4 weeks out

I started this post at the beginning of the week on Sunday night. It's Friday. 5  days have since passed. I wanted to take you through what's going on in the life of Saucy right now. This isn't your typical "summation of practices" type entry. This is about the wall our team hit last week. A few others have noticed it (via our convos after practices), and I wanted to think about it and give you all some word on our progress (in one big entry, rather than a few small ones)

Sunday Recap
Saucy is 4 weeks out until our first outdoor tournament. Last week after practice, I was reflecting on the direction we are going in. We kind of hit this "focus" wall. It's that part in the semester where everyone starts getting settled in, getting into routines. Practice becomes part of that routine. Socializing about what everyone is doing becomes part of that routine. Focus, on the other hand, falls out of that routine.

I think that many teams hit this wall too. The part where practices start becoming a little sloppy and energy kind of gets down. The problem is, we don't have a ton of time together before our first tournament. In fact, we have about 2.5 hours of mandatory practice per week (two one-hour-fifteen-minute sessions) or ten total hours left.

I did a little research. Thankfully, most teams operate functional blogs or websites these days. What do top teams in the game do when it comes to practice times. It makes me slightly depressed when I am reminded that, yes, teams on the West Coast are still outdoors. *Sigh* 60 degree weather is tough. The beach must be so cold! These teams get to practice 3-9 hours per week with good facilities. These teams have 1-2 tournaments before we put on out layers and huddle together on the sidelines for warmth at Midwest Throwdown. Then we hit a four week frenzy of non-stop tournaments. So our real work has to be put in now, because, realistically, we have enough time between tournaments to tweak little things in our game...not time to make major changes.

Here in Iowa (like many other places), we still have snow. But we are fortunate to have some really nice practice facilities. Seeing as how I have nothing else to do (sarcasim...as Sheldon would say, "BAZINGA!") I wanted to remind my teammates that regardless of the foot of snow we have, regardless of being indoors, regardless of not being one of those well-established teams, that we need to keep focused. If our team goal is to make it to nationals, we need to start holding ourselves accountable to the progress goals we set at our team goal meeting. The best way to do that is to stay focused at practice and utilize the limited time and resources we are faced with. (God, I am talking about scarcity...I sound like such a bright budding economist!) Let's see how the week pans out.

Tuesday Night
Timko just left my apartment. We were diagramming stuff and talking about life. Okay, enough about me. What about Saucy?

Well, I fear that what I wanted to be an inspirational e-mail to encourage people to focus and keep energy up, has scared the bejeezus out of my teammates. I didn't mean to put pressure on anyone. I just want them to remember the process goals we set. It's difficult to work on team chemistry, or "Beasting Everything" when we aren't trying super duper hard. That was the problem before. Now the problem is everyone trying too hard. There's gotta be a balance.

I think that now everyone is over sensitive of our goals. Let's hope for something a little more relaxed on Thursday,

Thursday Night Reflections (on Friday morning over breakfast...)
Last night, we got it right. That was significantly the most satisfying practice I have ever been part of. Mikey kept the tempo fast. We focused on offensive looks and execution. At first, offensively we looked good, but were struggling to just put it in the endzone in one possession. Every turn we had, we came back and started again. No breaks, no discussion. Just bring it back and go at it again. So basic, but it really got people to value the disc.

We set up scenario scrimmaging. Both teams were connecting. If one team turned it over, the other team put it in in one possession. There was rarely more than one turn per point. Intensity was up. People were connecting. It was exciting.

The focus is back. Mission accomplished.

Blizzard Night Two-fer: Indoor Practice Planning

I received an e-mail last week inquiring about indoor practice planning for small teams. Here is my response, courtesy of the blizzard I'm sitting through, alone in my apartment.

I apologize, first and foremost. I have not actually planned a practice since last season. Mikey, DK, and Steve plan practices. I get to show up and play. Bear with me as I recall all sorts of things we took into account/planned for at UW-Eau Claire.



