..... I put on a uniform to win. - Larry Bird
I have never had the desire to impose your will to win on a game more succinctly described than that. Read those two sentences again, and again, and again.
This year, MIT got jerseys early in the season, so a lot of people received jerseys who eventually cut themselves because they couldn't handle the late night winter practices, track workouts, and outside practice on the astro-turf in 25 degree weather. In my mind it cheapened what a uniform stands for or what it means to belong to it.
If I had my way, the jerseys would have been passed out shortly before sectionals. By then, the roster is set, those who still remain know what it means to work for one another, has been through the ups and downs, and understands what it means to take a group of individuals and make it something greater than the sum of those individuals.
In essence, what it is to be a TEAM. Everyone is working to bring out the strengths of each other while letting others lean on them to overcome their weaknesses.
We are in bonus ball time. Every point we win means that we get to play one more point with each other. And, if you think about it, that is really what we are fighting for; to extend the season.
We are going into regionals seeded 8th. Anyone in the top 12 or so could beat anyone. The difference is all about who wants to win. And, hopefully, looking into your teammates eyes early saturday morning will be reason enough to get that fire, that ball of hate for the other team trying to end your season.
Play with your heart.
We come out flat too often. We wait around until we are down 4-0 and then start slowly playing, sometimes, we don't even start until the second half. Don't wait for a reason.....
i could write pages and pages about the difference between wanting to want to win, and flat out wanting to win, but i think al pacino says it best.
http://youtube. com/watch? v=9rFx6OFooCs
That is heart, that is the ball of hate, and that working so hard for every inch of the field for your teammate and brother so you can play one more second, one more point, one more game, and one more tournament with him.
You guys have worked so hard to build back from 2 years ago. Don't throw it away by waiting for a reason to play D.
Work hard, take the extra few steps to set up a cut, step out on your throw, clear hard, or reposition yourself on D.
Don't wait for a reason. Do not wait for a reason.
You already have a reason: each other.
Stomp on their throats. Don't let anyone or anything stand in your way.
Inch by inch.....Tech on seven
-josh
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Friday, April 24, 2009
Ramping Up for Regionals....
MIT is busy learning some new tricks for regionals, but mostly, we are working on the same old fundamentals since really, the team that plays their game the best normally wins.
We are focusing on continuation cuts, attacking deep more, handler motion, etc.
The kids have an alumni scrimmage Saturday, practice tuesday, scrimmage vs. sons of liberty wednesday, and the final practice on thursday to go over any loose ends.
On Thursday after practice, I arranged the team to do a workshop with my friend and former Metal teammate, Max Woolf, who is a motivational speaker / life coach. I think this will be really good for the kids to get in the right mindset for regionals.
I think a lot of ultimate, and a lot of college ultimate is basically about who wants to win more. There are a lot of mental headcases in this sport, and the baggage they carry onto the field with them amazes me. I don't want that to be something that holds us back.
-josh
We are focusing on continuation cuts, attacking deep more, handler motion, etc.
The kids have an alumni scrimmage Saturday, practice tuesday, scrimmage vs. sons of liberty wednesday, and the final practice on thursday to go over any loose ends.
On Thursday after practice, I arranged the team to do a workshop with my friend and former Metal teammate, Max Woolf, who is a motivational speaker / life coach. I think this will be really good for the kids to get in the right mindset for regionals.
I think a lot of ultimate, and a lot of college ultimate is basically about who wants to win more. There are a lot of mental headcases in this sport, and the baggage they carry onto the field with them amazes me. I don't want that to be something that holds us back.
-josh
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Sectionals Recap...
We rolled into Saturday 14 deep. 3 rookies, 4 sophomores, 2 juniors, and 2 seniors, and 3 grad students (only one in his last year of eligibility (and first on the team)). I think that is the breakdown at least.
