Oh boy, here I go reinventing my throwing form again

Since I was a sophmore in high school, I wanted to have the biggest throws. Constantly trying to hit 100 yards with my backhand, hucking forehands as far as possible for goals, huck turnovers instead of easy swings and unders. Dedicated most of my throwing practice to pure power and developing form to support it. This more or less worked out - I had one thing I could mostly do really well, and the emphasis on full body form that I was able to develop allowed for pretty solid breakmark throws as I got older and more experienced. 

But anyone who reads this knows the weaknesses my game had - over reliance on hucking, telegraphing, lots of turnovers (especially when I was tilted or having a bad field vision game). Leaning on low release IO hucks made it tough to play on days with unfavorable wind conditions. 

Last season I got much better at handling adverse wind but still fell victim to ugly release point patterns. I used to focus very much on release points as a binary system of low to high - and got stuck conflating release angles with very proscribed release points. For instance, I thought OI hucks had to be released high, IO throws always low.

This year I'm reinventing my throws using Kung Fu Throwing as praxis, especially its emphasis on release points far away from the body. Learning to release far away with all throws, release OI throws low, develop more angles for IO. I want to be unblockable. I want to break any mark in any wind condition. I want crisp flat throws to under cuts, and hucks that are dictated by finesse instead of power. I have power for days. I need better disc skills.

After practicing with the youths today, I can say the kung fu is starting to pay off. Had some of the most excellent away from the body backhand hucks I can remember throwing in years. Want more. With a scoober on top. 

As soon as you decide you're done learning, you're done. I stopped actively learning about throwing from 2012 to 2014. Throwing is now at the core of my weekly activity again. I love it. 

Simple Things

On the way home from work, I had a very basic epiphany that sparked an idea for a blog post. What was it?

Maybe: how much Stonefish/Boomslang drama will there be this season, and will it make me feel like I am in college again?

No no, that was not it.

Oh yeah: dumb jokes aside, I was practicing pivots after closing up at work, and showing some of my coworkers how to throw a forehand. I've been helping coach a  brand new high school team this spring, and thus teaching a lot of basic forehand. And I guess its finally paid off in terms of my own game: tonight, I realized why my throws were so goddam bad last year.

Hah. They were, they really were. And I was not throwing enough outside of practice to realize exactly why.  I threw the least turnovers I ever have as a handler, but I struggled with hucks and forehand breaks (my goddam prior bread and butter). They were occasionally good, occasionally very bad, often mediocre at best. Mostly mediocre. And the reason why is that while I have become more learned in how to throw properly brain wise, my muscles have forgotten the goddam basics.

My muscle memory has never had a great shelf life. It used to drive me nuts in high school when we'd stop throwing for winter (other than sophomore year, when we literally threw every day). I always threw outside until at least the end of november, and would get back by the end of February. I had a buddy who would quit before Halloween and come back in April, just as good as he had been, while my form would have suffered and have to be at least partially relearned.

So basically, when I pivot, I pivot into an outside in throwing position. If I thought about it and wound up, I could usually put something good together. But trying to huck off a quick pivot, and ya'll know I have an itchy trigger finger, often resulted in a big blady forehand or a backhand way out of bounds on the left side - my default pivot to either side yields an outside in throw probably 7 out of 10 times. I don't think enough while playing to correct that mid pivot.

This actually helped my backhand a little: I learned to break outside in, a really dirty and useful throw, as long as the wind is not behind you or too gusty. But other than that my throws are a lot worse than they could be. So I guess thank goodness I figured this out now. Its crucial for both my game and sanity to throw a lot in the upcoming weeks, and I need to practice with goddam intention and fix my goddam pivot.

Its really not a hard fix it just needs lots of reps, and I need to remember to use the off hand to drive the disc to the proper orientation on both sides. Without the off hand in play, pivoting while switching grip takes at least a half second longer. Maybe that's part of the problem, I stopped using my off hand to drive.

Throw throw throw throw throw, etc.

Much love, blog friends.

When Winter's Over

Officially cut from Empire. Not that I didn't expect it - I had to miss the first invite only tryout due to work, a minor concession to adulthood in the grand scheme of things. Being who I am, I strongly considered quitting my job. Thankfully, soberer heads (my head, the next morning) prevailed and I did not pull the trigger on that particular bit of brilliance.

