Thoughts.

Nothing too special, got to practice late, played a few points (no turns, which is nice–did a better job warming up, so I was ready to go), learned a couple new plays/defenses, and then chatted with the fuel cell leaders about the state of the blogosphere.

Had my blog called out, which I haven’t decided whether or not is good yet (though my ego likes the compliment, I don’t know if it can handle the pressure of an audience).

Yeah. Looking forward to Brown this weekend, gonna kick some ass. Didn’t feel like a liability today, which is good, but I wasn’t playmaking either, which isn’t bad at this point but hopefully on the horizon.

We’ll see how the weekend goes, should be a decent indicator of how I’m doing…

Poor practice today.

Got out at my usual practice-is-already-half-over time slot, and got in about three reps of break mark drill on the forehand side (I really would’ve liked to have done more of that, too) before we broke up to do some O v D stuff.

I don’t know. I didn’t play poorly, but I haven’t been playing anywhere near as well as I’d like to and feel I’m capable of. Part of it stems from a lack of conditioning; I keep finding myself going for a sky or in position to bid but lacking the juice to get it done. Not that I can’t kick it into high gear when I need to run, I just have trouble getting my typical explosiveness. I get the feeling this is at least partly due to the circumsances when I get to practice: I’m late, not really fully warmed up, so I take a couple points (hopefully only a couple) to really get going, and I also wind up putting a lot of lactic acid into my quads before I even start to play from biking uphill half the way to practice, which I think is also a factor in the lack of explosiveness.

Other than physical complaints, I was having trouble getting fired up to play, not in the sense that I wasn’t excited to be playing, but just the circumstances of practice for me at least have been such that, rather than simply focusing on my own game, and playing well, I’ve had to worry about team strategy x or person y being overtly critical in less-than-ideal timing, and as a result my mental game’s been slipping.

I really just need to get playing more. This lack of action is killing me, I haven’t had any really consistent opportunity to play since the first week of classes when I wasn’t late to practice (and before then, it was maybe one weekend out of my entire summer, when I played at a tourney).

Meh. In any case, looking to get things together well enough to play solid D at Brown. I think the reduced playtime (as opposed to near-savage scrimmaging) coupled with the extra adrenaline of playing other teams with new players and looks I’m not used to will help me stay focused and on my toes full-time.

Yeah. In summary, daylight savings sucks, and I want to play ultimate like it was my job (or rather, in lieu of doing my job, but that’s not happening). At least I’ll be able to get out to practice on-time next week, once I stop having to run these rats…

Pretty ho-hum practice today.

Showed up my usual 45 minutes late, drilled for a bit (stack stuff), and then we scrimmaged for all of the hour of daylight left. Fall sucks sometimes.

The scrimmage I was in was pretty shoddy; the teams weren’t unbalanced, really, but we (the dark team) kept mis-executing. Shoddy, shoddy play all around. The overall talent level of the game was a bit lower than the usual mixed scrimmage, too, it seemed–dark in particular wasn’t getting the playmaking it needed.

But anyways. I didn’t play exceptionally well or exceptionally poorly, got to handle a bit, threw a couple turns in the Z that were rather careless of me. No good/bad for today, really not enough play time for a proper assessment.

So apparently the fields drained enough to be good to go today. We got out and had some good practice time, I got to practice in time for a couple rounds of huck drill and then we got down to a bit of O v D scrimmaging.

I had a good time playing; I was a bit out of gas towards the middle of the first half (we had 8-man teams, so I didn’t sub out much), but then I subbed for a couple points and was good to go for the rest of the game.
I was really surprised at how well we played; we were executing really, really well with our deep looks, and had a lot of points where we really ran our O like an O-line; lots of good looks, generally valued the disc, and made a lot of conversions. Our D was really solid, though the O eventually started running some set plays, getting some breaks, and scoring more easily.

Not to say we were perfect, there’s still a ton of improvement to be had, just keeping the offense moving constantly and responding to what the disc is doing when the handlers dump-swing etc, but the scrimmage as a whole was very very productive and I feel like we made some good progress in addition to getting a bit of conditioning. Definitely a good practice to have after a bit of a layover.

I don’t really have a ton to mention on a personal level, aside from the need to work on my handling skills. I really really like putting it quickly to the first thing that looks open to me, which can be really good at getting the offense moving, but there are lots of situations where I should level off a bit more and take a more o-line mindset with the disc. But it’ll come with experience, I think. I’m fairly happy with my cutting as a whole, just the consistency in cutting when the opportunity’s there to work on.

