Thoughts.

My health.
My team.
My teammates.
My friends.
The fact that those three words are interchangeable.
My family.
My life at Dartmouth.

Honestly, I really can’t complain about a thing. A guy could hardly ask for a better senior year than I’ve been having so far. Short on drama and big on great experiences, this could be my best year yet.

Well, here it is.

While words fail to capture the entirety of my being that loves what this year is and will be, and while I know that regardless of result, this will be, for me, the best year Dartmouth Ultimate has ever seen, it’s because of my love for the guys I’m with and for the team I play for that I hope. And it’s because I hope that I continue to work.

…and it’s been one heck of a ride.

This might seem counterintuitive, but I can’t wait for the season to be over. This weekend is the culmination of months of work, really years before that, even, and I know that, one way or another, I’m going to wake up on Monday with a sense of satisfaction at all that Dartmouth Ultimate has done in 06-07.

I figure this’ll be fairly short as a combined look. We’ll see.

I haven’t decided if I’ll do more serious ultimate-related posts after each tourney, but we’ll see how things develop…

Before moving on as this term comes to a close, it would seem to behoove me to look back on the season and reflect to better guide my future.

At first I thought I’d just do one long post about where I was, where I’m at, and where I hope to go, but it’s probably more efficient to do it in separate posts, so here goes.

…yeah. 05-06. Been a while…but time has passed, life has been flying by, especially lately. Human perception of time is a fascinating thing.

I don’t really have any plan on how I’ll do this, so I’ll start with the summer.

So at the end of last spring, I had my individual meeting with the captains, talking about next year and what I could do personally to become a better player. General impression: work on the throws. My initial mandate after I missed the cut for the A-team in the fall was to work on my defense, so that’s what I focused on. Developed a good D bid, pretty solid B-level defense, improved my mark a ton, all of which meant I’d definitely play D for the A-team in the coming year. Working on my throws, improving my offensive game, was the next step.

So, off to Japan I went, full of motivation to keep working and improving. I threw every day during the week after class, without fail. I’d spend more time looking up and reading about ultimate on the blogosphere and on RSD than I would studying my vocabulary and kanji for Japanese, to the detriment of my grades (fortunately there was generous curving). On free weekends, I shelled out $20 either way to take the train and subway systems to the other side of Tokyo, where I played pickup with some fellow internationals. Even travelled with them to a tourney, 8 hours away (that’s practically coast-to-coast, East-West) for a weekend. Had a blast. Improved a ton. My throwing got a LOT better, I could put touch on my throws, place them, throw to space pretty well. Hucks were ok at a middling range, nothing exceptional.

Came back for the fall, excited to play ultimate, meet the freshmen, really just generally excited to be back at Dartmouth for my sophomore year. Had a ton of free time thanks to a relatively cushy research job I had (I took the fall off from classes since I was taking classes over the summer), and while I didn’t necessarily make the most of it, I did have a good time. Had some personal adjustments to make at the start of the term, but I became better for it, I think. Playing A-team was a great learning experience for me, I got to play a fair bit and contribute a fair bit, which was great. The term was capped off with me winning most improved player at the fall banquet, which really meant a lot to me.

I also started blogging in the fall, trying to chart down my thoughts so there’d be some sort of chart of my progress and development, and also hopefully some reference for other players. I really enjoy writing–I usually prefer communication through blitz or other written means to communication in person, because it gives me time to think and organize my thoughts so I can express myself clearly and coherently. It’s worked pretty well for me. I need to take the time to go back through my ramblings and pick out some useful information in the near future. Probably when I’m home for interim.

Anyhow…on to the winter. Lots of training. Working with the fuel cell, as much as we could find time to work together. At the very least, I could always bring Socks to the gym so I had somebody else around, Dermott was almost always around, and Brett turned up when he wasn’t out and about (read: visiting his girlfriend at Wellesley). Track workouts, hitting the weights, plyos in the gym…week after week, building.

Vegas happened in the winter; this was one of my favorite experiences of the year. We travelled all the way across the country with a veritable skeleton crew, and really played our asses off. I got to play a ton, a little bit both ways, but primarily with the D line, which was great. There were I think 8 of us, 9 when Dermo was back in action the second day, and we really gelled, I thought. I played pretty much every D point, and there’s definitely something to be said for being able to constantly go out there with the same crew, everybody knowing each other’s capacities and really playing to (and even beyond) them. Didn’t spend too much time out on the town, but from a pure ultimate standpoint I really doubt there could have been much better for helping develop the team and the players than going through a long-ass tourney like that without probably 60-70% of the guys who you would expect to be returning and being playmakers for the team. That we played as well as we did unable to field a returning A-team line speaks volumes for the progress we made just through the course of the tourney, and I definitely think that sort of experience is going to help us a lot next year when a lot of the guys who got to step up and be more dynamic than they usually are need to step up and be more dynamic for the team’s success.

We had a lot of indoor practices, which were generally productive, though in retrospect I think we might’ve benefited from more drilling and less scrimmaging. This goes back to earlier thoughts about the place of drilling vs. scrimmaging for improvement–scrimmaging is certainly important for application of skills and development of synergy, all of that, but I think particularly during the winter and especially early on when there’s still plenty of time before we NEED to be coming together and clicking as a unit, there’s more value in emphasizing basics–the mark, throwing, all that goes with that–by devoting more time to drilling. We did devote a fair bit of time to various drills, but I think more time and maybe a bit more structure (I’m of the opinion that marker drill and dump drill should be done every practice for at least 5-10 minutes, as those are basic, essential skills that so much builds upon and revolves around) would’ve been beneficial.

