Thoughts.

Via Jim Biancolo, interesting research claiming ibuprofen (taken chronically, for endurance athletes) paradoxically contributes to MORE inflammation.

I always view prescriptive articles based off of one study with skepticism, but it’s worth considering–I have heard before of ibuprofen’s disruptive effect on muscle rebuilding/recovery, and there are some health risks associated with (very high, sustained) usage, so be wary of treating it as a vitamin, despite the joking reference.

Check out some details on Dr. Thomas Crawford.

Sounds like he’s got some great experience growing an online presence and as a former US Olympic Committee member (Director of Coaching) he’s certainly got experience working with organizations for sports similar to ours.

Time will tell how he turns out, but at a glance he seems like a solid selection by the UPA!

Congrats to team USA on bringing home the gold! I can only imagine how great it must feel.

The Huddle has a great link roundup of all the related info, with pictures. Looks like they updated the site’s regular picture rotation with World Games shots too; as good an excuse as any to go back through the archives!

This Wired article about why we sometimes slip up and do the things we’re trying so hard NOT to do hints at the power of the human subconscious and its relation to sport. It’s definitely worth a read, especially if you’re a Neuroscience/Psych nerd like me, and points at two big takeaway points for ultimate.

Wired.com: It doesn’t seem practical to say, “Don’t try to think about not spilling wine on the carpet in a stressful situation,” when being at the party in the first place is stressful.

Wegner: Sometimes you’re stuck. The great leveler is making these processes automatic. In sports, people do things over and over until the action is automatic. It becomes so automatic that you don’t have the same mental process to engage. The whole thing has become unconscious. That only comes with practice.

The person who wants to avoid saying awkward things on the first date — well, by the 30th date, they’re not doing it anymore. They have to just brave it. In sports we know this, but we don’t think of social life the same way.

There’s one big takeaway–you need to hone your skills to the point that you stop thinking about them.

The other takeaway? How you phrase and frame your efforts (more particularly, how you talk and how you think) has a huge effect. Going into a game thinking “I can’t drop a disc” means you’re gearing your subconscious to think about dropping a disc and stopping it–all it takes is a tight moment, some extra stress, to engender exactly the outcome you’re trying to avoid. Thinking “I will catch every disc” doesn’t generate those same connotations. Talk in positives.

For those of you who’ve been away from RSD of late, it’s worth noting that Jim Biancolo has thrown together a Greasemonkey script, “Toadless,” that filters out some 70% of RSD, for better or worse (I imagine more than 70% of RSD readers would claim for better).

Check his guide for full instructions.

If you’ve yet to discover it, the The Eternal Battle of Love and Hate is churning out a fair bit of women’s content of late relating to nationals.  Nice to see blogs like this and Movin’ On Up pop up to fill the coverage void.

We need more people to step up and contribute their coverage, and more importantly we need to consolidate it somehow so it presents a cogent view of our sport.  I’m not quite sure how to go about this short of the emergence of another news site with dedicated staffing; my ideal vision has something less rigid and more web 2.0, open and collaborative.  I’m willing to help put in some of the work but at a loss as to what direction to channel efforts into.



Any readers out there have ideas or visions?  Should we just continue to wait for somebody else to blog or write about it, and remain in the dark?

This is a fairly old article, but one that bears continual revisiting.

Researchers looked at perception and elite performance and found all sorts of clues that the elite see things more clearly and decisively (and can therefore respond earlier) than novices (I’d suggest Blink if you’re looking for a more in-depth treatment of the matter). They also found that things like field sense are absolutely not innate, and suggest that free, unstructured play is key to getting the experience and developing a broad, flexible sense as opposed to a narrow-minded one. Check out this blog post for a bit on the difference between explicit and implicit learning–remove coaching and especially structure from the equation, and you tend towards the implicit–given that something like “field sense” is rarely taught explicitly (if I asked you to explain “field sense” to me–what to look for, when, what leads you to make one decision over another–would you be able to do it? In a way I could understand and apply?), you need to go the other way.

As frustrating as low-level, amoeba play (or loosely organized summer league, etc.) can be, or as much as you might think your disc-using non-ultimate games (I’m thinking of boot in particular, but schtick counts too in its own way) are not going to help you improve, recognize the opportunity inherent in these games. Try throws and strategies you wouldn’t normally. Experiment with new positioning and decision-making processes. Expand your repertoire and your mind.

What sorts of games do you play to grow?

Was away playing this weekend–recap coming later this week (short version: ’twas awesome).

In the meantime, Vern Gambetta is to the point (and on point): are you happy being good, or are you driven to strive for greatness?

If you’re content, you’re useless. What have you done to get better today?