Club Nationals start Thursday. If you aren't watching the livestreams, what is you even doing?
Your moment of zen:
 |
| excited for pool play |
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Monday, September 28, 2015
Limitless
I think throwing is the only skill in ultimate that is infinitely improvable. There are infinite ways to get the disc from point A to point B. As a thrower, you are only limited by your imagination and your technique. You can do anything. No rules.
As with many infinite subsets, there are some important parameters. If you are stationary, you must have a pivot, as the rules state. There are environmental concerns (wind, rain). The defense is trying to stop you and limit you to options you are less comfortable with. Your receiver has to be able to see the disc and catch it. Maybe your offense is geared around specific kinds of throws. You have a time constraint (the stall).
Technique
Then you have parameters based on your own body. As with most physical skills, I think this comes back to patterns. Patterns will generally dictate how you are able to move and control your body with consistency and precision. I think throws are no exception to pattern theory. In order to be comfortable with a throw, a player has to spend time practicing/grooving that pattern. An example of a single pattern might be "flick released from waist height with a flat flight path and a 30% lateral step out to a target 20 yards away". Another example of a single pattern might be "backhand released from below R knee with a OI flight path and a quick 100% lateral step out to a target 15 yards away". I think a player can work on any virtually any pattern they can imagine. Patterns can also be broken into component patterns, isolated, and practiced. I think there is often overlap and carryover between sufficiently similar patterns. Obviously the usefulness of a pattern to a players game should be considered as well.
I think that young players watching Nethercutt throw lefty scoobers in his Callahan video get excited without realizing that he has probably spent more time grooving that pattern than they have on their own dominant hand backhands. No throw is inherently bad. It's badness depends entirely on the thrower. The question that has to be answered is "do you have that throw?" or "are you comfortable with that pattern?". Can you complete lefty scoobers at a same consistency or better than your backhand?
Imagination
I think another parameter is your ability to see opportunities on the field. People usually call this "field vision". I think grooving different patterns can unlock different spots on the field for you as a thrower. As patterns get added to the toolbox, the picture gets sharper and the lanes become more clear. Where you can put the disc, how you want your receiver to catch it, how you can use the wind and avoid the defense, etc. Seeing opportunities feels like the obvious first step towards exploiting them.
Obviously I'm leaving a lot out on field vision. I think one piece that complicates field vision for throwers is that the pace of the game (and range of defenders) increases as throwers improve. So how the field is interpreted should grow dynamically as players move to higher levels of play.
-----
Throwing is the nature of the game. I think strategy in general is mostly built on how the disc can be thrown and received. If I spent all season coaching Bolt to run an ambidextrous scoober-based offense, we'd walk all over other dev teams by April. How players set up, cut, defend, where they look, what they expect in virtually every aspect of the game is meshed tightly with an estimation of usable throws.
Why even bother teaching flicks and backhands? Well, the disc is most stable right side up. This matters in the wind. Grip change between flick and backhand is minimal and can occur quickly. Bio-mechanically, backhands are easy to throw far and with touch. And of course the status quo: all modern offenses are based on them. So in order to be successful, foundational pattern development of flick and backhand is vital.
I think college ultimate is dominated by throwers. Obviously having athletes matters at the national level, but having dominant throwers matters more, in my opinion. Maybe this is confirmation bias talking, but recent college national champ winners would largely support this argument I think. Maybe the questions that matter for a college team are: "Across the roster, what level of throwing ability does your team have?" and "How do your best throwers make your team dangerous?".
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More reading on throwing:
Adam
Matt
Carol
808
KB
-----
More reading on throwing:
Adam
Matt
Carol
808
KB
Friday, September 25, 2015
Tenuously Relating Movies to Ultimate
Rounders
me: Every practice where a player shows up and goes hard, that player earns 1 cent for the team. The perfect practice is worth $0.25, but most are probably in the $0.10-$0.20 range.
Sent at 11:22 AM
me: At the end of the season you take all your earnings to the series and sit down at the poker table, and play the hand you're dealt.
Sent at 11:24 AM
KB: I want you to post your thoughts on the internet.
me: I just did.
KB: Cool.
Sent at 11:26 AM
me: I don't have the discipline to maintain a blog, but I did watch "Rounders" the other day.
Sent at 11:27 AM
KB: Discipline is overrated.
Sent at 11:28 AM
-----
Pacific Rim
me: I was watching Pacific Rim the other day. The parallels to ultimate are obvious.
Sent at 2:08 PM
KB: Immensely obvious. You need a partner.
me: Yes. To take it one step further, your team is your jaeger and you fight other jaegers. You are joined by your common cause, unified in battle.
