Smokin' weed and bamboo, sippin' on private stock

Summer is nice.

Played pickup on Tuesday. I would like to use being sick as an excuse for me moving slower than me circa 2008, but that definitely doesn't cover the drop or three misreads I had so what's the point.

It is a lot harder to play defense against people who can throw, since my normal strategy of fronting (get it?) doesn't work when anyone with the disc has no reservations about putting up a 50-yarder. Such is life.

Not sure what I am doing for my birthday yet. Sonny seemed like he wanted to have me throwing up on something or someone, so that is always an option. Then again, there's no place to puke like your own toilet.

I woke up at 4:20 on the dot today. I am clearly a master.

I tried to drink beer the other night but boy it was gross. Coastal Wheat BLOWS.

" I remember my first few weeks playing Ultimate in college when, because of my soccer background, standing in a tight stack in the middle of the field felt so unnatural. I wanted to spread out like in soccer. As a rookie who couldn't throw further than 15 feet, I was pegged as a cutter and continued to struggle with the stack concept until one practice where we were randomly assigned different roles. I got to be a handler, and though I still couldn't throw, I could see where I wanted to throw. That's when the stack concept started to make more sense to me. All it took was seeing the field from a different perspective."

- Ryan Morgan, The Huddle

I have always felt this way; I have no idea why I never voiced it.

That's all.

P.S. 204

Get your swag back daddy where your focus at?

Summer league draft is over and Ecto Cool Whip is poised for the repeat.

Eating habits are back to restricted after that nice two-week vacation. Walking the dogs twice a day and running on non-league days. Pushups/excruiciator before bed.

You know the drill.

But the second mother was with the seventh son, And they were both out on Highway 61

25. I am mentally weak. I feign strength to cover up my weakness.

I am done being 2nd best; I do not want to play second fiddle.

Always be content. Never be satisfied.

See you next year.

Free

T-Shirts.

I played lefty at Elders today

I cut.

An appetitite for destruction but I scrape the plate

"'I made that mistake, so I lost...'

Refraining from thoughts like this is overwhelmingly beneficial: each time you stop this train of thought you get closer to victory. Anyone can make play mistakes, and instead of becoming upset when the occur, how about using a method of recovering your concentration and trying to get back on track"

-Tomoharu Saito

Dave Williams, former (kinda current) Magic player, is a professional Poker player (He got 2nd in 2004 to Greg Raymer of weird-glasses fame) and just won a large tournament in Vegas in which he got $1.5 million. The following quote is from a Magic player who was writing about the will to win.

"At his victory party at XS nightclub (which involved the most awesome entrance I have ever been a part of, by the way, including Dave flanked by girls with sparklers and the DJ playing 'The Champ is here!' as he walked in) ...... His response was 'After all these years, I don't think how awesome it is that I got second and won 3.5 million dollars. All I can think about is that I didn't win'"

-Brian Kibler

I don’t be in the project hallway talking about how I be in the project all day

Biked for 40 minutes with Tom today and we introduced Wind Sprints to it. Definitely worth it.

I am only doing push ups tonight. Better than nothing.

I want to do Air Alert III starting next week but I don't know how much of that is frontin'.

Scranton this weekend almost makes me want to slow up so I can play like a baller this weekend. I have decided to go hard and play hard anyway.

I can't quite get my frisbee mentality to cross over to school, but I'm damn close.

I guess I don't use transitions when I'm stoned.

What you think I rap for? To push a fuckin' Rav 4?

Benjamin and myself are captains.

Gonna run the rest of this year pretty easy. No need to tightin' it up with no upcoming tournaments.

I'm not doing pushups and excruciator tonight; I am simply too drunk. Sorry.

Gym or running tomorrow, though. We'll see what and when.

Good enough is not good enough.

I can only hope.

Did a track workout today and some baby lifting.

Pushups, excruciator, bed.

P.S. 210

Now I'm in the limelight cause I rhyme tight

New York Combine was today and it was pretty uneventful. I played pretty poorly, simply misthrowing at least 3 and putting up some shady ones, in addition to not swinging. On the plus side I didn't drop one, was in correct position most of the time, and moved the disc upfield well. If there is one thing I learned today it is the importance of attacking the field laterally as well as vertically.

Learned more about Ho-Stack, some vert-stack offense, and warm-ups. It was also nice to see how they ran tryouts, as well as how they ran practices.

Intermurals tomorrow. Tom can't be there so I will just have to play.

Track workout 1 hour before whenever my game is. Be there.

Pushups, excruciator, bed.

P.S. I haven't showered yet.

A Fearless Magical Inventory

http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/misc/15107_Feature_Article_Creating_a_Fearless_Magical_Inventory.html

"How do you make a Fearless Magical Inventory? Simple: make a list of the things you secretly know you are doing wrong in Magic. Be honest with yourself. Stop lying to yourself and face reality. Take your ego out of it and admit you don't do everything perfect, yet.

Make a conscious decision to stop pretending you are better than you really are. You are exactly as good as you are. No amount of fooling yourself will trick you into winning more. Make a list of every weakness in your game, no matter how much you may at times pretend its not. Post this list online. Show your friends. Put it up on your facebook. Put it somewhere public so that you can't lie to yourself any longer"

-- Patrick Chapin, Next Level Magic

1. I don't actually push myself all the way at practice.
2. I use my lack of stamina to play lazy defense, claiming "I'm resting" or something of that nature.
3. I have a tough time balancing between putting every throw deep and every throw under.
4. I rarely, if ever, pull the layout trigger on D.
5. I give up too early on long throws, either to me or my man.
6. I can't read the disc very well, especially over my shoulder.
7. I can't bid going into the disc.
8. I always back my man on defense so I can say to myself "Well, I didn't get scored on" even if my man getting open directly led to a score.
9. I blame the mark getting broken for the reason why my man got open on the break side instead of just playing tighter on them.
10. I couldn't break someone with a backhand to save my life
11. I use the excuse "I'm not a captain" for a lot of things.
12. I blame my receiver for dropping discs that are difficult to catch rather than assigning the blame to myself
13. I have a tough time seeing what is going right or wrong on the field when I am doing anything but looking to see what is right or wrong.
14. I think that just "putting in work" is good enough.
15. I am not good enough at getting open for dumps, which often makes our offense stagnant.
16. I don't know how to function as a cutter.
17. I am not aggressive enough against a mark, so I don't move them around enough or get enough break opportunities.
18. I need to be more vocal in every aspect.
19. I use confusing hand signals when I handle, so people are unsure of whether or not to clear out or adjust their cut.
20. I will drop almost a pass a game for no particular reason
21. My backhand isn't SO bad that it is unusable.
22. I make excuses where I just admit I am wrong so it is extremely difficult to argue with me
23. I am slow and can't jump.
24. I often close my eyes when I bid for a disc and don't catch it, and then blame it on thethrower for giving me a janky pass.

