Thoughts.

This is a pretty interesting bit–touching upon the neural basis of training, talking about visualization training effects. This generally has the most relevance when hurt–even if you can’t bear weight on your knee, visualizing doing squats can work pretty well too–but at times when you can’t get into the gym to do your full lifting routine or whatever, try visualizing some heavy lifts instead.

Finally, we have single-leg squatting. One of my favorite bodyweight exercises, most likely because I’m more than capable of doing them and most people aren’t. Beast Skills also has a great tutorial for this–as well as a number of guides to various other bodyweight wonders. It’s a great way to mix up your training, particularly if you’re in the off-season. I’m a firm believer that my capability to do such things with my body (specifically, handstands and single-leg squats) reflects my high kinesthetic awareness (that is, intuiting where my body is and how it moves in space and the ability to manipulate it skillfully), something that differentiates some of the best athletes out there. I’m not presuming to say I’m one of the best athletes out there, but developing in this way certainly is well down that path.

I keep a ginormous compilation of links on fitness and training.

Linkin’ Time, incidentally, is a reference to the Jack-O prank Drinkin’ time.

We were trying to get Leverone (Loverone) space for practice today, but that fell through, so we planned to do conditioning in the gym at 4.

Well, turns out the West Gym was set up for a banquet–tables and a roll-out carpet covering the floor, podium set up, the whole shebang for the opening of the new varsity house (which I will hopefully get the chance to sneak into and check out sometime in the coming weeks). So we did some focused throwing outside and went for a GREAT run.

Rip Road. Indian (or as Cobbles says, First Arrival) Runs. There were maybe a 14-16 of us, so plenty of rest between sprints (we went single-file, so one runner at a time). And we cut through the golf course on the way back in the twilight to get a good view and go up and down a few hills for some extra work, too. Really good, solid workout. I’m still feeling it.

Better still, I felt GREAT. Every sprint was money, I was feeling really explosive. Even after cutting through the golf course and doing a fairly long hill sprint, I had enough left in the tank to use my arms to drive hard through the last couple sprints. I haven’t gone on a run of that distance since last winter when I was gearing up for the spring. I’m excited.

We’re going to CCC in Chattanooga in less than two weeks’ time. We’re (currently) in a pool with Texas and Georgia. I can’t WAIT! It’s gonna be some high-quality, ass-kicking ultimate. Whether we get our strategy and skills together in time remains to be seen, but I’m excited as all hell to get out there and run my ass off against some great competition, and I know that we’re going to make a ton of progress as a team as a result of our playing there too.

CCC will be the stepping stone for the rest of our season. Here’s planning (as opposed to ‘hoping’) for a big leap forward.

Oh man. Oh man.

This is going to be a great year.

We rolled into Brown having no legit tourney performance beforehand this Fall, and left having (in my opinion) proven to ourselves that we’re more than capable of running with any team in this region. As always, it seems, but there remains SO MUCH room for improvement, it’s almost silly to think about where we could be in a month, in a few months, come the spring. We’re at an amazing stepping-off point, and I’m beyond excited to help our team reach new heights.

At any rate, on to the recap…

Game 1: vs Wesleyan
After a relaxing bus ride down (interrupted only by a forced switch from a finicky long bus to a reliable short one), we got ready to play and came out strong. It was a cold and windy day, so all the games had a pretty solid upwind/downwind component to them, especially the earlier ones. We got started a bit late, and our first point (we started on D downwind) was long and hard-fought, as we worked the disc up the field a couple times, punishing their foolish choice to force us out with solid puts to deep cutters–while we didn’t manage to put in in on that point, our ability to get the disc from them (and their ability to give the disc to us) persisted throughout the game. Our failure to score going upwind did not.

They’re listed as Wesleyan-B on the SRT, which would explain a lot–I was sorely disappointed after hearing them get hyped up so much. The game was a good starting point for us, as we established some of our zone sets, began to apply some of our offensive strategies, and had some moments where we really ran and played extremely well. We won 8-4, apparently–I do believe that was in hard cap.

