Wrist rehab day 5 and new years resolutions!

Happy 2010 ya'll.

Wrist is doing alright today so far, I can bend it normally again although I do not have full range of motion yet. Still, tons better than Monday and I'm thrilled.
Might try throwing again today, might wait a few days. We'll play it by ear.

Anyway, ultimate style New Year's resolutions
1. Nalgene of water before bed, nalgene of water in the morning.
2. Run every day.
3, Throw every day.
4. Do all the necessary bureaucratic legwork for the men's team.
5. Step up on defense, don't turn it on offense.
6. Play with swagger and confidence from the first point of practice to the last point of the college series.
7. Be a positive force on the team and inspire others to likewise step up.

Bonus Resolution: Run an outdoor game at least once a week, that can double as pickup for the layman and an extra skills clinic for Gunx and Estro Ragers.
I don't even need to make a resolution about Huckindor winning the house cup.
What.

Pretty simple really.

Where ya'll at?

Fun fact: This semester I completed 12 paintings, 63 drawings, and created five unique prints, one of them an edition of 30. Two large drawings are still in progress and I also filled 2 and 3/4 sketchbooks.

That didn't do jack for my ultimate game. Next semester I'm going to do twice as much art AND get mad jacked and sky fools.

Wrist surgery went well. I am typing this post one handed. Percoset is awesome.

Today I found my writeup of the Carmel/John Jay game, my only competitive high school game with my own school. I was ecstatic that we had only lost by eight points in a game to 21. I'm still proud of that fact: air raid was the best team in the state and we were a lunchtime and weekends pickup group with a few studs (hey Chetti! (and Brendan who played savage)). They shut out three teams at states! We could have gone to states and beaten at least three teams! However, I think I can attribute to that game the zenlike calm that I assume when we lose sometimes. "It's okay" I comfort myself. "We only lost by 6...and they're a better team".

I'm done with that mentality. I'm done losing.
Swagger is here to stay.

lately

This past week has been good for ultimate, and also partying on rooftops. Excellent.

Wednesday draft league the JUICE won by default due to our opponent only mustering a four person squad (clearly not enough to compete with the 12 or 13 that we had). Thursday was my first rec game, and our team looks fiiiiine. We lost, by one, because in the second half we hucked it way to much. It was not me hucking it. Irony!

Oh and we only had one woman so we had to play 6 0n 7 all game. Yeah. We can keep up with a team and lose on universe with one less person. We're gonna do fine. I only had one turnover, on a very stupid throw, but I thought my throws in general were good. Eli had a few touches on the disc and played a turnover free game, which is awesome. He also played decent zone d despite never having had it explained to him (my bad).

Yesterday was our first real Magic Roll practice. We had a nice large turnout. We started out with a basic dump drill similar to the upline cutting drill we run at New Paltz. Then we played a game to seven which my team won pretty handily thanks to our wiley 3 -2 -2 offense. Definately easier to teach brand new players than vertical stack, for whatever reason. Maybe because the clearing out is more intuitive. Anyway, then we ran a basic vertical stack cutting drill with offense and defense which was pretty solid. Some people need to learn to cut. Our second scrimmage devolved into nonsense after about 10 points but since we had already been playing frisbee for over three hours I was fine with that.

I don't honestly know where the team is going competitively this summer. We have a handful of solid players who have played together for years. We have a handful of players who have barely played competitively and would not know a stack from a three pointer. We have a handful of random bros who can't make it to practice due to the distance but will probably pick up with us at tournaments if I invite them. How does one form a team out of that?

The answer is, creatively. I think. We need to settle on one or more offensive sets that are strong enough to beat experienced teams, and intuitive and modular enough to incorporate both new players and tournament pickups. I want to run vertical stack and 3 - 2 - 2. We'll see how it plays out but I like how the 3 - 2 - 2 is shaping up. It leaves a huge cutting lane open in the center of the field, and makes continuation deep cuts fairly easy. Also it is harder to poach d than vertical stack because if someone poaches into the center lane, the wings can cut straight in like in a horizontal stack. Hmmm.

