MIT Ultimate

Small Rosters

2010-11-05T08:11:00.001-07:00

Every year people bring up the idea that smaller rosters will either make it easier for other teams to compete in the "elite" field, or make it somehow more exciting by not watering down teams.

And every year after nationals i think, those people are idiots. maybe they didn't see the same open finals i saw, but i saw two teams of pretty equal talent play each other. Only one of those teams used ~18 people (not by design, but by injuries and about 24 on their roster) and the other used 27. At the end of the game, the team that used 18 literally had players walking on the field. they could not keep up with the steady stream of hockey style balanced lines that revolver kept rolling out.

I don't know about you, but seeing players walk on the field due to exhaustion isn't very entertaining. If you moved to smaller rosters, you wouldn't have players getting down on the pull, you wouldn't have hard marks, you wouldn't have most of the things that separate club from college ultimate, you would just have the best college players playing a college style game.

Maybe if nationals wasn't as long, you had more times in between byes, and you had less games that had fewer points, then, yes, smaller rosters would be ideal. But, until the day that nationals isn't in sarasota, played over 4 days, with focus on intense and physical D, then there shouldn't be rosters of 18-20.

i would call myself a role player on good teams, a very good role player, but a role player. When i went to the finals at nationals with ironside i played well over 1/2 of the D points in the finals and the tourney. My legs were very tired, we had 27 men, and all of them played. i wonder sometimes if people who want smaller rosters have gotten to the semi's at nationals and know how intense of a game it is, or even in a close quarters game.

when i played on twisted metal, there were probably around 16-18 players who could play at a national level. i just remember being so gassed by the time we reached the pre-quarters that there was little hope of winning it.

I also don't understand how it would increase competition. In the MA region, a shortened truck, southpaw, and ring roster of players would still beat everyone else. just look at ring's split squad results to see that.

some people argue that they see teams play tight rotations at nationals for justification. I counter that with, that team probably didnt' win that game. and if they did, shame on the other team.

anyway, back to creating graphs.

-josh

Nationals in Review

2010-11-02T06:22:00.000-07:00

This was the first year I didn't stay at Siesta Key, we stayed at the tourney hotel 10 minutes from the fields. I loved it.

For the past so many years going to nationals, I always hated leaving about an hour before cleat on warm-up time, to drive in traffic, to get to the fields. This was a huge load off everyone's shoulders in the morning, and made it very easy to refuel after games were done.

I highly recommend it to teams with high maintenance players, younger teams, and teams that just want to concentrate on performing their best without the distractions of siesta key.

Anyway, onward to the recap. Wednesday, half the team drove (read: the young, dumb guys), they had a car break down in savannah and had to get a rental. I flew in with the over 30 crew on the first flight out in the morning. We went to the beach and threw around, after some time, we then left and went to the fields to cleat up and throw around to get use to the wind. There is little to no wind in NC where we practice, so acclimating to a crosswind is important.

Thursday, we wake up, get to the fields, have a great warm-up. It is super hot and humid, and the dew stays for almost all of the first game. We start off against Doublewide.

They are missing the two Gibsons, but they are still jacking it deep mostly to a really tall dude named krich or something like that. He made some great grabs in double coverage.

Doublewide gave the disc up too much, but we could not convert anything in the first half (yeah, i get that if we couldn't convert then they weren't giving the disc up too much, what I mean is that they were not playing #3 seed ultimate and we were not capitalizing on it).

Our offense was atrocious on thursday. We held the disc to long, didn't swing it, and then hucked late into the count to a backed man. When we actually had a guy wide open deep, we floated the huck and 3 defenders would smother him.

The observers were possibly the worst observers I have ever played with. All season long, I had really been impressed with the quality of observing, and then when we got to nationals, none of the people who worked at ECC, Chesapeake, and Regionals seemed to be observing any open games near me. The only time I felt the observers were high level were during the Furious game, machine game, and ironside game, but I guess that is what you get when you are the 11 seed.

Anyway, back to the game. Basically doublewide took half off of static hucking 8-5. Our D line starts converting all of the doublewide miscues and we bring it to 12-11 us, receiving the disc. The O line then starts to malfunction again with drops, throw aways, botched dump throws, etc until we lose 15-13. Painful loss.

The captains and team did a great job of keeping spirits high and bouncing back for the big game against Sockeye. We come out, put a lot of pressure on Sockeye's O line, and get a few breaks. I think we might be up 2 breaks or so, and then the sockeye loose man / junk D starts to give our O line fits because they are holding it too long and are unwilling to take the easy pass. They get around 8 breaks on our O line during the game, maybe more. There were a lot in a row going into and out of half. I get to play 3 D Line O points that game and we score all three effortlessly.

In general, I think it is a good thing to stick in a D line on O when you can't stop the bleeding, but in practice, during that game, it just sort of made me angry at the O line for not being able to do what we, the D line, could do with ease.

After the game, a lot of people were dejected. The low road is very long and hard to get to the quarters, and now we essentially had elimination games ahead of us. Dave Snoke rallied the team to get ready to play good ultimate and salvage the day, and we did just that against Madison, although the O line did have some troubles late in the game against them, but the D line got on the field again and closed the door on them.

I had never played on a team who's O Line had an entire bad day. Ironside's O would sometimes have a bad half, or get too excited and have a bad game, but never 3 games in a row that were sub-par.

Friday found us in the bottom pool with Tanasi and Machine. We started off playing Tanasi and it was chippy with ticky-tack calls. Our O Line struggled again a little, but we pulled it out and started to have great momentum in the second half going into the Machine game. We played machine, and started off a little slow and then just wore them down and ran away with the game. Their talented handler core was playing both ways a lot of the time, and it was noticeable that they got slower and slower as the game wore on. We were able to keep our lines mostly open and our key players fresh for the prequarters.

As we were walking over to play in the prequarters, it seemed as though every ring player was stopped by players on other teams for them to give us advice on how to beat furious. i was left wondering if players root for ring, or if we just were the lesser of two evils at that point.

Anyway, the common theme of the tips was that there were exhausted. We took advantage of this and ran them to the ground on D. I think we take half 8-2 or 3 or something big like that. Furious then mounts their own comeback halfway through the second half as our O Line starts to get rattled and starts chucking it deep to double coverage at high stall counts. Their D line really outplayed our O line in the second but thankfully we punched it in to stop the bleeding.

This set up the quarters matchup that ring was hoping to not have this year. Ironside in the quarters for the 4th straight year (technically, the first year was the prequarters, but still...). We had a game plan that we were going to use, we had the match-ups set, we even had a good O strategy, but we got down 5-0 to start, and never really recovered. We didn't give up fighting, and we even clawed our way back in it, but d'ed discs were finding their way back into the hands of non-intended ironside receivers and we were not getting the chances we needed to win.

The finals were tough to watch. Ironside had about 5 injuries on a 24 man team. I was worried a little before halftime when ironsides O line started to look gassed everytime they came off the field. Their D line was still playing hard, but they were just making tired mistakes. Last year, Chain did a great job of using everyone all tourney to stay fresh and have the most legs, and this year, Revolver seemed to have learned their lesson and used more of their deep team all tourney. Jeff and Will who are normally indefatigable showed signs of being exhausted towards the end of the game.

It seemed as if ironside handlers became gun shy and would not throw it deep to jeff when he was being fronted. This made jeff have to work too hard to get the disc underneath, and then he stayed back and handled after the handlers were having trouble getting the disc off the line. I have never won a game that jeff handled more than cut (he might be the best cutter in the game), and i knew they were in trouble when it was happening.

but, it was very, very painful to watch a championship slip away from my friends. I know how hard they worked for it.

in reflecting on the year, it was a very interesting playing for a small market team. I was asked to do a lot more for them in both PT and throws. I think I played well, but there were times when I was absolutely gassed after a turn because I was playing so much.

the feel of the team is very unique. you don't have ringers moving to town to look for a championship, you don't have a town where all the top college players migrate to, you don't have 90 people on your tryout list, you just have a group of dudes who grew up in the area, went to college in the area, and learned to play a brand of ultimate that gives them a fighting chance against the big market teams. It is really fun to be an underdog, to just go out there and give it hell.

i am already looking forward to next season.

I hope we can work on getting our offense a little crisper, a bit more patient, and a little better at decision making. I also hope we get better at mental toughness, I feel that people played scared in big games, or worried too much about uncontrollables and not enough about stomping on the other team. I feel if we can both become more fundamentally sound and mentally sound, we will continue building upon a good season.

For any college players reading this: Ring is a great, young team that is on the rise. The triangle area has good tech jobs, super cheap cost of living, and you can play league games outside in the winter time. If you are looking into cool places to live after college, become an immediate impact player, and part of building upon 21 years of grittiness, send me an email, and we can help you find a job.

-josh

Nationals....

2010-10-26T07:27:00.000-07:00

I will post after nationals this year to give a recap, but needless to say I am pretty excited about getting back to nationals. it is fun to be an underdog again.

I haven't been in a tougher pool since my twisted metal days, and honestly, those pools make thursday really, really exciting. if I was awesome and wasn't pulling together a report right now (the joys of the downtime of huge web queries and macros), i would find the clip of metal upsetting the condors on dgp the thursday of my first nationals.

ring had some great practices after the egg we laid at regionals (aside: if you think you can make it to a sunday of a tourney by taking a redeye across the country the night before to get there as the game starts, don't. you just can't function. your legs are lead, your mind is asleep, and your D will suck.)

We spent the last couple of practices refocusing on our fundamentals (sideline talk, marking, Defense, Defense, Defense). after all, nationals is about who can execute and play a team game the best, especially quarters onward. I think thursday and friday are about who can remain the freshest and still get a favourable quarters matchup.

the teams that stick to their fundamentals and their strategy (patterns) and executes their game plan will beat the other team that has flown off the radar with the game plan and has just become lone wolves out on the field.

it should be no surprise that the majority of teams run the same "plays" as other teams, only under a different name. the better teams just execute them better and recognize the patterns on Defense as well to make it harder for other teams to run their plays.

the older i get the more i realize that the line between a winning team and a losing team is about confidence and trust. you have to have the confidence in yourself to play at your fullest, confidence in your system so you use it and rely on it, and trust in your teammates to do the same.

three car loads of ring is taking the road shortly. the older guys are flying. we are all very excited, and looking forward to having a slugfest of a thursday.

I have no crystal ball and have no clue how thursday will go for us, but if we bring the energy and focus we had at the last couple of practices we can run with anyone.

-josh

Chesapeake

2010-09-01T17:42:00.000-07:00

So, Chesapeake came and went and it wasn't blazingly hot or humid this year. I didn't even put ice in my cooler (note: I have started to take an ice water cooler with me to practices down here). If teams don't do that for nationals, they should. Putting an ice water towel on your neck and head is awesome in the florida heat.

anyway, so this was the first year playing chesapeake that i haven't stayed 5 minutes from the fields with danny clark's awesome parents' house. instead I stayed with the team at the sheraton in the sprawl that is outside of the dc beltway. the 30 minute drive to the fields just meant that we would have a looooong day ahead of us before we could get back to sleep.

Ring's saturday had a grueling format of game, bye, game, game, mini bye, game. The first game was against NYC's replicants. They hucked it a lot and tried to force the disc to the center cutters in the ho. we countered this with poaching off the sideline handlers and making sure we didn't get beat deep. they still completed a good amount of hucks on us. although, that is what they do and they seemed to do that on everyone all weekend long.

We won with a good margin, and then we had a bye where we hydrated, ate food, got out of the sun, and tried to get prepared for a long day.

The second game was against Tanasi and they have some talented handlers and cutters. they break the mark well, give-n-go well, and huck well, but they had some execution errors and forced a couple deep looks to covered men that ring capitalized on. We win in a good hard running game. they are a team that no team should overlook at regionals. especially early since they don't have a very large team.

the third game was important because if truckstop and ring win their sections, the winner of this game would have the #1 seed at regionals. we had the same record at ecc, so i was kind of curious how this game would play out.

there were a couple things to keep in mind: 1.) brian stout was injured and was not playing. he was injured by a revolver player at ecc and will be out until regionals. 2.) i think Ryan Todd has gone to about 2 practices with truck, so he wasn't what you would call seemlessly integrated into their O yet.

Anyway, we start out on D and go up 2 breaks on them. We take the half with momentum and maybe one more break. we are making sure all our players are fresh and keeping their legs in the game because it is hot, and there is a lot of tourney left. anyway, we are in firm control of the game until late in the second half when truck breaks us twice to make it 11-10. We then punch it in on O to win.

Truckstop seems to be running spread a lot on O this year. there are a lot of teams that seem to be moving away from ho and moving towards different looks on O. it will be interesting to see how stout affects the cutting patterns of the other players if he is playing O this year. on metal he definitely ate up a lot of the deep cutting space by the way he "cuts" (read cherry picks), but man, you can toss up some meatballs to him and he will bring 95% down or more.

We then have a mini-bye to play in the showcase game against chain. it looks like chain lost tall joel wooten, jay hammond, rob barrett, cricket, and one or two more. of course they replaced them all with very competent players.

anyway, we start out on D. i get down on the pull and mark PV. he proceeds to launch an 80 yard backhand to zip. yep. it isn't like i used to see that one before.... man, PV is ON this game. the rest of the handlers are missing their mark. we give up two breaks early in the game, and then claw our way back into the game with some gritty D. I think they take half either up 1 break or we are even. We are close to on serve at 8s or 9s and then they pull away right at the end.

i left that game thinking that chain didn't look as "on" as they did at this time last year. They looked more like the chain of two years ago that could be forced to give the disc up if you put enough pressure on them.

