Tuesday, August 21, 2007

spawncityclassic - day 2

First, I forgot to mention the weather, it was great on Saturday. The wind picked up in the middle of the day but died down by the end. The temp was nice all day.

I wish I had stats for me, they would be pretty ugly, plenty o turns. One drop, that is pictured in the same link as posted in the comments section of the previous post. It is the one where I am laying out and have a hand on the disc. I did not hold on as I hit the ground. At least, I am pretty sure it was that grab.

Anyway, on to day 2-

Round 1- Bye, thank god. It was raining where we stayed in Seattle. And it rained the whole way up to Burlington. Luckily, we did not have to get there early

Round 2- Shazam Returns. They were undefeated coming into this game and we were 2-2. If we had any shot at the finals (most likely against them), we had to beat them. A 3-3 record would not cut it.

The rain was light to start this game and there was some wind. We start on O, 1-0. We would get a break after a nice grab by megac on the endzone 2-0. We had the chance to make it 3-0, but I underthrew a forehand huck to Jesse, they make 2-1. They tie it 2-2. Next O possession, I get it with a chance to throw a wide open backhand to an open cutter, but when I step with my right foot it completely slips out from under me and the disc takes off to the other field. They score again 2-3. We tie it at 3s.

Then they take off to half 3-8. Ugh. They were very efficient with the disc. And our O was plagued with some drops, at least 4 in this first half I can remember. And some turfs. Ugly. (I am not trying to make it sound like it was all our fault, they definitely pressured us, more on that in a second).

The second half was not so pretty to start either. It started to rain a little harder and there was a bit where it was a major downpour. After them going up like 5-11 or so, we did narrow it to 9-12/13 or so. We had a chance to score 10, I think to make it 10-12, but we had a high stall on the end zone that resulted in a turn. And another clumsy drop. Ufda. In the end, they won 9-15, I believe.

Shazam definitely appears to be the team. They are the most organized/together of all the units there. Maybe because they for sure had the most players in attendance(?) and that is the reason, but they looked solid all weekend. They are the most aggressive and physical team on defense for sure that I played against. You can read what you want into that previous sentence, but I do not think they bend the rules. But they don't really give you much space. IT was good to see that and know that we have to be prepared for that in the future.

I will mention that this was my grumpiest game I had. Besides the 2 earlier turns, I had another turn on another to T-dub where it just sailed a bit too high. So that was part of the reason for my grumpiness. I think everyone had a collective poor game too, so no one really stepped it up until late (and we made a run). So that was another reason. Then, early in the 2nd half, one of their guys was over aggressive guarding the dump. Eventually, our cutter calls a foul. The guy gets mad for some reason, saying something like "You can call any of the previous fouls, but don't push" or something to that nature. So he admits to fouling him. And yells at him. Our guy (Marky) gets the dump, fakes a throw to the open side and pivots back to the backhand. Now, this defender is so close to him (definitely closer than a disc space) that he does the old nestea plung and calls a foul (the worst foul call in my book, the "I have been over aggressive on the previous throw so now I am going to be even more over aggressive and call a foul even though I am the one breaking the rule"). Anyway, either then or the next throw. Travel (3rd time his call had negated a score I believe). Finally, a score. I was off the field, but came on an immediately applauded his great playing.

Fast forward another point or 2. He is on me and gets a legitimate, good d. No big deal, it was obviously the throwers fault ;),,, He gets the disc and I am stalling him, count gets high, 9...10. I think I paused between 9 and 10, because he initially looked like he was going to throw it, did not throw it, I said 10, he threw it. Anyway, he immediately says something like bs or contest or makes fun of the way I counted or something (again I believe I stalled him, but I am not 100% certain). It did not matter, the throw was d'd. I respond with "**c* you" and he responds with "*u** you, *i**h**d, 9/10". Did not matter our disc, we eventually turn it, they eventually score it, they eventually win.

Although I feel that guy was a little over aggressive, I think the rest of the team was fine and I have no problem with them. But this is about the funniest story from the weekend, so I thought I would share.

