Toe skin blues

I cannot thank Erik enough for helping me learn his workout. I feel so much more confident running than I ever have. Track workout today. All the skin peeled off one of my toes. We ran hard.

My running form is apparently not as good as I thought but it's easy enough to fix and I might even end up being faster when I do.

Our newest recruit came to conditioning. He is a real cool guy and has a solid foundation of good throws and athleticism. O line will have cutters this semester!

Owen tore his shirt in half after completing the last lap on the track.
It was intense.

What I am up to

Pickup today. Indoor pickup rocks.
Got a layout D and one last week. Also had a few close plays that were nearly layout D's. My D is improving, maybe slowly but nonetheless. Got foot blocked, got a hand block. Caught some goals, got scored on. Pretty even mix of good playing and bad playing on my part.
Workouts going well so far. I don't have a set lifting schedule yet but I am close to figuring it out. In any case I am lifting twice a week in addition to team conditioning. Looking at the people who have been lifting and playing, it is pretty clear who the dominant players are going to be in the spring.

As far as team goals go, I have not done much work in the recruiting department yet. Have to step that up.

Yeah that's all for now.

The semester begins...

Hey Five,

Thanks for getting back to us. As the captain in charge of getting uniforms for the GUNX I have spent quite a bit of time considering the merits of the various ultimate uniform makers. The announcement of your sponsorship program was too good an opportunity to pass up, and despite not receiving sponsorship for 09, the fact that FiveUltimate is willing to go to such great lengths to support the development of college ultimate has helped make my decision very easy. We'll be placing an order sometime soon. Keep up the good work and thanks for working so hard to support the college ultimate community.

GUNX Ben

....

The above is my reply to five after being told they are not able to sponsor us this year. We worked rather hard on the sponsorship application, and I honestly expected to be just a little crushed if we did not receive sponsorship. Honestly though, I don't feel crushed or defeated. It is certainly disappointing, but whatever. Life goes on. The fact that FiveUltimate is working to develop college ultimate and be involved in the community is pretty cool. Their new website is looking good and their online store is going to bring ultimate merchandising to the next level. They are a classy company and I'm very excited about getting our uniforms with them.

Anyway enough about that.

Classes are starting tomorrow here in Paltzland, and I'm pumped. No seriously. My positive frame of mind is in no small part due to playing disc every day since everyone got back. Late night diving practice is pretty sweet and playing ultimate in the snow is as great as I remember it being in high school.

Early in the semester it may be but it is already obvious that some GUNX got in some good practice over break. Stephen's backhand got huge and will be a huge asset this semester, for pulls and as a surprise huck on the flick side. Force flick marks will tremble with fear when this lefty rolls up with his big throws. Other than that, we already found one guy interested in playing. He joined in our pickup game today and displayed some pretty nice throws. Hooray transfer students. Word.

Hips + forehand = YES. My biggest problem with my flick form right now is not synchronizing body movements perfectly so that the snap is a little late and momentum is lost. That is easy enough to work out with practice and my forehand is getting pretty big. Steadily. Practice. Repetition of fundamentals. Practice. Word.

Went to the gym today. Winter break took a little oomph out of my benching and pull-up capabilities but given a week or two it should be fine. Captains meeting this week to set a practice schedule, conditioning policy, schedule a general interest meeting and returning players meeting, discuss tournaments, uniforms, disc orders and other projects, and other productive things. Got a printer for Christmas which makes me a lot more inclined to make and print flyers. We are going to advertise all around town, and by town I mean campus and maybe also town. Word.

Word.

Goals for 2009

Not much explanation needed, really. Note to self: refer to this post!

Team Goals: (or rather, Ben's goals for the team this season. Yet to be discussed at length with the other GUNX captains.)

-Emphasize individual roles to give focus (by the time we are suiting up for sectionals, every player on the team will have a clear idea of what their role is on the field, what their objective is, and how their specific role contributes to team goals and on-field systems).

-Team identity! Uniforms!

-Fundamentals. Repetition of solid fundamentals. Repetition of solid fundamentals. Repetition of solid fundamentals....

-Mini. Mini teams. Mini tournement. Mini at practice. Word.

-Competence with several offensive styles (I want to learn 2-3-2 and ho in addition to our existing vert tactics, we'll see how the leadership on the team feels about that).

-Get the word out! Advertising, recruiting. Fund raising! Cultivate a fan base for home games. Community service. Become a visible and admired presence on campus.

-Recruit new players for spring '09 and work to help all current players to their next level of on and off-field performance. Several notable GUNX will be missing from the field this season, including Dan the English Man and Brendan the walking sideline (or should I say CHEERING RUNNING JUMPING THROWING CATCHING OWNING sideline?). Needless to say, we will all have to do a little extra work to ensure a smooth transition from the wild and Maverick '08 season to the ripe-with-opportunity-for-the-taking YES WE CAN '09 season.