On sunday, we were supposed to play the winner of goat/machine. when we get to the fields and are warming up, goat and machine are in a heated game. the last couple of points take a long time and have a few turns by each team. goat ends up winning by one.

we start to play goat. I don't recognize any of their normal O handlers. the russian handler tolly? and their european handler joel aren't there and in their place are significantly younger players. The cutting core is their usual crew of andy, hassel, inian, keanu look alike, and #20 who is a blazingly fast goal scorer.

i forgot what it was like to play goat when it gets ticky-tack. it was physical on both sides and the calls were contested a lot. we go down early and try to claw our way back in the game.

it seemed like every break we got the offense would then go out and promptly get broken. this would have crushed some teams, but ring's D line just kept going out and doing work. we eventually go out on double game point on D and manage to get a coverage D ending with tuba stalling out hassel near their own goal. It was awesome.

a great win for Ring. every tight game that we have and we can pull out a victory is well worth it. good teams play in tight games and lose; great teams find a way to win.

We are coming off of a big victory, feeling good, and the ring guys from last year want a shot at ironside. they seem to hold a special place in their hearts for boston as they (we) ended Ring's season for the past 3 years.

It was a little weird playing against everyone. i guard jeff a few points and i pretty much could have just stuck a pylon out there and done just about as well.

it was hard watching boston get up so many breaks in the first half. too many. 7-2 or 3 is crushing. we trade out point for point in the second half.

So, Ring finishes our regular season with only 3 losses. We have had some good victories, and in our losses I would say a large percent of the reasons for those loses begin and end with confidence and not realizing we can hang with any team if we just go out and play our game. out of the 3 teams we lost to, we by far have the most room for growth, the most area for rapid improvement, and the best potential for player development before nationals. we have A LOT of work to do before now and then if we want to have a chance of beating these and similar tiered teams at nationals.

ironside looked really good. their O was very clean. goldstein tore his right thumb ligament or something in the finals and that will hurt them, but man, it is kind of a blow to the ego that they could be so good after losing 10 players. They were by far the strongest team we played this season. I would equate them to how much head and shoulders chain was above everyone last year at this time.

i'm tired. that's all i got for right now. i am going to spend the next couple posts on confidence, progressive marks, and why the death of the vert stack means no one can score near the endzone anymore.

-josh

ECC Wrap-Up

2010-08-16T14:45:00.001-07:00

I guess I need to get a new name for this blog. Crap.

Anyway, I went to ECC with Ring this past weekend. Going into the tourney I was a bit curious to see where I stood on a fitness front compared to last year, how our team was going to handle expectations, and how our team was going to stack up against other teams having only played in two split squad tourneys and minimal scrimmaging because we have been covering a lot of old and new Ring concepts and strategies at practices.

We get to the fields and are cleated up by around 8 and the first game of the day is at 9. We do our plyos, active warm-ups, throwing, and our ring warm-up. The ring warm-up is a pretty cool little warm-up that works on all your throws (dumps, short in passes, throws to slashing horizontal-ish ho cuts, and hucks).

One thing that I am getting used to this year is that Ring doesn't scrimmage before the game. I liked that ironside would do that because I felt it got the blood flowing, the mind seeing D and O patterns, and got you throwing real game throws so you are already a few points into a game by the time the real game starts.

Before we started against Wolf, a team with some of the younger players from last years Jam team on it and other hard running college kids, the captains told us that for this game we were going to run 3 equal lines of 7 players the entire game. We split off into those groups for 2 mintues and discussed who would do what and to go over D sets.

Wolf never got out of the gates unfortunately. They had a bunch of nervous drops, turfs, and throw aways, and we were very stingy with the disc after the turn. When they did score, it was normally off of Tommy Hendrickson pulling some crazy throws out of his sleeve.

I think after half, Wolf got a few breaks back, and we may have traded out until the very end to finish up 15-10 or so. Our D legs never got up to speed because they were producing the turns themselves. I think that hurt us a bit for the next game.

We play Revolver next. For this game, we tried having 2 O lines, and about 10 D only players (that's me!). The O players were supposed to hop on a D line 2 or 3 times a game to keep the D lines legs fresh.

I remember it being if O1 and O2 got broken, the D line would come in and play O. I came in at least two times that game for O, so that should be an indicator to how clean our O was working, especially in the first half when I think we got broken twice to start.

Unfortunately, our D wasn't any better. There was no sign of life in our team, and we were just quietly conceding to Revolver which made me a little upset. After half, we got a little bit of life back into our legs and got a few turns and a break or two, but we never recovered from the four point run we let them get on us somewhere near the start of the first half. We lose 15-11. Our first true test of the season, we got punched in the face, and we didn't even hit back until we were in the second half.

Revolver was missing Cahill and maybe 1 or 2 more players for them, or maybe some of their typical O guys played D this weekend. We didn't give them much of a challenge, so I don't know if I saw what they are going to be like this year.

Aside: the only thing that might be worth mentioning about that game for Ring is that KP had one of the filthiest over chest high layout grabs I have ever seen in my life. I think he did it right in front of cameras, so that will probably be a clip of the day soon.

We then play ECU. We heard they beat sockeye in the showcase game the night before so we didn't know what to expect.

They apparently are comprised of retired sockeye guys and just out of college carleton players. Their team is based around a really cool concept of hosting free clinics for kids and just seeming to be a great team to play on and enjoy your teammates.

Unfortunately for them, in our game they just seemed tired or disinterested in winning. They have a couple of miscommunication turns, and we win 14-11, but it felt not as close for some reason.

I view ECU as the bracket busters for NW regionals. They might not have the legs to win out to go to nationals, but they can spoil some contenders' season in the process. I would not want them first round on Sunday.

We then have sockeye for the fourth and final game of the day. Sockeye is not having the day they wanted to have: they lost to Truckstop after receiving on double game point, they lost to boston (or did they play and beat streetgang? ahhh cultimate, i hate you), beat Pony on DGP, and now were playing us.

It looked like they were missing at least their tall handler that played with them last year, one volume cutter (ray), and one goal scorer (mc). They also look and are much, much smaller size-wise than previous years and we had enough little squirrels to cover their squirrels effectively.

Ring is pretty young, and so far we hadn't gotten fired up about D or winning, so I took it upon myself this game to lead the charge and be the emotional backbone of the D line. It was a bit exhausting. After they took half 8-7, we went on a D run that was pretty awesome. In my excitement of leading the D line, I played waaaaaaaaaay too many D points that game. I think I played close to all of them. It was the first time I got to see Ring dig in and see what they were made of, and it was awesome to behold. We stayed positive, we got each other's backs, and we fed off of each other's want of more and more blocks and scores. We win 14-11, when i released the game winning throw, i had such great feeling of looking forward to the season and what a an awesome force our D line could become on both D and D's O.

My only regret about the first day is that I wish we would have played revolver after we got the sockeye win. I would have loved to have given them a better game, and I think we would have been more confident and would have been playing tighter D after the sockeye game.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday: holy crap I wake up sore. I played too much in the sockeye game for my own good, and I have to put on tights to get my legs loose. It is also uncharacteristically dry and sunny out, which makes it super easy to dehydrate quickly. I felt thirstier out there than I do down south.

On Sunday we would have Furious, Streetgang, and either whoever we hadn't played in the west coast bracket or in the finals if ironside loses horribly to someone.

We make sure to run Ds that will take furious out of their first, second, and third options (deep, deep, and deep again). It seems to work and we get a fairly easy win 15-9. Our D plays very well, and the D plays well after the turn. They are missing at least oscar and maybe a few more players.

We have streetgang next and never really get up for it. They crushed boston last year at nationals by having their bigger lefty guy jack great throws to their excellent deep receivers even when they were covered. Their lefty guy was a big factor this game as well. If he wasn't hucking it, he was either stepping into the lefty backhand drawing the foul and getting an i/o off, or he would step back and throw bendy hucks and breaks. Tuba has a couple big blocks this game as well as Brett, but I think we take that as a reason to continue to be up a break instead of wanting more and more and more.

We eventually eek out a win, but you don't want to keep a team like that (who catches waaay more than their share of 50/50 balls) around near the end of the second half. The 15-13 win leaves us tied with Truckstop for the team with the 2nd best record. Sockeye apparently crushed Revolver and proved that teams shouldn't just write them off for the season just yet.

We find out that only records within the pool counts, so we are playing Rhino. We change back to 3 equal strength lines, and we never get in a groove.

We trade the lead several times. We even get up by a lot after being down at half. I think it was 14-11 or so, and then they break us a lot to make it 15 all, us receiving. We call a real O line for this point, and we promptly have a drop close to our brick. Rhino picks up, moves it very well laterally across the field. They get up near an endzone corner and instead of hitting the wide open goal cuts, they send a bladey flick over the stack towards the back center of the endzone which thomas ward makes a great deep D on. We get the disc back, bang it around a few times, and then one of our handlers gets a break away deep run and makes a great catch for the win.

All in all a satisfying weekend.

Oh, I almost forgot about the rules:
Contact: this is pretty much awesome. Disc space was so awkward to say while you have a million things to do on the field at the same time, and it seemed very arbitrary to call and even to prove or disprove since it deals with planes of moving appendages. Contact simply is, if someone touches you while marking, you say contact, and they go down to 0. It is everything disc space wasn't.

20 yard endzones: This isn't really a big deal because it normally only is at tourneys that you have a truly regulation sized field. I wish though that they would have made the playing field proper be 80 yards instead of just chopping off 10 to the endzones and keeping it 70.

Travel, Up-Down, In-Out: Awesome. No ticky-tack bullshit travel calls, no disputes and stupid reenactments of where people perceive their feet to be at the time of a catch. It almost felt like a real sport out there. The games with observers go so much faster than without.

I will write more, but I am super tired.

-josh

I'm Back...

2010-07-12T19:21:00.000-07:00

Wow,

Haven't posted since November. A college season without me coaching has gone by, a club season begins with me being a 30 year old rookie on Ring with new strategies, new teammates, and a new identity to learn and embrace. I am having a blast so far.

Some post topics I want to write about:
1.) Confidence
2.) Acclimating to heat
3.) Differences between top club team practices (without getting into the nitty gritty proprietary stuff)

-josh

Nationals...

2009-11-02T10:15:00.000-08:00

Nationals was pretty bittersweet. I felt this was the year.

The core of ironside is made up of 2003 college graduates which means a lot of the team was 28 (jeff and i are the old two of that group at 29). There was also a feeling that for a lot of us, this might be our last year playing for boston due to age, job/family commitments, mileage on bodies that can no longer stay healthy, and moving away.

Practices were special.

Last season there was a sense of urgency that fortch, doug, and mccarthy wore all season. Winning the sprints at the end of practice (well, once fortch worked off his winter belly by chopping chords of wood), taking that extra second to look a teammate in the eye, working hard on every cut all season. Those 3 really brought up the level of those practices.

This season, it was even more prevalent as more and more players saw this as their last, best hope for a title with boston (me, faust, etc). I moved away and couldn't organize the tuesday night mini practices, but, our track workouts were more intense than anything we ever did to date, we had more teammates doing them as a group than before, and practices were intense and heated at times.

However....

We also had a pretty up and down season in terms of results. We started the season sort of late by having extended tryouts with sons of liberty trying to create two boston teams. This meant tryouts for ironside really started mid-june, and the roster wasn't finalized until after june right after a poor boston invite appearance where we simply played bad.

after that, we beat a lot of teams at ecc by playing b- ultimate. i left seattle being disappointed at our play, but felt good that we could beat a lot of teams not playing our best. I was also left underwhelmed by revolver who everyone was heaping praise on.

at chesapeake we played pretty uninspired ultimate at times, but we were experimenting with lines, Ds, Os, and other things. On sunday, we were demolished by chain. We looked flat-footed and slow and they looked awesome.

We came back and worked and worked and worked and by the time regionals rolled around, we crushed teams. I felt really good going into nationals after absolutely crushing one of the strongest (on paper) goat team to date.

one of the biggest adjustments of the season was the hole that fortch left both in the offense and the defense (zones), as well as his confidence and leadership in the huddle. that guy could probably convince me to do pretty much anything.

anyway, wednesday morning i arrive at the tampa airport to be welcomed by stiffiling heat and humidity. I wait for my teammates to arrive. Our last couple practice weekends had been somewhere in the 30s to mid 40s, and i wondered how the team would be able to handle the temperature differential. The answer became better than most northern teams.

Thursday, we arrive at the fields at 8 a.m. to start to warm-up for our game at 9:30 a.m. We talked about some strategic things, and some changes that had to be made due to injuries.

Ben Faust who is a dynamic cutter and thrower for our offense had been battling injuries all season, and his quad injury was so extensive that he couldn't get up to speed meant that we needed to bring george stubbs and chicken over to the O sometimes to fill in his void.

This would mean our Ds O would sometimes not have the same fire power, but offensive fire-power is not something our D's O lacked. Matt Holzer and Paul Batten also had been riding the injury bus all season and were going to see slightly limited PT to see how their bodies could handle the injuries/heat (if you get injured, nationals is a very hard tourney to play due to not being able to get in good enough shape).

Anyway, about 30 minutes before our game with bodhi, when every team was warming up, Goat rolls up to start to warm-up for their game with pike. Ted Munter looks over at them, and then says to me, "goat just lost to truckstop, they are not ready to play today". His prediction was absolutely correct a few games later.

Back to our game with Bodhi. I think Bodhi was affected by the heat more than us. They are much younger than us, and I am not sure what was happening to them, but they looked like they were melting into the ground as we played them. There were several times that they turfed either the first or second pass and didn't even get our of their own endzone. The game was completely out of hand within the first 5 points, and the score could have been a lot worse as our D's O turned it over a few times near their goal line leading to easy scores.

We then got in shade, ate some salt, ate some tums, put ice towels on our heads, and tried not to let the heat affect us too much. We watched some other games after we cooled down some, and could not believe how slow people were running. The heat was just taking all the power out of people's legs. Ring was in a close game with chain i believe and was tied at 10s before they just seemed unable to convert scores due to lack of people cutting. They worked the disc up to the endzone on D in several occasions and then just stopped cutting and wound up throwing a high risk / low reward pass that would get d'ed.

