Essential Ultimate: Teaching, Coaching, Playing | 
 enlarge | Authors: Michael Baccarini, Tiina Booth
Publisher: Human Kinetics Publishers
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
Buy New: $12.96
You Save: $6.99 (35%)
New (32) Used (7) from $12.96
Avg. Customer Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 125811
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 175
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 10.9 x 8.5 x 0.5
ISBN: 0736050930
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.24
EAN: 9780736050937
ASIN: 0736050930
Publication Date: February 13, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: SHIPS from 5 locations based on your Zip Code and availability! (PA TN IN OR SC) *-* Gift Quality *-* Orders Processed Immediately! - We get your book to you Very Quickly! -L2355.26322
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Book 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.
|
| Customer Reviews:
Most comprehensive coaching guide available April 6, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
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.
Essential Reading February 21, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
"Wow" was my first reaction when Essential Ultimate arrived in the mail. With the rapid growth of juniors, high school, college, and club ultimate, finally, there is a textbook to teach skills correctly. For those who learn through pictures, this book rocks.
--Erik Sebesta
The Ultimate Showcase Series (USS)
 The new standard in resources for coaching ultimate February 20, 2008
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
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.
A+++ Material February 18, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Whether you are an experienced coach or an aspiring ultimate player this book will help you improve every facet of you game. I had the pleasure of meeting Michael at a coaching clinic and I must say he is the cream of the crop in terms of coaching. This book covers everything from core fitness, learning ultimate and some tips to even help the advanced players. As a fairly new coach myself I really enjoyed the way different drills and skills are explained this book. It has become my Ultimate Bible very quickly.
|
|
|