Round 3 - Flaming Moe. THe weather clears up and was beautiful the rest of the day. Both teams are 2-3, so winner goes 3-3. We come out hard and effective, 8-4. I caught a couple goals early and threw some short ones, a very clean half for our o. Our d got some big breaks early, after they got a couple deep looks. Definitely our best first half, one more half to follow it up.

We trade a little while longer 11-7(ish?). Our o, again looks strong, I think they broke us once, but we answered back with a break to even back up to 4. We change up our o a bit, they start a run. Go back to the original O, but either our confidence was shaken or they were hot or a little of both, next thing I know 12-14. Ouch, a 7-1 run. Anyway, we bring it back to 14s. I think Jen got a big d near their endzone to set up point 13. And then we got a d on the dump and I hit James deep on a fast break/nice catch to tie it up. Soft cap on, game to 16 no matter what. They score cleanly with Josh beating me in the endzone, 14-15. We score to tie it up with a backhand from me to Jen 15s.

We pull and get the d, after a couple of throws, I get it and as someone is cutting in, I notice James starting to streak down the backhand side. I have the disc in the middle/forehand side. After a fake, I decide to try and do too much with the disc, bend it around the cutter and the stack, and float it to the other side of the endzone for James. I made it to the endzone, as a blade. Ugh. They work it up a bit, call time out. Up line to a girl handler, I turn and see this and lunge way too late to get the d, Josh wide open, goal, game, Moe 15-16. Ugly loss for us, nice win for them. Fun game no matter what.

2 points on this game quickly- I was wrong about the endzone fall, I did forget the established possession clause of the unconested foul in the endzone for a score thingy... Sorry any flaming moers out there. Just so you know that I was consistent, I said that Paul should have had a goal earlier in the game on the same type of play. Whoops. Again, sorry for not knowing the 11th edition as well as I should. Although in my defense, I did say we should just take it at the endzone, since that is what Paul did.

Second, I yelled at Josh for fouling me in that game and made some comment about him fouling me all game. Again, I will go back that I was grumpy all day, damn Shazam! And snapped a little at Josh. But, I will say, my leg was being humped all tourney long. Now, it is slightly less than in an open tourney, but I don't know. I feel in every game, many of the markers were at least strattling my pivot foot. And many went beyond that. I was not expecting to have to make a stupid throw and call cheap fouls in coed, but I am now mentally prepared for that. I am not calling out all team an leaving my team out of it, but people are very close on the mark, too close. And a lot of time there is at least leg contact.

I did start to call some cheap things in the Moe game. I called 2 fouls on break mark backhands when I felt the marker was not giving me disc space, so I pivoted, made sure there was contact (since no matter who caused the contact it would be the marker's fault) and threw it/called foul. Both were completed, so it did not matter. But I know someone on Moe commented about me causing the foul from the sideline. Not if you do not give me disc space. I am a delicate little flower!

So George, I would not brag too much about coed marks, they did not live up to the billing. Especially when a man marks a woman in the cup near the trap. They might as well be hugging the girl. It is pretty ridiculous. Definitely a situation of the man marker trying to intimidate the woman. I saw that like 90% of the time on trap mark zones against us.

Now as a personal review- I am ok with how I played, but started to try and do too much with the disc. I think I am pretty good thrower 40 yards and under. Anything getting longer, I need it to be a one-on-one situation with the receiver. Basically, not the bendy around the stack flick I tried to send to james on double game point in the moe game. Damn you Haley for throwing that so well. Although sad to lose it on that throw, I think it is good because that throw will be in my head for the rest of the season. SO hopefully, I will learn. It takes a bit, I am getting older these days. Gives me throws to work on!

On defense, it felt good to be back having to challenge myself again. Defense is definitely harder for me than offense, in almost every sport I have played. Except baseball. But focusing on the position is a constant thought process and mentally tough. When I did that well, I played good defense. When I did not, the results were not always great. Kind of like some of the pics in the slideshow put up by Hugh.

It felt great just to be back at frisbee fields and playing again. We had a ton of fun and it was good to play, see old friends, etc. I remember how much fun I have playing frisbee. Someone from moe said "I thought you said you hated co-ed". Now, I do not remember ever saying that, unless it was as a joke so a coed player that I knew could hear that. I have definitely made fun of co-ed before, so maybe that was taken as I hated it. But I have also made fun of open before too...