I'm ready. Are you?
Yes.


Personal goals:

-Do work. Work out. Be a beast. Not much to say here. Working out begins as soon as I return to campus.

-Set a workout schedule and hold to it. Tentatively: M lifting T pickup W lifting R running, Practice Friday and Sunday. Keep records of workout progress day to day, week to week. Set achievable weekly and monthly goals. Achieve those goals.

-Don't drink during the season. Again, not much to say. Drinking does not mesh with a dedicated workout schedule.

-Get sleep! This is imperative.

-Schoolwork! Do it. Yeah. Raise GPA significantly. Thus far I tend to do better in the spring as far as schoolwork is concerned. This spring will be my best semester yet as far as schoolwork goes, in addition to my best ever ultimate season! Yeah baby.

-Improve throwing. Master the shoulder jerk. Be a solid presence on the handle. Make good decisions.

-Be the best possible captain: Be Positive, Supportive, Helpful, Relevant, Understanding, Compromising, Uncompromising, Rational, AMPED UP, Energetic, NEVER LAZY. Ultimate is fun. Remember that. Captaining is also fun. Remember that! Be the change you want to see in the team. Don't stop trying to help, working to inspire. Rawr.

-NO EXCUSES. Seriously dude, none. When you are pounding the track, trying to catch Quirk at pickup or just thinking about missing a workout 'cause its cold outside' or 'feeling a little tired', I want you to imagine the smiling face of Mr. Doooobowsky calmly stating his second most famous catchphrase. NO FUCKING EXCUSES.

So uh I talk to myself on my blag. That's strange?
Oh well.

So there you have it. My goals for 2009. Take note: these are not New Years resolutions. I recorded those in less public media and with different intentions. These are ironclad fundamentally sound ideas to make the season go smoothly for myself and hopefully for the team. I'ma talk to myself again here: When you look back at this post after sectionals, how will you remember the season? With regret? Or with feelings of accomplishment? The choice is yours.

The choice is mine.
Yeah.

Snow sports!

I've been throwing a lot lately, and it has got me thinking. This post is pretty self centered so read at the risk of extreme boredom.

Taught my brother the shoulder jerk. His flicks are huge. And now they are going to get even better. If he ever decides to actually play ultimate at some point in the future he will be a force. He has always been naturally athletic and has been throwing since he was eight. He'll outdo me easy, and probably outdo a lot of people much better than I am.

Anyway, I'm getting better at the full body throwing that Muffin describes. Getting the hips into the motion is a huge help and I think I've finally pieced it together. Perhaps this will be the year that my flick finally gets as big as my backhand. That would be neat.

Lefty throws progressing nicely. Learning to control and aim them a bit better.

I'm fairly certain I threw the biggest backhand I've ever thrown today. Since it was in my yard I have no way to verify that for sure, but I daresay it was over a hundred yards. No matter how long it was, I think my throwing technique has improved quite a bit over winter break and am eager to test it out when the season starts. Big pulls and breakmark hucks will be a comin', and I have all winter indoors to work on decision making.

Mini.

Tomorrow(/later today?) I finish the powerpoint and send it in. Been working on it for 21 hours and counting baby.

Take a bow....

....Is the song I have stuck in my head today. Thank you, Watchmen trailer.
Go check it out, if you like that sort of thing.

Anyways, I've been thinking a lot grip today. The process of learning to throw lefty has made me examine the way I grip the disc with my right hand. Comparing grip strength between hands it became apparent that without thinking my right hand grip is about a zillion times tighter, yes a zillion. I measured using science. Anyway, point is I came up with two good throwing tips for players looking to develop their sick nasty throws, or perhaps teach someone to throw sick nasty throws.

1. Teaching someone to throw? Have someone hold out their hand and grip it, forehand and backhand, with the same grip you would use on a disc to demonstrate what a good grip feels like. This is informative and also shows how strooong you are! Most likely they will have a reaction that will gratify you, like 'wow!' or "ouch".
If you are practicing your own throws you can grip your opposite hand or the cat.

2. This one is easy and also less awkward. Grip the disc with your normal grip. Then grip it significantly harder and throw like that for your entire session and heck maybe even the next one. Once it becomes muscle memory you should, in theory, have improved your grip strength and thus your throwing in general. Just don't hurt too many people during the learning process.

Now that I have expressed my daily idea and am free from the burden of pretending to know what I am talking about, I will share other things on my mind.

Like the FiveUltimate sponsorship application. My nerves are wracked! I think. What is the clinical definition of nerve wracking? I don't mean to exaggerate the issue, but this is the kind of thing that drives me nuts because I have a "what if it is not good enough/I'm sure it could be better" complex. Helpful at practice. Helpful during the creative process to a point, that point being when it actually is good enough and I can stop stressing. Such a point is hard to determine! In fact nearly impossible so I have to rely on others to tell me which is fine but they get tired of reassuring me after perfectly rational inquiries like "BUT SRSLY SHOULD I CHANGE THIS FROM A COMMA TO A SEMICOLON? YOU THINK FIVE LIKES SEMICOLONS? WHAT IF THEY DON'T LIKE SEMICOLONS!"