That's all I can think of.

Word

Did that track workout that I did with David and Tom forever ago. It was fun.

Ate a lot of beans. And an Olde.

Win some lose some.

Think I'm just biking tomorrow, but then Elders. We shall see.

213.

If I can't live by my word then I'd much rather die

Went to the gym and biked for like 30-40 minutes. Not too much, but it's something. I figure if I do something every day for the rest of school I won't break the habit when I get back home. I wanted to go to Elders today, but Hasbrouk was just so enticing. Friday, I promise.

Hopefully I'll get someone to do a track workout with me tomorrow; I don't think I'm motivated enough to solo it.

Definitely didn't write my paper tonight. Hopefully will knock it out tomorrow morning. Such is life.

Excruciator, Pushups, bed.

P.S. Drink water it's good for you I promise.

if you a gangsta this is how you prove it to me.

Was a nice 3-day vacation. Back to work.

Pushups, excruciator, bed.

(Pre)/(Post)/Sectionals

Sectionals. There will be a fair amount of not frisbee speak here. You are warned. All numbers are subject to being completely wrong, and possibly just made-up.

Nothing really important happened in the week between Marist and Sectionals. I ate plenty of beans, watched a practice that Brian and Kerry showed up to, and was chosen to call subs.

The night before Sectionals was somewhat eventful, as Thomas and myself decided to have a slumber party in order to make sure we got our requisite 8-hours. After watching Tom level up his characters in FF13, we popped 4 nyquil jel-cap-things each and I passed out roughly 30 minutes later.

There was a giant party across the hall which woke me up a few times and I had a trippy dream involving playing a virtual-reality esque video game that actually atrophied your body. Aside from that, not a bad sleep.

I woke up and played mommy and made Bacon, Egg, and Cheese for me, Mitch, and Tom. That's about it.

I got driven to behind-Bouton by Mitch, and switched into Stiggles' car. Ride was uneventful, stopped as a Petroleum Establishment and picked up some 5-hours. After crossing a bridge that we heard was out, we got there.

Game 1 was against Princeton. I think this was the best game we have ever played. We started out getting a Break and going up 1-0, and stayed with them I believe all the way to 3-3, with half I believe at 8-4. This game was another case of "we don't have an offense" as our defense regularly gave us at least 1 turn per point and we could not convert. As a result, we lost 15-8.

Then we put the orange jerseys on.

Game 2 was against the Army. We went up 2-0 and I personally got a bit complacent and started to pull our starters earlier than I would normally. Two points and tied later I put the heroes back in but we just could not pull away, and even went down one or two points late in the second half. Despite their coach not knowing the rules and losing his voice about ten minutes in, it was 14-14 at hard cap. I forget how we win, but we win. We lose RA David in the process however, as his little feetsies just couldn't take it.

Our third game was against our Arch-Rivals, Bard. Again, I think we just did not take them seriously. We ended up losing 15-7 and just play poorly in every sense of the word. Our offense was a bit worse than our defense, and nothing really worked.

We got back to school, went to a lackluster hasbrouck, and then got really drunk. I don't really remember after that. I know Berg showed up to convince me to play on Sunday, to which I agreed, and then proceeded to be a bitch and not play on Sunday. I did party again though.

I found it difficult to play and call subs, as I have a tough time deciding when I should put myself in while having a ton of people to get in. I also had to spend a lot more time seeing if people were tired rather than watching the game and making adjustments. Because I was watching people run and not how they play, I had a tough time figuring out who played well and therefore poorly assigned playing time in many positions, as well as having a difficult time process how the weekend went.

We often play to our competition, as our best games come against teams that are better than us (Princeton, Marist) and when we expect less of our opponent we put it on cruise-control. This can be anything from just not pushing hard enough or playing mentally lazy.

Our mental game needs some serious work, and some talking with Stiggles last night has me questioning my policy of "Play your best player regardless of practice attendance". Our team has gotten to the point where we have enough talent that we can afford to not play people that are marginal upgrades in order to send a message about practice. One thing keeping us back is our mental fortitude, and while I am not saying that I will play people according to the number of practices they attend, I will certainly make it a larger factor for playtime if I continue to call subs.

We used to not be able to get up for our first game, but now that we can, we don't have the legs to carry us through the day. I hope to see conditioning be a major part of the program next year.

I had planned to get back into the swing on things on Sunday, but between being drunk and the holidays it'll have to wait until tomorrow to start the gym again. I'm excited for next year, as this is by far the best version of Gunx yet and we have a lot of room to grow.

I am going to try to play the moderation game and still be in college while trying to improve my game rather than trying to go all out for a year.

Props --

Hasbrouk after a tournament

Only raining a little

3 Photographers

Cheap discs

Mama Campbell bringing the eats

Slops --

God those fields were the worst

Losing to Bard

Bad hasbrouk after

This post is too long

Round 2

Next season starts today.

Dedication

I woke up 30 minutes early to make sure I would be able to fall asleep tonight.

Think about it.

PS --

Sonny:

you are good, believe in yourself

listen to the spacejam soundtrack

Well you was doin' fifty-five in a fifty-four

The tournament started off with a clobbering of Bard and Purchase. Nothing new.

We were down a lot to Marist in the first half, and while we scored more than them in the second half, we lost 15-11. I don't take scoring more in the second half as anything more than a way to make oneself feel better about a loss.

We then lost to Ramapo 15-11. This is the point in the day where our legs started to get the best of us, as on paper we look to win at least by the margin they beat us.

We then played Marist again in the semis in an extremely close game in which we never lead but finally tied it up at 12-12 only to lose on universe.

We beat purchase with like 8 people to take third.

A positive to take away from this tournament is that we beat shitty teams by a ton and took Marist to universe when no one was on their 'A' game. I feel that we can definitely take a slot this weekend if everyone steps up and plays like they can. It is clear that we are improving far faster than any team we have faced multiple times and it is about time to level up as a team.

A negative to take away from this tournament is that we have no legs. Everyone on the team, by the third game, started to let our lack of stamina get to us. Between drops, running slower, not bidding, unnecessary hucks, we all made some plays that if we were fresh wouldn't have happened. This means a few things: 1) we need to be mentally tougher and not let our fatigue affect our mental play. 2) we need to push harder to get through fatigue; tired is often a state of mind. 3) we need to be in better shape. We cannot get tired after two games and expect to go places.

That's all. Not much to say about this besides we're slow and need to catch.

