We didn't exactly have numbers for practice today. Only twelve players showed, including a B teamer and several guys with injuries who played anyway. It was cold and windy, and the field was wet. On the whole, we had a lot of trouble concentrating and playing through the adversity, and I would say that effort was lacking in our scrimmage. Everybody just seemed resigned to fail. It was just a day of bad attitudes.
Seth layed out and got a bloody nose. I gave him my shirt to stem the bloodflow, since it's the shirt that I'm wearing for Halloween tomorrow (I'm going as the victim of a bear mauling, so blood will not be out of place). Other highlights include a huge layout that Christ had on a hammer that I threw him for the final score of our scrimmage. I think that it was a pretty excellent hammer, but he took a bad line on it. He layed out huge, snatching the disc's trailing edge coming down on it from above with his thumb under the disc rather than simply putting his thumbs below the disc and catching it more easily. The kid made it tough, but he made the catch. That was pretty sweet.
Tomorrow we're going trick or treating and then having a Halloween party. Josh is buying a keg. I don't really support this sort of thing, since we have a tournament Saturday morning, but I guess I'm just going to go along with it and have some fun. I guess I am sort of excited about the party but, well, I dunno....
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Canes on the Brain, etc.
Sorry that I neglected to write all this up earlier. Frankly, I just didn't feel like it.
Friday afternoon we played a scrimmage against Amherst High. Our vaunted O line started the game by giving up a few breaks, and our D line didn't have the firepower to break back in the first portion of the game. Rather than trying to break up the lines more equally, we put all of the experience on the O line and none of it on the D line. When we got turnovers, we just weren't prepared to set up a good offense and march it down the field against Amherst's zones. It was ugly. We finally put in a good number of the O line players on Defense with the rest of the D line spots being rotated, and we came back to win the game. As often happened, we gave ARHS a due opportunity to win and they simply refused to accept.
I didn't play too well in this game. My legs felt tight and weak for the second half of last week, after Purple Valley and a succession of hard, shorthanded practices in which I shouldered a lot of the D line's burden. I really, truly wish that we could get better numbers at practice so that I wouldn't have to run so damn much. I think that I was probably at about 75% of my meager speed, and I was pretty ginger on the field. I played alright on defense, not really getting burned anywhere in spite of my physical weaknesses. On offense, I had two turnovers. One was a poorly placed hammer that I threw at the beginning of the game when we couldn't get our D line offense out of our own endzone against the Amherst zone. The second was a poach D by Henry's man later in the game. I should have seen Henry and his man standing in the force-side lane and holstered it but, frankly, what the fuck was Henry doing there, anyway? It was an outrageously bad place for Henry to have placed himself. Even if I Had seen him, it would only have obstructed a completely open Ryan coming in on a twenty-yard in cut. For being one of the supposedly "best"players on our team, Henry sometimes sure does play poorly. I think he probably had ten or eleven turnovers during our ARHS game on Friday, and that isn't even an exaggeration. Henry makes some of the worst decisions that I have seen on an ultimate field; he makes them unapologetically and gets on his teammates for attempting to make significantly higher-percentage throws. I'm getting tired of Henry's bullshit.
Yesterday it rained pretty hard, so we didn't have practice. There was still standing water on our field today (and it is Fucking Cold) so we didn't play today either. We were told to all go to Boyden to lift or to play basketball, but only a handful of us seem to have done that. I question the devotion of almost everybody on our team right now. Day by day, frustrations grow and there doesn't seem to be anything to do about it. Like Josh, who claimed that he "had plans already" during practice time. He claimed to be sore from lifting legs yesterday, but couldn't give me an explanation as to why he couldn't go to the gym to lift arms. All I can say is that his committment level is not what I expect it to be. What I expect it to be for all of my teammates.
I don't expect perfection from my teammates. I merely expect that they try. And that is not what I'm seeing from a lot of people who supposedly "care" about Zoodisc.
Friday afternoon we played a scrimmage against Amherst High. Our vaunted O line started the game by giving up a few breaks, and our D line didn't have the firepower to break back in the first portion of the game. Rather than trying to break up the lines more equally, we put all of the experience on the O line and none of it on the D line. When we got turnovers, we just weren't prepared to set up a good offense and march it down the field against Amherst's zones. It was ugly. We finally put in a good number of the O line players on Defense with the rest of the D line spots being rotated, and we came back to win the game. As often happened, we gave ARHS a due opportunity to win and they simply refused to accept.
I didn't play too well in this game. My legs felt tight and weak for the second half of last week, after Purple Valley and a succession of hard, shorthanded practices in which I shouldered a lot of the D line's burden. I really, truly wish that we could get better numbers at practice so that I wouldn't have to run so damn much. I think that I was probably at about 75% of my meager speed, and I was pretty ginger on the field. I played alright on defense, not really getting burned anywhere in spite of my physical weaknesses. On offense, I had two turnovers. One was a poorly placed hammer that I threw at the beginning of the game when we couldn't get our D line offense out of our own endzone against the Amherst zone. The second was a poach D by Henry's man later in the game. I should have seen Henry and his man standing in the force-side lane and holstered it but, frankly, what the fuck was Henry doing there, anyway? It was an outrageously bad place for Henry to have placed himself. Even if I Had seen him, it would only have obstructed a completely open Ryan coming in on a twenty-yard in cut. For being one of the supposedly "best"players on our team, Henry sometimes sure does play poorly. I think he probably had ten or eleven turnovers during our ARHS game on Friday, and that isn't even an exaggeration. Henry makes some of the worst decisions that I have seen on an ultimate field; he makes them unapologetically and gets on his teammates for attempting to make significantly higher-percentage throws. I'm getting tired of Henry's bullshit.
Yesterday it rained pretty hard, so we didn't have practice. There was still standing water on our field today (and it is Fucking Cold) so we didn't play today either. We were told to all go to Boyden to lift or to play basketball, but only a handful of us seem to have done that. I question the devotion of almost everybody on our team right now. Day by day, frustrations grow and there doesn't seem to be anything to do about it. Like Josh, who claimed that he "had plans already" during practice time. He claimed to be sore from lifting legs yesterday, but couldn't give me an explanation as to why he couldn't go to the gym to lift arms. All I can say is that his committment level is not what I expect it to be. What I expect it to be for all of my teammates.
I don't expect perfection from my teammates. I merely expect that they try. And that is not what I'm seeing from a lot of people who supposedly "care" about Zoodisc.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Seperating O and D lines with limited numbers is Stupid.
Today we had limited numbers. Again. We split into O and D lines for practice, but we had to move a couple D liners to the O line just to make numbers even. The isue is that Henry chose to put a couple of the most athletic and experienced D liners to the O line, leaving the D line with a definite skill disadvantage. The Defense was left with me as the only handler and six inexperienced cutters. We were overpowered on every single matchup, so it was no wonder that we got destroyed in our scrimmage. To add obnoxious to insult, the O line decided to throw a zone on us whenever we received the disc going upwind. Without any real zone-line handlers( and no, I really am not one; I'm a pretty decent second handler in a line, and I can work with another handler who equally shares the burden, but I can't really take over a point), it was impossible for us to work the disc against the zone. Seriously, impossible.
Practices like that don't make any sense to a rational human being. The young, inexperienced players on the D line don't get any better just being tooled on by the O line. Young players only get better by playing with guys who know what they're doing, opening up space on the field to cut and telling them what to do. The O line doesn't get any better cutting on guys who can't possibly defend them. All that it does is add to the arrogance of our Offensive players, who are never actually tested until they're thrown into a game and are suddenly surprised to give up five breaks against a team who is actually playing DEFENSE on their pompous fucking asses.
Anybody who put an iota of thought into the lines would have seen that splitting up the way that we did was worthless, but Henry was too wrapped up in his assinine self to think about it at all. That kid love playing against the least experienced player on the field and abusing him as much as possible. This reached a culmination late in the game when the O line was probably up 12-3 or so on us. Henry was marking Chris, one of our least experienced freshmen. At stall 7 or so, Chris tried putting up a dump to me when Henry hacked him unforgivably across the mid forearm. Chris looked like he didn't know what to do, so I said, "Hey, call that foul!" Henry responded by snapping, "Oh, great Dave, fucking great." I just wanted to kick him in the fucking head.
Henry is acting a douchebag, and he isn't helping the team get any better through his bullshit. That fuck.
