Formats

Something I will never understand is the backdoor game to nationals (of course, why I am writing this is UM lost to OSU after beating them on Sat. Not to take anything away from OSU or IU, congrats, and good luck in Columbus).

Anyway, why is it that the victory on Sunday means more? UM beats OSU in the semis on Sat. Then loses to them on Sun in the game-to-go. It is fine b.c that is the format and everyone knows that. You have to win your last game to get to nationals. Fine. But why does one one loss team get to go over another one loss team? Shouldn't OSU have to beat UM twice? Head-to-head they are 1-1. On paper, that probably means they are the same/equal. Maybe they should be forced to do a combo team for nationals. Or why not a 4 pm round on Sunday? Or one more game on Monday?

One team made it to the finals, just lost to the champion, and has to turn around 30 minutes later in an attempt to go to nationals. The other team has won 2 games, they have momentum, and a little more confidence going into the last game. Not to mention a revenge factor. How long was the time between the finals and the game to go? There should be an extended round to allow for the loser to regroup. I feel the loser of the finals is at a complete disadvantage here. Or maybe move the time of the finals up a little bit, that way that loser still has some time to regain their focus. Shouldn't their be some sort of an advantage for the loser of the finals? Since they actually did get to the finals? It makes no sense to me and all the explanations that have been given, I feel, are not very accurate. Please, someone try to explain this to me (looking for tarr, looking for tarr)

With all that said, UM still should have won that game to get nationals. But having been in a similar situation before, it is difficult. I wish there was some way to look at the records of these games. What is the winning percentage of the loser of the finals/game before the last game to go?

I feel much better now.

Workouts:
Sun 4/22 - 2 sets of 5/5/5 (jog 5 minutes, run hard 5 minutes, walk 5 minutes). I did this on the track, for the hard reps I got 1400+ and then ~1450 (completed turn 3). Not too bad and felt pretty good the whole time

Mon - off - weird day at work and had to get home

Tues - biked 35 minutes at the gym. Watched a horrible Raptors/Nets game while riding the bike.

Wed - Spring league game 3. We win and we are 2-1. Either we are becoming the best spring league team or we peaked. This was clearly our best week wining 13-9 or 8. The main reason we did so well was we did not drop the disc. I feel I can handle throwing to's, since throwing is the hardest thing for the newbies to pick up. Catching on the other hand, well, it is easier to have fun if you feel your teammates can catch the disc. And that is what we did, we caught the disc very well.

We started off very well, we went up 3-1. They were big on zone early, but we were able to find the cracks. It helped to have our full compliment of good throwers there. The funny thing about zone is you can work it up all the way and inevitably someone throws something crazy. We have one guy who gets close to the endzone and throws a hammer to the shortest person on the field covered by the deep who is more experienced and taller and can jump higher. But that is funny.

Up like 7-5 at half, but tied up at 7s, 9-8, and then we run away with the game to the end.

Another thing that I find humorous about spring league, on a turnover the offense-turned-defense does not get the the defense-turns-offense like to throw it deep. So the new defenders never pick up anyone going deep. Ok, so maybe that is a hard concept to understand. But some of the same people who go deep when we get the turn, do not cover deep when the other team gets the turn. I am not sure why they don't understand it.

We also had a guy crush one of the girl's on our team going for a disc. I mean crushed her. Totally reckless.

On a personal note, I scored my first 2 goals on the season. I threw about 4 or so goals. Plenty of turns. 2 ugly hammers, not really factoring in the wind when I threw them. I turfed a backhand to T. Threw another one to her that should have been a turn but someone else saved it. A stupid backhand trying to go around too many people. Anyway, it was a W.

Thu - Ran home from work, 23 minutes

Fri - Biked 30 minutes, lost a 3 game series in ping pong.

Sat - off. Basically, I forgot to workout

Sun - 2 x split 1200 (800 hard/200 ex/200 hard) and 1x400, too tired to do a 3rd one of the 1200s. Splits (2:33[75/78]-75-37); (2:34[75/79]-75-37). Ran the last 400 in 74 [36/38]. I am trying to get the hard distance between 2400-3200 meters. Although this one was at the shorter part of the range, it was the fastest.

workout

I ran a lot more than usual this week. I have not been able to really find time to go to the gym this week. And I only want to go early once a week due to lack of sleep issues.

