WhiteBoard EP1

The podcast is introducing a new segment called "At The Whiteboard" where they discuss different aspects of ultimate frisbee. In this episode, they are talking about avoiding burnout in the sport. They emphasize the physical toll that frisbee takes on the body, such as cramps and injuries, as well as the mental strain that comes with playing consistently. They suggest ways to avoid burnout, such as trying different drills, exercises, and diversifying practices. They also discuss the importance of playing against different opponents to keep the sport fresh and stimulating. Rest is also highlighted as an important aspect of avoiding burnout, especially during the off-season. Watching film is recommended as a way to rest while still learning and improving in the sport. Welcome back to the BreakSide Podcast. This is your ultimate destination for in-depth, collegiate and professional Frisbee discussions and interviews. I'm your host, David Adamides. I'm excited to introduce a brand new segment for this podcast called At The Whiteboard, where we break down different elements of the ultimate Frisbee experience. Today's episode will cover the topic of avoiding burnout. I'm joined by a longtime friend, teammate and former co-host of the BreakSide, Garrett Hallinan. Garrett, how are you doing? Doing well, doing well. I'm excited to talk about burnout and try to get people to understand that this is certainly a real thing, but that there are ways to certainly avoid this while playing the sport of Frisbee. Definitely. And we just had you on, I guess you could say, the return to the BreakSide Podcast as you were the co-host. Just earlier this week, we had you on an episode. So for those out there that have not heard Garrett's episode, go check it out and you will learn a whole lot of what it's like building and growing, developing a college club team. So excited to have you for that and excited to have you for this topic, Garrett. Thank you. Thank you. So stoked. This is great. Oh yeah. So like we've already said, avoiding burnout. Burnout, it's something I think a lot of athletes, or I guess you could say everyday people experience. It wasn't your job, but obviously we're a Frisbee podcast, so we're going to stick on this topic of burnout when it comes to Frisbee. A lot of us have experienced playing when it comes to college, when it comes to club, or even if it's in league. And I think we naturally get worn down because we don't take care of ourselves. So tonight, I really hope that we can just provide some really good elements and ways for us to take care of our bodies, take care of our mental health when it comes to sports, when it comes to Ultimate. So if you want to break it down with just kind of your first tidbit out there, your first experience with this sport and with burnout. Yeah, I mean, it's a real thing for sure. Frisbee takes a physical toll on your body. It's true. And for anyone who's played it, you'll attest to this. The cramps are real. After playing in a tournament, after playing for hours on end, those will kick in for sure. And your hamstrings, maybe even your quads. Maybe your jaw. That's a weird one. I've gotten that one before. Cramps all over the place. Cramps all over the place. That's a physical toll on your body. That's burnout. Now, not only is it physical, it's mental too. There's mental burnout. There's mental strain that comes with playing Frisbee consistently, whether that's three days a week, four days a week, five days a week, whatever it is. Some guys play almost every day. So it's so, so important that guys have a good routine, right, that they know what they're doing going into it, but that they're also trying different drills when it comes to practice, that they're doing different exercises, that they're making practices, that they're making skill sessions interesting by diversification, by mixing it up, by trying new things, by researching different ideas. There are plenty of videos out there on YouTube of guys showing you, look, here's something to try on the Frisbee field, right? Try this drill. Try throwing it around the dummy. Try working these swings, doing this or that. Those are definitely ways that you can deal with burnout. I think you, like you just said, try different things. At times we get bored with doing the same type of drills out on the field, and then you become the question, like, I'm not growing anymore. I'm not getting anything out of this. I think doing those same drills is actually a negative effect on our bodies. Justin Shelby, who's on this podcast, he's a big fitness guy providing Frisbee athletes with workouts that work for them, and he talks about if you do the same drills or same cuts, your body begins to break down. You're no longer growing in there. You have to do different kind of workouts, test your body in new ways. I think as your body breaks, you get injured, you get discouraged, and that creates a resentment almost to the sport. If you have an ankle injury, your ankle injury was caused by being out in the field. Now you can't walk around normal. Maybe there's pain every step you have. You can't just live normally, and I think at times it can become a resentment to the sport. So like you said, you change it up, do different types of drills, and you've had experience of planning these drills, right? So do you have ideas of what that looks like from going into your club team, your college team, and trying to create something different? Absolutely. It's all about asking questions, right? Seeing what people have done before, picking their brains, figuring out what works, what doesn't work. One drill that Ave Maria used to do was short, medium, long, and