state of the luke

todays entry are random musings... just got done w/ a 2.5 hour ride, and i'm all endorphined up...

since i'm not playing any serious ultimate these days (the very occasional tourney) but lots of 'swilltimate' here are some observations of swilltimate.

i find it personally very difficult to try in swilltimate. that said, each of the 5 or 6 times i'm playing each week in local pickup/coaching/ whatever, I'll try once or twice... I usually attribute this to niggling little ache or pain... but i've noticed that I niggle and ache a lot more when there is nothing on the line... why?

the hs kids are more fun to play with. their not really that much worse than more experienced players, and their attitude is a lot more refreshing. it's truly fun for them, they have no 'baggage' so fun pickup can actually be fun pickup.

as opposed to 'grown up' swilltimate which often involves 'the guy who keeps running backwards 20 yds to pickup the disc' and thinks he's the greatest handler in the game.

we'll call him 'alex'.

that said, I like throwing the frisbee; so I'll keep playing ______timate, in whatever form it takes.

I'm still on the verge of picking up my very on copy of jim parinella's book, just as I'm on the verge of paying that library fine. But I especially want to know how it addresses 'percentage based offense.'

I.e., I know Jim is a big fan of stats and percentages... I wonder how deep the stats go? For me, the best offense (strategy, and instantaneous decision) is the one that has the best percentage of leading to a goal...

the obvious one, is that if your team completes only 70% of their throws, but you've got one guy who has a decent long huck (call it a 50% throw), it's obviously better to huck it the length of the field.

Now there is a sliding scale too, if there is a decent 70% break mark swing, and a 50% long shot, which should you do? If you turn the swing over, the opponent has wonderful field position, and at least a brief personnel advantage...

another source of irritation is the big dump. I love a good reset, wherever it goes too, but there is some large percentage of players/ teams that lose 10 yards with every dump, w/ no perceptible gain in field position (laterally). Why don't you turn the dump into a very short gainer? Or at least a minimal loss. The classic case of this was the Spokane national Championships. The Stanford Women's zone O was the BIG dump to someone in the middle of the field and 15 yards deep, then on to the far side. By mid game, UCSD was just running straight accross the field to mark the far handler.

There are some obvious problems with this.
And unlike many bad decisions in sport, there is an object lesson here, if outcome counts.

What's my point? Hell if I know... Most of what follows is derivative. I just want to write it in my own words.
A good offense, to start, should,
1) have some simple plan. go towards the goal, don't lose yardage, don't freak out, don't hold onto it. Unless you are Frank, then it's go backwards, be a martyr, every concept that someone not named tex winters came up with is dumb.
1a)gain as much yardage as possible with every pass
2) apply risk/return thought to risk passes... i.e., risky passes for a dump are kind of stupid. a risky huck, or a zone busting hammer that leads to a fast break... perhaps a good idea...
3) Develop a progression of throws for your players to support your strategery. Jim talked about this, I think... And structure drills for this (this is mostly for newer teams, I think... but maybe for all)... I.e., if your progression after a swing is, look huck, then reset it with as little loss as possible, then look huck again (maybe not the most sophisticated offense, but I suspect it's won many a league title)... then set up a drill w/ a thrower marker, a cutter/defender pair in the deep, and a cutter / defender to get it on the high count... I GUESS you could hit the deep guy coming under if the huck is not there, but people always drop that one any way... (just kidding)
4) remind the team that the good players get to do whatever they want, their creativity (foolishness) is what keeps the dumb repetetive stuff open and workable...
5) I think there is a lot to be said for doing a circuit of drills. see Jim's blog... for list of good drills. But do the ones you like, if you like one of the one's he doesn't. Running a practice as a 'camp' with a mini game, a trap game, etc... and move through them can kill time, get touches, etc.
6) deconstruct, personally, with a team mate, or as a team how well you did this. this is where you can use stats... and maybe create stats for what you are trying to do. like 'dumb, difficult break mark dumps' vs. 'risky, panicky hucks'
Hopefully your plan is a little better than that, it's just an example.
7) I'll come back to this one day and edit it into some actual plan for making an offense.