Anyway, its looking like a good summer.
Peace.

What I am up to

Hey ya'll out there in listening land. Summer: it works. I have heard a lot of people talking about summer workouts, doing snertz and going to the gym like REAL INTENSE ATHLETES. I support that wholeheartedly. My workout regimen has been a little more holistic, sort of like Rocky would do if he played ultimate, I think. Dragging tires up hills, hoisting hunks of iron, you know. Fun stuff.

Missed the first game of rec league. Chetti was not there either I don't think. Our team won anyway, by a decent amount. Apparently I am on a good rec league team this year. Nice. E Herbst was there. No wonder we won.

Five Ultimate: I love them.
Enough said.

Bees: They swarm. In my yard.
I love them too.
Buzz buzz

The Lincoln Loggers shirt is going to be epic. You want one. Get em while they're hot.
Speaking of which, soon I must organize Ow My Knee and get that together. Sending Ercan a check to secure our spot would help. To the bank!


Bonus paragraph: in which I psych myself up to get better at frisbee
-->Doober posted a detailed analysis of every player. I am reposting mine with my own comments added.

Ben "The Formula" Campbell
...
Weak --
Aggressiveness, both in the air and defensively. --> How I can fix it: Mental game, physical toughness. Stop being a little bitch. That's the answer.

Needs to rein in hucks to a reasonable amount. --> How I can fix it: Mental game. The constant struggle. Summer league last year helped me with my mental game and cut the amount of bad hucks I attempted in half. This summer I am going to focus even more on playing turnover free games and making "high percentage low percentage throws".

Needs to learn to jump to fully utilize height and lank. --> How I can fix it: Physical game. I am not going to let my physical capabilities dictate my playing skillset any longer. I will learn to jump. Only thing to do. No excuses. Plus I need to be able to sky Tom on a regular basis, because seriously he is a freshmen.

Segue: Speaking of big hucks, I was throwing with some bros in the shop rite parking lot (you know behind the movie theatre) late at night (earlier today?) and I watched Z Ship's forehand release for a while. You know, its real smooth and he can power it too. I am adopting his style of release and I think it is the missing piece that will bring my forehand throw together. It's so much more of a smooth motion that it will help my whole throwing motion become one whip crack as opposed to a series of jerky movements that leave people wondering what I am up to.

It is going to be big news.
Trust me.

Want. (College Schmollege part III?)

I can't stop thinking about almost getting a layout Callahan this past weekend. It is practically haunting me. I want that d. I want that feeling.

Thinking about it has brought up several key points for consideration.

1. Why did I not get it? I did not layout far enough. My layout form is more akin to falling than flying. Buzz Lightyear might say that is all you need to do, but I don't fly or fall with style. I just sort of flop. Falling with style needs to happen. Push harder.

2. Why can't I layout for any d, Callahan or not? Today, playing goaltimate, there were several instances where the disc flew by and my brain willed my body to 'layout!' and nothing happened. Why? Laying out is not necessarily mental. I can't just will myself to do it. It has to be more subconscious, a visceral physical reaction where I don't think about landing, don't think about losing, don't even think.

3. I will get more Ds if I run harder. Duh. I will get more Ds if I run harder. I will get more Ds if I run harder. I will get more Ds if I run harder. I will get more Ds if I run harder....

Conclusion: Laying out on D, needs to happen. I want to fly. I want to make a play and get the d and inspire the team. I'll do it.

Oh hey

Elders pickup outside today. Hooray. Amazing. It was really good to play. I did some serious work for the first bit, earning a dollar for bookends from Doober. Towards the end I slowed down due to not eating all day. However, Eleazer manned up all over the place and caught about ten points and threw a lot of good throws. It was pretty sweet to see. The freshmen on the team are really stepping up and that's the best.

Had a breakthrough with my forehand today and I feel that I am on the cusp of really huge forehands. Quickening the throwing motion helped a lot.

Motivation to go to practice: critically low. Not from me. I'm there. But the team seems to be entering that end of semester burnout phase. Ugh. So much potential that will have to be channeled into next year. Eh.