Props --

Whoever put Jay-Z on at the tourny

Bruce Campbell (of Army of Darkness fame) bringing us eats during the 2nd game vs. Marist

A tournament where we can get hasbrouk after

Hasbrouk after the tournament

Slops --

$175 bid for 16 bagels, a jar of peanut butter, and a bunch of bananananasNOTAGAINFUCK

RA David sized fields

State Troopers

This might offend my political connects

"When people ask me advice on how to handle a situation or just what to do, they are often surprised when they hear my response: 'What are you trying to accomplish?' There is a subtle wisdom in slowing for a moment and reflecting on what exactly you are doing"

-Patrick Chapin, Next Level Magic

Probably close to 3/4 of the D-Line's points today were off of hucks to people that either myself or MC were covering. Most if not all of them were thrown by Ben.

I think we need to step back and analyze why we go to practice. What are we trying to accomplish? If we are just trying to beat the O-line, great, we're on track. But I don't think that is what the D-line goes to practice for; that's not what gets them out of bed each day.

We go to practice for two reasons -- to make us individually better and to make the team better. At practice we have to be thinking "What am I trying to accomplish?". How much is the team really going to improve if the only way we score is by taking advantage of multiple complete mismatches that will not occur in a real game.

I am not saying that one cannot take advantage of their mismatches; that is simply ridiculous to expect someone to play ultimate to win and not do everything they can to win. What I am saying is that they can take advantage of those mismatches in ways that will improve the team. Make them cut in. Make someone else throw the huck. Perhaps we should have O-Line run zone against the defense to make them practice it.

I think we all know 2x4 can outrun me -- make him beat me on an in-cut. We don't need to watch the same play over and over again to know that certain members of the team don't have the stamina to run savage for an hour and some do.

Hell, win in a different way. We won't face teams that will let us throw multiple 50-yard backhands to wide open cutters. That cannot be the source of 3/4 of our points. We are not improving by conducting practice this way. There will be times when someone puts a good mark on our huckers and we won't have the deep shot; there will be times when a team has a ridiculous deep and we won't have the deep shot.

There is value in learning how to take advantage of mismatches. I do not think there is value in repeatedly abusing the same mismatch because that simply will not happen in a real game. If it does, I think we have done it enough to know how to execute. In practice we do not have the opportunity to adjust to take away a mismatch as we are limited by how many practice bodies we have.

This might seem like an O-Line player ranting because he keeps on losing at practice. Believe me, if O-Line kept on losing and the team kept getting better I wouldn't say a word.

But we're not.

Put this shit in motion ain't no rewindin me back

Pickup happened today, but I didn't go. I haven't liked pickup since I thought the forehand was a trick throw.

Today I went to class and cleaned my apartment -- pretty productive day.

The plan was for RA David, Thomas, Benjamin, and myself to do some track workouts whenever David and Tom got out of whatever obligations they like to obligate themselves to. RA David came over, watched me clean for a bit, and we headed to the turf where we found out that Tom locked himself out of his room.

The workout ended up being a 1/2 mile warmup with dynamic warmup after. Then you do five shuttles (5-10-5), 20-yard sprints, 40-yard sprints, 100-yard sprints, and then back down, as well as 1/4 mile laps inbetween. In the end it looks like this:

1/2 Mile

Shuttles (5)

1/4 mile
20-yard sprints (5)

1/4 mile

40-yard sprints (5)

1/4 mile

100-yard sprints (5)

1/4 mile

40-yard sprints (5)

1/4 mile

20-yard sprints (5)

1/4 mile

Shuttles (5)

1/4 mile.

It ends up being roughly 2.25 of distance running and 1 mile of sprinting. Pretty nice. We are thinking of adding pushups and situps in there someplace.

After the 100-yarders Tom showed up informing us that Ben was asleep in his room along with Tom's wallet. Such is life.

Has after was pretty hassy, no beans though. I ended up taking down some Grilled Chicken sandwiches and then some french fries.

Pushups, excruciator, bed.

I know you waitin in the wing but I'm doin my thing

Didn't do much today. Biked for an hour-ish. Threw a bit at Tristan's. My elbow hurt from throwing some very big blades.

And I ate some stupid beans.

The word is that mad heads will be running around tomorrow. Hopefully they will so I can join them. Otherwise it'll be more bicycle.

Air conditioning is so nice.

In fact I'm just previewing it

Pretty sweet practice today. Everyone ran hard and played pretty well. I felt like I was running faster and for longer than I have all year. Apparently not assaulting my lungs everyday is paying off. My throws were alright but basically I only threw twenty-yard ins and some blades. E.Herbst played like a man's man, getting open at will. That will be nice.

Ate some beans at dinner. Ugh.

Went to the gym after and pretty much just biked, but I did a few sets of bench, curls, forearms, and calves.

Unfortunately Has didn't have more beans when Benjamin got there, so I had to eat a bannanananan fuck that word.

Running tomorrow. Be there.

Fresh out the fryin pan, into the fire

This is proving much more difficult than anticipated.

It is getting me much more amped up for disc than anticipated. I have never been more motivated to not be a little bitch.

I just want to be good at everything.

Intermurals was practically pickup. I am not sure if that is their intended purpose. I find it difficult to get motivated to turn a 14-5 win into 15-2 win. I threw a bunch of shitty hammers and a bunch of mediocre blades, mostly for points. Throwing to Tom isn't fair. I also ghost-handed a pancake catch on our defending end-zone. No one is safe from Sassper, the Ghost-handing Ghost.

Both the other teams in the league seem douchey and completely unfun. The Gunxx vs. Gunxy matchup will be fun, and is surprisingly even.

Excruciator, pushups, bed.

Allow me to reintroduce myself

http://dopacetic.blogspot.com/2008/12/why-breaking-up-with-your-girlfriend.html

Look, I'm on my grind cousin, ain't got time for fronting

Vertical stripes.

Pushups and Excruciator. Start it up.

Don't pay the same taxes

I'll give it a whirl.

So I can rock them kid sneakers with the little lights inside of 'em

Honestly, I don't have it this year.

I don't think we're gonna make it. If I thought we had a real shot, I'd be more disciplined. But I don't. I don't think it's worth it. I don't think I will make enough of a difference this year.

Pressure

I thought I didn't feel pressure.

I had the opportunity to make a team take a naked lap after my teammate sunk a bounce. I choked. I lined up my next shot and sunk it after they hit one cup.

Bobbi Flekman

"Money talks, and bullshit walks."

Excruciator then bed. Better than nothing.

Down with the sickness.

If I'm still sick tomorrow I will be angry. I will probably still be sick tomorrow. I will be angry. SCAM practice was the first practice in a while when I walked away knowing I was then better at Ultimate. Plus I wanna party with Sonny tomorrow.

Regardless, I am excited to get back to school and try some of the new drills SCAM has shown us, as well as tweak our new defense. I think we'll get a lot of "free" points by showing teams something they certainly have not seen before.