Then there was spring break. Really good, overall. We struggled at Southerns, got ourselves motivated, and were quite productive the rest of the time, culminating with some sweet, sweet Centex sucess. The week on Tybee was great, relaxing, relatively light training schedule which I think I needed. Looking back on Southerns, I was really flat after the first couple games. I think it was partly due to overtraining, so recovery made a big difference and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Centex was one of my best tourneys of the season. It’s good to work hard, but we definitely need to keep recovery in perspective next year. This probably applies more to me than some players, as I often do a bit of extra training on my own.

Then came spring. Spring has been a busy, busy term for me. Between two lab sciences (one of which is my first term of organic chemistry) with each having 3 midterms each, devoting much of my week and all of my weekends to ultimate, and having to do a track article by Monday afternoon basically every Monday after an exhausting weekend, I had my hands full. Perhaps not coincidentally, this has also been one of my most productive terms. I’ve got a pretty legitimate shot at getting an A in orgo–for reference, I’ve never gotten an A in any course at Dartmouth–Bio will be a bit worse, but still hopefully above median, and my third course should be a good-enough grade given how little work I’ve put into it.

Anyways, the ultimate season was hectic. Some ups and downs, a couple early exits at the start of the season that were acceptable given we still needed to re-integrate lots of players, a loss to BU at Yale Cup in quarters that we should’ve won had we simply caught easy passes in the endzone, progress before and during the series, and the season ended on two hotly contested games at regionals against Brown and Tufts, one on our weakness against gargantuan ultimate players and the other due in part to our weakness against the zone, which we should’ve put more work into. But everything’s always more apparent in hindsight.

And so the season ended. ‘Twas sad…but it’s over. We had closure night before last at the spring banquet and today with classwars (08 sweep–new best class ever, not that we didn’t already know it). People are moving on, lives are changing all over the place, and soon I’ll be heading home, only to return to a considerably emptier campus.

But so it goes. Like Seigs said in a post of his back when he actually did the blogging thing, every year is a unique combination of people and every year is great in its own way.

I’ve made a ton of progress over the past year, but I need to keep focused and stay humble. But that’s not for me to discuss in this post.

Last year I was beyond excited for the team. Captaining the B-team was a blast, we were having a great time, and the A-team was just tearing it up, going to Presday and upsetting UCSB, all the talented players on the team–in my mind, we were a lock to make nationals. So I went down to Brown to watch regionals on Sunday, excited to watch everyone play and root on the team, all of that good stuff.

And then I get there, and hear about things–there was an accident. Cabo’s still in the hospital, Chimpo got banged up, Pov and Zargham are playing, but it’s the freaking day after Mike’s car got totaled.

But we’re doing fine. I heard we beat UMass the other day on universe point, which is to be expected, of course, and I hear that Harvard lost to Williams. I get to watch us beat Williams, with solid play all around.

Rain starts coming. The men have some down time, delayed due to field concerns I think. The women are playing Brown (of course, women don’t tear up fields), and they TROUNCE them, sealing the deal in the game-to-go. Everybody’s pumped.

The rain keeps coming. The fields are soaked. No games for Dartmouth for half an hour, an hour…I need to get some work done. I figure, hey, things will be delayed to a later date, given the conditions, I won’t miss anything…

But, of course, I miss plenty. I get back, do a little work, but can’t help thinking about things. Somebody blitzes out to spew wondering how things are going, somebody else who knows blitzes out: Dartmouth loses on universe point to Harvard in the game to go. It’s over.

It hits me hard; I’m not even playing with the a-team, I know maybe a handful of the guys on that team beyond a casual basis, and yet I’m too bummed out to go to class the next day. Or the day after. Practice is a shitshow, whatever. Doesn’t even matter.

I couldn’t tell you much about that next week or so. I’m pretty sure we still had solid, productive B-team practice, but I don’t know much else I did. WMO was a blast, though–got to make some sweet plays, we played some old Dartmouth alums I’d never known, a few I’d heard of, got to play the A-team (we scored the first point of the game, on a huck to Pov, who’d defected, and then let them roll us the rest of the time), good times were had.

We moved on. Next year’s captains were chosen; I had my conference with them about next year, and I came out energized and excited for the a-team and to work my ass off getting better.

So I did. It was tough being in Japan, but I spent every afternoon tossing with a few classmates, on free weekends I shelled out $15 both ways in train and subway fares to travel to the other side of Tokyo, so I could congregate at a field by the river and play pickup for a few hours with some internationals; I paid well over $100 and rode 8 hours both ways to the other side of Japan to play in a 2-day tournament with these same people, and had a blast reminiscent of spring break (we finished second, oddly enough, on a universe point loss. I gotta stop doing that). I spent countless hours after class looking at ultimate blogs, searching old topics on RSD, when I should’ve been studying. All in an effort to keep playing and improving.

It was worth it. It’s all been worth it. I love ultimate. Though I have my worries about getting too intense and too caught up in it, this is it. It’s one of few things that truly defines me, and I’m glad for it. I love the game and I love the people that play it, and I’m excited to know I’ll be able to keep playing and continue to forge new bonds with people I’ll come to know and love.

I was originally just going to send this to just one person I thought it’d have value for, but I’d prefer it also preserved in a (somewhat) less temporary medium than just blitz.

I’ll do some sort of legitimate regionals recap this week. Been busy as all hell today, save the last hour+. Too busy to look straight back just yet. Always more important to look at what’s happening right now, anyways.

I feel like I need to get something up here; definitely been neglecting it lately, what with finals and then spring break.

That touches the base of most of where I’m at right now. I’d like to do a recap of things, particularly spring break, but I’m too tired for it now. I did get some nice post ideas over break though, so hopefully I make the time to do some writing in the next couple weeks.

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.