USA Ultimate

The Huddle, Issue #8: Catching

• Anticipation & Focus
  
  
  
  • I am a firm believer that anticipation and focus are the most important elements for successful catching. I'll leave it to others to discuss the finer points of catching techniques.
    
    For anticipation, not only do you want to anticipate where the disc is headed, but you have to prepare your body for an anticipated catch. Anticipating the disc's path is basically reading the disc. You need to be able to judge accurately how fast the disc is traveling and along what trajectory so that you can meet it at the best point possible, which is usually the earliest point possible.
    
    One tip that has proved invaluable time and time again for reading a high disc is to position yourself so you can see an edge along the side of the disc. The plane that the edge of the disc is on will determine where it lands once you factor in how fast it's moving, so make sure you can see the line the edge forms so you can predict where it will travel.
    
    It's important to practice reading a disc so that you know when to jump to catch a huck at your higest point possible. Even more important (because it applies to more catches during a game) is to practice reading the speed of low passes so that you can change the angle of your cut while the disc is in mid-air so you meet every pass as soon as you can. Attacking the disc by taking the shortest path will enable you to keep your defender on your back and shield the disc from D bids.
    
    Preparing your body for a catch is an often overlooked element of catching. I've seen a number of players drop passes because they were concentrating so hard on running to the disc as fast as they can (which involves pumping your arms to your side) that they hadn't prepared their hands for a catch (which involves your hands out in front of you) by the time they reached the disc. You have to anticipate when and where you're going to reach the disc and already be ready to catch the disc when that time/space arrives.
    
    This does not mean stopping to wait for the disc to get to you. Instead, it often means propelling yourself through the air with your last step so that you have time in the air to concentrate on the watching the disc into your hands. I am always a fan of catching the disc with both feet off the ground, mid-stride whenever possible. This gives your body, hands, and eyes the appropriate time to prepare for the catch.
    
    Focus as it applies to catching is simple. Watch the disc all the way into your hands. All the way. And never try to assess where you're going to throw your next pass before you have the disc firmly in your hand(s).
     
  • GWEN AMBLER
• Making It Routine
  
  
  
  • In the sixth grade, I played YMCA basketball and was coached by my classmate/neighbor's father. His sadistic assistant used to routinely fire passes at Billy Nesbitt's head because Billy had such terrible hands; his poor hands caused his braces to cause his mouth to bleed. Sobbing, snot, and blood are not too fun to witness when you're in sixth grade. I never wanted to be anything like poor Billy. I think he's an orthodontist now.
    
    The one catch that I know I am going to always have to make routinely, or have had made routinely, is the one where you're coming under and the defender is breathing down your neck, and the throw is just a little bit too high, like an arm length and a half too high, and you have to go up with your opposite hand to make the grab. In practice, in various drills, I try and go opposite hand on anything that's floaty. However, it's the ones that are down around the laces that give me the most trouble and the types I continue to work on.
    
    I was Chris Hinkle's teammate on Ring of Fire for four seasons and what constantly impressed me and what I continue to try and emulate was his ability to come under at full speed and make the catch down around the laces with one hand, usually his opposite hand, switch hands while establishing the pivot, and be ready to deliver and get rid of the disc in what seemed like one complete motion. Obviously it was his baseball background that made it look effortless and easy. More often than not, I'd have to slide in to the catch, awarded a nice strawberry on the right cheek for doing so. But if the throw was right (wrong actually) and the separation was enough, fielding the disc usually worked and it felt good switching hands and moving the disc before "stalling 3" was uttered.
    
    And for my own play, for my role, the seemingly easy catches are always the most important.
     
  • TULLY BEATTY
• Teaching Catching: Two Drills
  
  
  
  • It is a common misperception that catching cannot be taught. Learning how to catch comes down to repetition and focus. Here are two quick drills for teaching new players to catch and for honing experienced players' skills.
    
    The first drill (unnamed) involves two people and ten (or more) discs. The players (thrower and catcher) stand about two yards apart. The thrower tosses disc after disc to the catcher. The thrower should place the discs so that the catcher is forced to catch high, low, left, right, one- and two-handed. Then switch the thrower and catcher. Repeat.
    
    The second drill, called Throwing 100s, is a small piece of Kung Fu Throwing. Stand about two yards away from your partner and start throwing a disc back and forth as fast as you can. Don't change your grip and move the location of your throws around, just as in the first drill. Complete 100 throws each. It's fun to run this as a race at practice. (Start over if you drop one).
    
