Thoughts.

Some brief recaps of the past couple weekends:

-UMass: my main thought coming out of this tourney was “man, I need to stop getting pointblocked.” pretty swilly/shitty tourney, on the whole. I had several poor-execution moments on O and D.

-Yale: overall, pretty solid. Played a shitton, ran more than probably 90% of the team playing point in 1-3-3, marking handlers in clam, and cutting when we got the turn. This was probably when I realized my hucks aren’t as solid as I thought they were–I swear they were better in the fall, I feel like I’ve regressed a fair bit thanks to indoors/less throwing in general over the winter.
I felt really, really good about my D though–the first time in a while I’ve felt legitimately confident in my D ability. I feel like I’m finally getting “caught up” in terms of playing good D against A-level players instead of the standard b-fare we usually ran against last year. I also feel like I’m getting back into the sort of shape I’m used to, on the ground at least, which definitely helps a lot in terms of reaction ability. Anticipation’s gotten better too, I’m getting a better feel for the cutting lane and the disc position and starting to play more to my strengths and less to “not get beaten,” with good results. And of course running 1 in 1-3-3, which has been pretty solid for the most part. Still room for improvement–I don’t think I have the tools to be a threat on the mark like Socks, but I can do a better job of avoiding the quick break as I’m setting the mark and on anticipating/perhaps even baiting the short 2-foot handler-weave dump pass for some D’s on the mark with a well-timed bid. But that’s for later.

-Sectionals: not much to say here; we rolled our competition without too much trouble. I played a ton, but less than the previous two weekends with the games being less close in general. Hucking still needs some polish, need to be a bit more deliberate with those in the future, but overall pretty solid. I’m already feeling the general improvement in my throws in windy weather, don’t think I had any non-huck throwaways. Getting out and low a bit better and it’s getting a bit more instinctive, though there needs to be more polish there. Didn’t get pointblocked, unless you count one throw I had that my mark got a hand on because I made a last-second adjustment on my huck to avoid hitting the people on the sideline (stupid stoned clown posse). I don’t count that, by the way. I do count it as progress.

-Now: That’s where I’m at, more or less. Looking to work hard these next two weeks and cap off a strong season at regionals, one way or the other (natties would be icing on the cake).