Team Training Diary: Week 3
Week three 20th, 22nd Jan. Annerley Junior Soccer Club
Returning player reflections from Dan Young
First season player reflections from Ben Hutchinson
Dan
Well that's another week behind us on our road to glory boys, well done. I hope that everyone feels like they really squeezed as much as they could out of themselves and the sessions as they possibly could. If there is one thing that was really impressed upon me during the last (my first) Firestorm campaign and that I would impart on newcomers to the team it is the need to perform when you are exhausted and the stakes are high. It sounds like a tall order and a clichè but it is when you and your team mates are buggered and you're down 14-10 that the tough get going and win the thing. And man it feels good when you do. It is only possible to shift into that next gear mentally and physically if you have put in the lung-tearing, leg-jellying, foot-blistering hard yards at training EACH week. If you have done that then you really will surprise yourself when it comes to the clinch. Smokin Joe Frazier (who would go running in the early morning as part of his training) once said: "You can map out a fight plan or a life plan. But when the actions start, you're down to your reflexes. That's where your road work shows. If you cheated on that in the dark of the morning, you're getting found out now under the bright lights [of the ring]."
The ring for us last year was the muddy Nationals fields of Coffs Harbour and I know it was our hard training that saw us through some of those tougher clashes. I would regale you with a stirring anecdote of one such clash but I can't for the life of me remember the team we played, but we came from behind and bloody well beat them. The point is: We are frisbee wielding warriors gentleman, if we drill and we train like we mean it and we rely on each other and ourselves - we will prevail. Hoo Haw Firestorm.
Ben
This week emphasised the importance of stretching to me, as I was hit with a case of shin splints. With any of the other sports I have played, stretching was something done by the older guys with hip replacements, and definitely not by the younger ones. It came back to bite me, so I had to do some massive amounts of stretching the calves at home (2-3 hours), at work (whenever no one was looking), and getting down to the local pool on Wednesday to try and get the lactic acid out of the legs. By Thursday they were feeling better, and I was able to do most of the session.
Tuesday night saw me pretty restricted because of the dodgy shins, and the warm up changes of pace were killers for them. We broke up into groups of three to work on our throw and goes, and I was with Reece and Alex. As a new player it's hard to get into the frame of mind of throwing and then going; I am too used to throwing and then watching my throws go into the other team's hands. Reece was a demon in defence, and Alex and I both had trouble getting past him. We then did a bit of three on two offence. A little tactic I picked up was to fake in, then cut out towards the side of the end zone, before sprinting into the middle of the end zone. I think we've seen so many points scored next to the sidelines of the end zone that a cut back into the middle where all the traffic usually is tends to surprise people. Provided the rest of your team knows what you are going to do, there shouldn't be a problem with cluttering the channel. In defence, Wetnose and I pretty much left the guy with the disc alone, and marked hard on the free guys. It was much harder for them to score that way, and it’s something I'll be taking into a game if the situation arises. We finished off with a game that I couldn't play in, once again due to the shins of a 100 year old man.
By Thursday, and with the help of a few painkillers, my shins were able to hold up for most of the session. We did the x box drill, and there was plenty of support called out, which was great. The circuit was a killer again, but completing it made me feel stronger. We then had another Cunliffe special, as we had to throw for 1.40mins, and then do a pursuit for 50 seconds. The white team worked as a unit to dominate the drill, with Jangles, Al,Stu, Nate, and Mike putting in huge efforts to catch the other team. The rest of us tried to stay as tight as we could to stop the black chasers from getting to us. For me, this emphasised the importance of the team in ultimate. Whilst you can have great individuals, in this drill you were only as strong as your weakest team members. Pushing everyone through in the group is what made it a success for our team.
Big thanks to Al for all his hard work, and good luck to him for the next few months.
Cheers guys, see you next week.
Ben
Team Training Diary: Week 2
Week two 13th, 15th Jan. Annerley Junior Soccer Club
Returning player reflections from George Salisbury
First season player reflections from Dean Mitchell
George
Our second week of training had us build upon our first week, blowing some more of the cobwebs out and getting into a regular training routine again. I'm really looking forward to pushing myself hard this season, and getting spurred on by the team to go the extra mile to improve our fitness and game.
This week we had some useful additions to the Tuesday night drills. The break force drill had us breaking the mark on the side nominated by the last cutter, which I found helped me to focus on what I had to do to get the throw out past the mark. Thanks to Stu for putting on a great mark, I have some work to do on my fakes and throws to complete more passes, as well as making the cut after the throw less hesitant. Vinko did very well in this drill with lots of completions, and Damian got a nice foot block in there as well. I also liked the addition of having a defender on the other throw and go drill, which made it a much more challenging and realistic situation.
I wasn't sure what to expect on Thursday night, only that it was bound to be a grueling night. Grueling it definitely was, with a bunch of sprints, a longer run, short cutting/box drill, circuit, and another killer suicide relay. I find having lots of sprint type drills really helps me improve my running form. It is a big help for me doing these sprints outside of game situations, as in games I find I often forget about running technique in the frantic rush to get the disc, and having this practice is helping me remember my running form in games. Well done to Dan for putting in so much in his first session for the season, and big thanks to Chris for organising and running the session again.
With all the give and go, cutting, jumpy/lungey and sprinting drills we're doing we should all be cutting machines in a couple of months time!
See you all down there again next week.
George
Dean
Into week two now of our frisbee training sessions, Tuesday night saw many similar drills from last weeks session and some new ones. The main aim of the session was to work on our movement after we have thrown the disc (throw and go), everyone put in the hard yards for this activity working hard to throw the disc correctly and moving extra fast to receive the disc. This activity proved to be very useful in the games following our drills, as each player was working hard to move quickly making early cuts to receive the disc early and keep the flow of play moving along at a fast pace.
