thesis, antithesis, synthesis. led to the rise and fall of communism. but whatever the way self reflection works, the past few weeks have led to a lot of thinking about stuff...
a new crop of summer kids are coming out, and so i get to apply a whole new bag of tricks. this year i'm exclusively using a cross between crazy franks z-boys iconoclasticity, and bobby knight chair throwing.
just kidding. i've definitely found a lot more value in the bloggery('paranelloh', idris (who's output seems to have dropped off dramatically since purchasing a 55" TV), and goff. Alex kind of blew up w/ a weeklong tirade about coed... then drifted into maudlin musings about the wonder years and lambada...) than R.S.D. (ex: coedSter@gmail...i get in shape for frisbee by doing 20 deep kneebends really fast, then running 4 by 1 mile sprints. i also have a ripped meniscus that limits my range of motion to 30 degrees, and causes excruciating pain when... well, all the time... should I play more than the 6 days a week I play at work? (I'll throw in some links to R.S.D. posts that actually say stuff like this. very humorous)).
from reading the blogs, and given the opportunity to start w/ fresh produce, i've added some new thoughts. the hammer is not a vertical flick, but teaching blades right away (good suggestion idris) does improve flick (the concept of follow through comes more naturally on the blade); having them throw under my arm to learn extension also provides more meaning, and skips a step... these have helped a couple kids make rapid strides... it is more difficult for me to initially teach extended flicks.
also, teaching them to throw blades right away has the advantage of making the hotbox games MUCH more competetive
on how to cut, or clear, or mark...
general: if you are teaching one new player, have them cover an experienced player. if they are a fundamental athlete (which mainly means kinetic learning style), and they chase, are marked by, mark, etc... good players, they will learn good habits. then in conversation, especially while watching a point or two, you may get the opportunity to observe a good player, and relate it to things that the new player has done (much more valuable to say, do you see that, that cut i made when you covered me, see how it works, the timing... less valuable to say, see that, don't do that). I believe surgery has the maxim, see one, do one, teach one... in sports its maybe see one, do one, see one, do one... or something like that...
specific: marking... w/ new players, i usually mix up a no arm marking drill w/ an 'armed' marking drill. seems to work. but the players who got better fastest are the ones I marked, so they got used to a 'style' that is more effective by mimicry, rather than creating their style in an adhoc manner.
cutting: again. if you want your newest player to learn how to cut, put them on your best player. if you have the inclination, do it at a tournament (fast tracking). for REALLY new players, having the brand new kid cover the other brand new kid only serves to create unusual portions of space. or lack there of.
clearing. take the time to say, hey sparky (try that one Jim, instead of dude, or new guy), give me an honest effort on 'd', and I'm going to try to 1) keep you far from the disc, 2) keep you from ever seeing (with their eyes) the disc, and 3) create tons of space for my team mates 4) punish you severely if you leave me, or look away from me. Then make an effort to do it, honestly. Then deconstruct (preferably w/ video) soon after...
the challenges. fast tracking still requires field time. W/o any other considerations, or any real effort to develop specialized coaching plans for each kid, the kids that came to practice the most made the most improvement, relative to themselves (i don't know how to quantify that)...
that's all for now.
1 comment:
throwing blades does help with follow through... that's a good way to look at it... follow through is sort of the caring part i was referring to... its how you care about the flight of any objects path... be it baseball, football, basketball, or frisbee. i like it.
crib v o'dowd...[semi] short version... o'dowd emails crib privately telling him that the cal states team is taking shit seriously this year... none of the joking around that crib brought last year on sunday... which o'dowd says caused the loss in semi's after beating they beat the condors on saturday. crib then forwards the private email to the whole team saying he was confused.. he thought the team was a chance for old friends to get together and kick it, and he politely withdraws his interest in playing on the team.
the team of course _is_ about that, and we all think how silly o'dowd is being. o'dowd has now been clowned because an email that was supposed to be between him and crib got out to everyone.
so what did i do?
i forward my own "private email from mike" to the team (fake of course), saying i too am looking forward to getting to see old friends and i'm just happy to be playing.. and that could mike kindly not involve me in back room dealings.
what was the content of the "email"?
it was a 2 page diatribe (which mike is famous for) than ripped on teammates, called out soft players, talked about how o'dowd was the man.. and how his plan for this tournament was for this reunion team to come out in shape and shred and win it, and use it as a launching pad for the fall '05 club season.. where this group of old timers was going to take down furious, condors, etc, en route to a national title.
how would it happen.. junk d and 90% of the plays on O running through o'dowd of course :)
the kicker was that apparently much of the team... or at least a bunch of players... thought the email i was forwarding really was written by o'dowd.
Post a Comment