Clean shaven

Indoor, oh yes. I played fairly mediocre. Don't even ask. Forced throws, no fire. I may or may not have thrown a pass to the other team on purpose. Not my best work. Still, it was fun and John and Brad are improving remarkably fast.

Anthony suggested doing a breakmark attack drill to force the thrower to aggressively throw against the mark, emphasizing leading with your foot. Something like thrower, marker, receiver in a line. Straight up mark. The thrower has to find a way to make a pass straight through the marker to a stationary receiver directly behind the mark. Maybe twenty yard passes. He said it worked well to teach his team to throw aggressively and break the mark.

Chalk talks about the possession game are forthcoming.
Gosh I look goofy with no facial hair.

Tuesday again?

Yes.

Played fairly well. Started sloppy, dropped some deep hucks. Threw some deep hucks. Nice. Started playing better towards the end. Chichester is getting perceptibly better all the time. It's excellent.

Sectionals roster has been finalized. Final count, eighteen players.
Solid.

Practice and the possession game

Part I

Playing ultimate for four hours is a decent representation of one day of tournament play. Today I am sore. Yesterday was practice, lifting, our first outdoor game, and then a trip to Marist with Bridget to see what those fellows are up to. Their practice format is hectic and fairly exhilarating.

Like us, they are devoting all of their limited gym time to game mechanics and just straight up ultimate. Make it take it, that sort of thing. Unlike us, they play six on six with tiny endzones. It is nearly impossible to score, and that leads to long exhausting points. Both teams tend to end up hanging around the disc, leading to clusters of people and wide open space downfield. Their players are either going to have a stilted perception of how to cut to space, or be so good at finding tiny spaces that their cuts will be precision and deadly.

My money is on the latter. Marist has improved immensely as a team. Their throws are getting sharp and they are certainly not getting any slower. Not to mention their numbers - last night they had around 30 people, enough for four teams of six with subs.

Playing with them was fun and also motivation to get in shape. Covering Dave was ridiculous. That kid is amazingly fast and can sky a player six inches taller than him with relative ease. I can get by on defensive positioning and experience, but in a straight-line sprint it's over.
Needless to say playing with those guys was a good time and I am looking forward to scrimmaging them this semester.

Part II

As for our practice, it is going well but we have a long way to go. People are improving their individual skills, but there are a lot of turnovers and that, I think is the major problem. Our younger players just do not understand the importance of possession of the disc, not having played or watched much real ultimate. Never having been one to emphasize the possession game, I have neglected to stress it's importance to the team at large and that has been a mistake. It seems I am going to have to tone down my huck happy ways and teach people how to play real ultimate.

Sigh.

At least I know what my next few chalk talks will be about. Possession.
Possession.
Possession.
Yes.

Playing outside was a nice wake up call. Being a typically windy New Paltz day, our throws, confined indoors for so long, looked a little floaty. I got to the turf later than most, having stayed at the gym to lift after practice. After I got there we played a game to three, and only one point was scored against the wind. The sooner we can start playing outside again the better. Despite the lack of competence at throwing in the wind, it is clear that the people who have been putting in the time have improved their throws. Tom was hucking the disc and even Eli was making strong throws. However, learning to play against the wind is going to be key.

We got the bid for Hofstra. The field is mostly made up of teams from our section.
Quality.

Well hey there

Practice went well today. Ran fairly organized, started on time. People played hard and intense. It was pretty refreshing, and some of our less experienced players really stepped up. Eli in particular played a brutal game, cutting and playing hard d. When their throws catch up to their enthusiasm, our younger players are going to be sick nasty.

For my part, only one push pass and it was for a goal so it's neutral I guess.
Other than that I've been falling into a "safe" handler mindset for practice: undercuts and resets, always there for the dump, throw it short and run. Threw a few big throws including a monster hammer for a score, but for the most part I'm focusing on playing a turnover free game.

This week was a rough week as far as motivation goes. No excuses. Next week will be better.

Not?

Did not go to practice today. Did not feel motivated. Not in an apathetic way, but still. It was weird. I very rarely skip practice for no reason.

Part of me is freaking out but as long as it does not become a regular thing than no worries.
Practice tomorrow anyway. I will be fresh and ready to go. All nighters are a poor choice, if you were thinking otherwise.

Working on the sectionals roster now. It is going to be a heady debate, or maybe not.

