Thoughts.

We rolled into Williams yesterday with a depleted squad (missing a handful of our offensive studs, most notably), itching for the chance to finally play some competitive ultimate after the weather and the D-plan had kept us all in limited disc-related activity for the better part of the last couple months.

A couple solid games, the first against Williams, which we lost, and the second against (an also-depleted-squad) UMass, which we won–or were winning, anyways, when the sudden downturn in the weather forced a hard cap–really, when you start out with relatively calm, clear weather, who wants to play in a hurricane? Not me.

Anyways, I had a great time. Played my ass off for two games. Definitely feeling the benefits of just a couple weeks’ conditioning; unlike the fall, where a consecutive point or a good sprint on O or D was enough to tire me, I was able to play strings of 3, 4 points, and have all sorts of speed and power left in the tank.

Played pretty solidly; led the team in D’s, according to Pov’s stat-keeping, and I was only a few inches away from a couple others. Which brings up point number one to improve upon–defensive awareness. Both of the near D’s I can remember came as a deep or wing in zone; in one of the situations better communication/responsiveness on my part would’ve put the defense in a much better position to make the play (there were two of us in contestable range, but he just had a step too much in his favor). The second situation was really more me needing to be more aware and not assume that hey, I’m within 5 yards of my man, I’ll D whatever they put to him–they hooked it around, I had to lay out essentially around him to get a hand on the disc. The same sort of stuff applies with being last back in the stack–I was in the right position a couple times, but was distracted by my man, or something that wasn’t the developing play, and missed the up of the disc and as such had less time to respond.
I also need to maintain focus a bit better, as I had a few turns I shouldn’t have. Got point-blocked my first touch of the tournament, and I have a history of first-touch turns. I had to mess around with my ankle brace a lot before we got going, cutting into ever-important tossing time before warmups, and though we did do a pre-game drill, it was a game simulation and I only touched the disc a couple times. I need to make a deliberate effort to throw with the disc, warm up my throws, and not come out playing careless. I also lost focus and had a drop later in our first game. I forget what it was, but my mind was a bit distracted, which is why I dropped it. My third and final turn was a drop of sorts; cutting in ho-stack, Crank put a lowish disc to my left (side my defender was on) and because I had to slow ever so slightly to bend over for the grab my man got past me for the D. Not entirely my fault, but there’s something to be said for setting up the cut better than I did.
What else…I was happy with how I played on O. Busted ass for the majority of my cuts, made a lot of good cuts, didn’t embarass myself with the disc. Even had a nice huck to Elliott that would’ve been a score if Ell hadn’t been fouled. I felt like I had pretty good stack awareness, as far as where the stack should be, when I was in good position to cut, etc. Defensively, outside of zone awareness I was pretty happy. No breaks on the mark that I can think of, generally kept my man out of the game when I wasn’t last back in man D…played a lot of deep/wing in zone, which worked pretty well, I think. Granted, I don’t think either team was particularly well-equipped to handle the zone, but hey, still good play time.

Outside of playing, had a decent time at the party. It was a bit sparse, but I got to put my ankle through the rigors of a dance floor (which it handled ably) and had a good time with my friends. Highlights include one of the Midd guys coming up to me and complementing me for being one of the few good ultimate players that isn’t afraid to wear flair (did I mention, the theme or the party was ‘porn star cliches’–I was an asian prositute, hair done up and wearing a pretty flowery oriental-style dress), and what was presumably a Williams player asking me at one point if I’d “like to get some Williams ass tonight” (I refused) and following with some complements on my play. I also got recognized by name by one of the zoodisc players when we were shaking hands after the game, which was really cool. I’m starting to feel like I’m gaining some legitimacy and recognition as a player, which is great.

But man, I am beat now. Had a couple pretty ridiculous layouts, including one in the first point of the first game in which I caught a disc by the sideline, realized I was falling off the turf and onto pavement, and dropped the disc to save my face by catching myself with my hands–they’re nice and scraped up on the palms, and I’m feeling all sorts of aches and pains in my legs and various areas of my core as well. The good news is, my ankle held up fine. Still needs more recovery/rehab, but it’s a good sign.

Good
Better consistency with cutting–better positioning and initiative
D, generally
O, generally
Conditioning
My Ankle Brace–easily the tourney MVP in my book.

Needs Improvement
Defensive awareness/communication, particularly in zone
Pre-game routine/Preperation/Focus

Mm, turf fields. We’ve got them from 4-7 every saturday, so we get pretty good play time with the weather being nice. I’d say it’s even preferable to the sporadic late-night leverone times we had last winter.

