For a long time, ultimate players have tracked performance using incredibly simple metrics: D's, goals, and assists. Many teams also track playing time, even differentiating between O and D points. Recently, some more advanced apps have allowed for more advanced statistics tracking, which includes tracking every single throw (who threw it/caught it, where it was thrown/caught). Although these can give some great information, they still lack a lot of things I think are important. At the moment, the difficulty and time commitment required to collect these advanced stats is definitely the limiting factor (see recent 538 article), but I'm going to go through some stats that I think would be pretty cool to see in the future. Some of them are fairly simple and could be implemented in USAU events right now, while others are a bit more in-depth and may require more volunteers (or paid employees... looking at you, AUDL/MLU).
Also, for a lot of these I basically made up names that I think sound cool and capture the basic idea of the measurement. If you think there are better names for some of them, feel free to let me know.
So, in no particular order:
Handblocks/Footblocks
It's pretty crazy to me that nobody tracks these. There is a pretty significant difference between a D downfield and a D on the mark, and it's also very easy to track.
Defensive Mark Efficiency
This is one that would definitely be more difficult, and would require that somebody with a trained ultimate eye be watching the game. Basically, this would be a measure of the ability of a defender to limit break throws from the thrower. I'm envisioning it being calculated by the equation below, which divides the number of break throws the person you are marking completed by the total throws he/she attempted.
(Break throws completed )⁄(Total throws attempted)
Although this wouldn't always be a perfect measure of how "good" your mark is, if aggregated over multiple games it should be a pretty valuable metric. Note that in this case, having a smaller number would be better. You could also just subtract this number from 1 to make it a slightly more intuitive stat, where having a higher number (closer to 1) would correlate to having a better mark.
Offensive Break Efficiency
We all know how important it can be for an offense to have potent break throwers that can change the angle and attack the whole field with their throws. However, there still is no way to quantify the impact this can have in a standardized way.
Similar to above, offensive break efficiency would look like this:
(Break throws completed)⁄(Total throws attempted)
Of course, in this case, it is the number of break throws you completed divided by the total throws you attempted.
Offensive and Defensive Sky Percentage
Pretty self-explanatory; the main issue would be the subjective nature of what you count as a sky. Personally, I'd say any play where both players are close enough to each other to make contact would count as a sky. If the offensive player drops or misreads the disc (with the defender in position to count it as a "sky" attempt), that would count as a sky for the D.
Effective Assists
I'm still not totally sure what the best way to measure something like this would be, but my thinking was that it would include goals score more than one pass away in the statistic. So, if you throw a pass to someone who gets the assist, you might get 0.5 added to your effective assists. Two passes away, you get 0.25 added. Not sure if this would be useful, but it may help show what players are facilitating offense even if they aren't throwing all of the assists.
Offensive Usage (touches based or yardage based)
I think a similar statistic has been calculated before by Ultiworld, but I'll go through it anyways. The way I see it, there are two ways to calculate Offensive Usage:
1) Based on touches
For this calculation, your offensive usage would simply be the ratio of touches you got compared to the total. So, if an offensive point was a one-throw score, both the thrower and the receiver would have an offensive usage of 0.5 for that point. An "expected" usage, when calculated like this, would be 1/7 for each player (although there are many other factors that would change this, like weather conditions, team strategy, player position, etc.).
2) Based on yardage
This is one that I believe has been measured before and can be measured using stat-tracking apps currently available (though I'm not positive on that - if anyone knows for sure, let me know in the comments). For this measurement, your offensive usage stems from the percentage of the team's total yards you are responsible for (either based on throwing or receiving. Let's imagine that a player catches the pull, then throws a 50 yard huck down the field. The cutter then throws a 5 yard pass for a score. The handler would have an offensive usage of 50/110, while the first cutter would have 55/110, and the last cutter (who scores the goal) would have 5/110. Notice that you have to double the total yards covered, since you count both throwing and receiving yards. The next level would be to separate throwing and receiving efficiencies to see which players are bigger threats downfield vs with the disc.
Another application of a metric like this would be allowing teams, coaches, and analysts to have a quantifiable measure of players' involvement with the disc. If a team's game plan is to limit the amount of damage Beau Kittredge does downfield, a coach would be able to look at this statistic and immediately know if their team is being effective.
Defensive Usage (touches based or yardage based)
Defensive Usage would simply be the offensive usage of the opposing player while you are guarding them. By itself it may not be super valuable, but when used with Offensive Usage, it can give you more information, such as...
Defensive Efficiency rating
This would measure the impact that a defender has on the player they are defending. It would be the percent difference between the average offensive usage of the offensive player and the offensive usage of that player when being guarded by a particular defender (so, percent difference between offensive usage for O player and defensive usage for D player). Because of the way this is calculated, this would be a measure of "shut-down defense", which is something that is not usually captured by keeping track of D's.
