2006 World Juniors Ultimate Championships - Daily Log - August 10th
Posted: August 10, 2006 02:58 AM
Thursday marked the first full day of practices for the two US Juniors Teams. Both teams took the time over their six plus hours of practice to focus on individual defensive skills that require teamwide understanding and execution and basic offensive strategies.
The US Junior Girls used their morning session to focus on man offense including cutting skills, some set pieces, and finishing up with a scrimmage. In the afternoon the focus switched to man defense including talks and drills on the mark, dump defense, basic man defensive strategies, and downfield defensive positioning. The afternoon session finished, as the morning one did, with a scrimmage.
After a thorough warm-up in the morning the US Boys went straight into a scrimmage. The scrimmage was followed by a "pace" drill (focuses on pushing upfield and clearing), discussion of the vertical stack offense, and focused (prescriptive scrimmages). The afternoon included marking, defensive positioning, and concluded with more focused scrimmaging. Unfortunately, Columbia HS star Stephen Panasci reaggravated a hamstring injury early in the day. While his talent will be missed on the field, he has already begun to make an impact from the sideline.
Dinner was followed by interteam socializing, whiffleball, and ping-pong. At 8 both teams retreated to team meetings where the boys talked more about offensive strategy, goal setting, and the mental game while the girls bonded through charades.
Both teams looked crisp for their first days together.