Learning/Teaching how to cut

I may not be a cutter, but I've taught enough cutters and watch enough ultimate that I think I have some ideas about how to learn and how to teach cut timing.  In my opinion, the first step to learning how to cut effectively is very simple: learn how to time a deep cut.  If you can effectively time a deep cut, the rest of the field just seems to open up for you.  First of all, you will find yourself scoring goals, because a lot of times all you need is a well-timed cut and you will be open enough to get thrown to.  I've often seen young players have "breakout' tournaments where they score a bunch of goals just by learning "Oh, when this guy/girl who likes to huck the disc catches it, I'm going to run deep as fast as I can".  Then, over the next few weeks, they start improving dramatically, as they are now able to set up huge under cuts thanks to their good timing, and have increased confidence when they are cutting for the disc.  It all starts with that deep cut. In addition, having effective deep cuts makes the entire offense run smoother (those of you who are fans of Zips Tips may remember a tip from the more recently made twitter account: "#35 When a team gets the disc in power position and no one cuts deep, somewhere in the jungle a baby sloth falls out of a tree. #cutdeep").  So remember: save the sloths, cut deep.

So, how do you time a deep cut?  Like I mentioned above, the first step is to just start making hard, sprinting deep cuts when your favorite thrower catches the disc.  A lot of times, just starting from a standstill at the back of the stack and sprinting deep when a handler catches an upline cut or a cutter catches an under will give you the couple yards of separation you need.  However, against smarter/faster/better defenders, you'll start noticing that those simple cuts aren't enough. In order to keep getting separation deep, you'll have to anticipate those cuts and be setting up your deeps by pushing your defender under.  This not only gives you more space to cut into, but it gets your defender off balance and makes it more difficult for him/her to anticipate the deep cut and get in your way.

So, now that you're an awesome deep cutter, how do you take the next step and turn those deep cuts into huge unders that propel your team's offense?  How do you know when you're supposed to stop cutting deep and come under?  The answer is simple: look at the thrower.  As a thrower, when you see that deep cut going (especially when you catch a power position under or strike cut), you need to do one of two things: either (a) throw it deep or (b) pump fake deep.  By doing (b), you not only give your receiver a clear signal that they should stop their cut and come under, but you get the whole defense to bite deep.  Any defender watching you sees you wind up and assumes it's going to be thrown; a good fake will even draw some up calls from the sidelines, which will help your cutters get open more as the defenders pick their heads up looking for a huck in the air.

As a cutter, when you start making your deep cut, you should ideally be burying your head and running full speed, so that you can beat your defender.  But, you also need to be able to see the thrower and look for the disc going up (allowing you to get a better read on it than your defender) or the pump fake, telling you to come under.  So, the next step to effective cutting is working on your timing so that you can peek back at the thrower and see them either throwing the disc or giving a pump fake (rather than running the whole cut with your head over your shoulder, which slows you down significantly).

Hopefully, after reading this, you have some idea of how to build and learn effective cutting techniques.  As an example, I've included a .gif below, from an Ironside (Boston area men's club team) vertical stack progression.  It shows pretty much everything I talked about above - only possible improvement is that the cutters are running with their heads looking behind them (as opposed to timing a "peek" to see the thrower).

Make sure to use the pause and slow-mo functionality to really get the most out of this clip.  You can see that the first cutter (George Stubbs, a Callahan award winner) starts making a deep cut as the previous cutter catches an under.  When he gets a pump fake, he turns and plants under.  Meanwhile, the next cutter, Peter Prial, is mirroring his cut, pulling his defender under so that he can make a deep cut when Stubbs catches the disc.  Though the huck is thrown to Prial, I am pretty confident that if Stubbs had instead thrown a fake, Prial would have come under for a 30 yard gain and the next guy would have been cutting deep.  That's just how good, fundamental cutting is done.

