Offhanded Scoober

BAM!!

$300 dollar drone. Attach a (light) camera to its under belly, control it with an iphone or itouch, fly it high above any ultimate game in reasonable wind conditions. Every teammate chips in 13 or so bucks, and you got great game film in a jiffy.

My main goal going into this game was to concentrate on placement of hucks. Sadly, I was not able to practice this because my teammates stood in the endzone, hands waving. Instead, I practiced what some call "taking over the game". This means I attempted to touch the disc more than any other person, working the disc up the field purely through my effort. Few hucks, almost all give and go's. It worked really well. When I started to call for the disc right after completing a pass, people on my team quickly realized i meant business and do whatever the hell say. And they did. Hooray.

"Taking over the game"allowed me to practice quick handler movement, whether strike or dump. The first cut worked about 80% of the time (due to defensive inexperience). When it didnt I played the indecision game. Something to work on for next time: if the first cut doesnt work clear out (in an ideal and organized game) or quickly setup another cut.

I got my pulling practice in today. I have a better feel for it now. To me, it no longer feels like a huck. Its a different throw now. My grip is much tighter. My body movement is aggressive and methodical, not full of finesse and quickness like a huck. My approach to where I throw the disc is different now too. How I pull a disc is similar to how Richard Hamilton free throws:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mttHlV1WjMk&feature=related

I do not step out like he does, but I set posture and run up for my pulls in the exact same way. My hope is that my consistency increases due to a routine much like Hamilton's.

And I had two sick flick pulls. I'm looking at you Bobby.

Got nailed in the kidney today as I got a D. Hurt/s like hell. Pissin' blood tonight beeches. The kick who tackled me in the kidney traveled big time on a huck assist. Pisses me off. I called travel, but no one cared haha. That's good 'ole pickup.

If this same group of people do this again, I am going to try to teach them a ho stack so I can have more fun. Not gonna teach them a vert. Thoughts on Hofense over vert? Might not work because only 12 people showed up. Hard to do a Hofense with six people.

2) On one turn (which I caused) I spent time regretting rather than getting into position to make the D. Essentially, reverse bookends. No fun at all. Next time transfer the intensity of regret into defensive intensity. I wouldve gotten the D if I had made the transition to D quicker.

3) So after turning the disc over twice, I came back and scored the next six of eight points. Almost all on D I believe. The points that I remember scoring on were the result of two things: 1. The beloved S-cut 2. and more importantly, positional awareness. Immediately after a turn, pivot towards the crowded space then cut towards the open space. Easy as that. Another time I was out of position behind the handler in a vert stack in the endzone. I sprinted to the front of the stack. No one was cutting from the back so I continued to sprint to the force side for an easy score. On a different point many of the opposing team clustered toward my handler because they were following their man in on an in-cut. I quickly cut deep for the score. All about positional awareness.

4) Starting to cut before the disc is in catches the defender unaware much of the time.

5) It is hard to put much else down because the team captains for Wendigo taught me a new offense: "Colorado Offense". As you might be able to glean, one of the captains recently graduated from Colorado Mamabird.

The offense is a hybrid of every defense we know at WM. Iso, vertical and horizontal.

There is a strong side of the field and there is a weak side of the field. On the strong side there are two iso's who take up all of the cutting space on the field. Their cutting works much like the 2 and 3 (middle guys) in a horizontal stack in that one man cuts in and another cuts out. On the weak side three players setup vertically, hugging the sideline in order to give the strong side room to cut. Only when a strong side cutter calls "fill" does a weak side cutter recycle into the cutting space. Theoretically a strong side cutter could cut forever because of this.

There is one handler in the middle of the field slightly behind the weak side stack, which is slightly behind the strong side cutters. A dump is 10-15 feet directly behind the handler. Rarely does he come into play. Same with the weak side. In a perfect world all disc movement is carried out by the handler and the two strong side cutters. Three guys.

