A glorious event transpired last week in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. A mark in the endzone extended his right arm high up into the heavens, blocked the handler’s cross-field high-release backhand, and then magically closed his fingers around the disc. Or maybe he is spiderman disguised as a Middle Tennessee State University MT Ultimate defender and it just stuck to his palm. Who knows how he did it, but it will probably never happen again. Let all bear witness: the holy grail of ultimate, the hand block callahan, has been filmed.
As a youth coach, what should you say when an elementary or middle school player asks you to teach them the “hammer” throw? The normal response is to tell them they should first master the backhand and forehand throws. But I’m starting to wonder: if our goal is creative players, maybe kids should get a chance to choose what throws work best for them to accomplish a particular pass or play…
What goes on in the mind of a kid who finds themselves holding the disc?
Why not have 80+ throws from which to choose?!
Consider the enduring wisdom in the favorite cheer of my daughter’s coach, Denny: “Hammers win games!!”
Not long ago, I followed that dictum in one of my favorite moments as a club player for Che. I had never thrown a hammer in a league game before, but faced with an intense forehand force on the sideline, I suddenly saw an opportunity in the far corner of the end zone. (Thanks for being tall, Rebecca!) What an awesome feeling of satisfaction to watch that hammer drop down to my teammate… The receiver — that a moment before had seemed unreachable because of the tough mark that was shutting down my standard throws (forehand and backhand) — caught the throw and we won!
So… since he skipped 76 (accidentally) maybe that’s 78 throws? Except he’s sneaky and counted the “flick” with which he started the video (at 0:25), so 79! Maybe *you* should make up #80, or teach Rowan one that he didn’t include?!
Finally, below is a list of all of Rowan’s throws, plus an ever-growing list of a bunch more. For many throws there are also links to tutorials so you can break each down and learn it. Feel free to add your own throws via the comments, and we’ll incorporate them into the big list.
Ok, here’s how Seattle kids play Schtick. We’re gonna call it Schteattle Schtick and it’s best played with 10-75 youth players (assisted by their coaches and/or parents) and lots of discs — at least 1 for every 3 players. (If you have more players and discs than this, you should play Galaxy Wars instead.) Either way, you’re in for a lot of fun and intense aerobic conditioning (even if there are minor inconsistencies with developing good fundamentals, e.g. you’re allowed to run with the disc)…
Schtick field schematic (from http://schtickdisc.org/official-rules/ )
Here are the basic rules of Schteattle Schtick — forged on the first-mucky then sun-hardened grass fields of the DiscNW summer camp fields. The main difference from standard Schtick (described below) is that there is no stoppage of play upon scoring (in fact there really isn’t even any “keeping score” amid the mayhem), and there are no pulls — even at the start of the game. The Seattle variant simply adds these stipulations:
The game cannot start until all players and all their discs (half the total available which must be at least 10) are packed inside the scorebox they will be defending. Everyone must be ready to rumble, and silent (ha, ha). The coach (or some responsible person) yells “go,” or whistles, and everyone runs amok.
The only way to win is to get all discs out of your territory (across the middle line (hint: always keep at least one in reserve to counter stockpiling). You get a billion bonus points for getting all discs not only over the middle line, but also within the scorebox you are attacking (it’s never been done, BTW).
Dimensions may vary based on team size and field space available.
Follow the rest of the standard rules (see box & links below).
Local variants:
If you have even more kids, you can add scoreboxes, e.g. two boxes per side!
Played with a 2×2 box and a triangle half that size. Triangle worth 2 points. But we never really keep score of course!
It can be played on grass, sand, or snow, and has many cool variations.
Players may run with the discs (unlike ultimate).
The playing field consists of a middle line which bisects the globe into the 2 teams’ territories. On the ground within each territory, about 20 meters from the midline, is a 2×2 meter scorebox.
8-80 players are divided into 2 teams. Each team is assigned one territory to defend (like capture the flag).
Scoring occurs by getting a disc to rest on the ground within the scorebox in opposing territory.
Players with a disc who are tagged by an opposing player in opposing territory must relinquish their disc.
In practice, the play of Schtick is flexible enough to permit people of widely different disc skills & athletic skills to legitimately face off on the same field.
It is imbued with a spirit of the game that is rarely paralleled in a sporting world otherwise geared for jocks only. More important than athletic prowess is a flexible mind & willingness to try.
It was a cold, crisp morning (even in the classroom).
John welcomed us to his awesome teaching space.
(We all thank John for helping us access the school where he’s a teacher. Prior to his help, Scott was really struggling to find a space that met the USAU facility requirements and budget!)
