Thoughts.

Travelled across the border to Vermont on Saturday to play at an indoor facility with some sweet, cleat-bearing turf.

The game was four corners, a combination of hotbox and boot. Teams of 3 (2/1 M/F ratio, sub on the fly), team on O tries to clear the disc into a circle in the middle of a perhaps 30×30 yd field, then scores a point by knocking over a disc at any of the four corners of the field. Interesting game, requiring a fair bit of handler-squirrely-type play, and a great excuse to get out and run around and get lots of touches.

I played with a pretty underwhelming team, as I was the second or third tallest person on our team, and our tallest guy doesn’t play particularly tall either. That said, though, we played pretty solid defense for most of the tourney, and eventually got some good offensive flow going. It was a pretty solid defensive exercise, working on taking away a particular cut whilst also trying to be in position to make a play on any dump/swings. Took us a while to find our rhythm on offense, though, as we only wound up winning one of our four games on the day.

Had a blast, though–felt nice and strong, didn’t have any ankle concerns despite playing in cleats, which was really my primary goal in playing. Also got some sweet doublewide armbands that are really perfect for layout cushioning/protection, which was just a bonus.

A few things I need to work on, from this tourney (not all of these are readily applicable to ultimate, but it might be handy next year when I go play 4C again):
-better touch on straight leads. It’s much easier with curving leads, but thanks to walls etc a lot of the time a straight lead to one of the cones was the only possible throw and often these throws were too hard to be caught up to.
-playing the receiver, not the handler (when my man is the receiver). I tried to bait a lot of D’s by letting my man get to a point where the handler would put it, but this wasn’t always somewhere I’d be able to get the D. Hehe…not quite that fast, despite how good I was feeling.
-better blades/pushpasses/throws that are much higher-percentage indoors. I forget how useful these throws can be in the right situations, mostly because I’m used to playing in conditions where those throws aren’t often my best option. For 4C, though, it’s often the only way to get through a good defense and into the circle.

That about covers it. Coming soon: the term in review.

Phew. Quite the weekend.

Two days of full ultimate–4 games on Saturday and Sunday–and then 1 last game to cap it off on Monday. Boy, are my dogs tired. Dartmouth went 4-5 on the weekend, 5-5 if you count our win by default over UChicago on Monday. We were 3-1 in universe point games (4-0, if you subtract a play by this guy, more on that later), which was a good sign, though we also lost a couple games by fair margins that we really shouldn’t have to UChicago on Saturday and Tufts on Monday.

But hey, that’s how it went down. Take what’s happened for what it’s worth and build on it. For a pretty well-depleted squad of Dartmouth players that was missing over half of its studs we certainly didn’t embarass ourselves.

I’ll go through the tourney game-by-game.

Saturday:
vs Colorado- My first point in (second point of the game, D point), we forced a turn from Colorado with our zone near the zone and were primed to get the break. I made the first cut, got open against Beau [EDIT: according to Crewser, game film was checked and it was, in fact, Colorado's Beau look-alike, and not Beau himself, I got open on. Meh well, I would've gotten open either way], and was poised to make the catch in the endzone, but the throw was a little long and out of bounds. Having committed to getting the disc, I was in accelerate-to-layout mode, but couldn’t slow in time as the disc went out and wound up making a sort of half-assed fall-layout-thing, bruising the palm of my left hand (which still hurts) and tearing my red plaid skirt I was planning to make a statement with. I feel like this is a pretty good analogy for the tourney as a whole–flashes of potential, but ultimately lacking in proper execution and ending up a bit worn down. We came out fairly strong for it being our first game of our first tourney in a good while (Williams Turf Invite notwithstanding), but were still pretty flat, and Col got several breaks on us while our first opportunity to break was probably our best. 13-5 or so, Colorado.

vs. UChicago- I don’t have too much to say about this game. Saturday in general was a very flat day for the team, and for me–I don’t know if it was the heat, the sun bearing down, the lack of sleep Thursday on the flight over, the 1 1/2 of practice in the sun on Friday, or what, but probably 80% of the tourney as a whole I was playing feeling like I had no juice, no fire to kick my game up to the next level. This would be an adequate way of summing up our game against Chicago, as they went up a couple breaks and never really looked back. I think the final score was 13-9 Chicago or something like that.

vs. UMass- Just what we wanted, a regional matchup early in a tourney we flew across the country to play in. While we had a bit more fire for this game, we still didn’t have enough to get ‘er done. No idea what the final score was, but we dropped this game and dropped out of the top-tier (top 32 team) bracket.

vs. San Diego State University (I think that’s what SDSU stands for)- This game was under the lights, as the sun had already set. We played better this game. I felt pretty strong throughout the game, due in part to the bye beforehand and also due to the cooler temperature, I think. Personal highlights include a very nearly disastrous play where I spiked the disc after milking a pass into the endzone that turned out to be a pass that was contestably on the line rather than past it. Worked out all right, thanks to sideline support from Pov and good persuasion from Seigs, and one would have hoped that I’d learn my lesson from that and start checking line more carefully. Not so. Anyways, we won this game on universe point, SDSU threw zone and a couple redonkulous hammers and cross-field floaters later we’d shredded the zone and salvaged a bit of dignity on the day. 11-10 or 12-11, Dart.

As an aside–Poverty called me out on “the cockiest spike I’ve seen since Seigs” after a (admittedly pretty sweet) sky against Cal on Sunday–I just want to say that when I spike the disc, it’s always the same upside-down, over-my-right-shoulder throw. It comes pretty naturally and has become my preferred method of getting rid of the disc after the score. The magnitude of the spike is not a reflection of cockiness as much as how pumped I am after making the play. I was real stoked about pre-emptively skying two guys who were closing behind me on a deep put, ergo, the force I put into the throw for the spike sent it really high. I was really surprised when I turned around after the play to find the disc was just on its way down. When I start busting out the curtsy spike (gonna have to put the skirt to use somehow), then you can call me cocky.