But man. 90% chance of precipitation, and it didn’t even rain for 10% of the time. I’m glad for divine intervention every now and then, but I must say my faith in weather.com is a bit shaken. Unless they count misting as precipitation (I don’t).

Anyways, a pretty solid practice. We definitely made a good bit off progress working with the short stack–I’m feeling pretty good about my cutting, now that the setup really makes cutting from the back a viable threat both ways. Feeling more comfortable making more unorthadox, I’m-not-the-primary-cutter-but-hey-I’m-open-anyways sorts of cuts, and making them with pretty decent success. And also just getting open cutting in general, since the deep threat becomes more viable when you start from closer in.
Feeling pretty good with my throws too–I had a nice huck to Socks at one point, and a couple other nice puts at mid-range, though the huck drill helped me realize my backhand huck is not as intuitive in terms of placement/flight path as I’d like. Which is to be expected, I suppose, given the layover from throwing (though my throws are generally very solid–all in the wrist) and that most of my indoors tossing is of the chip/high-release forehand variety.

That’s about all. I did figure out that the end of practice conflicts with my job working at the infodesk (this is what I get for setting the work schedule without having a copy of my own for reference), which just creates a nice quandary for me since I’m pretty sure I’m the only one who would do the shift at all. Sigh.

In other news, my ankle is…about the same. I had made some good progress, but then I was stupid and did some pretty high-impact track work, which set it back a bit. But now I’ve got a solid ankle brace, and some theraband, courtesy of the athletic trainer, so I’m hoping to make some steady progress over the coming months (and also planning to lay off the track work for a week or two).

This topic’s been simmering in my mind since the start of the fall. It stems from all of the (or rather, the lack of) A/B team interaction: Basically, how can we be more effective in terms of ‘diffusion of knowledge’, helping newer, less experienced players to benefit from the knowledge that veteran players have accumulated and come to take for granted?

I certainly feel like there’s a lot that can be done. It starts with mixed A/B scrimmaging; while some higher-level players might not like the decrease in competitiveness this brings, I think it provides a good opportunity for the mid-tier players to get a chance being in control of an offense or defense, making plays and throws they wouldn’t normally risk in a high-level game where every turn counts–a good tool for developing confidence (another topic I plan to post on at a later date). And for the B-teamers, you give the higher-level guys a chance to test and improve their skills by matching up against A-level guys, and for lower-level guys they get the chance to play in situations where plays the average B-teamer wouldn’t make are now very doable (like the huck, for example), letting them develop more dimensions to their game and also giving them a chance to observe how the experienced players play, a great learning tool for those who apply themselves.

There’s definitely more that can be done outside of just mixed scrimmaging though. I feel like there’re a lot of guys on the A-team who know a lot about how to play, but either keep the knowledge to themselves or aren’t really sure how to communicate what they know. In either case, I think it’s pretty important to stress to the veterans that they at least make an effort to teach. You might not think you know a lot, but I’ll wager that more often than not that a short, relatively simple explanation can carry a lot of meaning for somebody who has little experience.

For example, I helped a few guys with their throws, specifically their forehands. Having just spent a large part of my summer working on improving my throwing, I had a pretty good idea of what goes into a good throw. Just by offering a few simple pointers–grip the disc this way, snap your wrist at this point, etc–and letting them work out the practical application on their own, they improved a lot pretty quickly.

You might not think that you know a lot, but every little bit can make a big difference in the long run. Just think, I’m sure you’ve had moments where somebody offered you a simple piece of advice that really helped everything come together for you. It’s no different now. Offer advice when you can, and it’ll add up and make the whole team much improved.

I already reviewed the fall ultimate season, but I thought it might be fitting to do a broader recap of how my fall was.

This fall got off to an unusual start. Fresh off my time abroad in Japan (I had less than a week at home), I arrived at Dartmouth in late August to participate in the DOC Trips as a Hanover Crew member. It was definitely a rather huge swing; going from being in a foreign country where I’d just gotten to know people, to home with nobody around, to being at Dartmouth with a group of mostly strangers with whom I immediately spent several days working 16+ hours a day to create, rehearse, and refine the Safety Show To End All Safety Shows and then spending the next two weeks taking care of and performing for over 900 Dartmouth Freshmen, who we then sent off into the wilderness with their upperclassmen trip leaders. Definitely one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had–little can top the exhilaration and satisfaction that comes from successfully pulling off an undertaking of that magnitude, and pulling it off well.