Practices like that don't make any sense to a rational human being. The young, inexperienced players on the D line don't get any better just being tooled on by the O line. Young players only get better by playing with guys who know what they're doing, opening up space on the field to cut and telling them what to do. The O line doesn't get any better cutting on guys who can't possibly defend them. All that it does is add to the arrogance of our Offensive players, who are never actually tested until they're thrown into a game and are suddenly surprised to give up five breaks against a team who is actually playing DEFENSE on their pompous fucking asses.
Anybody who put an iota of thought into the lines would have seen that splitting up the way that we did was worthless, but Henry was too wrapped up in his assinine self to think about it at all. That kid love playing against the least experienced player on the field and abusing him as much as possible. This reached a culmination late in the game when the O line was probably up 12-3 or so on us. Henry was marking Chris, one of our least experienced freshmen. At stall 7 or so, Chris tried putting up a dump to me when Henry hacked him unforgivably across the mid forearm. Chris looked like he didn't know what to do, so I said, "Hey, call that foul!" Henry responded by snapping, "Oh, great Dave, fucking great." I just wanted to kick him in the fucking head.
Henry is acting a douchebag, and he isn't helping the team get any better through his bullshit. That fuck.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Cold Weather continues unabated.
Today's practice was even colder than yesterday. It was a little miserable, but still fun for the most part. Sadly, we did not have very many players - again. When we split between A and B teams, we only had enough for six on six or whatever, and then John Sheyer hurt his foot and had to go to Health Services. Part of the reason that we're having increasing trouble getting numbers, it's becoming increasingly obvious, is our high injury rate. This is partly because of people being absolutely bitches and nursing injuries far longer than shoulde be necessary, but it certainly also has to do with some serious bad luck. I mean, John hurt himself planting too flat on the sole of his foot. That shouldn't hurt him! Ridiculous.
We ended up playing three-on-three across the width of an endzone, which is an incredibly tiring way to play. It also was rather uncomfortable for my knees, since this style of play is just little squirrely cuts. In a normal game or scrimmage, there are points where I can make longer cuts (or run down on the pull) and really lengthen my stride, which helps stretch my legs out and keep my knees feeling alright. Without any longer runs, especially with the biting cold, my knees really took a beating.
We finished practice off by scrimmaging against the B team, which I consider to be a worthless waste of time. You don't get better by playing sloppy ultimate against lesser players. But, I guess, our choices are limited when we don't have numbers. Those fools who started the game from our side gave up two breaks to open the game (fucking O line), but we managed to straighten out and won 15-4. That doesn't mean that we played well, however. We had a lot of turnovers. It was an ugly game. But I guess that's to be expected, to an extent, when we our competition doesn't make us work to beat them.
We ended up playing three-on-three across the width of an endzone, which is an incredibly tiring way to play. It also was rather uncomfortable for my knees, since this style of play is just little squirrely cuts. In a normal game or scrimmage, there are points where I can make longer cuts (or run down on the pull) and really lengthen my stride, which helps stretch my legs out and keep my knees feeling alright. Without any longer runs, especially with the biting cold, my knees really took a beating.
We finished practice off by scrimmaging against the B team, which I consider to be a worthless waste of time. You don't get better by playing sloppy ultimate against lesser players. But, I guess, our choices are limited when we don't have numbers. Those fools who started the game from our side gave up two breaks to open the game (fucking O line), but we managed to straighten out and won 15-4. That doesn't mean that we played well, however. We had a lot of turnovers. It was an ugly game. But I guess that's to be expected, to an extent, when we our competition doesn't make us work to beat them.
Yesterday's Practice.
Sorry I didn't write about yesterday's practice last night. I took Jesse out to the House of Teriaki for Sushi instead. Delicious
Yesterday was cold and wet. It rained earlier in the day, but stopped a little before three. I sent out an email letting everybody know that practice was not cancelled and implored people to fucking show up. Not too many listened. I think that we ended up with 13 A teamers who could play, which is utterly indefensible. We can't get anywhere as a team if the team doesn't show up. But I don't want to keep on that rant right now; I don't have much to say about it that I haven't said already.
In spite of low numbers, we had a pretty good practice. We had some drills that we ran pretty hard, and I'm feeling rather sore right now as a result. With lower numbers, our lines were shorter and we had much shorter breaks. We ran the endzone drill, but practiced holstering throws when a man at the cone put a hand up to symbolize a poaching defender. I laid out for a big catch at one point and really knocked the wind out of myself, to the point where I felt nauseaus and had a headache for ten or fifteen minutes after. We ran two five pulls, with limited success, and then did a full field huck drill that was a lot of fun. I didn't throw all that well in the huck drill, but I think that was because I was overthinking my throws instead of just cutting myself loose and going for it. At the very end of this drill, Jeff laid out and hurt himself in some way (his shoulder?). He couldn't move his hand, so he went to Health Services. I have no idea how that turned out, but I hope he's alright.
We are going to start having the injured people not show up to practice. Presumably, they will be working out or going to a doctor or something rather than sitting on our cold sidelines, but I really don't trust that too many people will do this. If I can't trust them to show up for practice, how can I trust them to be working hard when their team isn't even present to hold them accountable? Either way, the idea behind all of this is to prevent them from distracting the players who actually Are working hard. It does really suck to be running your ass off only to look towards the sideline and see eight of your teammates joking around about something stupid. I don't know how this new system will work out, but hopefully it'll be alright.
Yesterday was cold and wet. It rained earlier in the day, but stopped a little before three. I sent out an email letting everybody know that practice was not cancelled and implored people to fucking show up. Not too many listened. I think that we ended up with 13 A teamers who could play, which is utterly indefensible. We can't get anywhere as a team if the team doesn't show up. But I don't want to keep on that rant right now; I don't have much to say about it that I haven't said already.
In spite of low numbers, we had a pretty good practice. We had some drills that we ran pretty hard, and I'm feeling rather sore right now as a result. With lower numbers, our lines were shorter and we had much shorter breaks. We ran the endzone drill, but practiced holstering throws when a man at the cone put a hand up to symbolize a poaching defender. I laid out for a big catch at one point and really knocked the wind out of myself, to the point where I felt nauseaus and had a headache for ten or fifteen minutes after. We ran two five pulls, with limited success, and then did a full field huck drill that was a lot of fun. I didn't throw all that well in the huck drill, but I think that was because I was overthinking my throws instead of just cutting myself loose and going for it. At the very end of this drill, Jeff laid out and hurt himself in some way (his shoulder?). He couldn't move his hand, so he went to Health Services. I have no idea how that turned out, but I hope he's alright.
We are going to start having the injured people not show up to practice. Presumably, they will be working out or going to a doctor or something rather than sitting on our cold sidelines, but I really don't trust that too many people will do this. If I can't trust them to show up for practice, how can I trust them to be working hard when their team isn't even present to hold them accountable? Either way, the idea behind all of this is to prevent them from distracting the players who actually Are working hard. It does really suck to be running your ass off only to look towards the sideline and see eight of your teammates joking around about something stupid. I don't know how this new system will work out, but hopefully it'll be alright.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Purple Valley Day 2
Today... didn't go nearly as well as yesterday.
We got to the fields and actually had a pretty good warmup this morning, but we never seemed to really get going in the actual game. We started against UConn, and things just didn't turn out well. As a team, we played poor defense, letting them just march down the field on the force side and letting up a lot of IO breakside throws. UConn also really liked having the handler throw upfield and then sprint upfield for the give and go, and we really got burned by that play. As a mark, it's difficult to turn and run right after the throw. We couldn't seem to find any players to simply man up and get it done, tiring though it may be. We also had an unforgivable number of drops and poorly thrown passes. And it seemed like the same players were guilty of these offenses over and over again. It was clear that they were getting into their own heads, thinking too much about their mistakes, and not being able to focus on the next play. It was depressing watching so many players crumble mentally, but I guess that it's really a good sign of our team's youth. As we gain more experience, hopefully these mental failings will dissappear.