Game 2: vs MIT
I was sorely disappointed this game. Not with Dartmouth, but with MIT. Again I had looked forward to playing a good team here–MIT went all the way to the backdoor semis last year (where we beat them in a really, really good, hard-fought game to make it to the backdoor game to go), but this year it seems that they have not only graduated their two best cutters but they also lost their core handlers who were such a huge rock for them on offense last year. We threw a lot of zone again, and they really didn’t have an answer for it, with lots of short turns going upwind and downwind letting us rip this game wide open. It’s not surprising at all that Wesleyan beat MIT after this, given how they played against us.

At one point during this game (at least, i think it was this game–perhaps it was against Wesleyan) Misha sprained his wrist, taking him out for the weekend. Definitely missed seeing him play, but that we continued to roll over the weekend was a testament to our depth as a team. This is easily the deepest team I’ve been a part of at Dartmouth. Perhaps the A-team was like this in 04-05, but I really don’t think so.

Not too much else to say here. No highlights in particular leap to mind. 13-4 win, us.

BYE:
We chilled/slept on the bus. Thank you, Raines’, for donating 4x our allocated budget from Dartmouth so that we can take a bus to the occasional tournament!

Game 3: vs Brown-Y

A compilation of Brown-B and Brown-C (how that adds up to X and Y is beyond my algebraic understanding), these guys are better than your average B-team.

That said..this game was not close. Final score tallies were something like Carson 7, Bollox 3, Rest of Dartmouth 3, Brown-Y 2. Carson was flat-out ridiculous in this game. Granted, they couldn’t really cover any of us, but Carson was just on fire when it got to the endzone. I think he only sat out 3 or so points total over the course of the game. That guy loves ultimate, and I’m glad he does–we all benefit.

Interlude: Night at Brown

No good stories from yours truly this time (I can only get called “Dartmouth’s fastest man” so often) but a few scraps I picked up from gossip circles…

-”W, your scruffy beard tickled my face and my heart…give me a call if you’re ever in DC -XOXO, C”
-”Blackout!!!”
-Shmi leaping into the bushes after a lost rosham
-The dorm we were staying in apparently consisting entirely of steaky football players and scantily-clad women

Game 4: vs Cornell
Another day, another Dunkin’ Donuts stop. We had plenty of time to prepare before our first game–I commented at one point, while we had already run and gotten limber and were drilling while Cornell was still mulling around on their sideline that we had “won the warm-up,” and sure enough, we came out a lot sharper, opening with an upwind break on D and continuing to roll out to a 4-0 lead. Our D was tenacious, and our O, while not perfect, was good enough. We made the plays.

However, after storming out to our 4-0 lead, Cornell fought back a little as I think we mentally started to take them for granted. We went into half up 8-5, as I recall, and we talked about getting our grit back and really battling for every play in every point. And then we went out and took it to them, scoring three unanswered out of half to finish things in soft cap and close out the 11-5 win. Cornell is a good team, and especially given their athletes I had expected them to a) put the disc more often and b) make more plays, and while they did get their fair share of Ds and catches on floaty puts, they never seemed to find a groove on O–due in large part, I think, to our great D. When they went spread we were poaching smart and taking away all kinds of space, and when they went straight we contained their cutting threats downfield and forced their handlers into making uncomfortable decisions. All-around solid play by Dartmouth.

This was the game that got me really excited for the coming year–watching us run so hard and play so well here showed me just the capability that I think we can bring consistently on the field, and I think there’s plenty of room for growth on top of that, too.

BYE: We watched our women play MIT for a bit (Sam Snow, I don’t care if your girlfriend plays for them–know where your loyalties lay!), then returned to our fields to prepare for what would be our last game of the weekend. That is, of course, Harvard, whome we can never seem to escape playing.

Game 5: vs. Harvard

In an almost ironic reversal of our last game, Harvard went up 4-0 on us early as we had a few botched executions to go with a couple iffy decisions, and Harvard pounced on the turns and quickly struck to score. Despite the score, we continued to play our game, making a few defensive adjustments, pressuring the resets more and mixing in a couple other looks to take them out of their rhythm a bit (similarly to how they tend to crowd the lanes and mix in some varied zone sets to keep us on edge, including a clam set in the endzone off of a timeout). After their early lead, we fought back a little, but basically wound up trading points the rest of the game–we went into half down 8-4 or 5, and the game ended in their favor, 13-9.

