I’ve done a lot of reading of other blogs, books, and I’ve talked to a lot of people for many hours about ultimate. In all of that time, I’ve come up with a bit of a quick reference checklist that I think will help any level of player, captain and team before going into a practice, game, and especially a tournament.

Let me know what you think of my list of tips. What ones should I add?

1. Shake the confidence of the other team by scoring on hucks
2. On defense, stop the early hucks – don’t play too deep but shut down the thrower on the huck and the deep strikes
3. When you catch a huck, instead of rushing your throw, think about turning and dumping
4. If you’re poached, either strike deep or cut to the handler and get the disc
5. Turn and dump at stall 6 – make eye contact with the handler and throw the disc to space
6. When you’re near the endzone, don’t rush to score – be patient and make smart choices
7. Play smart D – pick your battles wisely. On an in cut or a huck, run your ass off and go for the disc
8. Make sure that your fakes/cuts are viable – really sell it because otherwise you’ll get blocked/stopped
9. Everyone needs to sprint down on the pull (I can’t tell you how many times I’ll pull and be the first guy down – no more…everyone has to get down there!)
10. On zone O, get out of the mentality of dumping and swinging. Have the handlers move the disc upfield, break the zone and get it to your mids
11. Cut (and conversely, throw) to the break side
12. On zone D, when your cup gets broken, run past where you think the disc is going – try to contain the disc
13. Also on zone D, you don’t have to run to a man – just be close enough that make the handler think twice about making the throw
14. When you feel that things are falling apart, call a timeout to regroup. Don’t talk about everything you’re doing wrong. Just take a deep breath, realize that you can play ultimate, and go back out there and throw and catch
15. Instead of saying “don’t drop” think “just catch”
16. Always be aware of where the disc is – take snapshots of the field as you’re moving around
17. When it’s windy, the best thing you can do when throwing is to get a ton of spin on the disc
18. Support your team – stand on the sidelines and cheer for them – you want the same when you’re on the field
19. Watch some sweet ultimate videos before you play a tournament to get pumped up. I created a Youtube playlist with a ton of vids (http://www.youtube.com/user/rjmcleod04?feature=mhum#g/c/86B4AEB8A7F39C5F)
20. Have fun – after all no matter how much you spent or how far you traveled, it’s just a game. Play hard, learn as much as you can and have fun with your team

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