Anyway, we ended up losing the game 15-12 or so. UConn beat us handly, but really didn't give us the beating that our poor performance deserved. This was in spite of the fact that they were playing with several quality pickup players who significantly boosted the talent level of their team. Unlike Harvard, Wesleyan, and ourselves, the team that UConn fielded for this weekend was significantly stronger than the team that they will have for the rest of the year. And we definately should have stuck it to them. Personally, I walked away feeling very frustrated about my performance this game. I had two turnovers: a drop that went right between my hands (Unforgivable!), and a throwaway that was a good decision but an utterly horrendous pass. I tapped the disc in on the front corner of our own endzone and the first cut didn't get open. Jeff cut up-line covered, and Ryan filled into the backfield for the dump pass. He was open, and I went for the around forehand break, but for some reason threw the pass ten feet into the air. A defender tore it down on the goalline and made a simple pass for the score. I've thought about this pass a lot, but I still can't figure out what I did wrong on the throw. I guess I must have fucked up royally, but I have no idea how. Which is annoying. I also got burned twice on defense, which is no good. Other than these mistakes, I actually think I played pretty well, but my four mistakes were so glaring that they left a horrible taste in my mouth following the game.
The Williams game was next. We ran a little better in this game, but still couldn't get our shit together. We had a lot of the same mistakes in this game as in the UConn game - poorly thrown passes, easy drops, bad defense. Oh, and a lack of going to the disc. I don't know if I mentioned it in the UConn write-up, but we had a lot of trouble going to the disc in that game, and this problem continued through our Williams game. I don't know how many go to D's we had against us, but it was a lot. And it is unexcusable to get D'ed like that. We also didn't play very good defense as a team, and a lot of this has to do with positioning. I think that Ashton would have had at least two or three D's today if he had just positioned himself in such asway as to allow him to see both his disc and his man at the same time. Because he didn't do this, his defense was really inneffective and he gave up a good number of scores on the day.
Again, I think that I played well, but I had a couple totally egregious errors. I got point blocked on our own goal line, and threw the disc away to a well-covered Mitch. I think I could have completed the throw to Mitch, but I just didn't lead him by enough. I think that I played pretty good defense in this game, though I did get scored on twice (once on a blade that I almost got to, the other on a well-thrown breakside huck), which is really no good. Williams didn't cough the disc up as much as UConn, though, so they didn't keep us in the game in spite of our misplays.
Today was dissappointing, but it really is only the beginning of our season. It shows us a lot of the things that we did wrong and what we need to work on in the coming weeks and months. We have a long road ahead of us as a team, and I really do believe that we will end up being pretty fucking good when all is said and done.
We got to the fields and actually had a pretty good warmup this morning, but we never seemed to really get going in the actual game. We started against UConn, and things just didn't turn out well. As a team, we played poor defense, letting them just march down the field on the force side and letting up a lot of IO breakside throws. UConn also really liked having the handler throw upfield and then sprint upfield for the give and go, and we really got burned by that play. As a mark, it's difficult to turn and run right after the throw. We couldn't seem to find any players to simply man up and get it done, tiring though it may be. We also had an unforgivable number of drops and poorly thrown passes. And it seemed like the same players were guilty of these offenses over and over again. It was clear that they were getting into their own heads, thinking too much about their mistakes, and not being able to focus on the next play. It was depressing watching so many players crumble mentally, but I guess that it's really a good sign of our team's youth. As we gain more experience, hopefully these mental failings will dissappear.
Anyway, we ended up losing the game 15-12 or so. UConn beat us handly, but really didn't give us the beating that our poor performance deserved. This was in spite of the fact that they were playing with several quality pickup players who significantly boosted the talent level of their team. Unlike Harvard, Wesleyan, and ourselves, the team that UConn fielded for this weekend was significantly stronger than the team that they will have for the rest of the year. And we definately should have stuck it to them. Personally, I walked away feeling very frustrated about my performance this game. I had two turnovers: a drop that went right between my hands (Unforgivable!), and a throwaway that was a good decision but an utterly horrendous pass. I tapped the disc in on the front corner of our own endzone and the first cut didn't get open. Jeff cut up-line covered, and Ryan filled into the backfield for the dump pass. He was open, and I went for the around forehand break, but for some reason threw the pass ten feet into the air. A defender tore it down on the goalline and made a simple pass for the score. I've thought about this pass a lot, but I still can't figure out what I did wrong on the throw. I guess I must have fucked up royally, but I have no idea how. Which is annoying. I also got burned twice on defense, which is no good. Other than these mistakes, I actually think I played pretty well, but my four mistakes were so glaring that they left a horrible taste in my mouth following the game.
The Williams game was next. We ran a little better in this game, but still couldn't get our shit together. We had a lot of the same mistakes in this game as in the UConn game - poorly thrown passes, easy drops, bad defense. Oh, and a lack of going to the disc. I don't know if I mentioned it in the UConn write-up, but we had a lot of trouble going to the disc in that game, and this problem continued through our Williams game. I don't know how many go to D's we had against us, but it was a lot. And it is unexcusable to get D'ed like that. We also didn't play very good defense as a team, and a lot of this has to do with positioning. I think that Ashton would have had at least two or three D's today if he had just positioned himself in such asway as to allow him to see both his disc and his man at the same time. Because he didn't do this, his defense was really inneffective and he gave up a good number of scores on the day.
Again, I think that I played well, but I had a couple totally egregious errors. I got point blocked on our own goal line, and threw the disc away to a well-covered Mitch. I think I could have completed the throw to Mitch, but I just didn't lead him by enough. I think that I played pretty good defense in this game, though I did get scored on twice (once on a blade that I almost got to, the other on a well-thrown breakside huck), which is really no good. Williams didn't cough the disc up as much as UConn, though, so they didn't keep us in the game in spite of our misplays.
Today was dissappointing, but it really is only the beginning of our season. It shows us a lot of the things that we did wrong and what we need to work on in the coming weeks and months. We have a long road ahead of us as a team, and I really do believe that we will end up being pretty fucking good when all is said and done.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Purple Valley Day 1
Today was the first day of Purple Valley, and Zoodisc played fairly well. We went 3-0 on the day, with wins over Harvard, Wesleyan, and Williams C. I think the score in the Harvard game was 15-9, the Wesleyan game was more like 13-10, and the Williams C game was 15-2. All in all, not a bad performance, though Harvard was missing a lot of their more experienced players and Wesleyan was missing Phil, their only player of worth. Regardless, our boys gutted it out and came out with three W's. Like Mitch's dad said, the scorecard doesn't include a photograph. We have to beat everybody, no matter who plays on their team.
Harvard started off a little close, though we soon pulled ahead. The D line managed to get a couple breaks that the O line frittered away (classic), but once we got going the Defense started grooving and didn't relinquish the field very often. As often happens, this helped break Harvard's spirit a little bit and gave the Offense a little room to find their own rhythem. We did let off a few swilly completions that should have been easy D's, and I remember a couple times where a defender on our team macked a throw into a completion rather than simply catching the disc, but we looked pretty good for the most part. Mitch dropped a Calahan goal and had a couple of layout D's - he isn't the best shutdown defender, but he has great reactions and is learning to be rather opportunistic on defense. We had a bunch of other nice D's, threw some decent hucks, and didn't turn the disc over very much at all towards the end of the game. I played pretty good defense on this teensy Asian handler who was playing for them. He was pretty fucking quick but didn't really have all that much else going for him. I forced a couple turns and Almost had a big layout D on him in the endzone, but bid a half step too late - my hand hit the disc right as he snatched it away. Even though we knew that Harvard wasn't at full strength, it felt great to win this game because We certainly aren't at full strength either. Missing about half of our roster (and some of the most experienced players are included in that half) for this tournament, we have to believe that we are going to be ten times as good once our team gets playing together. IF the team ever gets playing together, but that's a topic for later.
Against Wesleyan we came out rather flat. We sort of goofed around during endzone drill warmups and weren't very fired up for the game when we received the first pull. Wesleyan broke us a few times in a demoralizing manner - it didn't seem as though our O line was really ever running all that well, and our D line was just conceding throws to the force side. But then the D line clicked into gear, and we thundered right back into it. We had a few hiccups that resulted in looonng long points, but our players kept digging deep to get the turn and eventually punch it into the endzone. Alan really started to stand out during a couple of these points, which really excites me. Ten minutes into one particularly arduous point, we checked the disc in on the corner of our own endzone. Nobody moved. Three seconds later, Alan was breaking in wide open. He caught the pass, dumped the disc, and moved upfield. Three seconds later, Alan was breaking in wide open. He isn't particularly athletic, but he is fundamentally very sound and works very hard. Alan has some great instincts, and I think that he will develop into a regular contributor on the O line by the end of the year.