    Developing and maintaining focus is a huge topic and one that deserves its own column, but I'll leave you with a couple thoughts. Practice how you want to play on game day. If you don't extend to catch a disc in warm ups, you probably won't extend in a game either. And always remember what my dad, Bill Burruss, taught me: "If you touch it, you should catch it."
     
  • LOU BURRUSS
• Honing Your Weakness
  
  
  
  • Catching the disc is all about practice. If a situation comes up in a game, it'll be much easier if you've done it a hundred times in practice than if it's totally foreign to you. What that means is that you need to practice catching in game situations, not just easy, uncovered, and standing still. Practice catching the disc out in front of you, practice catching with a defender on your back, off-hand catches, in the wind, hammers, and so on. Something as silly as flutterguts can be a big help when you need to catch a bobbled or macked disc. Also, try to catch everything—on defense, tipped discs, random discs flying by during drills—and don't give up until it hits the ground or someone else catches it. This will hone your reactions and get you in the habit of doing it automatically.
    
    I find it particularly beneficial to practice the things you're weakest at. For example, I'm terrible at catching discs straight-on, where I'm running directly at a disc that's coming straight to me. So I practice those catches constantly, during warm-ups, down-time at practice, or when I'm throwing around. They still give me trouble, but I'm a lot better than I would be if I didn't work on them.
    
    Different types of catches allow for different margins of error. Clap catches are easier than two-hand claw catches, which are easier than one-handed catches, and so on. If you know you have tons of space from any defenders, it makes more sense to use a clap catch This is particularly true when conditions such as wind, rain, or bright sun make catching more difficult. Lots of drops happen because receivers make the catch harder than it needs to be.
    
    Sarasota, Florida, where the UPA Club Championships have been held for years, is notoriously windy. At its worst, the disc can bounce six inches up or down in a moment. In these situations, I use what I call the "alligator catch." I put my elbows together in front of me, with the hands spread so that my forearms make about a 90-degree angle. This way, if the disc pops up or down just before it gets to me, it'll hit me in the forearms, and I'll still have a good chance of catching it. If a defender's right on my back, I won't have that luxury. But in general, I like to use the easiest catch I can without risking getting blocked.
    
    One last thing that's intuitive to many players, but may not be obvious to others, is the influence of spin on catching. Especially if you're catching with one hand, you want the disc to be spinning into your hand, not out of it. This means if a right-handed backhand is coming straight at you, you want to grab the disc just right of its center. The disc should "stick" to your hand; if you try to catch the same pass left of center, the disc will feel like it's pulling out of your hand. I find it especially helpful to focus on this with throws where the direction of spin isn't as clear, like blades and upside-down throws. You may already be doing this unconsciously, but being aware of it can make difficult or awkward catches that much easier.
     
  • MATT DUFORT
• Regimented Catching Practice
  
  
  
  • Just like throwing, catching comes from practice.
    
    How often do you see someone throwing before a game focus really hard on the throw and not on the catch? You'll hear this player swear and scream when they miss a throw, and then catch the throw that came back with one hand while joking with the person next to them.
    
    On Z, we used to do the a throwing medley at the start of every practice and every game. This throwing drill consisted of 50 throws and 50 catches for each person. It involved circling so that you saw every wind. That was more throws and catches than most players had during the rest of the day. Everyone on the team knew this because the captains reminded us. So, everyone did it and focused on it. During that medley I made sure that I leaned in to catches, leaned and stretched in, used two hands when it was right. If you were lazy, someone yelled at you. So, you caught the disc. This works for some and not others, but it worked with that team for years.
    
    As someone who primarily played near the disc as a handler, I definitely felt that I was a little lucky in the area of catching. The difficulty of catching dumps and swings is definitely lower than that of catching come-backs. The two most critical components of the catch were focus and positioning rather than skills with the hands. Body positioning, for me, primarily consisted of making sure that I got my body between the disc and my defender. This enabled me to make the catch that I wanted to make. I'd work on catching while leaning in, either with the claw catch or the pancake. I practice that in the medley and I used it in the games. Dump and swing throws were usually targeted for around the shoulder height, because they are tougher to D. Again, something to focus on.
    
    For me, I thought of catching as fairly regimented. If the catch was between the knees and eyes, then it was a pancake. If it was over the eyes, it was two hands (claw), usually with one hand stopping it while the other grabbed it. If it was lower or a layout, than I worked to get 4 fingers instead of a thumb under the rim. That's how it was going to be caught, so that's how I practiced it.
    
    The other thing that I thought was important, and especially important for a handler was the ability to turn a catch into a throw extremely quickly. Again, practice it.
     