Strengths: TONS of cutting space. Players who need rest in a game long and point long sense get to rest as dump or weak side cutters. If your cutters are really good, the point is over quickly. The best defensive players on the other team get tired out quickly.

Weaknesses: If your strong side cutters suck at cutting, the offense falls apart quickly. Chemistry between these cutters and the handler is a must.

Got to play this defense for two hours, not enough time to truly evaluate it. Regardless, it seems to have strong advantages. Something our team should experiment with next season.

I asked one of the captains about what I should do better next time. All stuff I have heard before, but as the Hagakure says never shun an elders advice even if you have heard it time and again. Don't round off cuts and work on throws. I thought I learned all this stuff awhile ago haha. An ongoing process for throws. Not so much for rounding off cuts.

6) Put a huck to space in which the cutter to run onto. Try not to throw the disc directly over the cutter, the one place he cant get it.

7) Having trouble with my flick lately. Tends to bounce. Experimenting with the grip. Throw it flat stays flat!

Might join two leagues (Advanced and Rec) and a club team this summer. The cost of traveling into DC a four times a week is a consideration though. Meh.

O:

Cutting was irrelevant. The only cut that comes to mind is where I baited my D deep then cut in fast. My fake deep pushed at least two defenders deep, with no one to cover haha.

Handler movement was nonexistent.

Throwing. Got point blocked, thoroughly. Bleh. After that I threw fakes when the mark was straight up. It worked. As for the throw....well yeah haha. The few flick hucks I put up worked great. The backhands were mediocre. They had the distance every time though. The angle and positioning (in relation to the receiver) is something I can work on. Dont put it right over their head, and bank it into their position.

D:

Yay I got alot of D's. I learned to be patient with blade-y flick hucks and boxout the receiver. Worked like a charm. Got a bunch of poachy d's too. Got bored of playing man/being put on a jogger so I began to experiment with blatant poaches. Didnt work so much haha. Better to appear to stick to a man then poach from there.

Never let up whether horizontal or vertical.

Pulls:

Ehh. Too IO but I got the distance. Woot.

Athleticism

For the most part I am skeptical of any workout schedule or routine. Same goes for theories on when to stretch. Luckily my stretching suspicions are founded in a lack of science. Here's a good article on stretching:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/13/health/nutrition/13Best.html

Sadly, my workout doubts do not hold water. There seems to a certain way to workout/stay in shape. Even though the field of physical fitness adjusts to scientific discoveries pertaining to the development of muscle and such, this does not give anyone an excuse not to workout. This is what I tell myself haha.

So, Ill go on and do all the workouts doled out to me by my captains. It'll keep me in shape. But I will begin to change when and how I stretch. The variables will be types of stretches, whether to stretch after warmups after practices (or both), and for how long. My gut says to vary the stretches every two weeks, always stretch after practice ends and stretch for a moderate amount of time (around 10 mins maybe). Sidenote, I think a swimmer told me that you should stretch a quarter of the time you spent working out. Sidenote on that sidenote, I hate unsubstantiated workout advice. Pisses me off. For all we know they made it up.

Athelticism wins games. A team that has better athleticism can keep up/beat a team that has everything else but.

Bids

All mindset? Sure, at first. But once youre over that hump, I think it's more about physical not mental commitment. If youre running all out and your body is low youre more likely to bid successfully than when youre standing straightup. Of course body positioning and speed become irrelevant after youve done it a few dozen times on the worst surfaces imaginable (e.g. The Barksdale Desert)

"All about the toe" - Andy

Reading the Disc

"Decide where its going to go immediately after its thrown" - Niji

"Take a few steps back in preparation for the catch, then attack" - William

Only intentionally backpedal from the disc.

Oh and attack that shit.

Cuts

I dont like turtles I like cutting.

Stuff I need to work on:

1. Instinctively I know when to make a cut. Go all out when it occurs to me, and already be cutting when it occurs to me. Trust yourself Luke.