Our next game was against san diego streetgang. we had watched them play doublewide and knew what to expect. what we did not expect was that they were going to play near perfect. i think they started on D and got maybe 2 breaks in a row on us by hucking quickly off of a turn. when our D line got onto the field, their two handlers, a lefty and a righty were dropping bombs all over us. it didn't matter the stall, if we were backing them, or if their was a good or bad matchup, if someone was going deep, they were sending it. and it worked, 90% of the time. I think they took half 8-5. and we were unable to get the turns needed to win the game. it was a little rattling because of how slow our Os D looked after the turn and it was unnerving to see us unable to stop a team confidently hucking on us.

By this time, several players were starting to feel the heat. We were doing everything possible to stay hydrated. For the doublewide game, we came out swinging. they had kurt on the D line, and he was out of shape for kurt's standard, but his job was to bomb it after the turn. they broke us a couple times, but our D line kept the game close. I think doublewide took half on us. out of halftime, the sun had sapped a lot of players energy. Everyone still had the desire to battle, but the game was being played at 3/4 speed. I really think that we would have lost this game if we weren't so deep. the D line just chipped away and wore them down until we went on a 5-0 run to close them out 15-10.

I felt good while playing but awful after. I ate a burrito, drank fluids, pounded salt, and in general tried to stay hydrated throughout the night. I was hoping tomorrow was going to be cooler.

On Friday, we had only 2 games. the first game would be against truckstop, and the second game would be against revolver. we had a team meeting to talk about the two teams and what they like to do and what we should watch out for. For truckstop, we wanted to pressure the dumps, take away their i/o breaks that they live and die by, and concentrate on team D. The O line was going to be aware of where stout was on D and make sure he couldn't just hangout deep like he likes to. Off of a turn, we were going to play stout tight and force him under as he doesn't like to work to go deep if you shove him under.

For revolver, we were going to poach off of the handlers to force it to a sideline because they like to run their offense through the middle. we were going to make them break us with arounds. On Offense we were going to play stubbs more and more on O and play chicken some o points as well to add athleticism to the O line.

A lot of our strategy against them would be based on taking away their pull play and on forcing certain players out and others under. This was a little bit of a change since we normally just force everyone under to contest the under throw.

Anyway, we start out by playing truckstop, and i think we get a couple breaks early, and our O looks much better than it did yesterday. Then, our O starts crowding the force side and we stop looking deep, and i think truck takes half on a few breaks.

out of half, our D takes over, getting several blocks and also forcing several stall 9 throw aways. those are always something to be really proud of (especially as a dump defender). truckstop seemed to be lacking a cutter thrower this season, and when the cutters would get the disc, the offense would stagnate. We wind up winning 15-12 after our defense goes on a few runs in the second half.

We then get ready for revolver. i thought this would be an excellent chance to steal the 1 seed for the tourney. i thought going into the tourney that chain was the team to beat and by winning this game, we could be sure to play them at our freshest.

We start out on D. We run down on the pull, and i am off my handler to force it to a sideline, they throw it to him and he launches a break huck when i am just putting on the mark to no one. kind of surprising and uncharacteristic for them. we work it down and score. on the next D point, we get a turn, and then cough it up and they work it down and score. we trade for a few points, and then we get a turn with our bozo zone, and convert on a crazy hammer from crockford into the sun to seigs (this might have been in the ring game though, everything is blurry). all of a sudden they break us to take half 8-7.

they proceed to break us twice more out of half. by the time our d line gets on the field, we are running out of chances to close it. we have been stupidly hucking off of a stagnant disc against them when we get turns. We got enough turns to even the score up in the second half, but converted only 1 or 2. I think we were at 12-11 when they closed us out. Our O line forced a few deep balls that we didn't have to, and we were having trouble scoring near the endzone.

I felt very good about that loss even though we lost an opportunity to take the 1 seed. I was pretty confident that we could make adjustments to win the next game, and that we would put some stacked D lines in sometimes as we had pretty much just played our 2 D lines alternating the way we do in most games.

I also thought they were going to run out of gas. The first thing I noticed was that they only played about 15 guys where we had played everyone who was healthy, and they only got a break on our team when they stacked their D line with O players.

I actually thought sockeye would beat revolver the next day due to revolver's short rotation and apparent lack of depth (it also could be that their players all look the same.... for instance, they seem to have 2 near identical lanky red-headed handlers who throw bombs).

aside: I only got to see glimpses of sockeye's play and they seemed to be making it very hard for themselves by playing long and sloppy points and close games against all the teams they were playing. they normally would not pull away from a team until late in the second half, and their games seemed to take the longest to finish.

We go home, and I feel pretty good. I felt bad in the revolver game though. The heat was making me weak and winded at times as I was having problems breathing in it. We have 6 D handlers and I am probably playing just under 1/2 to just over 1/3 the D points which is a lot less than last year where I was playing 2/3 of the D points and felt like crap by Saturday.

At the end of the day, I feel I am finally ahead of my hydration and looking forward to Saturday.

Saturday comes. Ring first round of the elimination games for the 3rd year in a row. I don't feel we are ever not in control of the game. I do have an unfortunate turn to a wide open crockford trying to lead him to the sideline. I always think he is running to the sideline and he never does because I am an idiot. I can't tell you how many times this season that exact same situation happened.

Ring forced jeff under which made him become a thrower and lead him to get comfortable being an extra handler around the disc. This would turn up to bite us the next game because for our offense to work effectively, you have to have the best cutter in the game cutting instead of handling. we win 15-11.

I then go over to watch quiet coyote beat amp. redshirt and a redshirt clone, matt packard, are taking the game over with their athletic grabs, and misha horowitz is representing the metro east with his hucks. amp seems to be playing really tight and no one is actually making in cuts.

on defense, ben kleaveland is smothering misha on the dump, but they are not playing good dump defense on jay adams who is just getting every other throw upline by circle cutting the defender.

on offense for amp everyone just seems to be standing and watching their main receiver cut deep, which leads to a layout dump d block on a poorly thrown dump. QC picks it up and scores for the win and the opportunity to go to worlds.... I would assume that QC will pick up brian stout for worlds. I think they are going to turn some heads considering arguably their best receiver didn't come to nationals due to food poisoning.

We go to the grocery store to sit in AC for our game vs. chain. i hate the late semi's as a player. you have so much time before your first and second game.

Anyway, we start out and chain breaks twice to start. Our D line does a good job of getting it back to even, but then we get broken 2 more times to take half. we are having some pretty uncharacteristic turns from handler to handler, and we aren't doing a good job of creating space.

I played some piss poor dump D one of the points I was in and wish i could take it back, but I was also instrumental in some big yardage throws to get our second break in the half (twice since the first time the camera was on the field... i am not really known for big yardage throws or throwing upfield....). Ironically that was the point that I wound up on Dylan. I remember being in a gym with dylan when he could hang on the rim from a standstill and I could barely touch rim with only one hand from a run.... I was hoping he didn't remember that as he started to run deep.

For the second half it was more upwind down wind and i am not high on the upwind D handler depth chart so I knew my PT that half would be limited until we got a break. that break didn't come until late in the half and then they scored upwind to make it 13-11. They then proceed to break us 2 more times to end our season. We also had enough chances to get all the break backs with turns and we simply did not convert.

I was in tears at the end not because we lost which was pretty frustrating, but because I wouldn't get to play with my teammates one last time on Sunday. I had played with 2 of them in college, and at least 6 of them were my metal teammates, a few of them were metal tryouts with me 5 years ago.

So, why didn't we win nationals if the team we had this year was arguably better and deeper than last year? To be honest, I don't really know.

Our Os D looked a little slow at times this year, but that wasn't our downfall. At times our endzone O looked very sloppy for both the O and D line. Our offense is to score at the cone from the back of the stack, but we rarely did it. We also never really swung the disc well all season. i would say that was the greatest change from last year, we didn't move the disc from side to side as well.

If I had to make adjustments as a coach next year, I think I would slow down the endzone drills so players can absorb the mistakes and adjustments that they need to make. I would also play a lot more double score, and I would practice dumping more. I would also do a more zoney cobra D and add in a bozo transition and get rid of the normal zone transition.

but, what i realized last year was by the time you reach the semi's anyone can beat anyone, it is just a matter of who is on. last year, we were on (in the semi's.... jam was on fire in the finals). this year, chain was on.

Overall, looking back on my 2 years with metal and 3 years with boston, I grew a whole lot more as a player with boston than I did with metal, and I attribute a lot of that to having a great coach. Ted is really the unsung hero of what makes ironside work. He has a knack of getting the best out of each and every player. If you ever have a choice between playing for a team with a coach, and one without, you should play with a coach*. *that statement is true if said coach isn't an assclown.

I watched fury play brute in the finals. fury's d just looked much more sophisticated than brute. they seemed to run a clam or a poach off the 2nd or 3rd in the stack to the openside to slow down kathy dobson, and then they took away brute's around break and brute's offense stagnated. off of the turn, they had athletes on the handlers and just ruthlessly ran them deep. brute looked unwilling to handler crash the 4 man cup, and unwilling to throw a little blade over the top. i am very proud that brute never gave up and kept swinging until the end.

I then watched chain beat revolver. revolver played an even shorter rotation than against us, and chain used pretty much their whole 27 man roster. i think if fatigue wasn't a factor though, revolver still wouldn't have won. It was chain's year.

So what is next? I really don't know. I signed up for winter league in NC. I think I am going to try out for ring next season, and I hope to have a lot of fun with them. I would like to see them get over the quarters struggle.

I am also going to try to lift weights in the offseason. something that I have really never done. I am getting older, and I think I need to if I want to extend my career.

It has been a good season. I got to be a part of one of the best D lines that I have ever played on, and that was a truly awesome experience. I really hope we go to worlds.

-josh

Northeast Regionals

2009-10-12T08:36:00.000-07:00

15 teams, and the dreaded pool play. The conditions on Saturday were very windy at times (25 mph slightly diagonal upwind/downwind) and cold. The conditions on Sunday were a little less windy until late in the day and also pretty cold. there was frost on the grass during warmups on Sunday. Brrr.

Anyway, my goal for this weekend was to play every game like the finals. To make sure I warm-up to 100%, play every point my hardest, and make sure I and the team respects our opponents by playing as best as we can. My legs felt like lead all weekend because last week was my first week back from unemployment due to relocation. Working in the field for 12 hours a day on your feet is a surefire way to make your legs tired.

The first game of the day, we had Colt .45 for the first game of the day. We gave them different D looks, played very hard D, and were efficient after the turn. It should be noted that it wasn't windy yet. We won 15-2.

We then played Red Circus from Halifax. They drove something like 12 hours to get here. They had a fairly small roster, but played hard. We won 15-6. I think it was starting to get a little windier. On a strategy note: we found out that some of the D setups we have been experimenting with this season worked against teams that didn't know what it was. Always frustrating at practice when the O line knows exactly what you are doing, what the Ds weakness is and what its strengths are.

Replicants from NYC was next. They are a pretty talented team, and by this time it was a strong wind. They have around 3 handlers who play a lot of points, and a bunch of young athletic cutters. Strong enough that pulling upwind became difficult to make it further than a little bit over half field at times. I think we traded the first 4 points and they were very good to start by moving the disc well and hitting open receivers. They blinked first and our stingy D line scored and I think secured the downwinder. then the wheels fell off for them and they began trying crazy high-risk hucks and throws when I really think a simple throw would have been completed. We win 15-5.

Bye Round. Everyone just tries to stay warm, eat some food (because of the wind, there seemed to be little downtime to get real food in between games).

We then play bodhi. I think they are really fired up to play us, and we are really excited to play a team that will push us. We start out, and I think we trade a few points before bodhi gets 2 breaks on us. Their twisted metal-esque 1-3-3 was aggressively tight, and the wind was making it difficult to go over the top well. We had to make adjustments for the wind and swing the disc more than we normally do.

Bodhi was pretty fired up and was playing hard, physical ultimate and it was fun. They have a pretty talented team. After consistent, hard defensive pressure point after point, they start missing on their hucks and dump resets and we start getting the breaks back to take half 8-6 I believe. The wind is slowing down some which makes breaking the mark and hucking to space a lot easier. After half, we come out and I think break a few more times and bodhi's wheels start to fall off with drops and throw aways. I think we win out 15-8.

To wrap-up Saturday: Our O-line was broken 3 times (once by red circus and 2 times by bodhi), and our D line was efficient at scoring considering the wind and some marathon points played when the wind was really, really blowing hard.

From a me perspective: I thought I played well, although my legs were tired coming in from working in the field for the first time since august. That was a rude awakening back from funemployment. I had some nice breaks, some nice scores, good handler D, but I felt slow when people took me downfield. I can run faster, but my sore hips and hamstrings were not letting me turn over quickly. Pretty frustrating experience.

On Sunday: We played light and dark which is Amherst High + plus alumni friends. There were around 4 players on that team that I would have loved to tryout for us, bodhi, or sons. They have a really good zone D which, admittedly, helped them a lot on saturday. but, what i was most impressed with is that they all throw so amazingly well. They might have gotten either one or two breaks on us, one coming from a 90 yard i/o upwind flick bomb if i remember correctly. These kids were a real treat to play.

We then play Pony. Every year Pony gets more and more good players, and every year I think that this is their year to compete with ironside, goat, and bodhi, but they always seem to come up short at regionals. I have no idea if it is a mental hurdle or what. The wind is very strong at this point and the upwind pulls are getting a little half mid-field, and I think we trade a few points, but we are getting at least a turn every time they are on O. We are having some difficulty scoring upwind, and if we turn it over with our Ds O, it normally leads to an easier downwind goal with the shortened field. One of the first chances to break, I make their job really easy by doinking a disc off my thumbs to start a play right in the endzone they are attacking. Trying to do too many things at once instead of making sure.... Nice gift josh.