Definitely a different way to start off the term. I’d essentially been transplanting myself from culture to culture, from the comfort of Dartmouth, to the uncomfortability but eventual acclimation to Japan, to the exhilaration and zanyness that is H-Croo, to…being “normal” again. I mean, really, I guess I had some exceptional responsibilities right off the bat, having to rush to coordinate club sectionals at Dartmouth as soon as my commitment to Trips ended, but all in all I’d essentially been placed back into familiar territory on unfamiliar terms in many ways.

I guess it’s just part of growing up. I’d become familiar and comfortable with Dartmouth now, and I was no longer a wide-eyed freshman, just looking to get by–I was a sophomore, empowered to do more and to be more. But while the school really hadn’t changed, I had. Or, at least, I was afraid that I had.

Without getting into too much detail, there was a solid chunk of time at the beginning of the term proper (that is, post-Trips) where I was really concerned about Me. There isn’t enough time between me then and me now to be able to do a completely accurate assessment, but I don’t think it’s unrealistic to say that the me that came back from Japan was going through a bit of reverse culture shock. Not so much in the “alas, my world is changed!” sense, more of a personal level of vulnerability, or perhaps permeability to that which was around me.
While I do love my fellow croolings, and have become very good friends with the people I worked with over the course of Trips, the croos as a whole are a very debaucherous crowd. Suffice to say that I acted in some ways that are decidedly Not How I Roll, both in the context of with the croos and independently as well, and that both my actions and their consequences weighed me down for a good while. I was afraid that the recent series of events was defining a trend and that I was decisively moving away from who I thought I was.

I’ve since come out of the term with a much clearer perspective on Who I Am. I might have fallen below the standards I set for myself (which are hard to keep, as they’re relatively high), but in the end, I choose who I am–I can’t let a few lapses in judgment define me. I can make myself into who I want to be. At the risk of sounding Christian (as a rule I try to shy away from overtly evangelistic conduct; I don’t like the thought of forcing my beliefs on others), being good and Christlike is never easy. As they say, nothing worth doing is.

Aside from my identity crisis and what that entailed, there wasn’t much else eventful that happened. I fulfilled several duties as a team VP, which entailed lots of work and some good experience; worked in a neuroscience laboratory for the term in lieu of taking classes, which was a great experience and a great-paying job; lived off-campus, which was a good experience (and one I’m continuing this winter); made some new friends, mostly through ultimate; got to lead my fuel cell for the term, a good experience and one I’m going to enjoy continuing; and generally had a good time spending time with friends and getting to know people better. May have also laid the groundwork for Matt’s latest Attempt at a Meaningful Relationship over the last few weeks, but who knows about that. In any case, this is not Mackey’s Guide to Making Love. Maybe some general revelations I’ve had on the matter at a later date…

But yeah. All in all, a good term. I’ve come to better terms with who I am and am much happier for it. We’ll see if the winter will be as good; readjusting to having classes again will be fun, at least.

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…

Co-ed practice today, lots of fun. I got to make a bunch of swilly looks and throwaways without consequence, working on my in-game throws a bit (though it’s hard to practice for real-game situations when you’re just making swilly hucks in a game 90% of the people aren’t taking seriously).

Anyhow, Frozen Disc of Death tomorrow. There will once again be an all-08 team (though we’ll see how numbers shake out on Sunday), which’ll be a blast, and more importantly, I’ll get to match up with Dusty (that Pike guy mentioned in an earlier post) and show him a thing or two I’ve learned in the 4 years or so it’s been since I saw (and played against) him last. Should be a lot of fun.

I played B-team last year, and while it was a great time and I did develop a bit, I feel like there was definitel more progress to be had as a player on the A-team (not that I didn’t enjoy the extra play time and limited stud status I had on the B-team).

Cuts have been made again this year, and I feel like the B-team players are again getting shortchanged. We’ve been focusing a lot on A-team development, with all the new players we have (by Socks’ count, something like 60%-ish of the team were not A-teamers last year), and as a result, haven’t been playing mixed with the B-team much, which is currently one of the best sources of development for our B+ players, the guys with dedication and ability that just didn’t make the cut (man, is it hard to make the cut). I’ve had several conversations with people already just expressing frustration or disappointment at being unable to improve at a rate they’d like to.

So how do we work around this?

