Wednesday was review day. With so many people at practices, it's been difficult getting enough playing time for everyone, and I wanted to make sure we were all on the same page going into the tournament. I'd sent out a summary prior to practice, which I hoped would help decrease confusion on the field, and also catch up those who had missed some practices. Furthermore, I started putting people on O/D lines so that we could start building some chemistry between players.
We first worked on horizontal defense again - it'd been a while and I also wanted to try formalizing it a bit more. We tried straight-up to trap on the mark, and bracketing under/away, and I think the biggest difficulty was figuring out where we should be in the spectrum between strict man and zone. Wednesday was a little more zone-ish than I would prefer, with people guarding spaces rather than taking a person, and then switching. The mark I think was also too much for us at this point - to have to think about switching, and then also have to deal with a non-constant force... well let's just say we let a lot go. For this weekend I'll probably do one or the other, but not likely both together unless we're getting really comfortable at it.
Clam was the other defense we worked on since about 5 people weren't there for Sunday's practice. I was impressed by how much faster we were able to review it. I am also bemused by how many people had never even heard of it - not just not been taught clam, but just did not know about it as a defense. Well, the revolution is a-brewing. I think we'll start seeing it more in the college teams around here, b/c it's a great D at the college level.
****
For the Invite this weekend, we'll have 26 players. I'll be calling O/D lines, though the lines are definitely not yet set, and I'm sure I'll be moving some people around. We'll be working on all the things we've been practicing thus far, and probably some tweaks as well.
Schedule: http://upa.org/scores/tourn.cgi?div=36&id=6536 Seeded 12th overall.
1st round vs Salty, 2nd round bye, 3rd round vs Virago, 4th round vs MissCONNduct. Then crossovers.
Weather may be foul, but if you're around, you should come out and check out the ultimate anyway!
Showing posts with label horizontal stack. Show all posts
Showing posts with label horizontal stack. Show all posts
Friday, June 26, 2009
Friday, June 12, 2009
Tryouts Days 3 and 4
It was horizontal week at Hatch tryouts - worked first on the offense, then next practice on defense.
Last year we had taught the horizontal by running a pattern of cuts, but I felt it was too constricting and that people were getting hung up on when/where/who cuts, as opposed to seeing the spaces and flow. This year, I tried going the opposite route first - to explain the general principles of ho, and see if the players through repetition would be able to start getting a feel for how to cut.
It almost worked. We did start having a lot of nice cuts and continues, but people were not maintaining a disciplined stack distribution, nor were we getting both in and away looks for each throw. Part of this is that some of the tryouts have never played in a horizontal before - and it certainly requires quite a bit of field sense - and also that people have just not played together enough to get a feel for each others' preferences.
We switched halfway through to teaching a set of rules for cutting in the ho, which enforced the idea of always cutting when in the spaces, and also to give options for each thrower. This was better because it allowed newer players to have a framework and be able to cut with more confidence, and I think it wasn't so defined as last year so there was more freedom for those who are comfortable cutting in flow.
For Wednesday, we worked on defending the horizontal. This is trickier than in vertical, because the Ho is designed to isolate 1-on-1 matchups and to allow any cutter to cut both in and away. It works best in the middle of the field, where there is opportunity to throw to both the force and break sides, and without a huge sideline taking away the space.
Therefore, defensively we want to do the opposite - maintain a strong mark to shut down the breaks, and push the disc to the sidelines, giving up some yardage if need be. We also want to play more help D and do switches instead of relying on defenders to shut down their cutter by themselves.
It was difficult at first for people to widen their view to include more than just one cutter, but we got there. We had some really nice switches happen during the scrimmage, and it actually looked a lot more like a zone than a man defense, which is exactly where I'd like us to be - bridging the gap between strict 1-on-1 and zone.
This was a hard week for tryouts. We introduced a lot of new concepts, and also made people change the way they play. But I am really impressed by how willing everyone was to try what I was teaching and how much they were able to improve in two short practices.
We also made our first cuts after these practices, and it was difficult. There's so much potential; I can just see how good these women are going to be in a couple years (or less). I look at them and I want to keep them all!
Last year we had taught the horizontal by running a pattern of cuts, but I felt it was too constricting and that people were getting hung up on when/where/who cuts, as opposed to seeing the spaces and flow. This year, I tried going the opposite route first - to explain the general principles of ho, and see if the players through repetition would be able to start getting a feel for how to cut.
It almost worked. We did start having a lot of nice cuts and continues, but people were not maintaining a disciplined stack distribution, nor were we getting both in and away looks for each throw. Part of this is that some of the tryouts have never played in a horizontal before - and it certainly requires quite a bit of field sense - and also that people have just not played together enough to get a feel for each others' preferences.
We switched halfway through to teaching a set of rules for cutting in the ho, which enforced the idea of always cutting when in the spaces, and also to give options for each thrower. This was better because it allowed newer players to have a framework and be able to cut with more confidence, and I think it wasn't so defined as last year so there was more freedom for those who are comfortable cutting in flow.
For Wednesday, we worked on defending the horizontal. This is trickier than in vertical, because the Ho is designed to isolate 1-on-1 matchups and to allow any cutter to cut both in and away. It works best in the middle of the field, where there is opportunity to throw to both the force and break sides, and without a huge sideline taking away the space.
