigh

Oh, ankle swells, ankle wellscan’t walk all the wayOh, what fun HENCE… it is to rideIn a one horse open sleigh

–Aj

Ultimate is known to be a “thinking person’s sport”.

Correction - a thinking person, who happens to be a lot fitter than the usual suspect.

Again correction- and does all the thinking off field.

Manu’s emphasis on attending pre-game drills is because that is when players should be doing the thinking. A drill is where a player converts his well thought out moves into instincts. Instincts are nothing but muscle memory.

A player using instincts built during drills will always be ahead of her or his counterpart, who missed out the drills.
Trusting your instincts is always a good investment to make, especially after having taken all the trouble to hone them during
the drills.

Ideally all of you try to “Leap before you think“.
I am ruing my injury and all the drills I am missing out due to it.
Moving on to the second topic of this post. Well this is my way of doing
the thinking off field.
Part II - “The road less travelled by” : the in-cut

“I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference”

——–The Road not taken - Robert Frost

Guys if Bobby Frost ever played ulti he would rock at it. Remember while cutting always take “the road less travelled by”. While your team mates go deep (for the huck from mid field) with the D hard on their tails, just take the initiative turn around and sprint to your handler. Receive the pass. Make a quick dump to the handler. Before the force sets in again the handler has an excellent opportunity to swing it into the end zone where your team mates are waiting to lap up the glory. :-). Your handler will thank you for the in cut, trust me it feels better than scoring at the end zone any day.

So long,

Aj

P.S.

Here is something I missed out in the mail I had sent out on the same topic.This is another way of looking at the in-cut.

In our bid to stay one step ahead of the opponents, most players’ thoughts some times outpace their instincts. To a nu-bee a gain in  yardage with the disc seems like a better reward than holding possession or resetting the the stall count.

Lot of us have faced this choice at numerous occasions over the several months we’ve been at it (ultimate). Its good old conventional wisdom at play again. When you want something really bad, ‘you go get it’. This is why the in-cut is the easier decision to make once it gets into your head. Its the instinctive reaction to a person’s need to get hold of the disc. Ever noticed the best in-cuts are those of the handlers in the team.

Its the ideal cut for those of you who are feeling their way into handling and have the desire to be with the disc. It gives you the opportunity to either score with the swing. Or make a dump to a handler in better position and watch and learn how to make that swing into the end zone.

Man defense. Your man is away from the disc looking for a pass from
the handler. You have just got to your man, who is looking for a
slice of the action.

Let’s start with positioning the body with respect to the ground and
the offensive player.

• Stay on your toes.

The conventional wisdom in ultimate tells us about the offensive
advantage. That is “given two players with the exact same attributes,
the offensive player will always win” in a two person race as it is
the offensive player who decides the “starting time and the ending
point”. This is the reality that all good defenders should come to
terms with. The moment your heels hit the ground, the winning margin
of the offensive player beating you to the disc doubles.

• Stand in a posture that maintains your chin over your toes.

Positioning yourself well with respect to your man as well as the
general area of the disc is very essential for good defense. This is
where peripheral vision helps. Try forming a triangle with the points
in the region of play that concern you.
Point A is your man,
Point B is the region of the field where the disc is in play
And point C is your own location.

Locate the disc using the peripherals of your eye and keep your man
in line of sight with your body.
In order to maintain such an alignment over a period of time, you
would have to move laterally, forward as well as backward. These
motions need to be at a speed that matches up to the changes in
position of your man as well as that of the play area. The quickest
way to keep up the speed and maintain perfect balance is to keep your
chin positioned over the toes.

• Keep your eyes on the offensive player’s knees and shins.

Not only does the offense decide the Starting time and end point of
his two man race with you, he also fixes the direction. My personal
experience when on offense has taught me that an offender will always
fake a cut with his upper body. Playing offense one gets to learn how
easy it is lean in one direction while your knees are ready to move
in another direction. Trust me on this one. The legs are the biggest
give away of the cut that your man is going to commit himself to. The
final deciding cut has to be the quickest and the longest. I am
saying this because when your eyes are at his feet and you are moving
along with him, you can congratulate yourself because he hasn’t lost
you. Now that you are keeping up with every move of your man it is
essential to know which of his many cuts is going to lead to the
disc. In a nutshell it is the quickest and longest one and your team
mates have just shouted “Up!” Don’t turn around and look at the disc
just as yet you might lose pace in the process. Leave your man and
head in the direction that the disc is most likely to go.

While getting there,
Get a glance of the disc in the air.
If you still get beaten to disc,
(Hey you noticed. This is a Limerick)
Just get your ducklings in a row,
It definitely was a bad throw.

Aj