Drills

Articles on drills

Training Hex offence with your team

Felix Shardlow Comment

 

Hex is a new offence which most of your team will not have seen or played before – introducing it can be both fun and exciting, but will certainly come with its challenges. I’ve had experience introducing the offence to a variety of teams and players, from primary schools through University level teams to GB, and along the way have learned plenty about how to make the introduction as enjoyable and productive as possible. I hope to share what I’ve learnt with you in this article.


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(estimated 14:52 mins reading time)

Freestyle the “Ultimate” Edge

Ken Westerfield 1

(A fast-freestyle playing exercise/guide for learning and practicing disc handling skills used in ultimate)

In the early days of Frisbee before disc sports, the original attraction was just to watch the Frisbee fly. At first, this was enough; the sheer joy in watching the Frisbee fly, not at all like a ball. Then, because it’s in our nature to compete, came the Frisbee games. If you enjoy playing one disc game, chances are you’ll enjoy all the disc games, because they all have that one common attraction: unlike the ball, the disc actually flies. Each game demands unique skills but also shares common skills used in other games. If you become skilled in one disc game, you’ll quickly excel and most likely enjoy participating in other disc games.


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(estimated 6:14 mins reading time)

Indian National Youth Camp – Day 3

Sangeetha Manoharan Comment

25th May 2014

Day 3 was spent in preparation for the upcoming tournament which starts in a day.  The teams had two session of Ultimate as usual. The morning was spent doing the drills that was part of the curriculum. In the evening however the coaches had the freedom to devise their own training plan according to what the coaches thought was needed for their team. Many teams choose to run drills that ended in scrimmage with another team. The afternoon was spent painting T-shirts that would serve as jerseys.


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(estimated 2:26 mins reading time)

Effective Coaching of Drills

Sangeetha Manoharan Comment

As an intermediate player I used to wonder why our captains and coaches insist on running the same drills over and over again. Frankly, I found it boring! I assumed drills, like warming up and stretching, was a waste of time. I used to be all about the scrimmage at the end of the training session. I slacked off during drills, didn’t really focus on what I was doing. To me, then it was about doing enough reps before the captain/coach let me play ‘actual’ Ultimate.


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(estimated 3:29 mins reading time)

Throwing Drills To Do On Your Own

Ultimate Rob 2

For me, I approach throwing practice for ultimate much like practicing hitting balls/putting for golf. You want to focus on repetition, different throws (forehand, backhand, hammer, scoober, etc), different lengths (short, medium, long, hucks and pulls) and different situations (like inside out/outside in).

A few drills I love doing are:


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(estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

Zen Throwing Routine Video

Ultimate Rob 3

The Zen Throwing Routine, developed by Ben Wiggins, is a combination of a group of exercises that he found to help develop his own balance and versatility in throwing. He was inspired to put this into a cohesive form as a partner-slash-alternative to Lou Burruss’ Kung Fu Throwing, which is a very effective plan with very different goals.

To view all of the 21 steps in the Zen Throwing Routine, visit the playlist here: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLezzWvSJAw_Y9WqN4bE1v6EzatYqh2d0M.

You can download the complete Zen Throwing workout here: http://bit.ly/zenthrowing.

What is balance?


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(estimated 1:46 mins reading time)

Lane Cutting Drill – Drill of the Week

Ultimate Rob 3

The drill of the week is called the Lane Cutting Drill and comes from Playspedia. This is a great drill to work on cutting, recognizing open space and defending a cut.

Along with this week’s Drill of the Week from Playspedia comes a huge feature update. You can now add a video to a play you have created. What I like about this new addition is that along with reading the description of the drill/play and the illustration, you can also provide a video that you or someone else has created to further explain/teach the drill/play that you’ve created. This will only help to improve the benefit of Playspedia and the ability for players to learn. I’m so excited to start using this and I have quite a few videos planned which I will be adding to many of the plays that have already been created on Playspedia.


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(estimated 1:01 mins reading time)

Timing Horizontal Cuts – Drill of the Week

Ultimate Rob 3

The drill of the week from Playspedia is all about Timing Horizontal Cuts. I find this drill especially useful since running the horizontal correctly is all about cutting to space and this drill will help your players understand where the space exists and how to move there.

  1. Set up in 3 lines.
  2. 4 sets up for an In-Cut. 2 and 5 watch and prepare to set up their cuts.
  3. As 4 cuts in, 2 starts to set up for an In-Cut, 5 can slowly set up but mostly watches.

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(estimated 52 secs reading time)

Hustle Drill – Drill of the Week

Ultimate Rob 6

The drill of the week is called the Hustle Drill and comes from Playspedia. This is a great drill to work on cutting, catching while tired, running through the disc and throwing while tired.

  1. This is an enlarged display of the drill’s setup. Cones = Red 1-7 and Blue 6-7. The thrower is Blue 1 and the cutter is Blue 2. NOTE: the drill IS NOT run full field. For an average run, I would recommend that cones Red 1-3 be about 5-7 yards apart. This drill can be compacted or expanded depending on the workout you’re looking for.

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(estimated 55 secs reading time)

3 Person Weave – Drill of the Week

Ultimate Rob 3

The 3 person weave drill is great for faking, handler movement, cutting to open space, resetting and seeing the field. The progression is as follows:

  • 3 handlers line up horizontally
  • 2 cuts up the line, 3 moves in, 1 fakes the pass to 2
  • 1 passes to 3, 2 cuts across the field
  • 3 passes to 2, 1 slides up the field
  • 3 Handlers are back in horizontal
  • Repeat the pattern: 3 cuts up the line, 1 moves in, 2 fakes the pass to 3
  • 2 passes to 1, 3 cuts across the field

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(estimated 38 secs reading time)

Handler Cutting Drill

Ultimate Rob 2

In this video, I talk about the basics of cutting and relate it to a quick and easy handler cutting drill.

As a handler, it’s important to get use to cutting a few steps each time in order to get open for the disc. Too many handlers will just stand in place and not move their feet or their body and that makes it easy for the defender since the defender can just stand there and take away the throw.

Improve Your Faking and Marking With the 3 Man Drill

Ultimate Rob 1

One of the best drills I’ve done is called the 3 Man Drill. Basically, it involves one throw, one marker, one catcher and one disc. The flow of the drills works as follows: mark, throw, go. As you’ll see in the video below, it’s all about the thrower trying to fake out the marker, and the marker trying to prevent the thrower from getting a clean throw off.


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(estimated 1:18 mins reading time)

Drills: Bread and Butter (Stack and Cut)

Ultimate Rob 3

This is a great drill for the beginning of practice since it gets everyone working on all of the basics – throwing, catching, cutting and marking. You can also set goals in this drill (i.e. 10 completed throws in a row before switching to a different throw).

Number of players – unlimited number of players; all the discs

Skills emphasized – pivoting, leading a receiver, throwing past a marker, cutting, catching conditioning, marking a thrower (varied marks)


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(estimated 2:03 mins reading time)