[Side note: if anybody has a higher quality .gif of this play I would love to get it.  Can't remember for sure what game this is from and I can't find a higher quality version online]

Developing New Throws

Hammers, scoobers, off-hand backhands, blades, high-releases, push-passes.... everybody loves the fancy throws, but not everybody can/does throw them, especially in games. So, how do you add a new throw to your arsenal so that you can effectively use it in games?

The first question we need to ask is: how do we define having a throw "in your arsenal"?  For me, this means that you can effectively throw the throw in a game situation without planning or thinking about it.  You want to be able to see a cut develop, and immediately/instinctively know, based on the timing, space, position of your mark, and wind direction/strength, which throw you should throw for that situation.  This is much more difficult than it sounds and can take a long time to learn, depending on the throw.  So, to add a throw to your arsenal, here is the general progression I think you need to take for what situations you throw that throw in:

1. Unfocused throwing - tossing on the quad with your friends? Try a scoober or two
2. Focused throwing - more deliberate throwing where you work on improving specific skills and throws
3. Practices/drills - start throwing one or two of your new throws in breakmark drills, hucking drills, etc.
4. Scrimmages/pickup/league games
5. Tournament games

For the rest of this post, I'll use the scoober as my example... although this applies to all throws, including hucks and more "traditional" break throws.

First thing's first: if you want to add a new throw, you have to start throwing it.  The best place to start is when you're just casually throwing - that way you don't have to focus on the mechanics, you just mess around and see what feels comfortable, what works well for you.   This is also a great time to start messing around with the angle and distance of the throw. Once you start to feel a little more comfortable, you can start adding it in to your focused throwing.  (Side note: if you aren't focused throwing, you need to be.)  The difference between focused and unfocused throwing is that you are giving 100% mental effort on every throw and trying much harder to make it a game-like throw.  So, try to push your scoober release higher and further from your body to get away from the mark, try to keep the scoober from floating too much, but also make sure it is thrown at a catchable height.  Work on throwing a fake, so that you are moving your mark. When focused throwing, you should also work on throws in bulk - if working on scoobers, throw a lot of them in a row so you can build the muscle memory.  Also, note that I say "add" scoobers to your focused throwing - you should still be constantly working on all of your throws, so adding scoobers just means you have to throw more.

The next step is to start throwing your scoober in drills.  The drill that immediately comes to mind is a breakmark drill.  If you are running a breakmark drill, I'd recommend throwing just one or two scoobers during the whole drill - so you can work on throwing it to a cutter moving into space, but also aren't becoming over-reliant on that throw.  Often, when people add a new throw, they fall in love with it and start throwing scoobers when they could have just thrown an easier backhand (something I have personal experience with...).  So, to help avoid this, make sure you are only using your new throw sparingly at first - you won't be throwing a scoober every time you break the mark, so don't throw it every time in a break mark drill.

Next, you want to start throwing your new throw in game situations, but ideally in games where the outcome is not as important - such as scrimmages in practice, pickup games, or league games. At first, you might need to set up the throw artificially to get the hang of throwing it in games - so before the point you might tell your favorite receiver that you want to throw him a scoober and he/she should cut for it.  However, as I mentioned above, before you start throwing in tournament games, you want to be at a point where you can make the right throw for a given situation without having to set it up or even really think about it.

The last thing I'll say about new throws is that a lot of times, captains/coaches/leaders of teams, especially college teams, do not like throws that are not "traditional" or "fundamental" throws - low release, step out flicks and backhands. I think the jury is still out on that approach - on the one hand, there are a lot of teams and a lot of players that are very successful using scoobers, hammers, and high releases to their advantage. There are also plenty of players who can break the mark using a variety of these throws even though they don't often huck - which provides a great counterpoint to the statement that "you shouldn't work on that scoober until you can throw flick hucks".  On the other hand, Revolver is consistently the best team in the world, and they rarely throw anything besides full step, low-releases (go back and watch some of Revolver's games from this year - in a typical game, they will maybe throw one throw that isn't "100% fundamental" throw.  For me, I like having a variety of options at my disposal so that I can feel confident beating the defense in different situations; but, when the going gets tough (windy, or if your team is just struggling to complete throws), you should always be able to get back to those fundamentals.

