Sort by Date: November | December | January | February | March | April | May May 1, 2003 "The Jerz" If you are unsure whether you are about to play in a very big game and need some juice for the mind, ask qp what hes wearing under his jersey. If you see the 2-five on the blue and white, you know its on. This vet has only rocked the jerz for a small handful of tourneys; worlds, nats, senior year amherst invite versus me...this is the real deal.       May 2, 2003 "Favorite Receivers" Know your receivers but dont have favorites. Knowing your receivers entails: being aware of what types of throws certain players will catch, when to release a throw based on the cutters speed and when it is a good idea to hold back on a throw you might make to another receiver. On the other hand, having favorite receivers is often accompanied by: looking off open men while waiting for your favorite cutter to get open or forcing a throw to your favorite receiver because you enjoy completing passes to him. This is a fine line, and certainly more a mental challenge than anything else, but is often the reason why poor throwing decisions are made.       May 5, 2003 "Pick a Few" With reading period coming to a close, I thought this would be an appropriate tip. Look over the tips from the past and pick a couple of things that you want to work on in the next three weeks. Before each practice bring these goals to the front of your mind and consciously decide to improve that aspect of your game.       May 6, 2003 "Faster than You Think" You can always run faster than you think. A couple interesting anecdotes/thoughts on this 1) I was watching a sportscentury classic on jerry rice and one of his ex-coaches was talking about him: "jerry had the most unbelievable functional speed ive ever seen. When I looked over the 40 times of the cornerbacks across the league, most of them were faster than jerry — never seemed to be able to catch him though." 2) If you are chasing down a disc that you dont think you can get and pull up early, you are selling yourself short. Run absolutely as fast as you can until the disc has almost hit the ground and then layout for it if you have half a chance at getting it. If you walk away from a disc knowing you did everything you could have possibly done, you leave no room for what ifs. If you do this every point of every game of every tournament, you will have a regret-free ultimate career. A side note on this tip: from what I hear, one of the more difficult things about being a wide receiver is catching a ball that looks like its bobbling even if its a perfect spiral, because while running full speed your head bounces around. During the beginning of his NFL career, jerry worked extremely hard at the track and taught himself how to run at full speed so that his head stays perfectly still, even when checking over his shoulder for the ball... the man.       May 7, 2003 "Scoops" After a long practice, if you need a little extra boost to your meal but have missed 7:30 ratty/vdub, just head over to the gate for a sandwich with a scoop. Once your sandwich is finished (cut and plated) and the delier is about to hand it over, lean forward a little and say "could i maybe just get a scoop of tuna on the side" sounding both extremely tired from practice and so hungry that if she didnt give you the scoop you might just jump over the counter and dive into the fixins bar. I advise us all; only ask for the scoop when you really need it. If this becomes commonplace, it will surely be outlawed. More often than not, the worker is so stunned by the question he hands over the scoop before knowing any better.       May 8, 2003 "Weather" When its a little windy players have the tendency to reel their throws in a bit, and conversely, when conditions are perfect they will often let their throws hang out. The latter is a much worse habit; in perfect conditions there is no excuse for turnovers. Decisions about making throws should be based on a "perfect condition" scenario and as conditions worsen, decisions should become tighter. On a side note, in great conditions people often try to "baby" their throws — putting a lot of touch on the disc and trying to hit a receiver perfectly in stride. Although this often looks very pretty, it is a much harder disc for the receiver to read, so shoot 'em in there.       May 9, 2003 "Turn and Face" When you catch a disc in the open field, if you are not going to immediately make another throw then a nifty little trick is to turn towards your mark and face them up like you are going to break them. Doing this for the first second of your stall makes your mark swing around to protect the break throws and when you turn upfield at 2 or 3 you will have completely uncontested open-side throws (this also makes throwing i-o breaks even easier because your mark swings to protect the break around). This also sets a tone for the possession and the rest of the game: its "your trying as hard as you can to stop me from throwing any and every throw I want" not "Im just trying to get a throw off on you."       May 10, 2003 "Alternate Email Adresses" Go onto the CIS homepage and get yourself a couple of alternate email addresses. This is possibly the most fun, stupid little pleasure to arise since waking up naturally a minute before your alarm goes off. Since becoming a pastime, whitechocolate@brown.edu, jayz@brown.edu, raff@brown.edu, 25@brown.edu, holla@brown.edu and checkthepulse@brown.edu have all become major players in the email game.       May 11, 2003 "Mother's Day" Go call your mom or write her an email to tell her how much you love her. If you are reading this tip and its not mothers day, go do it anyway.       May 12, 2003 "Sideline Space" As a wing in zone offense you should always keep at least 2-3 yards between yourself and the sideline. Otherwise, if a hammer is thrown to you and it is slightly long, you will back right out of bounds trying to make a catch.       May 13, 2003 "Hot Weather" Before playing at a tournament site which is known for especially warm weather, there are two things you can do that will keep you dramatically cooler. 1) Wear a hat when you play. If you are not used to playing with a hat, then try it out at practice before the tournament and get used to it. It keeps your face cool, less sweaty and you are less likely to get sunburnt. 2) Get your hair cut. Im not joking.       May 14, 2003 "Complacency" Do not remain content with being a good thrower, challenge yourself to be a great thrower. Often times a thrower will have the attitude "I got the disc around my mark, I put it into the space where my cutter is — I did my job." The best throwers (and the best teams) have committed to making every throw perfect. Another level of focus or a half second more of thought turns "caaatch-able" throws into great throws and good cutters into unstoppable receivers.       