In every sport (save cycling and aquatics) there is an element of
footwork that goes into the skills and techniques that an athlete
develops. In baseball it is the timing of a batter waiting for a pitch.
In football, it is the cornerback pedaling backwards, shuffling
sideways, sprinting all-out, and the transitions in between.
In Ultimate footwork has become more and more of a priority for
individual players at the elite level. Efficiencies with your legs on
defense can mean the difference between getting a block and giving up an
easy goal. Being able to effectively pivot with the disc in your hands
can mean getting a throw off before stall 10.
In this issue of "The Huddle," we have asked our authors to discuss
examples of good footwork on the field and what we can do to improve,
illustrate who they have seen that demonstrates superior skills in this
manner, and show us what may be some telltale signs of poor form.
Greg Husak
I still remember being at Worlds in 1999 in Scotland and it was sort of the
debut of Fortunat Mueller with Boston. He was a young workhorse at that time
and DoG knew how to use him, as he was probably catching half their goals. I
remember watching a pool play game of theirs and a more experienced player
pointing out his footwork, how he was always on balance. While we had begun
some very basic footwork drills, it was the first time I remember noticing
someone’s footwork in a game situation. Footwork became a critical component
of our training after that as its value became more clear, and it’s an easy
thing to work on and improve.
Good footwork not only helps you stay on balance and and allows you to change
directions easily, it also allows you to be more explosive because your feet
are in the right positions to make explosive moves. The key is to practice it
so that in games you are doing the right things without thinking about it.
Practicing good footwork can come in a variety of ways. Obvious things are
ladders and hurdles, which will improve your footspeed. Simple cone patterns
of direction changing, or even having reaction direction changing can
reinforce footwork in a change of direction situation. Weight distribution is
also important, and to this end getting a player off-balance or extended and
having them find their balance point is helpful. Then there are more extreme
things like one of my teammates (Chris Frost) who goes for runs in dry
creekbeds to work on his foot placement and strengthening his ankles.
Miranda Roth
The player that has excellent footwork in my mind has a football and track
background. He has great body positioning while cutting that I think leads to
his strong footwork. His cuts are strong as a result of pushing his weight
into the ground and exploding after getting low and chopping his feet. This
helps his play because I believe he is able to get open on players that are
bigger and stronger and faster than him by using good technical footwork.
In my own game, my footwork is very important. Because I have developed myself
into a deep cutter and mid-range receiver and thrower, my defender does not
know where I’m going to cut in an ideal world. Typically defenders play me
just on the force side, not necessarily fronting or backing. Because of this I
have to make some kind of fake to cut anywhere. Generally I move into the
space a few feet away from the stack to make my move (or in spread, a few feet
away from the sideline). Then I either get low, chop my feet, and explode or
shake and bake (I think this is more effective for me because it plays to my
power cutting and gets faster defenders on their heels).
I think more than any drills, thinking about cutting and training explosivitiy
is key. If you can envision yourself making a strong cut, you will be able to
do that. Cutting drills will help this come to fruition.
Chris Talarico
A big part of footwork is quickness, and the best tool I know of to improve
quickness is a speed ladder. I would highly recommend getting one—the longer
the better. The various drills and exercises are pretty easy to find and
learn, and they’re pretty fun to do.
You can just Google “speed ladder
drills” and you’ll get
plenty of sites that do a far better job of explaining the drills than I can.
Then get your team on it: warm up, stretch, then run through the exercises at
the beginning of practice or workouts. I’m no fitness expert, but I’ve heard
it’s better to work on speed and quickness at the beginning of a work out as
opposed to the end when you’re tired and less likely to use proper form.
Whether that’s entirely true or not, I’ll leave for you to decide.
Anyway, you can get by with one ladder for your team, though I prefer not to
run more than 10 people on a ladder just to keep the down time to a minimum,
so two usually works better when you’ve got your whole team together. I
guarantee you’ll see results. (Note: Results not guaranteed in any real or
meaningful way).
