Tryout Feedback:
"You were trying out for a defensive handler spot. Your role would have been to facilitate the offense on a turn to help us convert breaks. You didn't make it because we didn't think you were quick enough compared to the other tryouts. We also had some concerns about your throws. We see you as a streaky thrower. When you're on you can break the mark and put the disc anywhere, but when you're off you turn the disc over too much. These were the main reasons we cut you."
There's a lot to unpack here. The main themes are 1. "you aren't quick enough", and 2. "your throws aren't consistent enough". It is also implied that defense (specifically handler defense) isn't good enough. These things are big and difficult to turn into actionable, process-related targets.
As a coach, it is a pet peeve of mine to play someone who is bad at defense on a d-line, simply for their offensive ability. As a player, I am also acutely aware of how good you have to be to play on a high level o-line. As a coach and a player, I feel strongly that players who can't play good D shouldn't be on the field at all, because ultimate, like basketball, requires skills at both for players to be truly successful.
So defense must improve. While true, this is way too broad to actually help me improve. I need to break this down and set some smaller, more digestible component goals.
-----
So I am going to use Kyle Weisbrod's method to address these challenges and set some goals.
Quick hits from Kyle's article:
What not to do:
- Avoid/Hide Weaknesses
- Focus on Mistakes
- Measure yourself against expectations
- Blame the team or the sport
What to do:
- Set SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Acheivable, Relatable, Time-constrained)
- Envision challenges to those goals and how to respond
- Keep a growth mindset
- Play a lot
- Practice non-judgemental awareness
- Get comfortable being uncomfortable
- Focus on relationships
------
So the big tasks at hand are setting SMART goals and envisioning challenges to these goals.
Topic 1: Quickness
In-game quickness subcomponents:
- Physical Quickness, e.g. how fast can you run a 5-10-5 drill
- How fast can you accelerate forward? e.g. run a 10 yard dash.
- How much force can you put into the ground? e.g. how powerful are you?
- What is your acceleration turnover rate?
- How good are your acceleration mechanics?
- How well can you change direction? e.g. turn hips and accelerate laterally/to the back
- How well can you turn your hips?
- How balanced are you when running?
- What is your strength to weight ratio?
- How well can you decelerate/absorb force?
- How well can you shuffle and stay balanced?
- Do you have a good athletic shuffling position?
- Can you move your feet quickly enough?
- Mental quickness, e.g. game awareness and anticipation
- Do you have good hip position? e.g. ready to react in an appropriate way
- Are you looking at the right things? e.g. triangulating well
- Can you see your man at all times?
- Can you see the movement of the disc most of the time without losing your man?
- Can you play help defense over the top?
- Do you understand strategic priorities?
- Can you quickly determine defensive priorities?
- Can you recognize when your defender is out of position?
So this is a massive number of different potential focuses. Committing to focusing on all of them at once is not a productive way to improve, so I should pick a few priorities. I am going to narrow it down to 4 things that are particular weaknesses or have big carryover to everything else.
Priorities:
- How much force can you put into the ground? e.g. how powerful are you?
- How well can you turn your hips?
- Do you have a good athletic shuffling position?
- Can you see the disc most of the time without losing your man?
- How much force can you put into the ground? e.g. how powerful are you?
Process: Develop power with a focused weight training program (3x per week).
S: Improve force production by developing leg strength with a combination of 1 and 2 leg lifts. Work on expressing strength as power with 1 and 2 leg plyometrics and other power focused drills.
M: Add 20 lbs to my 3-rep max Front Squat (225 to 245). Add 20 lbs to my 5-rep RFESS (65 lb db to 75 lb db). Add 3" to my hurdle jump/box jump. Add stability to single leg hop and stick within sets of 5.
A: These goals are difficult but achievable by following a focused, 3 day per week lifting program. Sub-components of this goal are recovery related: eat well, sleep well, complete sufficient prehab volume.
R: These goals are related to my overall goal of improving quickness to improve both defense and offense.
T: The deadline for this goal is 5/7/2016 (6 weeks from today), at which point I will assess progress and set new goals.
- How well can you turn your hips?
Process: Drill hip turns in field workouts and complete assistance hip strengthening exercises (1x per week).
S: Develop stronger hips and practice hip turn movement patterns. Develop supporting musculature and address any weaknesses. Practice some common game-like hip movements.
M: Take video of field workouts and assess hip turn positions, efficiency, and quickness. Track metrics including: 5-10-5 time, goose cones time. Goal is to improve metrics by 5% and clean up hip movements via video.
A: I do not know if these goals are achievable since I have never set goals like this before. But they seem reasonable based on my estimations.
R: These goals are related to my overall goal of improving on-field quickness to improve defense.
T: The deadline for this goal is 7/8/2016 (15 weeks from today), at which point I will assess progress and set new goals.
- Do you have a good athletic shuffling position?
Process: Practice good shuffling position in static and dynamic situations. Emphasize good motor control, keeping weight down and staying balanced on the balls of your feet (1x per week).
