Catching well is always important
A friendly reminder to work on an important skill
Catching is important. That's super obvious (and I won't be saying anything in this post that hasn't been said before), but easy to forget. So I'm writing this article as a friendly reminder. The most recent example to catch my eye was the (admittedly pretty windy) 2024 PUL championship game. DC Shadow unfortunately couldn't stop dropping the disc. I've embedded the clips below showing a number of their drops.
Some of these are difficult catches, and I have sympathy for those but I also want to stress that the ultimate goal is to be able to catch even the hard ones. It's not totally my fault but I still could've done better on that play is a thought that often runs through my mind, and is applicable for these tougher catches.
Let's run through the drops in this game, in order:
Here's a tougher one that I think was catchable (skip ahead to 17:48 to see a replay that's a bit clearer. It actually may have been D'ed? I'm not completely sure):
The next drop clearly should've been caught:
The one after that as well:
And the one after that:
I had to re-watch this one in slow motion but I think it's pretty clearly still up when it reaches the receiver's hands:
The next clip again definitely wasn't totally (or even mostly) the receiver's fault, but in theory I'd like to see this pass caught:
Then we see another stone-cold drop:
At this point, after they're already up 8-3, NY Gridlock finally dropped a couple themselves. Jolie Krebs drops a tough catch then a minute later flubs an easy one:
In the second half, Shadow's first drop was mostly just a bad pass, but maybe catchable by an elite receiver ("if you can get a hand on it, you can catch it" as they say in American football):
Later in the third quarter, DC flubbed another easy one:
And to finish off, Gridlock dropped this "very tough but theoretically catchable" pass in the fourth quarter:
To recap, New York dropped two tough-but-catchable passes and flubbed one easy catch. DC dropped four tough-but-catchable passes and flubbed five easy catches.
Catching is a hidden skill
I think catching is one of those important skills that aren't always fully appreciated.
People notice when you throw huge hucks, or elevate for a sky, or get a layout D. But next-to-no-one notices when you catch 99% of the discs thrown to you instead of 97%. Every once in a while someone might notice a tough catch you made. And on an especially bad day like DC Shadow had here, people might notice the excessive number drops.
No one will ever thank you for it, but having a 99% catch rate is worth an extra possession every couple games compared to a 97% catch rate. Or on a windy day like the PUL Championship, it could be worth six extra possessions in one game.
[Side note on stats: I used 99% and 97% in the paragraph above. After writing that, I found this Hive Ultimate video where Felix uses 95% and 99% as example figures.
The players with the most drops in the UFA so far this season have catch rates around 97-98%. I couldn't calculate an exact rate — while there's a column for "Drops", there's no column for "Catches". I can estimate catches from the number of throws, but it won't be exact as not all throws come after a catch (some come after a turnover, for example).
In the PUL, there are some surprising players near the top of the "receiving errors" list, with Sarah Meckstroth credited with 7 receiving errors on 70 touches, and Marie Perivier credited with 6 receiving errors on 61 touches. I'm not sure whether to trust this data as there seems to be some questionable information in there—for example it currently says Manuela Cardenas had only 2 goals and 3 assists this season.) In the WUL, the league leaders had ~5.5 "Receiving Errors" on ~130 receptions, a catch rate of about 96%.]
Catching well in big games
I've noticed what seems like a trend of receiving errors in big games. We've already looked at the 2024 PUL championship in detail. Here are a few other examples:
The 2023 AUDL championship game started with a couple bad drops (see here and here).
The 2024 college men's championship game had some surprising drops, even from some of the stars (see here or here, the full game is here).
Brown's 2022 championship game against UNC also had a drop on what would've been a wide open goal (see here).
This suggests to me that a big part of catching well is staying focused even when you're nervous (or fatigued, etc). Again, no one will notice when you don't drop an easy pass in the championship game. It doesn't look praiseworthy, it just looks like basic competence. But that play could be the difference between your team winning a championship and coming up just short.
I'm not sure how to recreate the pressure of a big game in a practice session. When I was a high school basketball player, I used to generate pressure in practice by taking a shot and if I missed it I'd punish myself (...with more shooting practice). In retrospect, I'm not sure that actually worked. Nowadays I'm more focused on building a mental approach of self-trust and acceptance that allows me to not feel pressure in supposedly "big" moments (though I'm not totally against experimenting with the pressure/punishment strategy, too).
So what to do?
A while back someone posted on the ultimate subreddit asking for catching drills. I responded:
I have a blog post on [catching drills] that I've never gotten around to finishing. Some catching drills I like, using the term "drills" loosely, most of them are just things you can do while partner throwing:
Practice catching using only two fingers (or clap catch using only one finger of the top hand)
Learn to juggle (bonus: learn to juggle frisbees)
Buy one of these and play catching games with it
Keep your hands down by your side for as long as possible, and only move them to catch the disc at the very last moment
Partner throwing extra hard to practice catching the fastballs
A classic: have someone throw the disc at your back and yell "turn". You turn around and find the disc and catch it.
Catch the "back edge" of the disc with one hand as it's coming towards you.
Practice catching as softly/quietly as possible.
Throw over your partner's head / at their shins on purpose so they get extra reps catching the hardest ones.
If you're a basketball player, play catch with a frisbee while dribbling a basketball
Pretty much catching is way too "easy" when partner throwing, so find ways to make it more of a challenge!
Maybe some day I'll get around to finishing that post, but these drills are a good starting point.
What I didn't really touch on in my Reddit comment is the mental side of catching—the focus, especially in those big games. Especially as an experienced player, it's important to stay focused on the catch—with both your brain and your eyes—until you have it secured.
To be honest, I've had some struggles with drops this year as I got back into playing after a year and a half away due to injury. I've (hopefully) gotten over those struggles by re-dedicating myself to focusing fully on the catch, instead of getting ahead of myself trying to do too much too quickly. One of the best (and simplest) catching drills is to just stay really focused on looking the disc all the way into your hands.
I think it also helps to simply take catching seriously when you're partner throwing. Don't allow yourself to drop more than usual because it's "just practice". Focus on making each and every catch. Fight against the instinct towards laziness and build a habit of mental focus. It may be just what you need to counteract your nerves in a big game.