Both teams put in a huge effort to win. To add to that I also would like to thank Al for showing some of the newer players some new offensive plays by stacking to one side of the field to throw off our defenders. After the game exhausted as ever it was a good feeling though to look around and see everyone feeling the same way as myself, which means that Firestorm can look forward to a strong season with everyone applying themselves 100%.
Thursday night crept up on us and I’m sure everyone was looking forward to the Chris C’s wonderful circuit. We did however see some new faces and some old ones returning from overseas, it was good to see Dean V, Dan Y and Saloman really put their heads down and join in with the team working hard on our assessment runs and agility activities. A top effort was put in by all on the assessment activities. Will L taking the fastest time on the 600m was an impressive run along with Saloman’s sprint times, both amazing efforts.
A shout out to Gref for helping Chris to record all the times because it is a difficult job recording and processing all the data collected tonight. Also there was plenty of team chat on Thursday night, everyone was really supporting others. Let’s keep the chatter up throughout the season. All in all the Thursday night’s session was very intensive, and even though I’m still recovering from the session I still feel that I coped better tonight than I did last week. Let’s keep up the hard work Firestorm and reap the fruits of our labour at the end!
Best of luck to all.
Dean
Team Training Diary. Week 1
Week one 6th, 8th Jan. – Annerley Junior Soccer Club
Returning player reflections – Mike Neild
First season player reflections – Vinko Grgic
Mike
Well, well, well. Here we are again back for another four and a half months of frisbee activity. Two Thousand and Nine is the third year of existence for the Firestorm club, and we are beginning to have a bit of a history on our hands.
The process of beginning of a season with your team is a nice mix of feeling like you are starting fresh and have a great new project to work on, and a feeling of familiarity and solidarity with your team and your team mates.
The first week of training for this week was excellent. After missing nearly two and a half months of frisbee due to an ankle injury and the Christmas holiday period I found myself uncomfortably energetic and excited about getting back into it. I was fairly bouncing around at the start of training on Tuesday, and Al and Stu has conspired to organise a session that met my needs nicely.
I enjoyed the break force drill that we completed in the middle of the session as it was a real challenge to our skills. I look forward to having another go at that in the future and continuing to improve my performance. There were a few great efforts from individuals in this drill as well, Chris C. looked great with the width of his pivot and Silent George also looks to have gained a lot of confidence in his wide release forehand. Given that this was the very first session of the year the numbers were down a bit however Dean V’s alternative training report was an example to us all about how to not just send an apology for missing a session but to actually make it up to the team though other training.
Thursday night’s training was a literal pain in the arse with my Gluteus Major and Minor still suffering from a little bit too much Cunliffe. On reflection I think it was a great session with lots of frisbee specific activities. Poor old Tim Ferg missed the message that Thursday night was fitness night, and then proceeded to get stuck into the challenge. Top drive though with those legs Ferg. We were graced with the presence of two time Australian Dingo and current Australian National champion with Fakulti Kenny Sheppard on the night. Kenny distinguished himself by managing to bring home the win in the end of session suicide run relay.
It was great to see a range of new Firestorm players at training this week. Four months of regular attendance at training will dramatically improve the game of all players within their first couple of years of Ultimate Frisbee experience. Well done new blokes for completing the first week, it will continue to be challenging and worthwhile.
The highlight for the week for me (aside from general excitement at getting back with the team) was the effort of Damian Wong who made it to both sessions this week despite wrestling with illness. Damian completed the activities he could on Tuesday with the team and separately with Andy L. who was also unwell. On Thursday he got the whip out and was a great resource for Chris with timing and other assistance, and top encouragement for the rest of us during the circuit session. Thanks for your help this week Damian.
Well done boys, way to get started. Let’s get off holidays and get serious about improving our own skills and conditioning, and enhance the potency of our frisbee club.
See you next week.
Mike
Vinko
The Tuesday night training session saw the Firestorm boys kick the year off in strong spirit. The evening started off with the pre-season follow up regular warm up routine by Al which as always produced a decent amount of sweat to roll into some injury preventive stretches. Much of the skills part of the session was similar to some of the trainings in the pre-season with Johnny Mac, the concentration being on really moving yourself as quickly as the disc (throw and move). It was a tough session to produce really excellent throw execution following the festive season fattening but overall the boys put in a hard effort to make the training count. There were a few impressive exceptions to the aforementioned with Al almost achieving perfection in the "break-the-mark" drill by successfully getting the disc out almost every time, and same too for George who ran his heart out and caught just about anything thrown his way. Throughout the session I had the pleasure of being spurred on by Nat who was as always putting in 110% and doing it with a smile. I'm sure I wasn't the only one to feel Tuesday night for the next few days but it’s not much of a surprise following the two week holiday break.
Thursday night loomed upon those still feeling the after effects of Tuesday with the session being coined a fitness circuit and run by none other than Chris Cunliffe. Early on into the night it was easy to see that the boys were keen to give it their all despite the training difficulty. Chris did an excellent job really teaching some crucial skills for sprinting and isolating the importance of body agility and posture. He himself put in a stellar effort being the only one to show his breakfast to the rest of the crowd once the dust settled on the running line. Ken who visited us from Sydney was real impressive going beyond the basic requirements of the session and in the end he was probably the main reason why I did the same. You always have to back your partner, even when the going gets tough - he will probably do the same for you when the time comes. This session would have certainly removed any last speckle of festive dust from those dusty hides and should we continue training this hard for the rest of the season we will surely be a force to be reckoned with in Perth. Despite a hard first week start and the associated pain, I'm really looking forward to the next week. It can only get easier and we can only get better.