Sent at 2:09 PM
me: Or, your opponents are kaiju whom you can only defeat by teaming up.
Sent at 2:10 PM
me: Pacific Rim is really a metaphor for life in general.
Sent at 2:11 PM
me: It really is a terribly acted movie, as an aside. Thankfully that is irrelevant to the movie.
Sent at 2:13 PM
-----
Thursday, September 24, 2015
Candlers and Hutters
"Are you a handler or a cutter?"
Nowhere in the rules of ultimate does it specifically stipulate positions. I think handlers and cutters are both strategy based constructs. From when most rookies are introduced to ultimate, they are given a choice. You can pick one of two options. Are you good at throwing? Are you an athlete? Here, pick the red pill or the blue pill. Choose wisely.
This feels like a dramatic oversimplification to me. To illustrate my point, let's run through some of the traits that help define these roles.
Point: Handlers are good with the disc.
Counterpoint: Does this give everyone else a free pass to be bad at throwing?
Point: Cutters are athletic.
Counterpoint: Does this mean no one else has to be athletic?
Point: Cutters can sky people.
Counterpoint: Is there a rule that keeps handlers from skying people?
Point: Handlers can get open for resets.
Counterpoint: Should others not know how to do this?
etc.
Obviously players will have certain strengths, weaknesses, and preferences. It always seemed heavy-handed to me to just slap labels on people based on an early aptitude, or a reason like "you're short, go handle". Some people get the label handed to them for a reason like "there aren't enough handlers". This seems like a terribly narrow-minded view of development, roles, strategy, and even the game itself.
-----
Thought: Nothing stifles an offense like handlers who can't get open or cutters who can't throw.
Nowhere in the rules of ultimate does it specifically stipulate positions. I think handlers and cutters are both strategy based constructs. From when most rookies are introduced to ultimate, they are given a choice. You can pick one of two options. Are you good at throwing? Are you an athlete? Here, pick the red pill or the blue pill. Choose wisely.
This feels like a dramatic oversimplification to me. To illustrate my point, let's run through some of the traits that help define these roles.
Point: Handlers are good with the disc.
Counterpoint: Does this give everyone else a free pass to be bad at throwing?
Point: Cutters are athletic.
Counterpoint: Does this mean no one else has to be athletic?
Point: Cutters can sky people.
Counterpoint: Is there a rule that keeps handlers from skying people?
Point: Handlers can get open for resets.
Counterpoint: Should others not know how to do this?
etc.
Obviously players will have certain strengths, weaknesses, and preferences. It always seemed heavy-handed to me to just slap labels on people based on an early aptitude, or a reason like "you're short, go handle". Some people get the label handed to them for a reason like "there aren't enough handlers". This seems like a terribly narrow-minded view of development, roles, strategy, and even the game itself.
-----
Thought: Nothing stifles an offense like handlers who can't get open or cutters who can't throw.
Taking a step back and removing preassigned roles:
A good thrower who can't get the disc is not useful. A person who can get open at will but can't do anything with the disc also has limited use.
So for a player to be useful in on offensive scheme, they have to be able to 1. get open, and 2. do something with the disc. I think there are a lot of different ways to get open (maybe infinite) and possibly an equally large number of options available with the disc.
I think the distinction between handler and cutter blurs a bit here. Both "positions" need to be able to get open and throw to some degree. So what's the difference?
Some requirements of handlers:
1. Extremely consistent throws <30 yards.
2. Be able to get open for resets.
3. Able to attack a defense in some way. (hucks, break throws, throw and go, etc.)
Some requirements of cutters:
1. Be able to get open downfield. (Maybe use size to get open deep, quickness to get open under, etc.)
2. Spatial awareness.
3. Be able to throw good continue passes and resets.
Why should cutters not have to have extremely consistent throws <30 yards? Why should handlers not be interested in spatial awareness? What's the difference between getting open downfield and getting open for a reset pass?
-----
As a coach, I like 7-man offenses. I want my entire offensive unit to be able to get open in some way and do something with the disc. I think this pays big dividends down the road in player development. I'm not particularly interested in coaching guys to go hard on D, then just get out of the way on O. I think it should be a requirement to be able to contribute to both. This feels like a worthy goal.
-----
Note:
Revolver Positions:
King - Runs the Offense (traditional center handler, is free to do stuff)
Pawn - Supports the King (traditional reset handler, keeps the disc alive)
Knight - Gets open under (traditional mid, is quick/athletic and has good awareness)
Rook - Finisher (traditional long, fast/big in the air, scores goals)
Thought: Positions are constructs of strategy.