Mentally, I am starting to do workouts as though I am going to play frisbee during the fall. And it looks more and more like I will now be a co-ed player. The weekends have seen some great weather and we have been throwing in the backyard. I have not signed any contract, because we need to determine if we can survive a tournament with 2 kids in tow.


Friday - 22 minute run
Saturday - 35 minute run
Sunday - 5 minute warmup/cooldown, 4x800 (2:46, 2:44, 2:44, 2:43)
Monday - 22 minute run
Tuesday - 45 minute spin class
Wed - off, of course Wed's are usually the worst weather these days since those are the days we would go play frisbee. We were not going to go anyway due to a lingering illness, sinusitis?, in the house. League was cancelled anyway.
Thu - 25 minute run
Friday - off, long week of work, feeling like crap, and free beer at the brewery were the reasons
Sat - 31 minute run, very slow, found a new trail along the river. It felt good to get off the road

Games 1 and 2

Spring league has started here in Western Montana. All the team names are Montana Dinosaurs, so we are Troodon. I think that is how you spell it.

Game 1 was last week. It was a 40 degree, rainy, windy day. So basically the worst conditions for starting a spring/summer league. We had a lot of women, I think 7. And about 8 or 9 men. We are much more experienced on the women's side. 2 club level women. Plus a couple others that have played before and are rather athletic. Our men were not quite so experienced. We had a guy who was wearing a Purchase Cup t-shirt, but he left before the first half ended. Most of the rest of our men have played, they are pretty fast or pretty tall, but not the best throwers. Which in the end is fun for me, because I almost always get to pick up the disc and throw whatever.

Our first game was a game of runs, it was more of a crosswind then upwind/downwind game. We would go up by 2, then they would go up by 1, etc. We were leading at half 7-6. This half took a while. Probably close to 2 hours. It was not a clean game. I was happy that we were up because I felt they were better. They had one guy who was a definite club level player. Very good. 3 other guys who were quick and who could throw well. This meant that after one or two completions, they were still likely to complete the next pass. A distinct advantage. Plus, they had 2 athletic women, so our biggest advantage was not nearly has big as their man advantage.

Their strategy was to put one of their less experienced men on me and allow the really good guy to roam and make sure I would not huck it. That was a bummer. We worked it up decent many times, but most of the times something would go wrong before we got into the endzone.

The second half was not so good. Theresa was stuck on the sidelines taking care of the little guy. And they went on a 4-0 run, pretty much putting the game away. THe turning point was their main guy (I think his name was James) pulled to the back of the endzone and it stayed in bounds. Everyone ran away from me, so I had no one to center to. After holding it for 5 seconds, trying to convince someone to come back. I just launched it. Which was much shorter than his pull. Needless to say, they scored that point.

We finally score to get to 8-10, but it was pretty dark outside at that point and the damage was done. I am assuming the game either got called or the other team scored 11 (the game was capped at some point). We decided to take off after 8-10 due to darkness, wetness, and coldness. Lucy was on the sideline repeating the word "Home".

Although we could not pull out the w, we have a pretty fun team. Everyone understands our predicament with the kids. And everyone as the attitude to just run around. FOr the most part is good, but we are a team that does not believe in keeping a force. Which is fine and it forces me to always watch the marker. Which side are we forcing? It changes from throw to throw.

The highlight was that the Murray/Webers threw all 8 goals (TJ 7, T-dub 1). And one guy on our team was really good at catching my blades. Including one that was a very good Jerry Rice over the shoulder grab. The lowlight for me was the disc I doinked near the end of the game. It was one of those that I could not decide fast enough whether to pancake it or crab crawl it. Instead I did something that allowed it to go right through my hands. I think I was worried about breaking a nail. My hands were very cold at that point. Another lowlight was my inability to throw a straight forehand for more than 40 yards. For that, my excuse is my cat had just scratched me on my middle finger and it hurt.

Notice I do not have the # of turnovers. I lose count of those during spring league. Too many to count

Game 2

This was this past Wed. Unfortunately, it was just Lucy and I as T-dub was very sick after our journey to Sun Valley last weekend. Plus, a couple of our other women were not there. We were allowed to take one of the women from the other team as well. So we played 5-2 this week (the previous week we played 4-3 the whole time).

