Essential Ultimate: Teaching, Coaching, Playing (Paperback)

by Michael Baccarini (Author), Tiina Booth (Author)
Key Phrases: team skills, reset cutter, disc downfield, Essential Ultimate, Individual Skills, Ultimate Fitness (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
Baccarini and Booth leave no stone unturned in this book. With drills and strategies, advice for motivating students of the game, troubleshooting tips, and even a guide for working with schools, Essential Ultimate is indispensable. -- Author of Ultimate Techniques and Tactics, Ultimate Players Association, 2005 Board of Directors

Essential Ultimate is aptly titled, both in its scope and applicability. This handbook covers Ultimate's fundamental skills and strategies and will be an invaluable resource for new players or teaching captains and coaches. -- Gwen Ambler, Coach of Stanford Women's Ultimate Team, Team USA, 2005

Essential Ultimate is bound to become the bible for every Ultimate coach in the country as well as a basic resource for every player. From fundamentals to big-picture strategy and team building, the book is clear and concise. It's easy to see why Michael Baccarini and Tiina Booth are known as the best teachers of our sport. -- Ted Munter, Head Coach of Team USA for 2005 World Games

Product Description
Ultimate is one of the fastest-growing sports in schools, intramurals, rec centers, and clubs throughout the United States and the world. It is also a sport that has been sorely lacking in current resources for teachers, coaches, and players--until now. Essential Ultimate: Teaching, Coaching, Playing contains all you need to know about teaching and coaching players to learn and achieve in the sport. Teachers, coaches, and players from all levels will benefit from this comprehensive guide, which includes over 200 illustrations and photographs and provides in-depth information on these elements:

• Throwing and catching techniques
• Individual offensive and defensive skills
• Team tactics
• Preparing mentally as well as physically for competition
• Starting and administering Ultimate programs

The book also includes drills for individual skills and team tactics to help players prepare for competitions.

Essential Ultimate is written by Michael Baccarini and Tiina Booth, Junior National Championship coaches with more than 50 years of combined experience in playing, teaching, and coaching Ultimate. Their experience includes coaching beginners through the most elite players. They have led teams to two world championship titles and five national championship titles.

Through Essential Ultimate, Baccarini and Booth introduce you to the basics of the sport and prepare you to teach, coach, and play it. In part I they focus on the principles of throwing and catching and explore individual offensive and defensive skills as well as team offensive and defensive concepts and strategies.

In part II the authors guide you in developing team unity and strength. They detail how to start an Ultimate program in schools, recreation centers, clubs, and intramural programs. They offer expert advice on developing championship teams, including the psychological preparation necessary for competing at your best. They also provide information on developing a fitness and conditioning program. As a fun, cost-effective recreational sport, one of Ultimate's appeals is in being self-officiated. This requires players to participate in fair play, teamwork, and good sportsmanship, helping them develop responsibility and character. With its thorough coverage of the sport, Essential Ultimate will also help players improve their skills--and aid coaches and teachers in applying the information in a variety of settings, thus making it an important resource for anyone interested in the world of Ultimate.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 175 pages
• Publisher: Human Kinetics Publishers (February 13, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0736050930
• ISBN-13: 978-0736050937
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #350,476 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The new standard in resources for coaching ultimate, February 20, 2008

By	Owen Shepherd (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Essential Ultimate is written by 2 of the best coaches in the Junior scene. It is targeted at beginner and intermediate coaches of high school and college/university clubs, yet is very applicable to most senior clubs.

I compared Essential Ultimate to Parinella and Zazslow's "Ultimate Techniques and Tactics" as they have a similar audience, and you may know that text.

Essential Ultimate:
- has a better format as a teaching resource (examples of drills with diagrams, trouble shooting tips, as opposed to large chunks of prose, though it could improve even more)
- includes a better introduction for those new to ultimate: 10 simple rules, the field dimensions, and notes on self-refereeing
- has more on non-ultimate coaching elements such as warm ups, cool downs, the mental game and starting a team.

The difference between the 2 texts is encapsulated by the section on throwing. Baccarini and Booth talk about the key mechanics and how to coach them: correct grip (photos shown), wrist snap and follow through, troubleshooting tips for backhand, forehand and the hammer, how to throw in the wind, and a simple drill for teaching beginners to throw. In comparison, Parinella and Zazslow start with 4 principles of throwing that assume decent throwing skills, then discuss handling tactics, how to break the mark and more.

Essential Ultimate is aimed at coaches, while Ultimate Techniques and Tactics is aimed at experienced players (who probably lead and are player-coaches on their team).

My only significant gripe with Essential Ultimate is that it still has a bit of the flaw that Ultimate Techniques and Tactics had: parts of the book are large slabs of text. It is mostly a reference book, but at times tries to be more of an essay.

The text can explain some good general philosophies that may open you to new ideas, such as "Rather than just react, defenders should pre-act... so that an offensive player's explosive movement is preempted by an equally explosive anticipatory action on the part of the defender."

Unfortunately there are a number of self-evident observations that are unlikely to impact on how a coach coaches, if they have played more than a little ultimate, e.g. on man-on-man defense "What you hope will result is that covered receivers are scattered and clogging the passing lanes and thrower's choices are limited throwing into coverage, punting a Hail Mary pass downfield, or being stalled... And no-one ever wants to be stalled". Or the details on how a disc doesn't fly like a ball in the first paragraph. Truisms like these are clear once you have played even a little ultimate, where they are better learnt, and they feel superfluous to the book.

In comparison, pretty much all the diagrams, drill explanations, breakout boxes with tips, and troubleshooting lists are gold. They are very clear and very applicable. If a coach has a need for a certain type or drill, or issues with teaching a specific skill, they can easily refer to these tools. I've played at numerous World Championships, and coached for 8 years, and found quite a few concepts and drills I am now keen to use.

My wishes for the second edition are:
- communicate some ideas and tools through tables, case studies or acronyms as well, with more concise text.
- examples of session plans and season plans
- an index of the drills for quick reference

Lastly the sections on fitness, psychology and starting a program are brilliant. Any quality coach should consider these aspects and they give a good basic coverage of how they apply to an ultimate team. An experienced ultimate player who is a coach, will learn the most from these 3 chapters. A coach or teacher coming in from another sport will likely learn more from the rich chapters on ultimate specific skills.

Essential Ultimate has set the bar for all coaching resources in Ultimate.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Most comprehensive coaching guide available, April 6, 2008

By	Benjamin Slade - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As a player-coach for several years, I was very impressed by the supplemental information provided in this book. The text has helped me articulate the mechanics involved in fundamental ultimate techniques such as throwing, catching, etc. as well as supplying important information about defensive and offensive strategy.

I heartily recommend Jim Parinella's book as well, and have found it particularly useful for my own individual development. However, in terms of coaching and teaching your team and the players on it, I think this is the best ultimate book on the market today.
-Ben
PS
In my opinion, the three most useful sections: throwing, offensive strategy, and fitness for ultimate players.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book, March 17, 2009

By	Peter Dreisbach "Pete" (Lexington, KY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I was very pleased with this book. The descriptions of the various skills are very detailed and well-explained. I am a captain of a college Ultimate club and we have implemented a number of drills from this book into our practices. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in captaining a team.