Thoughts.

Pretty solid practice, we got time in the midday this week so it was sunny and surprisingly warm. Really beautiful. Makes it all worthwhile, being able to play on a bright sunny day with a bunch of people who are not only sweet dudes, but also people you can play with and play well with.

Had a couple botches, mostly focus drops. Not a lot else I feel needs to be said regarding play. We worked break throws for a bit, which was really good–but being a cutter, I don’t exactly get a lot of situations to do it in-game. But hey, well-rounded players are useful players. Did some running too, good stuff. Gotta get better at keeping focused when I’m tired, the sprints were definitely a factor in my drops.

Really nice to see things coming together; we’ve improved a fair bit, and we’ve still got plenty to work upon. Vegas will be a nice challenge for the team.

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.

Huston Street said it best in an article he wrote about being a rookie in the MLB: Every day, you either get a little bit better or a little bit worse.

I try to keep myself in the former category; it’s really easy to fall behind and be lazy in the winter, but you’ll regress. Instead, just devote a little bit of time–it could be as little as 10-15 minutes, total, out of your day–to improving. Even if it’s as simple as thinking about how you’d cut when you’re being forced out in 10 different situations (your main handler has the disc, a cutter with no huck has the disc; you’re in the back of the stack, the front of the stack; the swing has just gotten to the break side; you’re in the endzone; it’s upwind, it’s downwind, there’s a crosswind, etc), or whether it’s working out, or working on your reach when you’re tossing, or working on your fakes, it all adds up.

Just keep that in mind next time there’s 10 minutes you need to fill.

Some specific stuff I’ve picked up on that’s made a big difference in my play:

-Release timing. This made a huge difference in my throws. Previously, I’d always have my release starting somewhere in the middle of my throwing motion, the wrist snap completing at the end of my arm motion. Ideally, though, the wrist snap and release are all one motion at the end of your throw–rather than start the disc rotating before you’ve fully set the trajectory, impart as much spin as possible at the end of the disc’s motion, and it’ll fly with much tighter spin, and thus more stability and better control.

-Grip the disc properly. Generally, get a tight grip you can throw fakes with and not lose the disc with.

-Cock the wrist back farther.

-Always be on your toes, whether cutting, defending, marking, pivoting, whatever. You’ll respond faster.

-Move, don’t reach. Use your body when you’re on defense.

-Have a plan. Whether it’s just “look for/force x. if x doesn’t work, then do y,” or something more complicated, have some idea of what you want to do and you’ll be more likely to be succesful and less likely to wind up confused.

Upper body set:

Day 1 warmup from ultimate workout (mostly two-legged hops and the like to get the blood flowing)
Decline Bench Press 2×12, 1×10 @60lbs
Bent-over Row 2×10, 1×8@60 lbs
Lateral db Raise 10, 8, 6 @ 10
Deadlift w/ 3×8 @ 40
Clap pushups 2×11, 1×12
Flat-footed situps w/ 3×25
Modified handstand pushups 3×10

A few notes:

-I like to work out at a fairly brisk pace. Less than a minute’s rest between sets, and for the most part I go through the exercises quickly, trying to activate the fast-twich muscle as much as I can. Hence the tiring and subsequent reduction in reps as I progressed in some exercises.
-Additionally, I try to use the negative (eccentric) portion of whatever exercise I’m doing as a workout too. So I’ll lower the barbell slowly on bench presses, for example. Supposedly helps hit the fast twitch muscles really well. Incidentally, I was looking at some knee rehab stuff yesterday and found that eccentric work is also supposed to be good for the tendons (my knee troubles are closest to jumper’s knee when they come, which is a form of tendonitis).
-I don’t actually have dumbbells, so the lateral db raise is really more equivalent to a lateral kettlebell raise (i’ve got weights at the end of a lever of sorts which I can hold without too much trouble).
-Jury’s still out on the modified handstand pushups. I wasn’t really doing them too quickly the first two sets, as I was trying to get a feel for what gets closest to simulating a handstand pushup (see my last workout post for a description of how I do these). The last set I started going a lot faster and definitely felt them, so I think that’s the way to go for now.

Thinking about it, I imagine there’s gotta be some fundamental difference in the way people perceive and play the game that makes some people decidedly D players and some decidedly O (beyond factors such as “well, he’s got throws, but can’t play defense worth a lick. o-line it is!”).

And I think I might have something. Well, maybe. I figure, the fundamental difference lies in how one thought processes playing the game–generally speaking, your D-types are better/more inclined to be reactionary players, while your O-types are more…manipulative? subversive?

Whoops, my D player is showing. But seriously. When I’m playing, I’m aware of a few possibilities that might happen/things to look out for (such as helping when last back), but largely I’m simply reacting to what’s happening. That makes intuitive sense, of course–it carries over to when I’m playing O to an extent, though, in that I’m usually looking and reacting to what’s happening (which is why I tend to better with continuation cutting than initial cutting–opportunity cuts, and setting up for them, comes more naturally to me), rather than “creating” offense so to speak. When I go to cut I’m usually cutting to a point to see what my defender gives me, and then I’ll take it, rather than thinking where I’d be the biggest threat and setting my cut up to get there–I often find myself cutting from the back, faced with a halway decent face mark, and starting a deep cut from 25+yards away from the disc–not ideal at all.

I figure effective O-line players (at least, a good portion of them) tend to be more ‘in control’ of their games so to speak, knowing what needs to be done and doing it.

I feel like this is really well embodied by the stack of inaction. A combination of factors–defensive positioning, disc position, timing–and a lack of anybody willing to just bite the bullet and try and make something happen leads to a bunch of players standing in the stack waiting for somebody to cut off of. This also has a cousin, the stack of one mind, where several people all make the same cut simultaneously, reducing the effectiveness had just one cut (you see this often with the break-side continuation cut off a dump).

Anyways, I doubt very seriously people are locked in to one style of play or the other, though I suspect some are more inclined towards one, with the reactionary mindset being easier and more common.

It ties into why I think Offense is more highly valued than defense, and what all that VORP stuff is getting at–any decent athlete can run around and chase a disc with a bit of positioning, but it takes a lot more practice to develop one’s throws and cutting and field sense and all that jazz that makes for an effective offense.

Took yesterday easy, and got in a weightless workout again today. Pretty much the same as Monday’s workout so I won’t bother retyping it, though I did replace handstand pushups (too hard to do several before burning out) with a modified version of an elevated pushup. Basically just tried my best to put as much weight on my hands as I could…needs some tweaking, but it’s got potential. Upper body lifting session tomorrow…it’s supposed to be above freezing, too, so I’m considering giving running another try tomorrow, see how the ankle responds.