As for individual footwork “moves,” one that can help make cuts sharper is
planting off your inside foot instead of your outside foot (or a cross-over
step). For example, say you’re setting up a cut to the left by heading to your
right. When you’re ready to change direction, the typical move is to jab your
right foot out to plant and push off to the left. Try this instead: place your
last step with your left foot under your center of gravity, or more to the
right of where it would land if you were running straight ahead. Rotate your
hips hard to the left, and swing your right leg around to make your next step
roughly 90 degrees from your original path. It will also help to get low and
dip your left shoulder as you make the move. You should see that this will
allow you to change direction quicker than with a jab step.
Tully Beatty
Ring of Fire’s Dave Snoke has tremendous footwork. Of course, Dave was a star
soccer player for the NC State Wolfpack before switching over to Ultimate so
it’s no surprise this skill is to his advantage. On offense, he constantly
seems to accomplish more with less, taking the least amount of steps to get a
big gain or get the O out of a tight situation, time and again. On the D side
of things it’s not a matter of beating the receiver to the spot, but he excels
at the cat and mouse game prior to the cut due to the economy of his footwork.
As a marker, he’s never taking large steps and lunging at fakes that the
thrower gives with his pivoting or throwing arm—both feet work together to
keep balanced, and on high counts the strength of his D1 background is really
exposed.
About the time I came to Ring (summer of 2003) I started using a ten yard
single agility ladder. Prior to that, I would polish my footwork with agility
drills using cones and stairs, as well as skipping lots of rope. For footwork
and to get the heart rate up, a favorite drill three times a week was to sling
the rope for six rounds: skip for 3 minutes, pushups for 1 minute, for six
rounds. A shorter speed rope always worked best and was more difficult.
Outside of sparring, I’ve always been interested in the ways boxers train. My
stepmother’s father would have boxed for Germany in the 1936 Olympic Games,
but his parents were Polish Jews living in Berlin. Prior to finding track, my
father boxed for Charlotte Central and was champ of his weight division his
sophomore and junior years. UVA was considering offering him a scholarship but
then NC banned boxing in their high schools, and the rest is history. I
followed boxing religiously from somewhere around Leonard’s gold medal in the
‘76 Olympics to just after the Leonard/Hagler bout. You can see a touch of the
sweet science in Ultimate, here and there, every now and again.
Using the ladder, I employed it two or three times a week after the meat of a
workout or practice with probably 5 reps of 7 to 10 exercises. As the game
became more cerebral, the commitment to footwork helped in the open field
during stoppages: getting open going under or away off of a two step move that
was simply muscle memory, as well as changing direction in the front of the
stack when the count is getting high and the thrower’s options are running
out.
When the offense is being forced line, you’re the number one dump posted up 10
to 12 yards from the marker’s fanny. Stepping to the dump is really no
problem, the pressure is on someone else, but then you’re going to be expected
to “swing” the disc. Do you turn inside or outside? What if the pass floats?
How do you recover? What if it’s a short footrace? Do you go two hands or one
hand and how do you prepare your feet? Getting yardage up the line is a real
trick. Proper footwork and good acting can get you breathing room up the line
for the so-called Cut of Death. Again, it’s a one-two combination (on top of a
handful of other things moving a thousand miles per second).
Experience of course goes quite a long way, but I think many of these
techniques can be taught and learned and perfected. Again, it’s all muscle
memory, situation, repetition, and a commitment to hard work, or working hard
for that matter.
I’m surprised at how many players round the bases rather than slice up the
field in sharp angles and take advantage of the cleats on their feet. Some
players are fast and some have big long strides and can cover a lot of ground
and some players have great closing speed inside fifteen yards. Yet proper and
effective footwork, most players completely lack.
