Reflections on My First Season
The following article is a reflection written by hiveultimate patron Travis Norsen after his first season coaching his local high school ultimate team. Norsen is a long-time ultimate player who also had considerable prior coaching experience, but in football/soccer, where he has been influenced by, championed, and even written a book – Play With Your Brain – for youth players about the philosophy/style developed and implemented especially by Johan Cruyff and Pep Guardiola at Barcelona. Despite only stumbling onto hive ultimate around the beginning of his season, Norsen’s approach was heavily influenced by some of the same ideas (from the football world) that influenced Felix, so we thought his experiences would be of considerable interest to anybody interested in Hex and Flex, and get some interesting discussions going. Travis has also authored two training pieces: the Diamond Throwing Exercise and Keepaway.
As a football (or, as we Americans call it, soccer) player and fan for most of my life, I was delighted to volunteer to start coaching my kids, about a decade ago, when they became old enough to play and showed some interest in the sport. We had a good time and my kids both grew increasingly serious about the sport over the years. Coaching them also fanned the flames of my own passion: I started playing more; following professional football more closely; and reading books about football tactics, the history of the game, coaches and coaching, etc. I even wrote a book, aimed at young teen/preteen soccer players, attempting to explain in an accessible and compelling way some of the basic principles of the Cruyff/Guardiola philosophy that had significantly inspired my own playing and coaching.
But in the last year or two, my kids aged out of (and got too good for!) the local teams where I was able to coach them, and I jumped at the opportunity to redirect my love of coaching to the other sport I have played obsessively across the decades: ultimate frisbee. I had helped out with the middle school ultimate team that my kids played on (when they could squeeze it in between soccer practices) a few years ago, and then last year I joined the local high school girls ultimate team as an assistant JV coach about halfway through the season. But this spring I agreed to be the head coach for the whole girls high school program.
What follows is my attempt to summarize the season: what I did and why, how it went, what I learned from it, and finally how it all relates to Hex and Flex.
How is Hex different to Horizontal?
A few people have been asking about the differences between Hex and Horizontal stack.
On paper they are:
(1) Shape / formation,
(2) No handler/cutter roles/distinctions,
(3) Flow is prioritised over yards, and
(4) Equal spacing across the field.
Colombia World Games squad – Felix’s Team Talk
Felix gave the Colombian World Games squad a team talk at TEP before they played a (relatively easy) match, and we filmed it! The talk is translated from English to Spanish in-person by Símon Ramirez – the talk lasted 17 mins in total, but shortened versions with the English/Spanish parts cut out are available in the Patreon post.
After this team talk, they ran Hive’s Up-Line Flow Drill, and then played their match with Felix actively coaching from the sideline & filming with a GoPro headcam. Full footage of the drill & match is linked on the Patreon post. Read more (training tier patron content)…
Is This The Most Effective Move In Ultimate?
Goldfingers passed backwards on stall zero at least 17 times on their way to victory over XL Masters – usually in a sequence of flow that leads to a goal. Is this the most effective move currently in Ultimate, and why does it work so well in Hex? Felix takes a closer look.
The team from Potsdam (Germany) played 100% Hexagon Offence for the duration of this game and tournament, earning 3rd place and setting the bar for good hex play.
Every Score (compilation): https://www.patreon.com/posts/66372974
Every Turnover (analysis): https://www.patreon.com/posts/66372995
Check out the full game here: https://youtu.be/RAl0v3TtWWw
Hex Clinic @ TEP 2022
¡Felix viene a Medellín! El martes 12 de abril habrá una Clínica de Hex/Flex, las nuevas estrategias que se están extendiendo rápidamente por el mundo del ultimate frisbee. Mire este video para tener una idea de lo que son Hex y Flex antes de venir. ¡Recuerde activar los subtítulos en español!
Felix is coming to Medellín! On Tuesday 12th April there with be a Clinic on Hex/Flex, the new strategies which are spreading quickly around the world of ultimate frisbee. Check out this video for an idea of what Hex and Flex are before you come along – remember to turn on Spanish subtitles! (activa los subtitulos en español!)
Triangle Dominator Weave Exercise
This exercise (available to Training Tier patrons) replicates the triangle motion offense pattern that Jack Williams talks about in his analysis video of Ring’s dominator offense. Easy setup and execution of the exercise with a group including demonstrations, and head-cam footage breaking down the details from the first person perspective, so you can effortlessly integrate it into your session. Watch the full video here (3:05).
Interview with Noah Brinkworth
Valerio Iani from the Italian Federation conducted an interview with Hive’s very own Noah Brinkworth yesterday, where they discussed Hexagon Offence and Flexagon Defence! We’ve picked out a few choice moments linked below, or you can check out the full 50 minute interview:
Starts 6:26
11:30 Do you think hex and flex could help teams beat the USA?
15:00 What are hex and flex?
20:47 3 good reasons to play hex
25:06 CUSB La Fotta’s 2019 defence / offence
26:50 Elite Ultimate already plays those principles – hex is nothing new
30:26 What does typical hex offence look like?
32:18 Hex is just good for development, not high level performance?
35:28 Fewer passes = better offence? 95% completion argument
47:04 Dribbling
52:36 How do you defend against hex?
Hive Takes Over @being_ulti!
Felix recently got his hands on the Being_Ulti twitter account. In case you missed it: here are the tweets gathered in one place for your viewing pleasure! (Click on the “Read the full conversation on Twitter” button to read the rest of each thread).