First real physical activity in a week. Played 2 hours of indoor. Ankle is mostly pain-free, but still feels weak. Can’t cut at full strength. Knee feels fine on the side, but old tendonitis is back and worse than before.

Amp indoor session. Started off well, fun to be playing again. But shortly after we started playing, Papa layout-rolled into my leg and messed me up. I sat out the rest of the games. Hoping for a quick recovery in time for FNOF.

Nationals this year was good and bad in a lot of ways. We played very well during most of our games, we won more games than any previous year, and we beat one of our arch-rivals (Polar Bears) in a strong win on Friday. But we also finished worse than last year and lost our last game on Sat to a team we should have beaten.

On Thursday, we started off strong with a close game against CLX. We had the opportunity to win it, but some late-game turnovers (two by me) gave them the lead back and we lost 13-11. We rebounded and fought hard to win 11-9 against 7 Figures, then crushed Cosa 15-4 in the last game. On Friday, we lost our pre-quarters game 15-10 to Slow White, beat D’oh 15-11, then took down Polar Bears 14-8. The Polar Bears win was extra satisfying because we clearly saw our defense working well. For the first half of the game, we shut down their deep cuts with strong physical defense. In the second half, they started to bring all their cuts under and across, and we took advantage by playing tighter and getting a bunch of Ds. I think we scored 3 or 4 breaks in a row in the second half. For our last game Sat morning, we were up a few breaks on Santa Maria but they came back to win on universe (13-12).

My takeaways:

• Continue to improve throwing and reduce turnovers. I only had turnovers in the games that we lost (2 each game vs CLX, Slow, Santa Maria).
• Be more disciplined on D. I still give up the deep sometimes.
• Still not great under pressure. Half of my throwaways were rushed throws at crucial moments in the game when we should be extra careful. When the pressure is on, respond by being even more patient and conservative.

Practice was supposed to be Saturday, but it got rained out and moved to Sunday. We split the practice up into 4 sections: one for each of our Thursday opponents plus one for us. During our section, we ran through all the plays in our playbook to make sure we have everything down pat. Then we played mini to work on handler movement and stopping it (Cosa Nostra), worked on physical defense and poachy zone (7 Figures), and then scrimmaged with the endzone being closed for the first 40 seconds (CLX). Overall the practice went pretty well. The O line especially played well during the scrimmages, coming back to win the zone scrimmage after being down, and not giving up a single turn in the endzone-closed scrimmage.

Combo double practice and beach weekend. There wasn’t much actual beach going on because it was cold and rainy, but I did jump in the ocean after practice on Saturday. We repeated a few drills from the past (gauntlet, marking), then moved on to scrimmage. We got some good reps with zone because it was rainy and a great chance to practice. O even played some zone to give the D some practice, but mostly O played O. The weekend was somewhat streaky, with O and D taking turns going on runs. Our numbers were kinda low, so we all got to play a lot and get quality reps in.

After practicing all day Saturday (with a break for lunch, Spikeball and full-team Spikejam), we went to Papa’s house for dinner, 7 Wonders and Fishbowl.

On Sunday, we went back to work. It was even colder, but not terrible. After warmups and some triangle cutting drills, my knee felt painful so I stopped playing and switched to filming. Everyone else finished out the drill and moved on to scrimmage. The level remained high throughout the day, though there were a bit more miscues and botched Ds than the day before.

We cruised through regionals, winning all our games by a good margin. No team made it to double digits against us. Our O line didn’t get broken once all weekend, and we had very few unforced turns all around. The intensity was good, even when we were winning by a lot.

We spent an hour or so on Saturday talking about spirit. Amp often gets low spirit scores, though we don’t think we have poor spirit. So there must be something we’re missing, something we need to pay attention to and improve so we’re not seen as jerks. Some good points were that we want the teams we beat to cheer for us and be proud when we represent the region. We don’t have to make friendly banter on the sidelines or smile at everyone, but we do need to respect our opponents as worthy adversaries and recognize when they are doing something well. Some teams we mentioned as examples of good spirit are Polar Bears, Slow White, Fury, Riot, the men on CLX.

For me personally, I played well on the weekend, though I didn’t play much (esp on Saturday). I did have one drop and one rushed semi-throwaway that I should not have had, but besides that I think I was very effective all around. I did notice myself rushing during our last game. I’ll try to remember that feeling so I can notice it in myself in the future. Brayden (the AG coach) also gave me some good feedback during the game.