With all that said, besides open/coed etc., I really enjoy playing frisbee first and foremost. When I first started playing, I did not fall in love with frisbee because I wanted to be an elite open ultimate player. I really enjoyed ultimate because it was a competitive outlet and I really enjoyed the people I was playing with. Somewhere along the way, I really wanted to train hard/practice hard/and play the best available outlet for me. When I was in Ann Arbor, it was magnUM or whatever fall team I played on. In Minneapolis, it was zero. And now in Hamilton, it is the Flycoons. I feel we showed we are competitive this past weekend. Plenty to work on, but plenty to take from. And most importantly, I enjoy my teammates on and off the field. That is why I play frisbee, so I can run around, chase a plastic thing, and bs when the day is done. I am looking forward to the fall. More to come

Monday, August 20, 2007

ECCfest - day 1

It was a long trip, but we have arrived back into the smokey Bitterroot a quick recap of the events:

Last workout on Wed.- 6x(150,100,50) 30 s between reps, 90 s between sets

Thursday, no workouts, packed up the car and headed to Spokane (slightly less than halfway to Seattle. It is funny to go to slightly big cities from our town of 4000. They seem huge.

Friday, finish up the drive to Seattle, we stayed in Seattle ~1 h south of the fields. Walked around the city a bit.

Saturday morning, we had arrainged for a babysitter to meet up with us at the fields. We were not able to get there until 8:30 am. 30 minutes before gametime, which left us ~10 minutes to warm up. And that showed.

Round 1 was against Mischief, they won last year. We receive, center to me. Now, I saw Kerr who had just receive the pull coming upfield wide open, my man was now on me. So I flip it back to him. Or more accurately, back behind him. Oops, disc on their goalline. 0-1. Hmmmm. They pull, something else strange happens, not with me this time, 0-2. And they had moved the disc like 10 yards total. Apparently, it is hard to complete a pass in coed.

Well, things improved after that, we would get the lead at 4-3. And then basically trade until half 8-7. I don't remember much about the half besides we lost one of our key receivers/pullers to a hamstring injury and I scored the goal to take it to half from Daph.

The 2nd half went much the same. Mainly trading points. I guarded Tyler a bit in the 2nd half. He has a very effective, very low release, deep backhand. He threw a big huck that started out under my leg as I tried to kick-block it. Impressive. The other thing they do is throw everything to him. A 3 possession sequence for them was a very big hammer to him (I thought I d'd this one, he thought I stripped it, it was close, no contest, goal), a big break mark backhand for a goal to him (again on me), and another big hammer to him, this time I d'd it fair and square !!! (I don't mean that in a bitter sense, the first one was very close). On that d, we were able to march it down and get the goal for the only break of the 2nd half. They had an excellent opportunity for a break, but a not great throw to an open receiver literally bounced off the top of the receiver's head and so no goal. We receive at 14-13, march up the field, call a timeout. Out of the timeout, my guy poaches, hammer to me, after that some sort of call, disc in, scoober, goal, 1-0 for the day. Alright!

Fun game and good game. I had no idea what to expect so it was good that we can be more than competitive. Bad news was we lost one of our main guys for this grueling tourney. That sounds like whining b/c I am sure everyone had someone got injured. I apologize.

Round 2- This game was against Horde. I guess there have been some pretty close games in the past between the flycoons and them, so the team was still pumped, especially after the win. BUT, we do something strange again on the first point, i believe the disc was just dropped 0-1.... Uh oh. We rebound and play fairly well, we were up 7-6. We pull to them, on the first d we get, I try to bomb it to Sky (now a slight wind and we are going upwind with the disc). Turnover - a theme of the weekend on my throws trying to gain more than 50 yards. We get another d, this time I turn it over with a hammer to Sky on the endzone. I learned nothing from the wind on my previous throw. Fast forward, Portland takes half 7-8. Great job me! Instead of up 8-6 going into half, we are now down one.

