Thoughts.

Apologies on the lack of updates over the past few months.  I’m hoping to be more productive on the blog front soon–certainly by mid-June once finals are over–but some personal updates in the meantime:
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For those of you who are international or not on the UPA’s mailing list, there’s been a massive rebranding and website redesign; check out USA Ultimate (formerly the Ultimate Player’s Association)’s new site.

It’s a long-overdue change; clearly new CEO Tom Crawford and his recent hires are intending to really propel the program and sport forward in a big way.

The trend I’m most curious to follow: will their new forums supplant RSD? (They’re looking for moderators, if you’re eager to have a hand in it).  There remain kinks to be worked out (for one, the lack of e-mail address privacy/username use is a little upsetting), but it’s great to see the UPA-er, USAU–making efforts to create a more interactive and informative site for its members.

I’ve yet to play around with all the features, but I’m definitely eager to see USA Ultimate’s continued outreach.  How do you feel about the whole shebang?

Ironside vs. Chain, Semifinals, '09 Club Nationals. Photo taken by Keegan Uhl.

While the college season is picking up steam, a lot of club players are just getting in gear for the coming tryouts and season.

Ballometrics has been maintaining a fitness list for the past few months (tryouts start soon, if you’re interested in playing competitive mixed out of Boston, drop a line); people are starting to do track workouts now that the land is thawing.

I sent the following to the list about doing pre-season track workouts, which segued into a lot of thoughts on running form. As we still have the luxury of training without the constant performance demand of weekend tournaments and practices, it’s a great time to focus on technique and go into the season not only with a good base of strength and conditioning, but efficient form, as well.
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At Dartmouth we’ve been advocating strongly for our cutters to work hard to set up their cuts: “Seven Hard Steps” is an oft-repeated mantra, a reminder of the time and effort needed to really set up your defender and, equally important, to create space to attack when one plants and makes a real cut.

But I still see bunches of guys who, when forced under, do what I’ll call the one-step cut–one hard step in one direction (usually right at the defender) and then a turn and commit cut in the other direction.

Oldest cut in the book, right? Can work for cutters like myself with a quick first step and good acceleration, but good defenders can keep up with this move–it’s a quick fake setting up a footrace.
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Partially sunburnt: nose, ears, back of neck, potentially forearms & cheeks

Layout D’s made: 1

Times point blocked: 1 (This is why I should never make IO huck attempts)

Days of ultimate: 3

Total Games Played: 6
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Three days of fun in the sun.  I think the roster is a dozen, plus or minus a couple?  Been keeping a regular workout habit over the past several weeks…not quite at 100% yet, but maybe another day or two’s recovery will be enough to get (something close to) there.

Regardless, it’s been far too long for domination.

Time to get Philthy.

Xi Xua’s Huddle entries on Crossfit (a follow-up to his earlier article on play intervals in elite open ultimate) provide an informative look into what Crossfit is; however, he does not go in to much depth at all on how to go about how to incorporate it into ultimate training.

This is by design, I think; done verbatim, Crossfit is an extremely taxing regimen to adhere to.  3 on, 1 off, learning how to do technical lifts like the squat and deadlift and the Olympic lifts too can make things overwhelming (to say nothing of the renowned intensity of the workouts).

For me, there have always been two keys to keep in mind with incorporating Crossfit: Progression and Flexibility.
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Vertical jump testing is a lot of fun.

The Dartmouth men have an arrangement with the River Valley Club near Hanover; last Wednesday was our first session there.

After a good, dynamic warm-up (which your team should be doing, if it’s still static stretching), we met the trainer we’d be working with.

First thing he did with us? Took vertical and long jumps (best out of 3), and tested pull-ups (max reps) and push-ups (max reps in 60 seconds).

We also learned how to do a few exercises that we’ll be performing for the next 10 weeks or so.

What we didn’t do, in this first session of the season, was dive right in and get to work. Hard work IS important–the team has been busting their butts over winter break to come into our long winter training with a good base–but just as important as working hard is being able to track progress. What good is weeks and weeks of training, (even if you improve your lifts or what-have-you), if it doesn’t translate to increased explosiveness on the field?

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