This week, the other team was more experienced then us (a nice way of saying Al anf Jim would have fit right in with them talking about how great MASH was). Which meant one thing, zone. That would not be a bad thing, but 2 of our best throwers were not there. The weather was much nicers, 50s, a slight breeze. So not the worst weather to face a zone against.

After a delayed start, we went out in front 3-1. Luckily after we would turn it over against their zone, they would turn it quickly back. THus, we would throw a huck and score. The good news was we had a new guy show up right at the beginning of the game. He could throw and would throw deep too. That was excellent. And he had a 6 year old daughter, that was good b/c she eventually hung out with Lucy a lot. Oh, and he really wanted to win. So we now had more momentum to get the victory.

While our offense revolved around them turning it over, their offense was much more organized with a stack and a good thrower and a really fast guy who resembled Randy Gage.

After some back and force, we would take half 7-5. It seemed like things were going well, but in the 2nd half their zone clamped down on us and they were able to gain the lead back. Eventually, our team would catch on to my strategy of blades. I finally convinced a couple of my teammates to stay deeper and behind their defenders so I would rip them a blade. Then it got catchy as 2 others on our team starting throwing hammers over the zone. It worked very well. The momentum changing point was one of our men ripped a blade while we were stuck in the back of the endzone. The receiver, immediately threw deep to our smallest receiver for a 100 yard goal in 2 throw point! Just like we drew it up.

I thought we were not going to pull it our when one of our guys jumped caught the goal and then landed out of bounds. The jumping part was unnecessary, so very close to a "stupidest". But not quite. We were able to pull it to 11s. We forced a turn near their endzone and a moderate huck and another mid field huck got us our first lead in awhile. 12-11. They again worked it up methodically against our "We don't know which way we're forcing, so you don't either" defense. An upline pass headed to the endzone was d'd on a poach. Immediately I take off, complete huck, 2 more throws later we score and pull out a W. We are now 1-1. Only one game out of first. Assuming there are 2-0 teams...

This week was more fun, mainly becuase of the weather. I will admit to get a little frustrated at not being able to have a consistent force. By the end of the game, I gave up on that and felt maybe this was the best strategy. If we didn't know what we were doing, they wouldn't either. Then I thought maybe no strategy was the best strategy of all. And that is what I going to stick with. Although I did try to chime in at one point with some advice, I realized no more. Less talking is more. I was always trying to get Sub Zero to think on the field more. I think I will try to keep that idea away from Troodon.

This week I only threw 6 goals... I still have not received any. In fact, I am not sure if I have cut into the endzone yet. I would like to say that my turns were down. But it is spring league. I did not drop the disc which was good. And I threw it better deep. We'll see if we can keep this one game win streak up next week.

Workouts:
Since I last posted, workouts have been few and far between. We went to Sun Valley last weekend. Plus, another illness was in our house this past week. I stayed away from it, but the others did not. Hopefully, I will be able to pull a couple days in a row.

Old #19

No, I am not talking about Stevey Y. or even Job Bakija for that matter. This has to do with my friend/zero teammate Shaner. If you do not know what this is about go to: "http://groups.google.com/group/rec.sport.disc/browse_frm/thread/92bc605a86d1efff/5289eadf4344ede2#5289eadf4344ede2". (Sidebar, how did I lose the ability to link stuff? Instead of saying here with a link, I have to put it all in. Anyone?)

Anyway, I have several points I would like to make:

#1 - Shane is a good friend of mine and former teammate, someone I would really enjoy playing with/hanging out with. So, this post will be biased in that way. Shane made Zero after his freshman year. He is easily bigger and more solid than 95% of all ultimate frisbee battles. He will rarely lose any collision whether it is on purpose or accident. Early on, he came close to hitting people and actually did make contact with a couple. I feel all the captains spoke with him about it. We stressed to stay aggressive, but not learn to avoid the offensive player. For 2 main reasons, the main and most important part is safety. Reckless bids do hurt. Secondly, if you even touch someone you risk getting a foul called even if it wasn't. I feel he worked on it and when I last played with him (early 2006), his defensive game had improved immensely. And he was no longer hitting people (he was HUGE in the fall of 05). Definitely a defender who change the game.