As an example: if Opi Payne's normal Offensive Usage is 20%, but her offensive usage when being guarded by Kelly Johnson is only 18%, that would give Kelly Johnson a Defensive Efficiency Rating of 10%. You could then average Kelly's Defensive Efficiency rating for each player she guards, and get an overall measure of her shut-down defense.
There are a couple other half-ideas that I have floating around in my head, but haven't fully fleshed out yet; maybe these will be included in a future post. For now, I'd love to hear what other people think about these stats, and any way to track them. Personally, I'd like to try tracking some of these with my winter league team (all of our WL games are filmed and uploaded online, which would aid this process immensely). If you'd like to try tracking some of these, I'd love to hear about it!
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
Why You Are Not Making Progress (by Yuri Marmerstein) [Part 2]
This is part 2 (of 2) of this post; you can check out part 1 here.
My brother recently wrote this post, where he talks about some of the potential pitfalls and mistakes people make when they are trying to make progress in hand balancing. As is the case with many of his posts, I think there are a lot of parallels that can be drawn between hand balancing and ultimate; I go through some of Yuri's points below, with my comments in italics.
-You train with the wrong methodology
Always remember what your goals and expectations are. Are you training as a competitive gymnast? If the answer is no, it may not be worth learning your handstand like one. The same applies with yoga, circus, breakdance, and other handstand styles.
Ultimately, this is an individual practice, so find what works for you without getting caught up in too many dogmas.
Different acrobatic skills will also require different variations of the handstand.
Remember that we are ultimate players, not cross country runners or football linemen. Make sure you are training appropriately.
-Your view of 'progress' is too narrow
There are many ways to get better at a skill, and many of them are not as obvious as you would think. Handstand hold time and body line are pretty obvious things to work towards, but things like efficiency in entry/exit, cleanliness of balance, consistency, fluidity of transitions and ability to save a fall also very important elements.
Improving on these is just as important, even if you're not actively improving your line of hold times by doing so.
This is something I see a lot with younger players, and some more experienced people as well. Often, players can get frustrated because they don't see exactly the results they want to see - for example, they still aren't able to complete 60 yard hucks, but they don't realize that as a result of the practice they've been putting in, their 30 yard throws are much more reliable. This is one reason that I think it is very important to talk to and get feedback from teammates, captains and coaches - self-assessing is great, but usually you need an outside perspective as well.
-You get too caught up in PRs
Unless you were performing a feat of endurance, your longest hold time is not something you should get too caught up on.
Hit 60 seconds? Great! How many attempts in a row can you hit that same number? Ascending skill levels is going to take thousands of repetitions, so what we're looking for is consistency. How long can you hold your handstand on the first attempt after rolling out of bed in the morning? That's what I would be more interested in.
If you're playing ultimate, it doesn't necessarily matter how far you can throw a disc, or how high you can jump, or how quickly you can change directions. As Yuri points out, consistency is the name of the game. Can you still throw that forehand 70 yards with a mark in your face and a cutter open by 2 yards? Can you learn to holster that same throw when the matchup isn't favorable? What about when the wind picks up - does your 70 yard huck turn into a 90 yard huck that sails out of bounds?
Don't get me wrong, you can be a good player with just the raw skills I listed above. But if you want to be great, you have to be able to execute them again and again, and to integrate them with other skills and with situations that are presented to you in a game. To finish off this point (which is likely one I'll revisit in the future), here's another quote from "Relentless" by Tim Grover:
-You spend too much time training on your own
I love training alone, but it has its pitfalls. It reminds me of this quote:
On this note, I think it's important to seek out new opportunities to play with new people. Whether that is local leagues, organizing teams for tournaments in the off-season, or just going to pick-up, try to play with as many different people as you can. If possible, try to play with and against people that are better than you.
-You don't do enough research
You might be someone who just likes to try something to see what happens. In handstands, it's possible to progress this way for some people. However, eventually there will come a point where some guidance is needed to continue progress or correct bad habits.
This is where it helps to observe, watch videos, and take notes to get ideas from other sources.
There are very few ultimate players who watch enough film. If you listen to or watch interviews with players from more popular sports (e.g. basketball), you can get an idea of just how much they watch film and prepare for each game and opponent. We don't necessarily have the ability to do that in ultimate, but for some opponents you can sometimes gain an upper hand by watching them play (either in person or on film). What moves do they use to get open? What are their favorite throws? What do other defenders do that seem to bother them or shut them down?
-You do too much research
Knowledge is important, but ultimately meaningless without proper implementation. I encourage vast amounts of research, but there should be a good ratio between researching and doing. There are too many people well versed in theory but with little practice in it.
Don't be that guy.
Again, I doubt there are any players (maybe some coaches) that watch "too much" film or read about ultimate too much. Especially now, during the offseason, take advantage of the extra time you have not being able to play outside and read up on the game.