A move I’ve always liked is the power cut-back pedal-power cut. That’s posting
up in the back of the stack and lying low for a swing—pulling the defender out
to the flats with a power cut, pull up and back pedal or drop step, and then
change direction again and drive forward to the cone. Another, and I think
this was discussed recently on (that black hole of goo called) RSD, is the
move you make after a teammate has made the catch just outside the endzone, on
the teeth of the goal line. A lot of players do the run by and put up their
hand up expecting the old Nerf to be lobbed to them like it was recess. I like
the run by, a drop step, and then going left or right or under with hands way
out in front for a possible handoff pass. I’m amazed at how many times a
player is the first there after the catch, does the run by and somehow feels
the D has done his job. Shoot, you have to make that guy work or else that
genius teammate of yours is going to waste a timeout.
Daryl Nounnan
I am a big fan of simple rules that can be followed that have far reaching
implications for improving your individual game. Staying on your toes, or more
appropriately, keeping your weight on the balls of your feet, is one of the
best, and can be the foundation for all improvement in footwork that increase
your basic skills set. My mentor in the game, Steve Joye, one of the best
players of the 80’s and early 90’s was a big (almost manic) proponent on this.
He would throw on his toes, cut on his toes, mark on his toes, argue calls
while bouncing around on his toes, go for trail runs on his toes, walk around
work on his toes—crazy. But also, he was crazy good at all aspects of the
game.
The key is to “toestrike” whenever transferring weight/preparing for your next
action/reaction—never, if you can help it, transfer weight to your heels.
Staying on your toes at all times out on the field sets up a cascade of body
mechanic compensations that put you in the universal “attack” position for
explosive sports. You bend your knees slightly, you crouch some with arms bent
in front of your body, and you balance over the balls of your feet—committed
only to being ready for the next move needed to make the play.
Throwing
After receiving the disc, I immediately get my weight onto the balls of my
feet to lower my weight. Then, whenever I pivot and throw, I always step out
onto the balls of my feet—to the backhand and to the forehand, staying bent
and balanced. This is part of my muscle memory now, but something I spent a
lot of time focusing on early in my career—whenever I threw, I never casually
stood lock-kneed or straight up, and never stepped out onto my heels…always
out and onto my toes. The benefits are numerous, but one of the best is that I
never “turf” the disc—even as I tire.
Starting from the lock-kneed position and/or heel striking on the pivot throws
your core weight foreward and then down, becoming more pronounced as you get
tired. This momentum will be transferred to the disc on quick pivot/throws. I
have watched this with great interest over the years and noted that every
Semifinal fatigue “turf burger” was preceeded by a heel strike—followed by a
look of confusion//rustration on the throwers face who does not seem to know
what happened. I mean, who the heck wants their turnovers to start
inexplicably appearing late on Sunday?
Cutting//Defending
Nick Handler, my teammate on Revolver is one of the better current examples of
the benefits of staying on your toes out in the passing lanes. His weekly
workouts always include cone drills designed specifically to perfect footwork
while staying on his toes, so this has been a learned/drilled skill. On
offense, he will cut full speed, then pull this pause “float” move. Fun to
watch. Really, he just takes a series of shorter “stutter” steps on his toes
at speed, moving, crouching, preparing, then explodes from that position to
any one of the 360 degrees he next deems best. On defense he uses this same
great basic skill to great benefit: as his assigned lane cutter
jukes/fakes/pauses, Nick pulls the “float” ready to react and close the gap
when the cutter finally commits to his cut.
In any situation out there, practice getting to and staying on your toes. If
you are not already there, like I like to say, that should be very next on
your list of things to do.
Chris Ashbrook
Two players that come to mind when I think of good footwork are Idris Nolan
offensively and Hensley Sejour defensively. Idris is quite a good basketball
player, which requires a significant amount of body control as well as
footwork. Hensley, coming from a football background as a defensive back (I
believe) has worked on his footwork extensively.
Whether offensively or defensively, Idris and Hensley have the same traits in
common:
1. Awareness of the current situation.
Each player understands where the disc is on the field. Knowing where the disc
is on the field allows you to position yourself to make a play. They are also
keenly aware of the type of player that is opposite of them and are able to
identify their strengths and weaknesses. Additionally, they are aware of they
player who has the disc.