Lots of great plays had in this game. Crambo had some bitchin’ moments on D especially (and played with the consistency and hucks of a young Sam Routhier!), and we had plenty of plays to rally around during this game–some great, team lockdown D at times, Will DeKrey and the hand of God pulling down a prayer, lots of all-around awesome.

Personally, I felt GREAT this weekend. The elusive second gear was not only present, it was persistent! It’s a good sign for my summer conditioning and speed work, as well as for the lifting I’ve been doing all term. The real test will come when it’s time to play 3 games in a row, 4 games in a day–we’ll see how the knee holds up then (it was on the cusp of being on the cusp of being a problem, but nothing I needed ibuprofen nor the knee strap for–though I did need some ibu for my ankle after I rolled it on Brown’s shitty slanted fields). For now, though, I’m feeling like I’m in probably the best shape (or at least the best health) I’ve ever been in at this point of the year, which is exactly where I want to be if this is going to be the best year I’ve ever had and the best year Dartmouth Ultimate has ever had.

Things are nicely on track for what has already been an amazing senior year to continue. Now if only my studies were as enjoyable as ultimate…

I missed the 100th post, but this is the 101st. That’s a hell of a lot of words I’ve typed.

I think it’s a really great question to consider–really, tournaments are the measuring stick against which your team’s entire body of work is measured. It’s not always the case, but being better prepared to come on strong at the end of a tournament means more wins.

Sent this in an email to some friends, seeing as I haven’t done any posting in a while I thought I’d cut and paste to here:

I just got in to Skidmore and am starting to settle in before the kids show up on Sunday. I find myself jonesing for some good quality ultimate, but I won’t be able to get that until late summer at the earliest. I think I might see if I can pick up with the huge ass bears at some point later in the summer, or just go up to Dartmouth visit and play around.

Looking forward to getting things underway here though. Should be a fun summer!

I plan to disseminate all the information I gleaned from this weekend’s Ultimate Coaches and Players Conference (UCPC) on this blog; I’m going to break it up into parts for (hopefully) easier reading.

Let me first say that the UCPC was a great success. All of the seminars I went to were very helpful and informative, and I’ve come away from the conference with more new knowledge to apply than I know what to do with (thankfully, I have pages of notes to refer back to). Tiina and George definitely surpassed what I think anyone was expecting for the first time a conference of this kind was ever put on, and I’m looking forward eagerly to see what they do with it in years to come.

I’m going to start my recaps with the part I’m most likely to forget detail about soonest, the seminar on training for ultimate. You might think I’m most likely to forget about it soonest because it’s harder for me to remember, but it’s more the opposite–I’m so familiar with a lot of the material that if I wait too long to go over it I’ll confuse what I learned with what I already know.

The presentation was definitely useful–given almost entirely by Bryan Doo, a former DoG player who is now the trainer for the Boston Celtics (Dan was there, but he seemed to be playing tech support…I’m sure what exactly his role was in the program, actually). Just one look at him would tell you that he’s a pretty fit guy, but he continued to put it on display for us through demonstrations of his athleticism in the various drills and exercises he went over for us.

Doo opened by saying that Ultimate is, by far, the hardest sport to train for, and I’m inclined to agree. Given that in a single point, you can be running, sprinting, stopping, changing direction, jumping, laying out, and throwing, and that you have to maintain this level of performance over the course of at least a minute or two, oftentimes longer, before you can get a break, and that while most sports have single games, ultimate has players going for a full day or weekend, it’s definitely unique in that it requires great conditioning as well as great strength and athleticism to excel (or a deep roster so you can sub out often).

He began his discussion of fitness by talking about the two most under-worked (and under-appreciated) muscle groups in the body: the hamstrings and the gluteals. The majority of people are quad-dominant; with better hamstring strength and better gluteal activation, you’ll take a lot of strain off of your quads and enable yourself to go harder for longer, as well as reducing injury risk.

Doo strongly advocated against using simple leg curl machines for training the hamstrings, emphasizing movements that involve eccentric contraction (legthening the muscle under force), as the hamstrings are your primary decelerators when running. He pointed to leg curls with the legs on a stability ball and deadlifts (I volunteered “deadlifts” when he asked what people did to train their hamstrings and got a cry of “Yes! It’s like I plant them out there!” in response) as great exercises for exercises to train the hamstrings. With stronger hamstrings, you’ll be better able to stop–I shouldn’t need to say how important being able to stop is for cutting in ultimate; additionally it’ll reduce your injury risk–if your hamstrings aren’t strong enough to stop you at a full sprint, you’re more likely to be slowing down/stopping/planting and tearing/straining your hamstrings.