Yeah so my friends and family have probably had enough of that at this point. But they've been very helpful! Shout outs to everyone on the team who has contributed, you are keeping me sane and giving me hope for the world. Also shout outs to everyone on the team I know would contribute if they were not out having a social life. I figure its good to have people on a team who will spend twelve hours on PowerPoint if necessary. Even if they blog. I also figure its best if most of the players on the team actually spend their time doing 'normal people' fun things.

Twelve hours of PowerPoint can make a man a little crazy.
You've been warned.

Well that's our show for the day folks. What's that you say? How is the development of my lefty throwing mechanics coming along? Well if you really want to know...
Forehand: about twenty yards, tends to float or curve a little. There's one release point that is really solid but I don't have it nailed down yet.
Backhand is hitting about forty yards tops, could probably throw it farther if I practiced my grip. Pretty decent rotation as well. Aim is totally off, I just sort of throw it and hope. It's getting there. I also threw one lefty scoober so I could make a dischoops joke, because shit I'd better be trendy and show how much I read RSD (actually the answer is "too much").
So yeah. Throwing lefty? Cool. Having a brother who will toss with you when its cold and snowing? Even cooler, especially when he has a better forehand than you do.
My lefty throws are approximately at the point my righty throws were September of my sophomore year of high school, which is just fine.

Ciao.

PS: After having a long conversation with my mom arguing about semicolons, ms word tells me I need one for every other damn sentence. Cosmic irony? Poor grammar on my part? I'll let you be the judge.

PPS: added "FiveUltimate", "dischoops" and "scoober" to my ms word dictionary. NERD!

PPPS: ms word thinks "pps" is a stock ticker. Wtf ms word srsly. It probably is but that is not the point darn it.

PPPPS: My cat is currently in the process of destroying as much of my room as she can. I rescind my previous statement; it is a bad plan to grip cats firmly. Get a dog or something.

PPPPPS: Did not add "wtf" or "srsly" to my ms word dictionary.

PPPPPPS: Have reconsidered previous statements and determined that ms word is giving me subtle financial advice. As we speak I am calling my agent and buying 1,000 shares in case the sponsorship deal falls through. Bonus points for the first commenter to tell me what company PPS is the stock ticker for, I'm curious and too lazy to google. Ever think about how you can’t really wonder about a point of fact without someone googling it and telling you the answer? I wonder what that is doing to our collective psyche. Fortunately my blog is about ultimate, because if it was about philosophy then by golly it would be even more irrelevant than it already is!

Wow yeah okay.
Peace friends.

news of the day

5ultimate is offering a growth sponsorship for ten teams. I am going to work my balls of if necessary to create the most ballin' application PowerPoint ever seen! If we do not obtain said sponsorship it will not be for lack of trying.

Love and kisses.

Late night late-night

The last time a SUNY school qualified for nationals was 1994. A big truck just drove by.

Is it snowing?

Working on the GUNX jersey tonight. A quandary: Is it better for the team to get one jersey, one jersey and shorts, two jerseys, or two jerseys and shorts? In these trying economic times I hesitate to impose too much strain on the players' budgets. As cool as having two colors and shorts might be, it might be better to wait until we can do some fund raising to get them.

So for now, one jersey it is? Maybe. I'm going to design the home and away jerseys and shorts just in case. I worry about the UPA extending the uniform policy to cover sectionals and regionals as well as nats. Will it happen in 2009? Search me.

(paranoid.)

Fund raising: a key to unlock doors we have yet to open. However, someone other than myself will have to spearhead the effort. Someone with better people skills. Dave? BJC? Somebody. Perhaps an officer position on the team, public relations. In charge of fundraising and advertising. I think I could help in both capacities but would rather not lead them. Good thing I know how to delegate. Something to discuss with the other captains.

The jerseys are going to be sweet. I'll tell you that.
Onward.

Crab arm blues

I have a slight problem.
You see, the bigger my biceps get, and let me tell you they are huge, the weirder I look.

My right arm is larger to the extent that I look slightly off balance. Like a crab. Crabs are cool and all, but is that really what people find attractive these days? I don't think women are sitting at home right now thinking "its 2009, I'd better find a man of the future, a man with a huge crab arm".

I'm learning to throw lefty just to even out my body. Sheesh.
This post makes it official: I am addicted to blogging.

Observations

It is a/the new year. Refreshing, in a way. I feel good about this year. I think great things will happen.

My pushup form kind of sucks. Workin' on it!

On the other hand, my lefty flick is coming along nicely.

Happy new year to you and yours.
Hope its great.