I think our lack of partying has negatively affected our team cohesiveness. I've never felt more excited to be on the team, but I've never felt less connected to the team.

bleh.

Puked up my roast beefy last night, not going to practice today.

If I have the swine heads are going to roll.

I mean we're talking about practice.

I asked Sonny if I could come to Scam's practice and bring a friend while on Spring Break, which he allowed.

Practice was supposed to start at 5, which is when I showed up. About 6 were there when I got there, and everyone warmed up as they showed up, which involved running about a 1/4 mile lap and dynamic warm ups, with no static stretching. We got started around 515.

Squeege seemed to be coaching Scam, or at least just running this practice. Either way we started out with a sweet drill that had no disc work in it.

The drill was set up like a flat-Y, with two cones (nalgenes) about fifteen yards apart and then two more cones (discs) another fifteen yards on both sides, forming a flatish-Y.

Squeege then proceeds to talk about how there is almost no physical play in the college game, and that if you plan on playing club you best get used to it. He says that this drill is purely conceptual -- there is no "mock field" and it is just to learn how to play with a man on your shoulder.

The drill is a bit hard to explain through text, but I'll do my best. There are two lines, one being offense and the other being defense. The defense decides which side is the "force" side and lines up on that side of the first nalgene, and is allowed to be up to one step ahead of the offender if he feels there is a great speed mismatch. You "win" on offense by getting to the force side of the second nalgene and then busting to the "break" side. You "win" on defense by not allowing the offense to get to the force side of the second nalgene and making him go on the break side of the nalgene, and then both sprint to the "force" side. The actual winner is the person who gets to the end of the flat-Y first, whichever side you end up running on.

The drill looks like two people putting their weight into each other trying to gain an advantage until right before the second nalgene. The reason why the offense still goes to the force side of the Y when the lose is that since the defense is already on that side they have a head start to the cone. Likewise, when the offense wins, they go to the break side since they start on that side and will have a head-start to the break-cone.

The point of this drill, on defense, is to learn how to use your body to prevent where the offense can go -- to dictate to the offense rather than the other way around. On offense it is basically defense against the dark arts, to learn how to get around a defender who is bodying you.

This was a great drill for today, as it was very windy, and since the drill required zero discwork it can be done in any conditions. I went through the drill roughly 7-8 times and we did it for probably ten or fifteen minutes.

Next up was short 50/50. There are two lines similar to the long 50/50, and the thrower throws a short, low pass that requires one or both of the people to lay out. This is basically a layout drill.

This teaches you how to lay out at the earliest possible moment since if you don't, your opponent will. This drill is taxing on the designated thrower as it requires extremely difficult passes. The runners should run about five yards before the throw is made, and the throw should be placed so that it allows one of them to make a play.

After that Squeege had us huddle up and went into some layout mechanics. He said that most of the weight when you fall should be on your thighs and forearms, and a bit on your chest. He explained that laying out shouldn't hurt much as most of your momentum is going forward, so you slide on the ground instead of just falling onto it.

He also stressed the importance of trying to catch it with your thumb down and attacking it from above, and explained that it is important to not "corkscrew" when you lay out, as aside from it being taxing on your body, on very low throws you will often spin or hit the ground before you get the disc, making it much harder to grab.

This segued into a very basic layout drill. Everyone paired up, and one person got on their knees (lololol). The other person then throws them a disc from whatever angle the catcher feels comfortable, and the catcher then essentially falls in order to try to catch the disc. The focus of this drill was to learn how to fall on your forearms and thighs in a low-risk environment. We each did three sets of 5 "lay outs" and alternated with our partner after each set.

Next up was the layout circle. There are a few discs (3-5, number is mostly irrelevant) and everyone stands in a circle except for one person, who is in the middle. The object is for the people on the outside to throw a lay-out-D-able pass to someone else around the circle, and this continues for as long as the person in the middle wants to be there. As Squeege said "Stay too short, and you look like a pussy. Stay too long and you look like a hero, but you might get hurt". He made everyone stay until they got three lay out ds, and no one stayed longer. It took people anywhere from 3-5 minutes to get the requisite number of d's.

Then we did indian sprints for about half a mile, but I dropped out about 1/3 of the way through cause I died. That was the end of practice.

The post-practice huddle included encouraging people to do work-outs outside of practice, and emphasizing the importance of a deep, versatile bench. Sonny and Squeege stressed that if you have a question to ask, and even if some people seem unapproachable they still love talking disc.

I'm not sure if the lack of discwork on a windy day was planned, or if the layout drills on a soft-ground day was planned, but practice ran very smoothly. No one got water between drills, they just went to the next drill. No one talked while Squeege was talking (except Sonny sometimes but he doesn't count).

It was obvious that some members of the team were not friends (outside of the team) with others, but it did not affect practice at all. Practice had a upbeat, fun feel, with plenty of heckles (especially during the lay-out circle) and Squeege would routinely compliment anyone who showed good effort.

Squeege was very approachable, and did not discourage questions about anything. People messed up the "flat-Y" body-defense drill multiple times, and he just pulled them aside and explained it. He paid attention almost the entire time and got people amped up. He pulled many people aside and offered advice when they messed up.

Fuck conclusions.

Being sober

Is so fucking boring.

Seven Hour Fuel

The roster for the trip down to Jersaaay ended up being myself, Thomas, Meg, and our faithful driver Stiggles. After making a stop at Remie's we didn't even get lost on the way and got to my cousin's around 6, and by 630 the dinosaur food was a-flowing. Stiggles and my cousin escaped briefly to pick up a 30-rack of Silver Bullets, and by 830pm I don't remember.

I do remember struggling with Dominos online ordering, and I had to have my cousin talk to the dude on the phone so we could get enough pizza. That pizza was delicious.

I remember again around 1030 only for Stiggles to pass out at 11 despite the fact that we were supposed to stay up all night on Friday so we can actually stay up all night on Saturday. Regardless, Meg went to bed around 1 and Thomas and I went to be around 2.

I woke up about a million times because the basement was colder than outside was and I slept on the floor. At some point, Stiggles moved from his couch and I leaped at the opportunity to sleep on a cushioned surface.

The next day we awoke around noon, and my other cousin showed up at roughly 2 to take Meg and I to Ihop, but after a missed turn and Jersey not allowing you to make a left turn we ended up at White Manna, a White-Castle esque establishment with lines out the door. We eventually got our order and boy was it delish lish. However, I immediately regretted my decision, as these burgers had roughly a million onions on them each, and I texted reinforcements for Tums.

I returned to our sleeping place and found no one except a Burger King bag full of trash and feared for the worst. Fortunately, Stiggles and Tom just decided to become Dinosaurs and go back out to Sonic.