S: Work on shuffling in many different scenarios. Strengthen posterior chain and core to build shuffling endurance so that a good position can be kept longer. Some scenarios include: marking, lateral shuffling, jockying.
M: Take video of field workouts and assess shuffling positions and quickness. Track metrics of two TBD shuffling drills. Goal is to improve metrics by 10%.
A: I do not know if these goals are achievable since I have never set goals like this before. This target seems difficult but reachable.
R: This goal is related to my overall goal of improving on-field quickness to improve defense. It also has carryover to marking.
T: The deadline for this goal is 7/8/2015 (15 weeks from today), at which point I will assess progress and set new goals.
- Can you see the disc most of the time without losing your man?
Process: In practices and drills, challenge yourself to see the disc as often as possible without giving your man an advantage. In particular, make assessments of when it is safe to play help defense and when it is not. Practice playing defense in "high" position downfield, when appropriate.
S: Practice triangulating well in pickup, scrimmages, and drills. This means seeing your man at all times and seeing the disc whenever possible. Avoid turning your back to your man unless you are making a play on the disc (playing help defense). You will know you are doing this well if you are able to reposition as the disc moves and don't get caught off guard by continuation passes from an unexpected area.
M: I will measure this goal by the number of times I have practiced this concept outside of scrimmages. I will design a drill or series of drills to practice this and will execute it on my own. If I have practiced variations this concept 1x per week for 15 weeks, I have met my goal.
R: This goal is related to my overall goal of improving on-field mental quickness to improve defense.
T: The deadline for this goal is 7/8/2015 (15 weeks from today), at which point I will assess progress and set new goals.
-----
Topic 2: Throws
Throw consistency is a difficult thing to capture. I think developing consistency requires both frequent general throwing work and specific, focused effort on throwing weaknesses. Building up weaknesses can increase the number of options available as a thrower and can result in an overall more consistent in-game performance.
I think there are multiple ways to break this down, but I'm going to break it down by throw. I think this approach makes sense and lends itself to actionable process goals.
In-game throwing subcomponents:
- Throwing Ability
- Can you throw a Backhand?
- Can you control how quickly you can release it?
- Can you throw it in a variety of winds?
- Can you control how hard you throw it?
- Soft
- Hard
- Can you control where you release it from?
- Low
- Wide
- High
- Can you control its shape?
- Outside-In
- Inside-Out
- Can you throw a Flick?
- (same as above for backhand)
- Can you throw a Hammer or Scoober?
- (same as above for backhand)
- Can you pull?
- Mental Ability
- Can you make good decisions?
- Do you know what an open person looks like?
- Do you know the offensive priorities?
- Do you have a throwing checkdown that meshes well with your skills set?
- Can you make good situational judgements?
- Do you operate well under pressure?
- Can you scale your decisions based on environmental circumstances?
- Do you rebound from mistakes well?
There is also a ton to unpack here as well. I think the best way to approach setting throwing goals is to identify weak areas for improvement and identify strong areas for development into superpowers. The good news is a lot of these subcomponents will have carryover to others. So I will pick 4 priorities from this list to focus on.
Priorities:
- Flick: Wide Release
- Flick: Huck in the wind
- Backhand: Pull
- Can you make good situational judgements?
- Flick: Wide Release, Huck in the wind, Backhand: Pull
Note: I am lumping these three together because the approach for each is similar in format.
Process: Specific throwing workouts and video of each of these throws 1x per week. Throwing workouts to include practicing building blocks of the throw (mechanics) as well as the full throw (coordination/power).
S: Flick: Wide Release: Develop a better wide release around flick break. In particular this means working on developing a release point farther from my body, getting to that release point quickly and with balance, and delivering a crisp, strong throw.
Flick: Huck in the wind: Develop better power and release angle for upwind and crosswind throws at 45+ yards. In particular work on a consistent torso, wrist position, and footwork for these throws. Focus on developing power at the core and transferring it better through the forearm.
Backhand: Pull: Develop better coordination/motor control for torso and hip rotation to add power and distance to pulls. Focus on getting better torque and driving the disc farther with use of a strong crossover step and t-spine rotation.
M: Measurement of improvement for each of these throws will be via video analysis. I will take video of each of these throws during the workouts and assess week to week improvements and tweaks to make. If I have worked on each one of these throws once per week for 15 weeks, then I have met my measurement target. A metric goal for pulls is to be able to consistently hit the endzone in crosswind and downwind situations. Consistency goal is 8/10 pulls in the end zone.
A: I do not know if these goals are achievable, but I think they are. I think they will be difficult, but I am confident growth can occur.
R: These goals are related to my overall goal of improving my throwing abilities and becoming more consistent.
T: The deadline for this goal is 7/8/2016 (15 weeks from today). After this I will assess and create new goals.
- Can you make good situational judgements?
Note: This is very subjective and will require help from an outside viewer to properly assess and track improvement.
Process: The goal is to identify through video analysis of my game play situations in which I make an incorrect decision, then think critically about why I made that decision and how to fix it for next time. This analysis can be completed on 2015 club game film.
No comments:
Post a Comment