The wind has made it difficult to run transitions zones and other things because we are working on so short of a field when pulling upwind. After the turn, we try to fast break as much as possible in order to get some crisp throws off to start. This leads to a bunch of handlers cutting downfield, which must look pretty enjoyable from the sidelines, watching a bunch of squirrels making 5 yard jukes from the back of the stack.

It might be either right before or right after half that they drop a pull. After that, they had their heads down and there was no question who was going to win that game. We close out 15-9.

Next up is our regional rival goat. I really like playing them. Their handlers are pretty incredible and fun to cover. Although DJ is playing with the masters team this year, they bolstered their O handler power by adding a super fast swede guy (joel?) and derek alexander. With those 2 and Tolly, their Russian handler, behind the disc, you have to watch out for getting taken to the house. By this point, my legs were trash and knew that this was going to be a challenge. Luckily, I got all my standing on ladders, crawling through ductwork, and squatting for 12 hours a day out of the way from now until nationals, so that shouldn't happen to me again.

Aside: Goat might have too many talented O handlers and should move some to their D line. There is no need for 5 of them, especially if hassel is sometimes behind the disc. I think if they would put tolly or some other O handler with good D on the D line, that would lead to easier d goals for them.

Anyway, we start out and I think we go up 4-1 on them as they can't seem to figure out how to throw backhands in the wind. The normal textbook bombs that they throw are just landing 1 field over. I have never played a game like this where I am on the team that is absolutely just dominated a really good team like that before. (I have been on the opposite side though, and it sucks.... I think Metal got curb stomped 15-3 or something at chesapeake one year by viscious cycle). We wind up closing it out 15-6.

Another interesting thing I found out this weekend is that Goat doesn't normally have weekend practices, but rather they practice on the weekdays. Mindblowing. I think it would be really interesting to figure out a lot of the teams practice schedules.

Anyway, then I watched Quiet Coyote stop beating themselves and earn a trip to nationals. And I watched PoNY have nothing go their way and have no energy against Bodhi. Bodhi is the deeper team than PoNY, and there is no question that Bodhi has bigger huckers in the wind, but I at least thought the game was going to be a slugfest.

That is about it. I think both Goat and Bodhi are going to upset teams in pool play. I think depending on conditions and if they can get handlers clicking with their receivers, Goat could win their pool.

-josh

Loose Ends, General Thoughts, and the Fireball of the South

2009-09-24T06:09:00.000-07:00

The fall series is starting, college teams are forming up, club teams are ramping up for regionals, and everyone is filled with hopes.

MIT is going to have some pretty big transitions this year. For the first time in a long time, they are going to have a new coach(es), have to play without a kevin albert / andrew ji type athlete, and have to develop pretty much all new handlers.

I saw on a website that there is a small chance that college nationals could wind up in philadelphia or at my old stomping ground, lehigh. I feel 12 nice fields at lehigh might be hard unless they were allowed to use the football stadium, the soccer stadium, and the field hockey turf. but if they are allowed to do that, that would be pretty sweet. nice weather in the spring, moderately windy, beautiful campus.

speaking of beautiful fields, i got to use my "out of towner" pass this last weekend for NE sectionals and instead watched NC mixed sectionals at the Eurosport soccer complex. those fields were AWESOME. as far as my thoughts about mixed sectionals were:
1.) only having 5 women on a team is a terrible idea. after 2 games the women are lucky if they can still move.
2.) only tau dumped swang well.
3.) don't complain about a team calling a timeout in a time cap situation. you had the whole game to beat them.
4.) STEP OFF THE MARK. a good mark isn't a stationary straddle. vary your depth. there was a player on clean plate club, strasser (udel guy from way back), that just would work it up the field by reaching around the mark who was leaning into him... repeatedly, like every other pass, and the mark refused to do something different.

I have no idea what this post is talking about. i don't mean it in a bad way, i just can't grasp what it is referring to. maybe because i am not really a thrower. I guess it is saying that it is good to be able to decouple your legs from your top half so you can break. Or maybe it is saying that a lot of the throws int he elite game are released at shoulder height? There was a video link on the site that tried to show the two different breaks. It just looked like normal breaks to me. Most of the time, short breaks are released high and soft, and long breaks are released low and fast. I don't know if that is what it was referring too. I think it is more of a situational thing. i don't know if he was talking about the hucks or the breaks either.

Being 700 miles away from your team means track workouts alone. Track workouts by yourself suck. especially this year because we are doing more field specific workouts (change of direction, cleats, etc) than just running 400s and 200s this year. we did have some 200s last week and it was a joy because you can't lie to the watch.

some examples of the stuff we are doing are:

what we call the team usa box drill, i guess they did this at team usa tryouts, or something.... it is the devil.

This week, among various other shuttle runs, we have 3 sets of 2 reps of this. 1:30 of rest in between reps, 4 mintues between sets. the key is to do it as hard as humanly possible. your legs will be plenty tired towards the end. I think this would be a good college relay drill.

This, and the simulated D points are the two hardest things for me. They just ravage my legs. Simulated D points though might be a bit overkill for a college team that practices 3+ times a week since you can actually just play good D instead of having to pretend you are playing. ahhhh college.

we bumped up to one "track" workout and one speed workout a week now. I am also trying to get some riding in on the nice country roads out here. my wednesday night pickup has stopped since the team i was picking up with didn't qualify for regionals, so i am going to have to find another throwing outlet fast.

I am also having a hard time coming to grips with the fireball in the southern sky. it is no joke. it is so much more intense than up north. if you are outside around noon, you feel it could just melt you into the ground. I just did this weeks cardio workout around then and it was awful.

speaking of nonsequiturs, sorry, my brain is mush right now. another drill that we did some this year is a variation on the break mark drill. you know the two line drill where you mark, throw, and then cut for the breakmark? well, this one you have 1 mark for 5-10 throws, one thrower for those throws, and a line of cutters. after the thrower throws they do a shuttle run (maybe 5-10 yards back) and then the mark hands then another disc, taps it in, and the cut from the back of the "stack" happens. i like it because 1.) you get a lot of throws in to make immediate adjustments in you throws, 2.) as a marker, you can learn to make adjustments on the fly. 3.) it does a better job of throwing tired than the breakmark drill. if you ever want to change up the breakmark drill, you can try this drill if you have space.

wow, this post is one of the most jarbled posts ever. mental note: don't post after workouts.

-josh

Chesapeake, You Win Again...

2009-09-02T07:58:00.000-07:00

Ever since chesapeake has been in existence, it has been my least favourite tourney. Don't get me wrong, the location is tremendous, it is drivable from boston (if you are an idiot), and the fields are normally flat-ish and nice for august on the east coast.

However, there is one thing that I associate with late-august in Virginia: extreme heat and humidity. Oh, and severe underperformance.

Metal would always be having a promising season only to have our legs knocked out from us at chesapeake. The past hasn't been too much better for ironside (double game point win against forge, getting blown out by chain the year before).

This year, the weather was great, the fields were pretty flat except there were deep, narrow holes in the field apparently caused from horses. how the horses don't snap their legs off in the holes still confuses me. If anything they were a little hard, but, again, it is august on the east coast.

Friday: I drove through some pretty bad storms to get up there. it took a little over 6 hours (5 hours on the way home), and got in only to find that a lot of the team had delayed flights and I wasn't the last person rolling in at 11 at night.

Saturday: woke up, got to the fields, and had a full 12 hours of ultimate ahead of us. oof. game, game, bye, game, bye, game is a pretty rough schedule.

We played Madison first. It was a fairly chippy game. probably the most calls out of any team we played all weekend. we got up and got into control the first half, and then our D line got lazy and stopped getting turns and our O line in the second half coughed up and got scored on a few times. All of a sudden it was 11 all game to 12 with madison pulling. our O line had a miscue which left a force side throw floating out in space to no one, and madison about 20 yards out for the win. However, our O line buckled down and played D getting a turn and then marching it up the field for the win. The win didn't give us any good feelings though.

We played El Diablo next. They pretty much are a young team of a lot of hard, scrappy workhorses and had one really good player who could cut very well and throw bombs. We slowly pulled away in that game.

We then went to get some real food since we would be playing until after 7 pm that night.

We played truckstop next featuring ex-metalurgist, brian stout. stout of course was shirtless 90% of the time. We played pretty well against them and did a great job of putting a lot of defensive pressure on their handlers and cutters. after the turn, we were very efficient with the disc.

Then, we had the second bye of the game. just in time to start to feel how hard the fields had been on our bodies.

After that bye, we played in one of two "showcase" games. I would have rather played our game earlier and had time to watch revolver vs. chain, but, I am not the TD. We played ring of fire. Again, they play us very well with their poachy D, force middle, and transition zones, but the more we see it, it seems the better we do against it. We started out super sloppy. Luckily both teams wanted to play that way.

I was happy to see steve poulous(sp?) back and playing. Rusty and Jared again scored or threw a lot of goals against us. On D we got a lot of turns, but the force middle D slows us down some as the D cutters don't quite have the same flow as the O cutters have (and the D handlers don't have the same breaks).

We go home, swim in danny clark's pool, and eat some great food his family cooked.

Sunday, we wake up, get to the fields. and get ready to play Bodhi. bodhi just got done playing the pre-quarters. Their offense never clicked the whole time we played them, although individuals on their O line played well. Our D line scored every time we had the disc until late into the second half. towards the end of the game, bodhi got one or two breaks on our O line, but we were in control.

We then had about 15 minutes before the chain game, and we all just sort of wandered off to do our own things. there was no warm-up or focus. chain had an almost full roster here and it seemed at least from an O line perspective most of their players were healthy.

We start on O and our o line is not clicking. they are doing a good job on our handlers forcing us to go to the second or third dump option a lot, and we cough up the disc 4 times in the first 2 points. not good. i think they only get one break in that series though.

The D line struggled to stop their 4 man play out of ho or vert. the combination of zip, dylan, aj, cricket, joel wooten, etc is a pretty big task. not to mention their handlers are very good as well at both breaking and hucking. when chain is on, they are very hard to stop.

in 8 D points i think we got one turn and then immediately gave it back on an errant huck (which is increasingly leading to my belief that if you are struggling to get a turn, your first opportunity it might be a good idea to try to work the disc up with methodical in cuts - safer passes since you haven't thrown in a long time and it tires out the O line who, if you do score will be out on the line for the next point - another thought for another day). The D line did get opportunities for Ds that did not fall our way. we had a couple tipped discs, Ds that another O player caught, and a couple near misses. on a different day, maybe they would have been turns, but the bottom line is we got beat and beat bad. I think they scored 80% of their goals in less than 5 passes (we played some zone against them as well).

On the field over, it looked like ring was handing it to revolver, but apparently the game was pretty close. The final was not close. Both teams play pretty similar offenses, but chain just has more dynamic throwers. we tried to get revolver to play us for 3rd but they said they didn't want to because they had labour day next weekend.

Lots to work on as sectionals and regionals approach.

from a me perspective, i thought i had a very good tourney offensively and defensively. On sunday i felt a little slow from my joints being stiff from the fields, but after a few points of the bodhi game i was at full speed. I still need to work on my throws, my marking, and my quickness and speed before we get to regionals. I am looking forward to it.

-josh

ECC: Wrap-Up

2009-08-19T08:20:00.000-07:00

The two weeks leading up to ECC were pretty crazy. Emily was away in Magnetewan, Ontario with childhood friends and it was my last week of work, so, i pretty much lived at the office that week.

I packed, painted, took doors off hinges, pulleyed couches down from the 3rd floor porch, put doors back on, recycled computers, etc from sunday to monday night. 3rd floor moving sucks. tuesday-wednesday traveling from boston to philly, then philly to pittsboro, nc. thursday the truck came, i unpacked everything just in time to get a ride to the airport.

all in all, i had 1 day of throwing in 2 weeks, not good.

on friday we played johnny bravo, kie, and sockeye.

johnny bravo has had a bunch of roster changes, but for the most part, their handlers are the same. they struggled against our zone looks and they also gave up the disc on hucks. we played pretty sloppy but won.

kie was short, fast, and chippy. they hucked i think 0 times on us, but they consistently managed to get the unders. they struggled with zone and we played it a lot and worked on having different personnel learn our different zones.

we then played sockeye which would have been an "under the lights" game for us since it was 9:30 or so start time boston time. i think we went down a break the first half. they did what they historically do to us which is front our players, especially our handlers, and force us deep. this year we have a more consistent deep game, plus jeff isn't as injured as he was all last season.

on defense tim gehret (sp?) was tearing us up. he gives and goes very well. and their cutters were non-stop in and out ho machines as usual. in the end, it was all about the fact that sockeye coughed up the disc more than us.

from a me perspective, i didn't feel up to speed until the sockeye game and my legs on the mark were still kind of dead. too much travel and heavy lifting for me.

after that, we went to a nice, completely empty family-run italian restaurant and made some owners evening.

Saturday: we played ring, furious george, and jam. ring came out on fire and played an interesting cup in the front, man in the back zone against the ho stack transition as well as their typical poachy, force-middle defense, and it got them up 3-0. our own d line got 0 turns in the first half, which i did not help our cause with two turns during the same D point. i had little confidence in my throws all weekend and i was having a lot of trouble on my forehands as my shoulder was sadly really, really stiff from me being so weak and carrying heavy stuff all week before.

ring was also dropping hammers all over the place in the first half. 30-55 yard hammers to cutters in stride. sometimes there is little you can do but tip your hat when people are that on (and then force backhand).

the second half, ring's O just started to hiccup and there was a dropped pull, at least two drops with their men hearing footsteps, and a couple huck turnovers. our o line remembered that it is stingy and stopped turning it over.

I had never beaten furious before this weekend. they had smashed metal in the past at nationals, and i was interested to see how furious would look like this year. the take away message in playing them is that oscar guy can bomb bendy flick hucks down the sideline to really tall receivers.