They start off the 2nd half strong, 7-10. After finally answering, we start to play zone and that gives us the momentum. Also, they touched a pull as it was coming down so we did get a very cheap and ez goal. I threw at least one push pass goal here, maybe 2. Fast forward, 14-11 us. We are 2-0! This mixed stuff is really easy...

Round 3- Brass Monkey. Much like the other first halfs, it is close. I believe we were up 8-7. Exhausting was setting in, so I don't remember much here, except it was like an 99/00 college all-star game out there.

I know they ran out of the second half fast, I believe they made it 8-10. This game was the windiest. It was upwind/downwind, but with a definite cross breeze to it. Back to the game, we were able to tie it up, but I do not think we ever had the disc with the chance to win the game. They win 13-14 and run up the field on the last point. Sorry the details are a little foggy for this one. We did lose Sky in this game as well. So 2 of our biggest deep threats were down.

Strange how I only remember the victories well.

Round 4- Slow White. Damn them and their first round bye. And for also crushing Portland in the previous round.

We stick with them for a bit, but they are up at half 4-8. And they score to make it 4-9. Here is where you feel it. This is where I start to think, time to drink up and rest for tomorrow, nothing can be done. BUT, we did respond. And that was a great feeling. A big reason for this has to go to 2 peeps, Pablo and Emily. They gave us a much needed emotional lift on the defensive and offensive end. I feel like Pablo forced a couple of bad throws. And Emily had a big grab and big d. In the end, it would not be enought, but we did bring it back 11-13 and I think we had the disc on the last point. I am not positive of that, but I feel like we did. In the end, we lost 11-14. I guess you always have to look at the brightside. 2-2 on the day. One loss at double game point. And another victory we could have given up, but we fought back. That was somewhat encouraging. I think no matter what, we would have taken 2-2 on this day. Moral victories don't count for much. But in August they mean more than in October!

On the brightside, James who was injured in the first game came back and played a couple of points. I was just happy it was not serious.


Ok, so that took a while, and I am tired now and I have to go to work tomorrow. So that is about it. I only saw a little open. Sub was up big on Chain, Chain comes back and maybe goes up by 1, but Sub comes back to win. I saw double game between Dog-sockeye. Fun stuff, I am not sure about green jerseys.

Showcase game, did not see much of. Nice big, long hammer from Wiggins. Chase-to-Jaegs deep huck. Hector forgetting he is not riding a bike. But yeah, did not catch a whole hell of a lot of this game. More soon.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Unhealthy Living

It is pretty ridiculous here. I mentioned before that was smoky. Now, it is very smoky. I mean less than 1 mile visibility smoky. It appears to be a major rainstorm at times outside. You would have no idea that there are mountains nearby, although today is not as bad as I can see the outline of them. AND it rains ash on a pretty regular basis. I guess most of it is from a fire in Idaho, but there is a pretty big fire 30 or so miles south of here. Click on the title above to get a smoke image of the area (we are in the little groove in the southwest part of the state).

What this means is: very unhealthy to be outside. And extremely unhealthy to workout outside. It would be like running 4 miles right next to a bonfire or something. There was still practice in Missoula yesterday, but we did not go since we felt bad taking our kids outside for that long. If I am out of whack at spawnfes/ecc, I will blame the fire.

So yeah, now we are very exciting to go to Seattle, b/c hopefully we will see the sun again or just regular clouds or something else than smoke.

On to workouts, a lot of easier stuff as we have had some visitors, so I have not invested the time in doing a lot of hard stuff:

Tues- off, smoke
Mon- rode exercise bike 30 min, lifted legs
Sun - 2 x (5/5/5 jog/hard/walk), ended with a 200. My legs felt tired, but it was a good workout. First 5 min hard was @ 5:40 pace (I got a little more than 1400), second 5 min hard was faster (I got ~1450). After a 5 min break, I ran a 30 second 200. I was pretty pleased with that. I have not run a 200 that fast in a long time. And that also probably means I could run the 5 min harder.
Sat - 30 minutes pushing the baby jogger
Fri - short stuff track workout, I talked about this previously, a lot of quick stuff, changing directions and some jumping and throwing. Oh, and I also rode the bike to and from work.
Thu - easy run, somehwere ~25 minutes
Wed - off
Tue - easier practice, the team still a little sore from Portland. Some drills, but mainly doing instructional scrimmages to make sure everyone is on the same page
Mon - 29 minute run - first 15 minutes pushing LT over to a babysitter's house
Sun - 30 minute - pushing baby jogger, just me and LT for 2 days, so she went everywhere with me.

