Lay on Macduff

Going to regionals this weekend with Fat and Mediocre. Here are some things to focus on:

-Going to the disc - weak zones and lack of intensity from the defenses we faced (during the games I got to play) at sectionals allowed me to cut lazily off the pull or just stand there - any team we play Saturday will be hustling harder. Small, vital adjustment of making sure to go to.

-Pacing the offense - we do really well when we play relaxed, patient offense - something will open up. Again, less margin for error - I got away with some nonsense against inexperienced defenders, like in the Army game, and some dumb luck in the PoNY game. When we take the right shot, it basically always works. Offense is easy.

-Fat and Mediocre is powered by friendship. Our mental game is unblastable. We proved that beyond a doubt at sectionals. I've never felt more comfortable playing club. Every player is responsible for the mental and emotional tenor of the team, and we don't have to ever talk about it.
We have fun.

-Don't bid like an idiot and dislocate your shoulder. Do attack the disc aggressively and safely.

It is very exciting that one of GUNX's young players is getting to compete at club regionals. We are giving back to our college program. Mental note, find more actionable ways to contribute to the young GUNX. It is very easy to get to New Paltz.

This spring I will be coaching a high school team for the first time. With a few months to get ready, I'm thinking about how I can do the best possible job. Since I'll be coaching the JV team, I will have a system in place to work on getting my players ready to plug into. That takes the pressure off a bit. My main concern is to be a good role model. Definitely need to brush up on the rulebook too.

Assistant coaching has changed my own game so much. Teaching reinforces habit. I throw best when I'm thinking about throwing a lot, and to teach it you have to think about it. I taught forehand pretty well last season. I taught backhand badly. This is directly tied to my own skillset. Since then, been working on fixing my backhand so that I can teach it better in the spring.

For the fall, I'll be coaching youth two days a week, with the option to play pickup on Mondays. Signed up for two fall leagues, one as a captain. First time drafting a team. Plenty of ultimate to look forward to, but its important to remember what it is all about - avenging our crushing defeat in the Gunxgiving alumni game. Gunxgiving IX will be a showdown.

Pizza Time.
<3 77

PS reading through old blog posts is more hilarious than ever, less painful. I was so dang conclusive about things! Hindsight is hard because I have a big butt. Objects in mirror are closer than they appear.

Coming Home

Season almost starting. Wowie zowie. I'm almost happy with my baseline fitness. Running regularly will help. The combine showed me that it will be useful to focus on sport specific motions and running situations to train - plyos, serpentine for cutting, short hard sprints, etc.

Want to get into olympic lifts as well. We get once a week in the weight room.

This semester is it - if I am going to achieve my college frisbee goals, it is now. It would be easy to take a backseat role on the team this semester to focus on my thesis. I could justify it, but I won't because I will never get this chance again.

Go time, now or never.

I've double majored in frisbee for this long, now that I actually have a schedule where I can give my artwork 100% academic attention, it ought to be easier than ever to balance my time to train and play with the team. Why the fuck not.

"I'm just trying to be a better man, damn. I'm just trying to be somebody I can talk to in the morning with a smile."

PS pretty sweet write up of CC tryouts. See if you can spot cap'n David!

http://skydmagazine.com/2012/01/pro-ultimate-lives-ct-constitution-combine/

And a sweet post tryout video of Tim Morrill demoing jump technique, among other things.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JI2Qa2BHqXk

Falling off the wagon never felt so good

As my brother in arms would say, "sprring breeeeaaaak!" Indeed, this past week has been my real spring break, whatever the calendars say. It is the first time in a while I've eased up on the work and just had some fun for fun's sake.

Being social is weird.

Anyway, we've now played on windy days two weekends in a row and I could hardly be happier with how we are playing wind game offence. However, both days I've come in flat with catching, leading to some drops and near drops from not attacking the disc confidently. More touches during warmup might help but it seems largely mental as well.

The Gunx are on a roll, confidence is rising an many people are getting touches on the disc. We have a lot of work to do but everyone can see how much we've improved, for all the trouble we've had with practice time we have hit the ground running much harder than a lot of our traditional rivals.

We'll aim higher, we'll keep working.

Now its back to the grind. Too much partying will not help right now. No dancing, no hugging, no complacency. Partying with the Gunx again after achieving my spring season goals is going to feel so sweet, but that's a while yet.

chocolate rain

B Team came out on top of the highly anticipated rematch with chocolate, going up large in the first half and then playing a subdued second half, allowing chocolate a few points of catchup but not enough. Game, B Team, 14 - 11. I feel really good about my offensive positioning, taking more time to see the field and time my cuts for the right setup. It payed off today, 6 goals caught and one thrown. Boom.