We made two even lines, dubbed ingeniously, "line 1" and "line 2", and played each line for 2 points at a time for the first 2 games. The first game was against wentworth. They had a couple dangerous players, but were mostly a young team. We made sure to bookend their good cutter and force their main handler with big lefty throws out, and beat them 15-6.
We then played Bentley-B, and beat them 15-3. The last couple of the points, we played what would be our "o line" against them to get them used to playing together.
We have had several key injuries ankle injuries that have left us with only 3 handlers and missing a couple good O cutters, so this entire weekend we worked on having an efficient O. We focused on moving the disc quickly, communication amongst the handlers, and good hard cuts and clears from the cutters.
We then had our big showdown of the day which was Northeastern. The kids were pretty pumped up to play them since they played them and won in a very close game under the lights a couple of weeks ago at MIT, but the victory was far too close to leave them confident about it. We start on O, score, and then score the next 3 points to make it 4-0.
We go zone, they score with their main handler, piccard?, picking it apart. At some point, their tall fast kid casey rolls his ankle. We trade until 5-2, and then we score the next 5 in a row.
We then go back to line 1 and line 2 trying to play everyone and finish 15-5. Pretty good day for MIT. We played aggressive D. Got a lot of Ds on in cuts either by forcing a bad throw, or by smothering the dump, and we won a lot of the air battles.
We go to olive garden, everyone is happy. It should also be noted that we played on quite possibly the worst fields ever and came out injury free (i made everyone with ankle issues in the past wear their braces), but, we wouldn't have been able to play sectionals if not for those fields.
Sunday...
We come out on Sunday 15 strong with an additional rookie.
We begin by playing Harvard. MIT had a good warm-up, everything was clicking, and they were fired up to start. We come out on fire, getting numerous Ds and bookending their cuts which worked very well for stagnating their flow. We made sure not to let stubbs throw his backhand upwind because we felt we had a better chance at d'ing his long flick hucks. We had numerous players step up and made big plays on O and D for use, and we took half 8-5. Our handlers were moving the disc well, and we responded to the clam and junk well by moving it around and picking apart the holes.
We then start the second half well, but Harvard makes a late run getting to within a break in the cap, and we manage to punch in the final upwinder on a long huck to andrew ji.
We then have a two hour bye. We do our best to eat, get in cars to get warm, and drink, but once we get back out to warm up, the spring is a little lost. We start the game against tufts, and have a couple hiccups and then tufts proceeds to walk all over us. We proceed to look tired, frazzeled, and have numerous unforced turn-overs. At around the beginning of the game, ji bruises his heal and cannot play for the rest of the weekend.
It should be noted that tufts good D accounts for a lot of these throwaways. To date, they definitely have our number, but with that game over, we know we have regionals... and potentially another chance to play them.
Aside: Whatever tufts does as a program is pretty awesome. Their C team is larger than our team.
The 2/3 game is next, and Harvard was looking just as tired as us. We agree to play sooner than the 50 minutes that we were supposed to wait to play that round because both teams don't want to cool down only to have to warm back up. We come out and struggle a little to fill andrew's cutting role. Cody and Phys have done a lot of deep cutting and it is starting to show, our handlers stopped talking and cutting to create space for one another, and we started to have more and more miscues on offense. However, we never gave up fighting, and we still had numerous layout Ds, scrappy play, but on offense our tired legs just aren't getting it done to reward the effort.
We wind up losing fairly handedly. Overall, although I would have liked to have ended the weekend on a higher note, I think the team did very well. We held seed, proved to ourselves that we can play with anyone, and the loses will give us motivation for the next couple of weeks. We have lots to work on, and the team is getting better and better by the day. I am pretty excited for regionals, and since this will be my last season coaching MIT, I want to see the kids I have coached since freshman year be rewarded for all their hard work they have put into building this team in the past couple seasons.
-josh
We made two even lines, dubbed ingeniously, "line 1" and "line 2", and played each line for 2 points at a time for the first 2 games. The first game was against wentworth. They had a couple dangerous players, but were mostly a young team. We made sure to bookend their good cutter and force their main handler with big lefty throws out, and beat them 15-6.