Eventually, 7pm rolls around and we depart. We stop at CVS for supplies -- I came in looking for 5-hours and some powerbars, but left with 7-Hour Fuels and some nut/rasin/oat bar thingies. I downed a 7-hour in the car ride over and mentally prepared myself with some Eminem in the car.

We arrive at nearly the exact same time as the other car, which carried Rob Ben Tricia and Danielle. They had my care package, and we went inside to register and all that stuff. They had discs and jerseys on sale for $5 and some other team was selling discs as well. I picked up two discs and a jersey and after being placed on the yellow team began getting geared up for way too much Ultimate.

Stiggles and I were on the same team with Nick from Marist, and we were matched up against Chetti for the first round. After getting down a quick three everyone on the team figured out their roles and we cruised to a 3 point win.

Game two was against some team who were not very good, and we won by like 5. I don't really remember much -- I don't think we trailed.

We had a third round bye, so I bummed around and heckled a bit and drank a lot of water.

In our last game of the first set of pool play we won by something like 9. At this point we were really clicking, but unfortunately Nick, after playing three games with a dislocated shoulder, had to check out. This didn't prove detrimental at the time, but we knew that we'd miss his legs at the very least.

This is where the report gets really shady, since all I know about my next two games is that we won by over ten and I threw a lot of blades for points. I also shut down a black guy until his team yelled at him to clear out of the end-zone.

After going 5-0 we played the 2nd place team in our re-seed pool and our lack of legs showed ( we were down three total subs). We kept it close most of the game but they pulled away at the end and took it by 4, giving us our first loss of the night.

We got ten or fifteen minutes before the single-elim bracket went up. Again, we went down early but kept in it until the last ten minutes of the round when they pulled away and we were handed our second loss of the night which knocked us out of contention for the championship. At one point my legs just could not move any faster.

We could have played a few more games get into 5th place, but most of the team did not seem interested. The crew waited out for Ben and Tom to play out another round, and then we jacked some pizza and soda and headed out. I somehow stayed awake the whole ride and even showered when I got home.

I personally played the best Ultimate I have ever played, and I ran a surprising amount. I even heard that someone on an opposing team said "I have never seen a fat man move like that". I can only imagine what 6 weeks of not smoking will do for me. Stiggles also played extremely well; neither of us dropped a disc until our seventh game, and both of us were making solid throws and decions.

That's all the recap I have the desire to write. The tournament, while fun, was not something that leads to in-depth analysis.

Time for some din-din and napping.

This body is a temple.

So much for dry season.

This weekend was a veritable eel breeding ground, although in retrospect I'm not sure we should have expected anything but. It was practically the perfect storm of eels: 21st birthdays, drinks that are blue but claim to taste like orange, and people on the frisbee team. In fact, I'm pretty sure we got out of this weekend relatively unscathed.

Three hour practice the next day was three hours long. 'Nuff said.

I apparently injured my hip, but it should be good enough for Vitamin I to get me through Nocturnal.

I ended up sitting for the game against Marist, showing up 30 minutes late (had to watch LSV go 17-0) but actually showing up exactly on time to see the game start. We went down a quick 7-1, rallied three straight, and ended half still in contention at 8-4. 2nd half was much of the same, and we ended up losing convincingly, 15-6.

Same problems as always -- we drop an unreal amount of passes. Decision making with the disc was better than usual. Not to say it was perfect, far from it, rather it was an improvement for many people on the team. Playing indoors against only each other showed, as we lacked the aggression (especially in the air) needed to come down with discs that inevitably float for longer than they should.

We straight up don't have an offense. We can't play conservative if no one can catch. We really don't have a zone offense. Stack-wise we have the age-old problem of never cycling back in the stack. Zone is a much bigger problem, as the people downfield literally have no idea what they are doing and thusly we are forced to swing among our handlers a million times. Speaking of which, if our gameplan in Zone O is to swing it a million times, we need to swing it before the cup settles, since that is how you actually tire them out AND you are giving your wings more opportunities to get open.

We are getting more athletic as a whole, but we clearly do not present enough, if any, matchup problems for any team that we need to beat to get to regionals. Being able to "run with Marist" is a fine goal if all of our players are fundamentally sound, but seeing as the dropsies are still in season I don't think we should really be patting ourselves on the back for being able to run for 21 points.

There should never be a point on a windy day where we do not call out our potential zone offense line, as getting blindsided by a "surprise" zone is basically just asking to turn the disc over. That is an inexcusable mental error.

People are so afraid to make excuses that they don't want to list reasons why we played so poorly today. It is not an excuse if you attribute the correct amount of blame to it and take something away from it. Chalking up the entire loss to drinking for two nights and writing it off is an excuse -- understanding that drinking the night before a game is a hindrance to your play as a whole is a reason.

A lot of the lines called today seemed jumbled -- too many people who play the same position out on the field at once. These lines need to be sculpted. This is somewhat a product of the lack of specific roles for many players.

We need to play outdoors.

We need to get back to the fundamentals that we never actually learned.

We need to decide on what we are going to run (both offensively and defensively) and commit.

I'm not playing until Nocturnal, and hopefully the time off will help my hip enough that once we move outdoors I'll be fine. I'm pretty beat up all around, and I bet a week off would do a lot of people on the team some good right now.

Don't forget to drink water before you go to bed at the very least.

Revelations

It has become clear to me that this isn't our year.

No one wants it nearly enough for us to overcome everything. No one.

We started trying too late. We pushed back our deadline too many times. We got our recruits in too late.

I think we need to get bageled a few more times before we actually want it.

Indoor Blues

My blagging has been lackluster lately. Since a new challenger for best blag in the universe has entered the arena, I gotta step my game up.

Indoor has only gone downhill since the first practice. The intensity has stayed pretty high, but people are getting grumpier and grumpier and injuries are becoming commonplace. I'm attributing my injury to it, but it occurred on the first day of indoor so I'm not sure how much merit that has. Regardless, someone is going to get hurt going into the boards or bidding and I cannot wait to move outdoors.

I mean, constantly getting open under is fun for a (long) while, but when the only way you can score is through ten-thousand little passes you eventually end up on the wrong end of a 99% throw. Every other house has a big-play threat, be it Huckindor with everyone, Hufflepuff with Ed Too-Tall Jones, or Satanclaw with Mitch. Creeperin, without BJC, only has a short game, and a mediocre one at that. Our throws outside of me and Hazelnut are average at best and even I am coming down with a case of the dropsies (4 today that I can remember).

Right now our two n00bs are a liability, but I think if they keep on showing up they have a pretty high ceiling. Both clearly have no problem leaving their feet, and Kevin today cleared out really well. They've both played sports before so they know what goes into being on a team and seem to be picking up concepts pretty well. I think they will play much better outdoors rather than inside, as knowing how to clear the fuck out of the lanes is a lot more important when six people are trying to use them rather than two. We gotta get them to a party before they figure out we're weird.

