Unfortunately, as is the case with most things done by amateurs, you tend to do it wrong. When I try to concentrate and hit a good shot, I grip the racquet more tightly, tense my arm muscles, and hold my breath at the point of impact. Every single one of these things is the antithesis of good tennis. They suck actually. Gripping the racquet more tightly removes any touch or feel from your shots. Tensing my arm stops the energy transfer from my hips and robs my shots of power. And holding my breath does nothing but screw up my balance and make me tired. Now, I'm still a decent player, but my "concentrating" isn't doing my game any favors. I'm much better when I don't have time to think about each shot and just let my body react.
As my pro says, it all comes down to muscle memory. Right now, the thought of "concentrate" in my mind causes my body to tense up. Hopefully as I play more, I can relearn how to concentrate while staying loose because that is how the best players do it. The only solution I'm told is to hit more balls and "concentrate" less in order to loosen up. A tennis player who is loose and breaths has more touch, more power, moves better, and can play at a high level much longer than one who is tight.
So what does any of this have to do with ultimate? Well, it got me thinking about why some players rise to the challenge of strong competition and some seem to wilt. I think that it has something to do with that same muscle memory that I'm trying to relearn in tennis.
Everybody plays ultimate better when they are loose. We throw better. We cut better. We flow better. So, why aren't we loose all the time? One word: evolution.
Our ancestors were competing for some serious stakes: life and death. That's a far cry from bragging rights and maybe the first round at the bar. When you are fighting for your life, tightening up makes some sense. You may need every last ounce of strength to stay alive, so your muscles respond by contracting to their limit in order to most efficiently fight or run. Today on the field, we aren't fighting for our lives, but often times our bodies respond to the stress of competition as if we were. We get stressed. We get tight. We play worse.
So, what's the solution. How can we play better when faced with stiff competition? Well, the cliched ultimate response would be that we should just "chill out" and "take it easy". Sadly, these dismissive sayings do little more than annoy a player who is feeling stressed and playing worse.
I hate to disappoint, but there is no magic pill that a player can take to react better to the stress of competition. At least no magic pill that won't affect the rest of his game negatively (lol drugs). Once a player gets on the field in a high stress game, it is too late for him to do anything about the stress. It will affect him how it affects him.
If a player wants to play better under stress, then they need to: play more often under stress. This is the only way to improve muscle memory. Practice hard against the toughest competition you're likely to find: your teammates. The more elevated you can get your stress level in practice, the more your body will learn to cope with the stress. It is too hard on the body to be in that tight state for long stretches. Eventually, it gives in to a more relaxed level of alertness.
Now, writing this is easy. Practicing hard is a huge pain in the neck. The fact is: your body doesn't like to be stressed. You will come up with all kinds of excuses for why you want/need to practice at a lower level. Maybe your hamstring is a little sore or you're just looking to work on your hammers. You'll always have an excuse as to why you don't want to work hard and stress yourself.
Those excuses are cold comfort, however, when you aren't able to play your best in a tournament in which you'd like to play your best.
Improving performance by practicing under stress makes sense. Getting to that stress level by practicing with your teammates may be problematic. You're more likely to achieve that stress level by playing more scrimmages against tough opponents.
ReplyDeleteEh, I think it depends on the teammates. If the goal of practice (and by practice here I'm referring to an intra-squad scrimmage) is to reach a high intensity level, then I think practice can do it.
ReplyDeleteYou are obviously correct that scrimmaging against tough opponents will also achieve this. The trouble is that in a scrimmage against tough opponents, the fog of war tends to set in.
What I mean by this is that an intra-squad scrimmage can be stopped and started to emphasize certain aspects of play. You can keep the intensity without losing the focus on improvement. Against an opponent, you lose this luxury.
playing lots of ultimate under high stress may not always be viable, but you can train yourself to run faster, jump higher, and throw longer through practice. Tiina Booth presented a talk at NUTC 2006 (I think) where she pointed out that Amherst always trains much harder in practice (higher intensity), and when they go to tournaments, at least they know they will be in better condition than they have to play, which is 80% of the task complete. Amherst never runs out of gas, and thus is able to maintain high intensity throughout the entire weekend.
ReplyDeleteI would agree that, ideally, practice should be harder than games/tournaments. I think that you have to ride the line between intensity and enjoyment during any practice. Booth has an organizational momentum that is nearly unrivaled. Her point about conditioning is a good one, but she is working at another plane of existence.
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