We then played Bentley-B, and beat them 15-3. The last couple of the points, we played what would be our "o line" against them to get them used to playing together.
We have had several key injuries ankle injuries that have left us with only 3 handlers and missing a couple good O cutters, so this entire weekend we worked on having an efficient O. We focused on moving the disc quickly, communication amongst the handlers, and good hard cuts and clears from the cutters.
We then had our big showdown of the day which was Northeastern. The kids were pretty pumped up to play them since they played them and won in a very close game under the lights a couple of weeks ago at MIT, but the victory was far too close to leave them confident about it. We start on O, score, and then score the next 3 points to make it 4-0.
We go zone, they score with their main handler, piccard?, picking it apart. At some point, their tall fast kid casey rolls his ankle. We trade until 5-2, and then we score the next 5 in a row.
We then go back to line 1 and line 2 trying to play everyone and finish 15-5. Pretty good day for MIT. We played aggressive D. Got a lot of Ds on in cuts either by forcing a bad throw, or by smothering the dump, and we won a lot of the air battles.
We go to olive garden, everyone is happy. It should also be noted that we played on quite possibly the worst fields ever and came out injury free (i made everyone with ankle issues in the past wear their braces), but, we wouldn't have been able to play sectionals if not for those fields.
Sunday...
We come out on Sunday 15 strong with an additional rookie.
We begin by playing Harvard. MIT had a good warm-up, everything was clicking, and they were fired up to start. We come out on fire, getting numerous Ds and bookending their cuts which worked very well for stagnating their flow. We made sure not to let stubbs throw his backhand upwind because we felt we had a better chance at d'ing his long flick hucks. We had numerous players step up and made big plays on O and D for use, and we took half 8-5. Our handlers were moving the disc well, and we responded to the clam and junk well by moving it around and picking apart the holes.
We then start the second half well, but Harvard makes a late run getting to within a break in the cap, and we manage to punch in the final upwinder on a long huck to andrew ji.
We then have a two hour bye. We do our best to eat, get in cars to get warm, and drink, but once we get back out to warm up, the spring is a little lost. We start the game against tufts, and have a couple hiccups and then tufts proceeds to walk all over us. We proceed to look tired, frazzeled, and have numerous unforced turn-overs. At around the beginning of the game, ji bruises his heal and cannot play for the rest of the weekend.
It should be noted that tufts good D accounts for a lot of these throwaways. To date, they definitely have our number, but with that game over, we know we have regionals... and potentially another chance to play them.
Aside: Whatever tufts does as a program is pretty awesome. Their C team is larger than our team.
The 2/3 game is next, and Harvard was looking just as tired as us. We agree to play sooner than the 50 minutes that we were supposed to wait to play that round because both teams don't want to cool down only to have to warm back up. We come out and struggle a little to fill andrew's cutting role. Cody and Phys have done a lot of deep cutting and it is starting to show, our handlers stopped talking and cutting to create space for one another, and we started to have more and more miscues on offense. However, we never gave up fighting, and we still had numerous layout Ds, scrappy play, but on offense our tired legs just aren't getting it done to reward the effort.
We wind up losing fairly handedly. Overall, although I would have liked to have ended the weekend on a higher note, I think the team did very well. We held seed, proved to ourselves that we can play with anyone, and the loses will give us motivation for the next couple of weeks. We have lots to work on, and the team is getting better and better by the day. I am pretty excited for regionals, and since this will be my last season coaching MIT, I want to see the kids I have coached since freshman year be rewarded for all their hard work they have put into building this team in the past couple seasons.
-josh
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Ouch....
We got smoked tonight. Tufts played pretty well (we really didn't give them an opportunity to play great), but the biggest opponent was ourselves. The team got weirdly intimidated and played very frantic offense.