For the glutes, Doo took a different approach. The thing with the gluteal muscles is not so much to work toward strengthening them as it is to work towards activating (ie, contracting) them better. Proper gluteal activation ensures proper hip function, and weak glutes will force your quads to work harder and heighten your injury risk in the back and hamstrings, as they’ll have to compensate as well (an aside–this illustrates why it’s important to not simply “treat the symptom” with regards to injuries. Your hamstrings can get tight or be strained for any number of different reasons–don’t just do leg curls and expect it to get better, because it won’t fix the true problem. Look to the rest of your body for the cause and treat that). Doo had a number of different exercises and drills to work towards better gluteal activation–leg bridges, single leg leg bridges (going up and down or holding them, and putting your hands on your butt to feel the glutes and make sure they contract), and a couple of drills I couldn’t possibly do justice trying to explain here. Check out the UCPC’s download page for a link to the videos we saw (I haven’t checked the links myself, but you should be able to find them directly or in the powerpoint) to see–Doo definitely emphasized the importance of these drills for becoming more athletic.

He also made it a point to mention that when doing these drills (some of which are plyometric in nature), they should be done when well-rested and NOT as a conditioning tool unless you’re already very good at the drill. When done as conditioning and form breaks down from inexperience, you’re increasing your injury risk.

The other major training facet he emphasized was core strength, especially rotational strength. As an ultimate player rotational movement is a fact of life, and it also comes into play whenever you run, jump, or really do anything with one arm or one leg. You can train rotational movements any number of ways, I won’t go into them here. He also emphasized general core strength, as a strong core makes your whole body more efficient and stable.

The last two parts Doo spoke about were injuries and general training strategies. On the topic of injuries, Doo spoke briefly, mentioning things like RICE (rest, ice, compress, elevate–the hierarchy of treating minor injuries (minor meaning you don’t have a broken bone sticking out–in cases like that, a trip to the hospital is best)) and the need to maintain conditioning, with lower-impact activity if necessary such as swimming. He also emphasized the need to work slowly back towards athletic activity–with a mantra of “stability before mobility,” Doo said that an athlete should be able to hold a position before doing exercises that move through a position. He also stressed the importance of getting one’s range of motion back after injury–if you fail to do your rehab correctly, for example, you’ll wind up compensating elsewhere and increasing your injury risk–if not at the first injury site, then elsewhere.

Finally, he spoke in broader terms about training well. He started by attaching static stretching in your warmup, as lengthening your muscles before you do activity actually decreases the amount of strength you can apply (think of how much force is applied by a rubber band you pull apart at two points close together vs. at two points farther apart), and instead recomended low-intensity, range-of-motion type movements to get the blood flowing and the body ready to compete–he also differentiated between an “active” warmup where there is light jogging and dynamic stretching from standing position, and a “less active” warmup when you’re already warm (say, between games) and want to conserve energy and instead do less engaging dynamic work sitting or lying on the ground.

He talked for a bit about speed, agility, and quickness, and he went through some drills that work on these aspects; he emphasized a few qualities that will enhance these traits, namely that: an athlete should have a strong base (think of how you stand when getting ready to mark/guard somebody–you should be on the balls of your feet, already applying pressure inwards toward the ground. This gives you a stable position from which you can explode in either direction without having to waste time moving from some other ready position to this one); an athlete should have awareness of where his or her center of gravity is; and that an athlete should apply force to the ground. The last one is of particular importance. The more force you apply to the ground, the farther and faster you go (This is why I place weight/strength training above any other training modalities for becoming a better athlete).

The last thing he mentioned was the need to cool down, admitting that he’s not particularly dilligent about it himself. At this point, it’s OK to do static stretching to increase your range of motion, because you (hopefully) won’t be doing anything too high stress for the rest of the day. It’s important to use the cooldown as a time to relax and get your heart rate back to normal, as these things will enhance recovery.

Oh, RSD.

Look at that, two posts in the span of an hour. Amazing what reading period before finals can do for my non-academic pursuits…