Bay Area Women's Mixer
Blog
kitt decided around 20:37 on 12 March 2005 to publish this:
I went to the Bay Area Women's Ultimate Mixer. Organized by women from Fury, Homebrood and Skyline, the team formerly known as Heroine. Pretty much, the top three women's teams in the Bay Area.
The idea of the gathering was to play women's ultimate and receive introductions to the organizers of the three teams. Information on tryouts for the three teams was also provided.
It wasn't really a clinic per se, but rather a gathering of women to
play ultimate. The disctinction is important when setting expectations.
The first part of the gathering was drills, which originally made me
think this was going to be a clinic of sorts. No instruction or
information was given, no experienced players giving non-experienced
players help.
The first drills we did were actually poorly explained,
which lowered my expectations. We did have one drill that was a lot of
fun: 2 on 3 on 4. Three offensive players start the disc on the
goalline of a small ~40 yard field, against 2 defenders who start about
3 yards downfield. 2 other defenders start about 3 yards behind the
offensive line. These two defenders need to do 7 situps or 5 pushups
before they can actually play defense. So, the disc comes in, the two
defenders play against 3 offensive players until the other 2 defenders
can come in and help out. It simulates a break away situation where the
calvary comes in late.
The rest of the mixer was three games of pickup. My team was very bad
when we first started. We played "Me! Me! Me!" pickup. Everyone was
cutting very very close to the disc. Since all I was doing was
clogging, I thought about the playing styles of the other players and
decided to cut deep and come back in for the disc. Worked like charm!
I was available for many, many continue throws. I'm very excited I
played intelligently and figured out how to play with the other players
on the team. We played much better for the third game.
I've been thinking of starting a periodic column entitled, "Ultimate for
the Non-Gifted Athlete." Training tips, drills, mental game help and
the like. Information I've learned over the last 10 years. Might be
worth it. Especially if I can get Kris to help me with the column.