so it was so fun because it's an interweaving drill with those four lines. You work that shortcut, you get the hit. You work that medium cut, boom, you get that throw. Long, you send it. You don't get it. It's awesome. When I played club for El Nino, they were a lot more technical about that drill. It wasn't all about making cool bidding catches and jumping up. Yeah, that's great. Bonus points, sure. Let's throw a mark on that. Let's see if you can make that throw on an active mark with a guy who's right in front of you. It's one thing to be able to make a nice throw in the backyard or on the field. You need, as a player, to avoid burnout, to avoid monotony, to avoid sameness. You need to get different guys in front of you to experience what is this going to be like in game. How am I going to make this throw in order to make it successful in the game? Those were things that I picked up playing going from Aave to El Nino, to that club level. It's little things like that that change it, that diversify what you're doing. When you get different guys hitting the mark on you, they're going to have different strengths, different weaknesses in their play style, which gives you a different look. Then you take that from practice and take it from a game on a bigger scale where you don't want your college team, your club team, or your league team, whatever that looks like, to be playing the same opponents because then it goes back to the same thing again and again. You get tired. You're not experiencing anything new with the sport. You have to diversify who you're playing, who are your opponents out there. When you go out to play that new team, you don't know what it's going to be. It's a fresh take. Your mind's stimulated. Your body's ready to go. You're putting the effort into, who's my new opponent? Absolutely. You have to put in that work to find those teams. It's not like tournaments are just going to come your way. There's an active leader on your team. There's a captain. There's a coach. Whoever it is who needs to put in that work to orchestrate those games for you. For AVE Frisbee, that's Michael Middendorf. For El Nino Frisbee, it's the captain, Tony Lopez, or those other captains as well. Those guys need to take leadership so that their players don't fall into that sameness of, oh my gosh, we're playing the same guys. We know these guys' strengths and weaknesses. We know exactly what we can do against this person. There is nothing like taking the line at a Frisbee game and having no idea whatsoever how good the other guys are. You try to base it off their looks, like, oh, that guy looks like an athlete. Maybe so-and-so should match up against him. But then all of a sudden, you might realize, oh, maybe that guy isn't as strong of a player. That's okay. So we figure that out game to game, situation to situation. Making sure that you're surrounded by a leadership team that's invested in finding new match-ups where you can try your skill set against different opponents is so important. It's so vital. David, I'm curious, which teams did you find where, for AVE Frisbee, you won up against and you really were like, wow, that was a surprise. I wasn't expecting this team to be this good or this particular player. What comes to mind for you? Definitely, I think you go back to our conference regional tournament. And being where we are, Garrett and I played Ultimate at Ave Maria, which is pretty much as far southwest as you can get in the state of Florida. So it was pretty hard for us to travel out of the state. So when it came time for our conference tournament, our regionals tournament, we hadn't actually played against any of those teams. So it was a fresh take. And then you add the expectation, the excitement of it. It's a big match-up. And also, I think, when you look at D3 Frisbee, which is what Ave Maria was and a lot of our opponents were, is there's not a lot of film out there. So it's mentally stimulating, your body's all excited, you're properly prepared for that game. And I think those are so many, such an important thing in making something exciting. All the points we just talked about is that stimulating, what is that new experience going to be? And on the flip side of that, I think, is where does rest fit into this? Right? We're in kind of the dead of winter right now, where not a lot of Frisbees happening, maybe some indoor leagues going on right now, but rest is so important. Rest your body, rest your mind. Take a step away from the sport. So in your own experience, Garrett, where you are, you went from playing to coaching a semester. Now you've taken a step away from that school scene, that university scene. What does this kind of Christmas, dead of winter area look like as an athlete? Watch film. Watch film. You get to rest while you watch film. You get to sit on the couch and learn how to play Frisbee watching film. There have been a couple guys on the podcast who have told David and who have told me that watching film is so effective because you get to see different patterns and you see what guys do well and you get to see where guys struggle when they're put in those certain situations that they don't like to be in. Film is huge. It's okay that you're not getting those reps. It's not good to always get those reps because like you were saying, David, is you'll fall to injury. You might bust up your ankle or your knee or whatever it is because you're overdoing it. You're experiencing that burnout. Now, it's good. This time of year, it's a lull. Just rest up. There's plenty of footage. Now, for D3, you're absolutely right. There's not a lot of footage out there, but there's plenty of footage of AUDL Frisbee, of