Essential Ultimate: Teaching, Coaching, Playing

by Michael Baccarini, Tiina Booth

Essential Teaching, Coaching, Playing will help you -develop an Ultimate fitness and conditioning program, -learn how to execute and teach the offensive and defensive skills and tactics of Ultimate, -use progressive drills and game situations to refine skills and implement strategies, -prepare psychologically for competition, and -build team strength and unity. Ultimate is one of the fastest-growing sports in schools, intramurals, rec centers, and clubs throughout the United States and the world. It is also a sport that has been sorely lacking in current resources for teachers, coaches, and players—until now. Essential Teaching, Coaching, Playing contains all you need to know about teaching and coaching players to learn and achieve in the sport. Teachers, coaches, and players from all levels will benefit from this comprehensive guide, which includes over 200 illustrations and photographs and provides in-depth information on these -Throwing and catching techniques -Individual offensive and defensive skills -Team tactics -Preparing mentally as well as physically for competition -Starting and administering Ultimate programs The book also includes drills for individual skills and team tactics to help players prepare for competitions. Essential Ultimate is written by Michael Baccarini and Tiina Booth, national junior championship coaches with more than 45 years of combined playing, teaching, and coaching experience in Ultimate. Their experience includes coaching beginners through the most elite, who have won gold and bronze medals at the WFDF World Championships. Through Essential Ultimate , Baccarini and Booth introduce you to the basics of the sport and prepare you to teach, coach, and play it. In part I they focus on the principles of throwing and catching and explore individual offensive and defensive skills as well as team offensive and defensive concepts and strategies. In part II the authors guide you in developing team unity and strength. They detail how to start an Ultimate program in schools, recreation centers, clubs, and intramural programs. They offer expert advice on developing championship teams, including the psychological preparation necessary for competing at your best. They also provide information on how to develop a fitness and conditioning program. As a fun, cost-effective recreational sport, one of Ultimate's appeals is in being self-officiated. This requires players to participate in fair play, teamwork, and good sportsmanship, helping them develop responsibility and character. With its thorough coverage of the sport, Essential Ultimate will also help players improve their skills—and aid coaches and teachers in applying the information in a variety of settings, thus making it an important resource for anyone interested in the world of Ultimate.

Genres: Sports

192 pages, Paperback

First published July 30, 2007

Reviews

[Danny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential Ultimate: Teaching, Coaching, Playing, by authors Michael Baccarini and Tiina Booth, covers a range of informative topics over its 10 chapters. Pictures and diagrams on almost every page compliment the detailed descriptions covering techniques, describing skill building and/or coaching philosophy. The first chapter gives a little background about the sport of Ultimate and, like the final chapters in “Your Ultimate Program”, covers ideas for how coaches can pitch starting a program to school administrators. However, the significant elements of this text are chapters 2 through 7, which make up “Part 1”. Over these pages, the principles of throwing and catching are addressed, and individual (and team) offensive and defensive skills are discussed in depth. Marking. Cutting. Defensive Sets. Offense plays. Drills. Drills. And more Drills. It’s all in here.

This is a short excerpt from my full review on my blog, High Release Handler.

[Corey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary:
I borrowed this book from a friend in preparation for a frisbee tournament and to deepen my knowledge of the sport in general. Since it fits the bill of non-fiction book, here I am writing a review about it. >.<

It's very comprehensive, well structured and works through the sport methodically. It also delves quite well into the spirit of the game and some elements of sports psychology which was cool to see.

It can be a bit dense in parts, and there's actually a fair bit of technical language which can be confusing, but it's a good resource all round for people looking to play or currently playing frisbee.

I would recommend this book to anyone playing or looking to play frisbee.

The main message I took from this book is the disc is not a ball. Seriously, this point is repeated way too much in the book.

Some notable points:
- There are 3 main ways of throwing, backhand, forehand and hammer. Forehands are generally harder to develop so often defenders will mark players in such a way that they are forced to throw their forehand or take a compromised backhand.

- The hammer is a riskier throw and is generally and overhead upside down forehand, it is useful for getting over defence and for kind of dropping the disc in a specific area of the field.

- As a thrower, you should try and throw into the catcher's running path and they should train to be used to catching the disc as they move into it.

- Offensively, it is common to form a stack, where your players group together in a line, generally horizontal, and make cuts out from the stack, this maximises passing space and avoids crowding the field with defenders.

- Once you make a cut, you should be clearing to somewhere useful which could include further up the field, back to the stack, to the side or behind the thrower, but you need to get out of the way as soon as you see the throw is not on.

- Defence is usually played man to man, but a zone defence can be used. Zones are favourable in windy conditions. The zone will often form a cup around the throwers making it hard for them to move the disc around, but this can be counteracted by bringing in a third handler to help.