Offhanded Scoober

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.