So why do positions exist? Is it possible to have a positionless offense?
It seems to me like strategies with positions exist in order to: 1. get the offensive unit on the same page in terms of expectations and spacing (Ho/Vert/Split, where resets stand, etc.), 2. Utilize the specific strengths of an offensive unit (i.e. a strong thrower, a dominant athlete, etc.), 3. Attack a defensive unit in a certain way (i.e. exploit 1v1 matchups deep, use quick passes to exploit repositioning, make space in a certain way off a dead disc, etc.).
I think a positionless offense would have to function off of some basic goals. Obviously awareness would be massively important. You might have goals based on the kinds of attacking cuts your team is good at making and the kinds of throws your team is best at hitting. In theory you'd need lots of reps and chemistry to figure out how to work together. Would you ever do better than a set offense? Maybe. Maybe not.
At the very least, I think positions with purpose make more sense than the dry handler/cutter split. That feels like a step forward, since general roles are more visible by the players and team. I don't think that's the final evolution though, but I'm not really sure how a team moves beyond this and is good enough at it to gain the potential advantages from it.
-----
Note:
Revolver Positions:
King - Runs the Offense (traditional center handler, is free to do stuff)
Pawn - Supports the King (traditional reset handler, keeps the disc alive)
Knight - Gets open under (traditional mid, is quick/athletic and has good awareness)
Rook - Finisher (traditional long, fast/big in the air, scores goals)
Thought: Positions are constructs of strategy.
So why do positions exist? Is it possible to have a positionless offense?
It seems to me like strategies with positions exist in order to: 1. get the offensive unit on the same page in terms of expectations and spacing (Ho/Vert/Split, where resets stand, etc.), 2. Utilize the specific strengths of an offensive unit (i.e. a strong thrower, a dominant athlete, etc.), 3. Attack a defensive unit in a certain way (i.e. exploit 1v1 matchups deep, use quick passes to exploit repositioning, make space in a certain way off a dead disc, etc.).
I think a positionless offense would have to function off of some basic goals. Obviously awareness would be massively important. You might have goals based on the kinds of attacking cuts your team is good at making and the kinds of throws your team is best at hitting. In theory you'd need lots of reps and chemistry to figure out how to work together. Would you ever do better than a set offense? Maybe. Maybe not.
At the very least, I think positions with purpose make more sense than the dry handler/cutter split. That feels like a step forward, since general roles are more visible by the players and team. I don't think that's the final evolution though, but I'm not really sure how a team moves beyond this and is good enough at it to gain the potential advantages from it.
Friday, September 18, 2015
Movement
This year I'm going to try and do a better job of coaching movement.
The myth that athleticism is fixed for players feels like old news. I think if I want to build the best players in the long term, I need to do a better job at helping guys lay a strong foundation of athletic movements used in ultimate. I think Bolt, like most college teams, gets a lot of players with pretty diverse athletic backgrounds. Many have played some sport or another prior to finding ultimate, but the variety is immense and it results in a wide range of movement aptitudes. We've had cross country runners, sprinters, swimmers, tennis players, basketball players, soccer players, lacrosse players, football players, volleyball players, the list goes on. We also get a fair number of guys who have no prior formal athletic experience at all. It's an odd melting pot of skills.
I think that the guys with high level basketball, football, soccer, or track experience tend to have a bit of a head start. Baskeball movement patterns are pretty similar to 1v1 defense and handler d, a good focus on athletic stance, shuffling, and quick lateral movements. Football gives you route running, good acceleration patterns, and usually a good strength training background. Soccer teaches acceleration/change of pace, balance, coordination, and spatial awareness. Track gives an obvious advantage in the open field. Sometimes sports like tennis, badminton, ping pong, and even baseball can give a thrower an arm action and mobility base to work with, but I find that to be a bit less common in newer players. Or at least effective carryover from those is less common.
I think when I say "coaching movement", I'm talking about patterns. Developing a movement skill or pattern that people can get a critical mass of reps in and eventually implement unconsciously, all the time. Examples of movement patterns might be: how a player accelerates forward, how a player accelerates to the side, how a player drop steps, or how a player makes a cut/changes direction. I think movement patterns are generally pretty improvable for a melting pot group like this, and spending time and energy on them could pay huge dividends down the road.
So how do I coach this?
It seems obvious that a lot of quality reps are required to make gains in this area. This makes me think I should make it something we do every practice, perhaps as a piece of the warmup. I also think there needs to be specific thought behind which movements I pick. As in, the movements I pick must be something we use in ultimate a lot, or maybe something I think we need to work on.