Therefore, defensively we want to do the opposite - maintain a strong mark to shut down the breaks, and push the disc to the sidelines, giving up some yardage if need be. We also want to play more help D and do switches instead of relying on defenders to shut down their cutter by themselves.
It was difficult at first for people to widen their view to include more than just one cutter, but we got there. We had some really nice switches happen during the scrimmage, and it actually looked a lot more like a zone than a man defense, which is exactly where I'd like us to be - bridging the gap between strict 1-on-1 and zone.
This was a hard week for tryouts. We introduced a lot of new concepts, and also made people change the way they play. But I am really impressed by how willing everyone was to try what I was teaching and how much they were able to improve in two short practices.
We also made our first cuts after these practices, and it was difficult. There's so much potential; I can just see how good these women are going to be in a couple years (or less). I look at them and I want to keep them all!
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
rookie offense
We took a gamble in the fall, and came out teaching a horizontal offense. And we taught it to a team composed of 2/3 rookies and 1/3 returners, only one of whom had even played ho before.
My reasoning was that we could isolate our more experienced cutters to make better use of the field and maintain the disc with the stronger handlers for more of the time. Furthermore, we would hopefully be able to avoid the swarm mentality that so easily occurs with vertical, especially given how many new players would be on the field.
To a degree, this worked okay in the fall - we were able to build a foundation for cutting, and ensured that their vision of the field is not solely fixed in vertical (or solely in ho), but by the end of the semester, we stopped using the horizontal as much. Part of the problem was that because we were working with players whose field sense had not quite developed yet, we had to teach them a more structured pattern of cutting, which took a lot of cognitive processing (but we're MIT, so that actually went more smoothly than I feared), and they had difficulty recognizing the open spaces and timing their cuts to those spaces effectively. Vertical was easier for them because it was simpler to determine who was supposed to be cutting, and to where.
Now fast forward a couple months. It's the start of the spring semester, and after we wrapped up our team defenses unit, we started back on the ho stack for 3 practices thus far. The difference is astounding.
I don't know what clicked, exactly, or how, but during the scrimmage today I saw two cutters work together to get the disc in flow without cutting each other off, I saw another make a perfectly timed fill cut from the sideline position when she saw that both middle cutters were out of position, and there were multitudes of isolated deep cuts off of dishes with the correct timing. And yes, these were all first-year players.
One thing that may have helped was spending a lot of time doing a 2-cutter ho stack drill, where the second cutter has to react to the motion of the first and give the opposite option for the thrower. In that way, we reinforced the importance of isolating cuts into the two cutting areas (in and deep) and trained them to pay attention to each other's cuts and position.
Their own steep learning curve, too, has much to do with the improvement compared to the fall - their sense of the field is continuing to develop with every point they play, they are starting to learn how to pay attention to their defenders and their teammates when they cut, and they have more confidence in what they are doing and so every cut is that much more aggressive.
Things are beginning to click for this very young and promising team, and I think our gamble is starting to pay off. Let's just hope that the challenges of being outdoors (wind, larger field) won't be too much for us to handle.
My reasoning was that we could isolate our more experienced cutters to make better use of the field and maintain the disc with the stronger handlers for more of the time. Furthermore, we would hopefully be able to avoid the swarm mentality that so easily occurs with vertical, especially given how many new players would be on the field.
To a degree, this worked okay in the fall - we were able to build a foundation for cutting, and ensured that their vision of the field is not solely fixed in vertical (or solely in ho), but by the end of the semester, we stopped using the horizontal as much. Part of the problem was that because we were working with players whose field sense had not quite developed yet, we had to teach them a more structured pattern of cutting, which took a lot of cognitive processing (but we're MIT, so that actually went more smoothly than I feared), and they had difficulty recognizing the open spaces and timing their cuts to those spaces effectively. Vertical was easier for them because it was simpler to determine who was supposed to be cutting, and to where.
Now fast forward a couple months. It's the start of the spring semester, and after we wrapped up our team defenses unit, we started back on the ho stack for 3 practices thus far. The difference is astounding.
I don't know what clicked, exactly, or how, but during the scrimmage today I saw two cutters work together to get the disc in flow without cutting each other off, I saw another make a perfectly timed fill cut from the sideline position when she saw that both middle cutters were out of position, and there were multitudes of isolated deep cuts off of dishes with the correct timing. And yes, these were all first-year players.
One thing that may have helped was spending a lot of time doing a 2-cutter ho stack drill, where the second cutter has to react to the motion of the first and give the opposite option for the thrower. In that way, we reinforced the importance of isolating cuts into the two cutting areas (in and deep) and trained them to pay attention to each other's cuts and position.
Their own steep learning curve, too, has much to do with the improvement compared to the fall - their sense of the field is continuing to develop with every point they play, they are starting to learn how to pay attention to their defenders and their teammates when they cut, and they have more confidence in what they are doing and so every cut is that much more aggressive.
Things are beginning to click for this very young and promising team, and I think our gamble is starting to pay off. Let's just hope that the challenges of being outdoors (wind, larger field) won't be too much for us to handle.
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