Now Here We Go

Tell you what, winter ultimate is just the best. Turkey bowl is a tournament I've always managed to flake out on, and believe me I did my best this year as well, snoozing the alarm until the temeprature climbed above 30 (they won the first game without me). Eventually I dragged my ass out there, and it was worth it. Very cold but little to no wind, amazing. Travis put together a good bunch of people and we took third place, losing to a PoNY past and present sort of team in the semis.

I have little to no impulse to blog about my workouts as they happen. Maybe I will give the analog book a try again and just post about technique and stuff. I'll tell you one thing though, its been a while since I seriously did upper body workouts. I'm stronger than I used to be but after a half hour workout I am sore for days. Rust, yo.

Throws were good today. Forehand hucks still ugly, but what they lacked in shape they made up for in distance. My other throws were good overall. Feeling confident about my ultimate game, I'll mix it up. Getting back in shape has been really fun and rewarding so far, yadda yadda.

Met a bunch of old New Paltz dudes who played ultimate there even before BMo. Crazy stuff. New Paltz has and has not changed, you know.

Sin Eater

Being employed is very nice. Gunxgiving was also very nice, and I am still basking in the glow of the delightful confluence of activities that have made this last week amazing. Despite working a late shift today, I was able to get a good forty minutes of ultimate in, twenty minutes of throwing reps and twenty minutes (maybe nine or ten points?) of 4v4 pickup. Jack Frost's iron cold hand may have scattered pickup attendees to the four winds, but I had a lot of fun getting in upwind huck reps and running wild in the pickup game despite playing in work clothes (featuring sneakers and jeans, won't catch me without my cleats again no matter how cold it is or how late I'm working).

My forehand huck is still tough and annoying but it is starting to take a better shape. My other throws were very good for the most part, although I threw a few backhands way too OI. Pants had something to do with this. A big part of my backhand release is the leg movement. I think maybe that's what I am missing from my forehands, the syncronized foot to hip to core jerk that allows low, powerful throws with a flat shape. Pants don't exactly help with that. Strangely, I had the most trouble with downwind throws. My upwind backhand is working overtime. I think this was also true during the alumni game, but it is hard to remember. Need to remember to ask Brett about throwing angles and wind. 

Feeling pretty good about defense right now. Part of it is the false confidence of playing less competitive ultimate than we did all summer, but part of it is that I am finding myself able to consciously assess my mark in relation to the disc and defensive scheme in a far more lucid way than I've ever been able to before. We'll see where this goes. Head has been pretty clear lately, despite the Gunxgiving after party. 

I've never been able to keep an anolog workout journal going for more than two or three months. Maybe doing it on the blog will work? So today: in addition to the aformentioned pickup I ran a lot to and from trains, around train stations, and a little bit in the neighborhood.Spent about a half hour throughout the day working on basketball shooting technique, which so far has made my throwing grip feel a lot stronger. Not really a structured workout day, but this log has to start somewhere. 

Also I switched my forehand grip back to having my thumb on the flight rings. That has helped. 

I'm going to do fifty lat pulls for every cockroach I kill in the apartment. Being at war with an entire species sucks. I'm not good at hating animals just for doing their thing, but they need to get out of my apartment. Hopefully by tying their individual destruction to a workout activity (that I need, as anyone who has seen my entirly conical torso can attest) I can release some of their energy back into the world in a postive way. Or something. Killing makes me upset. The werewolf sheds a single tear, lurching through the woods, etc etc. 

Winter league starts next week. I will eat winter's blood. 

Get fit or die trying. 

AW yeah

Signed up for winter league, at the last possible moment. Thank goodness.

Gunxgiving and alumni game were a lot of fun. I am really just in love with throwing right now, and getting better at throwing. It was really fun and positive to see how well the team is doing. The current iteration of the team has a really good vibe to it.

I'm interested in running a throwing clinic for the Gunx teams in the early spring. They have a lot of fast people and not a ton of pure throwing skill. A bit of basic throwing structure could help them a lot.

I should definitely be asleep by now.

Quick Flip

My new favorite indoor throwing exercise is laying in bed and throwing forehands as high as possible without having them touch the ceiling. I've always done that really, but this is the first time I've ever been in a living situation where I had a high ceiling AND upstairs neighbors.

