3.09.2009

Breaking the Mark

Cuz I have a paper due tomorrow. And I was reading The Huddle. I wanted to write about breaking the mark.

I personally love breaking force flick marks. Either with a low release backhand, or if the mark shifts over too much, an easy IO. For me, since backhands really require that arm/body motion, it's easy to make a realistic fake. Especially when you want to throw to the break side, shift the mark over enough/make them fall over, and IO flick. My personal break is being forced flick, step out and fake that flick throw, and immediately step back and low, nice easy backhand low release break.

I read somewhere that great throwers don't pivot. And I guess I agree with that (not saying that I'm great thrower but that fakes are often overused and abused). I rarely fake/pivot for the sake of faking. I fake when I know what I'm going to throw, and I use that fake to make space for the throw I plan on throwing, and if my mark doesn't react to that fake then I just throw it. But it's not always like that, there are instances where I fake constantly, usually when I have a huge mark on me and I need to fake for space and see what openings they give me. But in general, I don't fake much. And the best fakes are viable throws.

Speaking of not faking much, I'm not sure how big of a fan I am of thrower-marker drills. Because it is (in my opinion) completely unrealistic. I will never start faking from stall 0 until I throw. I don't think anyone does/should. In faking that much, you might be looking off open throws because you faked to the other side and cannot pivot back fast enough for those throws. But the drill is useful in that it really makes the mark react quickly to the fakes and quick releases. And making the throwers fake and throw quickly, and taking opportunity in anything the mark gives you. I find the offensive side of the drill is not directly applicable to the game.

I will break marks and hearts all day.

3.04.2009

Stanford Qualifiers

3 things note-worthy:

1. In our game against Claremont, we had worked our the disc slowly downfield in ho-stack. So we were still in ho-stack formation when we were pretty close to the endzone. I was trapped on the flick side around 10 yards from the endzone. It was pretty cluttered in the open side, and they had defenders poaching into the open side. I was running out of options, it was stall 7. I looked over to the break side, and Corrina was poached all the way on the other sideline in the endzone. I faked a flick, and threw a hammer. Corrina took like a few steps and the hammer fell gently into her hands. Wee. Hammer for the score. Nice.

2. I laid out successfully for the second time (first time was like.. 4 days before the 2nd successful layout). We were going upwind. Danica had misread the pull, and it went all the way into our endzone. Bad throw + upwind = no good. I jumped for the disc, realized I wasn't going to get it, turned around quickly and saw the disc slowly falling towards the ground. And we were right by our own endzone, and it was the first pass off of the pull.. So my body just did what it had to do, laid out for it, and got it.. however..

3. Shortly after that lay out, it was a turn. But Santa Cruz turned it as well. Our disc again on the goalline. SC threw a trap zone, it was getting cluttered. And I think Danica threw a high release backhand (probably no look. haha), I jumped to get it, as a defender was running towards me and jumped to get it. She knocked me down while I was in the air, and I fell straight back and hit my head SUPER hard. Concussion number 2. Took me a bit to get up, and when I did my whole vision blurred and I had no balance. One person had tried to help me up, but when I wobbled and almost fell over again, someone else came and helped me as well. Don't exactly remember what happened after that, Minky was filling me in on it. Haha. But I was out after that. I think I played a few more points but I was feeling dizzy and light-headed each time I ran. Haha.