Got beat on defense a few times and missed three or four big play opportunities on d. Played worse in the second half, not running hard enough due to 10% long work day, 15% daytime tequila and 75% not being in good enough shape.

Things to do, in short: on offense, continue to work on setting up in the right place, close enough to the disc, and timing cuts based on who has the disc and the spaces that open up instead of just running and running and running and hoping.

On defense, set up a yard or two out from a man in the endzone so they cannot get the drop step. Don't get beat deep, and get in shape to be able to run harder.

Pulls were pretty damn decent.

So enough about me.
Stuff to get done for the Gunx before the season starts:
Be ready to
order discs
order uniforms
have a practice schedule
advertise the team
boom

Faith and Fairy Tales

'First and foremost, attitude is everything. If you don't actually have 7 players who believe you can actually win, then...your game isn't worth playing.'
-Brett Matzuka

Sectionals. This weekend. Nothing else motivates quite like that knowledge. It is go time, crunch time, time to put our skills to the test and see where our team-wide improvement has got us.

Just putting it out there, for us to achieve anything of significance we have to believe in each other and ourselves. That's simple but it goes a long way. If we don't have faith in this team our play will reflect that. If we do - if we dedicate ourselves to the Gunx, for one weekend, with 100% physical and mental intensity, damn the torpedoes full speed ahead - then we will be able to reach much higher.

Our shot at sectionals success may be a shot in the dark but it is a shot worth taking. As a team and as individuals we have a choice to make. We can give up on being good, and go down in flames at sectionals. Or we can put our faith in each other and the team, fight hard, and get as far as we can.

Remember that part in Half Blood Prince where they talk about the difference between being dragged to a battle to the death and walking into the arena with your head held high? Its like that. Let's prove we have the mental fortitude to make it a good fight, whatever the outcome.

Heart on fire.

Well well

So that's the season. Sectionals to come this weekend. In the meantime we have to figure out how we're going to do sub calling, that will be a big help if we have it figured out.

We have to get our heads in the right place.

The board is set.

The pieces are moving.

Something like that.

Gunx love.

Who's gonna run this town tonight

I am raging. I can barely wait for practice today. Its on.

Just sayin'.

Hiatus?

I can't write about ultimate right now.

What's there to say? I'm in decent shape. Throwing the best I ever have. Don't want it enough right now. Made the most unspirited play of my career at RPI.

Team is looking good when we want it and don't drop it. Best squad we've ever had. Being on the team this semester has been amazing. We need to translate our camaraderie into yet unexplored levels of on-field cohesion, and moreover we need to continue it throughout next year.

Look.

I'm going to bed.

We went to New Haven

It was aight.

Well actually, it was better than that. In my opinion it was our best tournament as a team ever. We've had a better record, but in terms of team cohesion, team dynamic, overall fun had, and strategic comprehension, we've never done better.

We now have the ability to throw out multiple lines in a row where every player knows their role (more or less, obviously there is always room for improvement said captain obvious) and can all contribute positively on offense or defense.

That said, our offense needs to be able to score. Our defense needs to take the disc.

This past weekend we learned a few things as a team, namely that the O line's job is to put the D line on the field, and how to play junk zone and how ill that is against vertical offense. Our best coed D line could be the skeleton of a competitive club team.

Not much to elaborate on. It was a good first tournament. I nearly spiked the disc on a kid who decided to backpack me after I had already caught the disc. I holstered the spike and helped score a goal instead. Meatballed.

We have a team blog now through the school. That will be the new home of in depth tournament analysis, albeit in a simplistic way that random people who read it will be able to understand and appreciate. Pictures will help. I am thinking the first post will be a rundown of basic ultimate rules followed by a recap of the weekend.

That means that this blag will become a home for more in depth strategic insights and less full tournament recap. That and more senseless egoism. Hooray!

God loves ugly

This past weekend has been fairly wild. They say change is the spice of life, and if that is true then at the very least the memories will be savory. For better or for worse my social life got poetry slammed and the repercussions have barely even set in. Shit may or may not be going down.

And so it goes. Rising to challenges probably beats having a boring life anyway. For the record, things are good right now. Great to be honest. And whatever happens, I have great teammates that have my back and that is priceless.

Anyway, we played today against Marist, a surprise scrimmage and our first game of the season. They beat us pretty handily. On the subject of challenges, the biggest challenges I see facing the team in the immediate future are thus:

-moving outside and implementing team-wide strategy and concepts

-maintaining the level of motivation and commitment most of our players are displaying currently

-Focusing to work even harder

What can be said about the game today: well, Marist won but they did not win simply because they are more athletic. I don't think they are more athletic than us this year. Better at ultimate? At the moment, yes. But they can't just beat us with their legs anymore.