8:30 Introductions
Alex led the group in a quick name-game. We went to the cafeteria and threw a soft cone in two circles of ~10 participants. You had to thank the person who through to you (e.g. “Thanks, Alex”), say your name, say the name of a person who had not yet been thrown while making eye contact with them, and then throw the “disc” to them.
Getting to know name-game
The two groups competed to see who could cycle through everyone in the circle and back to the original thrower. The groups were different sizes, so it wasn’t fair, but it was fun to add complexity to the game — first by speeding up the cycle; then by adding a second “disc” that was started after the first disc had reached the third or fourth person. We headed back to Leahy Land with a new game that could help a team of unfamiliar players learn each others names efficiently.
Back in the classroom, Alex had us go around the room introducing ourselves. This was the beginning of one of the best aspects of the in-person workshop: getting to know other local coaches and sharing ideas with them. Here are a few topics that folks said they were hoping to learn about during the day:
How to manage middle schoolers!
Nuts and bolts of running a practice
How to get more young girls involved
How to teach the rules
How to get equal improvement in a group with varied experience or different learning styles (e.g. not leaving passive kids behind)
How to “seed” elementary and middle school teams in ways that support the development of high school teams
Best practices for coaching elementary school
9:00 Why do people play ultimate
This was a great group discussion. We came up with lots of ways to “hook” new players on the sport, as well as some shortcomings of the game as it’s currently played by younger youth (mostly grades 3-8). I’ve listed some highlights (ideas that were new to me), but there were many more that Alex noted and discussed.
Why people play ultimate:
The beauty of the disc flying (play Dog on the first practice!)
Spirit of the Game (try playing look-up/down to choose throwing partners)
More equitable and confidence-building play:
Don’t say sorry rituals
The “special” (has to be thrown to before team can score)
All-touch points
Keep away (practice low-emotion mistakes)
2v2 scrimmages (lots of touches for everyone)
try mixed and single-gender practices/drills/scrimmages
rotate who leads a middle school team each practice
girl-girl leadership pair
boy-girl leadership pair
boy-boy leadership pair
Try 4 girl, 3 boy scrimmages
Hire more female middle school coaches!
Attracting more girls and retaining them through middle school
understand other sport calendars and trends
market to groups of girls/women
classrooms, especially social groups of girls
siblings
teams from other sports that are burning out
Verbal face-to-face recruitment of girls by coaches (helps make them feel valued!)
Riot’s 3 tenets: ETL = Excellence. Trust. Love.
Team work and athletic development: be purposeful with a charter?
Seattle Public Schools has a process to follow for creating a charter (Charlie mentioned it, but I missed its name)
A charter should describe how do you want to feel (as players; as a team)
Then plan: What do you do to achieve the charter?
Camp Orkila has a process for creating a constitution/charter with new campers…
Engagement
As a coach: watch 1 player for about 2 minutes and ask “Are they engaged in this drill/lecture/game?”
Experienced parent’s role: teach ultimate culture to other parents
Things that detract from ultimate:
“Disc-organization”
soccer gets calendars out 6 months in advance!
USAU web site is messy (trick is to google your search term and append “site:usaultimate.org”)
General turn-offs
Lack of good practice fields
Canceled games (because many youth games are played on grass fields which SPS closes when super-wet)
10:30 Ethics
Handout: 25-page booklet — “Coaching Ethics Workshop” including sections on: intro; the sport; Spirit of the Game; Liability and Insurance; Safety; & Emergency procedures; plus 2 appendices on: child abuse reporting agencies; references/readings.
We read through the USAU ethics pamphlet, discussing each point (many of which originated with the U.S. Olympic Committee).
Key concepts for coaches of youngest youth:
Teach and practice the foul/conflict resolution process (Rules; how to call fouls; how to contest; how to resolve; best perspective)
In game, coach is a resource not a judge
“Do you have a question about the rules?”
“Can I help you with the process of calling and resolving a foul?”
Spirit circles
Use them mostly for compliments and positive coaching
If both teams mis-understood a rule in the game, coach can use as a teachable moment and clarify for all
Pet peeves (of various participants)
Don’t teach middle schoolers to call travels!
Don’t allow kids to kick rolling discs!
Common issues
Playing time: try to keep it balanced by using a sub-sheet
Player is unspirited (cheating): start with a question, like “How did you feel about that last play?” Then educate about a relevant rule or process.
10:50 Took a 15 minute break for snacks!
Sign-in and snack tables
11:15 Parents
11:20 Spirit of the Game
We broke up into small groups to define and discuss SotG. Then came back together to share and look for commonalities.