One of the biggest differences between our team and Wesleyan's was our ability to adapt mid-game. We got off to a bad start, but we had the confidence necessary to get ourselves out of our funk and start really Running. Wesleyan could not build on their early enthusiasm to keep their energy ahead of ours. They had a couple decent plays that worked for them early in the game, but they seemed unwilling or unable to try anything new when we changed our defense to eliminate the effectiveness of these plays. For example, Wesleyan loved running this one set play out of their ho-stack when the disc was on the sideline. The nearside wing would clear to the middle of the field, and the closest mid would fill the space, giving him a clear look for a deep throw. This play worked pretty well for us at the beginning of the game. However, after they ran it on us several times, we altered the way that we defended against it. Our man covering the nearside wing would start to run after him, but instead would turn around and sprint back into the cutting lane. Believing that the defender had been cleared out of the lane by the wing, the thrower rarely even looked for the poacher and just threw the disc away. After we started poaching in this way, we seemed to get an easy turn every single time they tried running the play. I, personally, got two poach D's against this play. And this poachy D wouldn't really work if the Wesleyan players simply identified that we were poaching and threw to the wide open man in the middle. For whatever reason, though, they seemed utterly unprepared to deal with our poach, and we just kept getting free D's. Idiots.
The Wesleyan game was also interesting because it was our team's first experience playing against a team that is willing to foul excessively in an attempt to beat our talent and athleticism. Though some of the Wesleyan guys play cleanly and with great sportsmanship, a lot of them set up rough marks or hacked when we tried to throw. Our team handled this adversity with a tremendous amount of poise. We refused to really get angry, merely using their cheating tactics to our advantage whenever we wanted, and refused to sink to their level and retaliate. There will be times this year when we play a team that cheats or does something equally infuriating in a weak attempt to throw us off our mental game. By passing the Wesleyan test the way that we did, I think we demonstrated that we can handle a bit of competitive stress without our mental game completely crumbling, something that you can't always count on with such a young team.
There isn't really so much that I can say about the Williams C game. They are terrible. We knew this going in, they knew this going in, and nothing happened during this game to make me think otherwise. It looked like we were going to be able to shut them out, but two misread floating hucks (one to Tall Nick's guy and one to Ryan's - our two tallest, jumpingest players) let Williams C onto the scoreboard. Too bad, but I truly don't care.
I played pretty well today. I played good defense, mostly, and didn't have too many turnovers. I got a few D's, threw a few goals, and felt pretty good in most ways. My pulls, however, were atrocious. I threw the pull out of bounds countless times today. Which is bullshit. There is really no good excuse for it, but I guess I got into my own head and couldn't think my way out of it. It's just another sign of the mental weakness that I'll need to expunge before before the season really gets going.
I'm not sure what time we have to be there tomorrow morning or who we're playing. I'm hoping to get to play a higher quality team than we saw today. I'd like to see if our team can handle the pressure of playing against somebody who isn't going to collapse when we start running at full speed. I'm excited about tomorrow, but who knows how it will actually turn out.
Harvard started off a little close, though we soon pulled ahead. The D line managed to get a couple breaks that the O line frittered away (classic), but once we got going the Defense started grooving and didn't relinquish the field very often. As often happens, this helped break Harvard's spirit a little bit and gave the Offense a little room to find their own rhythem. We did let off a few swilly completions that should have been easy D's, and I remember a couple times where a defender on our team macked a throw into a completion rather than simply catching the disc, but we looked pretty good for the most part. Mitch dropped a Calahan goal and had a couple of layout D's - he isn't the best shutdown defender, but he has great reactions and is learning to be rather opportunistic on defense. We had a bunch of other nice D's, threw some decent hucks, and didn't turn the disc over very much at all towards the end of the game. I played pretty good defense on this teensy Asian handler who was playing for them. He was pretty fucking quick but didn't really have all that much else going for him. I forced a couple turns and Almost had a big layout D on him in the endzone, but bid a half step too late - my hand hit the disc right as he snatched it away. Even though we knew that Harvard wasn't at full strength, it felt great to win this game because We certainly aren't at full strength either. Missing about half of our roster (and some of the most experienced players are included in that half) for this tournament, we have to believe that we are going to be ten times as good once our team gets playing together. IF the team ever gets playing together, but that's a topic for later.
Against Wesleyan we came out rather flat. We sort of goofed around during endzone drill warmups and weren't very fired up for the game when we received the first pull. Wesleyan broke us a few times in a demoralizing manner - it didn't seem as though our O line was really ever running all that well, and our D line was just conceding throws to the force side. But then the D line clicked into gear, and we thundered right back into it. We had a few hiccups that resulted in looonng long points, but our players kept digging deep to get the turn and eventually punch it into the endzone. Alan really started to stand out during a couple of these points, which really excites me. Ten minutes into one particularly arduous point, we checked the disc in on the corner of our own endzone. Nobody moved. Three seconds later, Alan was breaking in wide open. He caught the pass, dumped the disc, and moved upfield. Three seconds later, Alan was breaking in wide open. He isn't particularly athletic, but he is fundamentally very sound and works very hard. Alan has some great instincts, and I think that he will develop into a regular contributor on the O line by the end of the year.
One of the biggest differences between our team and Wesleyan's was our ability to adapt mid-game. We got off to a bad start, but we had the confidence necessary to get ourselves out of our funk and start really Running. Wesleyan could not build on their early enthusiasm to keep their energy ahead of ours. They had a couple decent plays that worked for them early in the game, but they seemed unwilling or unable to try anything new when we changed our defense to eliminate the effectiveness of these plays. For example, Wesleyan loved running this one set play out of their ho-stack when the disc was on the sideline. The nearside wing would clear to the middle of the field, and the closest mid would fill the space, giving him a clear look for a deep throw. This play worked pretty well for us at the beginning of the game. However, after they ran it on us several times, we altered the way that we defended against it. Our man covering the nearside wing would start to run after him, but instead would turn around and sprint back into the cutting lane. Believing that the defender had been cleared out of the lane by the wing, the thrower rarely even looked for the poacher and just threw the disc away. After we started poaching in this way, we seemed to get an easy turn every single time they tried running the play. I, personally, got two poach D's against this play. And this poachy D wouldn't really work if the Wesleyan players simply identified that we were poaching and threw to the wide open man in the middle. For whatever reason, though, they seemed utterly unprepared to deal with our poach, and we just kept getting free D's. Idiots.
The Wesleyan game was also interesting because it was our team's first experience playing against a team that is willing to foul excessively in an attempt to beat our talent and athleticism. Though some of the Wesleyan guys play cleanly and with great sportsmanship, a lot of them set up rough marks or hacked when we tried to throw. Our team handled this adversity with a tremendous amount of poise. We refused to really get angry, merely using their cheating tactics to our advantage whenever we wanted, and refused to sink to their level and retaliate. There will be times this year when we play a team that cheats or does something equally infuriating in a weak attempt to throw us off our mental game. By passing the Wesleyan test the way that we did, I think we demonstrated that we can handle a bit of competitive stress without our mental game completely crumbling, something that you can't always count on with such a young team.
There isn't really so much that I can say about the Williams C game. They are terrible. We knew this going in, they knew this going in, and nothing happened during this game to make me think otherwise. It looked like we were going to be able to shut them out, but two misread floating hucks (one to Tall Nick's guy and one to Ryan's - our two tallest, jumpingest players) let Williams C onto the scoreboard. Too bad, but I truly don't care.
I played pretty well today. I played good defense, mostly, and didn't have too many turnovers. I got a few D's, threw a few goals, and felt pretty good in most ways. My pulls, however, were atrocious. I threw the pull out of bounds countless times today. Which is bullshit. There is really no good excuse for it, but I guess I got into my own head and couldn't think my way out of it. It's just another sign of the mental weakness that I'll need to expunge before before the season really gets going.
I'm not sure what time we have to be there tomorrow morning or who we're playing. I'm hoping to get to play a higher quality team than we saw today. I'd like to see if our team can handle the pressure of playing against somebody who isn't going to collapse when we start running at full speed. I'm excited about tomorrow, but who knows how it will actually turn out.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
We're playin' Bas-ket-ball...
Today was pretty rainy. Not wanting to destroy our sodden fields, we went up to Boyden and played a few games of five on five full court basketball. Our performance can be summed up in two words: We Suck.
I guess ultimate doesn't necessarily translate into basketball skilz. I don't think that I played too poorly, generally playing alright on defense, but I am lost on the offensive end of the basketball court. I think most of my teammates felt the same way. It was a sloppy show from all of us.