  • ADAM GOFF
• Practice Ideas
  
  
  
  • The fundamental catch most players at the elite level of the game is one where you are running hard back to the disc with a defender on your back pressing you to keep your maximum speed until after the reception. The basic component to catching this is the mentality of attacking the disc.
    
    I have seen many players drop this by trying to finesse the Frisbee into their hands rather than aggressively securing it, whether with a "clap catch" or a "tiger claw" technique. A very simple drill to improve this as a team is setting up lines where you run at throwers who try to deliver crisp passes right at your chest. Each individual must press themselves to push all the way through the reception, rather than slowing up at the end, allowing a block for a defender in a game situation. If any fear of attacking the disc in this situation can be eliminated at practice, it will certainly bode well for in-game performance.
    
    Beyond attacking the disc there are basic hand-eye coordination elements which will help players improve their catching. Hand-eye coordination can be improved, and there are no shortage of ways to challenge you to get hands reacting to what the eye sees. Some ideas for things to try when just playing catch are always catching with one hand (i.e. 10 passes with the left, then 10 with the right) regardless of where the disc is thrown, trying to catch the opposite side of the disc than you would normally catch (based on the spin) or changing which hand you put on top when clap-catching. Training the body to get outside it's comfort zone will make some difficult in-game situations more natural.
    
    Finally, playing catching reaction games, whether with a disc or ball or anything actually, will help the hands respond to new situations and improve their ability to react to what the eye sees, rather than thinking through a particular catch.
     
  • GREG HUSAK
• Getting An Extra Foot Of Space
  
  
  
  • I think that for me, the main catching technique that can be practiced (and that I have learned from coaches and taught to players) is attacking the discs with two hands, thumbs down claw-style. When I was in high school, my coach Michael Baccarini used to always say that any catch you can clap, you can catch at least a foot further in front of you if you reach out with your pinchers. I didn't really understand why this would be important until high level college games and especially now in club when there are big time defenders on your hip, contesting, bidding, getting Ds. Now that extra foot makes the difference between a catch for me and a D for the other team.
    
    Practicing this and drilling for it can be done in pretty much every drill involving come-to catches—when coaching I often specify the type of catch when doing simpler drills like come-to or break mark so that we work on two hand pincher catches as well as one-hand pincher catches. Just like any skill if you don't practice, your body and mind will have to do much more work in a game to succeed.
    
    Something I've also found particularly helpful when practicing this type of catch is to not only think about putting your hands out to catch the disc, but to also think about where your body is in relation to your defender when you are making this type of catch. You want your body to be between the defender and the disc at all times—practicing this by adding defense to any come-to drill or doing the two-person (no defined O or D) will really help gain an understanding of this skill. If a defender not only has to go that extra foot you are gaining by extending your arms but also has to go around your body, you will be much more difficult to D and your catching percentage will increase dramatically.
     
  • MIRANDA ROTH
• Catching The Pull & Transitions
  
  
  
  • Catching The Pull
    Mentally, catching the pull is often thought of as being a job that one can only mess up, but the flip side is to think of it as an opportunity for a team to jump start its offense. The seconds saved by catching the pull help to get the offense in motion before the defense can set. I think of three main steps when catching the pull:
    
    1. Anticipation. Learn about the opposing team's pullers, especially focusing on the distance of their pulls and angle of the throw (I/O or O/I are the predominant favorites). Obviously prior game experience will help, but this can be learned during the course of a game just as easily.
    
    2. Reading and Decision Making. For the pulls that I am going to catch, I try to get my body to where I can catch the disc at chest height. I turn to face the direction of its incoming path. For whatever reason I might decide not to catch the pull (for example it is raining and/or the disc is coming in at a really steep angle) I will get my body to where I think the disc is going to be easiest to pickup and throw right away. This is easy for a floating pull that settles nicely to the ground, but for a roller, anticipating the roll and getting to the right spot can be tricky.
    
    3. Execution. I want to pancake the pull at chest height and close to my body. I focus on keeping my hands at 90 degree angles to each other (as opposed to parallel) to eliminate misalignment and the chance that the disc might flip out of my hands.
    
    Transition From Catching To Throwing
    The ability to catch and throw as quickly as possible is often undervalued as a handler attribute. Fortunately, it is easy to practice because it can be worked on as part of any throwing drill by trying to catch and release as fast as you can.
    
    Getting your feet into a balanced throwing position should be done simultaneous to catching. Tenths of a second can be the difference between hitting the swing or having the mark come on to prevent you from hitting the swing.(Sidebar: from playing the Japanese women at Worlds, this was something that they all seemed to excel at). As a right-handed thrower, I mostly pancake with my right hand on top so that sliding into a backhand grip is very quick. Coming out of the pancake, right-hand on top is also the most natural and secure motion for me to enter into my forehand grip.
     