Around the endzone, we abandoned our dump-swing, and tried to rely on really hard breaks and bending throws to space.... which never work.
I thought we played okay to good defensively. We had some points where we generated turns on hard man and zone D, but, we quickly squandered those opportunities with throwaways.
We need to work on marking. We aren't active enough. We are either doing the stupid college get really tight and don't move and wonder why you get broken mark, or we are doing the stand at a 45 and don't move and wonder why the huck went off mark. We just aren't being dynamic.
We are currently having trouble adjusting to clam or zone for a few. This is because our handlers are holding the disc for too long letting the D get a good look at things instead of throwing to what is there quickly and having the D adjust / catch up. Hopefully we will clear this up at tomorrows practice.
-josh
Around the endzone, we abandoned our dump-swing, and tried to rely on really hard breaks and bending throws to space.... which never work.
I thought we played okay to good defensively. We had some points where we generated turns on hard man and zone D, but, we quickly squandered those opportunities with throwaways.
We need to work on marking. We aren't active enough. We are either doing the stupid college get really tight and don't move and wonder why you get broken mark, or we are doing the stand at a 45 and don't move and wonder why the huck went off mark. We just aren't being dynamic.
We are currently having trouble adjusting to clam or zone for a few. This is because our handlers are holding the disc for too long letting the D get a good look at things instead of throwing to what is there quickly and having the D adjust / catch up. Hopefully we will clear this up at tomorrows practice.
-josh
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Sectionals....
I am back from working in Fairbanks, AK for a week, and MIT is ramping up for sectionals. We still have a ton to learn (starting disc in ho on sideline, getting comfortable with the second and third dump option, zone O with an active mark / off point, bookending D, etc.) and we are rapidly running out of time.
I hope we make it out of sectionals for the sole reason to extend the season because the team is really starting to gel and grow now at a fairly fast rate. It would be terrible if the season ended Sunday (let alone Saturday).
We have 2 practice days (tues and thurs) and 1 scrimmage with Tufts (Wed). Tufts looks very, very strong this year (for our region anyway), and will be the #1 seed at sectionals this weekend.
There are 5 spots for regionals up for grabs, and I really think it will be a dog-fight between 4-5 teams for the last 3 spots. Hopefully we will play well and won't get put into the death-march of a 5th place bracket since we have about 17 players on our team that aren't injured with a large talent spread (think A and B team combined).
This also presents problems at practice having the better players pushed, so I have been having either the coaches, some ironside guys, or some friends and college players taking the semester off from other schools come out to practices. I hope in the long run this is better. Anything is better than having 13 at practice though.
We have been streaky, prone to come out slowly in games and then play catch-up which is really exhausting for the "starters", and I hope starting this week that will change.
should be fun. I hope to update after Wednesday since I get 2 days off of work to try to recapture the time i lost on 30 hours of plane rides.
-josh
I hope we make it out of sectionals for the sole reason to extend the season because the team is really starting to gel and grow now at a fairly fast rate. It would be terrible if the season ended Sunday (let alone Saturday).
We have 2 practice days (tues and thurs) and 1 scrimmage with Tufts (Wed). Tufts looks very, very strong this year (for our region anyway), and will be the #1 seed at sectionals this weekend.
There are 5 spots for regionals up for grabs, and I really think it will be a dog-fight between 4-5 teams for the last 3 spots. Hopefully we will play well and won't get put into the death-march of a 5th place bracket since we have about 17 players on our team that aren't injured with a large talent spread (think A and B team combined).
This also presents problems at practice having the better players pushed, so I have been having either the coaches, some ironside guys, or some friends and college players taking the semester off from other schools come out to practices. I hope in the long run this is better. Anything is better than having 13 at practice though.
We have been streaky, prone to come out slowly in games and then play catch-up which is really exhausting for the "starters", and I hope starting this week that will change.
should be fun. I hope to update after Wednesday since I get 2 days off of work to try to recapture the time i lost on 30 hours of plane rides.
-josh
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