I need to get agressive and start jumping again, and get back to the gym.
And make plays,
and layout for Ds.
Hey.

Sectionals redux

Focus -- it took us two games, as a team, to focus. Not proper.
Throw forehands IO, low release, proper form, hips, shoulder jerk -- check. flicks were pretty good with the exception of the games where it was so windy that upfield throws became ridiculously bad. Had one or two massive flicks for goals.
Backhands, grip it and rip it -- Check.
Play defense with every fiber of yourself wanting regionals -- 60%
Get the team fired up -- I tried. I don't know how sucessful I was but I will do better.
Be a team player -- I think I did pretty well with this.
Be positive -- heck yes.
Play out of your fucking mind -- 70%
Win every game. Four bids. Four bids! 1 and 3
End the day happy -- mostly yes.

It was a good weekend.
A building block,
you might say.

Ah spring, when a young man's fancy....

This is my 50th post on this blog. I will have a cookie to celebrate.

So anyway, today was sectionals. The format was changed last minute from pool play to bracket play. I'm not entirely sure why but it was interesting. We needed to come out strong against SUNY Buffalo and unfortunately we did not manage that. We played very tentatively and did not display our usual aptitude for zone offense. Buffalo won by a decent amount and I am hoping they qualify for regionals.

Our second game was against Geneseo Snail. Eh. I did not play very well offensively but I shut my guy down on defense most of the time. Jacked a full field flick to BJC and got a handblock. Me me me. Right, anyway, maybe I'll refelct on this game at a later date when I remeber the details.

Since we lost our first two games we got to move fields for our third game. The second field site was right on the lake and incredibly windy. The wind forced us to really focus on fundamental zone offense which is definately a good thing. Third game was against SUNY Potsdam, sans my Magic Roll crew sadly. We had a very close game. They were up in the first half initially, but we took the lead and took half 8 - 5. Second half they caught up, although I think we got the score wrong but since noone wrote it down (my fault) we'll never know. The game got hardcapped at 12 - 11 us, and eventually we won 13 - 12 in a very tight game.

After playing incredibly hard in our third game against Perfect Storm, our sideline and many of our subs dispersed and hid in their cars to avoid the wind. We started out against Ithaca with two subs and little enough energy. They took half by a large margin, maybe 8 to 2. Eventually we found some flow and energy and made it a closer game, with a final score of 15 - 10 Ithaca. They were a cool team despite one terrible call (although I doubt the player in question would agree with my assesment of the situation).

A lot of our players really stepped up this weekend, freshmen in particular. Eli and Steve both had plenty of D's each. Our zone offense got a lot better over the weekend, as well as our zone d. We will need to work on both at practice. 2x4 got really got at stopping cup crashes, frustrating Potsdam and Ithaca's poppers all day and all night.

So sectionals, for us, is over, after one epic day. I am hoping that the weekend will motivate our players to work hard and commit the neccesary time to the team so that we can keep improving and work towards the goal of winning our section and qualifying for regionals.

This weekend is certainly food for thought. Further posts forthcoming.
Campus disc golf pays off. I threw arguably my best ever in game huck and also one of my best ever pullls.
But I still need to figure out how to hole in one the sculpture.

Anyway yeah.
Happy Easter.
Peace.

Spiking the disc

I know it's wrong.

But it feels so right.

Selfish

Yep that's me.

Anyway, been a while. Yep.
It would seem I have some catching up to do.

So Nocturnal Decisions eh? Well it happened and it was a wild time. My team had a solid collection of skilled players. Everybody had solid fundamentals and the only problem was that some players did not know when to sub out. It seemed that all the teams had a lot of talented players and that the good teams were not those with the superstars but rather those that just clicked. Any of the teams we faced could conceivably have won the championship.

As it happened, Cap'n Dave's team went on to win it all. He is truly a source of pride for the GUNX and I spend most of practice these days heckling him about how he is a tournament champion. My squad finished 6th, going three and five overall. Our point differential helped us out, we played close games and did not get blown out by any team. The tournament itself was very well run and we will definately be back next year. Mad props to Sussman and the WUDI crew for putting on such a fine event.