I should not cover Robbie, his acceleration is too good. Also his release points are so low and I am too tall to block his throws without undue effort. Next time we play them, A Pinn has to do work on that matchup. Dave did work today. His throws are looking super sweet. Tom was good on the handle but we need him as a cutter. He is super big. I got hurt laying out onto my hip that was already bruised from indoor. Also I dropped three or four passes that were inexcusable. We had a lot of bad drops.

We need to stop dropping it.

We need to throw outside.

We need to work on zone offense.

Okay.

We'll do it.

Oh also, sobriety time!

Yes.

50% efficiency

Ultimate and school: is it possible to focus hard enough on both at the same time?

Okay fine that depends what 'hard enough' means. You got me.

Smartass.

Anyway, one of the two is getting a decent amount of focus, not enough but getting there.

The other is hovering between neglected and rejected.

Guess which?

Yeah you probably guessed. Ultimate is getting most of my time and effort. I barely even have time to blag we've been practicing so much. And yet, college ain't exactly about that and the real world is looming ever closer. Grades gotta get earned, bills gotta get paid, and heck while we're at it girls are cool too.

What I'm saying is, as much as it is important and excellent that my throwing balance has been improving, balancing my life is going only marginally better than previous years. School was going well until this week when I decided to be a badoof and sleep through four classes and counting (fingers crossed for today).

On a related note: dry season.

I guess I hyped it up too much. Keeping quiet about things is perhaps a virtue that I always learn too late in the game. Anyway, I have partied twice this semester and plan to party this weekend. Wiggity what? What happened to dry season? Well, as Tricia put it, sometimes during the dry season a herd of wildebeests or a solitary giraffe happen upon a secluded watering hole and slake their thirst upon whatever meager fare their oasis can provide.

Or to put it another way: I gave myself three exceptions. All but one are used up. Last Tuesday does not count. After this weekend, no drinking. No smoking. No crystal meth. You get the idea.

Why? I need to get in shape for frisbee, and get my head straight for life. Drinking is fun but ruling at sectionals will be so much more fun, and make the crispy gin and tonics I mix up after the season that much crisper.

People have been quick to denounce my grand proclamations about dry season and gently or not so gently mock me for having drunk thus far after hyping it so much. Rightfully so. Haters keep you honest.

It is on me to show anyone with doubt on their lips that I mean business. That's all.

To paraphrase my roommate, talk is cheap. Fuck the haters.

Done.

Bacardi

Coed practice again today.

Talking points:

-Stephen did work as captain again, his analytical approach to each player with regard to their team is in depth and very useful. Hmmm...

-New players stepped up, we are going to be deep this season.

-Veterans were vocal in teaching new players and commanding the troops in game

We need to work with new players to teach them throwing and marking fundamentals, as well as calls and rules. Next week at indoor or maybe we will have some kind of a team meeting. Input?

I played pretty poorly, could not get open against Brad due to his crafty Internet research. I hit a physical wall after playing for so long. Days like that is is very important to focus on throwing fundamentals and to that end I was about 70% effective.

If the weather is nice tomorrow I will set up an outdoor game for the 7th day of practice in a row. Hope so.

I went to the Croquet house tonight

What a wackity turn of events.

A lot has been written about practice today and rightfully so. For my part, I thought it was ugly, probably because I was feeling the stress of a fourth day of intense exercise in a row and it put me on edge. I focused more on the negative side of things which in general is not my style.

Regardless, Huckindor brought the hurt and snagged 20 wins, our first winning practice.

A Pinn was not there.

Coincidence?

Stiggles got big and played some of his best ultimate thus far. His disc skills are improving tremendously. Brad and I were both tired but pushed ourselves to keep running hard and consequentially we won most of our games on d.

Offense looked like shit a good portion of the time, although we won a few on offense.

Practice ups and downs:

-a lot of people were edgy and upset, a lot of people got injured (the worst part about indoor)

-A few key players were missing and various teams had problems getting their offense going.

+In general, attendance very good.

+Good defensive intensity

+Kerry came to hasbrouk

That is more than I meant to write.

Verbosity oops.

Dome part 3

Four Gunx played. With the exception of Tischler and her ridiculous soccer playing friend, we dominated by and large. Everybody got in on the action, with E Herbst chalking up some big D's (and he caught the disc!).

I felt good! Did not run super fast (tirrrred) but despite two days in a row of lower body workout I was able to play the entire time without subbing and get open on about 80% of my cuts. Long throws were iffy and backhands were lackluster again but my io breakmark flick was filthy.

Just sayin'.

Workouts are starting to really pay off. To reiterate my new favorite blog, we need to keep going.
Go Gunx!