#B - I did kind of whine about the potential of what Shane is doing in an earlier posts about the rules. I can only speak about what I saw of Shane and since early in his first year with us, he has not damaged anyone. Of course, everything is subjective. The people who crushed me probably did think they had a chance. I don't really understand what happened to the UNT guy. He was tiptoeing the line, then laid out, then was landed on. He claims had no bid at the disc because it was 5 feet out of bounds. But the defense can go get it out of bounds. I am confused.

#3 - Can we stop putting the Nord picture out there and saying this is how it is done? Well yeah that is how it is done. But you have to be 6' 11", goofy, red-haired, and hella-athletic to do that. Plus, Nord is only a slightly larger stick than I am (let's call him a branch). So if he gets hit, he is probably getting hurt. Unless of course, it is by me. (Sidebar: Is Nord the best red-haired athlete since Bill Walton? Ok, maybe Steve Timmons)

#4 - To the guy that says this is caused by elite ultimate and aggressiveness. Some of the worst layouts injuries I have seen are in summer league or pick-up when the not so athletic, not so good, and not so athletic people are playing. There is a certain level of aggressiveness at the highest level that is for sure. But reckless abandon happens all the time. Part of the process is learning what is which. I believe Shane knows this, so until further evidence is out there, I believe he was not being terribly reckless (since there is no sportscenter to show me the highlights). BUT in the college game, you have players with less than 3 years, or less than a year or even less than 3 months out there running hard and trying to prove they belong. They are trying to make plays. They will do anything to do it. Unfortunately, injuries do occur when people are trying to figure out their limits. It is unfortunate, but laying out to get a d is one of the 2 most identifiable plays in ultimate (the other being a huck for a goal). Everyone loves a lay out d. When they see the best do it (ie "The Branch"), they want to do it. They might not be able to or not as tall or not as skill. Don't they have to learn somehow. Hopefully, no one gets hurt.

#4a - Are younger guys allowed more lee-way like this? Thinking back to my posts, I was mainly discussing club players. I do not remember as much of a problem in call. But I guess I am saying newbies have a little more room for error in this since they are just learning.

#4b - The only time I saw elite high school ultimate was in 05. The one thing that I saw was just tons of laying out. I am not sure if this is across the board, but lots of laying out on the mark, on deep cuts, on in cuts, etc. Besides being a dumb philospohy to allow as a coach, it concerns me a little more. Maybe younger guys should not have the leeway. Maybe they need to show that they have the ability and coordination to do it.

#4c - like how I argued both sides there? Basically, I think high coaches should not encourage laying out all the time. They should talk to their kids about when to do it.

#e - You mean ultimate is a non-contact sport. Really? It is supposed to be a non-contact sport. But there is always contact. There just is and there is nothing you can do about it.

#5 - Larger point, why the hell are the college teams travelling so much? Whatever happened to 1 or 2 big tourneys and 2 or 3 local tourneys. And where the hell are the getting the $$$? The more big time tourneys with the big time comp you go to, you are going to get injured more often. Why not travel to a couple more local tourneys, blow some teams out, improve the play of your younger/bottom roster guys, party a little more, and know you are going to win a tourney if you are Wisconsin? These tournaments are tougher than nationals, with more games per day, less rest, not in the best shape. You are asking for disasters. Stay home and get the younger kids better. Rest your bones What do I know, I only made quarters.

#6 - who gave Nick reeck 5 stars as poster? No way.

#7 - Re- the over-aggressive nature of Wisco. It sounds like UNT is not used to that level of play. From what I have seen of Wisconsin, they are not cheap players. They definitely mark hard, but legal. They just have some many athletes they can throw at you. It reminds me of 2000 when we went to Stanford, do not do so well, maybe a quarters loss to Black Tide and won the spirit award. Later, we come back to play in a central region tourney and we are called dicks on rsd but some of the great lakes teams. We are spirit winners against the top and asses against the bottom. Maybe UNT is just not used to the top just yet, I am sure they will get there as it seems they are playing well against the top. It just takes some getting used to.

OK, I am done. That was one of the first times I have read every post on rsd in a while. And since it dealt with a good friend, I felt like I wanted to say something. Shaner, I hope you are alright, keep doing what you are doing, just stop landing on people on accident you haggard!