Tuesday, must be time for a post about indoor

Indoor today was nice.
I played pretty well.
Fundamentally sound at least. Very few hammers, mostly solid throwing decisions.

No push passes, thank goodness.

Worked on throwing with Chichester. D line is going to be ferocious this semester. You heard it here first. For my part I did not really stand out on d today - no layouts, not many big skys. I did however dog my man mercilessly and not stop running. That might be my role on d this semester. Not necessarily the guy that makes the big d, but one of the players that just stops their man from being effective.

Word.
Big skys and layouts are cool though. That's still the goal.

Here's a tip for you, if you need one. Don't get down on yourself. You miss a d, you get scored on, take a deep breath, take a lap, pick up a disc and throw a little. Don't hang your head. Don't sit down. Keep fighting. Keep playing.

Confidence!

Working from Courbet makes me feel like a noob

Practice today went very well. People are shaking off the rust and remembering how to play. A couple of new players showed up and learned some things. Hopefully they had fun and will stick around.

Owen threw the greatest for a goal. Eli caught a Callahan. It was sort of a highlight reel practice.

Negative highlights: I threw two push passes. WHAT??? Yes. Ahh. I am displeased.
The pace of the indoor game has affected my judgment negatively as far as throwing goes. There were a couple instances where I tried to force the throw and ended up throwing a forehand-side backhand or one of the aforementioned push passes. I need to chill a little on the handle. I did manage to get six handblocks, on Scott, Eli, Owen, Dave, Dave and Dave respectively.

But enough about me.

The team is definitely coming along. Our sectionals roster is looking strong and with a lot of work and a little rules knowledge we are going to do some serious damage. You heard it right here.

~~~

Trouble in Vegas is looking interesting to say the least. I was hoping for a blowout Hodag victory but it looks like their inexperience finally caught up to them. Hopefully it will be the wake up call they need to get their rookies in gear to play their level of defense. A three peat at nationals would be pretty damn exciting. If I had to pick the national finalists for this year I'd say CUT and Mamabird, but it's only February and what the heck do I know anyway. Go Hodags!

Details are scant but apparently Middlebury did very well, winning their pool and losing to Cornell in the game to go. I'm real happy for Middlebury, they have some players who are really cool guys and absolute ballers as well. As for Cornell it's nice to see a team from NY doing some damage nationally.

~~~

No more fucking push passes.

Today at pickup

I threw two push passes. For turnovers. Of course they turned over they were push passes. Who do I look like, Chetti P.?

Also I did not get a layout d, and did not even attempt a layout d. Not once.
Streak broken.

I did sky Justin in the endzone, and played pretty well all things considered. But seriously.
Also, the shoulder jerk totally works. I had a pretty nice full field forehand huck for a goal. Granted, the field is only 60 yards but endzone to endzone is still pretty nice.
Learn it!

Doing work

I was worried, at the beginning of the semester, that I would not be able to keep up the necessary resolve to hold to my workout regimen.

I'm not as worried now.

Honestly, I love working out. All of a sudden, it has become incredibly fun. Maybe its because I am consistently seeing progress. Whatever the reason, it is nice.

On a slightly less fun note, I misplaced the notebook I use to log my workout progress. The last place I remember seeing it is my room so maybe it will turn up in some obvious yet ironic location.

Regardless, I added five to ten pounds to most of the exercises today. I'm definitely seeing progress, both in numbers and on the field.

Do work.

Superbowl part II

Caught the second half of the Superbowl. It was pretty pretty chippy and mostly boring from an offensive perspective until the fourth quarter. The Steelers' defense is ridiculous, blah blah blah we know. Larry Fitzgerald played like a man-beast and came very close to winning the Superbowl by himself.*
That's all really, I'm going to spend the rest of the night daydreaming about having him on the Gunx.










* The author concedes he does not actually know anything about football

Superbowl Sunday

Practice went well today, for the first of the season. Slight disorganization, some people need to shake off the winter break rust. Took some time but we got some flow going in the go-to drill and then played 3 on 3. Basically mini without the negative points rule, which will be used later in the season.

Practice is going to have to be very organized this winter since both of our indoor times are only an hour each. Friday the gym closes right as practice ends and Sunday soccer club comes in right after us. To make the most of our time practice is gonna have to run like clockwork.
We'll do it.

Anyway, it was nice to run around with the team and play some disc. Some players are literally exploding with potential this season.

Lifted afterwards. It felt good.