2. Positioning themselves.
Using the knowledge from assessing the situation, they position themselves to
make a play. Offensively this could be repositioning yourself to a location
that will make the next throw easier, or closing the distance between
themselves and the defender. From a defensive standpoint, it could be as
simple as taking an extra half step toward the disc, or a step to the break
side.
3. Making people commit.
Offensively, Idris is great at making people commit one way and changing his
direction. I think that comes quite a bit from playing basketball and trying
to get people off balance. Defensively, Hensley will position himself so that
the offensive player only has one cut. However, with the footwork of a
defensive back, if he is feinted, he is able to recover quickly without
tripping over himself.
Their awareness, positioning, and footwork to make people commit or recover
allow them to make plays on offense and defense.
Over the past two years, our teams have started to implement footwork drills
during track sessions. Most of the footwork drills are ladder drills at this
time. Our workouts in sprinting have incorporated some footwork drills, but
usually the focus is on Ultimate specific type of sprints. Everyone on our
team has noticed that their footwork in Ultimate is better from even doing
something simple as ladder drills.
I think the Ultimate community is very slowly coming to the realization that
there is a proper way of doing things, but have yet to make the change. Mostly
because there has not been an authority figure to say this is the right way to
do something. For instance, we may do some defensive drills, but each player
executes their footwork as they know how and are unwilling to change because
they have been successful in the past even with poor footwork.
This will change in the future, as I see the implementation of soccer and
defensive back football type drills into ultimate, as players start to make
the association between the footwork in those two sports and Ultimate. This
implementation will have to come from players who are/were low level college
players who have practiced the footwork and know the drills that work to
improve footwork. With few exceptions, we are not there quite yet…but we
will be shortly.
Ben Wiggins
Is footwork important? Only if winning games is important. Ultimate, maybe
more than any sport, has layers of pretty arm and upper-body movement that
disguise a game primarily decided by feet. Basketball is right up there.
As a handler, I get lots of different body-types defending me during big
games. I’m just as likely to look across the line and see Jit (Revolver’s tiny
handler-defender extraordinaire) as I am to see some massive athlete that I
have no hope of running with. Jam usually throws a defender at me like Big Jim
Schoettler; in a race with this guy, of any distance, I would need him to be
wearing flippers. The hardest defenders to beat in a small space, of any size,
are those that are confident and fluid in their footwork.
If I can find a hole in a defender’s footwork, I can use that. Do they turn
180 degrees poorly? I’ll know within a cut or two. Some defenders love to go
side-to-side from a stopped position…fine, I’ll start my sideways cuts from
a jog, and watch them struggle. Jit (and especially Mike Jaeger, who I am
grateful I only have to play against in practice) is amazing at moving to any
direction from any direction…I have to make my best move, my best fake, and
get a little lucky or be a little stronger on that particular day. Plus, if I
do get the disc, he knows where he wants his feet in relation to mine for the
mark, and I can’t coerce him to go somewhere else with any kind of fake.
Defensively, Jaime Arambula (you might know him as Idaho) is revolutionizing
what I think of defensive training. He is taking small moments out of D moves,
and translating those into drills. I’ve been doing this with teams as
well…the Seattle YCC team in 2005 may have had a flaw or two, but those guys
could flat out mark straight up. They would force throwers to make 1-2 extra
pivots per stall count. If you don’t think that adds up, go count out how many
pivots you make on an average touch, and then add 2 for a game. Fatigue,
timing problems, confusion, loss of calm vision…it adds up. We trained by
doing short, focused drills on tiny parts of the mark. Idaho’s PLU women have
had some of the best person-to-person D footwork I’ve ever seen for an entire
college team in either gender.
You know that karaoke move that everyone does for 20 or so yards for warmups?
The reason it makes you better is that it builds the little muscles that help
make that move on the field. Not that you would ever run 20 yards in that
stance…but you often move 1/2 of a yard in that manner, in the transition
from moving sideways to moving forward, say. Those transitions are where you
can build or lose margins against an equally fast player. If you aren’t
training for those, then you better be much faster than everyone you play
against.