I woke up this morning

I woke up this morning thinking about how good Hufflepuff house is at indoor, seemingly without trying. I was vaguely frustrated about them possibly being rigged, which must have been part of my dream because everyone knows Satanclaw is the rigged house (and Huckindor is the rugged house, rugged as in attractive I mean).

Anyway as I came to conciousness, Tom standing in the doorway imploring me to get up for my 8am, it dawned on me that damn, those Hufflepuff guys are my teammates.

Nice.

Today we scrimmaged outside, drawing a pretty decent number despite the wind and biting cold.
If I am correct in my mental addition, we had nine playing members of the men's team, one member of the women's team, a player who we hope will be playing with the men's team, and two sidelined men's players. It says a lot that people are willing to come play in what were not the most fun conditions by any stretch of the imagination. It was windy, very hard to throw, painful to catch - that can be discouraging but we had a pretty decent scrimmage. Cuts looked very good. Throwing was all over the place. A lot of easy catches were dropped across the board, that comes down to mental errors that we need need need to be able to fight through this season. Seriously enough of that.

My backhands were mostly terrible. Nearly every one turned OI, I am not throwing short backhands hard enough. That is why throwing indoors is dangerous! Forehands were pretty good, my forehand power is quite possibly at an all time high. Maybe.

1 shot the sculpture today.
Booyah.

Put the pieces back together my way

Working out, like any struggle against adversity great or small, makes you focus in a very narrow way on what is immediately important: one more set, one more rep, don't throw up...
A good workout pushes you to revert to base instincts, makes you love your teammates and hate your enemies. At our workout today I pushed pretty hard and felt terrible and my love for the Gunx has seldom been greater. I hope everyone feels that way when we're together in the gym.

Work out lock out knock out

I'm blagging live from Tom's room, because my dumb as locked myself out. First time this year whoo whoo.
Anyway, the work ethic displayed by the Gunx thus far has been excellent. The trick will be maintaining that level of commitment across the board. Today we had at least 16 at lifting, including full fledged team members and potential studs who have never committed, but heck maybe this will be the year. Things are going our way right now in a few respects, recruitment included. If we keep even half of our recent recruits it will be good looks for us.

A switch to the metro section could come up big for us, it definitely is huge for sectionals.
Today before lifting we had a game outside in the cold and wind, word up. We had 7s to start for at least eight points. Yes.

Attendance will surely decrease somewhat when work starts hitting but if the work ethic stays strong we will achieve our goals.

I think I had more to post than that. Ah well another time.

If

If I was a bird I could fly
If I was a rule I would bend
If I want to be a good ultimate player I'll remember how pumped and motivated I was tonight

And understand the spaces between friends

End of the fall season

Not my best work, but hey.
We had fun.
I have a career record of 0 - 3 against Vassar b, in case you were wondering.
Each time we lost by two points.
I love Marist, those guys rule.

We had fun. Gunx 2010 coming soon!
Sup baby.

Buffalo part 1 - monks with blue balls

Six hours is a long drive but I found various ways to make it entertaining. We're staying in a pretty sweet apartment. We had a team meeting and got to bed fairly early, despite going for tacos with Bridget.

We did not manage to get to the fields in time for an inter team scrimmage. However, we were still pretty warmed up for our first game against bad eggs and scum. They were a goofy bunch, and quite skilled. They went up early and we never recovered despite finding some nice flow against their poachy zone.

Unfortunately, we thought that a 15 - 10 loss to the one seed in our pool meant that we would do even better without trying against the other teams. We were not prepared for SUNY Albany and lost in a blowout. The game was very surreal, like a dream I might have about playing ultimate. There were weird large rectangles of long grass on each side of the field. Brown was playing in a large pirate hat. Definitely a little dreamlike. Anyway, they made some savvy defensive decisions that demoralized us early and we never recovered. They took half seven nothing. Terrible. We scored three points all game.

After a long break (as our game with Scam did not last long) we got ready to play Ithaca. We lost to them at sectionals and I really wanted to win today. Apparently so did a lot of other people. We did work and everyone got dirty in a very gritty game that ended in a 15 - 13 in our favor. I could go on about this game but I'd rather take a nap. A lot of good things happened and we gritted it out.

Something to note is that I played savage. Unlike past years where
Dave and I had to play savage to make the offense work, now we are reaching a point where I would not have done that except that we were running with 12. Our team is becoming, slowly, deeper and when we actually get more than 12 at a tournament we'll prove it.

Anyway, our fourth game was against Plattsburg plus some Clarkson bros. We did not really want to play, and a few people dropped out of the rotation, leaving us with two subs or so at any given time. So we lost. Eh.

Something like 13 - 7? I dunno.

Now we're at the apartment. Around me, my teammates are talking about the kind of things that we talk about when the men's team goes places without any girls. Something about safety nets and vaginal muscle exercises. Par for the course.