Patuluk played today, the first bit of physical activity he's had in a little bit (he retweaked a hamstring a week and a half ago). In spite of that, he looked good and says that he feels alright. Patuluk should be good to go for Purple Valley, which is good because of the number of players we will be missing this weekend. As of now, I'm not sure what our complete numbers are going to be, but I doubt that they will be very good.
A matter of concern has been the recent announcement of the C1 Ultimate League that is planning to compete with the UPA College Series. I think that such a league makes sense, but their attempt to snag the top twenty-five teams college teams in the nation falls flat. Looking for representation from every region of the country, C1 seems to have arbitrarily chosen some teams while excluding other teams that would be just as competitive if not better. Such a league increases the competitiveness of the top few teams while totally swamping the hopes of everybody else. I don't think it's fair to put some teams over others without even giving them an opportunity to play for the honor. With the annual turnover in college ultimate, it is impossible to predict which of the mid-level competitive programs are going to be good and which are going to be busts.
I'm going to take a shower now. Sometime tonight or maybe in the next couple days I'm going to post a more complete analysis on my thoughts of this C1 jingo-jango.
I guess ultimate doesn't necessarily translate into basketball skilz. I don't think that I played too poorly, generally playing alright on defense, but I am lost on the offensive end of the basketball court. I think most of my teammates felt the same way. It was a sloppy show from all of us.
Patuluk played today, the first bit of physical activity he's had in a little bit (he retweaked a hamstring a week and a half ago). In spite of that, he looked good and says that he feels alright. Patuluk should be good to go for Purple Valley, which is good because of the number of players we will be missing this weekend. As of now, I'm not sure what our complete numbers are going to be, but I doubt that they will be very good.
A matter of concern has been the recent announcement of the C1 Ultimate League that is planning to compete with the UPA College Series. I think that such a league makes sense, but their attempt to snag the top twenty-five teams college teams in the nation falls flat. Looking for representation from every region of the country, C1 seems to have arbitrarily chosen some teams while excluding other teams that would be just as competitive if not better. Such a league increases the competitiveness of the top few teams while totally swamping the hopes of everybody else. I don't think it's fair to put some teams over others without even giving them an opportunity to play for the honor. With the annual turnover in college ultimate, it is impossible to predict which of the mid-level competitive programs are going to be good and which are going to be busts.
I'm going to take a shower now. Sometime tonight or maybe in the next couple days I'm going to post a more complete analysis on my thoughts of this C1 jingo-jango.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Sam is Dead!!!!!!!
Well, not exactly. But he does seem to have one doosey of an ankle sprain. UHS thinks that it probably isn't broken, but Sam needs to go back tomorrow for an Xray.
Sam had been battling with a strained quad all practice, which had limited his mobility. Unlike some of his pussier teammates, Sam played through his pain in order to better his team. As a result, he was slowed and less effective than usual (which had been frustrating him all day), but at least he was on the feild.
After scoring our last point of the game, Sam seemed pleased with the way that his quad was feeling. "I don't know if it's the ibuprofen or if I'm finally warmed up," he said right before I pulled the disc, "but I can suddenly run!" Sprinting down on that pull, his foot rolled over his ankle and made a loud popping noise. That was the end of the scrimmage.
Sam's ankle swelled up pretty quickly. It isn't often that you can look at an appendage and watch it swell up, rapidly, before your very eyes. The speed of his ankle swelling definitely made me nervous. I drove Sam's car onto the field, helped load him in the backseat, and Ryan and I accompanied Sam up the Health Services. They saw to Sam very quickly, concluding that it probably wasn't a break, and fitted him out with an aircast brace and a pair of crutches. The three of us went to dinner at Franklin, then I parked Sam's car in his parking lot and walked home via the rape trail.
We had low numbers again at practice. I don't know where the fuck everybody is, but this is exactly what we were looking to avoid when we took the largest A team Ever. This is absolute bullshit, and I'm completely tired of it. If people want to play for our team, they should be there to play. I'm not going to get into this rant right now farther than saying that I'm tired of it. Anybody who wants to be considered one of my friends should be adviced to start showing up to practice. And not just every so often - they all should be there every single fucking day.
Fuck this game.
Sam had been battling with a strained quad all practice, which had limited his mobility. Unlike some of his pussier teammates, Sam played through his pain in order to better his team. As a result, he was slowed and less effective than usual (which had been frustrating him all day), but at least he was on the feild.
After scoring our last point of the game, Sam seemed pleased with the way that his quad was feeling. "I don't know if it's the ibuprofen or if I'm finally warmed up," he said right before I pulled the disc, "but I can suddenly run!" Sprinting down on that pull, his foot rolled over his ankle and made a loud popping noise. That was the end of the scrimmage.
Sam's ankle swelled up pretty quickly. It isn't often that you can look at an appendage and watch it swell up, rapidly, before your very eyes. The speed of his ankle swelling definitely made me nervous. I drove Sam's car onto the field, helped load him in the backseat, and Ryan and I accompanied Sam up the Health Services. They saw to Sam very quickly, concluding that it probably wasn't a break, and fitted him out with an aircast brace and a pair of crutches. The three of us went to dinner at Franklin, then I parked Sam's car in his parking lot and walked home via the rape trail.
We had low numbers again at practice. I don't know where the fuck everybody is, but this is exactly what we were looking to avoid when we took the largest A team Ever. This is absolute bullshit, and I'm completely tired of it. If people want to play for our team, they should be there to play. I'm not going to get into this rant right now farther than saying that I'm tired of it. Anybody who wants to be considered one of my friends should be adviced to start showing up to practice. And not just every so often - they all should be there every single fucking day.
Fuck this game.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Practice again.
This weekend was pretty good. I didn't play at all, but I did go to Boston on Saturday night to watch the first Umass hockey game of the season with Jesse and two of her younger sisters. Umass won. We also watched the BU game that came later that night (BU won), and Jesse's sister's hockey game the next morning (who also won). We then watched the finals and the game-to-go of club regionals. Ironside, the Boston team, came in first, followed by Goat, and then Bodhi in third with Pony in fourth. Let's pause for a moment to reflect on how ridiculous it is that the Upa allotted four bids to the Northeast for the club series. No way do we deserve four bids. No way.
Congratulations to those friends of mine who made it to Nationals. I'm really happy for all of you. It's too bad that the Son's of Liberty didn't manage to unseat Pony in the game-to-go: they looked pretty close for a while but weren't able to pull out the upset. Ryan Holmes had the bonehead play of the tournament, laying out for a gratuitous defensive layout catch out of bounds only to throw the disc down, thereby giving the disc back to Pony. He didn't mean to, but it was really a letdown.
Columbus Day was yesterday, which meant no school (good!). This also meant that today, a Tuesday, was on a Monday schedule (bad.). Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, my final class gets out at 3:20. This is usually only an issue on Wednesdays, when I have to run down to practice and miss warmups. Since today was a Umass Monday, however, I have two practices this week that I need to be tardy to instead of one. What a pain.
We had a decent practice today, which is a little surprising considering there was a lot of wind and a lot of A teamers sidelined. Some of them are out on legitimate injuries, but others are just being total bitches. I think there were at least three players who sat out of practice today because they played in club regionals this past weekend. Week fucking sauce. And they didn't even look too glum to be out of practice, either. Rather than focusing, yelling out onto the field and helping out with the people who Were playing, they sat on the sideline and talked amongst themselves or played semi-retarded games. I tried to ignore them, but that bunch of fucks really pissed me off.
We didn't split between A and B teams today, since we wouldn't have had enough players to run a scrimmage. I suppose that this isn't only the fault of the guys on the sideline, since there were a bunch of people who just plain didn't show today. So fuck them too. I suppose that means that I want to give a big "Fuck You" to about ten A teamers right now.
In Spite of all of this, we managed to have a pretty decent practice. We played a lot of zone, which was sometimes frustrating due to the number of players who had absolutely no idea how to play their position, but we managed to work through it. I ran pretty hard, so I'm rather exhausted right now. I also made a point to take some chances with the disc, trying to make some throws that I wouldn't usually go for. This resulted in too many turnovers, but I did succeed in making a good number of plays. I would say that, overall, my throws were pretty good and I did a decent job being where I needed to be on both offense and defense.
Hopefully we can get better numbers for tomorrow. We're closing in on Purple Valley and I want to make sure that our team is good to go.