I love throwing a lot. Throw with me.

We Made It

Stonefish open practice was excellent. Good turnout and beauteous weather. Better weather than any practice we had over the summer, really. Gabe set a really good tone. Not exactly punctual, and not exactly intense, but it is NOVEMBER and we had upwards of 30 people practicing with us. I was skeptical about the utility of practicing so early in the season but people are clearly impressed by it. It sends a good message.

My throws took some time to warm up. Unfortunately, this took place during the game. Had some awkward turnovers on huck attempts and some weird short game execution errors. Today very much reinforced my desire to practice throwing more, and my desire to DESIRE to practice throwing more, you know? I need to become obsessed with ultimate again, a bit.
After a while I got into a more comfortable rhythm and made much better throws down the stretch. That was encouraging. Felt confident and hit my breakmark throws like a boss.

My cutting is all over the map. When I am cutting well, I get open. That's that. But I have some bad habits that are ingrained, and so sometimes I cut like a giant pile of garbage. I need to get into a more open minded state for learning and thinking about the game, and be more receptive to constructive criticism. It is a step in the right direction that I can smile and make a joke after getting heckled about my poor cutting skills, rather than sulk about it, but I need to seek out more input than that, ask for help and criticism from the skilled and talented folks on our team, and really work to ABSORB it. I know how to cut in the abstract, can teach an inexperienced player how cutting is SUPPOSED to go, but that's a far cry from being able to cut well and decisively every time I step on the field.

Play your role, keep it simple, desire to desire to be great. Practice. Practice. Mental Game. Practice.

I'm a good player right now, but not a great one. I can make great plays but I want to just be great. That takes a lot of work. This team is inspiring, and I hope I can rise to that. We can help each other be amazing.

My grip feels really good tonight. I'd love to go throw right now, but its a little late for that. Practice this weekend. Bang. 

Duck

Finally got back to Mcarren for some pickup fun. It was a bit cold out, and windy. There was a lot of the kind of tentative ultimate that gets played among strangers when throwing upwind and catching become difficult. I hit the ground a lot, which I've been regretting since. Turf burn everywhere. I love ultimate on turf but it has its price, and that price is walking around with a carpet of turf in my sneakers, wincing when my jeans brush against my ripped up knees and thighs. Ya'll know what I'm saying. Made a couple of cool catches, though.

My short game was pretty on point, but I did not get to display it too much because I started out trying to cut and alleviate the glut of handlers that this pickup games seems to produce. Everyone wants to stay back and noone wants to do the heavy lifting as a cutter. Its pickup, okay. Initially I tried some forehand hucks, revealing that my form is really busted. Nothing shows bad form like a really tough wind, and this wind was brutal. Variable force and direction made for a gamble every time, no way to really get comfortable. My forehand needs a lot of work. On the upside, when I allowed myself to get comfortable and fall in to a rhythm, my short game looked really good, including some good io flicks and break backhands. Solid work. Backhand huck looked good, pulls were inconsistent.

Throwing was not helped by a play I made fairly early on, bidding for a disc not worth bidding for, and catching my hand in some kind of pocket in the turf. Its like the turf went to school and ripped the knee of its jeans playing kickball, and had to get a turf patch sown on. I have no idea what the functional utility of these turf patches are, but they are all over the Mcarren field. I made a sliding bid and caught my hand in one. I am expecting to be better in time for open practice. I can throw as is, but at a frustratingly limited capacity given the huck work I've been putting in. Maybe this is a sign from the universe to emphasize my short game.

New Streak

Got a good throwing session in, which helped in part to abate my "recreational headache" from earlier in the day. Put up a solid hundred hucks, plus auxiliary throws. Much more power and better shape, fewer out of bounds. It was easier to keep my pivot foot down hard, leading to better drives from the foot and hips. Practicing is awesome.

The targets were hard to see as it got dark so I visualized Tom cutting deep instead, that actually worked better. I aim much better throwing at humans. It works in frolf too.

Wind gusted up about halfway through, the kind of wind that is not impossible to huck against but certainly not easy. Very gusty. Going the other way, there was one set in particular where the find was perfect to put up huge beautiful throws that just float perfectly with a ton of power. Had one 90+ yard throw that just went, you know.

