WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Swelling was way down this morning. We'll see how it takes the walk to and from class.

Oh boy

When I can't play frisbee I can't handle anything going wrong.

This will be a rough couple of weeks.

Oh boy

My ankle is gigantic. I hope that's a good sign.

2009 Mets

Sometimes injuries are flukes and there is nothing you can do about them. Sometimes there is a problem with the training staff.

Sometimes.

Busted ankle musings

It hurt a lot when I woke up. The swelling is down a bit, perhaps a Handball ball now. Definitely out for the week, we'll see about next. If it doesn't greatly improve by the weekend I am going to need to see a doctor.

When Trentinton and I were tossing post-injury today he pointed out that I have an unusal flcik motion. I had him throw with david for a few throws and it occured to me that I snap my elbow hard on every flick I make. That would probably be the reason why I was getting elbow problems. I tried altering my motion and it seems impossible. When I can walk I'll find some grass and a person and just try to figure it out for an hour. Once I get that done I can start practicing my flick-hucks again and get that back under control.

Ice is cold, by the way.

Let the blagging season commence!

So,

Lots of new womens showed up. Like, we could have had 6v6 in just women. We got 3 new men I think, plus the rest. We had 27-28 people.

We started off with some chalk talk, which although I can't quite disagree with completely, just didn't feel right. It definitely wasn't the worst choice -- it was a much better spot than the previous places we've put it. But kids showed up to play ultimate, not have chalk talks. I would have start with the customary "Who knows how to throw THE FLICK" before we even warm up. Then after teaching the flick I would have introduced EITHER vert or Ho, not both. There is very little reason to teach them both this early. The argument of which to teach is a complicated one, and I'm not sure if an answer can even come out of that one, but I know for sure we did not need to teach them both.

After that was go-to, which again I'd disagree with but it isn't the worst choice. First, no one had a flick. That is half the drill. Second, we didn't have enough discs to run the drill correctly. You are supposed to run through, no matter if you get the disc or not. We couldn't do that. Regardless, it was a good thing to try to drill the idea of going to into their head right away.

The scrimmage was a bit too slow-paced, but it was a good idea to just do one drill and then go into it. I think it would have ran better if we just taught Vert, but it ran fairly well.

I think if we had talked to the more experienced players beforehand it would have helped. Basically, whenever I cover a new player, I let them take the in-cut and get it, put on a very basic mark with a force, and don't slide to try to take away the dump. Likewise, when a new player has the disc, I make a cut that will require an easy throw and if I am on defense I don't play tight on the dump. Also, when I have the disc, I look to get the new players involved more and let them make plays. I think it is important to make them feel as comfortable and as part of the team as possible. If you play hard defense on them they may get intimidated and not feel good enough to be on the team. Likewise if you take away their dump throw, as one of the ways we console they freshies is by telling them to just look for the dump cut. It's like taking away their security blanket.

I have no major problems with today's practice. I would have explained vert and ho differently. I think it is very important to explain WHY you do everything you do. To be cliche, if you give a man a fish you feed him for a day, but if you teach him to fish you will feed him forever, or some garbage like that. Essentially, if you start telling freshies basic ultimate theory and why you run offenses or defenses, eventually they figure it out for themselves. I still ask questions, but I can analyze my own play and see where some my weaknesses are. If you simply tell them that the cuts come from the back of the stack and that you line up in the middle that is all they will know how to do. When they find themselves in a new situation they won't know what to do. If you teach them the theory behind everything they will be able to make a better play when they are placed in a situation that they have never been in before.

I think that's it for now.

PS I hurt my ankle a lot. It looks like there is a tennis ball in there. Oh well, more time to heckle.

Zone

All I knew how to do was drink beer and flip cups.

didn't write it

"You're never a finished product."

-Larry Fitzgerald

Still didn't write this.

"It like when you buy a drink for someone; you may think that it is they who care more about you, since you bought them a drink, but the reality is that it is you who will care more about them, since now you are invested in them. This is a fundamental element of human behavior."

-Patrick Chapin

If people aren't invested in the team in some way, they're not going to care.

Get people invested.

Doin' Work

Check back in later for the report. It'll be at least mediocre, I promise.

