We’re heading off to the Parlee Beach Ultimate Tournament this weekend in Shediac New Brunswick. It’s always a blast on the beach and the party is always memorable. (We won’t discuss last year where we were kicked out of the campground. Stupid campground.)
We had a pickup game at Rainbow Haven Beach last night, mainly to just get people that aren’t used to playing on the sand a chance to figure out the big differences:
- Changing direction on the sand is a much trickier process. Boulder cuts don’t work very well — the better cuts usually come from just getting a step on your defender. It takes just a little longer to get moving, so a step or two can make all the difference. If your defender is facing you, it often works just to run right at them and past their shoulder — the amount of time it takes them to turn around in the sand is often just the time you need.
- Running on the sand is a major workout for your feet. You will ache in places the Ultimate has never made you hurt before.
- If you didn’t layout before, you will learn on the beach. Everyone layouts on the beach. For everything. So beware your defender — even if they normally wouldn’t layout for that defensive block, they will on the sand.
- Leading the runner with a throw is harder, because you cannot get the proper level of acceleration on the sand. So throws need to be more precise, because the receiver cannot catch up to the throw like they can on grass.
Strategy is a tough call on the beach:
- As the game is 5-on-5, zone defence is a tough call, but can be done if the team knows each other well. I’ve seen 2-2-1 zones and I’ve also seen a 1-3-1 rabbit zone.
- Man-on-man is the most common defence, because most teams find the zone with the fewer number of players harder to maintain.
- Hucks are always a danger with the shorter field, as more players suddenly have a full field throw, so a lot of teams will place a strong defender deep even if the rest of the team is playing man-on-man.
- Wind is usually much more of a factor so close to the water, so throwers need to be very disciplined.
- I have heard that a German-style offence is effective on the beach, with three handers across, one mid in the German position, and one player deep ready for the huck if it is available. I hope to try it this weekend to see how it works for us.
Our team, Squid, has a core that have played together before, but we have also picked up a number of newer players (or at least, new to us), so we will have to focus strongly on playing a very disciplined game while we are getting to know how each other plays. (We especially need to work on getting everyone used to getting the disc off the line and back to the handlers if a continuation cut is not immediately available.)
My personal focus for the weekend is to play super chilly. My biggest weakness this year has been playing too emotionally — if I’m frustrated, I get mad, and I start to play stupid. And this is very apparent to everyone around me. Because I’m loud. And I swear. Creatively. And in several languages.
As one of the leaders on the team, I need to keep myself in check and be the freezer to their icecubes. If I can keep myself focused and discplined, it will be the best thing I can do towards helping the rest of the team stay cool.
I do agree with a number of comments that the creators of the list were very correct not to include Strong Bad. Strong Bad has moved past fad, through fashion, turned a sharp corner around cultural movement, and is currently jumping up and down manically in the territory known as religion.