I think we went down by 4 in that game, but the difference was that we got breaks in the first half. towards the end of the second half, we were in the drivers seat again.

jam had about 15 dudes, so it was a little frustrating only getting 3 or so breaks on them. they are all pretty talented and don't turn the disc over if they don't have to. they are still the best team at dump swinging and attacking the underbelly of defenses that we played all weekend.

on a me perspective: this day was my worst day, my legs were slow, and my forehand was crazy.

paul, will, chicken, seth, and i went to the river and sat in it for an ice bath. it was awesome.

sunday morning we played goat. i like playing them because they have pretty talented and fun handlers to cover. we played a lot of transition, and other stuff to get hassel and big andy out of their normal rhythm. there was a little bumping and things got heated in the first point of the game, but cooler heads prevailed and we played well and nicely after that.

after goat, we played chain. they had maybe 15 people like jam, but they were clicking and absolutely crushed ring in the game before. they gave us a game, but eventually our legs wore them down and we did a good job of containing their stars (dylan wasn't there.... i have yet to beat chain when dylan and jason simpson both are uninjured. hopefully we will get our shot at chesapeake).

chain is going to be really strong this season. they are filled with great athletes who also happen to be great throwers. it seems like every good cutter they have could be a handler as well.

the next game was revolver. they are pretty stingy with the disc like we are, but run through their cutters. their handlers pretty much get the disc started and then occassionally go for deep strikes. it seemed like in the slight amount of wind, that was a better strategy.

we blew a goalline d break, but all in all, we did not play very well. it was windy enough that there was a noticeably easier side to score from, and because of the break, our D line spent a lot of time going upwind which meant i would see less pt since i am not what you would call an upwind thrower (stupid bird arms).

i did not play very well this game. my legs started to go and i made an abysmal dump cut being the third option for a trapped thrower and got absolutely blown up by the second dumps man. my fault. that could have been the game right there. goes to show games are one and lost on simple things like dumps. we also seemed very disjointed on offense, often looking off swing passes to hold the disc to look for the huck. this let the dump defenders set up properly and made completing dumps harder for us than with most teams.

i was really impressed with revolvers D. Their handler D worked our handlers pretty well, and they did a good job on our cutters. I can't wait for the rematch, and i hope they bring close to a full squad to chesapeake.

that is pretty much all i know. i have been using my time off to get in shape (bike riding, running, sweating in the sweltering carolina sun), and I am going to try to throw around at least 3 times a week outside of practice.

chesapeake looks fun, except for the super late showcase game. i think if it goes to seed it will be against goat and i love playing those guys, so it should be fun.

-josh

Ironside 2009

2009-06-29T13:48:00.000-07:00

Well, I made it through what was the longest, most competitive tryout I have ever done. By Cazenovia, there were 36 good players, all of whom I am pretty sure all of the top teams in the region would have gladly taken on their teams.

A few weeks later, the tryout list was down to 33 and all of those 33 could play on any national calibre team. It was all about the selection committee making the pieces fit, and, I was lucky enough to be one of the final 27. I view it more of an ivy league college selection process, everyone that made it deserved to make it, and everyone who didn't, didn't necessarily deserve to not make it.

Because there were so many talented handlers, because I kind of suck at throwing, and because I am moving in August down to Chapel Hill, I thought I had an uphill battle to make the team. I did have the fact that I had a really good season last year help me, and the fact that I improve year to year, but, it was tough. The weekdays were the toughest because they were out of my control. The weekends were when I became super-unnervous because I knew I had control of one thing.... how I played.

I am not terribly athletic in a general life standard, and I am definitely not athletic for a national level player standard, so, it takes me a while to get back in the groove which is always scary in the tryout process. The first couple weeks, I just didn't have enough leg muscle to be fast (I lose about 10 pounds during the off season).

As the tryouts got longer, I just focused on the stuff I am good at: scrappy handler D, getting down on the pull, handling with my legs, breaking the mark, and trying to have zero turn days.

So, now that I made the team, it is time to get to work on becoming better. I am planning on working out like a maniac, throwing a ton (have to find some people to throw with / play mini down in NC), and doing whatever I have to do to put the team in a situation that we can win.

I am really excited about the team. I think we have a strong shot of winning it all if we work hard, and, if the intensity of the practices at tryouts stays up, we are well on our way of achieving our goal.

-josh

Will Neff won the Callahan

2009-05-25T14:49:00.001-07:00

Awesome.

That is all.

MIT on TV??

2009-05-12T17:34:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago, the team was contacted by the discovery channel on a show called Time Warp. Apparently it is hosted by an MIT professor and the slo-mo photographer lives near Boston. They were interested in the MIT team because of the connections with the host.

Anyway, after some emails back and forth, they came out to watch a practice today and to talk to the kids a little about ultimate. I got there late and the production people had already left, so no clue as to how it will go down. Anyway, we are going to film on May 22nd all day. I think they are just going to film slow motion throws, layouts, point blocks, and people catching.

It should be fun. I hope it promotes the sport in a positive light and works as a recruiting tool for the team.

More details to follow as I know more.

-josh

Regionals: we had a good run

2009-05-04T18:36:00.001-07:00

My goal for the team this year was for them to make Sunday of regionals. It is pretty much my goal every year, but this year it was a bit of a stretch considering the fact that we lost every single game including all the consolation games at regionals last year.

We go into regionals with I think 15 players. About 10 of which I would consider "A team" if there was an A and B team split. The others show a lot of promise, but just aren't at regional level yet. The biggest hurdle as a team this year has been: 1.) Lack of numbers for the team and 2.) Communication, sideline voice, etc.

We go into the UConn game knowing they have a few good players, and that we should try hard to isolate them and win those matchups. MIT matched up well on the teams with a few stars this year, and were blown out by teams with no real stars but rather about 14-15 solid players.

I think we got down the first couple of points just playing jittery offense. Wide open pass, to wide open pass, to a deep look that is either to no one, or is just out of reach. A couple rock solid players are just sort of sleep walking through the game (another problem is that MIT classes don't start until like 10 a.m., so very few of them are used to being up at 8, let alone playing).

I call timeouts, remind them that the game won't be won by itself, and that we are playing a good team, and they are going to win if we don't work on defense. Finally, due to nothing I said, we start to play better. Andrew Ji is just starting to roll and getting layout D blocks, skies, and taking over the offense. This will be the theme throughout the tourney. Andrew and our other senior, Footsteps, played the best tourneys I have ever seen them play. The both played close to 100 points for the day (ouch), and they both were getting layout blocks even when battling cramps in the last game.

Anyway, the game is very back and forth, We normally get down, tie it up, and then get down by 3 again. It isn't until 10s that we trade the next two points and then score the next to to win in a cap 13-11. All in all, not a good start, we played a lot of ultimate already, and we aren't playing efficient. Luckily, our junk D we worked on to save some legs worked out well.

The next game is against middlebury. They aren't very deep either, but their top 5 or 6 players are all very talented. If they only had 1 or 3 solid players, we might have had a chance, but, they were too talented and athletic for us. oof. Tough loss. In the second half, I pull some players and play the younger kids.

We now have to bounce back off of a loss, something that MIT doesn't do very well at all. We walk to the new fields and find that UMaine has upset URI. This is a little bit of a surprise, but after seeing UMaine play in the first couple of points, it became clear how it happened.

UMaine ran a really cool give-n-go oriented handler motion with the ho stack cutters cutting and then looking to throw break side dishey passes to the handlers streaking up the field. In other words, they just never stopped moving for one second. For the first couple of posessions, we never had them hold the disc longer than 2. That was a bad sign. Looong game.

On defense, they ran a very aggressive junk against a ho stack that was effective in making us throw a lot of passes. I didn't spend too much time on handler defense and different styles of marking this year, and that came back to bite me as only a handful of kids could actually play D on the handlers without being toasted just watching the guy throw and go. It is ironic that i am a handler defender I know.

Anyway, back to the game, they take half 8-5. Andrew, Owen, and I give a speech about how this is it, the game is in our control, but we have to want it. We then come out a little flat as the kids are trying to learn how to play with emotion and not be so robotic. Then, the blocks start flowing, and we start to climb back into the game on the back of andrew ji and footsteps. The kids have also realized that UMaine has no answer defensively for andrew, and they start jacking it deep to him with abandon.

We tie it at 12s, make it 13-12 us, I think at some point though, really close to 15 all, we get broken when one of their players just played good dump D and got a well-earned block. We pull at 16 all, they drop a contested dump pass, and then we work it up, and i believe score on an upline pass to footsteps for the game winner.

I think in hindsight, we should have forced middle to slow down the give-n-gos. Our marks in gerneral are sub-par though, and our communication on the field is minimal with only about 4 players that routinely talk on the field.

We then get ready to play BC. They are not tremendously talented as a whole, but they are deeeep. They have about 18-20 players who are all capable and competant to play at a regionals level, and they have this kid named Phil who is a talented cutter and handler.

We were out of water, and we couldn't find the spicket. That was a little annoying. We already had players cramping in the last game, and I knew we were in trouble. Too many points played by too few players.

We start out, and I think go down a couple early. We are fighting and working, and as more and more kids tire, Andrew picks up even more of the load. We tie it up close to 5s, and then i think they take half 8-5 or 6. Phil's hammers are giving us troubles and he throws them late in the count, and the kids are too tired to react to them. He is also doing a nice job of keeping the O moving when not throwing hammers.

We take the full halftime, and we are physically spanked. I have seen the look at a team that has played too many points before (regionals second half against dartmouth 2 years ago), and it is a terrible thing to see as a coach. There was nothing I wanted to do more than to go out and play with them.

Everyone looks around in the huddle, and are determined to leave it all on the field. We come out and start to claw our way back into the game slowly. Again, the d's come through andrew and footsteps, and the goals come primarily from andrew just out-athleting BC. The game is taking it's toll on him though, and he is starting to cramp after every goal.

I call timeouts just to rest people, and we get back into the game at 9s. they go up two breaks i believe, and then we score to make it 11-10. I call a timeout to rest some more and get ready for the final push, but there just isn't any gas left in the tank. we get several ds but we start to sputter on O, handlers missing dumps, throws to space to people not there, and people standing around just letting their man poach off.

BC runs away with it 15-10. the last point, the kids are so tired that they don't count properly to match-up on D, communication rears its ugly head one last time.....

In one way it is a good thing that they won because either way, they were going to be the fresher of the two teams on sunday. no amount of ice baths can wash away 100 points in a day.

on the other hand, it would have been a really nice way to end a coaching career to see the kids you coached for 4 years get to experience the magic of sunday of regionals where anything can happen. It would have also gotten andrew ji exposure to others that don't know how good he is. he has one of the highest ceilings out of anyone i have ever coached, and i expect that sometime within the next couple of years, his impact on the club series will be known.

I guess as a consolation, i know that i coached 2 players for the full 4 years of college and both of them are capable of contributing to a club national level ultimate team. something to be proud of, but i couldn't say that if they didn't work so hard as individuals.

Anyway, that is it for the season. Club tryouts for ironside and sons of liberty tomorrow, and a bunch of MIT kids are trying out, so it should be fun to play with them. I hope all of them make sons of liberty since that will be a great experience for them.

-josh

I never put on a uniform to play a game.

2009-04-29T10:53:00.001-07:00

..... 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

Ramping Up for Regionals....

2009-04-24T08:16:00.001-07:00

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

Sectionals Recap...

2009-04-19T15:25:00.000-07:00

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

Ouch....

2009-04-15T19:09:00.001-07:00

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

Sectionals....

2009-04-14T12:52:00.000-07:00

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

The importance of throwing the swing....

2009-03-08T14:05:00.000-07:00

I think that completing the swing pass is a hugely under-valued skill, yet it separates the good handlers from the bad handlers, and the great teams from the average teams. There is little doubt in my mind that Jam's success in the finals (and the rest of nationals) this year was due in large part to their ability relentlessly swing the disc and constantly change the field giving them easy, low risk throws.

This year's version of MIT is pretty young and inexperienced, and we really only have two handlers who have played a handler role in our system for more than two years.

With that said, I am having trouble getting across the huge value of swinging the disc. We have worked a lot on dumping the disc (since being able to consistently dump the disc the most important skill you can possibly develop), and we add the swing component into that dump swing drill, but, for some reason, in real game situations we struggle to throw the swing.

I feel there are 3 reasons for this:

1.) Front of the stack isn't paying attention.

2.) The dump feels it is better to have the disc in his hands than the swings hands, so he greedily holds onto the disc.

3.) The dump is slow in the transition from the catch to the throw.

I will address each scenerio:

1.) The front of the stack (in our system, the front of the stack gets the swing the majority of the time) should always, always be looking at the thrower. I can't possibly think of a reason why he shouldn't be.

If the thrower turns to the dump, there are only 2 possible situations that the front of the stack is going to do: a.) be the swing, or b.) be the other dump option if the first dump doesn't get the disc.

Both of these options are easy to see and time if you are looking at the thrower. Always, always be making eye contact with the thrower as the front of the stack. Period. If you always make it a point to do this, you will always be ready to cut.

Nothing is more crushing to a coach than when you see a rookie work really hard to get a great dump throw off that goes to the dump, and the dump catches it and is in perfect position to throw, and there is NO ONE cutting to the break side. Crushing.

2.) Lack of trust with the front of the stack, not being prepared to throw, not thinking about throwing to the break side.

for some reason, especially in tight games, MIT's handlers this year, when they catch a dump, are not looking to swing the disc. They simply catch it, and make no effort to even look to the swing side immediately, some go in-so-far as to pivot back to the open-side.

This, as a whole, helps no one, and leads to an inordinate amount of turns. For one, you are turning back towards the person who just threw you the disc, and he, generally is already covered by the way the mark was set up on him. he is typically clearing out, which forces the thrower to have to either throw around him and his defender to an in cut, or, to hold the disc for an extended amount of time to wait for the throwing lanes to open again. All this does is lets the defense set up again.