Blame vs. Responsibility

This is going to be be my first post of many dealing with the psychology and mental game of ultimate. I think it's important to recognize that the mental game of ultimate is HUGE - do not underestimate the impact of being a mentally strong team and player.

Today's topic comes from a blog post from a guy by the name of Tim Grover.  Tim Grover is author of the book "Relentless" (highly recommend, and I will post more from that book), and founder of Attack Athletics - he is both a physical and mental trainer for athletes (specifically basketball players), and has trained some of the best players to ever play, including Kobe Bryant, Dwayne Wade, and Michael Jordan.

The idea is a simple one, but has a lot of intricacies:
"It may not be your fault that your team lost, but it is your responsibility."

In ultimate, we can apply this to a number of other situations:

"It may not be your fault that your team got broken, but it is your responsibility."

"It may not be your fault that your team has low energy, but it is your responsibility."

"It may not be your fault that your team is late to the fields, but it is your responsibility."

It's important to remember that ultimate is a team sport, and whether we win or lose, we do so as a team, not as individual players or individual lines.  The "blame game" is a dangerous place to be - when the sidelines start murmuring "why did he throw that? Why didn't she layout for that? Why can't they score?", things can go from bad to worse very quickly.  Even if you aren't on the field, you can always contribute to the success of the team, so rather than looking to assign blame, take responsibility for the situation and do whatever you can to help the team.

It starts with body language and energy, but extends to our actual language and word choice - if you just threw a huck while your cutter decided to come under, don't come to the sideline and say "You should have gone deep!" - that's just you pushing the blame to someone else.  Instead, take responsibility for what happened, and discuss what you can do to improve.

One way that you can take responsibility from the sidelines when your team is struggling is what a teammate of mine from Cleveland liked to call a "show of force".  The idea is that you show the strength of your team, not necessarily by yelling and screaming louder than anybody else, but simply by supporting your team.  The best example of a show of force can be seen after a team has just gotten broken.  While the defensive team rushes the field and celebrates, their opponents usually have their 7 O line players walking back to the line to play the next point, while the sidelines have their head down, wondering who they could blame for the break.  When this happens, the defense begins to gain momentum.  But, what happens if the defensive team looks down the field and instead of seeing 7 lonely O line players, they see 27 people on the field, high-fiving and smiling?  What happens when the sidelines rush the field to give the O line energy after being broken, instead of sulking? In my experience, this can often be the difference between a team getting one break or 3, and the difference between a close game and a blowout.

Maintaining energy through an 8 game tournament is an incredibly difficult thing to do, but sometimes, it's those little things that can keep you going.

"Humility" by Yuri Marmerstein

My brother, Yuri Marmerstein, is a movement artist/trainer, an acrobat/gymnast, a hand balancer, and a teacher of movement skills.  He currently lives in Las Vegas but travels around the world running hand balancing workshops.  He also has a facebook page and a blog where he posts fairly regularly.  This post comes from his blog:

My Past Experience in Grappling and Humility 

Today I want to write a little bit about a mentality I used to have, and a lesson I learned from having it. We are all guilty of having an ego from time to time, and it is important to appreciate the reasons to stay humble.

During my college years early on in my movement journey, I trained with the MMA club. It wasn't anything too hardcore, mostly just some basic Muay Thai and BJJ. Occasionally we did some weapons work like Escrima or Kali.

The club was run and frequented by average college students, so my having above average strength, flexibility, pain tolerance, and work ethic came as an advantage. I was able to progress pretty quickly, though it may have been attributed to my preferring training over partying.

I felt especially confident during the grappling portion, but I would soon find out that my confidence was very misplaced.

I had played around with some wresting as well but never had any formal training. I found if someone was close to my size, I was able to overpower them. However, someone who had actually trained in wresting was usually able to pin me.