Forehand form was really ugly today. I can't seem to focus on it. Backhand progress is good.
Getting really excited for ultimate the next few weekends. Oh yes.

Keep throwing!

Betterer

Had a busy day and before I knew it I did not end up throwing. Dammit, streak broken.
Its sad that it was remarkable that I threw every day for a week. That's sad.
Throw more! Throw more!
Okay, me.

Been thinking about that 10,000 hours thing. I don't think I've done anything for that long yet. Still a lot of room for improvement across the board. Its kind of encouraging. When confronting one's limits, it is an easy (and lazy) idea to resign yourself to having peaked at something. That's nearly never the case, actually.

Okay, cool.

Zadda Yadda

Did a lot of hucking today, at least 150 throws, lost count very early on. Changed up a couple things: I brought out a bunch of non ultra star discs that I have and added them to the rotation for 15 discs per set. Freestyle, different discraft 175 molds, flashflight, etc. Even a golf disc, which I lost about a third of the way through, dammit. Rob Mcleod says its a good idea to throw with different molds, so what the hell.

Midway through I made some 10 by 10 yard boxes as targets. I'm definitely past the point where just chucking it as hard as I can is going to get me too far, and lacking a person to aim for, the targets provided a structure of sorts.

Surprise surprise, definitely did better when I focused on keeping my pivot food down hard. Right now that seems to be the limiting factor: when I focus on it, I either throw my best, or overthink it and throw badly. Best to focus on it until I don't have to anymore. Overall, threw much better backhands than yesterday. Forehand was alright, but I'm leaning back when I throw them. Form needs a ton of work.

I did manage to throw some 80+ yard throws, and overall things were much better than yesterday. It was really good to spend so much time outside. My new ultimate goal is to work on throwing everyday, whether its 200 hucks in the cold or just working on technique indoors. Every day. Its not fun to bump up against the limits of your throwing game and find that you can't do stuff you were able to do in college. That's stupid. Next season I want to be much better. I want my huck back. Working for it.

Better keep throwing every day. My throwing game was weak in a lot of areas this past season. I'm better at breaking the mark than I've ever been, but everything else is worse. That sucks. Its hard to throw every day but its doable, better do it man, better do it.

Every bad throw you make in practice is one that you don't have to make in a game. 

Yeah.

Better keep throwing. 

Bo-Bandy

Went out with a stack of plastic with the goal of 100 backhand hucks, or 77 to be cute. First set of ten was okay, lots of different shapes but an average of 55 yards, all falling within the bounds of a hypothetical field. Distance improved from there, but things are kind of wonky. Threw in a few forehands for variety, and my forehand has a much better shape overall, and is more game ready at the moment. I'm worried I'm releasing it a bit high, but it will be a much quicker fix than the backhand. My backhand is suffering from foot dragging, high release points, and lack of aim. It seems to work best when I get really low and drive form the core for more of a laser shape than I'm used to. My core is strong. Boom. Lots of work to do.

Celebrated Ken Dobyns' recent birthday by shanking my commemorative KD HOF disc into the trees, killed a lot of fleeting daylight trying to find it in the bushes. Eventually just grabbed my spare disc and kept on. While watching the flight path of a big OI looper, I saw that the KD disc was stuck about 12 feet up in a tree right above where I was looking for it in the stream.

It was like a moment in the Neverhood where you finally complete the inane action that triggers a cut scene that pans out and shows how everything fits together. Anyway, I managed to hit the KD disc with one of my next throws. On accident! I'm apparently throwing a very consistent looper. That disc bounced off, and got caught in the same tree. I'm getting them down tomorrow, by this point it was practically dark and I'm not looking to twist an ankle messing around in the stream. I called it a day, 60 hucks to noone on the books, not too shabby.

The takeaway of all this? Throwing daily increases my happiness level a thousandfold, and it will take a lot of work to get my throws where I want them for next season. Also, its interesting to note that my best looking throws were with a pull run up. Not just distance wise, but the shape was better. I threw probably three times as many backhand pulls as backhand hucks this season, so that makes sense. Its just weird.

The KD disc looking spooky in a tree, the other disc is blue and refused to show up on camera

If I could do college over,
I'd party more on Sunday nights, with the team after a tournament, and then go to class the next day anyway.