If you are a good thrower and the swing cutter for some reason is not, it still should not stop you from throwing that pass. What you are doing is opening up the field by moving the disc horizontally, making the defense have to adjust, and, chances are, you are going to be the dump for the next throw.

A bonus to completing swing passes is that for every swing pass you complete, your mark is going to have to respect that swing throw more and more which will lead to the mark playing off of you more and more to try to stop the around. This will lead to some i/o looks to the front of the stack, some give-n-go opportunities, and easier throws all around.

3.) I think a lot of people think swinging the disc requires break throws. It actually doesn't at all. Most of the time, if a proper dump is given, you will have enough separation where all you have to do is throw a very simple, uncontested throw to space.

I think the trick comes in the preparation. When you catch the disc, you want to come out of the catch and be in proper throwing position, so, if it was force flick, when you pick your head up to look at the breakside, you want to already have your backhand ready to be released. What I mean by that is that you should NOT catch, look, windup, release. It should be catch, windup, lookup, release. this minor difference in the order of those things is HUGE.

Also, remember as well, you are throwing to the space where you want the swing cutter to be, you are not waiting for the swing cutter to get to a space and then trying to drill the disc at him.

I could go into the minutea of which foot to try to come down with first when catching and the angle you should attack the disc, or how to minimize the windup (something my club coach constantly tries to have me work on since I have tennis style backswings which no one needs), but, all you need to do is do what is mentioned above, and completing the swing pass will be really simple.

There are two things that really helped me learn how to swing the disc. When I played on a club team in philadelphia, the captains stressed the importance of moving the disc horizontally on the field and would swing the disc even if we lost some yards on it. They would stop drills if you didn't try catch the dump and come up ready to throw the swing.

The second thing was that I have practiced decoupling my lower half of my body from my upper half when throwing. This helps throwing on the run and I don't have to be fully planted to releasing the disc. I practiced this after reading something idris nolan wrote about him practicing throwing with his non-pivot foot off of the ground when throwing. Try it sometime; it will change the way you look at throwing.

Anyway, I am very hungry and it is food time. We are going to continue to work on this at practice, and I think that the kids are starting to understand the importance of swinging the disc because when they do it, they are starting to score much easier and they are opening up the field a lot more.

-josh

Away I go...

2009-02-12T07:19:00.000-08:00

So, yesterday MIT had the last practice i will be at for over 2 weeks (st. lucia here i come!!).

There is still a lot to work on, and we have very far to go if we want to meet our goal of being a regionally competitive team.

The captains and leaders of the team sat down with me and we figured out a game plan for the next couple of weeks.

We need to work on zone offense as we haven't really taught it in full yet. MIT runs a two handler offense (they sort of ran a bad 2 or 3 handler offense in vegas), and we use a lot of handler motion to break the cup.

We have a couple good handler's this year that need to learn the system for it to be effective.

We also need to work on cutting in flow. The handlers are hesitant to throw the swing (note to aspiring college/club handlers, always be that guy who throws the swing....), and the cutters don't cut off of each other well. We have some drills lined up to do that.

The biggest hurdle we face as a team is taking the majority of the team who have played little to no organized sports before and having them see the field, see the patterns, and use the patterns to get d's. Right now, everyone just reacts a step slow.

okay, i have a wedding to get ready for, so, I will get back at this in 2 weeks. with what we are doing to help raise people's field awareness (can you?). Any thoughts on this?

-josh

Sick Day Post....

2009-01-28T12:37:00.001-08:00

So, I am sitting here at home sick with my washing machine still in a dismantled heap in the basement, and me losing a days worth of work to sleep off a nasty cold.

Yep, that means time to update the blog. It has been a while.

MIT is currently in IAP. I have no idea what it is, but apparently only about half of the students opt to do it, and the half that are here, take a weird gaming class where they essentially spend every waking and non-waking hour programming to compete in some weird virtual game. Lame.

We also are having a fairly bad winter with lots of ice and snow keeping us indoors. Indoors is bad because we don't get any time (1 hour 2 Xs a week). Some parent of an MIT student just spent a lot of money on a new nexturf soccer field on the inside of the outdoor track. The next logical step would be for them to put a bubble over it so people can run indoors and play indoors. ..... maybe next year. As for now, it sits, unplowed. And although the team has offered to shovel it in return for some field time on it, the athletics department declined the offer.

So, for now, we are stuck doing track workouts, weight lifting, shuttle runs, and then as many drills as you can smash into 1 hour of time on about 80% of the available space in the area inside of an indoor track.

I am working on getting the handlers to be aggressive with their upline dump cuts. I am also working on getting the cutters to respond to those cuts with deep cuts for them. If we are aggressive with the upline cuts, we will either get a lot of upline dumps, or a lot of non-contested swings. If we get the upline throws, I want the handlers hard work to be rewarded with a viable deep option. I am hoping this will increase our deep look percentages and completions as well as opening up the underneath game.

I think it is hard for cutters to get a feel for how easy it is to throw a huck making an upline cut as opposed to hucking from a handler spot. Cutters normally have worse marks and more separation than handlers do allowing most of their throws to be easy. Handlers are rarely more than a couple steps open on their defender, and the defender is relatively fresh to put on a hard mark. Getting it upline with all your momentum with no mark is like christmas, even for a shitty deep throwing handler like myself - you have to try really hard to NOT complete that look no matter what dog meat you normally put up.

I am trying to get the team ready for vegas, but I am afraid that by the time they go there, they won't have played on more than a 40X 40 yard patch of indoor space for only an hour at a time.

Will catch up later, but time to sleep.

-josh

Mini: Getting the Maximum Out of Indoor Practice

2008-12-03T19:40:00.000-08:00

We played mini tonight after reviewing the mid-field dump system today. We worked some kinks out with getting the swing off and second options, and then on to mini.

I think mini is a great game for player development. The ironside guys started doing it later one night a week in august, and when I played on metal, we the local guys did that as well.

you get a ton of touches, get put in a lot of difficult throwing situations, and you learn how to play defense.

And, if anyone has ever played a good game of mini, you know how hard it is to run.

I promise to get back to the x's and o's of everything later, but this week is crazy at work.

-josh

The good and bad of inside out throws

2008-11-20T07:32:00.000-08:00

One of the challenges of coaching is having young players as well as older players understand the difference in the window of opportunity of i/o throws and o/i throws. Especially break throws.

No matter what level of team here in the northeast, at least once a game, there is always the dreaded i/o break turnover to someone making a cone cut from the back of the stack. Their trajectory is never really narrow enough to shield the defender, and it never had a chance of being completed, but people will always, always try it.

The above is my poor attempt to draw an accurate representation of the temporal and spacial windows of a cutter and of a thrower's two main break options, the around and the inside break. I say poor because I think I have only depicted the spacial windows, and some can debate about those as well.

The setup is your typical endzone cut. A person is cutting from the back. Ideally, they would be starting their cut at the very end of the endzone , but this is showing the typical poor use of endzone real estate. The cut begins in the middle of the field and about 5 yards from the back of the endzone. This is a typical endzone offense.

Because he is cutting at the cone, he is cutting at a 45 degree angle (20 yards from sideline, 20 yards back from cone). This is a much more horizontal cut than people normally cut when they are cutting on the field, and, because of this, the window for the i/o is smaller and shorter than it normally is.

The above diagram is not perfect. I am using it merely as a visual aide to get my point across.

The point:
1.) The I/O Break window normally in the endzone is EARLY in the cut.

2.) Most turnovers on I/O breaks happen because people throw them too late in the cutters cut. Most turnovers happen because people typically aren't throwing the disc to get to the receiver in the of the red. They typically are throwing the disc by the time the receiver has ran into the i/o throwing lane. By this time, it is too late.

3.) I think the around break is more successful because the temporal window to throw happens later in the cut, so a thrower can decide to throw the break later in the cutters cut. It also gives more leeway to people with slower releases.

I think, in college, the turns happen because they decide to throw the throw too late and then either wind up throwing behind the receiver, or trying to make up for lost time by throwing it fast and hard which makes the throw unpredictable and uncatchable.

Aside: I wanted to put a third layer on top of the two layers that demarcated the temporal windows of when to throw the throw, but that confused even me and I thought of the idea. It would be sweet if I could do a 3D one with that though!

-josh

p.s. I am going to draw a couple diagrams containing situations where i/o breaks are sweet later this weekend.

Brown Tourney Thoughts...

2008-11-15T16:41:00.000-08:00

MIT went to Brown today for a tourney. We were missing some key players because of fraternity obligations, and we were missing a very good, promising young handler because "sleep caught up to him". But all in all, I thought Saturday was a pretty good.

Aside: I could write an entire post on MIT and Lehigh's fraternities and how the are the bane of my coaching existence, but that is another time, another post. I could also write a whole post on how, in the age of cell phones, can people not wake teammates up to come to tourneys. If you know you are going to have trouble waking up, sleep on a friends couch, use the buddy system, etc.

Okay, enough of that, onto the tourney.

We went down to the tourney with 4 seniors, 1 new grad student, 2 3 year members, 4 2nd year members, and 5 rookies. We had a pretty good mix of new vs. experienced, but we were definitely missing some offensive power, especially on the D side of things, and it showed.

Game 1: Wesleyan.
This was probably our worst game of the day. We were playing fine defensively the first half, and Wesleyan was helping us out too with some pressured drops. Our O was scoring, but not playing very well. Our handler motion was poor all day. This is something we will have to work on at practice.

We got up 2 breaks, everyone was playing well and feeling well, and then we lost energy and focus during halftime. We didn't get another break after that, and we forced very little turns. It was capped at 10-9 us, and then we get to 11-10 us I think before we get broken twice on nervous play and then poaching off to help other players out on D. That was it. Lost on double game point receiving. We have to learn how to want to win.

The good part of this game was that the rookies played good defense, and they got to play a lot.

Game 2: Brown Y or X.
We go up early, and stay up. The newer players got a lot of experience, and the rookies were cutting very well after a turn. They were aggressive and hungry when cutting. The only downside of this game is that the points take a long time because of the bad handler motion and people do not want to swing the disc. Just painfully grind it up the openside.

We use half to talk about dump swinging some, and we come out and it's better. Game ends 11-3.

Game 3: WPI.

I got to play with two WPI players during Boston tryouts this summer and they were athletic, had good throws, and had a good mind for the game. MIT played them in a night scrimmage in the fall and lost to them pretty handedly and they were looking for some revenge.

We start out on D and get a turn and keep rolling. Everyone is playing well, WPI isn't hitting their hucks, and they obviously are missing some players. I would like to think that we got a little better as well. I thought our D was good, and our O started to click. I think we win 13-4 or something.

Game 4: Bye.

It had been rainy and slightly windy all day, and during our bye everything let loose. I was watching UMass and WPI slug it out with hellish zone points. It was a really strong crosswind with a steady rain. After sitting in cars for a little and getting warm, the MIT kids came out and we used this bye time to work on throws in the wind, and then we discussed zone.

It is uncertain if the bye won or not.

Game 5: UMass.

UMass looked like a combination of their A and B squad, or maybe it was some veterans with some rookies mixed in like we had. Regardless, they weren't the veteran heavy squad that UMass is known to have year after year after year.

We somehow decide to start on defense going upwind. I thought I taught the kids to choose downwind when it is windy. Crap.

We start out, UMass hucks it, they score. They come down in zone. We turn it two feet from our endzone doing nothing we talked about in the bye about zone.

I think we turn it again giving up the upwind and downwind. We then score on their zone by going over the top downwind.

I am now left in a situation that a coach has to be in. If we win this game, we are in the winner's bracket tomorrow, and if we lose, we are in the loser's bracket. It would be nice to play against the toughest competition we could tomorrow, but, at the same time, it would also be nice to be able to continue to play the rookies and sophomores as much as I have been throughout the day.

I decide to stick thrower heavy lines in (i.e. the veteran lines). This doesn't pay out until we get a break right before half to make it 7-5. We start out on O and score.

We then go out and get 3 breaks in a row because we have worked on becoming more active on the mark and helping some on D. It seems to be paying off, and some rookies are being put on the veteran lines. I think it is 9-8, and then they score to make it 9s at softcap.

MIT then starts dancing instead of cutting on the dump cuts, and we are making too deep out cuts and stranding the thrower. We turn it, they score. We then have to score an upwinder. We work it up halffield and then turn it over throwing to a covered man incutting on a high stall. They score on a huck that we thankfully covered very well (we have been working on protecting the deep after a turn).

Henry from UMass really took this game over the last couple of points; he played great D and you could see him impose his will onto the game. I hope more of our players learn how to do that this year. We already have a handful that can do it, but it is awesome when a whole team wants to.

We have a lot to work on, but there is a lot of promise. The D was better now than it was at regionals last year and we were missing some good defenders today. Our offense had some hiccups. The biggest ones came once the softcaps went on. I think once we work out our handler movement a little better the hiccups should happen less and less.

I wish I could be there tomorrow,

-josh

Good Defense Happens BEFORE the Disc Moves

2008-11-11T14:59:00.000-08:00

My first year on a club team, we had some smart older players on my team. One of them was somewhat of a D specialist, and he would say: "90% of defense happens before your man gets out into the lane."

This took me a long time to learn or even understand what he meant because I was young and fast, and could just run past my man for blocks (note: we didn't play too many good teams). Especially in college, I would just stand on the breakside of my man, follow him in to the disc, bait the throw, and get the block. This works extremely well when you play on a mid-tier college team. However, if you ever want to play after you graduate from college, you need to learn how to actually and properly play defense with proper positioning.

One of this season's goals for MIT is to learn how play defense with the same fundamentals as a club team would. I have talked to some people about it, and they think that this endeavour is crazy, that the dictation concept will be lost and it will simply become, stand 7 yards behind your man and give him the free in pass. But, they don't coach you guys, and they don't understand how hard you work at this sport.