Good
General play, cutting in flow

Needs Improvement
Handling (experience, risk assessment)
Consistency in cutting

Yeah, a day late.

Anyways, practice went pretty well yesterday. Showed up just in time for skills work to start, which was nice (though I wasn’t sufficiently warmed up and just jumped right in). We worked on a couple plays that more or less have generating good flow as the goal, and I got to work on my hucks a bit in the drills which was good. I think that actually carried over to the scrimmaging afterwards (mixed A/B), as I wound up making a lot of deep looks, a couple of which were great, several of which were decent looks but poor execution on my on the receiver’s part, and a couple of which were better holstered.

In any case, it worked out well; there were a fair number of turns, meaning I didn’t wind up feeling like an ass for not valuing the disc. I’m trying to open up the deep game a bit from the throwing side, since particularly on d-line it won’t always be a guarantee to have a solid core of handlers to put it to me cutting (meaning I’ll be spending more time handling). I like my flick a lot, generally speaking, but the backhand needs a bit of work; it’s fine for leading with touch, but my default is the slower, floaty backhand and I need to cultivate a good bullet backhand I can put to cuts starting farther out in the stack.

This’ll all come with experience, of course. I definitely want to get a lot more work on developing that while I can.

Yeah.

Good
Deep looks, generally speaking
Forehand hucks

Needs Work
Backhand bullet hucks
Risk assessment for viability of more questionable deep looks

Practice cancelled for the rest of the week. I’m thinking I’ll take the next several days “off” from ultimate, so to speak, so likely nothing new for a bit unless the muse hits me.

Went down to Yale this weekend to play one day of ultimate (bracket play got rained out, unfortunately). Dartmouth A went 4-0, but seeing as our closest competition was Northeastern in a 13-8 win by us, we really didn’t have a ton of very competitive games.

We did have a pretty good time though, despite the poor weather. And the women and Bness were there too, so we had a nice team-bonding sort of experience; the Bness went 2-2 without competitive subbing, while the women continued to be undefeated this year, winning yet another tourney (the women only had a one-day thing).

Anyways, I got lots of PT, particularly against Northeastern, and I played so-so.

As far as things I did well go. Offensively, I had no turns on the day (though I did have a near-throwaway that Rem being so springy helped save). I also had a couple really nice plays in flow, getting a nice breakside pass and shortly thereafter making well-put assists from power position. But that’s more or less a given for me from power position, I think, so it’s nothing too great. Had a couple nice runs and cut decently as well.

There were far more things I need to improve. Partly due to weather, and partly due to, you know, 3 hours of sleep the night before, I had neither the explosiveness (for laying out or skying, as well as sprinting) or the traction (for quick changes of direction) I’m used to, so I found myself unable to make good on a baited D attempt, or getting beat in conditions that normally would be workable for me. I’ll need to be a bit more aware of this in the future and respond to the conditions accordingly, and I don’t generally plan on staying out so late before tournaments, so the lack of gas should resolve itself naturally as well as with more training. In addition to the defensive gaffes, I had several miscues as a cutter. It wasn’t just me, mind you, but there were several situations in which I should’ve been cutting in as a fill as the dump strugged to get off, or making a continuation cut (or a cut to get the offense going, period), and I would be late or ineffective. Again, this partly comes back to the conditions–the stutter-steps and jukes and such aren’t as effective when you can’t change direction as quickly–but part of it was just me not being aware enough.

Good
Disc judgement/throws

Needs Improvement
Dealing with weather conditions, specifically rainy/wet fields
Getting proper rest pre-tournament
Awareness as a cutter

I consider myself a pretty well-experienced man defender. There are a few things that I think are key to good defense:

-Dictate. Far and away the most important thing when on defense. You always have to focus on taking something away from your cutter; don’t try to be greedy and take all of your cutter’s options away, because he’ll be able to get whatever he wants as a result. Pick one thing–”He’s fast with great ups, so I’ll force him to cut towards the disc by setting up a few steps behind him”–and stick to it. Even as he cuts in, unless you’re positive he’s all-in on that cut, don’t overcommit, lest you see him turn around on you and bust deep, uncovered. Keep a take-away mindset about you at all times, and you’ll be less likely to get juked or faked into giving up what you want.