My current thoughts are that the drill must cover 4 scenarios. Other scenarios could be useful but these are the big ones, in my mind. They are illustrated in the picture below. Note: the green arrow is the direction the player is looking. The red line is the plane of the hips, and the black line is the direction of movement.
1. Forward acceleration - duh
2. Acceleration to the side - Useful for offensive cutting/beating an opponent, defensive cutting/maintaining good hip position while on d.
3. Acceleration to the back (drop step) - Useful for 1v1 defense
4. Making a cut - How to decelerate and accelerate properly with a lateral hip position. Useful mostly for offensive cutting, but relevant to defense as well.
Some closing thoughts:
-Shuffling and athletic stance I think share a similarly high priority as these 4, but I think should maybe be addressed separately from this drill.
-These drills are probably pointless without good movement cues, since form has to be good if gains are going to be made.
-Not sure the best format for this drill. Current thought is some kind of 4 cone/box drill with no discs. Adding discs probably distracts from the main point, but more touches seem good generally.
-Gamespeed by Ian Jeffreys is a cool book. Simonelli also influenced my thoughts on this.
-Ideally this will complement our weight training program really well, but we'll see.
The myth that athleticism is fixed for players feels like old news. I think if I want to build the best players in the long term, I need to do a better job at helping guys lay a strong foundation of athletic movements used in ultimate. I think Bolt, like most college teams, gets a lot of players with pretty diverse athletic backgrounds. Many have played some sport or another prior to finding ultimate, but the variety is immense and it results in a wide range of movement aptitudes. We've had cross country runners, sprinters, swimmers, tennis players, basketball players, soccer players, lacrosse players, football players, volleyball players, the list goes on. We also get a fair number of guys who have no prior formal athletic experience at all. It's an odd melting pot of skills.
I think that the guys with high level basketball, football, soccer, or track experience tend to have a bit of a head start. Baskeball movement patterns are pretty similar to 1v1 defense and handler d, a good focus on athletic stance, shuffling, and quick lateral movements. Football gives you route running, good acceleration patterns, and usually a good strength training background. Soccer teaches acceleration/change of pace, balance, coordination, and spatial awareness. Track gives an obvious advantage in the open field. Sometimes sports like tennis, badminton, ping pong, and even baseball can give a thrower an arm action and mobility base to work with, but I find that to be a bit less common in newer players. Or at least effective carryover from those is less common.
I think when I say "coaching movement", I'm talking about patterns. Developing a movement skill or pattern that people can get a critical mass of reps in and eventually implement unconsciously, all the time. Examples of movement patterns might be: how a player accelerates forward, how a player accelerates to the side, how a player drop steps, or how a player makes a cut/changes direction. I think movement patterns are generally pretty improvable for a melting pot group like this, and spending time and energy on them could pay huge dividends down the road.
So how do I coach this?
It seems obvious that a lot of quality reps are required to make gains in this area. This makes me think I should make it something we do every practice, perhaps as a piece of the warmup. I also think there needs to be specific thought behind which movements I pick. As in, the movements I pick must be something we use in ultimate a lot, or maybe something I think we need to work on.
My current thoughts are that the drill must cover 4 scenarios. Other scenarios could be useful but these are the big ones, in my mind. They are illustrated in the picture below. Note: the green arrow is the direction the player is looking. The red line is the plane of the hips, and the black line is the direction of movement.
1. Forward acceleration - duh
2. Acceleration to the side - Useful for offensive cutting/beating an opponent, defensive cutting/maintaining good hip position while on d.
3. Acceleration to the back (drop step) - Useful for 1v1 defense
4. Making a cut - How to decelerate and accelerate properly with a lateral hip position. Useful mostly for offensive cutting, but relevant to defense as well.
Some closing thoughts:
-Shuffling and athletic stance I think share a similarly high priority as these 4, but I think should maybe be addressed separately from this drill.
-These drills are probably pointless without good movement cues, since form has to be good if gains are going to be made.
-Not sure the best format for this drill. Current thought is some kind of 4 cone/box drill with no discs. Adding discs probably distracts from the main point, but more touches seem good generally.
-Gamespeed by Ian Jeffreys is a cool book. Simonelli also influenced my thoughts on this.
-Ideally this will complement our weight training program really well, but we'll see.
Thursday, September 17, 2015
Matt
-Not North, East, or South.
