In this blog, I would like to
cover two basic warmup drills that help keep a team’s skills sharp and ready
for competition. These drills will range from improving throwing skills, cut
timing, force marking, and defensive positioning.
As a disclaimer, many of
these drills are common and used throughout college and competitive ultimate. As
a result of this, they can go by many names and have slight variations wherever
you go. Try to absorb the basic concepts of each drill and see what skills each
drill is focused on honing. This will help you adapt and even create your own variations
as you analyze which skills you need to improve on yourself.
Two Line Drill
Figure 1
Two line drill is one of the most basic and malleable drills
for introductory throwing, cut timing, and marking. There will be two lines set
up facing each other, as you can see in Figure 1 above, named Stack A and Stack
B. The lines both have discs.
The player at the front of Stack A makes a sharp cut around
the upper left cone of Figure 1 back towards the front of Stack B. The player at the front
of Stack B had a disc and throws a right-handed forehand throw (flick) to the
cutter from Stack A who then clears into the back of the line in Stack B. Then
the player from Stack B makes a sharp cut around the bottom right cone of towards the front of Stack A. The player at the front of Stack A then
throws the Stack B cutter a flick. The stack B cutter clears into the back of Stack A.
Then the process repeats itself. After each player has gone
through twice (or as many times as needed) the drill flips with Stack A cutting
around the bottom left cone and Stack B cutting around the upper right cone. These
throws will now be right-handed backhand throws.
Variations of this drill include putting a mark on the
thrower in each line. This is good practice for both the offense and defense. A
soft mark (where the thrower is throwing to the side that the mark is forcing)
can be applied or for more advanced players, a hard mark (where the thrower is
throwing to the side that the mark is trying to take away in what is called a “break”
throw) can be applied.
Four Line Drill
Figure 2
Four line drill is a great drill for warming up throws, cut
variation, and cut timing. The setup includes four lines with the two outer
lines (points A and D) being throwing lines and the two inner lines (points B
and C) being cutting lines. The middle lines can make a variety of cuts depending
on what needs to be worked on. The outer lines are throwing with line A throwing
righty backhands and line D throwing righty forehands. A soft mark may be
applied. After each player has cycled through each position twice, switch to
the next cut progression. The progression of cuts is as follows in reference to
Figure 2 above.
1. Strike cut, outlined in black
2. Reset cut, outlined in red
3. V cut, outlined in magenta
4. Deep cut, outlined in blue
After catching the disc, the cutter goes to the back of the
line from which the throw he caught came. The thrower then goes to the
back of the opposite cutting line. For example, the cutter at point B makes a
strike cut for the thrower at point A. He then cycles into the back of point A. The
thrower at A then goes to the back of point C’s line. The same applies to
cuts from C cycling into D and throwers from D cycling into B.
