The west coast contingent of U24 tryouts was held on Saturday and Sunday, 17-18 NOV, in San Luis Obispo, CA after being moved from Tracy, CA last minute due to wildfires. There were 202 athletes invited from a pool of over 550 to compete for the 72 spots on the women's, men's, and mixed teams. The tryouts were held in two parts, East and West, to accommodate players coming from 27 different states (28 including DC). The schedule was shifted slightly for the west coast tryout to allow everyone to make the 3+ hour trek down to SLO from their flights initially booked into SFO. Saturday was a grueling 8 hour day with minimal breaks followed by 4 more hours on Sunday. Tryouts are already a major point of discussion and with such a long weekend with so much at stake, I figured I may as well share my experience. ENDURANCE
Considering the long days (and our day 2 was even shortened from its original 6 hour plan), the first point to address is endurance. While the most important endurance for frisbee is probably speed and power endurance, the format of these tryouts requires a bit more. Speed and power endurance is what allows you to target your fast twitch muscle fibers over and over again without getting tired. This means you can hit top speed on every cut throughout a long point. Tournaments are exhausting, but even then you usually have a full roster of subs giving you a rest every few points and a bye during the day. A full day of drills and small scrimmages with as little as a 30 minute break to split up the 8 hour day means you need some serious endurance to still be alive on day 2. You need the speed and power endurance, of course, to shine against your opponents on the field, but it doesn't hurt to give your cardiorespiratory and cardiovascular endurance some love. That means doing a couple sprints after your college practice won't cut it. A lot of speed athletes are scared of distance running because it targets slow twitch muscle fibers that can harm your development in the fast lane. However, long distance runs have been the quickest and most effective way to improve cardiorespiratory and cardiovascular endurance in my experience. This is pretty key when you get the tryout invite just a few months away from tryouts. Long distance might sound scary, but it's a really relative number. For our sport, long distance is something more in the 2-6 mile range. This is actually about how much you run in one game of frisbee anyway! Going out for a long slow jog often, especially on the same day you have practice or some other workout, will help how you feel at the end of day 1 and all of day 2. Don't you want to be the one that is still first down on every pull in the final scrimmage? Bonus, it's also great for recovery. What I Did: 2-3 mile run twice a week at a steady pace on the mornings I had practice (increased to 3x week within 2 weeks of the tryout). 10-cut drill 1-3 times through after practice twice a week in the last month before tryout. Longer sprint workout once a week involving multiple sprint drills (coasting off of my club season workouts). Side note: I have the lucky advantage of living at 7000ft elevation in Flagstaff, AZ. STRENGTH We are now seeing a lot more emphasis placed on strength and lifting in Ultimate, not just for power on the field, but also for injury prevention. Frequenting the gym in preparation for a tryout is important to both optimize your performance and preserve your body. I only went to the gym once a week for a long session, but many programs will prescribe two-three days per week. There are so many great resources out there for ultimate specific workouts, there is no excuse not to be working gym sessions into your regiment. Just make sure you taper as you get close to the tryout itself. You want your muscles to be ready, but not tired. I began easing the intensity of my workouts two weeks out and did my last mellow lift four days before the tryout. What I Did: Gym session once a week. I usually started with a long warm up, either a 40 min boxing-style, light weight HIIT type workout that my school offered or 30 min with a roller and band doing some light exercises focused on turning on my glutes and abs. The meat of the workout was usually three supersets, with two exercises aimed to compliment the main one. The main dish was something heavy, followed by a lighter weight counter movement, and then a related mobility exercises. The first of the three supersets was usually barbell squats, deadlifts, or SLDL w/ dumbbells. The next two supersets were either push/pull or hip/leg explosive movements. I finished each workout with abs and stretching. I like to go to the gym once and be there for a while, but it is probably better to break up your workouts into two or three shorter sessions each week. SKILLS & AGILITY Obviously in training for Ultimate, you want to play ultimate. Luckily for most athletes at the U24 level, you likely have practice all year round between club and college seasons. Practice is a great way to drill game specific disc skills and agility, not to mention scrimmage reps. Go to every practice on time and give your maximum effort. This is an easy thing to neglect or be lazy about because just showing up can feel like enough. Especially if you are involved in a lower tier program, you need to put yourself in the mindset to play with the best. Don't miss warm ups. Run every drill at full speed. Be smart about your throws and don't allow bad habits. Play with full intensity during scrimmages against all of your teammates, your newer teammates will only benefit from this. Apart from practice, get touches whenever you can. Attend your local pickup. Go out and throw when you don't have practice. Do some ladders or light agility work when you don't have practice. Work on the skills you know you need to work on (e.g. breaking the mark with some 3-man practice). It also doesn't hurt to get to know the people you will be up against at the tryout so you can maximize those matchups. My club team would prepare for every big tournament with defensive homework by watching footage. Hint: Lots of U24 tryout invites have Callahan/Donovan videos. What I Did: College practice 3x a week and community pickup once a week. If the ladies didn't have practice or had a mellow practice, I practiced with the guys. On the days I didn't have practice, I threw with teammates, ran 3-man, or did ladders. I also did some defensive homework for the people attending the west coast tryout. This actually helped a ton, not just for defense, but on offense too. By knowing what your teammates like to do and what they are best at, you can find quick chemistry which is important to demonstrate at these tryouts. NUTRITION Diet is important to allow your body to work at its full potential. I cleaned up my diet big time about two months out from the tryout. This also meant cutting back on drinking and totally eliminating it a few weeks out from the tryout. Not only will you feel better at the tryout, but you will get more out of all of your workouts leading up to it. Cutting out sugar and other processed, unhealthy food is key. Increasing the amount you're eating is also important, especially on the days you have big workouts. Aim to eat 4-5 small meals a day that are high in protein. Eating breakfast and also immediately after any workout is worth your while. Drink water. When you're in class or at work, set a goal for yourself to finish a certain amount of water by the end of the lecture or hour. The week leading up to the tryout, you want to be drinking so much that your pee is always clear. Drink more than you think you need to before hopping a flight. On a similar note, sleep is important, get lots of it. What I Did: Coffee & oatmeal muffins (no sugar or flour) for breakfast and raisin bran cereal after runs. Lunches were some kind of salad (typical green, tuna, quinoa) supplemented by lots of snacks (bananas w/ almond butter, goldfish, hard boiled eggs, apples w/ cheddar cheese). I usually had a protein shake mid afternoon, especially either pre or post lift (I like peanut butter, banana, chocolate protein powder shakes the best and always hide some kind of green in there and some walnuts too). Dinner was pretty much either black bean soup or chicken w/ roasted vegetables. I'd usually have a small snack sometime after dinner too (usually apple w/ cheese, sometimes edamame). I had no alcohol a few weeks out and limited my drinking prior to that to about a few drinks one-two times a month. Lotssss of water and as much sleep as I could manage in grad school. It's worth mentioning that I wasn't perfect. There were absolutely weeks where I didn't run at all, didn't get very much sleep, or ate something unhealthy. As students, it is difficult to maintain a solid routine and it's important not to beat yourself up for not upholding it all the time. By coming up with a weekly plan and setting goals for yourself, you will set yourself up to excel. This post is well before they release the team rosters so I can't tell you how much it paid off from the perspective of the coaches. I can, however, say I felt prepared, healthy, and in great shape at tryouts. I felt like I could still give my 100% on day 2 and left the tryout feeling like I had given my best.
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