UW-Eau Claire SOL, circa 2008 (Sectionals). Yup our full roster



Back to my response…For those of you familiar with the Wisconsin-Eau Claire program, you will know that SOL exploded out of nowhere. My first season, we had eleven on our team total. This meant that we were lucky with 6 or 7 at any practice. Though our numbers reached something close to thirty every season after that, we still had a problem getting girls to practice. It’s hard to “require” practice or adopt a mandatory attendance policy when you go to a relatively small school. Let’s be honest, I think there is more to life besides ultimate, and college is the prime time to foster those interests and jump-start the resume a bit. As a result, our sub-optimal practice times conflicted with all sorts of meetings, classes, volunteer-programs, etc. We had low numbers at practice.

So how can you effectively use your time when you have 12 players? Yes, we all preach that games and scrimmage time is the most valuable way to learn the game, but when you don’t have enough for teams, let alone subs, how can you expect people to do so at a high intensity?

The answer: drill progression into controlled scrimmages.

As captains, we would plan practices via e-mail with our coach, Pat Niles. We would develop our focus. (For the purposes of this blog post, we’ll say we are having an offensive focused day, specifically working on swinging the disc.) After the plan is finalized, we send it out the night before or day of practice for the team. That way our teammates know what to expect, as well as what to hold themselves accountable for if they cannot attend.

After 5 minutes of tossing, and 10 minutes of warm up, we get right into drilling. As we get water, we go over the focus. We’ll what we are looking for. We set up a drill that starts with the basics, progressing into more difficult skills.

You need to break down your focus into pieces. The most basic being first, adding more into the skill as the drill goes on. Making sure that there is continuity on what the focus is from one drill to the next. Keeping a central theme helped us stay on track.



Okay, so let’s say we expect to have twelve players at practice.  It is the end of January. We’re indoors, on a basketball court. We have the gym from 6:30-8 pm. This would be my suggested practice that focused on swinging.





SOL busts off the line during indoor season 2007


1. Warm Up (6:30-6:45 pm) Ideally, if we had access to a hallway before practice, we’d do warm ups at like 6 pm in the hallway. That way we could get going right at 6:30. Not realistic everywhere.
2. Water/itinerary/explanation (6:45-6:55)
3. Situational Drill, Progression 1: Basic Swing off the force side-line. Break into 2 groups of six. No defense. Basic swing, with a mark on the sideline only. Rotate after each successful repetition. (6:55-7:00)
4. Situational Drill, Progression 2: Same as Progression 1, but add defense to all handlers. Rotate after every successful repetition.  (7:00-7:05)
5. Situational Drill, Progression 3: Same as Progression 2, but change defensive position on off-disc handlers. Rotate after each successful repetition. (7:05-7:10)
6. Situational Drill, Progression 4: Same as Progression 3, but in one big group. Defense on all handlers. Add a cutter cutting into break side (no D). Rotate after each successful repetition. (7:10-7:18)
7. Situational Drill, Progression 5: Progression 4, but add D to the cutter coming in on break side. (7:18-7:25)
8. Break for water. Re-cap points of emphasis. (7:25-7:30)
9. Controlled Scrimmage 1 (7:30-7:45): 4 v 4, basketball court. Start with dead disc on the sideline. Offensive team gets 5 attempts to swing and get into some sort of offensive flow, sub between every point. Sidelines should be talking to defensive players. Switch O-to-D after 5.
10. Water break. Discuss basic take on scrimmage. Things to switch quickly to increase efficiency/success rate? (7:45-7:50)
11. Scrimmage 2: Regular scrimmage from "pull." Emphasize that disc should not be worked up sideline. Rearrange teams. Even split, or rookies vs. veterans.  (7:50-8:00 pm)

Boom. Practice planned.

Don’t feel limited by space or facilities. You just have to be creative with what you have. Keeping drills fast paced and altering controlled scrimmage situations keeps your players constantly thinking and constantly moving, hopefully minimizing boredom.

The "Play-After-The-Play"

Last night I was on the phone with Dave, talking about ultimate. What's new, right? I found myself re-visiting a concept that I credit to my high school softball coach, Mr. John Rosenberg: the-play-after-the-play.  This concept has been drilled into my head for years. "Fennig, think about the play-after-the-play."