-Ruthless Competitor
-Facade of Crippling Self-doubt
-Likes long hikes, Kate, Colorado, "craft" beer
-Huck to Pro
-"Skilled Cutter"
-deuSVULT
->Holterman
-All-Region
-T13
-Game to Go
-Feels good
-Ruthless Competitor
-Facade of Crippling Self-doubt
-Likes long hikes, Kate, Colorado, "craft" beer
-Huck to Pro
-"Skilled Cutter"
-deuSVULT
->Holterman
-All-Region
-T13
-Game to Go
-Feels good
 |
| α |
And the ranks of the coaches grew by one.
Photo credit: Don Rummelhart, huckpix.com
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
2012
This is a brother post to KB's post. http://kbthemovement.blogspot.com/2015/09/2012.html
------
I can't really sleep. I'm tense with nervous excitement. When my alarm goes off, I've already been awake for 30 minutes, but it feels like I barely slept at all. My back feels a bit stiff, but manageable.
It's cloudy outside, chilly, might rain. I stuff my rain jacket into the bag I had packed the night before.
Q is already up, ready to go. He no doubt feels the same excitement, even though USAU won't let him cleat up today. This is his team, too.
We pick up Ramu and Tubes and head to Naperville. The streets are quiet and it's still pretty dark out, but my mind is overactive, rushing through my thoughts and worries like a frenetic slot machine. This is probably the last tournament I'll ever play with NUT. Sixteen teams, two bids, double-elimination bracket.
It's a brisk day in Naperville. A bit damp and with a moderate crosswind. Not strong enough to prevent scoring either way, but strong enough to bolster trapping zones.
We're playing EMU in our first game. Some tension. We are fired up to play them. Some sparks flew in our previous matchup and we're hungry for payback.
My body is feeling good. I hit Ben on an upline to punch in a break. We're playing well and we can run with this team.
Our cup zone is denying them easy stuff and Johnny is punting it all day. James gets way up over me and almost pulls down a punt, but it bounces off his hand. We ride the zone to a 14-12 W in cap.
Michigan next. A tall and athletic team, as soon as the bracket came out we knew we would have to face them in game 2 if we took care of business. This was the game by which we would measure ourselves.
We got steamrolled. It was like I blinked and we were down four breaks.
Our offense couldn't work it in the wind against their increased 1v1 downfield pressure, our defense on a turn couldn't get the disc back, and we had no answers for their cup zone with 3 guys at 6'5+.
We only put up 5 goals in a game we had been prepping for all season. Michigan would go on to win the region, going 4-0 on the weekend and burying MSU 15-8 in the final.
We weren't good enough, not even close. The truth hurt. The realization that our level was so far below what was needed to reach our goal was a tough pill to swallow.
We sleepwalked through our next game against a fired up Purdue team. We had beaten them before and weren't ready to bring it. They took care of business and finished us off 15-12.
We were out of contention. My career with NUT now consisted of two consolation games on Sunday. The best we could hope to finish was 9th.
The drive back to Evanston on Saturday night was long and dreary. I was disappointed in my ability to help the team reach it's goals. I had thought I had done everything in my power to elevate our level, but it was painfully apparent that we weren't even in the discussion. Not even worth a one line mention in a regional recap article.
---
My back flared up on Sunday.
I remember getting to the fields before everyone with Q and just tossing. Luke was there and his dog Lola wore herself out sprinting back and forth between us. It was quiet and calm.
That morning, the team leadership and I weren't able to convey a sense of importance to the team about our consolation games. We were not able to bring honest conviction to our huddle talk, and the team attitude was checked out as a result, ISU came out fired up, looking to beat us for one of the first times in their program history. We were mentally not present and they trounced us 15-4. We sent out goof-off lines like, seniors, rookies, frat boys, etc. This trend continued in the 11th place game vs Magnum reserve. We ended regionals with an 8-9 loss.
---
After our game, Me, Champe, and Q walked over to watch the Illinois/MSU game to go. We were sitting on the deck of a little farmhouse which gave us a nice elevated view of the game. In the first half, Kennedy was running over MSU. Me and Champe joked that Illinois was "The Kennedy Show", featuring "Assists by Kennedy", "Hucks by Kennedy", and "Breaks by Kennedy", and every time he did something good we'd freak out. But MSU battled back. Down big mid 2nd half, MSU dug themselves out of a deep hole with some high flying athleticism and huge throws.
Universe point rolls around. Dane gets a huge layout D for Illinois about 10 yards outside the MSU endzone. Wide open, he streaks deep and the game winning pass drops through his clap catching hands. Illinois earns the disc back and MSU is running their zone set. Illinois works it all the way to about 15 yards out. Kennedy rockets a pass through the z for a goal. It's too hot to handle, hits the receiver in the chest and he drops it. Dave picks up for MSU and launches an 80 yard backhand the other way. Goal, MSU wins, 14-13.
