Assumptions

Try teaching someone the Pythagorean Theorem: a²+b²=c².  You’d probably tell them that in order to get the length of the hypotenuse in a right triangle, c, you can take the lengths of the legs, a and b, and plug them into the formula.  What assumptions have you made?  Did you assume they knew the difference between a hypotenuse and a leg?  That they know was a right triangle is?  That they know what a triangle is?  That they can find a square root?  Find the square of a number?  Add two numbers?

These are probably fine assumptions since we live in a society with institutionalized math education, but what if you landed on an alien planet and were trying to show the indigenous people the Pythagorean Theorem?  The assumptions you make going into that lesson could be the underlying source of a failed lesson.

Last Thursday NUT got together to watch footage and during this time it dawned on me that we had missed several things that I had just assumed we knew.

The biggest and most glaring is not letting your defender get on your back.  The frustrated version of me is screaming inside, in what world could turning your back on your man be a good thing?  How is it intuitive to just turn away from your guy?  Why isn’t it natural to keep him in front of you?  The philosopher is thinking, of course Kevin you never told them so why would they be able to figure that out?

I think that the best way to try and teach ultimate is to try and strip things down as far as possible; in essence you want to get to the most basic assumption and progress up from there.  In my mind I call these progression practices.  For example let’s say you want to teach marking, before you teach anything what’s the most basic thing your players need to know how to do?  To me it’s shuffling.  So a marking lesson should start with shuffling back and forth.  Do this with a team and you will be shocked at how many players are rounding their backs, holding their hips high, staring at the ground, carrying tension in their arms, and shuffling on their heels.  It’s astonishing how few of them are actually good at shuffling.  If you skip this step and forge on, the inability of your players to shuffle will ultimately spell your doom.

The worst and most dangerous assumption, which I think almost every Frisbee team makes, is that your players are in tune with their bodies.  To me it is obvious that most injuries are the results of poor movement patterns, but does the team know that?  Are your players aware of where they have poor ROM?  Do they know that ROM stands for Range of Motion?  Do they know that knee pain is the product of poor hip mobility or ankle mobility?  Do they know that tight hamstrings are probably an issue with your hip mobility?  Does anyone know that taking heavy, pounding, loud steps will give you shin splints and wear you down quicker?  Do they know what their stride looks like?  Are they aware of the ways their body compensate for movement deficiencies and the ways this outs them in compromising positions?

Make the assumption that they are in tune with the way they move and you just might end up with a roster that isn’t even capable of walking on the field; nothing can be worse than that.