Postscript

Two things to possibly expand into posts later:
Embracing the handler position,
and what John said about how the other team played with their backs against the wall while we were complacent.

Walk like

Last game of wudi I'll be able to make for a while. We kind of got rolled, yet again fell short against zone. Had some really good moments too. Some really great work. But in the end we didn't ball hard enough.

I dunno.
At one point, I called violation on a handler putting the disc in play a foot to the left of the front endzone cone after the disc was D'd out of bounds on the sideline. When told what the call was, a player who I think was their captain said, spitefully, "yeah well you're wearing the wrong color jersey". I was wearing black. My charcoal jersey was in the wash. What I'm saying is, the other team was kind of keyed up and mean.

I hate losing but did really enjoy playing today. Gonna miss this team and it has been really fantastic reconnecting with my old high school crew. See ya'll at finals if not sooner.

Really starting to like playing as a handler. What the heck. Why not.
Going on 30 hours of sleep deprivation.
Goodnight.

Damn

There are a lot of exciting things going on in club ultimate this summer.

White gold

Tried subbing more at league yesterday. It worked, I ran harder every time I was on. Missed some aggressive D opportunities due to lack of confidence at attacking the disc physically. Weak.

Starting to really like playing as the dump handler.

Tried out Brodie Smith's backhand grip, it worked really well for pulls. It seems to allow for more wrist snap and more utility in low release throws. However, it changes the flight dynamics of curved throws so that will need some adjusting.

Anyway, we won 15 - 13 after going down 8 -7 at half. Chetti got flying tackled. It was crazy.

Yoda didn't play ultimate

Oh facebook, you constant distraction. Ran across our team photo from club sectionals last year. I think it was from day two.

We had 12 dudes and 5 women.

This year we should hit the roster limit. We have upwards of 25 potential dudes and I'm sure that women exist somewhere.

That is an exciting thought. We will have a deep team where everyone can ball. No weak links and many practices before sectionals to build chemistry.

Gonna get that gold brick, that youtube money.

http://mittechultimate.blogspot.com/2010/11/small-rosters.html

White kids love the Wu

Charcoal went up big against the cream team but could not hold the lead after they began throwing zone. Our zone offense needs work but there were a few really good points (three?).

I got a lot better at playing as the center zone handler, realized how aggressively you have to position yourself for the dump, sometimes at the cost of ten yards. There were a couple of zone points where we threw around 50 or 60 passes before we gained any significant yardage or even moved the disc through the cup. Need to develop that kind of patience.

That's all really. Excited for next week.

In the meantime, we're talking about practice.

Thinkin'

Watching the Pitt - Colorado quarterfinal. What a brutal draw.

Getting a tmf for profanity is bullshit.

Apparently saying "boost it!" is the new thing.

Both sides putting up some ugly throws with the difference being Mamabird is playing incredible defense. Great bids.

This easily could have been the finals match up if things had gone Pitt's way in pool play. Rough day for Mamabird, having to play Pitt and the Hodags on the same day. Jeez.

It was all a dream

Good game at league last night, unfortunately we could not pull it together to win but we improved on defense across the board and our second half offense improved drastically on the first. In the end it came down to our first half offensive mistakes, but it was as solid showing against one of the best teams in the league.

Only had a couple of turnovers but my handler cuts and spacing were off. Need to be more aware, and as a team we need a system for where our handlers will set up in the ho. A flat handler stack is not doing it, I'm not convinced that's a good setup for any team. I've fallen in love with a starting set of one middle handler, one dump and one breakside handler, which gives the force side cutters a lot of room that doubles as space for the dump to come up the line.

Another team-wide adjustment is that a lot of the time we will have a wide open in cut and it will get looked off for seemingly no reason. We hold the disc too long, and I'm not sure if that reflects lack of trust in our cutters or lack of throwing ability against a physical mark. Not sure how to address this issue.

The weather was perfect for throwing. Consequentially, dropped some forehand bombs full field. Had one bad throwaway to Chetti but other than that flicks were on. Backhands were a little wobbly. Gotta calm down.

Despite the loss, it was the kind of game that summer league should be. A gritty close contest between comparably strong teams with good spirit. I had fun.

PS handblocked a highschooler

Butane

Had a super fun birthday. Club ultimate underway.

Played mediocre at summer league. Throws were off - backhand hucks lasered too much, forehands were not flat enough and thus hooked oi, leading to at least one missed goal and a ridiculous Chetti grab to save a misread.

Key points: focus more on throwing form when tired, and condition my upper body. And more throwing practice.

We got better as a team on offense, and kind of on defense. Honestly though, this team is going to live or die by our top end players getting ridiculous and that just didn't happen today.

I hate having an off game.
On to the next one.

Strawberries

Good to be back at wudi I guess. Its summer? Wow.
First game went well, we squandered a 6 - 0 lead to take half 8 - 5, but despite a good second half effort by black we won 15 -11 (they said 12, incorrect).

I played decent offense and lazy defense. Hucks were on, threw 7 assists I can remember and caught a goal. Defense was just - well, complacent. Got scored on a couple times. Lame.

We'll have to bring it against the stacked hyped teams in the open league. I'm tired of the status quo and am afraid of neither old people nor SOFA.

Shout out to Jay Walker if you still read this. We're gonna do work this summer.
Char - coal char - coal char - coal BARBECUE