Huckindor won 20+ games today on the back of Brad getting back to how he played in his prime last semester, Ben getting jacked and running forever, and Kool-Aid just tooling on people. Kool-Aid in particular is playing well this semester -- I think he's starting to understand what he's doing, plus hes getting some ridiculous hands and is getting his athletic ability back. He's going to be a force to reckon with come sectionals.

Huffle is looking pretty good too. Andy is playing out of his mind and is even learning some discretion with the disc. Tom is starting to play to his height a bit more and his hands are starting to grow some glue on them.

I'd talk about Satanclaw, but there's not much to say besides MC is old and Mitch and A.Pinn are still really good. Oops, I forgot that E.Herbst isn't hurt anymore. Did we really give them all these studs?

We thankfully ended up getting a sick freshmen class, with multiple players showing leadership qualities and dedication. GUNX might be here to stay.

I'm gonna do high weight on Tuesday. high rep on Wednesday, indoor on Thursday from now until I inevitably have a conflict.

I can't wait to move outdoors for practice, as that means I can finally do some cardio without doing something ridiculously boring like running for funsies. I can barely play Magic for funsies and you expect me to run?

I think I'm gonna start the brownie plan in the beginning March (rather than exactly a month before sectionals), as the limited material that I've read suggests that the earlier the better, although after being a month removed from smoking (I've only found material for smoking cigarettes, so while I would presume the damage to my lungs is less, I cannot be sure) your lung capacity increases 30%, so that is the bare minimum I suggest to anyone currently on the "smoke everyday plan".

That's all I got for now. My plan is to create a fire for frisbee by creating a fire for blagging, but if that doesn't pan I'm just gonna have to suck it up and play like I know I can.

Word.

P.S. Channelfireball is buying Goyfs at 80. L. O. L.

"I've always been a big fan of playing full games that have one tweak to emphasize a certain idea. For example, if you want to work on moving the disc off the sideline quickly, make a count of six be a turnover. Alternatively, if you want to work the sideline, make any dump throw before stall seven a turnover. Small changes like these seem silly and contrived when you first try them, but work very well if they are implemented correctly and limited to a specific goal."

-- http://www.the-huddle.org/issues/16/the-extra-defender/

I went to indoor today. I learned a few things:

1) I can get open under
2) Ben is a lot harder to cover than Charlie.
3) Hasbrouck gives me heartburn.

Yesterday

I went to the gym. My quads were tired.

Today I threw for two hours. I am tired.

Happy?

Facebook just changed

Facebook just changed. I like it better after the initial "WHAT THE FUCK"

Didn't do a real workout today, kinda just did whatever I wanted but I made sure I was either drinking water or lifting weights the entire time. Power Cleans are going to be the new fad -- You heard it here first.

Not a lot of numbers, only three Satanclaw, one Hufflepuff, two Huckindor. AND A FULL 5 CREEPERIN.

EAT IT.

All I'm sayin'.

Gym

The fire is close, but I'm not sure if it matters if I keep going to the gym.

No fire means no good blagging, though.

I just want to play more mini.

Double Post

That workout destroyed me.

Single sessions tomorrow.

2nd semester

No fire, but double sessions has to count for something.

Egg sandwiches in the morning really get you through your day.

As do Women's Mutlivitamins.

About to be 4/4 on classes so far. Gotta be a world record.

Looking for cleats but probably just gonna get Speed TD's again, but one pair of 3/4's and 1 pair of normals.

Goal

We need goals. Specific, attainable, reasonable goals.

Don't look at me, though.

RA David and I tossed a bit last night. I threw with the elbow brace on for the first time and while it was a bit doofy it made my arm REALLY tired. We'll see how it goes. Time for more Wii fit!

So

I did some Wii Fit today.

Baby steps.

I always have a problem with titles

Zero. Fire. Sir.

I'm trying, but not even the combined powers of Patrick Chapin and Arctic Monkeys can't turn it back on right now. At least I'm trying, though.

I am an excellent example of why you should never take time off.


Resolutions:
50/50s
Water (Everyone should)
Walk to class at least once a week
Actually learn how to throw
Blag everyday
Use tags when I blag
No boozing until Regionals
Rep' Creeperin

Only miss 1 class a week (combined)
Read for at least one class every day

Remember all the cards in a pack before passing it
Mulligan more (Everyone should)



Baby steps.

Up to 60/100/150, but I gotta start doing those workouts.

I want to run but I'm a baby and it's too cold. /frown

Shitting Fuck

I hate laying down and then remembering I have to do my 50/50s.

Today

Today I got:

New Glue
Cold Gear
2x compression shorts
Elbow Brace



Good day.

No, water is better.

Don't forget to drink at least two cups before you go to bed and two cups when you wake up. Make it part of your 50/50s.

Fuck titles

50/50s
Golds Gym
Chess before Beer

you know.

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

Challenge

I tapped out of the eggnog challenge. Mitch bought tortilla chips and anyone who's anyone knows that Nachos are my weakness.

So, lifting tomorrow it is.

Never

I never want to hear "I want to get better" unless you showed up to Snertz today.

First rule

The first rule of Vassar is, you do not talk about Vassar.

Word

For the first time in GUNX history, I drove to a tournament. This is my story.

I was armed with a powerful car -- Matt "Makes out with Girls" Conti, Tall Tom, and Mitch the Scott. Mitch graciously provided music for the car since my normal vehicle is out for 2-4 weeks with a Constant Idle Motor injury and I am therefore unable to use my USB drive for said music. He basically just brought a lot of Led Zeppelin and then some other randos.

I was originally driving 2x4, meaning I would have to leave around 3 when he got out of class. GUNX being GUNX, I didn't have to drive him, but we left around 3 anyway. Mostly because Ben wanted to pregame the car-ride in my apartment. Plus make one for the road. Rob and Charles played some cross-apartment beer pong. You know the drill.

After being angry at Tom for being late he brought me a has bagel, so I was happy with him again. Got gas, a 5 hour energy, dodged some truck that tried to destroy my car, and we were on our way.

Car ride was fine, 1 stop, and 5-hour-energy kept me more alert than an exaggerated metaphor. We didn't even get lost.

After waiting about 30 minutes for the peoples to be ready, we entered the apartment, which was more like a palace. Giant TV, surround sound, Rush concert on, you know the deal. We ended up going out for beer and I got some red-dog. Then we went out to get fast food hoping there were more than Drive-Thrus open. There was not. MC tried to use his Charm skill to get us some Baconators, but the old lady resisted. We opted for chips and some sandwiches.

