Play Quicker, Play Smarter
My name is Ben Wiggins, and I’ve spent the better part of my life striving to play better Ultimate. I’m an average athlete, and I’ve had to find ways to compete against bigger and better jumpers and runners. I’ve been lucky enough to play with and against some of the greatest players in the game and around the world, and I’ve stolen liberally from their training methods, strategies, and techniques. Along the way, I’ve won more than my share of tournaments from Paganello to Potlatch to UPA Nationals. The skills of this game can be mastered without being the tallest or swiftest natural specimen.
I love teaching Ultimate. Do you want to learn more?
Thanks to Cultimate and the directors of the Siege of Limerick tournament this February, I’ll be traveling to Ireland to learn and teach as much as I can. I’m available to put on mini-camps for individual players (either near Dublin or Limerick) or to work through training sessions with teams at any level that want to find new ways to master their craft. Below are the synopses of two camps I’ve run recently: one is a training session with the Boracay Dragons (the World 2nd place beach team from the Philippines) and the other is a mini-camp focusing on individual defense that I hosted in Medellin, Colombia.
If you are interested, please contact Jim Heneghan at toreadordivinity@hotmail.com to make arrangements. Costs of the sessions will be kept as low as possible, are negotiable, and will be used by the tournament to help subsidize travel costs (with any overage going back to the tournament itself). In addition, we may be able to do bye-round practices or sessions at the tournament itself, schedule willing.
Please feel free to contact me if you are interested and have more questions about myself or the types of sessions that we could run. I have been fortunate enough to coach players ranging from the Seattle Sockeye to the Team USA Boys to 4 different University teams to Seattle youth and women’s teams (Moho and Viva).
I will promise you the same thing that I have promised every other player I have worked with: I take coaching Ultimate seriously enough to give you the same level of training and techniques that the best players in the world use against each other in the biggest games. If that sounds like fun to you, we should talk more before the Siege!
Sincerely,
Ben Wiggins
Read on for training session breakdowns
Boracay Training Camp (March 2009, Boracay, Philippines)
Start Time: Short discussion of team goals and approach to Paganello 2009
0:05: Scouting the standard 5-player horizontal beach offense
-Chalktalk
-Offensive shell reps
-Defensive reps against a live offense
0:30: Neutralizing physical defensive play
-1v1 cutting footwork (talk and individual reps)
-1v1 handler goals
-talk
-1v1 demonstration
-1v1 drills, 2v2 application
0:55: Short water break
1:00: Defending taller players
-1v1 goals
-1v1 techniques
-body positioning on stacked players
-helping from offside positions
-limiting cutter angles towards the goal
-a short series of drills to work on preventing these cuts from several angles without allowing physical contact
1:35: Short 3v3 scrimmage
Focus: applying techniques to beat physical handler defenders and preventing deep cuts from cutters
1:48: Short discussion of call resolution vs veteran European and US teams
1:55: Conditioning, recap, finish, done.
Individual Defense (Medellin, Colombia, December 2008)
0:00 Discussion of individual and clinic goals, and why we LOVE defense
0:05 Warm-up game and plyometric stretching
0:20 Section 1: The Mark
-individual body positioning and footwork
Drill: 1v1 footwork (without discs for greater focus)
-marking across the field
Discussion of different angles
Short drill for visualization of different cutter angles
-marking in motion; stopping cutters from advancing the disc in the first 2 seconds without committing fouls
Drill 1
Drill 2 with live action
-putting it all together: Live 1v1 drill with marker simulations
-Marks are only as good as legs….Conditioning
-recap of marking section
0:55: Water break
1:00: Section 2: Marking cutters downfield
-Body positioning (Talk, show, drill footwork starts)
-1v1 cutting (no disc, working on hips, angles and anticipation)
-2v2 vertical stack cutting (including timing and field vision)
-2v2 horizontal stack cutting
-Box Game: working on defending ‘hot’ positions on the field in a series of 1v1 moves
1:40: Section 3: Aerial defense discussion: What is ‘winning’ a sky?
-1v1, no jumping, special angled drill
-1v2, no jumping
-1v2, only offense can jump
-1v1 jumping, focusing on winning before the jump
2:00: Section 4: Putting it all together: The 2v2 BoD drill
-each player getting 2-3 reps through, enough to taste the synthesis of the skills but limited to a few reps each
2:15 Conditioning: defensive focus
-sprints requiring eyes up, anticipation, and footwork (and not knowing the duration of the sprint)
2:25 catch breath, recap, discussion of goals from the first section, done