Try having a spirit “captain” (esp on high or club school teams)
Coaches role is as a model of good spirit (calm communication; fairness
Incorporate SotG into drills: e.g. high 5s when you enter a line; offering encouragement and compliments to teammates.
12:05 Liability
5 duties to avoid exposure
Proper instruction for risky activities (e.g. lay outs)
Provide safety equipment (safe field; don’t mix cleats and bare feet!)
?
Supervise
Provide care (upon injury)
12:10 Insurance
12:15 Concussions
12:20 Lunch
We made sandwiches, ate chips, drank juice, and chatted at our desks.
12:55 Fundamentals
Handout: 76-page booklet “Coaching Performance Workshop” covering: intro; communicating with your school; parents; logistics; growth/promotion; equipment; conditioning; & tips; plus 12 appendices on rules; affiliates; state associations; sample season schedule; sample parent letter; sample med form; intro clinic schedule; 12-week fitness program; injury prevention; nutrition/hydration; injuries; and references/readings.)
We discussed the fundamental skills and knowledge we need to teach in ultimate, then prioritized them into an optimal sequence for new players.
In what order would you teach these fundamentals?
5 steps to learning:
explain
demonstrate
imitate
critique
repeat
Brevity ends with a “Why?”
TALK LESS (2 minutes is too long)
Why (explain)
Use 2 or 3 cues, e.g. for backhand “keep disc level” (see hard-copy handout “Skill Specific Cues” for lots more)
Try mnemonics
13:15 Transition to gym
The active portion of the workshop included: coming up with a drill (in groups of ~4 participants) to teach fundamentals; demonstrating how to run those drills to the rest of the group; and Alex demonstrating typical parts of a practice (warm-up/plyos, throw foci; drill iterations).
13:15-14:30 — Coming up with a drill to teach each fundamental
Groups formed up, took 10-15 minutes to prep a drill, and then demonstrated it (for a few minutes). [I have video of some of these if folks want to see themselves in action!]
Cues and notes on each demo:
Backhand
level the release by thinking of serving a glass of water on it
Step out
Snap your wrist (like snapping a towel?)
“pull through” (not uncurl, that’s the “BBQ throw”)
hinge from the shoulder
“buckle the seatbelt
Forehand
booger flick
outside edge down
finish with palm up
Mark
hips low, shoulders up
arms active and low
“low hands”
high energy
Pivot
“land” then throw
be clear with language
“pivot on foot opposite your throwing hand?”
“move foot on same side as your throwing hand?”
Force — emphasize it is a form of team work
Cutting
Sharp change in direction
Clap near end of cut?
Chop stop (NOT 1 big stop and step)
Go/fake away from target area, then cut back
“Cut to a cone” (e.g. any corner of the endzone)
Defense
3D: defend, deny, deflect?
dictate (instead of chase)?
But be careful with language and younger players!
“head up”
backing, fronting
stop the under; stay between receiver and disc
shadow movement; dance
“be the mirror (image)”
14:30-15:00 — Demonstration practice (by Alex)
Started with a cheer: e.g. “1, 2, Learn!”
Do a lap while tossing with a partner (take note: 40 throws/lap x 10 practices = 400 extra throws per season!)
Warm-ups
We’re teaching movement (to protect bodies over a lifetime)
The goal is to talk about and practice movement (e.g. running form)
Think of plyos (dynamic warm-up) as movement puzzles
Have a base warm-up; make small changes; add new challenges
Practice names of muscles and parts of bodies
Go from small, low intensity to big, high-intensity movements
Practice names of muscles and parts of bodies
Science shows: static stretching is good for flexibility after exercise (not before when a dynamic warm-up is better)
Sequence of plyos (from toes to head) [we did these as a big group lined up across the gym]:
Toes out; heels back
High knees; lunges
Airplane; picking dandelions
Close the gate; open the gate
Torso twists
Arm circles (forward, backward)
Fast feet out; high knees back
Butt kickers out; Door busters back (toe pointing to sky; hit door with sole not toe)
Leg swings (with partner or fence)
Side shuffle
Kareoka (or Kareoke)
Run @67% out; 42% back
Skips (emphasize height, or distance, or both)
Jump and land (prevent ACL tears [7x more prevalent in girls than boys!]: quiet; soft; knees over toes, NOT knocked-knees)
Proplyoception => challenges (do it backwards; close eyes); try airplanes w/eyes closed; fast knees backwards (and eyes closed?!)