That meant I had a lot of pressure to excel at the final invite only tryout. This pressure kind of welled up behind my eyeballs a little bit, and while I played better than I did at the open tryout, I did not give the kind of performance I needed to get a spot on the team. It would have really helped to play flawless ultimate, but between nerves and a gusty Hudson River wind I could not execute that. Catching tentatively is not a good sign. Gotta be aggressive. I wasn't.

On the upside, Spring is here and Stonefish tryouts are just around the corner. I'm very excited for this season. I've been doing a lot of thinking and planning, working to become a new kind of player, and leader. I feel ready. Just have to trust in the process. I had something for this - lots more words. But what's the point? I will say this, I am getting better at dividing my energy in a way that creates functionality rather than self opposition.

Oh but back to tryouts though, it was very windy and that punished my throws. I am releasing way too high, especially on forehands. And my pinpoint outside in backhand swing move is hurt by the wind as well. Basically I need to throw a lot, did not practice enough last season and the year prior to last season. On the upside, I understand throwing a lot better now, but that knowledge needs some thorough drilling to become game ready. There is a great article on ultiworld where Ben Wiggins talks about how much we take for granted that really great players drill basic throwing a LOT. I can make brilliant throws but not consistently. So: repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

Radio Edit: made it back from tryouts just in time for the finals of winter league. We won, narrowly. Go Rebels!

Mutate

Switch the field. Create new paradigms or die.

Etc.

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. 

Damn

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

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

Take the wheel and steer

Wildwood was a blast. An amazing weekend overall but for me the best part was seeing the future of New Paltz ultimate. There were moments where we played, as a team, fantastic, confident ultimate, showcasing the skills of a team that is versitile, confident, creative and deadly. Those brief snapshots sketch out the future of the team if we can take our current crop of talent and our drive to get better and run with it, well, to the endzone.

This weekend should can and should be further proof. We are going to be really, really good if we can come together and push each other. That's basically all.
Let's do it.

Lost at summer league today. Played badly, as a team and individually. We can do better. Throws were good. Defense was not. At. All.
Oof.

Have a good one.

Above the clouds

"If you don't know how to play cup, don't play it!" the old white player angrily yelled at his younger rec league teammate.

Getting in shape: so far so good, still doing stupid things like staying up late and drinking mad beer, but I am feeling confident and running hard. Ups need a lot of work.

League this week:
Wednesday the B team faced the strong orange squad. We had seven players and had to run 4 - 2 against 7 due to gender ratio rules. Playing down is a great challenge. We had some great moments. I caught a bunch of goals but missed two due to bad jumping and blew a great cutting opportunity.

Pros: Met Ken Dobyns.
Cons: We lost, 15 - 12 after trading ahead and then getting broken two times in the last crucial minutes.

Thursday:
Forest fire vs white.
I was running on fumes and somehow managed to hit the perfect amount of overtired to not care and just run and run. We won by a lot.
Pros: Great flow, great team game.
Cons: The Stiggles - Herbst matchup in the blue red game just did not live up to the hype my brain manufactured.

Isaac played tremendously. We were going to do a workout on the way home from league, both being sleep deprived and hungover and hyped up on endorphins, but I was a badoof and did not have sneakers.

Club soon.
I will be ready. Planks, lunges, squats, pushups, it is on.

My body is a cage

Part 1

Today Brendan and I returned to our old stomping grounds, the high school track and football field for a sprinting workout. Four sets of three reps, distance increasing with each set. 30 seconds of rest between sets. I only managed to beat Brendan once, he said maybe twice but I pushed myself to run hard straight through every sprint. Room for improvement but I am feeling mentally tougher than ever.

Having slept for three hours the night before, the combination of a workout in the afternoon and a game this evening is a reasonable approximation of a tournament post all-nighter/party/all night party. Not that I am training for that particular scenario, but the bottom line is when the chips are down you have to be able to push your hardest no matter how fatigued you are, no matter what reason why.

We're playing black today, the only undefeated team in the league. Believe me we'll be taking shots. A+ Game time baby.
Whoo.