Personal highlights and lowlights: When I handled, I played the possession game and did not turn it much even later in the night when I got tired. Had a few bad hucks but also a few good ones. Heckled Chetti on camera, quality to be sure. Handblock and layout d combo. One game in the second pool I went on a seven point run where I scored six points and only let my man touch the disc once. Hucked some big hucks, spiked the disc and got yelled at for it by Taylor. Got skied by Joe Smash like twenty times and Taylor layout D’d me a fair bit as well. Blab blah blah me me me!

An observation: You can't have timed games with pulls without an outside arbiter of some sort to enforce quick pulls, or else some joker is going to slowroll the walk back to the line and kill time. ND had a good solution. Instead of make it take it, when you scored you dropped the disc and possession went to the other team. Subbing on the fly was also very cool once I figured it out. I think it is a great way to play indoor.

~~~

Indoor this past Tuesday went well. After spending half of the night digesting tacos, the GUNX went on to straight up dominate, earning several awards in recognition of our mad pickup skills. Charlie received the Nobel Prize for greatest contrast of excellent throwing form with poor decision making in an upset victory over yours truly. Having won that award for the past twenty months straight I can only stop to reflect on my recent desire to play the possession game with horror and grim resignation.

TDs are real nice. First indoor with them I did not play that well due to fatigue from ND (although still much better than the previous week. That week was bloody awful) but the TDs were nice and now they are broken in. They also work really well in the mud.

OMIGOSH SEGUE
-->
Outdoor practice has again started for the GUNX (!!!!!!!) and our first tournament of the spring season is this upcoming weekend. We will be seeing a lot of teams from our section and fine-tuning our game. We have three weeks of practice between LI Classic and sectionals and we are going to make the most of them. Yeah. The GUNX looked solid at our first outdoor practice despite weeks of not playing outdoors, and stoic at our second despite the massive amounts of mud. Looking at the team you can tell who worked hard over the winter. Some people are going to absolutely explode this spring and that will be exciting for the team.

Hey you know what sounds nice? Sleeping. Fear not gentle reader, I will blag again before the end of SPRING BREAK 09 BABY.

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.

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!

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.

What I am up to

Pickup today. Indoor pickup rocks.
Got a layout D and one last week. Also had a few close plays that were nearly layout D's. My D is improving, maybe slowly but nonetheless. Got foot blocked, got a hand block. Caught some goals, got scored on. Pretty even mix of good playing and bad playing on my part.
Workouts going well so far. I don't have a set lifting schedule yet but I am close to figuring it out. In any case I am lifting twice a week in addition to team conditioning. Looking at the people who have been lifting and playing, it is pretty clear who the dominant players are going to be in the spring.

As far as team goals go, I have not done much work in the recruiting department yet. Have to step that up.

Yeah that's all for now.

Snow sports!

I've been throwing a lot lately, and it has got me thinking. This post is pretty self centered so read at the risk of extreme boredom.

Taught my brother the shoulder jerk. His flicks are huge. And now they are going to get even better. If he ever decides to actually play ultimate at some point in the future he will be a force. He has always been naturally athletic and has been throwing since he was eight. He'll outdo me easy, and probably outdo a lot of people much better than I am.

Anyway, I'm getting better at the full body throwing that Muffin describes. Getting the hips into the motion is a huge help and I think I've finally pieced it together. Perhaps this will be the year that my flick finally gets as big as my backhand. That would be neat.

Lefty throws progressing nicely. Learning to control and aim them a bit better.

I'm fairly certain I threw the biggest backhand I've ever thrown today. Since it was in my yard I have no way to verify that for sure, but I daresay it was over a hundred yards. No matter how long it was, I think my throwing technique has improved quite a bit over winter break and am eager to test it out when the season starts. Big pulls and breakmark hucks will be a comin', and I have all winter indoors to work on decision making.

Mini.

Tomorrow(/later today?) I finish the powerpoint and send it in. Been working on it for 21 hours and counting baby.