My brother recently wrote this post, where he talks about some of the potential pitfalls and mistakes people make when they are trying to make progress in hand balancing. As is the case with many of his posts, I think there are a lot of parallels that can be drawn between hand balancing and ultimate; I go through some of Yuri's points below, with my comments in italics.
-You train with the wrong methodology
Always remember what your goals and expectations are. Are you training as a competitive gymnast? If the answer is no, it may not be worth learning your handstand like one. The same applies with yoga, circus, breakdance, and other handstand styles.
Ultimately, this is an individual practice, so find what works for you without getting caught up in too many dogmas.
Different acrobatic skills will also require different variations of the handstand.
Remember that we are ultimate players, not cross country runners or football linemen. Make sure you are training appropriately.
-Your view of 'progress' is too narrow
There are many ways to get better at a skill, and many of them are not as obvious as you would think. Handstand hold time and body line are pretty obvious things to work towards, but things like efficiency in entry/exit, cleanliness of balance, consistency, fluidity of transitions and ability to save a fall also very important elements.
Improving on these is just as important, even if you're not actively improving your line of hold times by doing so.
This is something I see a lot with younger players, and some more experienced people as well. Often, players can get frustrated because they don't see exactly the results they want to see - for example, they still aren't able to complete 60 yard hucks, but they don't realize that as a result of the practice they've been putting in, their 30 yard throws are much more reliable. This is one reason that I think it is very important to talk to and get feedback from teammates, captains and coaches - self-assessing is great, but usually you need an outside perspective as well.
-You get too caught up in PRs
Unless you were performing a feat of endurance, your longest hold time is not something you should get too caught up on.
Hit 60 seconds? Great! How many attempts in a row can you hit that same number? Ascending skill levels is going to take thousands of repetitions, so what we're looking for is consistency. How long can you hold your handstand on the first attempt after rolling out of bed in the morning? That's what I would be more interested in.
If you're playing ultimate, it doesn't necessarily matter how far you can throw a disc, or how high you can jump, or how quickly you can change directions. As Yuri points out, consistency is the name of the game. Can you still throw that forehand 70 yards with a mark in your face and a cutter open by 2 yards? Can you learn to holster that same throw when the matchup isn't favorable? What about when the wind picks up - does your 70 yard huck turn into a 90 yard huck that sails out of bounds?
Don't get me wrong, you can be a good player with just the raw skills I listed above. But if you want to be great, you have to be able to execute them again and again, and to integrate them with other skills and with situations that are presented to you in a game. To finish off this point (which is likely one I'll revisit in the future), here's another quote from "Relentless" by Tim Grover:
Most people are ready for one scenario, they can't even envision ten; they're completely paralyzed by all the possible variables, and when one thing goes wrong, they can't adjust. You can practice the same shot over and over, until you can do it blindfolded. Great, now can you do it if I hit you with a sandbag while you shoot? Can you focus if I blast horrible music or scream in your face? When you always go according to plan, you get robotic and lose that innate ability to know what to do when plans suddenly change, when you're confronted by the unexpected.
-You spend too much time training on your own
I love training alone, but it has its pitfalls. It reminds me of this quote:
"Solitude has but one disadvantage--it is apt to give one too high an opinion of one's self. In the world we are sure to be often reminded of every known or supposed defect we may have."We all have a skewed perception of ourselves, so there are simply things we cannot notice or correct when it comes to our personal form. For this reason, it's useful to have a teacher or training partner, at least every so often.
- Lord Byron
On this note, I think it's important to seek out new opportunities to play with new people. Whether that is local leagues, organizing teams for tournaments in the off-season, or just going to pick-up, try to play with as many different people as you can. If possible, try to play with and against people that are better than you.
-You don't do enough research
You might be someone who just likes to try something to see what happens. In handstands, it's possible to progress this way for some people. However, eventually there will come a point where some guidance is needed to continue progress or correct bad habits.
This is where it helps to observe, watch videos, and take notes to get ideas from other sources.
There are very few ultimate players who watch enough film. If you listen to or watch interviews with players from more popular sports (e.g. basketball), you can get an idea of just how much they watch film and prepare for each game and opponent. We don't necessarily have the ability to do that in ultimate, but for some opponents you can sometimes gain an upper hand by watching them play (either in person or on film). What moves do they use to get open? What are their favorite throws? What do other defenders do that seem to bother them or shut them down?
-You do too much research
Knowledge is important, but ultimately meaningless without proper implementation. I encourage vast amounts of research, but there should be a good ratio between researching and doing. There are too many people well versed in theory but with little practice in it.
Don't be that guy.
Again, I doubt there are any players (maybe some coaches) that watch "too much" film or read about ultimate too much. Especially now, during the offseason, take advantage of the extra time you have not being able to play outside and read up on the game.
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