Coaches: Annie Glasspool38 items
Take a look through the theory, drills and videos from Annie Glasspool.
Annie started her ultimate career at university in St Andrews, Scotland in 2009. She played women's club ultimate with Swift, before moving to Durham and becoming a founding member of SMOG mixed.
She dabbled in coaching from 2014 but became more serious about her coaching in 2016 when she took a step back from playing to have her first baby. She got back on the pitch pretty quickly post-baby and played EUF 2017 and WUCC 2018 with SMOG. Now settled as coach for Durham University, she enjoys coaching almost as much as playing, but is still raring to be back on the pitch with SMOG again this season.
She dabbled in coaching from 2014 but became more serious about her coaching in 2016 when she took a step back from playing to have her first baby. She got back on the pitch pretty quickly post-baby and played EUF 2017 and WUCC 2018 with SMOG. Now settled as coach for Durham University, she enjoys coaching almost as much as playing, but is still raring to be back on the pitch with SMOG again this season.
theory
drills
Learning to "go to" the disc is an important step for beginners. This drill emphasises the importance of "attacking the disc"; running all the way through the catch, to secure possession.
This drill aims to give players the opportunity to see how far into the deep space they can allow an offensive player to get before having to reposition. Often in a game it can be helpful for the deep defender to push in, in order to decrease usable space for the offence and increase pressure, but this can never be at the expense of leaving a player unguarded in the deep space. This drill helps players to work out how far they can be, without that player being 'unguarded'.
Great zone offences dictate the shape of the zone played against them; using a bucket shape allows you to swing the disc quickly and with low risk.
This drill practices reliably maintaining flow in situations such as when you've broken through the front of a zone.
Practicing give & go from multiple angles works really nicely as a warmup drill anticipating small passes and little movements, so I recommend it as one to add to the staples that your team uses.
All players must be capable of holding a defensive position if they want to be effective defenders
We're going to practice hucking in the context of an offensive bucket, moving the disc to the hucker via a dump & swing. Althought the swings seem unnecessary for the drill, in my experience the extra reps throwing swings are useful.
This drill practices hucking in the context of breaking through the centre of a zone, generating power position and using a momentary gap in defensive coverage to attack deep space
Learn to pick up new offensive threats with this simple yet effective team defence drill
Learn not only how to effectively pick up new offensive threats, but maintain your body position to stop them getting the disc
Learn to pick up and hand off offensive threats to team mates; ideal when learning to play as a mullet in a zone
Poaching the lanes is a smart defensive strategy; here we learn how to frustrate handler counter-strategies while clogging the lanes
Practice your pop passes and lead passes while chaining together multiple short throws and improving your timing
This drill is simply about running, taking position and competing in the air. In the original drill, players received 100 points for each successful sky, and the first to 500 won, hence the name. Running 500s has far better applications on field than the static version, and is safer too
How spaced out can defenders be while still providing an obstacle to the offence?
When the offence are able to swing the disc, the defensive unit must move in reaction to offensive movement