SnC 101 with Gibson Performance

Gibson Performance

Hi! I’m Heather, and I’m the coach behind Gibson Performance. I started playing Ultimate as a junior, and have been playing for my club team, Spice, for the past 5 seasons. I also represented GB Women for the first time at EUC 2023 and then again at WUC 2024. So Ultimate has played a huge role in my life for a long time!

I started Gibson Performance at university, where I studied Sports Performance with a particular focus on strength and conditioning. I already had my qualification in Personal Training, but with my sporting background I knew that I wanted to steer towards elite athletic performance. I love helping players at all stages of their athletic careers, whether that’s breaking into the club scene for the first time, or watching them perform on the world stage.

Photo Credit: Sam Hotaling

How can I improve in game reactions?
Agility is a combination of physical skills (like deceleration and change of direction) with reaction time, which allows us to respond and adjust quickly to all the constantly-changing variables happening on pitch

Examples of this might be, adjusting your cutting line when the disc has not been thrown exactly where you expected, or responding to a player’s movements when you're on defence, or vice versa, or reflexive layouts… there’s tons of examples of agility in frisbee.

So try incorporating a reactive element into your field sessions! That way you can work on the speed of your physical skills, whilst improving your reflexes. For example, you could spice up any basic sprint drill by having a buddy calling out commands (‘go’ ‘stop’ ‘left’ ‘right’). Or you can try mirror drills, where you mimic the movements of a partner who is trying to juke free of you. Anything that requires you to respond to an unpredictable stimulus will help develop your agility!

A useful app if you have no mates, is SwitchedOn available on Apple and Android which has plenty of free, plus premium drills you can use on your phone

How do I prioritise between SAQ,  conditioning, strength and power?

This really depends on what point of the season you’re in, and also on the needs of the individual athlete.

A good rule of thumb is to spend the offseason building a generic base of ‘strength and fitness’, i.e. improving well-rounded strength through full range of motion and doing aerobic work.

Then as the season progresses your training should get more specific to the demands of frisbee (e.g. power / plyos / intervals / sprints), both in exercise selection but also in the types of sessions you prioritise (e.g. in-season, I will prioritise improving my game-specific conditioning and aim to maintain strength).

What are your top recovery tips?

Tournament weekends are incredibly demanding on the body, because they are often high volume, high impact, and high intensity. It’s really important to take rest and recovery seriously!

The formula is very simple; quality sleep, quality fuel, and gentle movement. There are additional strategies that can give you the extra 1%, but nothing is as impactful as getting the basics right, so that’s where your focus should be

Fuel: The energy you expend during a game, let alone a whole tournament, is super high. It’s really important you eat frequently between games, and substantially after the tournament. I’m also including hydration under this umbrella, which is equally important 

Sleep: We all know the importance of sleep, but it really can’t be emphasised enough. Aim for 8-10 hours, although post-tourney you’ll want to shoot for that upper end to maximise recovery.

Movement: It’s good for your body to move around and loosen off- but keep it low-intensity and low impact. Mobility, short walks, a relaxed throw, yoga, are all good examples! 

What's a typical injury, and pre - hab focus?

Firstly; if you have pain / weakness / repeat niggles in specific areas, don’t ignore it. Something’s up, that’s what your body is telling you, and it usually can be improved upon by developing stability, range of motion, and strength in those areas. Reach out to a physio if you need help identifying the source of the problem.

Your ankles need love and attention too, especially if you’ve had ankle injuries in the past. Calf / shin raises, knee-over-toe variations, and balance exercises are useful to include in your prehab.

Are you always sore after a single layout? Are your neck / back / shoulders in pieces for days after a tournament? Do you notice that your triceps/core get DOMs after a session of practising hucking / pulling? Do you train upper body outside of games? You expect your upper body to take quite a lot of impact during play, so you need to build the strength to support that!

Make sure you’re including upper body in your training

Injuries / pain associated with weak hammies / glutes are common, especially in women. Make sure to include posterior chain-focused exercises  (e.g. Romanian deadlifts, bridges, leg curls variations) as much as squat/split squat exercises