Last, my COTD critique-

Kirkshank's throw - I don't think a bad decision as it appears the receiver had plenty of room, it was just a poor throw. Happens to even the best apparently.
Furious receiver - awkward bid, I am guessing he think he should have had it, but tough grab as it appears the Goat defender interferes with him. Not fouling him, but the furious went up as if no one was around or something. Still a turn on the thrower, but it could have been a COTD for the receiver if he makes the grab.
Goat throw - ummmm, the invert that sails the wrong way. It appears the throw is meant for the receiver on the bottom/left side of the screen, but loses the invert. Thus, it brings another, unsuspecting receiver into the play. And a very good defender. Oscar went up big and aggresively, a pretty nice d. It always feels good to get a d before the receiver knows/thinks about getting it.

Sunday, August 05, 2007

Smoke Alert

Quick results from tourneys that I know of- Kleinnmann Flycoons finish #2 losing to CTR in the finals something like 15-11 after beating a Rhino-ish team in the semis on double game point. That was a rematch of pool play from the previous day. CTR beat the main portland coed team like whoreshack or whatever there name is in the other semis

CC - Bravo over Jam. Both teams 6-1. Sub went 5-2 losing to both teams previously mentioned. So they beat Machine, Truck stop, condors, boston, revolver. Double game point victory over Condors. This was the first time that a Sub Zero team ever beat a Condors team. I know this b/c when we played the Condors in the quarters of 01, over half the team basically pooped their pants before the game. It is always fun to watch your team get more and more nervous during warmups. Not that I played a perfect game or anything. Just check out a missed disc in the calendar from 02.... Ugh.

So it seems that frisbee is going pretty well in Missoula. I feel that was a good showing in Portland for our team. The usual excuses for an early August tourney apply, but it definitely seems like a good step. Of course, this is from sitting on my couch in Hamilton the whole weekend.

We were able to play 4/3 at practice for the first time for awhile. It definitely is a different challenge mentally on the defensive side. Adjusting from open where you have potentially 6 other guys to help you out if in trouble. IN 4/3, there is a definite feeling of stopping your own person the whole time just b/c of the gender switches.

We played a going to Portland game against (mainly) not going to Portland game. Needless to say, my team lost and it was not pretty. I guess they sent the correct squad there. I had 2 major turns, a misfire on a huck, just threw it too fast and maybe too long. The second was a high stall bailout huck, surprsingly it was almost caught on a nice play by the receiver. I got froze looking upfield again. Hopefully, I stop doing that soon.

Working out has been going ok. I have not been doing a lot of hard stuff lately as we have had some visitors and it is smokey as hell here. Today was pretty ridiculous as it looked like horrible rain clouds all day today. But really it was smoke clouds covering the sky. You could not see the mountains.

Sat- hamilton practice, hot and 14 people, so it was not a huge success, although fun. Just really, really hot. My team got crushed in this one too. Hmmmm, a pattern is developing. We got behind early and I was letting them fly, to really not much success. I basically ended the scrimmage as a floated a backhand that ended up in someone getting a pretty bad cut on their eye. Everyone stayed in Hamilton, hungout and went to see the Simpsons. Pretty funny, although it is just basically a longer version of the tv show. But still really funny.

Sun- I ran, not sure how long

Mon- Day off

Tue- 3x(4x150) 1 minute between reps, 2 minutes between sets. Ran them all in 22/23. Felt ok, legs not as good as I would have liked, but the rest of me felt good.

Wed- 25+ minutes

Thu- Practice, see above.

Fri - Biked to work in the morning and back for lunch. >6.5 miles total. Ez nothing particularly great.

Sat- Day off

Sun- 28 minutes, ran pushing LT in the stroller. EZ, ~8 minute miles.