The following is are excerpts from emails that the coaches on my club team have sent to us about how to play good, fundamental defense. They actually can write in real sentences and have mastered basic punctuation, so, if anything seems a little off, or words have been left out, it is probably me adding stuff in.

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1.) Good D Happens Before the Disc Moves - Dictate

Be Aggressive. The nature of the sport of ultimate is pretty unbalanced, the offense has a huge advantage. Don't give it an even bigger advantage by playing passive defense - chasing your man around - dictate where you want him to go, take control of that, and tip the scale over towards the defense.
Re-adjust Your Defensive Position Constantly. In a perfect world, all you would have to do is dictate slow, fat handlers out, and tall, fast, goal scoring idiots with no throws to speak of under, and we would win.

That would be a nice world to live in, but it isn't real, instead, how you dictate your man is usually more about what your team is doing, what you are trying to take away, where the disc is.

Good defenders re-adjust their position over and over throughout the point. Kevin and I, try to make it a point at practice, to keep saying in our heads where we are forcing our men. Try to do this at practice and in games until it becomes natural.

2.) Use Your Body!

Physically place yourself in the path between the person you are covering and where they want to go.
- Example 1.) To stop the upline dump, you must place your body between the dump, and the area upfield where he wants to go (normally a diagonal path).
- Example 2.) When guarding a deep threat, you want to stand blocking him from turning and sprinting deep towards the endzone.
- Example 3.) When guarding the last people in the stack near their scoring endzone, you want to stand in their path between them and the cone they are trying to score at.

Take Micro-Charges. For dictation to be effective, you have to keep your cushion small.

Reach out and touch someone small, but you can't just stand and expect them to run into you and stop. Your body weight should be towards where you want to send them. The more micro-charges you can take, the better.

Micro-charges are just what you think they would be - You are "standing", someone turns to run into you, you absorb it, and then move your body once again in the path that they want to go, and they run into you again. By standing I mean bouncing on your toes, weight towards the direction you want them to go.

3.) Triangulate Whenever Possible.

See the disc and your man. This is much harder to do when you are fronting your man or "faceguarding" i.e. playing people who play close to the disc.

4.) Keep On the Outside Shoulder of Your Man.

Don't give up the easy out cut if you are forcing in. And vice versa for if you are forcing out. Dictation does no good if you simply let your man run by you.

Watch people make out cuts. 9/10 of them will involve someone running in hard, and then pivoting toward the openside and sprinting deep. If you were dictating your man under, and sprinting with him on his outside shoulder, when he turns to plant and sprint deep, you are in his way, blocking his path.

If you decided to stay on his inside shoulder since that is easier to get layout blocks on shitty throws, if he plants to go out, you are left just sprinting in.

5.) When the Disc is Up, Beat the Man to the Spot.

Win the Race. Dan Cogan, the old MIT coach used to tell his kids that offense is a race that the offense decides when it starts, and where it ends.

The concept of dictation on D is to make this race a bit more fare. Instead of letting the Offense decide where the race will occur, place your body in a way that limits the offensive player to one direction. Now you know where the race will end. Stay close on your man, and when the disc is thrown, win the last part.

************************************************************************************

This is a lot of stuff to digest. When it comes down to it, it all is pretty simple, and we are going to spend a lot of time honing our dictation skills. I think we are capable of being the best, most physical defense by the end of the season, but it starts at practice. Commit yourself to working hard, and commit yourself to learning these fundamentals.

If you have any questions, just write it in the comment section and I will get back to you.

-josh

Nationals: A Quick Rundown

2008-11-06T17:36:00.000-08:00

Wednesday: Fly into Sarasota with MIT alum Dave H. Dave and I go to the store, I buy food for my room, we check in, and then we find some food to eat. After that, we do a macc line on the beach. I am pretty terrible at anything that involves co-ordination, it isn't like I fail to comprehend which direction or which hand should brush the disc, it just gets to me and BAM! into the ground.

Oh well. I also threw on the beach some. The wind was really strong, so that is always good to get some touches in. At night, we ate lasagna that mccarthy and funboy (the harvard and tufts coach for you guys) made. It was awesome.

By the way, simple life lesson for the day. If you buy your ticket 4 or so months in advance like Emily did, the airline can change it's flight times and layover cities on you. You should check into that so you aren't in chicago for 3 hours flying to florida from boston.

Thursday: Wake up, go to the fields. As usual, dewy, flat, and level. We get start active warmups 1 hour before game time.

We play the Condors 1st. The have some athletes, and 2 good handlers. I covered some guy named Steve Dugan for a little this game. Apparently he has a big backhand (besides just being a really good handler), which people informed me of after the point in which I flashed over to the open-side on a no huck call, and then he bombed a beautiful backhand bomb upwind to a cutter in stride. After that, I tried to stay at home on his backhand, and when we forced backhand, I marked pretty flat and straight up.

I forced him out some, our zone was getting blocks, and our O line was in stride. We won pretty comfortably by 15-12. I think our O line got broken maybe 2 times in the last couple possessions to have the Condors make the game close.

Second game was against Bodhi. It is tough playing against some of your friends and old teammates, but I really thought it was best for everyone if we came out and played them as hard as we possibly could. I think we did. We won 15-8. They made some drops and throw aways, and our zone lines worked pretty well against them, except against Bill Stewart who cranked out a huge thumber over our cup. Somewhere Cy Prothro was smiling.

The third game was against Jam. They run a really pretty offense where everyone is a cutter, handler, and deep threat. Some people do it more than others, but it just seems like the flow positions more than other teams do. I guarded Gabe for most of the game, and I thought we had a pretty good battle. He is really fun to cover because he does everything, and he does everything well, so you have to always be on your toes ready for a deep strike after he was the dump, or a give-n-go, or some crazy off hand throws. We again win 15-12, but it felt close except for the fact that I don't think our O line was broken once (I might be wrong about this though... I don't really pay too much attention to our O line).

Friday:

With Thursday's performance, Ironside and Jam move up to the winners bracket. Bodhi and the Condors, who Bodhi "upset" dropped down to the losers bracket.

First game Friday, we play Goat. Ah Goat, how many times can we play them in the season? They are off playing their normal Goat game (which they do very well), which is small pass, small pass, pass to Hassell, bomb. This works 90% of the time. I believe we go down early in this game, and then our D line catches on fire. Think of Hassell as a cross between andrew and cody. baller.

At some point in the game one of our D cutters gets stagnant on the line and I realize I am making a double cut with Funboy and start to curl away when he throws it which my defender makes a fantastic layout for and hits the disc, unfortunately for him, I clap it at about the same time and then he hits my elbow with his still laying out body which not only knocks me forward, but I lose possession. I call foul, they flip out. I go to the observer, and he couldn't see it. Redo. I felt bad, but the play wasn't over after he hit it, he still hit my body.

I think I score a couple goals this game, including the game winner. I have been scoring goals all weekend which is weird since I handle and "should" be throwing them, but people seem generally disinterested in guarding the ole' upline cut.

The next game is against Sockeye. It starts out well, I think we go down a break maybe on the second O point (an O cutter gets hit with the disc on the pull!!!! Watch the disc! It can happen to you), but then the D line I am on gets the turn and I score. I am feeling good this game and finally throw a goal instead of scoring it, and feel very in control on Defense. They take half I think, and we are at 15-14 sockeye pulling and we turn it over. They score to make it 16-14 sockeye.

We find out that there was a lot of craziness that happened in the other pools, and that Bravo is playing the prequarters for the right to play Sockeye in the morning and we will play Ring of Fire in the morning. I am not sure what the weather will be like, but for some reason I think Ring would be more vulnerable to our zone than Bravo, so I like that draw.

I watch Brutesquad play the prequarters game. It was AWESOME not playing in the prequarters. You get unbelievably tired in that game.

They looked pretty good when I was watching, but Emily finally had succumbed to the "i broke my foot and could only aqua jog for 8 solid weeks before nationals" heat sickness and tiredness. Apparently she played great in the two games before that, so she was pretty content laying in the shade and trying to not spend the night in the hospital while watching her teammates clean up.

Saturday: Get up, get ready to play ring. I like playing ring. I played against their captain, jared inselmann all throughout college, and was his teammate on Rage. He is a great player and an even better teammate. I covered him for a lot of the game, but since our zones were working, we played a lot of zone. Everyone likes zone, except for the cup. I am the cup. The game was pretty contentious since we didn't have observers and there was a lot riding on this game.

Ring played a pretty physical game where they forced middle / clogged middle. Their strategy seemed to be to bump early in the count, and then back off. Unfortunately for them, when they backed off, they stopped being active on the mark, and their flat marks were very easy to break.

Both sides got a little chippy, and by the time observers came from god-knows-where, they were a welcome sign no matter how bad at observing they might be.

We won this game 15-11, and then got to sit around for a long time. I ate food, sat in the shade, and walked around if I got nervous. I also got my hamstrings and calves worked on by our PT guy. It was painfully awesome. He breathed some life into my legs.

The Semi's were next, and it was against Chain. We are 1 and 1 with them this year, and last year, they beat us in a very sketchy way on a botched observer ruling (play needed to stop, and they let it play on). We played a lot of zone on them. Even if we didn't score or get the turn, we made the point happen slowly. This was especially important because sometimes their D line would force a turn and then almost score, or we would score but they would be drapped all over us, and then the D line would go out there and throw zone and make them throw 100 passes, and by the time their D line was back out there, our O line was no longer feeling the pressure from the last point, and their D line had forgotten their intensity from the point before.

I think we take half on a huck to Colin Mahoney. The second half, we play a lot of man, and when we get the turn, the upline is open a lot. I don't know if this is a new trend in club teams, but they seem to leave the upline cut open a lot, especially when forcing backhand.

This might be an O's D thing since they can't fathom not having people that can't complete flick dumps out to space, but, with a strong crosswind, the upline throw was really easy compared to the dump out to space.

At one point I score on an upline cut, and in a moment of passion and idiocracy, I spike the disc next to my laid out defender (getting a TMF). It was a very assclown move, and about 2 minutes after it happened I felt like a complete assclown.

I rightfully got sat for a couple points after that to get my head back to get my head back in the game and to remind me that our goals for the season were to be the best team in the country and the best team to play against in the country. Not only did I let them down a little, but I also represent you guys as well as lehigh, and I don't want to be known as "that" douche.

We finished the game on D, with a huck from George Stubbs to Colin. I was running to give george a dump when I realized that he wasn't at all looking dump and just kept on running down field to see if I could catch some swill.

Sunday: My normal Saturday night routine at nationals is normally a blur, and I wake up with two sprained ankles. This saturday night, I went to eat with my condo mates, we talked about Sunday, we bought food for the morning, and we cleaned the condo to be ready to check out.

Oh, and we took ice baths. Well, at least Colin and I did. Kevin and Brent were too pansy. Refreshing isn't the word for it. My left calf was cramping all night before the bath, and it helped some.

Sunday we got to the fields and were the first people there. Then Jam showed up. We all throw around, do active warmups, breakmark drill, hucking drill, O vs. D endzone drills, and then we get our game faces on.

I was pretty pumped for this game. I thought I played Gabe pretty well on Thursday and was looking forward to the rematch, but he apparently hurt his hamstring something fierce and could not play today. That was unfortunate.

The game started out pretty well, and then Jam got a break. The first D point, we got a turn, worked it down about 60 yards, and then seigs threw a swing pass a little too far for me to get. I sprinted as hard as I could, and layed out pretty strong, but it dinked off my finger tips and I slammed my face into the ground hard enough for my ears to ring. Jam promptly scores.

In the first half, we get another turn on a Damien Scott dropped pass in the zone. We move the disc up to about midfield, and I am actually cutting downfield because we were fast breaking. I then find myself poached off of, and curl back towards the disc. I set up as the dump to get the swing, and the disc hooks on funboy's finger and knifes into the ground for another missed opportunity on D. crap. What is promising though is the fact that the D line seems to be getting turns fairly readily, and when we have the disc moving, Jam's O line seems to not want to run with us.

Unfortunately our O line is not playing as clean as we have been all tourney. Jeff is hurt from the Chain game when he was tackled at least twice on fairly late hits, and Jam is putting good pressure on our handlers to have to work to reset the disc.

I think they take half 8-6. At some point, we get a break on a huck to kevin to pull within 1 or 2. We have multiple chances to score on D now, but we are being hesitant and not fast breaking at all. We instead are cautiously walking to the disc, and we seem to be stranding the throwers.

At 12-11 Jam, we get a turn off of a George Stubbs layout. I have been covering Damien Scott this point, and I am the front of the stack (the dump). Seigs wants to get it off line, and decides to throw it quickly to me just as I am getting ready to cut for an I/O from him. It picks up a in the wind, and unfortunately for me Damien is about 6 inches taller than me and I see his hands reach over my head as I am jumping and reaching up for it, and he just comes to the disc smacking it out of the way before it is even in my catching wheelhouse. I then get bowled over by him only to get up and see them scoring on a fast break. In hindsight, I should have called a foul to stop the fast break (he cleanly d'ed it, and I had no chance of catching it after before he hit me), but him knocking me down prevented me from helping out seigs who was caught in a 2 on 1 situation.

Damn. 13-11. I think we must turn it 2 times on O to lose the game then. It all went by so fast, but I am glad that it was a very clean and very fast paced game with not many calls at all. I think this game will actually be watchable.

The game seemed sort of surreal. I didn't feel nervous at all playing it, and I thought we were playing well, but we just weren't clicking as team; that is for both the O and the D lines.

After the game and the awards ceremony, I went over with emily and we looked at the UPA trophy. It only motivated me more to get ready for next year. Pretty soon I am going to write down my list of goals so that next year, it will be ironside that wins.

So that ends my club season, so I guess that means I have to start coaching you guys. Let's make it a good year.