-------
The accuracy of this post is subject to my ability to remember things. This is how I remember Great Lakes Regionals in 2012.
------
I can't really sleep. I'm tense with nervous excitement. When my alarm goes off, I've already been awake for 30 minutes, but it feels like I barely slept at all. My back feels a bit stiff, but manageable.
It's cloudy outside, chilly, might rain. I stuff my rain jacket into the bag I had packed the night before.
Q is already up, ready to go. He no doubt feels the same excitement, even though USAU won't let him cleat up today. This is his team, too.
We pick up Ramu and Tubes and head to Naperville. The streets are quiet and it's still pretty dark out, but my mind is overactive, rushing through my thoughts and worries like a frenetic slot machine. This is probably the last tournament I'll ever play with NUT. Sixteen teams, two bids, double-elimination bracket.
It's a brisk day in Naperville. A bit damp and with a moderate crosswind. Not strong enough to prevent scoring either way, but strong enough to bolster trapping zones.
We're playing EMU in our first game. Some tension. We are fired up to play them. Some sparks flew in our previous matchup and we're hungry for payback.
My body is feeling good. I hit Ben on an upline to punch in a break. We're playing well and we can run with this team.
Our cup zone is denying them easy stuff and Johnny is punting it all day. James gets way up over me and almost pulls down a punt, but it bounces off his hand. We ride the zone to a 14-12 W in cap.
Michigan next. A tall and athletic team, as soon as the bracket came out we knew we would have to face them in game 2 if we took care of business. This was the game by which we would measure ourselves.
We got steamrolled. It was like I blinked and we were down four breaks.
Our offense couldn't work it in the wind against their increased 1v1 downfield pressure, our defense on a turn couldn't get the disc back, and we had no answers for their cup zone with 3 guys at 6'5+.
We only put up 5 goals in a game we had been prepping for all season. Michigan would go on to win the region, going 4-0 on the weekend and burying MSU 15-8 in the final.
We weren't good enough, not even close. The truth hurt. The realization that our level was so far below what was needed to reach our goal was a tough pill to swallow.
We sleepwalked through our next game against a fired up Purdue team. We had beaten them before and weren't ready to bring it. They took care of business and finished us off 15-12.
We were out of contention. My career with NUT now consisted of two consolation games on Sunday. The best we could hope to finish was 9th.
The drive back to Evanston on Saturday night was long and dreary. I was disappointed in my ability to help the team reach it's goals. I had thought I had done everything in my power to elevate our level, but it was painfully apparent that we weren't even in the discussion. Not even worth a one line mention in a regional recap article.
---
My back flared up on Sunday.
I remember getting to the fields before everyone with Q and just tossing. Luke was there and his dog Lola wore herself out sprinting back and forth between us. It was quiet and calm.
That morning, the team leadership and I weren't able to convey a sense of importance to the team about our consolation games. We were not able to bring honest conviction to our huddle talk, and the team attitude was checked out as a result, ISU came out fired up, looking to beat us for one of the first times in their program history. We were mentally not present and they trounced us 15-4. We sent out goof-off lines like, seniors, rookies, frat boys, etc. This trend continued in the 11th place game vs Magnum reserve. We ended regionals with an 8-9 loss.
---
After our game, Me, Champe, and Q walked over to watch the Illinois/MSU game to go. We were sitting on the deck of a little farmhouse which gave us a nice elevated view of the game. In the first half, Kennedy was running over MSU. Me and Champe joked that Illinois was "The Kennedy Show", featuring "Assists by Kennedy", "Hucks by Kennedy", and "Breaks by Kennedy", and every time he did something good we'd freak out. But MSU battled back. Down big mid 2nd half, MSU dug themselves out of a deep hole with some high flying athleticism and huge throws.
Universe point rolls around. Dane gets a huge layout D for Illinois about 10 yards outside the MSU endzone. Wide open, he streaks deep and the game winning pass drops through his clap catching hands. Illinois earns the disc back and MSU is running their zone set. Illinois works it all the way to about 15 yards out. Kennedy rockets a pass through the z for a goal. It's too hot to handle, hits the receiver in the chest and he drops it. Dave picks up for MSU and launches an 80 yard backhand the other way. Goal, MSU wins, 14-13.
-------
The accuracy of this post is subject to my ability to remember things. This is how I remember Great Lakes Regionals in 2012.