Edit: Slept 19 hours ish. Time to do actual work. Blag'll happen later.

So. I fall asleep at around 9 the night before to be a responsible frisbee player and get a good amount of sleep before a tournament the next day. Plus, I was supposed to go drop my car off at the mechanic before the tournament, so I had to wake up extra special early. Of course, one of my friends also playing in the league called me at 1am to see if he could get a ride, and I couldn't fall asleep until 5. Thanks to some creative scheduling I got my sister to take my car to the mechanic for me, so I got an extra hour out of that.

Breakfast was a chocolate chip muffin and some diet pepsi, because fake sugar is how champions are made. After trolling the SCG forums and stealing my sister's socks, we were good to go.

Game 1 was the social league semis against Powder, the 2 seed (by 1 point in the point differential). We were a bit short staffed, especially on men. We started about fifteen minutes late. I started off alright with a early layout grab to save possession (I don't layout for points obv.) and solid play. Unfortunately after taking the first point of the game we gave up three straight to go down 1-3, and the game ended up going to hard cap with us losing 9 - 6. Our big studs (B-Ri, Ercan, Will) didn't really put up a fight against Dasky, and it showed. I think if we were allowed to play the game out until 15 we would have made our comeback, but we have to play by the tournament rules and my social league team was knocked out. On the opposite side of the bracket Green knocked off White, meaning that Edson was the only player left that could get the fabled double win.

I had about fifteen minutes between games and decided to spend it sitting on bench under an umbrella drinking water. No, it wasn't raining. It was completely clear and about 90 degrees, and it was only noon, meaning it would get hotter.

Not much to talk about in Game 2. We took half 8-2 and won 14-8 after getting soft-capped. I didn't play much -- I really only came in on D-points to keep our studs fresh for offense. I got torched one or two times but other than that played alright. Pete started getting really pissed around point 3 and that was really the end of that game. Once than man learns to control his anger he'll be a far better player. Regardless, we advance to the finals and keep Edson's dream alive.

Both leagues got a bye to eat pizza and hear league awards. On my team Sonny got best handler for the men, Caitlin got MVP for women, Liv got best cutter for men. Can't disagree too much, although Ercan put it best when he said that Sonny wasn't even the best handler on his team.

I got recruited to play some pickup in between games and decided I would play as a Standler in order to keep my throws fresh but not get too tired before the finals. My pickup team ended up crushing the other one, but they weren't really fair teams.

Finals. Orange vs. Green. On paper Orange definitely has the advantage. Squeege, Q, Flash and Will match up favorably against Sonny, CG, Ercan and Liv, although not by much. We had the MVP for women so we had the advantage there. We had one or two more subs than them.

The first half was definitely Orange's, and if you only watched that, it'd be easy to think that the game went as the first half did and they won. Squeege had his way with Liv in the first half and made some very impressive skies and deep runs. We stayed in the game with CG taking Q deep when Squeege was out a few times and Caitlin doing the same on their women. Half ended at 6-8 them but it felt worse.

Ercan said that the only way we are going to beat them is to start putting a body on Squeege because if he gets a clean jump off there is no way we can beat him, or them for that matter. We received on half and it was all Green from there. We won the game to three with an amazing layout D by Liv against Squeege and we rode that momentum the rest of the game. Our 1-2 subs normally would not have mattered, but Will, after playing two games earlier but needing to play more points than I did, started getting calf cramps. He played through them the best he could but almost every other point was stopped by him needing to come out. Their lack of depth showed, as they had to put 2% in for way too many points (imagine a slower, worse version of me) and me, Edson, and Chip had our way with him. Liv made an impressive layout grab on a huck by Ercan and later skied Squeege on the penultimate point. The game was tied at 9's and we ended up running off 6 straight to take the game and the championship, 15-9. Edson lives the dream of being a double champ. Sonny survived the best handler heckles all game, as did Will, who won the spirit award (every time he caught it it was a "spirit catch", every time he threw it it was a "spirit throw", and he used the power of Heart). For winning we got a bottle of champagne and a trophy to drink it out of. Pictures, handshaking, etc. There was also way too much pizza so I got to take one home. We don't get to keep it because they are going to get the team color and year of every winner etched into it.