• When I’m marked tightly on the flick side, I lift my pivot slightly as I throw to get space. But that’s still a travel. I need to either call disc space or do something else (pivot?) to get the space I need.
• When I’m near the endzone (or downfield too), I get locked in on one person and wait for them to make the move I want them to make. I need to be careful of spending too much time on one person. Instead, I should either communicate where I want them to go, or to another cutter.
• When I throw the disc laterally from the break side towards the middle, I MUST remember to cut upline immediately. I should practice this.
• I made the same dump mistake that I made a few weeks ago in practice (and Katie was my dump again). The mark was counting stalls a bit quickly, so I was rushed in my head. I turned to look at my dump, but then immediately turned back upfield. I need to commit to the dump and stay with her for at least a few seconds before looking elsewhere. She’s waiting for my look to make her cut, so I can’t expect her to be open right away.
• Don’t rush so much. Learn to notice it and relax when it happens. I think this may lead to my frantic cutting as well.

Had practice from 9am to 1pm both Saturday and Sunday. We did a lot of scrimmaging, and I even got some reps on the D line. We also ran drills for endzone cutting and to work on flashing our mark into the lane to stop the continuation upfield. Overall I think it was a very productive weekend. I felt strong on D and mostly strong on O. I think I only had one turnover in scrimmages, and worked well in zone O and transition D. I got my feedback from Butter and he also said that he liked what he saw. His major criticism was for me to cut deep more. I did not do the best job with that today but I will continue to focus on it during regionals.

One down note: Diana hurt herself at the start of scrimmaging on Saturday. We’re not sure what it is yet (x-ray tomorrow), but it’s likely a broken metatarsal. If that’s the case, it means about 8 weeks on crutches and no ultimate (regionals, nationals, mosh, etc). I’m still hoping that it’s just a bad sprain, but if not, it would be a huge bummer.

Two hours of scrimmage with fairly few people. The O line had one guy sub and one girl sub. The D line started with a girl sub but ended up savage by the end. This probably contributed to how well I thought the O line played, but we played well even in the beginning. The D line spent most of the game pulling to us. Each of our goals was worth half a point, but we could double-score after each goal to earn the full point. I really enjoyed just playing a lot with few subs. It’s rare that I get a lot of reps in a row, and we really got into a good groove on O. I can see how having no subs at all would be rough, but I still enjoyed the day.

A pretty good 5-hour practice. We some skills work and scrimmaged a lot. We spent a good amount of time focusing on our redzone offense. We worked on the gravity cut, which turns out to be very hard to defend if you’re close to the endzone. The third cut (to the cone, back across for the break, then force side to the back cone) is especially tricky to cover. If you don’t sell out to get the IO, it’s pretty easy to throw something in that area. If you do, the cut to the back cone is open. Doing this drill on O and on D really let us experiment with making the cut different ways and defending it different ways, and it really proved to me how hard it is to cover (if the thrower is close enough).

After that, we went into some endzone-focused scrimmage. The O line really struggled here, and the D line played very well on D and on O. They were very smooth, only had one cut at a time to each threatening space, and broke the mark very well for goals. The O line had trouble scoring more than 2 or 3 in a row, and often the goals were quite contested. We were very frustrated towards the end of practice.

For our last drill, worked on a bit of transition O/D in the redzone. Here, the success of the lines swapped and the O line crushed it. Maybe it helped that it started to rain and the disc became very slippery, but the O line scored almost all their opportunities and got a good amount of Ds as well.

My takeaways from the practice are:

• We should be way better about scoring in the redzone. It makes sense to isolate one cutter and look at them for a while, esp when the thrower is close to the endzone.
• Our O needs to figure out whats going on with us. Possession and scoring should be easy, yet we struggle so much.
• Mixing up the O/D lines may be useful. I know the argument for “chemistry” among the lines, but there are significant benefits to variety (more creativity, a stronger requirement for communication, more practice adapting to novel situations, learning from more players, etc) and these may outweigh the chemistry thing.

We were supposed to scrimmage at Penn Park for two hours, but they shut the lights off after about 30 minutes of playing. So we worked on our deep hucks in the dark instead. The cutting practice (the shape, the turn, not slowing down while looking back) was great. The throwing part would have been great but I was rushed to throw the next throw and not being able to see your throw was really weird.