Thursday, September 3, 2015
Tuesday, September 1, 2015
My Road
I am writing this post because I lost a bet. Big Red overcame a 3 game deficit in a best of 7 series at Twin Creeks Disc Golf to knock me off. So, instead of the maestro sharing his magnum opus on upline theory with the world, you get this. Enjoy.
---
I've always liked competition.
Back when I was in high school I had a buddy whose older sister went to Pitt. She played or had played with the team there and taught him how to throw a pretty respectable flick. He'd get freshly printed discrafts in the mail every once in a while from her and we'd generally be in awe of them and of her throwing skills. I remember trying to replicate their flicks and instead slicing wobbly blades into the dirt during our pickup games.
07
When I showed up on campus as a freshman, I didn't have the slightest clue what NUT was about. I just knew I was sick of the soccer grind and I wanted to brush up my flick so I could crush my friends back home at pickup. I remember seeing Teddy just ripping bombs on Deering during welcome week and thinking "I want to do that". I don't remember a whole lot else from welcome week, with the exception of showing up to welcome week pickup (RIP) and getting just roofed on by another freshman, a guy named AJ. Turns out he was a nice guy and we became great friends after that.
I didn't go to a lot of practices as a freshman. My time management skills were atrocious. I was still trying to figure out how to juggle homework, several work-study jobs, and feeding myself properly, not to mention trying to get to know all the people in my dorm and classes. I would estimate that I went to 25% of the practices that year. But, I went to all the tournaments, bought jerseys, and I went on spring break. I went to such a hilariously small number of practices that two of the captains still didn't know my name by spring break. I am sure many of the returners thought very poorly of me or pretty much ignored my presence altogether. We didn't have a B-Team that year, so tournaments involved sitting in a car for 6-16 hours and playing 0-2 points per game. I spent a lot of time hanging out with Thor, who played a similarly small number of points and was a genuinely great guy to go on road trips with.
My flick got a lot better over spring break. Throwing for a few hours every day for a week was enough for me to start to get a sense of what it should look and feel like on release. But I was still useless on the field. Slow, couldn't catch, couldn't throw, couldn't jump, couldn't mark, the list goes on.
I spent a lot of time in the gym as a freshman, but I didn't have a plan or a goal in mind. I would just walk across the street, do some upper body stuff and some core and go home. I felt like I should just go do what I wanted, and that I didn't really need to have a solid plan for what to do that day. Bringing a notepad and a pen to write down what I did seemed like a huge hassle.
I distinctly remember getting my first NUT jersey at a practice in Trienens the week before spring break. This was a big moment for me. That year we had black and white jerseys with an outline of a "3D" NUT, grey shorts, and we also ordered hoodies with our last names on them. I remember this being the first moment that I really felt like I could be part of something bigger than myself. At that point I still had no idea what NUT was really about, but I think that's a big piece of why I chose to stick around. Due to my poor practice attendance, people on the team at that time were still struggling to remember my name, so I decided to help them out by wearing my hoodie around as often as possible. It worked.
08
I didn't work on my athleticism at all over the summer. I went for a few long runs and did occasional sets of pushups and told myself I had done all I could on that front.
I did work on my throws over the summer. I threw by myself in a park 2-3 times a week, trying out new throws and making sure to log over 100 total reps per session. I got good enough at them that some of the elder statesman of NUT at that time thought I should start figuring out how to be a handler. When I was a sophomore we had enough guys to put together a B-team for a few tournaments, but we only had 7-8 guys, so I had as many reps as I could physically manage at my disposal.
Over the winter quarter, NUT decided to run a combine. The way it would work is at the first winter practice we would measure 40 yard dash times, vertical jump, and a few other metrics. Then at the end of winter we would remeasure and see who improved the most, so about 12 weeks later. I thought this was awesome and it motivated me to do more research on how to lift for speed and explosiveness. That winter I started hitting the gym with a specific goal: decrease my 40 time. I taught myself how to squat, deadlift, lunge, SLDL, etc. I worked hard at it for 12 weeks and dropped about a half second off my 40 time. This was my first real exposure to how training for a specific goal can work.
09
Summer before junior year I hung around Evanston, went to pickup a few times and hit the gym on occasion. I was in India for about a month and didn't lift or throw at all while there. I was the last guy cut from the A team that year and I took it pretty hard. I found it easy to blame the captains at the time for making a mistake and generally not respecting me. In retrospect, my attendance was poor and I hadn't improved much/showed up in the fall out of shape, so I probably didn't even deserve the look I got. I played with the B team again, this time we had a good 20 guys. We went on to win what I think was the first Dev sectionals, which I think was called DII at the time, when our finals opponent forfeited the championship to drive home a few hours earlier.