I'm excited to try to repeat next year, and to outperform my draft position. Hopefully I did enough work this year to earn some respect -- its tough to break into this crowd.

Let me tell you, it sure feels nice to win. Quite honestly, I'm hooked. There won't be any question next season if I want it, trust me.

Quarters report + more

K so,

Quarterfinals against Navy. 3 seed (us) vs. 6 seed (them).

On paper we definitely have an advantage. Their big players are some Italian kid who thinks he is good but is just fast, Matt Martin, and Cara Martin. Ours are Me, Will, B-Ri, and Airjohn, and some tall kid.

We went down a quick 4-1 after a few careless plays but rallied to bring it to 5-4 them. My play was pretty bad as I threw a push/backhand instead of a flick on an upline dump and Airjohn threw a Callahan and then blamed it on me. I also had a matchup problem as Matt Martin was just too old for me and he toyed with me on while I was on defense and could not get open at all on offense for a reset. I took a point off and we evened it up and then ended half at 8-6 us.

I played much better in the second half, but that might be attributed to not marking their best player and therefore getting a worse player on me after turns. Regardless, I picked up my throws and we came out strong in the second half. It was not much of a game after half as we won it 15-8(ish). Next up in the semi's is 2 seed Powder, which will be quite the show. I plan to meet David's team in the finals.

I had envision the "more" part of this blag entry to be a bit more useful, but thinking about it now makes it seem pretty not. Anyway.

In Lacrosse you could look at the score sheet and tell who one the game by two stats -- the score(obviously) and loose balls. 50/50s. Almost without fail the team that got the most would win the game. This is indicative of not only how many the team came down with, but also of their effort in that game. This is true in Ultimate as well. People are going to turf how ever many throws they turf, drop however many they drop. These are things that are going to happen and there isn't much you can do about them. 50/50 discs, however, is where the money is made. If you run harder than your opponent, you'll come down with more. They're really the only way to get ahead of a "better" team.

Yeah that whole thing sounded better in my head. But I ain't one to deny content to my 4 person (plus my anonymous admirer) readership.

Word.

PS - Puca's Mischief + Colfenor's Plans. It works.

Anonymous

Dear Anonymous,

Who the fuck are you?

Sincerely,

Doober

Hype

Blah blah blah emo, blah blah blah annoying, blah blah blah not my fault blah blah blah don't want responsibility, blah blah blamestorming blah blah

HYPE.

DO IT.

The more I think about Magic strategy the more I think about Ultimate strategy

I'm pretty sure at least half of this makes sense, but it is 520am and the oxy is mostly worn off, so bear with me.

There are two things you need to do if you want to play well. One is to do what you're supposed to do according to your offense or defense. The other is to do what the other team doesn't want you to do.

I might know exactly what I want to do as a middle handler in a zone offense, but that is only half the battle. I need to know exactly what the cup doesn't want me to do as a middle handler in a zone offense. Often times you will be doing the textbook definition of your position and not getting anywhere. That is because you are doing the textbook definition of your position and the defense is built to stop that. You need to find a way to do whatever the defense is built to stop.

As a quick example, against a force-based defense that is playing man-on-man, simply throwing to the open side will often times not result in a point. The defense wants you to do that; it is designed for you to do that. You need to break them. No, not with a break-mark throw. Those are difficult. A dump -> swing is a safe version of a breakmark throw that accomplishes the same thing. You open up the field and, if your stack is paying attention, get a deep look.

As always, in moderation. Exclusively trying to break a mark or force their handlers deep is asking for trouble.

BONUS PRO TIP -- Think about what your offense or defense is trying to do. Think about why it is trying to do that. Think about how your team's scheme interacts with your opponents. Think about how each one of your actions helps or hinders that scheme. You have strengths as a player, but this is a team game. Your job is to fit into an offense or defense.

PS: Spellcheck didn't alert me of any misspelled words. I bet I'd go all E.Herbst on the Verbal portion of the SATs right now.

EDIT: God dammit I think I used the wrong bear.

Back

As much as I don't want to go back to school, I'm just gaining weight and playing poorly here.

Basically, what I'm trying to say is, that I'd rather be good at ultimate for the 3 hours a day that I play than be enjoying the rest of my day.