Picking New Recruits

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With our coming decisions on who should make the team and who should not, I have to wonder what should be the correct process for picking people for the A-team. Do you want to go for a kid who has played his entire life and therefore really impresses based on the fact that he is straight up more experienced than his peers? Or is athleticism/enthusiasm more important? There are obviously a few kids that are pretty much shoe-ins to make the team as they have a little bit of both, but Ultimate remains a college sport and the ability for a person to pick it up freshman year in college and soon become a valuable contributor to the team remains, so the peripheral kids I kinda feel like it would be really hard to truly pick who should play A-team and who should be "cut".

Anyway, my real question is, to what extent should personality play a role in who is accepted onto the team and who is not? If a kid shows that he has a fair amount of experience coming in and is also pretty athletic, but is a total creep do you really want to take them? To a certain extent exclusivity is bullshit, but still i dont like weirdos. Hmmm, this probably has less to do with ultimate than just picking friends ahaha, but it is still a club sport, we are here to have fun in the end and we don't have an obligation to take them. On another note, if you see a kid who is a little bit better than another kid, but your not sure he will stay with the team (join frats and whatnot) who should you take? Basically at what level should you value your perception of a kid's devotion? 3 comments

Niji: My Flick is Blady, What Do I Do to Fix It???

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Now, I've probably heard this next phrase more than any other question I've been asked concerning ultimate: "My flick (huck) is blady, wompwomp lolz how do I fixxorz it?"


Why? Cuz every n00b ever always has the same problems, unless you're Asian like me, or have big balls like Alan.

Tonight I just broke it down for my good friend Bobby Corroon, who shall not be named.

Basically, if your flick looks like this:


These are probably, definitely, the reasons why:

1. Slow your motion down: you're probably rushing the throw.

Remember: You want minimum effort for maximum output

Also, when you rush a throw, all hell breaks loose and your form goes to poop. Like the above visual.


2. You're probably (definitely) turning your hand/arm over: i.e. make sure your arm motion slices through parallel to the ground. Imagine that your hand is like a blade cutting through let's sayyyy a cucumber. If you turn your arm over mid-slice, it probably wouldn't work out so well would it?

- The Important Point: Make sure your palm is facing up the whole time. Yes, even during the follow-through.


At this point this-Bobby-Corroon-who-shall-not-be-names said something to the effect of, "Wompn00bsauce I don't think I do that, that much at least, I'mma n00b."


To which I said, Bobby, trust me, you are 100% doing that or else it wouldn't turn over.

"Well look at it this way: Every time the disc turns over, your hand definitely has turned over...

Otherwise it wouldn't have."


Moral of the story?

STFU and learn.

Cool?

Cool.


3. Your elbow is probably too close to your body. Figure this one out on your own. Or don't.


4. Wind up is too big. n00bs of the first class all do this: HUGE wind-up, so little follow-through. Kinda like how they "mack" on girls. Aka, they've got no game. When fixing your flick, or any throw in fact, pay attention to your wind up. This affects the way the disc flies more than anything else, unless you have a giant ravenous grizzly bear with lazer beams and grenade launchers on auto-fire chasing you in tornado-level winds.




5. Start the throw more IO. IO for your n00bz means: inside out. And if you don't know what that means, grow a pair.


Not These.

But these.


"e.g. remember the pictures of me throwing against alabama?

it looks like the disc is too IO and going out of bounds at first

and then, nope

its definitely going inbounds"
3 comments

Niji: Change of Pace & How to Practice It

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One of the things I pride myself on is getting rid of the disc as fast as possible. Though I am still not mature enough of a player to always heed by this, as long as I am playing with players I am comfortable with, the disc rarely stops in my hands. In fact, one of my biggest pet-peevs in ultimate is someone holding on to the disc for no reason.


Fact: You do not need to look up-field every time you get the disc.
Fact: If the dump is poached, you should hit it right away.
Fact: While "looking dump by 5" is a good benchmark, it is not an excuse to look upfield even if there isn't anything there until then.
Fact: Waiting on a cut leads to poach D's.
Why?
Cuz other smart defenders are watching you wait on a cut, and since its probably the only thing happening at the time (cuz otherwise, why would you be waiting for a cut to develop, right?), its easy to see coming.

So this is a change of pace, compared to most American style teams, that tend to wait longer on cuts, and dump on a higher stall count. Japanese teams are different from this in that they always hit a poached player right away, especially dump or IO break. They like to get rid of the disc quickly, and to capitalize on the break side. I think this play-style would really fit WM and would love to see it implemented.

So then how do you practice this?
Well, its not too hard if you keep the above facts in mind, but a great way to get it across team-wide is to make the stall counts come in at 6. Basically, with a shorter amount of time to do something with the disc, you force players to move the disc quickly and thus, naturally generate a less stagnant offense.

If you consider yourself an upper level player (or handler) on the team, try this one for kicks:
Make yourself get rid of the disc within the first 3 counts. Remember, this is not to *look* dump by 3, it is to *hit* the dump by 3. It's a tough job, but I believe that you can do it.

