(I wrote this in the 5th Speed & Strength Newsletter, which started shortly after publishing my book Fast Kids Don’t Train Slow [available on Amazon]. The data is sound — nothing has changed about the club game — and I still use these principles for current players. Enjoy! – Coach Dunte)
Conditioning is Overrated, but…
…you don’t get to skip it.
If you’ve read my articles or my book, you know I think track workouts suck. But conditioning is essential to play well! A female player felt like she didn’t have it in the second half of a second day game. There are more factors to your mental and physical state than training, but conditioning plays a role.
She described shuttle runs she used to run. She, essentially, asked me, “What is good conditioning for ultimate?“
Ultimate-specific Conditioning
And it’s a great question. Let’s launch a short newsletter series about conditioning for ultimate. I’ll begin with the message I sent her, edited for brevity:
Generally for shuttle runs, budget 2.5 seconds per 10 yards. Good conditioning for ultimate can be done two ways:
- 60+ seconds of work with long rest intervals for 2-3 rounds (like playing a hellish point, then taking a point off)
- 35-45 seconds of work with short rest intervals for 4+ rounds (like playing several normal points back-to-back)
You can run 4+ shuttles that total 180ish yards each with 1-3 minutes of rest
OR
you can run 2-3 shuttles that total 240ish yards each with 2-5 minutes of rest.
All told, [the shuttles you ran were] fine and reasonable, combined with lots of ultimate and useful drills. In the absence of those, my notes about O vs D, handler vs cutter apply. When I write custom programs, I write for the specific player’s needs. When I write for teams, I bias toward the defensive mid’s needs, as that applies near-optimal conditioning to most players.
For our training group, we don’t do run-specific conditioning. We do general conditioning and I encourage/hope for frequent play and quality practice.
So What Do I Do To Get In Shape?
What’s the takeaway for you?
Play lots of ultimate and run productive drills that reinforce skills under fatigue.
If you can’t do enough of that, some combination of shuttle runs will get you there, done even once a week. But, if you’re designing conditioning yourself, you have to account for differences between the six primary playing positions (and their energy needs):
- Offensive handler
- Offensive mid-field
- Offensive cutter
- Defensive handler
- Defensive mid-field
- Defensive cutter
Do you want to hear more about this? Identify which playing position describes you best in an email reply the comments and I’ll tailor some recommendations just for you in the next message!