club Frisbee. For us, that's kind of where we want to be. Not to say that David and I are necessarily aspiring to play pro Frisbee. That would be pretty sweet, but if you want to be a good player, you got to take what they're doing and try to implement it into your own style so that you can become your own player. David, I wanted to ask you, who are players that you've seen who you've tried to mimic your game off of? Before I get to that, it's a great question. I think you made a really kind of funny point, humorous in a way. You're sitting on the couch watching film. You're not out playing while you're watching film. Take your rest days restful, and then when you're out in the field, play hard. That allows your body to recuperate, your mind to recuperate. We think we get stuck in this idea that our bodies are invincible, and then injury comes. You get mad at yourself. How could this ever happen? Well, if you just took that rest day as an actual rest day, take the down season as the actual down season, I think that would help when it comes to injury so much more. You're going to avoid that mental burnout, that physical burnout. Rest is critical, and like you said, when you're resting, you're watching film, which doesn't mean you're playing. In my own life, I've looked at a lot of those pro players out there. There's so much quality AUDL film. There's D1 film. There's Club film. You look at those guys, and they're absolute studs on the field. They're making their throws. They're doing what it is. Someone who's had on this podcast, Justin Burnett, plays for the Atlanta Hustle. Very, very talented player. He talks about this idea of leaving it all out on the field. He doesn't walk away from the field having this baggage of the game. Sure, he may have made a mistake, but it's on the field. That's over. It's done, because he knows he left it all out there. He has nothing else, no regrets from this, so he can walk away and move on. He doesn't need to run this game over with those regrets, because I think those regrets tear you down. They just destroy you mentally. There needs to be a certain level of positivity when it comes to mentally envisioning the There's a time, too, where enough is enough. You've done everything you can, everything you were able on the field, and you can't allow that to affect your everyday life, whether that's work, whether that's school, whatever your job entails. You shouldn't leave or allow for this mental cloud of frustration and anger to take over you based off what happened on the Frisbee field. What happens on the field should stay on the field. You can take it and learn from it 100%, but there's definitely a point in time to draw that line and say, look, this is no longer benefiting me. This is no longer good for me, thinking about this game, this throw, this drop pass over and over again. Mentally, I need to give myself a rest, and I need to focus and prioritize on other things. David, I think that along with resting, it's so important for athletes, specifically our audience members who are Frisbee athletes, to immerse themselves in other sports during the off-season so that they can continue to work those different muscles that will help them when they go back to playing Frisbee. I think that's so true, and like you said, work the muscles that will help them in Frisbee. That doesn't mean you go out there and start training like a bodybuilder. It's understanding what is our goal. Our goal is to get better at playing the sport of ultimate. You don't want to go start doing bodybuilding competitions and be on stage. If that's the case, stop playing Frisbee and do something else out there, but our goal is to be better at Frisbee, so you want to look at those sports that blend a certain level of endurance. You're a former basketball player, or a current basketball player, you get out there and play hoops. That's a great sport. It's that cutting. It's the endurance running up and down the court, but it comes in a different way, so you're not running your body in the same cutting drills, the same activity in the field that can wear you down. So that's a great point. Maybe soccer is another one out there, very similar in the movements of it, but different enough where you're not going to harm your body, as long as you're smart with playing it. So that's a great point in understanding this. And another element I want to bring up here, which is really important, which I think stereotypical Frisbee players out there miss this one, because you can have your beer leagues out there and people just goofing off, but it's diet and nutrition. So critical to an athlete. Couldn't agree more there. And certain guys have really good ideas as to what should I eat on game day, what will be good for me here, now, right? I'm not going to eat a bunch of chicken on game day. That's going to be a load on my stomach. I got to run for hours on end. I need to have something that is, I need to have a lot of fluids, for sure, right? A lot of, you're drinking water, not too much, right, because sometimes if you drink too much water on game day, that could actually contribute to the cramps, but you're hydrating properly. I didn't hear about people really eating pickles until I started playing Frisbee. That's good to do. Super good for hydration. Prevents the cramps 100%. People like to eat fruit snacks. Love it. Get some sugar in you, right? You got to be able to run around all day under the hot sun. Maybe you need some extra sugar in that case. David, I'm obviously not the food nutritionist here. That's more your realm. So I'll leave it to you to kind of speak more about that stuff. One of the points all right there is those little