I got a bed in the captains quarters, where Ben, MC, Tom, and I all stayed. I had originally commandeered the bed all to myself, and then MC said he would share with me. Upon seeing the size of it, I kicked him out, only to have Ben take it. It worked out fine until the middle of the night where he was mostly ontop of me and I was overheating.

Wakeup time was at 730 (I think) in order to leave by 8 so we could get to the fields by 9 so we could be warmed up by 10. Didn't happen. Pretty sure we lost all our time at Tim Hortons, but in retrospect that was worth every penny. I got a Bacon Egg and Cheese sandwich, which was delicious.

We got to the fields a bit later than we wanted, I think like 915 or something. People took a really long time to poop and ready themselves, which is another reason why we didn't get to warm up too well. We ended up getting moved because the Alumni team had a keg and they didn't want it close to the road.

First game was against Albany/Buffalo Alumni, I think we just flipped for pull. Who knows. Exact scoring details are unknown, but they ended up playing a bunch of points with beers in their right hand and throwing lefty, or upside down points, or upsidedown lefty points. I got angry because no one wanted to change their playing style on offense to try to take advantage of their lack of defense but whatever. We lost something like 15-10, but the last 5 or so points were them just chugging beers on the field. At least we made them play long enough so we could stay warm for the next game.

Next up was SCAM, who is looking pretty good these days. We got bageled in the first half. I'm not sure if this had any strategy behind it, but they put their best players (Sonny, Brown) on our handlers (Myself and Ben) and just shutdown our offense. That coupled with poor play from everyone resulted in a 13-2 loss. Having to play and try to get open against Sonny for 7ish points was quite a learning experience.

Since we got beat so bad we had about 45 minutes to cool down before our next game, which was against Ithaca, a team that narrowly beat us in Sectionals last year. We started down 0-2 and then went 3-0 on our way to a 7-4 half. We then pulled a typical GUNX, turned it over on our end line a few times, and before you know it they were up 9-8. I think we tied it up once or twice, got soft-capped at 13, and then won 15-13. We don't often grit out wins like that, and it was sure nice for it to happen.

The last game didn't really happen. No one wanted to play and we lost. Nice to see Poonani, though.

We drove back, had a feast at Wendy's, and most people went to the party. They came back, we got some wings, they were delicious, and then we went to bed very late.

We didn't play day 2 -- Mitch was out, E.Herbst was likely out, and I had played far too many points day 1 for my own good.

The drive home was an issue but we made back it so its a boring story in retrospect.

The only game really worth commenting on is Ithaca -- the others either no one played or no one played well, so I'd just be repeated my ten thousand other angry blag posts.

The cup played extremely well and for a lot of points. Big props to Mitch, Alex, Brad, and Chich for doing work, especially at the end of that game. Alex in particular leveled up and played very well, especially for barely having played Zone or cup ever.

Ben played well in his new role, which was to get open to jack backhands, and if it wasn't open, to dump it and try again later.

Chich, MC, and Tom all stepped up and handled a bit which, especially so on D points where I played perhaps 3 all day.

Brad made a sweet toe-dragger to end the Ithaca game. Wouldn't have made that grab last year.

I thought I played pretty well. I played a lot more points than I normally do and touched the disc a lot more than I normally do. I also turned it more than I usually do, with several being completely my fault on botched throws. I had two or three layout grabs and one that is on my lifetime highlight reel. I also played at least one sweet point in zone on defense where I skullfucked their force-side wing.

I'm bored of blagging. Comment if you want something I missed.

PS -- This is what Sonny said in his blag about the game we played against him and SCAM

"SCAM 13 – New Paltz 2

This is a team we should have doughnut-ed as well, but Chip played some very poor defense on points. He has had some rough tournaments recently. He was responsible for both points. Got to see Doobs from summer league in this game, he played a good game, good conservative handling. They have one stand out player, who looks inexperienced but a solid player."

PPS

"Have you ever sat a stoplight and watched the light for the other direction turn from green to yellow to red? When your light finally turns green, it's just a confirmation of what you already knew was about to happen. How much quicker are you off that line if you're peeking at the other light versus waiting for yours to change? That's the difference between reacting and anticipating on D. When I hear that "up" call, I want to already know what throw is coming and already be poised to jump on it."

What

A speech.

1st day back

You know the drill -- show up ten minutes late and the only people there are JQ and Leah. Eventually we got enough for 3's with no subs after Hannah Leah and I ran and stretched. 3's was pretty uneventful, I threw the disc away on my first throw and while that is obviously my fault, no one came back to help and everyone had their back turned while I got stalled. I threw a OI flick to Leah that she misread. Ben and Remie then came on and played cripple vs. cripple. We played like 4 points and then everyone left.

We have housing for Buffalo, but it doesn't seem like anyone wants to go. I know I'm going to go and tool on some fools, but we'll see if anyone but Bradmeleon actually wants to show up and do work.

This just in

Requiring ten passes did nothing except frustrate the women's team even more.

Although it's not like that scrimmage should have happened in the first place.

One

More day.

I hope so.

I'm doing work.

Are you?

Yo

Hooked my computer up to my TV.

PS: Playing in Buffalo

X-Rays

T-Minus 10 hours 35 minutes until the moment of truth.

Oh boy.

You heard it here first.

Machreiner is slowly becoming the team's premier blagger.

PS -- I'm nervous about my X-Rays on Wednesday.

You said it yourself

STRAWMAN ARGUMENT.

I'm not sure if you have ever taught people how to play Magic, but you don't dive in with teaching the stack and layers. You get the basics down -- the things that are most important to play the game and most important to build the rest of the game off of.

"I see the logic in waiting say, a week or two before laying it on thick as not to scare away new players, but beyond that, why?"

Bolded for emphasis. That.

By far the most important things in any throw are the angle of the disc and wrist snap. It is important that they learn those things before moving on to advanced concepts.

I'm against micromanagement in the very beginning. Where are we for most if not all of our new players? The very beginning. Wrist snap and keeping the disc flat are things that need to be learned independent of your grip or shoulder jerk or hip swivel or whatever.

They won't snap their wrist more by you feeling obligated to say something every time they throw the disc. If you say something everytime they throw it it makes them feel like they aren't making progress. Your teacher in Kindergarden didn't say something everytime you made a stroke while learning your letters. Some things just take practice. Do not feel obligated to say something all the time. It is overwhelming and feels like you are being nitpicked when you get commented on so much.

It is tougher to keep the disc flat when you are getting your arm involved. Once they can keep it flat, however, I'm all for introducing the rest of the body into it. But if they can't keep it flat then trying to make them move more parts of their body to throw is just going to slow things down.

You can teach good form while still eliminating variables like keeping your arm in. In most short throws you don't use much of your body anyway.