Obviously you can just have more mixed practicing/scrimmaging…drilling together and the like. Particularly at this point of the season, when the A-team is effectively done playing as a collective until the spring (barring one winter tourney), it makes a lot of sense to get as much development for the B-team as possible. The winter’ll be here soon, and unless you’re really close to Leverone it takes a fair bit of commitment, of “buying in” to the ultimate crowd to see a good B-team turnout. This is particularly important for the freshmen–we need to make sure we get as many invested in playing ultimate and dedicating themselves to improvement now, before the winter comes and the chill winds and lack of consistent practice time leave freshmen vulnerable to other activities and interests taking root and pulling them away come spring.

That works to an extent; with A-quality handlers, cutting options improve tremendously, and the measuring stick for a man defender, mark, really all aspects of play, increase when matched up against an A-teamer. But simply relying on A-team players to be playmakers will only result in having B-teamers who are good at playing with people better than them. You also need to cultivate responsibility and talent in at least some of them for the team to be successful, and I think the best way to really generate that sort of situation would be with a B-team coach.
It makes a lot of sense. It could be as simple as having a couple A-teamers talk strategy and contribute wisdom from the sidelines, though I feel that having a “authority”-type figure would be much more powerful. Even if it’s only in a limited role, I think having somebody who’s in a position of power and really legitimized experience–even the captains could work in this aspect to an extent, though they’re busy with the A-team–looking at the B-team players, evaluating them, and really guiding their development to an extent–would make a big difference.

Perhaps that’s a bit too ambitious of me though. This sport’s really not up to that level of coaching and sophistication. More simply, we could do something akin to what the women are doing with throwing partners, where you have somebody who’s experienced relative to their partner(s) working with and teaching a B-team player, really investing in their personal improvement. Personally I really like being able to toss with somebody, or just be chatting with somebody about ultimate, and being able to point out, hey, if you focus on wrist position when you huck flick it’ll really help keep it from taking a trajectory you don’t want, but I’m not going to walk around instructing everyone I see–it’s just too much, you know? But in a limited role I think most people on the A-team could have a positive impact on the development of the Bness.

I guess that’s part of why I started blogging. It’s really helped me a ton reading stuff on RSD and in blogs about various aspects of play, really got me thinking, and I can only hope to be as helpful to somebody else who’s curious and has the desire to improve.

Yeah. Today sucked.

It was cold, and it rained. I don’t mean like, “oh, look, it’s raining, how nice,” rain, I’m talking the “ah crap, I didn’t know it was gonna rain–and why’s it so goddamn cold!” rain.

Needless to say, practice was interesting. Most of practice was spent either a)lacking feeling in my hands/attempting to close them with little success or b)shoving my hands down my pants in an effort to warm them up. We ran man D drill for a bit, which wound up revealing some really, really helpful insights into positioning and cutting–I hadn’t realized it, but particularly having the deep cuts starting on the break side, rather than parallel with the thrower, would often be the difference between whether I would throw on a deep look–it’s a much easier throw to make in terms of getting it by the defender. So that was good.

My cutting still needs a shitton of work–I do a good job with continuation or opportunity cuts, because those generally give me some direction as to what I want to do–but when I cut in general beyond that I tend to let my defender dictate too much. I need to cut with more of a plan in mind, generally speaking, so there’s something to work on.

We scrimmaged for a bit as well, but that was mostly a shitshow before we gave up due to the cold. Brr. But a hot shower soon ensued, and made everything far better.

Then dinner–why the crap does nobody eat at Food Court after practice now? I mean, yeah, we get done sooner, but still–and then brown writeup with a bit of tossing in the hall of Streeter with Socks mixed in. I had an epiphany about backhand; the way Cabo holds his backhand–with the wrist really rotated towards the body so the disc is under the forearm rather than an extension of it–it really adds a lot of extra spin, and I find really helps my feel for backhand be more natural, which is really nice. Something else to work into my standard repetoire over the next several months.

Other than that…had a good lifting session yesterday, felt it a bit today but in a good sore way, not a painful sore way, which is a good sign. Ran out to practice, which was clutch–it got me good and warm before we even started, and it got the blood flowing to help with recovery from yesterday’s session. I figure I’ll run T Th mornings, and run to practice M W F, with lifting T Th as well, maybe some extra stuff Saturdays depending on what’s going on.

I’m really excited to train and get better. I keep saying this, but really just thinking that every little bit I do, whether it’s improving my game, training, or whatever, is that much more that I’ve got on every other ultimate player out there, making me better, it really gets me going.

Not having homework likely helps too, fewer distractions and all that. I’m a happy man, let me tell you…