2. More than one fake is ok.

3. Try both playing off the defender's position and cutting where you want to cut

4. Alternate feet in which to pivot

5. For handler cuts, always move right after a throw. Quick.

The Mark

A certain demotivational poster comes to mind.

1. Staying close is key for the first six counts or so, after that backup.

2. Hold that force, dont get faked out of position.

3. On a turn it, depending on field position of the disc and players, it helps to go strike for two seconds max to cut off the huck.

4. Bring the condoms.

Conclusions for the year: I have learned alot, something Im proud of. Alot more to go, to put it simply. Looking forward to all of it.

Aight. Thoughts on high school pickup to come.

I honestly didnt expect to make the team. I saw more potential in so many other players. Because of this I felt as if I would not stick out (even though I threw a once in a lifetime flick huck). Sectionals left me satisfied, but I still thought I wouldnt make the team.

I wanted to make the team because of something I heard from a friend during sectionals. He said that you are as good as the people you play with. Even though I had heard this type of saying in other types of competitive settings it didnt make sense until I saw a dude named Max play. He's a handler with UCSB (who're now going to nationals I believe). To put it into plain terms he was awesome. Great throws, physicality and bids. Man his bids were awesome. He got all of this in three years I think. It all started with him throwing with Alan Kolick. All they did was throw with each other for a summer. And look at Max now. He was/is as good as those around him. I wanted to play with the best available for a purely selfish reason: to get better, quick. Luckily I got to do this and more.

So, I made the team. The first serious thing I heard from the upperclassmen was "freshmen dont get much playing time, and if they do its on defense." I was fine with that, it made sense. I never want to be put on the field unless I deserve to/am good enough. So I put it to myself, "Sean, work your fucking ass off and then you might get to play." And that's what I did. I worked my ass off haha. I never doubted myself because I felt I wasnt good enough yet. I still think "Sean, you can start doubting yourself AFTER you get the basics down. Then we can talk".

At the time the "basics" are as follows:

1. Throws

2. Field Awareness

3. Athleticism

4. Bids

5. Reading the Disc

6. Cuts

7. The Mark

In the first semester I picked up the "basics" of 1,2,3,6 and 7. For some reason I didn't think defense was something I had to learn, that I would pick up on it really quickly without too much practice. How wrong I was hahahaha.

So I located some talented people to play with, explored how far ultimate could take me (Max), arranged in my mind a good way to learn ultimate and rehearsed the hell out of it. I only had to demonstrate all of this in a serious setting, kind of a final test. I guess this either happened over time or hasn't happened yet. Some part of me still feels like I havent faced that final exam yet. Prolly a good thing. Maybe I never will. I'll just keep pushing myself, never allowing myself to think there is some ending to all of this. Mmmm warms the heart thinking about that. That me getting better at ultimate will never expire, only I will.

Spring '09:

I did a majority of the team assigned workouts over winter break, about a months length in between the fall and spring seasons. Through this I found out that I could run four miles, better yet that fact that I was in shape haha. That was and will be an important mental obstacle going into each season: "Am I in shape?". Back then I felt I was in shape, but not the best I could be. Luckily I have next winter to improve upon that. And the winter after. And after. And after. Haha :).

The best of the freshmen started to step forward. I think its safe to say Bobby and I were the ones to step forward first in the Spring season. It's also safe to say none of the upperclassmen saw this coming for either of us. We didn't either haha. I have tried my hardest not to let this fact get to my head. A few times it slipped out (like correcting a senior on how to throw), but I think I held it together.

The consistant absence of so many freshmen was something else I didn't see coming. WTF. So much potential yet the gotta go frat it up. Pussies. Fuckers. All frats get you is drunk as fuck (we do that too) and a bunch of really hot william and mary chicks (ugly by any other standard).

In conclusion, fuck you freshmen that didn't come to practice. Have fun trying out next semester with the rest of us.