I started my engineering co-op in Jan '10, putting me on the 5 year track. My co-op job had me catching the 4:30am bus to work and getting home around 8pm. I remember showing up to spring break and being woefully out of shape, having not been able to attend late night winter practices and not really working out.
College nationals in 2010 was held in Madison, WI, which was close enough to encourage a group of older NUTs to make the drive and spectate. I remember replying to the email sent out to the group on a whim. I was only there for Saturday, but I remember that as my first time seeing the game that ultimate could be. The game was so different than what I had been playing, the teams were so competitive, and the energy in the air was so thick you could almost touch it.
10
Summer before senior year I had a car, giving me massively more free time to work with when I wasn't at my 40hr/wk job. I spent this time lifting and throwing with AJ. I had done more research and wanted to get a lot more explosive, so I had come across the vertical jump bible and was following a program exactly. I was eating properly, lifting hard, sleeping enough. But I hadn't decided if I was going to play ultimate that year or not. 3 years of mediocrity were wearing on me. I wasn't really thrilled with the prospect of enduring another year of that. At this point I was considering joining either the Rugby team, which I had a few friends on, or the Powerlifting club, which sounded pretty neat.
At one point over the summer, I shared my thoughts about ultimate with AJ, who was then heading into his second year of captaincy of NUT. He felt that I should definitely give NUT another shot. I thought long and hard about it and eventually decided to give it one more year.
I made the A team that year as a cutter on the back of my athleticism, splitting time between O and D. I hadn't worked on my throws as much, so they were certainly nothing to write home about. I don't remember a whole lot from that year, but I do remember that the team struggled mightily. We were placed in a power pool at Huck Finn on the back of our performance the year before, and faced off against Illinois, Wash U, and eventual college champ silver medalist Wisconsin. Needless to say we got trounced, putting up 7 points on the Hodags only because they let off the gas in the second half. I didn't really start to understand what NUT was about until the end of this year. And I didn't start to love ultimate until I understood that.
11
In the summer before my 5th year I was a practice player for Haymaker. I went to about 5 practices total before I left the country for study abroad.
I studied abroad in Edinburgh for the fall quarter. I picked it because Scotland sounded cool, I didn't have to learn another language, they had interesting course offerings, and Paul had studied abroad there, had played ultimate, and had loved it.
In the UK, they have a fall ultimate season that is played entirely indoors. Games are played to time, with 5 players per side, usually on a basketball court. Quick movement, blades, and height rule the day. We ran a "cycle" offense which was basically centered around running upline -> 7 cut -> fill as hard as possible and hitting space passes. Ultimate made study abroad very easy. Every few weekends I would take a train with my 20 new friends to a different city in the UK and we'd play a tournament. Edinburgh also had a world-class weight training facility available to all students. To this day the best gym I have ever been in. Training for ultimate and getting reps was easy and fun while abroad due to this.
When I got back to NUT in the winter, I fit in pretty well on the dline. We didn't have enough handlers, so I was happy to fill that role in what way I could. At that point I was roommates with Q. We would talk lifting and ultimate 24/7. From winter to spring I was all in for NUT. This was the point at which I was living and breathing NUT culture the most. By this time I had done whatever I could to plan my schedule around training for NUT and doing well at school. I was trying to make the most of my recovery and get as much as possible out of the gym so I could bring the heat for NUT in the series.
We brought it at sectionals, going down big to Illinois in the final but climbing back within reach. Champe launched an upwind break assist that was dropped but would have brought the score to even and given us the wind. We ended up in 2nd.
We got bounced from regionals, losing to Michigan 15-5.
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Looking back, I wish I could have understood what NUT was about sooner, so that I could have given more during my college career. I wish I had made more of an effort to talk to the upperclassmen when I was a freshman and sophomore, so I could better understand their passion for and knowledge of the sport. I think it is evident that the times over which I improved the most were the times when I worked hard, consistently, with a specific goal. Like lifting with a program to improve my 40 time, or throwing my flick regularly.
One of the reasons I like coaching Bolt is that it gives me a chance to try and show new players what the program is all about, and how rewarding it can be to invest yourself.
This post isn't really meant to be a guide on how to get better. For that, I would suggest checking out this post. For a version of this written by KB, you can find that here. For those of you that know Adam, he also has written a similar post.
One of the reasons I like coaching Bolt is that it gives me a chance to try and show new players what the program is all about, and how rewarding it can be to invest yourself.
This post isn't really meant to be a guide on how to get better. For that, I would suggest checking out this post. For a version of this written by KB, you can find that here. For those of you that know Adam, he also has written a similar post.
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