What did this mean?

It meant to think ahead. See what was unfolding on the field before my opponent did. I realized that I do this all the time on the ultimate field. I honestly thought something was wrong with me. So many of the top players say "I don't think. I just react." Well, I'm sorry, I think all sorts when I play. I haven't been playing forever and require the whole thinking thing. Sometimes, I think too much. Sometimes, not enough.

The Play-After-The-Play really is about one thing: field vision.

How to See a Play Develop

I feel that this skill is learned through time and practice, just like any other skill a player learns. For me, that meant changing how I watched the game. As a new player, thirsty for knowledge about this game I was so desperately falling in love with, I spent so much time watching college nationals games (CBS Sports at one time had all the finals footage online for free before Ultivillage took it over...). I remember sitting on my computer at home in Muskego with my Dad, streaming the 2007 National Championship games. I spent so much time during the summer of 2007 watching and re-watching the Hodags win the over Mamabird. Both teams had ridiculous chemistry, and just had such strong players. At first, I'd spend time watching the disc moving, but found that I was overlooking the real action.

Just like the days of watching basketball game footage, I began focusing all of my attention on the off-disc action. At the time, I was a cutter. I sat at the computer and watched Will Locke get the disc deep, and watched Drew Mahowald set up the play-after-the-play as soon as the disc went up to Locke. I recall this moment quite exactly, because, it was the first time I actually thought critically about what was happening.

Over the years, I have had many teammates ask me how I got to the point I am at with how I think about the game. At this point, I simply start spamming them with all sorts of links with games to watch. I tell them to watch it, and we typically will meet up for coffee or something over my laptop. I'll ask, "What did you see." At that point, we'll talk about big plays, we'll talk about big throws. But then I'll ask if they saw the off-disc action. The answer is usually no, unless it's an iso situation.

When you watch film, watch off disc movement. Watch how the players are clearing. Watch how space is created and how the secondary cuts are timed. Handlers, watch how the handlers get open and create space. Watch the give and go--focusing on the secondary cuts. There's so much off-disc stuff to focus on. I find that talking about the stuff that's going on is crucial. Don't just watch film by yourself, watch it with a friend/captain/coach/player. Not everyone sees the field the same.

Bringing Your New Mantra To the Field

Me and Roxie talk options.

So now you're seeing all sorts of awesome things develop. There are a few ways to bring this to your team.

1) Helping Your Noobs

Watch your teammates. Sideline talk is important, but even more so is using practice time to help your rookies. Grab a rookie on the sideline. Watch a veteran. Watch them set up the play-after-the-play. Explain to your rookie about what's going on. Point out when your vet sets up a secondary play. When they're clearing space or setting up the next cut, or just streaking down field. From my experience, in women's ultimate, true rookies (who have no experience) take a bit longer to develop the field awareness of seeing plays develop. It's okay to take someone aside and help them see the field the way you now do. But it's important to also try to understand how they see the field. If they saw another option, make sure you tell them that your suggestion is another option.

 

Pat Niles helps Anna Hettler between points.



2) Helping Your Vets

When you're being a kick ass teammate, you can help your vets. Personally, I'm not a fan of sideline talk on offense...it can be difficult for on-field players to communicate when everyone is yelling and screaming.This means, if you see a vet who isn't busting it or someone who didn't take a good opportunity, encourage them to do it. "Hey (Name), you had a really good opportunity to set up a good deep cut when (Other Teammate) had the disc off that strike. You had your defender beat. Totally take advantage of that match up." The same can be said of when you're on the field between points. Note: don't be a jerk about it.

3) Setting Up Situations

Situational scrimmages are key. As a captain/coach/person who plans practice, incorporate this into your practice plan.

**I'll talk about teaching skills in a later post, I promise. I got an e-mail asking about that last week. I promise that I'll get to it in the next week or two!

4) See all the options

Try to see off-disc movement better when you have the disc. This really is improved with more play time. Seeing the best option, not necessarily the first, is something that everyone really should work on, even if they think they're pros.

