Offhanded Scoober

Niji: Nittai Recap 6/22 + 6/24

Labels: Niji, recap, reflection

Well, if you read the last post about them, you know how they are, generally. And interesting aspect they put together is that they scrimmage with sophomores/freshmen vs. upperclassmen. Kind of fun. It's a little hard to assess the way I've been playing because I'm basically just doing whatever the fuck I feel like. For the most part, it seems to be working. I've been just working the disc really quick, hitting upfield stuff by 3 or dumping it, and then getting the disc back right away if the opportunity is there. The Nittai kids trust me with the disc, so they all tend to dump to me at a low count, which makes my job easier, and I haven't really felt any pressure while on offense. I've also just been hucking it whenever, and they've been working at a surprisingly high rate. I feel like my deep throws have gotten much much better in the past 4 months. As Alan described it, I can pretty much put it wherever I want. So, I don't think I have too many turns. On defense, I've been playing pretty loose, and mostly just cutting off the most dangerous cuts. Obviously, I've been looking for poach D's at the same time, which I've been getting so that's fun too. I got one as the far handler D on the flick side (ho stack), on an incut throw. I just barely missed a D on an upline deep throw. I hesitated on the poach because the thrower hesitated on the throw, but I was close enough to get the D anyway, so I should have.

Sean: WAFC Advanced #2

Labels: bookend, Callahan, recap, reflection, Sean, summer league

Two reverse bookends, one bookend. Two fuck ups and one game winning play. Which matters most? The play that wins the game. Cause you play to win the game, right?

Reverse bookend #1: Dont know how I turned it, but got beat break side for the score.
Reverse bookend #2: Messed up an upfield throw (SIGH), got beat deep.

The latter was the worst. Both are terrible and harsh ways to mess up. Obvious things to improve upon. Fake throws more often in order to prevent a messed up upfield throw(less pressure from the mark) and position myself better and quicker for the jump D.

Bookend #1: Near Callahan, break cut from back of the stack for the game winning score.

I say near Callahan because I D'd the disc near the endzone. Looking back I am unsure of whether I could've caught the disc in the endzone for a Callahan. Nevertheless I am glad that I hit the disc instead of catch because our team had no more timeouts left. Our offense was able to setup a calm and structured offense and the go ahead game winner followed. Decision-making in frisbee can be complex because it depends on so many variables.

Final score: 15-14 2 comments

Setting your Goals High

Labels: Bobby, improvement, reflection

One of the most important things that you can do as an improving player is to set your goals as high as you possibly can, strive to be the best player on the field even if you are seriously under experienced or overcome by the athleticism of the players around you. One of the biggest shifts that I experienced last year that I think made a huge difference in my improvement was that after winter break I really stopped viewing myself as a freshman and stopped comparing my abilities to freshmen but instead I tried to compare my abilities to the players on the team that were above me. I wanted to play shut down defense like myles and vereb, have sweet throws and decision making like Niji and the rest of our senior handlers, and be a beast cutter like acie.

Obviously, I was unable to match up to the performance of these players best qualities due to lack of experience and probably general impossibility which made practicing and games slightly frustrating at times for me, a great example of this is that I would get down on myself if I perceived that I had made a bad decision even if it turned out well also I probably underestimate my own value to a degree. However, I know that this mentality enabled me to push myself really hard on defense and helped me become pretty solid on D. Furthermore my throws and decision making improved tremendously to the point that I got chances to handle in practice towards the end of the year, something that no one really envisioned to start the year and I hope that more experience will continue to improve. The biggest thing however was my focus on cutting as it was the thing that has given me the most trouble, I often watch the upperclassmen and feel that I could be able to get the disc with as much ease as them but when I'm on the field I somehow this does not completely translate. I set my goals high and I felt that was unable to reach them, however this does not mean that I set them too high as the drive to reach them definitely made me better as a player. Just now remembering back on looking at the stats for roll call I realize that I actually had a good amount of touches on the disc, and far more than I remembered having and I realize that this mindset helped me improve tremendously and I need to focus more on my accomplishments and progress towards these goals than my inability to reach them immediately as a freshman.

As my dad always cornily but truthfully says, "set your sights high, and you will go far" 2 comments

Niji: Nittai vs. WM

Labels: Niji, recap, reflection

Man to man top to down match up:

Speed: Nittai as fast or faster

Throws: Most of the sophomores have throws as good as AC, Almost all the seniors have better throws than AC, at least several probably have about the same ability as I do but have different throws.

Quickness: all or most are as quick or quicker than me

Ups: WM is better in the air in a man to man match up

Strategy: Hard to say. The older players are just kinda fucking around and they're missing a few key players.

Both Alan and I agree that as far as players go, they have the potential to be better than WM but they have no coherent strategy and throw it away far too often. If the top five players from Nittai played with WM, they would immediately make an impact. Moreover, they would be easily amongst the best players on the team, especially if they learned our system and played into it.

And for being so athletic, they don't play defense *that* well. But again, something that can be worked on.

Bobby: Quick Defensive strategy

Labels: Bobby, defense, poach

I tried this today, I think it should work pretty well:

When playing against a ho-stack and the disc was on the sideline, I covered my man in on an in-cut but the throw didn't go off to him. I heard the the stall count at 5, so I quickly checked behind me and saw that I had a teammate deep so I stopped where I was and clogged the lane expecting my teammate to cover me deep (should have yelled but it slipped my mind, obviously very important to do), playing a poach D to try to get the stall for my team. Probably some holes in this strategy as in all poach D's, but I felt that this was a particularly good opportunity to poach, we forced them to throw a stall 8 wobbly dump throw which was disappointingly not D'ed, but it did put a fair amount of pressure on the thrower and we got a good result out of it.

