RECOLI EC I IONS OF A HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL STAR by Kevin Toderel One day a friend dragged me out to Jericho. "We were on a new Ultimate team, he said. "Frisbee?" I said, "You gotta be kidding!" Little did I know how my life would change. ... It was a cold day that November in 1987 yet the snow was mercifully absent (unusual for Ontario). As I stepped out onto the Astroturf at CNE Stadium, I knew today would be special. It was the Peel County High School Football Championships and I was ready for the game of my life. And what a game it was. We won 28-21 on four touchdowns by your humble narrator (a record no less). I was a champion, a hero ... After I quit laughing, I began to watch with interest. Holy cow there were guys with long hair playing ... and girls, too (although this wasn't a completely bad thing). These people weren't athletes. This was too easy. I would dominate. After all, I was a former high school football star. "Okay," I said. "Let's play."
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That first day was an experience. We met our captain, some guy named Kader, a lawyer with longish hair to boot. It looked like I had arrived just in time. Once out on the field, I knew I would immediately go deep and easily catch the disc. My plan was looking good as Kader got the disc. I decided not to run too hard, not wanting to get out of his range. (He was fairly skinny so how far could he throw it? He would never have made my football team.) The next thing I knew I was on the business end of a Kader huck, only it was 10 feet over my head and traveling rapidly past me. Evidently I had underestimated Mr. Kader! No problem. I was a former football star. I once ran a 4.9 40 meters. I sped after the disc only to have some girl named Lesley go whipping past me, leap high in the air and casually catch the disc in her left hand for the touchdown, err, point. Something strange was happening. Five minutes later, I was wheezing
and choking on the side line having proven beyond a doubt that I was one of the worst players ever. Much to my ego's horror, I was wrong about Ultimate; it was a real sport. But I would get better. My second game was only a little better. I was asked to not huck if I got the disc. Not having any clue what a huck was, I agreed. I caught the disc and promptly fired a bullet forehand ... right into the ground. But I would get better. My third game was even better, I scored my first touchdown, err, point. I was so happy I firmly spiked the disc and turned around to receive congratulations from my teammates. Only to have some girl named Trina yell at me something about testosterone! "Yah, go get a Kokanee commercial," I retorted. And then some guy was demanding $12 for a new disc. Oh well, I was getting better. The rest of the summer was filled with layouts, points, pulls and a champi-
Reprinted with permission from the Vancouver Ultimate League's "Uncontested" (7995)
focuses on these guys until six before looking for a dump. The closest handler hesitates for a second before starting his cut. The second handler would be open for a dump, but doesn' t tell the first handler to clear. The other two guys in the stack just stand there, allowing one man to poach in and stop that lane while the other defender can cover both. Meanwhile, the first handler cuts for the dump but is shut down, and the second handler makes a last second cut to the line, is blanketed by the defender, and the pass goes by both of them. A situation like this is partly due to systemic error, in that the strategies are not perfect and can not conceivably cover all contingencies, and partly a team error due to the collective errors or imperfections of the players on the field. The well-prepared player will have thought about these situations and rehearsed them in his mind many times before they actually occur on the field. You may work out your body so that execution errors are minimized, but you also have to work your head so that mental errors are also minimized. If any of the above players recognized the situ-
ation a split-second earlier, the turnover could have been avoided. The team also has the responsibility to create a system where these errors are less likely to happen. Plays need to have backup plans if they don' t work, and standard offensive schemes need to have ways to reset. Furthermore, the team needs to consider its skill level in crafting strategies, so as not to require throws or cuts that are beyond the ability of most of the players. Lastly, the system needs to be flexible enough to allow players to exercise judgment. No rule can perfectly apply to all situations, so blind adherence to what should really be just guidelines will sometimes contribute to turnovers. If players are not given the opportunity to learn to think for themselves, they will not be able to handle unexpected situations. A good team will consider the human factors I have described above in forming their strategies. A bad team will have an organizational culture of blame instead, and will believe that all their problems are the individuals' faults and can be eliminated through trying harder or by running one more drill. Be a good team.
onship. I was better, hell I was good. I was ready for the big time: pick-up with the Al-Bob's, Khai Foo's, Mich's and Adam's of the world. So off to Trafalgar I went. It was a cold week in December of 1994. The ground at Trafalgar Park was unmercifully hard. I knew today would be special. And it was. Maybe it was the many (missed) layouts on the frozen ground, or maybe it was getting burned constantly by the demi-gods of West Coast Ultimate. I'll never know. I was a mediocre player of a great sport, chock full of great athletes, all of us playing something we loved so much we would get as beat up as any football player ever did in a lousy pick-up game with nothing on the line and no score kept. But suddenly I realized four touchdowns in 1987 was no big deal, and I didn't care at all.
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ran inside my defender and broke to the cone. The thrower saw the beginning of my cut and so threw the disc to a spot well into the end zone, expecting me to flare more. What I should have done was to take a different angle on my cut that would have given him more margin on the throw and that would have allowed me to adjust to a greater variety of throws. Instead, my path dictated one particular throw, and when it didn't come, I couldn' t chase it down. The thrower still has the primary responsibility, but I could have made his job a lot easier without making it much more difficult on myself.
5.Team errors (three or more players share responsibility) 6.System ic errors (imperfect strategy) These can have a lot of causes and may generally be referred to as "stall nine errors." Sometimes these are simply the result of good defense, but more often they involve subtle errors by cutters and potential cutters, combined with less than
perfect ability by the thrower. One way to reduce these is through on-field communication by players. In decreasing order of goodness, the team can: a. Call a play specifically designed for that exact situation, b. Call a play appropriate to the general situation but perhaps not the best play, c. Stop the flow but take steps to reset the offense into a more basic configuration, d. Improvise a play call (for example, "Hey you, cut to the cone!"), e. Rely on its normal rules for offense, or f. When the cutters do nothing because of a lack of a call, the thrower calls timeout or forces up a bad pass on stall 9. If it gets down to the final option above, there will be many contributing factors besides just that "he threw it away." The first cutter goes deep but is double-teamed. The receiver poached off of hesitates in coming in. When he does come in, he takes a non-optimal line and is picked up. The thrower
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