Part 2

I need to make some serious changes in my life, effective immediately. Work starts in three days and if I am not on top of my game it will get messy.

Key points:
-Drink water and eat healthy: I am not drinking enough water and my meal schedule is dicey. Also no more crap no matter how tempting it is to buy mentos and iced tea at the deli.

-Chill with partying: although I am drinking less it is still too much. Simple math. Cut it out.

-Organize life: room needs to get clean or at least organized. Need to get laundry under control, for now and also to make it easy to transition back to school.

-Drawing: I am getting a lot of sketches done, need to organize my supplies and previous work. Also, make a bitchin' contest entry for the savage jersey contest.
And last but not least...

-THROWING. I am not going to get enough touches at draft league as a cutter to keep in form. That leaves once a week handling at rec league, also not enough. Can't coast. Camp will make it hard, I will have to find my fire all summer to A practice throwing every day and B work out despite the fatigue that comes with walking up the hill a million times a day let alone my actual job. I need to get my throwing chops and full body throwing form back, but not only that I NEED to improve so that I come back to school BETTER than I was in the spring, unlike last year where I lost ground over the summer.

Achieving these goals will make for a great summer.
Thanks for listening.

Frankenstien late night edition

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1D7_7953DU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhN0OZA3aIs&feature=player_embedded

Grip.

Frankenstien part II: proglogue

Another semester done with, another surgery. Straight up, another challenge to my dedication to my goals or somesuch and whatnot.

I'll be better just as soon as I am able. I'll keep you posted.

W

Accidentally posted the letter W. As it happens, a very significant letter. Better than L, anyway.

This by-accident post is a perfect place to link an excellent article I came across: http://theshubbard.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2010-03-03T16%3A24%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=7

Have a good day!

And when I'm gone

I am going to practice.

It is amazingly gorgeous out.

This weekend is going to be righteous. I will become a better man.

Starting now.

Just carry on.

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.

No workout today :[

I did however get some throwing in with my family. My mother threw an errant backhand way past me and I had to run it down and lay out for it into a giant puddle left behind by this past weekend's tournament cancelling monster storm. Caught the disc, slid through the puddle, ran around the yard, got so amped I finished the giant throw game first try. Then went inside to stave of the shakes.

As I was about to lay out, I had to mentally check myself - "dude that's a puddle full of mud, there might be metal shit at the bottom that will cut you the fuck up, don't do itttttt"
Pulled the trigger anyway.
Now to learn to do that in game!
We need a good mental focus excercise to practice that in controlled environments. Or maybe just make it a rule in scrimmages that you have to lay out. I dunno. The sleep madness has me in its grips. Hopefully the Albany crew has learned something we can use at SCAM practice.

Goodnight world.

Things all over the place

Threw with my brother and did a light workout, emphasizing different muscle groups than yesterday. Between throwing and working out I played two of my favorite mental excercise/throwing form games. I gave myself a hard time. I could never be as hard on the team as I am on myself, not even close. I don't know if that is a good or a bad thing.

The first game is the giant throw game: you throw hucks as high as you can and then catch the awful blades that descend at high speeds. I make myself catch three in a row before I can go inside. The second game is running while tossing a disc from one hand to the other, short backhands. The idea is that catching (and basic wrist snap throwing) should be so unconcious that you will be able to do it without thinking while running at top speed. I'm a big believer in mental excercises that also train some minute aspect of one's throwing/catching game.

I want to develop a lefty backhand huck, if only to balance the crab arm a little. That's not even it - having a huge backhand on either side of one's body would throw defenders for a loop. Ludicris? Maybe so, but a backhand huck on either side of the body would be a weapon that nearly noone has. Hmmm.

For the rest of the season, positive reinforcement will be key, as well as team unity. We need to come together more than ever before. We have 20 guys on our sectionals roster and everyone will need to contribute their best, which requires us to feel like we are part of something bigger. We are, this team is going places, and I hope we all realize it.

Spring Breaaaak

Whoo whoo.
Good to be home once in a while.
Next year though, we should go to high tide for realz.
Did some throwing work with my brother and by myself, emphasizing personal focus as a thrower and reciever.
Then a light workout.
Keepin' fit.

Ain't much but I need to get back on the blog train.
Sectionals hype to come.
Toot toot!

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.