A Day at the Rascals Tryouts!
Hello Ultimate Frisbee Players!
Last Saturday, I had the opportunity to head down to West Coast Park to participate in the Rascals Open Tryouts! It was the time when I would see how much my preparations helped me for the tryouts! This could serve as a reference should any of you intend to go for tryouts! Without further ado, let us begin!
Credits: Eric S C Lim
1) Component #1: Physical Training
We started off with the usual warm ups. (2 rounds around the field and dynamic stretches) During this phase, some clubs might want to gauge the physical abilities of the people that came for the tryouts by implementing very tough phyiscal trainings such as suicides, beep tests, circuits such as burpees, sprints etc. Fortunately, it was not the case for the Rascals Tryouts, so....
It was also during this time when I was recognised by one of the veterans in Rascals! Thank you very much for the acknowledgement!
2) Component #2: Drills
Drills are very important to allow clubs to gauge their prospects's throwing abilities, based on parameters such as throwing accuracy, finese etc. At the same time, it also allow them to observe cutting abilities of the prospects as well, as most drills involve the receiver cutting or faking to receive a throw.
During the Rascals tryouts, we did the following drills:
1) Go-To Drill (cutting ability, disc catching and throwing on the go)
2) Leading Drill (Through passes, leading throws)
3) Diagonal Drill (outside-in, inside-out throws, Fakes)
All the drills also involved elements of throwing in the wind as well.
3) Final Component : Scrimmages
What better way to gauge a player's ability is to put them all out on the field for a game of Ultimate Frisbee! Participants could be split into teams so that the club players have an easier time to observe those that they might want to confirm already. It is also a good way to see the prospects' ability under pressure, like what happen if there is a turnover of possession etc. It also allows them to observe the potential chemistry between the prospects and senior players as well!
We played many points, switching formations and changing teams along the way. Initially, there were many turnovers. However, the players began to work well together and soon we were having a pretty intense and competitive scrimmage together!
With that, the Rascals Tryouts came to an end! And what better way to commerate it then to take an awesome group photo!
Credits: Rascals Ultimate
Post-Tryout thoughts
As for me, it turned out the physical training and throwing practices really paid off, as I was able to survive the physical and technical demands for the first half of the tryouts. However, having not played for more than 6 months in a competitive environment, I was very rusty during the scrimmages and did not perform as well. However, I am still happy as what I worked for paid off! Check out my ultimate training series on what I did over to prepare for the tryouts!
For those in school teams/clubs, cherish the time spent during training! It is not easily replicated outside, especially if you are on your own!
On the other hand, the senior players were friendly and were guiding all of us along the way during the tryouts which made it a very enjoyable process!
Hope that this serve as a good reference for future tryouts that you may want to participate in!