-josh

Guest Topic: Catching

2008-10-28T10:15:00.000-07:00

I have invited one of the best people I have coached to write about catching. When I say best, I by no means imply the most athletic. I mean it strictly on a coachability and student of the game standpoint.

Pete makes up for being, um, being dealt the short, squat card in life for having a great mind for the game, and for learning how to milk every bit of his athleticism out of his body. He definitely isn't the quickest or fastest on the field, but he rarely gets blown up on an in cut because he shields the disc well and catches the disc fully out in front of him.

It is a great read.

Claw Catching: It’s Ergonomic

The purpose of ultimate is to score goals, by passing and passing alone. Passing is throws and catches. The "best practice" of catches is the claw catch. Let us set that aside momentarily and slam down the basics of catching.

Circumstances will require receivers to make plays by whatever means are necessary. It is correct to catch the disc however you can. It is wrong to habitually use bad form. In general these rules apply. First, two hands all the time; be professional. Second, run through the disc. Never slow down to catch a disc. Slowing down before possessing the disc is how defenders run past or layout and get blocks on you. Think about running through the disc like this - your fastest stride should be the one immediately after the catch. This guarantees that you are moving as fast as possible and have reduced to a minimum the defender's efforts and window to break-up this pass. Third, greet the disc. Do not stab, slap, smack, or punch the disc. Do not wait for the disc to come to you. Catch the disc firmly with the whole of your hands. Fourth, watch disc while catching it. This basic rule of all sports is as deadly as it is simple. Taking your eye off the disc will cause you to drop it; not every time, but every time you do lose it it's a soft turnover - a stupid, preventable drop that fucked the team

The claw catch, put bluntly, is the way Frankenstein's monster would play ultimate. However, please promise to play with the athleticism, coordination, fluidity, and grace that Mary Shelley's classic monster cannot summon. What follows are the basics. Form your hands like sock puppets - fingers together, thumb opposite them forming a 'C'. Fully extend your arms away from the body at chest height. Catch the disc in front of your chest keeping your thumbs down. If the disc is below your chest bend your knees and drop your hips to keep the disc in front of your body. When the disc is too low to catch like this, flip your hands such that your thumb is up and your fingers are down. If the disc is in danger of hitting the ground either layout or baseball slide with your thumbs up to meet the disc before a turnover. Claw catching is the best catching form because it is aggressive and fast. Aggressive and fast makes good ultimate.

Aggressive: Attack the disc and keep it away from the defender. Shoot both hands out and snare the disc at the earliest possible moment at the point furthest from your man. When claw-catching, I end up with the disc, snug in both hands, facing the path it flew; in shooting out and grabbing the disc, my wrists rotate through the catch and point the disc's edge towards the ground. Claw catching is ergonomic. The disc fits right into the padded palm, the fingers mold to the disc's face, the thumb latches onto the rim. Fast: the claw catch's form keeps you moving fast and prevents you from slowing down. Proper sprinting requires a runner to pump his arms, adding momentum. The claw catch extends one's arms forward to make the catch. This is close to proper sprint form and is an easy motion/transition in a full sprint. Keeping your arms forward moves your center of gravity forward. All human motion is essentially a controlled fall. The claw catch helps keep the body moving forward.

A word on clap catching: Clap (or pancake or alligator) catching is a good way to catch a disc, especially in wind. In wind, clap catching is the superior catching form. When cutting, however, the clap catch suffers. First, the clap catch is close to the receiver's body. This decreases the distance between the defender and the disc, and increases the chance of a block. Second, my considered and corroborated observation is that almost all receivers slow down to clap catch. Receivers perform a hop a half-step before clap catching. This hop steals that last step's push from impelling the receiver toward the disc and spends its energy on a slowing hiccup to make the mechanics and position of the clap catch a little easier. The claw catch improves upon the clap catch by making the receiver faster, increasing the distance between defender and disc, and catching the disc earlier in its flight If you have any questions, thoughts, barbs, or criticism please leave them in the comments. My thanks to Will Hall, as told by Josh, for the title.

Pete

October 28, 2008

Trust

2008-10-13T07:56:00.001-07:00

I have the unique opportunity this year to play on a team with 25 ballers on it. Top to bottom, bottom to top, we are all solid players. What makes us even better though, is the ability to trust each other and utilize each player to the fullest.

College is a little different because you have players at various stages of development playing on the same field together. You have the club calibre kid playing with the kid who learned a forehand 2 weeks ago and has shakey at best catches. I am going to try to make it my mission this year to utilize each and every player this year to maximize our ability as a TEAM.

This task also falls on the shoulders of the veterans on the team. By my 4th year at lehigh, I was a good player, but I didn't make others around me better. It wasn't until my 5th year that I began to do that. I enlisted the help of my friend and fellow 5th year player who would tell me when I was not playing within the flow of the team. He made me concentrate on putting others in situations where they could succeed. This might mean making sure you make a good soft throw to a younger player. Setting up a dump cut early, or not trying the hard break, but rather trusting others to be able to take 2 more passes to score. Most importantly for me, it was trusting my teammates to play good D and not try to play everyone's D for them.

It's the little things that develop trust. It can be as simple as looking a teammate in the eye in big games letting them know that you believe in them and the team. Most of it, however, is done not at tournaments, but in the car-rides to tourneys, track workouts, lifting sessions, and most importantly, practices.

Your goal for every practice should be to make your teammates better in every drill, every sprint, and every scrimmage. If you play your hardest, most physical D on a player, you are going to push them to get better. Likewise, on Offense, if you make it your goal to punish whoever is covering you by making hard real cuts, they are going to learn how to play better and better D. Challenge them to get better. Set the bar higher and higher for them each practice, and through these battles, you will get better by them pushing you to do the same.

Look your teammates in the eyes at the end of practice. Look at them with the pride of knowing that you pushed them and they, in turn, pushed back. By the end of the season, when you look them in the eye, you will also see the complete trust in knowing that no other team is going to push as hard as you pushed each other. That is a wonderful and unstoppable feeling.

-josh

Handler Cuts

2008-10-07T13:18:00.001-07:00

I am not very good at throwing, but I am an adequate handler. I make up for my throwing shortcomings by moving well when I don't have the disc (that isn't to say that I don't actively work on making my throws better). There are basically two types of handlers - ones that handle by moving the disc around the field using their legs, and then there are the types that move the disc around the field with their throws. Watch a club game sometime, and you will see what I mean. The throwing handlers seem to get more comfortable and in control the longer they hold the disc (they also give more possessional dumps since they get field position by throwing), and the ones who use their legs rely on catching the disc in a spot on the field that puts them in an aggressive position to release the disc quickly before the mark gets there, and then moving to receive it again.

Ideally, a handler should be able to do both. One of the hardest things I had to learn when I started playing club was dumping since my college team never played with a dump (our captain was a volleyball player who we just floated a throw up high to the breakside when we got in trouble and he came down with it).

At first, the motion seems very strange, and hard to throw to, but after a while, once I learned to recognize the different dump patterns and worked on throwing to space, I begin to realize the merits of dumping. For starters, a properly executed dump cut is pretty much unguardable as long as the throw is out to space. This allows for easy resets and even more important, if a dumping system is properly integrated into the teams system, it is a predictable and dependable way to gain more advantageous field positions and help take take the force side advantage away from the defense.

It might just be that I am a handler now, but I feel the dump cut is the most powerful cut you can do in ultimate. If done correctly, it is the backbone of all club level offenses, and done incorrectly, it can lead to soft turnovers and breaks.

Below is a slide showing the various different dump movements and cuts. Read them, understand them, and we will be incorporating most into our offense this year.

-josh

Sphere of Influence

2008-10-03T15:21:00.000-07:00

I don't remember much from high school, let alone history. But I do remember about spheres of influence. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphere_of_influence#Post-Imperial_China . I always thought it was an odd term because although countries had "influence" they definitely didn't have spheres.

Anyway, one day when I was coaching lehigh about dumping, we kept having downfield cutters cut into the dump area. Finally, I came up with a concrete visual that I think helped people realize the handler area and the cutter area.

Picture the field with the thrower trapped on the sideline, now imagine him with a 10-15 yard sphere around him. This is the dumps area. The dump has a 10 yard sphere of influence around the thrower. Cutters, generally, 99% of the time, should NEVER invade this sphere.

This 10 yard sphere exists around the thrower at all areas on the field. Let the dump be able to get to the dump. Leave those 5-8 yards in front of the thrower open for the dump to get it upline in the power position. This is a great position to huck from, and everyone loves to score goals.

Maybe i will draw a picture sometime..... probably not.

-josh

Handler Area

2008-10-03T14:40:00.000-07:00

Click on the picture to enlarge and read up a little. I stole this slide from Geoff Buhl (with his permission). He was the coach of Rutgers when I was at lehigh. Rutgers was not very athletic, but Geoff managed to eek every ounce of athleticism and ultimate IQ of these guys to make a run to sunday of regionals every year.

Anyway, basically what we did well 2 years ago was that the handlers and the cutters understood what part of the field was for handler motion, and what part of the field was for big cuts. This lead to cutters setting up for large in and out cuts, and the handlers working to get easy throws off by using their legs.

I am going to post another post on handler cutting.

-josh

On Improvisation (i suck at spelling)

2008-10-01T10:17:00.000-07:00

I hate the concept of "plays" as in, player 1 does this, player 2 does this, we throw to player 3. I feel as a team, we are very robotic and don't do a good job of reacting to stimuli (i.e. making minor adjustments offensively or defensively in a game. This is especially evident when we play teams that throw shitty, bladey hucks, or playing against teams that poach or play a clammy defense).

In the past, we have gone over flow drills and split the game down into the small parts (various dumps, etc.), and we have even had plays. But, when we call them plays, i feel people don't realize that the best plays are really just patterns or situations that arise depending on your situation on the field. Also, I feel it teaches people to not throw to the OPEN man, but rather the man they think they should throw to.

Most college teams in the Northeast have coaches. Most of those coaches really know their x's and o's. They might have slightly varying O structures, dumps, defenses, but, for the most part, they are mostly based on the same fundamentals: throw the disc out to space, cut to get the disc AND make space, on defense take away the option the cutter wants, make the thrower break you with their 2nd best break throw when marking.

A good college team will execute their team's system well, a great college team will know how to improvise within a system when their first and second options are shut down. I am not talking about flashy scoobers and stall 9 blades (although every throw has it's place somewhere for a certain situation); I am more talking about, if someone is poached, where should he go, if they are back marking the thrower, how should he react, should our dumps change, and, if people are throwing bladey flick hucks on us, how should we defend differently.

I feel last year a lot of the freshmen and sophomores were good at playing D against MIT (squirrely handlers cutting upline, big cutters who jack it to other big cutters out of the ho stack). We were not good at playing against hippie ultimate.... no real stack and big throws. We also gave up 2 breaks every time a zone was put on us because our handlers would either miscommunicate and have a soft drop, or the handlers couldn't figure out if the cup was loose or tight and how to attack each one.

This stuff takes time to learn, and playing against colleges of all sizes and playing styles gives you much more experience than a watered down O line of MIT. This is why I have been pushing for you guys to play in as many tourneys as possible. I cannot teach you guys to play against every type of zone out there. We barely have enough time to learn how to run 1 effective zone. It is only through playing against different teams that you will begin to see the different patterns of O's and D's and then learn how to make adjustments on the fly about how to counter them. This is what I have been hinting at all season about the veterans learning pattern recognition.

Anyway, you guys are playing WPI tonight. They have 2 good players I know of, and both of them like to throw deep and run deep. I am assuming you will have a zone thrown against you and on offense they will run some sort of ho stack and throw it deep a lot with outside/ins. Be prepared to counter this by starting the game off dictating your man under. If they are going to score, make them score with 30 in cuts. If they do it the first time, make them do it 3 more times, I promise you that they will get frustrated and jack it deep the first second they think their man has a 50/50 shot at it.

no more mr. roboto, from now on, react to stimuli!
-josh

From the Archives - Throwing to Space

2008-09-30T07:58:00.000-07:00

This is one of the first emails I wrote MIT. Still applies....

Guys,

I want you all to concentrate on throwing to space. This is a very difficult concept to grasp, but once you understand that you don't actually WANT to throw to the man who is cutting, but rather, you want to throw to an area which will allow him to easily run upon the disc with his defender in a position to not have a play at it, the easier the game will become to you.

i think for a lot of people, throwing is very difficult because they feel that they actually have to throw directly to someone when they are running, like, hit them in their bread basket at some exact instant in time. in actuality, you have a spacial window and a temporal window that if you line them up, the pass will be completed.

in other words, you have a general leeway, and people normally wait way too long to throw the disc which then causes them to rifle the pass into a hard cutting player giving the receiver too little time to adjust and since you are throwing it with a limited time frame, the spacial window has become very small making it very easy to underthrow someone.

In general, for in cuts, the earlier you can throw the disc to a spot on the field where you want the receiver to go to, the less velocity you will have to throw the disc at making the receivers job even easier. Remember, there are two things that give the disc inertia and make it stable for catching(i.e. makes the disc feel heavy and less likely to doink off your hands), translational velocity and angular velocity, translational velocity is how fast the disc is traveling through the air, and angular velocity is how fast it is spinning in the air. If you put adequate spin on the disc, you can throw as soft as you want and still have a "heavy" disc to catch.

For away cuts, the sooner you can throw a disc out to space that no one occupies, and out in front of a receiver, the easier it is for him to read and run down on it.

i will talk more about throwing to space at future practices, and show you a demonstration of what i mean. also, if i can find video of it, i will show it to you. it won't have all the bells and whistles of dan cogan's video's but, what can you do.

-josh

First Post...

2008-09-29T18:44:00.000-07:00

The purpose of this blog will hopefully be for me to keep write down all my thoughts in one place, hopefully be able to download some video clips for instructional purposes, and to keep alumni and fans in the loop with the current team.

Let's hope I make it through more than 4 posts before this falls by the wayside.

-josh