Congratulations to those friends of mine who made it to Nationals. I'm really happy for all of you. It's too bad that the Son's of Liberty didn't manage to unseat Pony in the game-to-go: they looked pretty close for a while but weren't able to pull out the upset. Ryan Holmes had the bonehead play of the tournament, laying out for a gratuitous defensive layout catch out of bounds only to throw the disc down, thereby giving the disc back to Pony. He didn't mean to, but it was really a letdown.
Columbus Day was yesterday, which meant no school (good!). This also meant that today, a Tuesday, was on a Monday schedule (bad.). Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, my final class gets out at 3:20. This is usually only an issue on Wednesdays, when I have to run down to practice and miss warmups. Since today was a Umass Monday, however, I have two practices this week that I need to be tardy to instead of one. What a pain.
We had a decent practice today, which is a little surprising considering there was a lot of wind and a lot of A teamers sidelined. Some of them are out on legitimate injuries, but others are just being total bitches. I think there were at least three players who sat out of practice today because they played in club regionals this past weekend. Week fucking sauce. And they didn't even look too glum to be out of practice, either. Rather than focusing, yelling out onto the field and helping out with the people who Were playing, they sat on the sideline and talked amongst themselves or played semi-retarded games. I tried to ignore them, but that bunch of fucks really pissed me off.
We didn't split between A and B teams today, since we wouldn't have had enough players to run a scrimmage. I suppose that this isn't only the fault of the guys on the sideline, since there were a bunch of people who just plain didn't show today. So fuck them too. I suppose that means that I want to give a big "Fuck You" to about ten A teamers right now.
In Spite of all of this, we managed to have a pretty decent practice. We played a lot of zone, which was sometimes frustrating due to the number of players who had absolutely no idea how to play their position, but we managed to work through it. I ran pretty hard, so I'm rather exhausted right now. I also made a point to take some chances with the disc, trying to make some throws that I wouldn't usually go for. This resulted in too many turnovers, but I did succeed in making a good number of plays. I would say that, overall, my throws were pretty good and I did a decent job being where I needed to be on both offense and defense.
Hopefully we can get better numbers for tomorrow. We're closing in on Purple Valley and I want to make sure that our team is good to go.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Good practice today.
Which is nice, because I really didn't think it was going to be when it all started off. I was feeling slow and tight, and we didn't have great numbers at the outset. Especially with Henry, Mitch, and Patuluk sitting (Mitch was fasting, Patuluk has a hurt hamstring - though that doesn't excuse his drinking a couple beers before practice - and Henry was... resting for Club Regionals, maybe? Which I feel a little critical of, but whatever. I would feel like a total bitch if I sat for no good reason on a day with short numbers, but I suppose that Henry isn't exactly me.). After a few drills, however, things seemed to be going alright. We played a five pull, which didn't go well for the D line, and then went straight into a scrimmage.
We're really fortunate that the likes of Brent, Joe, Trevor, and today Darden have been showing up to some practices and playing. They really add a lot of experience and ability to scrimmages that are dominated by youth. I've noticed that a lot of the young guys start to sub out and sit on the sideline when they start to feel tired, reluctantly subbing in when we call them out. They need to learn how to play tired, and having older players around could teach them. When it's been a ten minute point and all you want to do is put your hands on your knees and quit, you have to realize that your man is feeling exactly the same way and it is a perfect time to force a turnover and sprint into the endzone for the easiest score of your life. Playing tired is the way to play ultimate. They say that a good running back gets stronger as the game progresses, starts to pound linebackers when they're sucking too much air to fight back. Ultimate is exactly the same. Excellent players play excellently when they are tired. End of story.
Neverless, I tried to give the alumni smaller roles on offense so that our new guys can learn how to handle the load when said alumni aren't present. This wasn't always possible, as the other team sometimes threw zone (forcing Brent to fill in as the third handler) or the other cutters on our team sometimes weren't able to make the cut and an alumni had to fill the space, but I did it as much as I prudently could.
My team lost the scrimmage, but we ran our asses off. Sometimes we clicked, sometimes less so. Overall, though, I'd say it was a great practice.
We're really fortunate that the likes of Brent, Joe, Trevor, and today Darden have been showing up to some practices and playing. They really add a lot of experience and ability to scrimmages that are dominated by youth. I've noticed that a lot of the young guys start to sub out and sit on the sideline when they start to feel tired, reluctantly subbing in when we call them out. They need to learn how to play tired, and having older players around could teach them. When it's been a ten minute point and all you want to do is put your hands on your knees and quit, you have to realize that your man is feeling exactly the same way and it is a perfect time to force a turnover and sprint into the endzone for the easiest score of your life. Playing tired is the way to play ultimate. They say that a good running back gets stronger as the game progresses, starts to pound linebackers when they're sucking too much air to fight back. Ultimate is exactly the same. Excellent players play excellently when they are tired. End of story.
Neverless, I tried to give the alumni smaller roles on offense so that our new guys can learn how to handle the load when said alumni aren't present. This wasn't always possible, as the other team sometimes threw zone (forcing Brent to fill in as the third handler) or the other cutters on our team sometimes weren't able to make the cut and an alumni had to fill the space, but I did it as much as I prudently could.
My team lost the scrimmage, but we ran our asses off. Sometimes we clicked, sometimes less so. Overall, though, I'd say it was a great practice.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Today: the B Team! Tomorrow: the Women's Team!!!
Yes, sir, you heard it right: today we scrimmaged the B team.
We beat them 15-0, but we really did it more on their errors than our success. We played spotty defense (actually pretty decent for short stretches, but lax at other times), and threw the disc away a Lot. Much of our throwaways were just the result of us trying to make things happen too much, believing that a defender who was in pretty good position would not be enough to stop a superior athlete from going up and getting a floater. That was a stupid way to play, and a better team is sure to take advantage of such mistakes at some point this season. Let's just hope that it's sooner rather than later so that we have the opportunity to make the right adjustments. We were all guilty of it, too, so it's not like I can put the blame on a couple of players and leave myself looking innocent. I threw the disc away today. I threw the disc away several times today. I threw the disc away several times today in situations where I should not have thrown it at all, or should have found a different target. I disappointed myself today.
There. I said it. Let's move on.
We had a huck drill that went alright. Not a high completion percentage, but a lot of throws that went just past where the receiver could get them. I think, at this stage of the year, that an overthrown huck is a much better sign then an underthrown huck. We just need to get our connections clicking, and suddenly throwing to a receiver in stride is going to be unstoppable.
We really don't get all that much out of playing the B team, but it is nice knowing that we are capable of putting a total shellacking on somebody even when we aren't playing our best. We had a lot of turnovers, but we also had a lot of players buckle down and say "this man will not score on me" and then back up their language with some actions. It is incredibly difficult to keep a team out of the endzone for an entire game. One mental lapse - especially as the game gets out of reach and the winning team starts easing up on defense right as the losing team starts getting really aggressive on offense and taking some chances - one mental lapse is all that is necessary to give up a point. The fact that we refused to do this even once leaves me feeling very optimistic about the attitude of our team this year.
We beat them 15-0, but we really did it more on their errors than our success. We played spotty defense (actually pretty decent for short stretches, but lax at other times), and threw the disc away a Lot. Much of our throwaways were just the result of us trying to make things happen too much, believing that a defender who was in pretty good position would not be enough to stop a superior athlete from going up and getting a floater. That was a stupid way to play, and a better team is sure to take advantage of such mistakes at some point this season. Let's just hope that it's sooner rather than later so that we have the opportunity to make the right adjustments. We were all guilty of it, too, so it's not like I can put the blame on a couple of players and leave myself looking innocent. I threw the disc away today. I threw the disc away several times today. I threw the disc away several times today in situations where I should not have thrown it at all, or should have found a different target. I disappointed myself today.
There. I said it. Let's move on.
We had a huck drill that went alright. Not a high completion percentage, but a lot of throws that went just past where the receiver could get them. I think, at this stage of the year, that an overthrown huck is a much better sign then an underthrown huck. We just need to get our connections clicking, and suddenly throwing to a receiver in stride is going to be unstoppable.