Anyway, if you try it out, let know how it goes. Individually, and as a team.
'Till next time.
1 comments

1st scrimmage of the year

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Yesterday we had a little scrimmage mostly A-team guys, a couple B-teamers. Anyway, it seemed like everyone played incredibly well and it was great to play some frisbee with people who are actually competent.

Few thoughts on my play: I was able to get open on incuts at will so that was sweet, Fickley said that I need to cut deep more, definitely true, im not used to playing with people that have deep throws so i guess ive kinda got used to cutting one way all summer

I have to get rid of the disc earlier, had a few times where i got up to stall 6 or 7 before looking dump, this did not lead to any turns or anything, but in the future I need to get it moving quicker

Anyway other than that I think I played fairly well, I was glad to see that I am actually in shape to play, kinda worrying about that


Team as a whole played really well, everyone was commenting on how it was pretty fluid, no real problems with tremendous amounts of turns or anything. Also, I have to say that the sophomores as a whole really got a lot better over the summer, Im really pumped for the rest of the year 1 comments

Niji: Sunday Pick-up 8/14/10

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Played really beast today. At least on offense.

Really clicked with Jei and Sunshine today, and my hucks were on point and caught in stride. UPWIND. Against 7ft Eric and Yosh. Filthy.

Threw the best backhand breakmark huck I've prolly ever thrown. Awesome.

Played like my usual squirrely ass self but running diesel. I did work.
Sunshine described my playing as fun to watch because the "disc never stopped in (my) hands". Cool.
Shredded defenses with one two punches and then deep shots or large gains. I love this style of play, cuz its so low risk, yet you just get to SHRED. woohoo
0 comments

Bobby Summer League: 8/11

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Sweet game today, won 15-14 after being down 10-4 soon after half. We played really well 2nd half: 11-6 is pretty heavy domination so that was sweet. Both teams only had 7, so it was a bit of an endurance match and I think athletically they lined up a little bit better than us in terms of speed and we were able to grind out the win as they got tired.


A few cool happenings: caught 3 scores in a row that all got called back... kinda cool, obviously annoying, decided to go for an in cut on the 4th chance, shoulda gone for the score again to one up those bitches from gainesville.

Threw for a couple of assists, some nice hucks which was cool after not playing for almost 2 weeks

I am in a pretty good place athletically as I didn't get too tired playing for like 1:45 straight (we skipped half time and used only 1 time out collectively lol)

The ability to catch well with either hand is pretty important, i have been working on using both hands just throwing around with my brother and it was super helpful on a couple of scores where i went up and grabbed them with my left hand instead of my right

Handler on our team complimented me on an IO break flick, im pretty sure i could be the best handler on the team if that's what i had wanted to do, I'm glad i've worked on cutting though, biggest thing i've learned so far= patience is key, its actually pretty damn easy to get open just wait for your chance

Got some sweet poach D's

Couple not so good happenings: I still try to force throws a little too much especially in the endzone. Also threw a real shitty huck because I hadn't completely committed to the throw, its almost always better to throw it a bit long than short, let your man run to it. 2 turns in all is ok, but not where I want to be in the end especially cause im not handling on a consistent basis

I'm excited for playing with a real team again, the general lack of speed and athleticism on my team is frustrating to say the least, people were getting beat consistently deep which is why they were able to jump out to such a commanding lead early. Also, throwing to slower targets is annoying



Interesting things: Main handler for the other team went to Emory and said he had practiced with chain lightning which is sick. He is a nice guy and a pretty solid player that we will have to watch out for if we play them again next year, super quick and pretty good throws though not very tall. Loved running strike, so I just decided to take that away and almost give him dump throws, then play super aggressive mark, almost came up with like 3 point blocks, which is a definite meh, but forced some bad throws. Anyway, we talked about his team getting thrown out of the movie theater at regionals, that was frigging hilarious. Hopefully, we will play them at some point.

Missed a couple of chances at bid D's because the field was like running on chicken wire and i bitched out, again reinforces the idea that you really need to be aware of the terrain around you before you start playing. Whether the ground is soft in one spot and therefore hard to run through or whether it is too rough to bid on you need to be aware and play your man accordingly.
On a side note to the grass on the field sucking, the field had a major slope to it which affected both the way we forced as well as some of the game play. We forced downhill the entire time, not completely sure why, but i guess it seemed to work out, not sure if this is better than forcing the other way. Practical application of this knowledge=0 but is it kinda interesting? I think so. Also, one of the major issues I had with the slope was on a floaty throw into the end-zone where i judged my jump to catch it at its highest point but came up short because the slope took the ground out from under me, and we missed what could have been an easy score... frustrating.




Anyway, my finals are on Saturday, wish me luck. I'm really pumped for a real tournament and hopefully we will at least make the finals(we are the 2 seed) because probably the best guy I have played against this summer is on the top seeded team and I want to D up on him again and hopefully shut him down with some tournament adrenaline going. 1 comments