Fast forward a year or so, I am visiting a friend's college during my long winter break. They have an open BJJ training where visitors can sign a waiver and roll. At this point I had already been training(many bad habits, though I didn't know it then) capoeira, MMA, tricking, basic tumbling, and some gymnastics strength so I had a pretty high self opinion. Prior to rolling with who I believe was the teacher for the BJJ club, I thought I would have at least been able to hold my own against him due to the stuff I had been doing. I could not have been more wrong.

I did several rounds with the BJJ teacher, and every time he would literally have me in a lock within seconds. It didn't matter how much stronger than him I may have been or thought I was, superior technique and experience beat me every time.

So this is what it's like to actually be good at grappling, I thought to myself. Turns out I was a big fish in a small pond. I had never previously experienced BJJ at a higher level, and that caused an ego to form.

I have gone through similar experiences with other forms of movement, but none as profound as this. I had completely gotten my ass handed to me.
Here are several lessons I learned from the experience(I didn't grasp a lot of these until many years later):
There is always someone better than you
If there is nobody in your circle better than you, seek someone out on occasion to be inspired and/or humbled
As soon as you think you'e "good", you automatically lower your guard
As soon as you think you know something, it impedes your learning capabilities and closes off your mind

Stay humble, continue through life as a beginner and a student. I have found that the further I go, the further I see there is to go. Every step I take forward gives me a better view of the world, and I see how vast and overwhelming it really is. It's not discouraging by any means; I would rather be aware of the possibilities. You could be the biggest fish in your aquarium, but there is a whole ocean out there.

This is very applicable and important in Ultimate as well.  Many of us play in communities that are relatively small, and we can find ourselves in situations where we aren't being regularly challenged.  Forcing yourself out of your comfort zone can help you continue to improve. One way to do this is to seek out the highest level of competition you can - if you aren't in a huge ultimate hub, try traveling to attend tryouts for the most competitive club team nearby (or an AUDL/MLU team).  Even if you don't intend on playing with that team, you will find that playing within new systems and against new players will force you to look at things in a new light and will expose some of your weaknesses that you may not have known before.

You can also challenge yourself within your own community: if you normally handle, try cutting for a game instead.  If you are a cutter who likes to huck, try a game where you look off every huck and try to throw a break instead.  Try running new defenses/offenses where you don't necessarily have muscle memory to guide you, and have to rely more on reading the field and the situation. There are a lot of ways to push yourself and discover your weaknesses, and regularly doing so will allow you to continue improving as a player.

I was fortunate that in my time at WashU I got to matchup a lot against Evan Karson (current captain of Contra).  Karson was an incredible defender and a tenacious competitor, and every night in practice he pushed me to get better.  While driving with him to one of our first outdoor practices of the spring season, I told him that I was confident he wouldn't be able to point-block me for the rest of the season.  That night, he hand-blocked me on an around dump. This was just the nature of our relationship - neither wanted to let the other win, and we consistently made each other better as a result.

Intro

No idea if I'm going to keep this thing going at all, or if I'll post once or twice and then never again.  Either way, I figured I'd create this blog and give it a try.

For anyone reading this who doesn't know me, my name is Joseph Marmerstein.  I graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 2015, and am now a Ph.D. student at Case Western Reserve University.  I started playing organized ultimate when I came to WashU, though I had thrown a disc before (in high school).  Quickly fell in love with the game and... here we are.

I captained the WashU men's team for two years, and during my senior year we made an awesome run at regionals, taking half on Texas TUFF in the game to go before losing 11-7.  I've also played for a number of club teams over the last few years (Lake Effect, Smokestack, Castle, and, most recently, Temper).

Right now, my plan for this blog is to be writing pretty much exclusively about ultimate.  I'll probably be writing some things that are very specific/situational, but also some things that are more general and relate other things I've been reading to the game of ultimate. Additionally, some of my posts will likely be geared more towards newer players, while others will probably be more useful for veterans of the game (though hopefully all of the posts will be interesting to you, regardless of your experience with ultimate). Hope you all enjoy the posts, if there's something you'd want me to write about feel free to comment on one of the posts or email me at marmersteinj@gmail.com.