We really don't get all that much out of playing the B team, but it is nice knowing that we are capable of putting a total shellacking on somebody even when we aren't playing our best. We had a lot of turnovers, but we also had a lot of players buckle down and say "this man will not score on me" and then back up their language with some actions. It is incredibly difficult to keep a team out of the endzone for an entire game. One mental lapse - especially as the game gets out of reach and the winning team starts easing up on defense right as the losing team starts getting really aggressive on offense and taking some chances - one mental lapse is all that is necessary to give up a point. The fact that we refused to do this even once leaves me feeling very optimistic about the attitude of our team this year.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
The weekend and today.
We didn't have any tournaments or practice this weekend. Sunday was my birthday, though, and Jesse invited a bunch of people over here Saturday night for a surprise party. It was a pretty good time, and really special that so many of my teammates managed to come out to wish me a happy birthday.
Sunday afternoon a bunch of us got together to decide who should make the cut for the A team. It went pretty well - a few arguments, but we were eventually able to come to a pretty reasonable consensus. Henry didn't come, which was weird, but I think we were able to put together a pretty solid team without his input and I don't think he's too put off by it all. We decided to go with a 26 man roster this year, which is a gigantic team. However, with a couple players not here for the fall and a few other players who are hurt, a big team is good for making sure that we'll have adequate practice numbers. There were also a good number of promising, athletic freshmen who are all around the same skill level, so it was difficult to differentiate them enough to cut some and keep others. So (drumroll please) the 2008-2009 Zoodisc A Team goes as follows:
1. Matt Babbitt
2. Henry Brescher
3. Dave Barker
4. John Barker
5. Ryan Holmes
6. Jeff Kelly
7. Chase McCann
8. Steve Oleski
9. Josh Patulak
10. Jon Schneyer
11. Zach Smith
12. Robin Stewart
13. Steve Taylor
14. Mitch Weiss
15. Micah
16. Alden Gassert
17. Sam Gaddes
18. Branden Steinberg
19. Jeff Steeves
20. Tall Nick (George Bryant)
21. Rob Brazile
22. Alan Stebbins
23. Ashton
24. Keenan Kelly
25. Chris2
26. Tim McSweeney
I'm very excited about this team. A lot of youthful excitement tempered with veteran experience. I honestly expect our team to be very successful this year. It is going to be a Lot of fun.
Anyway, Sunday night I was sitting in my living room with Jesse, Robin, and Babbitt. Babbitt mentioned that he was writing an email to Henry, letting him know which players we had decided to place on the A team. Suddenly, Babbitt started swearing. In his attempt to write the email to Henry, he had responded to an email that Henry had sent the day before, not realizing that hitting "reply" for this email would send it out to the entire Google group. Luckily, Babbitt had decided just to copy/paste the list of players into the body of the email, rather than include the Microsoft Word file that included all of the disparaging comments that Babbitt had made about each of the players under consideration. Though this wasn't the way that he wanted to break the news about cuts, at least he didn't alienate thirty or so people by sending them vicious critiques of their playing abilities.
Yesterday afternoon I went to the gym with Jesse. She hadn't seemed into the idea of working out in the morning, and after class I hoped that her attitude would not have changed. I went to bed for a nap, hoping she would call me to say "Uh, well... I hope you don't mind but I'm really not feeling the gym today...." No dice. She was pumped about exercising, and it really wasn't so bad after all. We did chest, shoulders, and some arms, and then I hammered abs. I did leg-lifts while benching just the bar, which my abs really weren't ready for. I plan to build them up, though, so that they can eventually withstand some significant weight.
Today I didn't lift before practice, mainly because I have a big Spanish exam tomorrow and almost no understanding of the Spanish language. I'm going to cram like crazy tonight and hope to pull off a mediocre grade. Practice was fun, though. With the A list already sent out, there was no reason not to split for practice today. The D line is really young and inexperienced, but these guys all seem ready to run (even if they don't always know Where to run). We got some good plays put together at some points, and some not so good plays at others. I'm excited that the youth of our A team really opens up the opportunity for me to play a big role controlling the situation on offense after we get the turn. I think that I did try to play too big of a role today, though, thinking about it too much and suffering as a result. I had a couple drops, which is really uncharacteristic of my usually sure (but slow) hands. The mark also got a good peice of my throws twice in a rather short period of time, which really isn't good, because I was fixating too much on the downfield cutters and not faking or pivoting. But I also threw a couple very pretty throws, cut pretty well for the dump, and played alright defense, so I guess my performance wasn't a total wash.
Either way, though, I'm really looking forward to practice tomorrow. D line, baby!
Sunday afternoon a bunch of us got together to decide who should make the cut for the A team. It went pretty well - a few arguments, but we were eventually able to come to a pretty reasonable consensus. Henry didn't come, which was weird, but I think we were able to put together a pretty solid team without his input and I don't think he's too put off by it all. We decided to go with a 26 man roster this year, which is a gigantic team. However, with a couple players not here for the fall and a few other players who are hurt, a big team is good for making sure that we'll have adequate practice numbers. There were also a good number of promising, athletic freshmen who are all around the same skill level, so it was difficult to differentiate them enough to cut some and keep others. So (drumroll please) the 2008-2009 Zoodisc A Team goes as follows:
1. Matt Babbitt
2. Henry Brescher
3. Dave Barker
4. John Barker
5. Ryan Holmes
6. Jeff Kelly
7. Chase McCann
8. Steve Oleski
9. Josh Patulak
10. Jon Schneyer
11. Zach Smith
12. Robin Stewart
13. Steve Taylor
14. Mitch Weiss
15. Micah
16. Alden Gassert
17. Sam Gaddes
18. Branden Steinberg
19. Jeff Steeves
20. Tall Nick (George Bryant)
21. Rob Brazile
22. Alan Stebbins
23. Ashton
24. Keenan Kelly
25. Chris2
26. Tim McSweeney
I'm very excited about this team. A lot of youthful excitement tempered with veteran experience. I honestly expect our team to be very successful this year. It is going to be a Lot of fun.
Anyway, Sunday night I was sitting in my living room with Jesse, Robin, and Babbitt. Babbitt mentioned that he was writing an email to Henry, letting him know which players we had decided to place on the A team. Suddenly, Babbitt started swearing. In his attempt to write the email to Henry, he had responded to an email that Henry had sent the day before, not realizing that hitting "reply" for this email would send it out to the entire Google group. Luckily, Babbitt had decided just to copy/paste the list of players into the body of the email, rather than include the Microsoft Word file that included all of the disparaging comments that Babbitt had made about each of the players under consideration. Though this wasn't the way that he wanted to break the news about cuts, at least he didn't alienate thirty or so people by sending them vicious critiques of their playing abilities.
Yesterday afternoon I went to the gym with Jesse. She hadn't seemed into the idea of working out in the morning, and after class I hoped that her attitude would not have changed. I went to bed for a nap, hoping she would call me to say "Uh, well... I hope you don't mind but I'm really not feeling the gym today...." No dice. She was pumped about exercising, and it really wasn't so bad after all. We did chest, shoulders, and some arms, and then I hammered abs. I did leg-lifts while benching just the bar, which my abs really weren't ready for. I plan to build them up, though, so that they can eventually withstand some significant weight.
Today I didn't lift before practice, mainly because I have a big Spanish exam tomorrow and almost no understanding of the Spanish language. I'm going to cram like crazy tonight and hope to pull off a mediocre grade. Practice was fun, though. With the A list already sent out, there was no reason not to split for practice today. The D line is really young and inexperienced, but these guys all seem ready to run (even if they don't always know Where to run). We got some good plays put together at some points, and some not so good plays at others. I'm excited that the youth of our A team really opens up the opportunity for me to play a big role controlling the situation on offense after we get the turn. I think that I did try to play too big of a role today, though, thinking about it too much and suffering as a result. I had a couple drops, which is really uncharacteristic of my usually sure (but slow) hands. The mark also got a good peice of my throws twice in a rather short period of time, which really isn't good, because I was fixating too much on the downfield cutters and not faking or pivoting. But I also threw a couple very pretty throws, cut pretty well for the dump, and played alright defense, so I guess my performance wasn't a total wash.
Either way, though, I'm really looking forward to practice tomorrow. D line, baby!
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Hit the weights.
I went to the weight room yesterday - the second consecutive day of working out. I mainly focused on legs. I warmed up on a stationary bike for 15 minutes at increasing resistance, used the calf, hamstring, and quad machines, did some squats with the bar on my shoulders, squats with the bar across my folded arms, jerked my hips up to lift the bar, did lunges, held a 45 pound weight in one hand and bent to the side and up, did leg lifts lying on a bench with my ass off the end, and did crunches on the declined bench. It was a pretty tough workout, but I'm looking forward to making it tougher and increasing the weight.
