Practice The Second — Indoor Style

Nice practice Wednesday. The weather's been ridiculous (50 mph gusts?!), so the Field House was a nice break. The indoor tennis court (netless) actually worked pretty well. We had: 

Andy1, Andy 2, Mav, Ian, Lawrence, Eric, Jaffe / Paul Nockels, Shimoni, Jake

Kristine, Cricket, Jee, / Allie, Paula, Rosi

Plus a cameo from Bala, Mohini and some fencers and jugglers. (I lost my notes, so I might be forgetting someone ... sorry)

We did: the usual warmups, mark drill, Throw to space (out cut), Throw to space (angled cut), Minis. 

We noticed: It's easy to "cheat" in the mark drill by backing away from the thrower. This takes away one very specific angle, but it's not ideal for game situations — other breaks can get off much more easily. So ... the marks should try to stay close to the thrower if at all possible. This will help us improve our marks (and get in people's heads!). 

Throwing to space is awesome. Lawrence said it well: The cutter has done his or her job by beating the defender. So the thrower has to his job: throw the disc in front of the cutter and let it linger. ("Do you have to? Do you have to?" — Sorry, couldn't help myself). Seriously, though, it's a fairly simple idea, but difficult to master. We also noticed that it's better to throw earlier than later. The longer you wait, the smaller the window you're trying to hit (both in terms of time and space). 

Minis is TOUGH.  Tag-team subs are pretty cool, though. I noticed that our team did well when no one held the disc for more than 3 seconds. Throw and go, 'cause you already have half a step. 

Uomo Donna this weekend!