11-12/13: Frozen!
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Loading ...Frozen Disc of Death, what can I say…
I had a good time. Great time, even. Got to play with my class, which was really really nice. I’m loving the 08′s chances for sweeping classwars (finishing second only to the 06s amongst Dartmouth teams through no fault of our own)…
Anyhow, I played just fine, generally speaking; the weekend as a whole was a good confidence booster. The level of play is far lower than what I’d encounter playing at your average A-team tourney, so I wasn’t really getting pressured on the mark or cutting outside of the occasional Exceptional Player that would keep me honest. But I don’t think it was a bad thing at all in terms of practice; I got to work on my mark a bit, forcing more than a couple less-than-ideal throws that often ended in turns, got to work on my help D (we worked that really well by mid-saturday, it was a beautiful thing), getting many a sky on D, and got to work on my throwing a bit too, with some really nice hucks (also a few poor executions and poor decisions, but overall not bad). Wasn’t looking to play all that seriously, and I didn’t need to for most of the time, though I turned it up a notch every now and then.
It was really nice to be able to be a B-level stud again, tooling on the unfortunate masses (one of the highlights of today was a girl teasing “so how does it feel to sky a girl?” after I D’d her as last back. I opted for the neutral “Well, somebody had to” rather than “it feels good, real good.”). I did get carried away sometimes in terms of trying to make too many of the plays (though in my defense, I was making the plays more often than not), but it’s all in good fun.
The biggest highlight of the weekend, though, was being able to see, catch up with, and sky my old counselor, Dusty, of Pike fame. He’s got a monstrous forehand huck, I was studying his form a bit but I feel as though I’m lacking the requisite strength to throw that far at the moment. Lots of good heckling, when playing each other, when watching the other play different teams, and some decent conversation about this and that (with this being ‘ultimate’ and that being ‘frisbee’).
So much ultimate this weekend…a little burned out from all the play, but that won’t stop me from going out to practice. Need all the play time I can get…
If you want to count that weak-ass goal as a sky… go ahead and pad your stats. The other one where I was, well, only covering I hope tipped your thrower on the way off the field.
I would like to state the following:
1. On the first throw of your team’s first possession, I jogged by you for a D on an in cut. That is sad.
2. I play Offense, not Defense.
3. My flick huck is shoddy. In order to see my real huck, you would need to be the first player to force me backhand since approximately Fall 2000. OH wait… the Dartmouth team we played on Sunday forced me backhand…
4. Hucking is not about strength, but about acceleration. I mean, you need to be kinda strong to accelerate, but nothing out of your reach, certainly. You can do it. Force is generated from the hips, torso and wrist. Everything else is extraneous, but will help. For me, I took ~15 discs out and threw ~300 60+ yard flicks per day for a month come hell or high water. I threw in the dark. I threw in teh rain. I threw in the remnants of a hurricane. I threw with a huge blister on my throwing finger. I stopped worrying about my form per se, and repeated the following thoughts in my head as I threw to discover the correct form for me:
A) Shorten your throwing motion.
B) Snap your wrist.
C) Make the throw OI.
C2) Make the throw float.
D) Snap your wrist.
F) Snap your wrist.
(Doing C and C2 together was vital for me.)
Also, do a r.s.d search for “Sore joint on the middle finger of the throwing hand” and follow the advice of Ian. That dude can f**king throw. The change helped me significantly.
Good to see/heckle you Matt.
Have you seen my pants?
p.s. Believe it or not, I have been observed talking about non-ultimate topics occasionally.
1. the field was muddy, cold, and hard, and I didn’t want to fall on my ass, so I wasn’t going full speed. It took most of that game for the field to get to a decent point in terms of traction.
2. even O-line players have to play D occasionally. I take my victories where I can.
3. it might be shoddy for an elite O player, but it’s still miles ahead of mine. I can’t speak for my teammates’ marks.
4. yeah, I definitely read that topic over the summer (I did a lot of reading/work on my throws, as it was fairly hard to find ultimate but fairly easy to use the internet and toss). My flick has improved considerably since, though there’s still a lot of work to do, for sure.
Nice seeing you too, I have no idea what your pants look like.
By the way, that second sentance should read “The other one where I was, well, only covering you to the open side… I hope you tipped your thrower on the way out.”
You team’s marks? They’re college marks, what do you expect? That, to me, is the biggest difference between club and college.
Pants update: They have been found.
Wah Wah Wah… Traction… Wah Wah. Funny. It was good enough for me to run past you…
Did you mention how you let me poach the open lane for 50% of the time I was covering you?
The sad thing about the NYu alums is that I’m not nearly the best player on that team… Jeff Ho wins the title, bar none. I just don’t remember if you got to see any of his encredible plays over the weekend… I’ve been trying to recruit him for Pike for 3+ years now… Lazy Bastard doesm’t want to practice. He’s literally too good for it.
Happy Holidays.
50% is a lot less than you were poaching off most of the other people you covered the points I was out.
I’m glad you’ve got pants. They’re a wonderful thing…
Take all the joy you want out of your D that you want, I certainly can’t take it away from you. I still wound up with a positive fantasy score on the game, thanks to a couple caught goals you might remember.
The mark makes a huge difference. We’ve a pretty good range of marking ability even on our team, and we’re one of the better teams in the region. A couple inopportune breaks can be the difference between a breezy uncontested O point and a lot of contested passes leading to a break point. Didn’t mark up on you too much (the few times I remember marking you with the disc you hucked it before I even got set), but I take a lot of pride in my mark. It’s not perfect at all, but it works pretty well.
Oh how I love to Poach… YOu mean like on that guy who would just walk to the break side and get the disc but still not get a throw off before I applied the mark?
Regarding marks, the most vital piece of information that I was given about throwing with a mark was: “Throw like there is no mark.” Once I started doing that, my break throws improved by leaps and bounds.
As for hucking before you set the mark up… well, I’m a gunslinger. What can I say?