The real point of this though is that on D you should always be looking for opportunities to play a little bit of poach D if it is beneficial, for the beginner player it is something you should observe and register but perhaps not act on, but it can be a play that makes getting a D possible for your team while conserving energy and can therefore be extremely valuable. 2 comments

Making the First Move

Labels: improvement, Niji, offense

First point of the game, first offensive point you play.

Sean: WAFC Advanced #1

Labels: recap, reflection, Sean, summer league

First game with a new team. Mainly older players. Not too many standouts. Handling core is weak. Our women are strong. I believe that I need to become a handler for the team after losing the game 12-8. Our captain has his head in the right place, firm yet not overbearing. This league will be fun!

One assist, three scores. No D's. One turn (early on, again).

Played as a cutter for the entirety of the game. When I got the disc I took a quick look up field followed by a quicker dump. Basically it for most of the game for me, offensively. When I got to the endzone I cut without thinking about it, looking for holes. This reflex didnt serve me in the area between bricks so much. Part of it was due to my indecision and another part due to a weak handler-cutter relationship. By this I mean they havent played enough with me to understand what I do. This will come with time, but it will come quicker if I am more decisive about cutting.

My assist was pure luck. Their teams best player against our teams fastest woman. He thought it was out the endzone, but she kept with it, perfectly timing her jump to just barely toe it in. She saved my ass and taught me a lesson: never stop attacking the disc, even when against great odds. Flick huck by the way. It slowly floated up, not sure if it bounced or not but it was certainly a low release so some bounce might have come into play.

I got broken way too often. Overconfidence in the mark and my fellow defenders. I'll play more conservative. For some reason I covered handlers most of the time. Their handling core was experienced and quick. I tried to force them to cut a certain way, which they would do, but then immediately cut where I wasnt expecting, where I didnt want them to cut. The way to improve upon this is quickness and experience. Really concentrate on staying on the balls of my feet.

I want to play defense more. Need to work on my body position and forcing my cutter to go where I want him.

If my man poaches off of me, cut deep immediately.

As usual, I want to get back on the field. Couldn't happen sooner. 9 comments

Sean: An Idea

Labels: Sean

It is difficult to consistently get a good camera angle on ultimate frisbee play. The best and easily accessible game video comes from a high vantage point. At our school there are few easily accessible vantage points. At any tournament there are virtually none. Whats a good solution to these problems?

Bobby: Summer League- 6/14 updated

Labels: Bobby, off-season, recap, summer league

First time playing ultimate in over a week, damn it feels good. Been busy lifting boxes all week, annoying and painful: my back was bugging me all game and I am out of shape from where I want to be due to this, I don't mean to make everything a lesson but physical fitness and well being are vital to be most effective when you play, make sure to take good care of yourself to stay in prime ultimate condition. Otherwise, it was a great game, we played easily the best opponents we have played so far this summer season, they worked the disc well and had a lot of experience/a couple of them were wearing the same college jerseys, it always helps to have experience playing with people. We definitely had the advantage physically though which lead them to run a strong defense that i'll talk about later. We ended up winning a hard fought 15-13 game.

Not too much interesting going on for me today offensively, played very consistently mostly of my catches were on in cuts, only had one turn which honestly should have been caught also threw 2 assists and one score. One thing that worked particularly well on a deep cut was that I started to clear in then busted deep again, kinda like a little stutter step, worked well and burned my man really easily

We played a different type of zone than I'm used to today which was a 3-3-1, kinda interesting basically you have the 3 front men in the cup with one of the side guys switching off to the mark (force middle so when its on the sideline the man who would be guarding the up line part of the cup is the mark and forces towards the 2 remaining members of the cup). Then there is the next three with the 2 on the outside playing as wings pretty much like in our zone where they play the area and pinch in to cut off the field but kinda play man within their zone (our wings were not very strong which weakened the effectiveness of our zone. In the middle is what they were calling the shallow deep, its basically his job to cover the over/through the cup throws and the position of the offensive zone players is relayed to him by the deep-deep who does the same as our 6 and guards against the huck, I played the deep-deep which was really fun as there were d chances all over the place I think I had like 5-6 in our zone defense (like 3 more playing man with a few damn close misses on bids), not sure how this style of the zone matches up with the one that we run definitely seemed to work well though despite the lack of wind, though much of this can probably be explained by the general lack of coordination that a summer league team playing in their 3rd game is sure to experience, can you offer your thoughts niji?

On a funny/weird note, my team calls me either monster or animal cause of my play its pretty flattering i guess but i cant really take it too seriously, its kinda funny how the quality of play in college is so high

Finally got a semi point block (hand) wooo, barely fouled the man though so i guess it doesn't really count, but im definitely improving my mark, in fact you might say it has improved markedly, its all about intensity (make sure not to over commit though) in the past I definitely treated it as a little bit of a break, that is just inexcusable

The other team played a defense that worked remarkably well by forcing no hucks on the mark and then forcing us out on cutter d, I think apart of this d's success was our team's inexperience in some ways but they also had some inexperience so I feel like its porbably relatively easy to run, also I know we ran it a few times last year, but i definitely think we should in the future

We started doing the same thing at one point and it definitely worked quite effectively, though I don't like that style of defense as much as this made me realize that the way I play defense is that I try to react more to what the thrower is trying to do than my man (while still keeping up with my man) therefore I always like keeping the handler in my field of view, I think this tactic works pretty damn well for the most part i guess sometimes I can tend to lose my man a little, you guys want to elaborate on how you most effectively play defense/the potential weaknesses of mine? 3 comments

Pitt: High School Players

Labels: growth, Niji