5% Better Throwing

Remember that throw you turfed in that big game? That throw you "know" you have? What happened?! You warmed the throw up, you practiced the throw all year, and yet there it goes out of bounds. Maybe you got unlucky. Maybe you are 95% with that throw and you happened upon a 1/20 shot of turning it over. I call bullshit.

More likely, you're not practicing the entire situation. All kinds of stuff is different in a game. You're tired. You just caught the disc and are slowing down. The marker is striking and you have to speed up your release and pivot hard. You're throwing to a moving target.

In my opinion, you have to work hard to practice game time situations when you're throwing. Great, you can jack it 70 yards with no mark while throwing from your hip. But can you throw a 70 yard huck in a game with a marker?

These are some things that have helped me improve my throwing percentage in games:

1) Throw off of a fake. Often you'll throw a forehand off of a backhand fake (or vice versa). Do this when you're throwing. Or off a double fake. Practicing different fakes taught me that the backhand-around fake -> IO forehand is a very tough throw and this helped my mark a bit.

2) Pretend you have a mark. This ties into the first point. In particular, if you're working on your around break-mark throw, you may need to practice a different release than your typical outside in throw. Sometimes, you may be stepping slightly backwards to avoid your marker, you may throw it off of an IO fake, or be pivoting from the open side.

3) Throw off of movement. Especially when practicing hucks, I find it helpful to toss the disc in the air, take a few hard steps, catch, and throw immediately. Most of the time when I huck in a game I'm throwing very soon after catching the disc when the marker may be out of position.

4) Throw while tired. During rest time of a track workout is perfect! Get some reps in while your HR is high (like 140-180 bpm or so). This will teach you great focus for those hell points.

5) Picture the throw. Picture exactly how you want the disc to travel and not just where you want to throw it. What arc? What speed? What height? What release point? How fast do you want to get the throw off? All of these factors can be critical in a game and need to be practiced. Picture the throw before you do it, and judge yourself. Don't be satisfied if you hit your target but not your flight path.

When we do focused throwing, challenge yourself to make hard pivots/fakes on the 10th throw of a set. If you mess up, you start over. But that punishment pales in comparison to turning over the disc in a game. Until you're comfortable with 10th pass pressure, how can you be ready to make the throw in a real game?

5% fewer throwaways

In a tough game, throws are harder. The mark is better and on average your cutters aren’t getting as open. This means that you will probably have to look for your dump more often, but also that the dump coverage will also be tighter.

If we look dump 50% of the time and only complete 90% of those passes, 5% of our total passes are turnovers. And those turnovers in the backfield kill you in transition. We need close to 100% connections and knowing that we can dump easily will let us look off tougher throws upfield. When dumping at close range, a touch forehand can be hard to throw, let alone with a mark that is harassing you. From the dump’s perspective, a forehand can be difficult to read off of your hand.

For this situation, I really like a “flip pass”. I’m not sure what you call it but it’s basically a pizza-pie toss. It’s the throw you would toss to yourself if you’re jogging and want to catch one above your head. The disc is flat and parallel to the ground so it will hang in the air at a particular spot. It’s a very short pass so it’s a lot of wrist. Your arm should be mainly straight at the elbow on this throw, and the lift comes from an underhand ball toss motion. The spin comes from a backhand grip and snap.

As the dump comes around, you can step towards your target window using your body to seal off the mark, and fairly easily toss the disc into the smallest of windows. This pass doesn’t move very fast and is easy to read off of your hand. To practice your dump, try to throw a disc into a laundry basket (vertical, not on its side, maybe on a chair for elevation) from about 10 feet away from your pivot. This simulates being able to hang a disc in a very small window where your dump can go and get it. Personally, the flip pass is the easiest way for me to do this from a number of different body positions. Can you do better with a different pass? If so, please teach me.

5%

How important is five percent? Five percent better completion percentage against Slow White and we have 7 extra possessions and they have 7 fewer. Five percent less speed and Adam is just a kid who gets injured a lot and has dashing good looks. I work my ass off all season to improve just five percent. But sometimes I waste energy. I have done workout programs that have had little impact on my game and lose sight of the goal: improving at Ultimate.

Sometimes improving can be as easy as working on one particular throw when you’re already warming up. Sometimes it can be hard like going to the gym and pushing yourself when you lift. Before you embark on a really intense workout schedule, make sure you’re also taking care of the easier five percents.

It’s early in the season. Take stock of your game and try to figure out where you’ll get your next five percent. But balance effort with benefit. It’d be great to add four inches of vertical leap, but is it worth the effort? Maybe you'd get more benefit from working on your throws for half the effort. Are you unhappy with your PT? Maybe you should focus your energies on peak performance instead of sustained performance.

Five Percent Fewer Injuries

Some injuries are unavoidable, but you can work to avoid self-inflicted injury (lead with your LEFT Ryan, your LEFT). Personally, this means shoulders, hammies, and groin. Laying out is hard on the shoulders, so I add 3 sets of standing shoulder butterflys to my workout (not sure what the actual name is). Pivoting is really hard on my hammies and groin so I do leg curls and ab/adductors. I haven’t pulled a hammie or my groin since I’ve been able to leg curl about my body weight and do about 2/3 my weight on an ab/adductor machine.

I hope to do regular five percent posts with techniques that have worked for me and I'd love to hear what has worked for you.

Coming soon: Five percent better chance of scoring on a possession, five percent better completion percentage, getting five percent more out of the workouts you’re already doing, five percent more strength, and my next five percent.