Sunday:

vs. Stanford B- we showed up flat to start this game, but fortunately Stanford was ill-equipped to take advantage of it. We rattled off a couple early breaks to give ourselves a nice cushion, but then we got lazy and Stanford gave us a wake-up call with a couple breaks. In the end we rolled them pretty hard though, coming out strong in the second half. 13-7, us, I think.

vs. Cornell- this was a tight game. Both teams did well to avoid getting broken for most of the game–I think we each got one break on the other, leading to a universe D point for Dartmouth. Highlights include lots of hucks to Elliott, mostly from Seigs, with a reversal of roles at one point where Ell put it to Seigs instead. In the end, Dart got it done on defense, taking universe point in a great game. 11-10, us, I think.

vs. Cal- An interesting parallel with last year’s winter tourney where Dartmouth beat Cal (who were defending Nat’l runner-ups), making a statement about the team’s strentgh. The game actually went pretty similarly this time, too, as we were poised to take half on Cal 7-3 or 7-4 on a break, as Seigs put a short gainer to me in the endzone. But–me, being a) confused about the precise field position and ergo, the endzone position, b) always eager to generate some good flow with a quick upfield continuation, and c) not having learned my lesson to check feet, quickly spun around and fired a backhand to Sunshine, who, also influenced by a), milked the throw out of the back of the endzone instead of into it, resulting in a turn on the continuation. Cal went on to get a couple breaks on our O before we took half, and we more or less traded points leading up to universe, where Dartmouth struggled repeatedly to seal the deal in the zone, with something like 5 turns before Cal managed to pull off the break and the win. A real tough loss, especially for yours truly, though I don’t really kill myself over the play. Little point in getting myself down over something like that that was a result more of confusion and less of any particular fault in my execution or judgment (though of course, I’ll make damn sure to be more aware in the future). 11-10 or 12-11, Cal (meh…)

vs. UMass, again- tough rematch. Probably one of the last teams we wanted to play again at this point in the tourney. But we stepped it up and avenged our previous loss, with solid zone D forcing a lot of turns and the D line converting on enough to keep Dartmouth in the game. This one wound up going to universe point too, since for some reason we seem to be incapable of beating A-teams without a one-point catalyst to force our hand, and we got it done this time. 12-11, us, I think.

Monday:

vs. Tufts- Disappointing game. We showed up shortly before the game, with little time to warm up…I was playing flat, I don’t know about how the rest of the team felt, but generally everybody seemed too detached. While we didn’t play poorly, we just didn’t have any fire. Even when we had timeouts, halftime, trying to get pumped up, the motivational speeches were all pretty flatline, matter-of-fact, and I found myself trying to picture a more rage-tastic Seigs and Yi getting pissed to try and get my adrenaline flowing to little avail. Started to get some of the fire our very last point, but I couldn’t put touch on a dump pass to Socks (my second botched dump of the game, the former being an upline to Zargham that got layout D’d–should’ve looked for a better option), causing the final turn on the endline (we had too many of those on the D line that game) as Tufts took the game 12-9 or so, I think.

vs. UChicago, round II- Chicago had to catch a flight home, so we wound up winning this one by default and without a fight. Kinda a lame way to end the tourney, though we did get to watch a lot of swilly hucks with some nice highlight-reel plays to get the goals in the Fla-Carleton finals.

General notes: On a personal level, I made a few looks I was perhaps not ready to execute on properly. I had more than a few throwaways. While some of the turns were not necessarily 100% my fault–things like tiredness of the cutter going for the disc come into play–I definitely should be able to make better puts to make those discs less contestable or easier for a cutter to chase down. Certainly my forehand needs more polish at all ranges–I’ve definitely lost some of my feel for it over the winter. Backhand is pretty solid, been working on my reach and extension to get a good around/IO break with it, not that I’m often in position to have to make those sorts of breaks. As a cutter, I had a couple drops/Ds due to poor execution on cuts. Again, not all the turns were 100% my fault, but there’s still lots of room for improvement. I had more than one turn because I was adjusting a cut, either cutting off a deep cut for a gainer or an open cut to streak deep as the disc moved, only to find the one with the disc put it to me on the first cut because I was open on it. I feel like I have a pretty good sense for the temporal and spatial limits of my effectivness on cuts, but sometimes it’s more prudent to stick with the open cut I have, rather than trying to adjust and make for a more effective cut–because open is still open, period.
On that note, I have a pretty good feel for how I played this weekend. Not up to my standards in terms of success, though overall it was a great learning experience. I really was in a position to be a much bigger playmaker than I’d previously been on the A-team level, and while I didn’t exactly flourish in my efforts, I didn’t flounder either. Just another stepping stone on my way up–an assessment that I think applies to the whole team. Everybody elevated their game, and I think we all got to see where our ceilings are right now. I’m certainly not satisfied with what I’ve got right now, and I doubt the rest of the team is either. With any luck, we’ll elevate our games as the season progresses, be that much more capable and effective as a team when our usual studs come back and push us down on the depth chart, and similarly we’ll be that much better prepared to take on larger roles in years to come for the experience we had this weekend.

That’s my hope, at least. I’ve written far more than enough about this already. In terms of non-ultimate Vegas action, I slept. Lots. Watched the Olympics. Mostly slept, though…1-2 subs on D means I played close to half our points for the tourney. Lots of 50-80yrd runs…

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.