Lesson 3: Throwing Skills and Flow

Session Plan

  • Time: 90mins
  • Equipment required: 5 discs per 10 people, cones, bibs
Time (mins) Section
0 Introduction
5 Warm up game
20 Drill: Throwing with curve
30 Drill: Give-go continuation
45 Games
80 Wrap up

Introduction (5 mins)

  • Coaches introduce themselves and the club.
  • Go over any health and safety info.
    • Fire exits, toilets, water, first aid etc.
  • Ask:
    • Are there any new players?
    • Get someone to volunteer to help new players get up to speed.
  • In today’s session we are going to learn to throw with curve and introduce the concepts of continuation and flow to keep the disc moving in games.

Warm up (15 mins)

  • Quick mobility and dynamic stretching (5mins).
  • Hotbox warm up game.
    • Mark out a small box 2 - 3m2, surrounded by a larger box 10-12m2.
    • Normal Frisbee rules.
    • Both teams are trying to score in the small box.
    • When there is a turnover, the disc must be ‘cleared’ outside the big box before you can score.
    • The scoring team keeps the disc and tries to clear before scoring again.
    • If you score 3 in a row, change possession.

Coaching points

  • Encourage give and go play and quick movement of the disc.
  • Encourage players to pivot aggressively and use fakes to make room for throws.

Demo and drill (15 mins) - Throwing with curve

Demo

Show how to tilt the disc to add curve to throws, demo with backhand and forehand.

Roll curve

  • Tilt the outer edge of the disc up so it is above the wrist, and the wrist is above the forearm. 
  • The disc and your hand be on the same plane.
  • Release the disc wide of your body

Inside out

  • Drop the outer edge of the disc so it is below the writs, and the wrist is below the forearm.
  • The disc and your hand be on the same plane.
  • Release the disc across your body

Drill

  • In groups of 3 practice throwing with curve to stationary receivers.

  • Piggy in the middle: After a few minutes play piggy in the middle. The middle player should start stationary to make it easier for throwers.

Coaching points

  • The disc does not need to be thrown high to have a curved flight path. A lot of players will confuse throwing with curve for throwing the disc in a rainbow shaped arc.
  • Encourage players to keep the disc on the same plane as their hand.
  • Encourage them to try forehands if they’ve been to a few sessions.

Drill (15 mins) - Give-go continuation

Introduce players to the concept of following their pass and timing continuation cuts. This is a key concept in ultimate and will help keep the disc moving in games.

  1. Cutter goes deep and under (like the previous session) for a pass.
  2. Thrower follows the pass and gets it back.
  3. Continuation goes deep, timing their cut off the second catch.
  4. The thrower can either throw deep or call the continuation under.

Rotation

  1. Force
  2. Thrower
  3. Cutter
  4. Continuation
  5. Take your disc to the throwing queue

You could run this on the backhand side then switch to forehand, or have two drills running simultaneously.

Coaching points

  • Throws should go up the throwing lane for the receiver to run on to. Don’t aim directly for the player.
  • Focus on completions rather than big throws. If the cutter is too deep, call them under.
  • Encourage good timing from the cutters and early throws into space.
  • Encourage cutters to attack the disc and visualise a defender on their back.
  • Keep reiterating staying wide on deep cuts.

Rule Check

In this drill we have a defender trying to block the first pass. This might be a good time to cover some marking infractions.

Disc space

  • The defender cannot position themselves closer than the diameter of the disc when marking a player in possession.

Wrapping

  • The defender cannot wrap their arms around the thrower when marking. If a line between any two body parts of the defender crosses within a disc width of the thrower, then they are wrapping.

Games (30mins)

Small-sided games are best but it depends on numbers. Try to do 5-a-side if players have played before. Depends on space etc. Decide whether to do mixed gender or to split, this will entirely depend on the group.

Get two teams setup on a pitch at each endzone. Go over the basic ruleset again.

Game ideas

  • Start the match with infinite endzones (a scoring line but no back of endzone). This encourages players to keep cutting deep, even on a short pitch.
  • If you have been using a stall count, try reducing the count to six to encourage quick passes. Only do this if the players are comfortable on the disc and not likely to rush their throws.

Wrap Up (10 mins)

Wrap up with a proper spirit circle. Most games of ultimate end with both teams in a huddle discussing the match and the spirit in which it was played.

  • Get the 2 teams to say something about the match and the other teams spirit even if it is just a coach from each team.
  • Feel free to play a spirit game if you think people would enjoy it: Splat, Ro-Sham-Bo battle, Ninja etc.

Spirit of the game

Discuss spirit with the players. Spirit of the game is a unique aspect of ultimate that separates it from other sports.

Spirit of the game

  • Self refereeing at all levels
  • Fair play
  • Respect for the opposition
  • Maintaining a positive and inclusive attitude

Next week

  • Throwing overheads
  • Playing defence