May 15, 2003 "Swinging for the Fences" When things are clicking on offense it is one of the most unbelievable feelings in the game; difficult catches are being made that are usually dropped, cutters have a spring to their steps, throws are cutting a path through the sky that you only see in your dreams and eye contact is being made on cuts where his back is facing you. Conversely, when the O is not flowing there is nothing more frustrating and the opposite effect of the above occurs; cuts you can usually count on are not showing up and throws that are the staple of your offense seem to be finding the ground. When this happens, many will try to get back to the "good O" in one fell swoop — a very bad idea. When you have fallen into a rut, a foundation must be built before you can stand up again. Dump and swing, only take 100% throws and slowly your squad will reel it back in. Not trying to get it all back in one throw is mentally one of the toughest things in the game.       May 16, 2003 "The Little Things" Focus on doing the little things correctly. People will comment on great players: "how does he always get open deep?" or "how did he make that layout grab look so easy?" or "how does he always appear in the holes of our zone O right when i want to throw there?" Well, he always gets open deep because he is drifting away from the disc as it is moving up the field, so when he cuts he has 25 yards of lateral field to break his mans ankles. He makes the layout look so easy because as hes approaching the disc he starts lowering his center of gravity so he doesnt lose forward speed when he goes horizontal. He pops into the holes because as you are faking he is bouncing on his toes and watching your eyes. Rome wasnt built in a day and big plays usually begin long before the goal is caught or the disc is D'd.       May 17, 2003 "Hold Your Line" In between points hold your line on offense. After outplaying a team I enjoy knowing that they can make no excuses as to why they lost. Give them nothing to complain about, no reasons for whining. Teams who walk around on the line are nervous and fidgety; stand up and let them see who you are and then go out and crush.       May 18, 2003 "Catch Like an Outfielder" When a pop fly goes up, a good centerfielder will immediately take three steps back, assess where the ball is going and then either continue to backpedal or run in and attack. The same goes for catching an overhead pass when at a standstill. Our hammers/blades in zone O are rarely underthrown; more often a jumping, difficult catch is necessary. When the pass goes up, follow the same procedure the centerfielder does. Not only will this prevent overthrows, but if the disc is short, you can attack it as opposed to waiting and letting it make a play on you.       May 19, 2003 "Mental Game" [from Paul Greff] The physical preparation is over. Other than eating and sleeping well, you're not going to improve your physical status. Now's the time to work on your mental game. The mental preparation during the 10 days prior to nationals is, in my opinion, just as important as the previous 10 weeks' physical preparation. If you care, I'll share my pre-nationals "mental workout" with you before age takes it's toll on my memory and I'm content to pick lint from my navel. 1. Take a physical inventory. Are you in the shape that you wanted to be in at this time? If not, then figure out a strategy for maximizing your output over the 3 day tourney and make peace with yourself. Whining to yourself (and heaven forbid, to your teammates) b/c you're not in shape is an awful distraction. You cannot have any mental distractions at this tournament. Pure focus. If you have an injury, then figure out a game plan to avoid aggravating it BEFORE you get to Austin. I can't offer much more help with injuries. I played over them. Learn how. If you're content with your level of conditioning then polish that porksword and get ready to do some damage. 2. Take a skill inventory. What are your strengths and what are your weaknesses? Define ways to exploit your strengths and simply leave your weaknesses behind. If you don't have a particular throw, don't use it. Someone else on the team has that throw. I guarantee it. One of my weaknesses (that's a relative term btw) was always breaking the mark. I found it helpful to identify certain game situations where it would be important for me to force that throw and in all others I would probably fake the throw and try to go to the strong side. Again, this exercise reduced the number of mental distractions and removed the guesswork while in the heat of battle. 3. Set personal goals. This is purely subjective but it's important to set personal goals to help you stay focused every game. My goals remained fixed over 20+ years: no drops, no throwaways. I know they weren't realistic over the course of the tournament (although no drop tourneys weren't uncommon) but I set out to accomplish those goals every half of every game. It gave me a sense of accomplishment during the game and strengthened my confidence. Other goals included shutting a particular opponent down, never being beat deep in the zone, etc. When the tourney is over you'll be able to look back and evaluate your own performance b/c in the end the only person you need to impress is yourself. 4. Visualize greatness. This exercise yields the most benefits. But it is also the most difficult to perform correctly. Visualizing greatness does not mean picturing which clothes would look best while standing on the victory podium. It has two levels. The first is to visualize yourself executing the team's playbook in various roles. For example, on defense I would picture myself playing different positions within the zone moving as one with the rest of the team while the opponent moved the disc around the field. Kind of like those skiers who picture the course before the race. The second level is all about Glory. See yourself shutting the best player down, staying with him cut after cut after cut until his teammates stop looking in his direction or until he puts his hands on his knees to catch his breath. See yourself getting open at will and delivering every pass on the mark. Imagine it's game point and you're down two goals at the cap. One of your teammates lays out for a diving D and we score. You can feel the opponent tighten up. We come down hard on the pull and they have to work for every inch of soil. Another teammate gets a D and we score. There is fear in their eyes and nothing but hunger in ours. Now it's your turn. You shut your man down the entire length of the field and then you set him up. You let him and the thrower think he's got a step on you and as the disc is released you burst forward, leave your feet and watch your hand sneak in front of his to snatch the disc away. No time for Glory yet. You stand up, take one deep breath to collect yourself and then you're an offensive machine. Untiring and unstoppable. You help work the disc down the field until you throw or catch the final goal. Game, set, match, Glory. The championship has been won and you contributed directly. This is the sort of stuff I still fall asleep dreaming about. If you visualize these things, you'll believe in yourself when it counts, you won't be nervous and you'll want to make the big plays. You'll want to be called in to receive the disc for the final point of the tournament. You will have hunger, not fear. Champions attack - they never protect. If you do this, I guarantee at some point you will be the difference. Leave it all in Austin - except the cup.       May 20, 2003 "Nationals" Hey brown, just remember: were better than these guys.