One thing I found disappointing in myself was my fear to mess up. During important games, where deep down I knew I could have made a difference, I sat on the sidelines scared. I now realize that I have to make mistakes in order to learn. This is something I know I will overcome in the coming months. I have lost that fear of messing up. I feel like I have picked that up from two friends of mine, not from how they play, but how they face adversity. They laugh it off. At first I tried it jokingly, but then it started to help me brush unimportant things off. For instance, when i made an S-cut in the endzone during a game, I was similing/laughing while I read the disc. It floated above my head for awhile resulting in a misread. For some reason I was ok with it because of my laughter. I know Ill do better next time and at least I was having a good time when I messed up.

Here are some personal conclusions/improvements for the coming year. These are things I am not able to do yet to my liking. A "Con" section I guess.

Throws

1. Flicks

a. Flatten them out for better hucks and low releases

b. go easy on them, allowing the throw to flow from my hand. No jerking off.

c. Don't over-emphasize the angle of my IO low release break flick.

d. High release flick, get better at short throws then hucks can come after

e. Follow through my flicks with an upward open palm. Think about making it look like it possesses finesse.

f. work on the lefty flick

g. get the airbounce out (yeah I know, how the hell can you airbounce a flick. Well I can so fuck off haha)

2. Backhands

a. Get to the point where i can better control my high releases, i.e. be able to throw them in practice, not just during a game

b. work on the high release huck

c. learn to reach out as far as possible for each level of the throw

d. practice stepping out on my low releases in order to surpass Sami at his breaks. Goal: I will get better at them than him.

e. practice stepping out on the huck. straight out. curl the arm more. go out quick, not slow.

f. get the airbounce out of low releases.

3. Hammers

a. get to the point where I can do a bunch of different types of hammers (flatten out quick, distance hammers, higher than lower, lower than higher, quick release etc.)

b. get them game ready/actually get good at them haha

c. be able to throw one in any sort of footing (flick stance, stepping out etc.)

4. Scoobers

a. actually get good at them

b. flat ones and high ones and distance ones, all at different angles?

5. Misc.

a. Pushpass: Now that ive had fun with them, think of a situation in game where I need one. Do I need one? Can't I just do a lefty backhand instead? Something to experiment with.

b. Biscuit: start doing jumping biscuits, i.e. Greatest's

c. Jersey Wheel: purely to show up Kyle haha/i wont ever practice this

d. Thumber: I heard Conger uses these in game. Explore this. They defenitely have a different flight pattern than a hammer. If and what ways is the Thumber flight pattern better?

6. Hucks

a. experiment, experiment, experiment

b. practice putting them to different places on the field relative to where the cutter is

c. try every type of throw for a huck

7. Zone Breakers

a. blady flick? (e.g. "The Ankh" "The Key of Life" Ankoor Patel)

b. scoobers, improve in general (see above section)

c. quick release hammers??

8. Fakes

a. experiment, experiment, experiment

b. at this point fake even when you dont have to

c. remember faking isnt juking, it's using your body language to get your mark into a position advantageous to yourself

d. practice the grip transition in time with the pivot transition

e. workout for it maybe, get quick at pivots

f. think of throws just in the context of fakes

9. Experimentation

a. at times try to do stuff that is totally random. it might just work/be totally awesome

Field Awareness/Defense

This is where I need to improve upon most. This summer I should work on getting more D points that O points. I dont care if you think I need practice as a handler for next season.

There will be less in this sections because I feel I know less of this subject. Maybe you could expand upon/reorganize this for me Bobby.

1. Cutter D

a. all about body positioning, figure out when and where to better position my body

b. force the cutter where I want him to go, but not in wildly obvious ways maybe

c. always stay on the balls of my feet. marking too. thats where all the manliness is anyways. har har.

2. Handler D

a. experiment on when to look at the dump and when to look at the handler

b. never let the strike off, always push/body them back in

c. try to read the dumps body language i.e. eyes, center of gravity

3. 50/50 Discs

a. decide where the disc is going to go immediately and position myself accordingly

b. be confidant in jumping

-----to be continued-----