Retro-runs (forward, backward)
15:00 Drilling
Choose high repetition
Prioritize familiar drills; then build on them
Lots of iterations w/small changes and limited focus (2-3 cues max)
Examples of coach challenges and nuanced skills:
How to counter blacksmith leg (from always pivoting on leg opposite dominant throwing hand)?
Catch with dominant/throwing hand under in the alligator (so grip is ready to throw)!
Step back to throw hammer.
Variants on paired throwing drill (we tried these with a partner)
3 forehands; 3 backhands
vary release points (regular, high, low, wide)
vary release angles (inside/out; outside/in;…)
Goofy foot compass throws
15:20 Overhead throws
Normally discouraged with youth, but Alex likes them for fun and to help handlers practice decision making.
15:30 Practical aspects of drills
Clear wide; yell “Safety” to prevent collisions
Alex led a “Go to” drill (2 sets of participants) as an example of how to iterate w/distinct cues
chop feet; go to disc; ready; eye contact
alternate sides to give drops a chance to clear
different focus point each day
5 full steps = deep cut
chop feet; get low; rotate hips; explosive first 3 steps; drive knees.
challenges: pancake every disc; non-dominant hand catch
add a mark (open side; break mark)
different cuts (out/in; handler cut = fake to open side, cut to break mark side)
competitions; games
15:45 Return to classroom to discuss practice planning and structure
15:50 Practices
Set expectations with players and parents
Pre-season “goal setting” (+ a mid-season check-in)
will this work for elementary?
best practices for goal-setting are still developing
Plan specific practices to tick off skills; select specific drills
Planning process should help clarify goals…
For each practice, don’t forget:
Talk about Spirit of the Game
Specific over-arching concepts: e.g. throwing skills, or a particular defensive strategy
Every good practice looks like — group brainstorm:
16:30 End with evaluation forms, handing out coach bags, discs, FiveUltimate coach benefits (CDP Odyssey 1/4 zip, other gear if your team orders gear thru them), etc.
Good ideas? (Some voiced; some just in Scott’s head)
What about a dual-model for coach development by USAU (and/or local organizations)?
Youth only (grades K-8): FREE workshop (maybe requires a coach membership, but fee is subsidized) for volunteer coaches of elementary/middle players, camp counselors, etc.
Level 1 (high school, college, club, pro): ethics and performance workshop for new coaches (typically paid, not volunteer?) of teams that may have some players who are new to the game
Level 2 (high school, college, club, pro): strategy workshop for advanced coaches of more competitive teams
Ways to boost girl recruitment and retention
Get a middle school girl to assist with your elementary team
Last month during the final day of the Disc NW Masters Hat league, Andy McRea of the Whidbey Flyers introduced me to a GREAT disc game called “Durango Boot” (or just “boot” or “Durango”). It turns out it has wonderful potential for youth players, primarily because it demands that you maintain awareness of the whole field all the time — a skill that is elusive for most beginners and seems to only come slowly with experience.
Our Masters team had a huge roster, so none of us were getting much playing time during our first game. Andy threw up his hands and declared “I haven’t even broken a sweat. Who wants to play boot?” I raised my hand, but had no idea what a workout I was in for… Here’s a video that captured the craziness that ensued —
Not many players were familiar with the game (including me), but it turns out the game has it’s own website — Durango Ultimate. In the simplified form that Andy taught us (and that the Aussies are playing in the video), you place two cones (or better yet boots) a few meters apart near each end of your playing space, mark center field with 2 more cones, and proceed to pass among your teammates trying to knock over a goal cone with a scoring throw. A huge novelty is that you can head for the goal at either end of the field, and switch your goal at any time! Another key rule is that on a turnover (upon interception, stall count to six by any defender, ground contact, or a score), the team gaining possession must first complete one pass that crosses the center line.
Though different than the official version, Andy really increased the pace by reversing the normal rule that a score results in a turnover. Instead the offense that just scored stayed on offense (but still had to “take back” the disc by passing it once over the center line before attempting to score again). This may be known as the Albuquerque Variation.
In addition to improving full-field awareness, Boot could be useful in the context of youth ultimate in at least these ways:
if you have too few players at practice for 5-on-5 or 7-on-7;
if you want even more continuous play than ultimate (there is no dawdling around or resting in preparation for the next pull);
if you’re tired of playing box;
if you want a lot of practice making quick, accurate passes, particularly in the 2-on-1 offensive strategy that is recommended as a basic approach;
if you want an early, organic introduction to how a zone defense can be a successful strategy.
Coaches, parents, and players sharing K-12 ultimate