  • NANCY SUN
• Body Positioning On The Comeback Cut
  
  
  
  • The best thing I ever heard of for improving your receiving skills is this game called "catch"...
    
    There's no replacement for repetition. You just have to do it over and over until you forget what it's like to drop a frisbee.
    
    The next step is simulating game situations. Personally, I feel like the most valuable catch to be 100% on is the in-cut: running full speed toward a disc coming at you. It's probably the most common play in the game, but can be an extremely difficult catch with a defender breathing down your neck There are two things to work on here: making the catch out in front of your chest with arms extended, and body position to block out the defender. Oh, and also, RUN THROUGH THE #@$*^%! DISC! Few things frustrate me more than seeing a teammate slow down to catch a pass, only to have their defender lay out in front of them for the block. It's absolutely inexcusable.
    
    Anyway, you can work on running through the disc and catching with arms extended with a simple drill:
    
    Set up in one line in the middle of the field facing a thrower. First person in line cuts out, plants, cuts in at full speed and catches a pass from the thrower. Drills don't get more simple than that, but I like this one because it puts the cutter on display for the rest of the team. Everyone can see him or her, and give instant feedback, criticism, or encouragement.
    
    Body positioning is all about feel and awareness. I think most players know the term "boxing out" from basketball and have an idea of how that applies to Ultimate. Simply, it means putting yourself between the disc and your opponent, thereby forcing them to go around you in order to get to the disc. You see this a lot on floaty passes where players are jockeying for position before the disc is low enough to jump for. What is probably less common, is applying this same principle to chest-level passes. It's difficult to convey without seeing it and trying it, but the idea is to:
    
    1. Be aware of where your defender is. (Hopefully behind you, of course, but to your right or left).
    
    2. Determine as soon as possible where the pass is headed. (Again, to your right or left).
    
    3. Adjust your path to the disc so that you are always between it and your defender.
    
    This means you may not take a straight line to the point where you'll make the catch—you may veer slightly to your left (if your defender is on your left side) and catch the disc on the right side of your body, for example. It's not a natural thing to do, and takes a lot of work to get good at.
    
    Finally, here's a random tip that I learned my first year of playing: when laying out for a disc, if you can get two hands on it, do so. Grab the rim on either side of the disc. You'll never doink a pass this way.
     
  • CHRIS TALARICO
• Eliminate The Unforced Turnover
  
  
  
  • Catching technique and practice are often overlooked components of player development. Catching instructions generally begin and end with a demonstration of the pancake catch and calls to "use two hands," with players left to their own devices to improve their catching through repetitions. As a coach of Kali (the University of Colorado Women's team), I have developed a more proactive approach to teaching catching.
    
    The reason for this is that drops are unforced turnovers that are preventable. Defenses are good enough at the highest levels of the game that they will consistently take the disc away from your offense. The difference between good and elite teams often comes down to who makes the fewest unforced turnovers. The corollary to that is saving turnovers, not through making the spectacular layout catch, but by increasing the margin of error for your throwers by consistently catching the discs that aren't quite thrown perfectly. The combination of eliminating easy drops and making the slightly difficult catch more often can have a huge impact on the success of your team against similarly talented competition.
    
    Here are some drills that I use to work specifically on catching.
    
    1. First, I talk to my team about when to catch with the thumb up versus thumb down when catching one handed, with the hand position switching at approximately shoulder height.
    
    2. Then, I have them do a set of tens, with ten throws each of inside out forehands, inside out backhands, outside in forehands, and outside in backhands. Each throw must be caught one-handed with the hand on the side of the body where the disc arrives so that receivers get used to catching one-handed lefty and righty with discs arriving at different angles.
    
    3. The next step is working on catching while moving. I begin by having the player run straight at me and I throw the disc at them with some zip to get them used to catching a disc that has some speed on it. They can catch with either one or two hands in this drill. Five catches each.
    
    4. Then they run from left to right at a 45 degree angle toward the disc and I put the disc out in front so they have to catch it left handed. Five catches then switch to a right to left cut with right handed catches.
    
    5. Finally, I have the players make a 45 degree cut from left to right going away from the disc. I throw the disc out in front and high so they have to make high left handed grabs. Five catches each then switch the cutting direction to use the right hand.
    
    Try these drills with your team and note the numbers of drops (any time the disc touches a hand and isn't caught) and then see if you can improve throughout the course of your season.
     
  • MIKE WHITAKER