tweaks we can do to elevate your experience with the sport. And if you take a sec to now remove all those little things you mentioned, you're going to be tired. You're not going to perform well. You're going to have those cramps. Your recovery post-game is going to take a lot longer. Your body is going to be beat up. And then your life outside of Frisbee is just a lot harder. So take that image, and that's how you subconsciously associate with a sport. So if we're talking about this overall idea of avoiding burnout, it comes down to those little things, like having a little bit of sugar during game day. I would do that. Middle of a game sometimes, I would notice myself, it's just, I feel a little off. I'd go get a fruit snack real quick, just give myself a little bit. And that's going to be different for everyone out there. That's something you want to definitely experience. But it's something to be aware of. It's so, so important. And then it comes post-game. What does that look like? Are you massaging your calves? I know your calves, your legs, whatever it is. I know you love to massage, get out there. You'd always be running that on your body. But talk to me about stretching, talk to me about recovery post-tournament, post-game. Well, David, you were the one who would lead us in that, which I was always grateful about. But yes, 100%, right? You grow up playing a sport, and you think you're invincible, and you think that you can just go from playing a full game of hoops or a game of soccer, whatever it is, and just go to dinner, like no problem. And as a kid, you can, because that's just how it is. But as you grow and develop, your body takes more of a physical beating. So it's so necessary to stop, just to wait a minute and say, look, there's other things I have to tend to. I got to go do this and that. But before I do that, let me just take five, 10 minutes, sit here, do some stretches, right? A lot of growth is experienced when you make yourself uncomfortable, right? So you're kind of feeling a little cramped up. You're not feeling too good post-game. You want to seek that comfort. No, don't do that. Get a little bit more uncomfortable. You have to in order to experience growth, right? You got to maybe do some lunges. You might have to touch your toes, right? You might have to really just stretch your arms out and do some circles with them. Embrace that uncomfortable state so that you can better recover later on and not experience that burnout. Another point that I think is really important when it comes to your mindset, when it comes to this sport, is being realistic about what your team can do. Obviously, you want to have a positive mindset and you always say, shoot for the stars and you hit the moon, right? But when you come to maybe your first year as a club team, maybe it's your first personal year playing the sport of Frisbee, club team, college team, whatever avenue of the sport this is, is being realistic of your expectations of what you can perform individually and as a team. Because if you come in your first year having never picked up a disc and say, well, I'm going to be the captain of this team, I'm going to lead us to whatever championship, or maybe you've played the sport for 10 years, but you're on a new team with just 10 guys or whatever it is and say, I'm going to bring this team to Nationals. Obviously you want to have a positive mindset and push the team for stretch goals out there. But to understand that maybe that brand new team of 10 guys isn't going to be the one to win Nationals, even though we love that story, that's not always the case. But setting yourself up for success in how you view what these goals of the team are. So listening to this, I really hope that you've kind of picked out a lot of different elements of what Garrett and I are talking about, that there's so much that comes into the sport and so many tips that you can use to avoid burnout when coming to playing Frisbee. Garrett, what would you say in your final words, if people out there listening, of all the things we said, what would be your most number one important thing that we talked about tonight for Frisbee athletes? Right there at the end, establish those small goals first, right? You're part of a team, it's a very ambitious team, they want to do great things, that's great. We talk about going to Nationals, or winning Nationals, well to do that, you've got to get to Nationals. Well to do that, you've got to get to Regionals. Well to do that, you've got to get to Conference. Well to do that, you've got to play in tournaments to get to Conference. And well to do that, you've got to bust your butt off of practice every day so that you can ready yourself for those things. So taking it in those steps as an athlete, those little things, right? Those little things first, those little things first, that will amount to that big dream, right? If you're so stuck up on that big thing, burnout, 100%. But if you make yourself busy with those little tasks that lead up to the dream, the ultimate dream, the likelihood of you experiencing burnout will decrease because you have so many things to tend to that are leading you on this path towards greatness. I love it. Manage your expectations, be realistic, do all the little things, and you'll excel as an athlete. Thank you so much for tuning in to Episode 1 of The Whiteboard, Avoiding Burnout. Let us know your thoughts in the comment section and ways that you've experienced burnout or have avoided burnout in your own life. Make sure you check out the Breakside on Instagram at Breakside underscore podcast. This is David Adomitis and Garrett Hallinan. Thanks for listening. Have a great night.