Playing weight, body fat %, etc.

Seems like you’re asking about muscle more than bodyfat? I’m not an elite player like some you mentioned but I feel like the basic philosophy is train your ass off for performance and eat enough to recover and your body will probably take care of things. So I don’t think most people are targeting a particular weight, but like if you look at olympic sprinters they tend to be pretty jacked. Lifting hard will build muscle over time if you eat properly but if you’re doing power work, agility, conditioning, practices, and tournaments, you probably won’t gain past the point where it actually starts slowing you down. Does that make sense?

I could be wrong but I feel like I read a decent amount about athletic training and I see a lot of stuff about performance goals but not much about specific weight or muscle mass goals (weight goals aside from leaning out to a target bodyfat% or whatever but again I don’t think that’s what you’re asking).

Conor,

There is one thing to remember when talking about body composition for athletes: It is individual.

If we look at the angle of performance and specifically raw power production, we need to balance how many watts of power being produced per bodyweight. Less mass to move with higher power output means higher acceleration. However, there’s just too many other factors when it comes to measuring on-field performance. We’re not competing in Olympic Weightlifting or Sprinting specifically. So, it’s not arbitrary in the grand scheme of things.

Then, with the one thing I mentioned first above, you cannot control or know what your ideal weight for Ultimate is. You said it yourself, 180 lbs. is just too absolute and differs from one person to another. Now, you mentioned doing a “cutting” period to shave body fat off. That’s pretty much the best you can do. You don’t want extra useless baggage to carry around on the field. You’re on the right track anyway, looking at the various pieces of your athleticism and just seeing/feeling how they improve while maintaining a reasonable diet.

However, I must stress to keep it simple and don’t go hard at it. Eat all your macros as usual and only eat fresh whole foods and no chocolate, processed meats, ice cream and all the extra stuff (once a while is totally fine). Don’t cut off huge portions of your meals suddenly, do it just a little maybe 5% every 2-3 weeks. It’s all about doing a healthy long haul. The way our society has been brought up in the last few decades has revolved around fads and imaginary ideals, which is why I’m emphasising this point whether you know it or not.