¶ Drill 13: Jumping for discs
Skills Focussed:
GENERAL: Jumping 7.3
MARKING: Marking non-thrower: Box out 4.2.5
Other Skills for which it can be used: CATCHING: One-hand grab above head 2.3.1
Concepts to know before doing the drill:
- Deep-Cut
- Basic stationary one-handed catching
- Reading the disc
Drill Focus: Train jumping technique to catch or defend aerial discs
Set-up:
- Thrower: In the center of the field with a lot of discs.
- Line of runners near the sideline.
Drill-flow:
-Offensive Cut:: Offensive player sprints at an angle toward far corner of the endzone (simulating a real deep cut).
- Throw: Thrower sends a floaty, high disc into the endzone at an angle (~30°) for the player to attack in the air.
- Jump & Catch: Player jumps with full form to catch the disc at peak height, applying:
Wind-up (lower body pre-load)
Swing-up (driving arms and opposite leg)
Push-down (maximize vertical lift with off-hand & legs)
Two-foot safe landing
- Halfway through this drill, mirror everything to also practise catching discs coming in from the other side.
Coaching points:
- Since the legs of players will be absorbing quite some impacts, a proper warming-up is important
- Make sure players land on two feet, on their toes (not so much on their heels) and bend their legs to absorb the impact.
- Wind-Up: Drop low, stay balanced for upward launch.
- Swing-Up: Drive arms and opposite knee up aggressively.
- Push-Down: At peak, extend limbs downward for lift, except fpr the catching arm.
- It is often wiser to catch a hammer pass with a two-handed rim catch, despite the fact that this extra arms costs you two centimeters in height.
- While defending, aim your jump to be right in front of the offense. More focus on this than catching the disc.
Progression/Regression:
- P: Add defender. In this, first practice can be done where the offense is already in the catching spot. Second practice can be done where both the offense and defense have to run towards the disc.
-P: Different types of throws can be intorduced like hammer, blades.
-R: Different parts of the jumping can be practiced in different stages/drills like:
Stage 1: Finding your favourite jumping leg
Stage 2: THe wind-up
Stage 3: The swing-up
Stage 4: The push-down
Stage 5: The landing
Source: Page 89-93 UTM