Most Important, Practice what you Preach

If you want your teammates to respect you, you have to follow through. Work on improving your field vision is a constant process. It is something to keep working on and developing as you continue to play. It is a process, and it doesn't happen over night.

The same high school coach who drilled the "Play-After-the-Play" into my head, also taught me something key: to be a student of the game. Always be learning. Never be complacent. Your knowledge can grow even when your skills and physical ability cannot.

Wanna watch some clips and don't have time to search YouTube for something you haven't seen. Go here!
http://www.discvideos.com/

First Practice: Expectations

**Fun fact: I said some version of the word "expect" a whopping 35 times in this post.

The importance of understanding what expectations exist cannot be stressed enough. Understanding what is expected of me from my teammates, what I expect from myself, and what I expect from my team is important. I feel like expectations have to be assessed before any sort of goal setting can take place. I would like to think that many of you have assessed expectations. However, I waited until my first practice back to really try to analyze the expectations.

Why wait until now? Well, I had knee surgery the day after Thanksgiving.(While all of you were chowing down on some delish food in a gluttonous fashion, I was fasting for my 6 am surgery on Friday. Boo) I mean, I wanted to see where I was when I came back before I even set tangible goals. Last night, Saucy Nancy had it's first "Official" practice of the 2011 College Season. I have to say, as my first practice back to the realm of ultimate since Club Nationals 2010, I had fairly low expectations. It isn't because I have low expectations for me or my team. I tend to think I am fairly realistic.

What are Expectations

Expectations are different than goals. Google says that  expectations are belief about the future. Something you anticipate with confidence. Goals on the other hand are an objective that a person plans or intends to achieve. Expectations are something that you expect will happen. Goals are something that you hope will happen.

Personal Expectations

Personal expectations are always a bit more difficult for me to assess. I seem to do this thing called overanalyzing, and I tend to be on the pessimistic side of things. Prior to practice, here's what I thought about. I call these Robyn's Pre-Season Reality-World

1) I have not played ultimate since the end of October.

2) I have not sprinted since the end of October.

3) I threw a few times over winter break, nothing substantial.

4) I am lifting more than I thought I would be at this point post-op.

5) I felt as though I could have "worked harder," but I'm not sure that was the case. I made the decision to ease into things more slowly than I typically do after an injury.

Needless to say, I didn't suck as much as I thought I would have. I mean, I am a bit sore today, but I would expect nothing less. It serves as some motivation, that is for sure. But my personal goals for this season can be reassessed. I'll put that off until after this weekend's scrimmage/tournament.

I feel that my team expects me to be a handler who gets the disc a lot. Not saying I'm going to control the game, but I know from convos with Mikey, what my coach expects me to do in game situations. I know that my teammates expect me to be active on O. They expect me to get open for dumps, or make the strike cut up the line to make a big throw. They expect me to be smart with the disc and not throw it away. My teammates expect me to get big in the air in our zone D. My teammates expect me to pull the disc consistently.

Team Expectations

When it comes to the big picture of a team; however, I feel as though I am better at assessing where we are at the moment. After watching my teammates doing some intense plyos and lifting before practice, I know that I have never been on an ultimate team quite like this.

I'm seeing rookies making progress. People I wouldn't expect to get up a few inches, are jumping that box with one foot. I'm seeing people adding weight to the bar on their deadlifts, and squat form improving tremendously. The off-the-field drive, desire, and time is being put in.

Personally, I have the basic expectation that when I show up on Tuesdays/Thursdays/Fridays/Sundays, people are working hard. I expect that every single one of my teammates will continue to lift, condition, and train intensely throughout the season, tracking their improvements, taking Mikey's recommendations to heart. I expect that my teammates respect and encourage each other. I expect practices to be challenging, and that all players experience personal growth this season.

I also expect my team to not turn the disc over on O a ton of times; that we capitalize on every opportunity and make smart decisions. I expect that we will out-D our opponents, beating them with our legs and depth.

If all of my personal and team expectations are met, I expect to be playing in Boulder with my 28 teammates.