-Triangles. This goes hand-in-hand with dictating. There are three points in the triangle, and this varies depending on who you talk to: either it’s your man, you, and where he wants to go to be open, or your man, you, and where the disc is (the handler). Either way, you’re looking to get the same net result: get yourself in a position where you take away as many of your cutter’s easy options as possible.

-Stay close. This can vary depending on you, your energy level, and your man, but generally speaking the best defenders play close to their man. I can still set up to take away the out, but if I’m only one step away from my man I’ll be much better prepared to respond if he cuts in or busts to the break side, making all of his plays contested ones. The variance comes in if your man is much faster than you or if you’re out of gas and can’t keep up the energy that the quick reactions of staying close require.

-Be prepared to cover what you’re giving him. This comes with staying close to your man. If I’m forcing my man out in a forehand force, for example, I like to set up fairly close, in a ready stance, with my left and right feet oriented so that my left foot is pointed towards the break side, and my right foot it pointed deep. In this way, if my man just busts to either side I’m already prepared to start running after him.

-Keep your weight forward. This ties in with the above. It’s easier to start running or change momentum if your weight is already moving in that direction. If you’re on your heels, you’re handicapping yourself by a good step or two on most cutters. Always keep your weight forward when you’re set up, and as you respond to your cutter, continue to keep your weight forward.

-Don’t break into a run as long as you can manage it. You go faster when you run as opposed to when you shuffle, but you lose the response time the ready stance affords when you break into a run. Make sure you know your man is committed before you break into a run after them.

-Realize where/when your man is a threat. This comes with experience, and knowing your opponent (do they like to do breakside flow often, will they put it deep, how far can they put it, etc). If you’re covering somebody who’s running deep and they get 30+ yards away from the disc, you can ease up and let them keep running deep in vain while you stay close but conserve energy–at that distance, if the disc is put, it’s likely to be short, meaning you’ll already have better position, and it’ll take a while to get there in most cases, giving you ample time to respond on D. Likewise, if your man cuts to the break side and you’ve got a hard trap and the other team shies away from the break look, you can give yourself an open-side buffer to avoid the possibility of getting beat to the easy side of the field. But generally speaking, stay close enough that you’d have a play on a swilly put.

This also extends to poaching; if your cutter’s just standing still in the stack, or is uncalled in an iso and isn’t staying active, take the time to look around, assess the field, and keep an eye out for an opportunity to poach. I’m not saying immediately leave your man alone, because that’s generally not a good idea, but if you see a play developing and have the chance to get in the way, go for it, especially if you know you can get the D.

What else. Dump defense…same rules apply, try and play close while taking one option away with your positioning (I like to take away the upline cut), make sure you don’t get beat, and when they take what you’re giving them play it hard and contest the throw. This isn’t always possible, but keep pressure on, and make sure you’re quick to set the mark in that situation to avoid dump-swing looks.

That sums up most of my defensive thoughts in man. Playing good D (in my opinion) really hinges a lot on the athleticism of the defender; as you tire you need to give more of a buffer to keep taking something away, which gives your cutter more options. There’s no shame in coming out immediately after a hard-fought D point; fresh legs make for consistent D.

Mike Lamb, 3b/1b for the Astros, struggled mightily to hit throughout the first half of the season. He was trying to win a starting job, but eventually fell into part-time duty because of his struggles at the plate.

However, around the time the all-star break rolled around, an injury gave an opportunity for him to play full-time, and coincidentally that was around when he started to hit; he played well and solidified his role on the team.

What’s the moral of this story? Little things make a difference. Lamb started hitting better because he realized that he wasn’t getting his foot down quickly enough. Something as simple as getting the lead foot downa half-second sooner when swinging was the difference between a .230 benchwarmer and a .290 regular.

Likewise, with ultimate there are a lot of little things you can do that can transform your game. Things like keeping on the toes of your pivot foot, allowing you to get around on fakes considerably faster than on your heel. Things like following through with your fingers instead of your arm on a forehand so it doesn’t turn over.

And it extends to all aspects of the game. The difference between a good cutter and a great cutter is the little things he does that really throws off the defender–rather than simply cutting at the right moment, he is always active, forcing his defender to focus on him, taking advantage of any momentary lapse in focus to get open.

I’ve learned a lot just by watching some people play. Look at those players who are exceptional in what they do, study their model, and apply it to your own game until it becomes your own. This is how true progress as a player is made–observation, realization, application, breakthrough.