It isn't an issue of waiting around for them to develop a forehand. Noobs can't really do much in practice without a forehand, so just set 1 teacher per 2 n00bs aside and have them throw for 20-30 minutes. And if they aren't throwing outside of practice they aren't going to be good enough for me to care anyway. Practice alone is not enough to hone your throwing.

There must have been a misunderstanding somewhere, but I agree that after a week or two it is essential to teach real throwing form. Let them get a basic forehand down anyway they can, and then teach proper form.

And yes, I would teach someone backhand that way if they were really struggling.

This might end up being a long one.

Alright.

Vampires might actually be good. Definitely in block.

The day really started the night before. I didn't really plan on having a party, but when Thomas brings ten people with him I don't have much of a choice. I recall losing to a Freshman in flipcup and saying I would wear a suit on the sidelines the next day.

At the time, a large plate of baked ziti seemed like a good idea. I ended up sleeping on the bathroom floor.

Mitch was the good alarmclock that he is and let me sleep 30 extra minutes after I hit the snooze. Chugged two cups of coffee and I was on the road a mere ten minutes late, which I later found out to be a world record. 2x4 was only a few minutes after that and brought me a Bacon Egg and Cheese. +10 points to Creeperin.

Car ride was largely uneventful besides some Dood Computer and someone's baby not being safe.

I think we had more cars than people, but we got them all there anyway. Marist had about ten thousand people to our twenty one. Machreiner and I got working on some sub thingys, and we were on our way. Of course, in typical New Paltz fashion (is there a different spelling of "fashion"?), we treated the first game like it was a warm-up game. There were lots of dropsies, icky throwsies, and we lost 15-6, or something icky. Pretty sure Eli tried to dropkick a disc. Just found Key Lime pie in my fridge.

I got to do my first Disc Flip and call and thing. E.Herbst demanded I call different, so I did, and we lost. That's alright, a wise man never bets against E.Herbst. They chose to play D (which I'm pretty sure is almost always wrong) so I chose the endzone that had the wind at it's back, which I think is the right one.

Game two was a different story. Benjamin, revitalized (probably because of his fledgling beard), rallied the troops and got us going for the game against Bard. We came out to a quick 3-0 lead (I think don't quote me). At half it was 8-4 and we were again reminded to not get complacent. At the very utterance (LOL UTTER) of the word 2x4 was amped, but not amped enough to play the first point after half. That fool. Kelsey demands more playing time and goes on in a slot for a guy and proceeds to catch two points and several D's. I'll keep that in mind for next time.

We trade points to make it 9-5, and then Bard rattles off 3 in a row to make it 9-8. After hearing the news, GUNX steps up and takes a point to go 10-8, and Marist announces hard cap, so it's a game to 11. Bard scores one, and I put in a powerful line up. Bard scores two and I put in E.Herbst. I almost subbed out Mitch, but Mitch was the first E.Herbst, and I knew that would be a foolish move. Of course, after a large 20-yard gainer to 2x4, he dumps (I think.) it to Treebeard who proceeds to take some Instant-Jack formula and launch a missile downfield to Mitch the Scott, who despite being double-teamed by two strong defenders, burns them all and brings it down for an 11-10 win.

Let me say this, if we had lost that last game, this would be a very angry Blag. We are simply a different team when we have something to win. Hazelnut literally touched the disc every other throw and then had the assist one point when he decided to skullfuck Travis. Against Marist, we all just dropped discs and turfed them and k;jsfhkjsf. BCams summed up the scrimmages well and made sure to try to get everyone to bring that kind of intensity that we had in the 2nd game to practice. I'll say it right now -- if we play like that at practice today we'll cruise through sectionals.

Machreiner and I definitely improved our sub-calling throughout the two games. I only truly messed up on one point. I need to maintain a tighter rotation on some of our players to keep them fresher later in the day. In the first game I ran through a handful of players and after two games of that kind of rotation they were pretty beat. I'm sure I'll get some more opportunities, especially with this spaceboot on.

Practice at 3. I'm missing the Rutgers game for it.

Wasn't that long I guess.

Blag

I'll blag later.

Pujols

Albert Pujols was supposed to have the day off on the 5th. He pinch hit in the 10th inning. He hit a home run. I need to know how to turn it on like that.

Still didn't write this

"If you do not make the best play possible then it's the wrong play, even if the results are still positive"

-Brad Nelson

He's an up-and-comer on the scene. If you know what I mean.

That rhymed.

Blagging

Am I the only one left who beleives in blagging?

: ' (

Ankle

Everyone knows the deal -- in a Prototype space boot for at least two weeks until more X-Rays.

At least I'm playing it safe.

Titles are for people who are professional Blaggers

Yeah.

Practice today was good. I didn't see any glaring mistakes. Perhaps David's cutting drill could have been split into two groups and with less cones because it was in two groups, but I'm just nitpicking. I thought it worked particularly well when both David and I would pull people aside after the 1-on-1 drill and breakdown their performance so they can improve within the same drill.

I would also like to have the warm-up drill be a bit shorter so we don't have to get a water break after it, then do a content drill, then a conditioning/content drill, water, and a scrimmage. It uses less time and makes the conditioning drill even more effective because people are tired going into it. It motivates people because once they power through the conditioning drill they are rewarded with water. Go-To should be 5 minutes in total between Backhand and Forehand (if we even want to do forehand at this point). If we let people get water before either the content or conditioning drill they might have cooled down too much (especially if the practice is not planned out) and if we have them do two drills before conditioning it will simulate the later points in a game or tournament, which is where you really need the conditioning.

I think we need to explain the point of every drill more. I don't think a lot of people understood the point of Go-To. I think we also need a goal for each scrimmage. That is, if during practice we do vert-stack drills then we should focus on vert-stack offense and defense during the scrimmage. I would assume things like that will come with more detailed practice plans that I hope are to come.

I would also explore the possibility of breaking down the practice into groups of 5 or so and letting them work with 1-2 people in small groups. For example, one group would go to David for cutting, one group would go to Ben for throwing form, etc. Obviously I have put about ten seconds of thought into what each person could teach, but it plays to everyones strengths and uses the resources of the group the best that we can.

It's even more important to use what you've got when the team is low on talent. It is extremely foolish to have people who know what they are doing and not use them to teach those things. It isn't like we have a team of fifteen all-stars with supreme knowledge of the game and 5 n00bs. We have a select few amount of people who truly know what they are doing, and it would be criminal to have their knowledge wasted for whatever reason. One of the key concepts in leadership is Knowing and Using the Resources of the Group. I'll give the powerpoint lesson to the veterans and captains if I have to.

This year is especially important for GUNX and we need a lot of people to step up. Doubly so for those in leadership positions.

Word.

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.