Part 2: National Training Camp

A warning to my reader: If you are not an ultimate player this next post may be quite boring and or make very little sense.

{I know I am kidding myself, but I like to at least pretend I still have some friends outside the sport.}

National Training camp was fantastic. I had an incredible time. It was really tough but I learned a lot.

I arrived at the fields Sunday morning at 9. There were 80 women trying out for the Australian Worlds team that will represent the country in Vancouver in 08. At this point they are looking to cull the group to about 30. That’s too many to take to Vancouver, but gives them enough for a full training squad and to see how things play out over the next year with injuries and commitment, and for women some of the best players get in a family way, which makes you not in a ‘sprinting-down-to-catch-the-Callahan-off-the-muffed-pull way’, all reasons to have a large squad a year out and then make decisions closer to tourney time about who will actually fly to Vancouver.

I would not technically be able to play for Australia in Vancouver 08 due to the residency restrictions (2 years) but there are loads of exemptions handed out to those residency restrictions and the Australian organizers asked everyone interested to try out regardless of eligibility concerns and they would worry about that after they saw who made the team. Realistically, I’m a long shot any way skill-wise, but I was excited to be at the training camp to work hard and learn new things.

Saturday at the camp was very intense. We did an active stretching warm-up and then went into four stations of drills in groups of about 20. Officials with whistles and clipboards kept detailed notes on everyone’s performance. The first station was a dump drill (setting up horizontal when trapped on the line and behind at a 45 degree angle if in the middle of the field, in both instances looking for the up-the-line dump). The second station was a break-mark drill with a straight up mark and the cutter downfield 20 yards. The third station was a drill to work on cuts for a horizontal offense with two cutters mirroring and then splitting. The fourth station was an end-zone drill. We spent about 30 minutes in each station. I did well in most of the drills. The ho-stack cutting drill was tricky and I didn’t really get the timing right until about half way through the station.

After two hours of drills it was time for lunch.

After lunch we were re-assigned to new groups of 20 and went through the stations again, but this time each station was harder. The dump drill added an additional poach D. The break-mark drill was force one side rather than straight up and the cutter was closer. The ho-stack drill had two handlers, but one could only throw short (in-cuts) and one could only throw long (as a rule) so as they swung the disc you had to time a cut for the right handler. The end zone drill was only break-mark. I thought these drills would have been really hard for me, but because we had done the easier version before lunch, adding one additional element wasn’t so bad and I did pretty well.

At this point some of the girls were sick of drills, but I like drills so I was having a great time. I feel like I especially improved my breaks and my up the line dump, both very useful.

After that we had two scrimmages, each with different teams. In the first there was a stall of 7, instead of 10. In the second we had to run the Horizontal stack O, which I am pretty used to playing. Those were okay. There were a lot of drops all around and the level of play did not seem to be at a world’s standard.

That was it for day 1. After that we cooled down, there was a recovery session in a nearby pool and a pub for everyone to meet up and have dinner and a beer. I was a bit sore and exhausted.

On Sunday, we had a great time. We played at the same fields as the boys. (In Australia, they are picking the worlds “girls” and “boys” team even though we are not juniors. In the states these teams would be called “women’s” and “open” but the Australians just cannot wrap their heads around that so it is just girls and boys. The masters team is even sometimes called the "boys master’s team".) The plan for the day was 8 short scrimmages, each with a different focus or rule change to influence what we worked on. The boys would have the same rule change and we’d all meet, all 160 of us, before each scrimmage to learn the new rule and switch teams. Playing on 8 different teams would allow us to play with almost everyone at the camp and interact in different ways. I thought this would be a logistical nightmare, but it actually worked out really well. We fit in all 8 games. The level of play was VERY high and everyone had their A game. Again, the clip board patrol was out, watching every game taking stats and making notes.

In an added twist, two of the games were co-ed, as the selectors were picking the Vancouver Worlds’ Mixed applicants from this group as well. I hadn’t played co-ed in a couple of years, so I wasn’t too excited about this.

It’s been a few weeks now, and it was all happening really quickly, but I think this is what the 8 games were. Apologies if these are a bit off:
1. O must run the ‘standard’ offense (Vert stack, handler to first in the stack to last in the stack for the score)
2. D must run what the Australian’s call “puppy-fence”. (1 -3 -3)
3. Co-ed game, scores must be cross gender
4. D must run a clam
5. O gets 2 points for a huck, D gets 2 points for a breakmark score after a turn
6. Co-ed game, D must play zone for 5, focus on cross gender D transition to man
7. D must force straight up/ no huck
8. 10 pull, D has once chance to score, but only 15 seconds, focus on the fast break

In general I played pretty well. The co-ed/mixed games were hard for me as the timing is different. I wish I had a few handling decisions back, but such is life. I was completely exhausted after the 8 scrimmages. I could be in better shape. I have been working a lot, swimming a bit and no track workouts, so there’s considerable room for improvement. Also I need new cleats. The polka dots are shot!

We cooled down and said our good byes and I headed off for Katoomba and beyond (see part 3).

It’s a shame we can’t do something like this in the states. Our world’s representatives are the teams who win the North American championship. There is no real national team. (It’s akin to the argument of should you make a Dream Team for basketball in the Olympics, or should you just send the Spurs since they are used to playing together. For Ultimate, we just send the Spurs, but we call them Riot and Fury.)

A skill focused training camp, even of just the best women’s teams on the East coast would be so interesting. We’d meet each other as something more than adversaries and we’d all raise our level of play. I had never spent a whole weekend, playing just as much as a tournament, focusing not on winning games but on getting better and learning new things. It was shocking how much it helped.

The next steps are two tournaments in August and September. Based on performance at those tournaments, the selectors will announce a team and training for Vancouver will begin. I’m looking forward to those tournaments as a place to show off my new skilz to pay the bilz.

On a side note, Sarah is here and we are having tons of fun. We have been eating out, seeing the sites and going to parties. We also went to see Forbidden Lie$ at the MIFF (Melbourne International Film Festival) and saw a Q&A session with the director which was pretty cool.