I am going to be ripped by the spring.
I just don't want anybody to be able to deal with how physically prepared I will be. Every hourI work brings me one hour closer to dominance. In the spring, I want people to take one look at my body and realize that they didn't put in the work that I did. In the spring, I want people to take one look at me and realize that they can't score on me, can't get open on me, can't cover me. In the spring, I don't want anybody to have an answer for how physically I can play.
This is my last year. When all is said and done, win or lose, I want to look back on this year and know that I there wasn't anything else that I could have done to succeed.
I am going to be ripped by the spring.
I just don't want anybody to be able to deal with how physically prepared I will be. Every hourI work brings me one hour closer to dominance. In the spring, I want people to take one look at my body and realize that they didn't put in the work that I did. In the spring, I want people to take one look at me and realize that they can't score on me, can't get open on me, can't cover me. In the spring, I don't want anybody to have an answer for how physically I can play.
This is my last year. When all is said and done, win or lose, I want to look back on this year and know that I there wasn't anything else that I could have done to succeed.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Two days, not too much to say.
I'm sorry that I didn't get around to posting about yesterday's practice. I had a lot to do when I got home and just kept procrastinating. But that really shouldn't happen that often, and I'll make up for it when I do.
Yesterday's practice was a lot of fun. Like Tuesday, we managed to keep the majority of good players from each team on a single line, minimizing the amount that the bad players could hurt our offensive or defensive efforts. We mostly had the bad players playing D points, and the better players played O points, which really showed us how easy offense could be with competent players at every position. It was also rather pleasant to have such a calm and humid day; with almost no wind, we all felt like absolute snipers. It was a good day.
It is at this time that I think I should say that I'm going to stay away from writing about personal problems that I have with other members of this team. Last weekend, I got into a spat with a certain one of my teammates, and I almost wrote the details of this incident into this blog. I thought, "Hey, it was a team interaction, it affects the team, it belongs here," but it really doesn't. I'm not looking to create rifts by writing about things that could much better be dealt with or buried. Personal matters will only rear their heads on this blog if they significantly affect the team dynamic or represent a team event.
I decided that today would be the day that I would start lifting before practice. I've been meaning to do this since school started but honestly haven't been able to find the energy. I'm glad that I hadn't started lifting until today, but now that I've started I am feeling so excited about the amount of effort I am going to expend towards our team's success this year. Every drop of sweat is an investment towards winning, and I just love saving up. I mostly did chest, back, and shoulders with an ab workout to finish it (I do abs every day - nothing is more important) and then ran to practice. Working out beforehand makes running a little more difficult, but I think that it's worthwhile in the long run to be ready to deal with that fatigue. I also think that it's a good thing to build up a strong foundation now, even if the muscles I built today won't be the same muscles that get D's at regionals in 7 months. The stronger I am now, the harder I can work tomorrow and the harder I can work the day after that. Every day counts, and that's never been clearer than it is right now. I'm in my final year and I'm not going to waste it.
Today's practice was night and day different from yesterday. Rather than thick, humid air sitting dead with nary a breeze, we had wind whipping around us the entire time. The direction was pretty consistent, though, so it wasn't That hard to deal with even though it gusted up at some points. It was a real pain, however, to run in the wind. I hate running in the wind. I am slow enough when it's calm. The wind knocks me off balance and rushes the oxygen away from my mouth. I always feel like I'm moving in slow motion and sucking air the entire time that I'm running on a particularly windy day. That sucks, but today was still pretty fun.
Willworth managed to score 8 or so goals during our scrimmage today, which is a travesty. This kid is a total liability to every offensive effort. He stands in the endzone, preventing any of his teammates from making deep cuts. He turns the disc over when you throw it to him on an in cut, either dropping it or throwing it away stupidly. His defense... well, he might as well not even pretend to cover his defender, cause what he's doing isn't working. But he scores a lot of goals. This, largely, has to do with how ineffective the rest of his game is. His defender doesn't pay him too much mind, looking to poach off and help out with another offender, and a lot of times he is being covered by one of the chumps from the other team. But it mostly has to do with the fact that players like Robin find it funny that Willwerth scores so many goals and start to make an effort to give him a lot of chances in the endzone. Which is really annoying, because Robin sometimes refuses to move the disc in a quick and strategic way, hanging on to it excessively long instead and hoping for something deep to open up to Willwerth. The most obnoxious part of it is that this strategy works surprisingly often - not because Willwerth is making good cuts but because Robin is an excellent thrower who can put it on his hands over and over and over. And since it works, it's hard to tell Robin to stop and try to take practice a little more seriously. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I look forward to cuts so that these things don't happen as often.
And cuts are happening soon. Returning A teamers are meeting on Sunday to discuss who should make the A team and who should be relegated to the depths of the B team. An official decision should be shortcoming. I can hardly wait.
Yesterday's practice was a lot of fun. Like Tuesday, we managed to keep the majority of good players from each team on a single line, minimizing the amount that the bad players could hurt our offensive or defensive efforts. We mostly had the bad players playing D points, and the better players played O points, which really showed us how easy offense could be with competent players at every position. It was also rather pleasant to have such a calm and humid day; with almost no wind, we all felt like absolute snipers. It was a good day.
It is at this time that I think I should say that I'm going to stay away from writing about personal problems that I have with other members of this team. Last weekend, I got into a spat with a certain one of my teammates, and I almost wrote the details of this incident into this blog. I thought, "Hey, it was a team interaction, it affects the team, it belongs here," but it really doesn't. I'm not looking to create rifts by writing about things that could much better be dealt with or buried. Personal matters will only rear their heads on this blog if they significantly affect the team dynamic or represent a team event.
I decided that today would be the day that I would start lifting before practice. I've been meaning to do this since school started but honestly haven't been able to find the energy. I'm glad that I hadn't started lifting until today, but now that I've started I am feeling so excited about the amount of effort I am going to expend towards our team's success this year. Every drop of sweat is an investment towards winning, and I just love saving up. I mostly did chest, back, and shoulders with an ab workout to finish it (I do abs every day - nothing is more important) and then ran to practice. Working out beforehand makes running a little more difficult, but I think that it's worthwhile in the long run to be ready to deal with that fatigue. I also think that it's a good thing to build up a strong foundation now, even if the muscles I built today won't be the same muscles that get D's at regionals in 7 months. The stronger I am now, the harder I can work tomorrow and the harder I can work the day after that. Every day counts, and that's never been clearer than it is right now. I'm in my final year and I'm not going to waste it.
Today's practice was night and day different from yesterday. Rather than thick, humid air sitting dead with nary a breeze, we had wind whipping around us the entire time. The direction was pretty consistent, though, so it wasn't That hard to deal with even though it gusted up at some points. It was a real pain, however, to run in the wind. I hate running in the wind. I am slow enough when it's calm. The wind knocks me off balance and rushes the oxygen away from my mouth. I always feel like I'm moving in slow motion and sucking air the entire time that I'm running on a particularly windy day. That sucks, but today was still pretty fun.
Willworth managed to score 8 or so goals during our scrimmage today, which is a travesty. This kid is a total liability to every offensive effort. He stands in the endzone, preventing any of his teammates from making deep cuts. He turns the disc over when you throw it to him on an in cut, either dropping it or throwing it away stupidly. His defense... well, he might as well not even pretend to cover his defender, cause what he's doing isn't working. But he scores a lot of goals. This, largely, has to do with how ineffective the rest of his game is. His defender doesn't pay him too much mind, looking to poach off and help out with another offender, and a lot of times he is being covered by one of the chumps from the other team. But it mostly has to do with the fact that players like Robin find it funny that Willwerth scores so many goals and start to make an effort to give him a lot of chances in the endzone. Which is really annoying, because Robin sometimes refuses to move the disc in a quick and strategic way, hanging on to it excessively long instead and hoping for something deep to open up to Willwerth. The most obnoxious part of it is that this strategy works surprisingly often - not because Willwerth is making good cuts but because Robin is an excellent thrower who can put it on his hands over and over and over. And since it works, it's hard to tell Robin to stop and try to take practice a little more seriously. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I look forward to cuts so that these things don't happen as often.
And cuts are happening soon. Returning A teamers are meeting on Sunday to discuss who should make the A team and who should be relegated to the depths of the B team. An official decision should be shortcoming. I can hardly wait.
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