Ross Enamait, whose training products are my favorites, has a new double DVD set out on training the hands, neck, and core: The Missing Links. If you’re new to Ross, he walks the walk, total monster:

I guess I'm running a real fitness blog now, promising to reveal "secrets". The shame. Anyway, another Ultimate post. The conditioning stuff should be of interest to everybody, at least, so I'll mention that first:

Awesome new Ultimate resource The Huddle just posted a feature: Training For Ultimate. Lots of good stuff there, including a little bit of nostalgia seeing Tully Beatty contributing. Used to lose to his team routinely way back in college. Class act, that guy (and his post is excellent).

As for forehands, I've thought a lot about Idris Nolan's flick advice off and on for awhile. Not so much for myself; as a 20-year split-finger thrower, it's too late for me unless I take a season off to rebuild my grip, and I might not have that many seasons left! More for my daughter, who's 10, and just starting to show an interest. I'd like to teach her right.

So I e-mailed Idris, and he kindly shared more thoughts with me on the subject. In the end, it's pretty much as he described, as counter-intuitive as that may be for we split-finger throwers. For the throwing action, picture delivering a karate chop to pretty low on somebody's midsection (your palm would be up, your forearm/wrist/hand all in a line).

But if a picture is worth a 1,000 words a video's worth a million, and Matt Mackey provides it. The revelation, for me, comes at 1:40, "these two fingers almost become superfluous". Superfluous?! Stunning, as my flick depends on those very fingers. This explains, finally, why my flick suffers so mightily in the rain, while others are barely affected. Give it a try. Very interesting. Those fingers still play a role, but it's definitely a supporting role rather than the lead.

P.S. Okay, so you don't want to rebuild your grip, and the wet (either sweat or rain) still messes with you. Here are the best (by far) solutions I've found in my 20 years:

• For sweat: wristbands and Tite-Grip.
• For rain: forget football gloves, Ansell Hyflex Machinist's Gloves (for handling small oily parts!) are the closest thing you'll find to a bare hands feel even in driving rain. And at three bucks (!) a pair, you have nothing to lose but your pride.

I can think of few athletic endeavors where wet, sweaty hands are an advantage. Playing Ultimate, the range and consistency of my forehand suffers in the rain, or on the steamiest days (I know, I know, it's because I've been holding it wrong for 16 friggin' years - I'm going to rebuild my grip in the off-season). So I was pretty interested to discover that the Power Rings folks sell a product called Tite-Grip. It sounds like it's a heavy-duty anti-perspirant so it, combined with wristbands, might be a boon for hot, humid Ultimate days. But what about the rain?

Well, there's another product called Dry Hands that bills itself more as a kind of wicking solution than an anti-perspirant, and it claims to be effective in the rain. There's quite a testimonial on rec.sport.disc. I'll have to give this one a whirl. I'll report back after the next rain game.