Marking

Well to start off maybe I should explain why I started this. Well I felt like I should post anything I come across that I feel is helpful along with what I am up to as well with ultimate (training, practice etc). It is the off season for college ultimate but now is the time to prepare. Illinois won the region last year, we all know how great a feeling it was. We didn't do so well at Nationals. The experience was great, but we didn't play like we could have. That is fueling me for next year. I want to do whatever it takes to make sure we can get back to that stage and do better. Making nationals is no longer enough.

Here is something I found on Carleton's blog about marking. It was really close to what one of my past coach's first taught me but I completely forgot about. My bad Darren.

"I got some great marking advice this tournament, which we shared with the team but at nationals it’s hard to implement fundamental changes like marking technique. Think of a circle on the ground around the thrower, this is how most people mark - their feet somewhere on the circle. When you take away the inside your feet are following this curved line, and then to take away the backhand you shuffle around on the same circular arc. STOP THIS

Take that distance you travel on the arc of the circle from hard inside to around and stretch it flat, it’s long, you are covering a lot of ground if you’re moving on the mark, so to be more effective make this line shorter.

Instead of marking on an arc, mark on this straight line – like when you draw frisbee on a whiteboard the marker is always denoted by a line with force, this is good. This means that when you are taking away the inside you are not right up in people’s shit. You are at the end of the line and actually further away from the thrower than you think. As a thrower, it is much harder to throw an inside with the mark back further.

I break inside by throwing through the mark; it’s easy to throw under a hand – around a leg etc. When the mark is back there is suddenly this wall of mark that is intimidating and cannot really be broken inside

Continue on this line to stop the around. Instead of curving stay on the line, again you are back from the thrower more than you would expect but this stops the around for yardage gain. I’m not talking about a no dump mark just a normal mark.

So you really only have to move on this straight line – the shortest distance between two points. With good footwork this is a great generic mark and stifles non-huckers. I’ve now incorporated this into my mark but I change it throughout the course of the count. If I see the thrower looking past 10-15 yarders I adjust and If I feel they are committed to the dump I adjust."

We all have been told at one point that we when we set up on a mark be about 45 degree angle from the thrower if he is facing straight forward. The problem starts when the thrower begins to fake. I know I tend to get closer and closer and start to move in a circle around them just as what I stole from Carleton says. This is not good. The other problem I know I face is not getting my feet moving. I tend to lean a little to much when I really just need to shuffle more with my feet. Good footwork is really what leads to a good active mark.

So I really have 2 major goals for this summer. One is get better endurance/loss some pounds. This could be huge for me. Even a small loss could allow me to run so much fast, jump so much higher etc. The other is improve my mark. I have been having people watch me and make sure my feet are moving, so I am not just leaning. Now, I will also be trying to keep my footwork like Carleton described above.