ZRink and sick flicks

Robbie put together a team for a small one-day tournament in CT today. Eight teams, the field was an indoor hockey rink. We rolled through our 'pool play' matches, dominating the first two teams completely and winning the third game by a respectable three points.

Our semis opponent was not much more skilled than any of the teams we faced in pool play. However, they had one guy who we just could not handle. Plays for Colt 45, someone said he is one of their captains. He is over six feet tall and can jump really high, coupled with aggressive play making abilities and great handling. They stuck him in the back of a zone and he made ill plays on any disc that came across his path. We did not have an answer for him, and he only subbed for one point. Consequentially, they beat us ten to five. There were other major factors that contributed to that loss, but seriously the dude was pretty nasty.

It is interesting to note that during pool play, particularly the first two games we felt the need to play all out for the entire game, even when we were so far ahead that a winning comeback was literally impossible. In retrospect it might have been smarter to have taken it easy after we were already up by five or so to save energy for later matches, although its pretty cool to win big. Also, in a perfect world all timed games would have observers to stop people from slowrolling the walk back to the line, the time before you pull, the disc check-in, etc.
Indoor ultimate is a crazy game, and a lot of fun.

Playing with the Marist guys was great. Four Marist players were on the team, three of them freshmen. It's pretty easy to see why Marist has gotten as good as the have. Their freshmen this year are ballers. Fast ballers. The Gunx are going to have to work hard if we want to beat them in the spring.

Tell you what, short range flicks (one to ten yards, roundabout) are where it is at. At that range, most people will throw a push pass or some such, but anyone interested in having a wide variety of throws would do well to develop a flick that can be thrown close range in a smooth, catchable manner. Gives you more versatility on a windy day when a pushpass will get blown to smithereens, or maybe you just really like flicks because they are great. Try it out. Takes practice but hey what doesn't?

So third place huh? Yeah.