Sort by Date: November | December | January | February | March | April | May Jan 22, 2003 "Play Through Fouls" When you throw, cut, jump or catch you must play expecting not to get fouled. All too often players will have weak break mark throws expecting a slap or not go up strong for a disc anticipating the hack. The best players play as if there is no one else on the pitch while still knowing where everyone is.       Jan 23, 2003 "Warmup Throws" When you warm up your throws before a game or practice begin by you and your partner being separated by a large distance (30-40 yards) and then after a while move in. Before your muscles warm up your accuracy may not be exactly on point, but a throw that is off by 2 yds to a receiver 30 yds away doesnt matter much. Once your muscles are warm, move closer (10-15 yds) and hone in your accuracy.       Jan 24, 2003 "Horizontal Layouts" When you lay out for a disc try to keep your torso as close to parallel to the ground as possible. You can decide which of these is more important to you, but doing this will accomplish the following two things. 1) If you are on offense you will be less likely to drop the disc when you hit the ground, being that there is no fumble caused by ground rule in ultimate. 2) Laying like this prevents short term (burns and bruises) and long term (shoulder) injuries.       Jan 25, 2003 "Transitions" If you get a go-to layout D, some might debate whether you should pump the fist to the sideline or just stare down your man. I say the best thing to do is to start the fast break. Your man is physically and mentally outmatched; you are ahead of him in the direction you want to be cutting and you also own him because you just layed out past him for a D. If you then score on him or even just get the disc on a nice cut, he will have been fully broken for the remainder of the game if not the rest of your college career.       Jan 26, 2003 "Be Creative" If you burn the bridge of your nose while laying out, make up some kinky/amazonianish/polar bear/flaming marshmallow type story to explain it.       Jan 27, 2003 "Why?" For many players, this tip may become more relevant as your ultimate careers move up and on, and for some of you it might change the way you think about the game. Think for one minute and decide why it is that you love playing ultimate and invest time, money, your heart, your body and your mind in it. If in very little time you cannot think of why, then it becomes harder and harder to stay passionate and intense about the game as your involvement in it deepens. I respect both the people who try hard to find what ultimate does for them and those who try to find something else because their soul/body/mind involvement in ultimate doesnt match ultimates involvement in their life.       Jan 28, 2003 "Lazy Throws" Never let your throwing habits become lazy. 1) If you want to throw to the forehand side, switch your grip from backhand to forehand and throw a flick. Even if you have a loose mark a little backhand flip to the forehand side is not a good throw or a good habit. 2) If you want to get off a quick throw to the backhand side and your feet are parallel to your shoulders, it is unacceptable to use a wrist shot without pivoting your right leg around. A good marker will shut this down and it is also very hard for your cutter see that a throw is coming, resulting in many miscommunications.       Jan 29, 2003 "Take a Break" I got nothing for tips today, Ive been drawing blanks all day trying to come up with something good, trying to make one player a little better, see one aspect of the game in a slightly different light. Todays tip therefore, was quite obvious. Take a break from the things that you always do from time to time. Youll come back more fired up and probably do a better job. If ultimate is your break from schoolwork, great. If schoolwork is your break from ultimate, even better.       Jan 30, 2003 "Throwing Deep" All too often, beginning players completely change their form when they begin to try to throw deep, thinking they have to "kill" the disc or "jack" it. A good throwers deep throws and short throws vary very slightly in form; moreso in revolution speed and snap at the end of the motion. To practice throwing deep, try to throw hard short throws with a lot of disc revolution (disc revolution is directly related to torque applied on the disc). Once you have mastered short throws where the disc does not wobble at all and stays parallel to the ground throughout its entire flight, then you can move onto deep throws, doing the same things you were doing while throwing short, but increasing your arm speed and the torque you put on the disc.       Jan 31, 2003 "Be Ruthless" Dont hesitate to be absolutely merciless in the opening games of a tournament. Especially in longer and more competitive tournaments, getting these games done quickly and soundly helps in terms of escaping fatigue towards the end of a tourney as well as building confidence from the first point of the first game.