Afterwards, I did the shuffles workout:

• 4x10secondsx5yards side shuffle with crossover on the first step out of the turn
• 2x10cut drill, again with crossover on the first step

Shuttles

• 3x150m with 50m between cones. 150s rest between each.
• 5x150m with 25m between cones. 150s rest between each, 120s before the last one.

Threw for about a minute between each shutle.

Throwing

Spent about 10 minutes working on my throws. Primarily worked on the full-extension backhand fake to the flick throw. I have trouble getting power when coming all the way back from a full step-out. Watching Melanie throw, I noticed that she doesn’t pivot the full 180 degrees on the way back. She goes about 135, with her right foot out in front of her left. That seemed to help, will try it next time. Also, gotta throw the disc more up and IO when reaching far or pivoting hard.

An hour of 3-on-3 with the South/West Philly Amp crew. We did 3 minutes on, 3 minutes off. The weather was really hot and the turf at Penn Park made it even hotter, so the pace of the game was not the highest. Still, it was good practice. My throws and cuts were somewhat lazy at times, but other times I played strong D and cut well. I did have a few bad turnovers, still not focusing on my decisions enough.

After mini, I did this week’s shuffles (8x10secondsx5yards, 30seconds rest inbetween) with Bulb and Diana. I focused on staying light on my feet in the middle and exploding out of the plants at the ends.

Two days of camping and ultimate in beautiful Burlington, WA. This was basically mini-Nationals, as the top 8 teams from last year were there. A lot of unexpected results on the weekend - Drag’n Thrust only won 2 games, Cosa Nostra played better than expected, we finally beat Wildcard. On the whole though, we performed below expectations and finished last (8th) despite our wins against Wildcard and Mischief.

I played fairly well, though I did have some bad turnovers in the Cosa game and in our second Wildcard game. I also only played 2 points against Cosa and in our first Wildcard game. In the games that I had time to get into, I thought my cutting was fairly strong and my D on the turn was also good.

Things I did well:

• inside breaks
• threatening deep, then cutting hard under (break and open), then slashing for the IO
• patience near the endzone

Things to improve on:

• reduce bad decision throws. I only had two or so, but that’s two unnecessary risks.
• reduce execution mistakes. Had at least three here (two to Trey in the same point, probably tired mistakes). I’ve been working on throwing harder, I think that will help.
• don’t get caught looking away from the guy I’m covering. Focus on him and my footwork, but take peeks when I can. Even when I’m peeking, move to cover the likely next threat.
• better around breaks, flick hucks.

Long day of practice with AMP: 9am-1pm, then break for lunch, then 2pm-5pm. On top of that it rained for most of the day, which sapped some of my energy towards the end. I felt great until about 3 or 4, then started to feel drained. I think a lot of the O was feeling similar, and it showed in our game.

I played really well before lunch, throwing or catching most of our goals and only turning over one drop and a huck to Katie. After lunch, I was not as effective with my cutting and had some poor decisions on O and D.

One mistake I consistently make is to not anticipate where my person is going and to allow them to beat me deep. I think part of it is that I need to try setting up differently - maybe facing the open side and dictating instead of facing the person I’m covering and reacting.

Midweek practice with AMP. We did a short warmup, then did the gauntlet D positioning drill, then went to scimmaging.

Most of the time, we scrimmaged with the same format as the camping weekend: D pulls to O, O sets up on D on the endzone line. If O scores, they play D. If D scores, that’s it. The playing was fun, but it was O that struggled a lot this time. We played well but made execution mistakes and didn’t get them back. On the few times we got them back, we turned it over again. I don’t think we got more than one or two breaks the whole time.

In the last 20 minutes, we tried a new format. Neither team was allowed to score within the first 30 seconds of their possession. The endzone was considered out of bounds. After a turn, the 30 seconds restarted. The goal is to encourage the D to play aggressive underneath defense (as teams do to us sometimes) and for the O to be chilly and really work to maintain possession. At first this was a fun twist. Several points went by with both teams being patient and swinging the disc among the handlers near the endzone until it was time to score. However, the D soon realized that they needed to shut down the dumps to prevent the easy strategy. Also we got tired of the longer points. The two factors combined to create a lot of stress, and the frustration really showed for both teams. The last point took about 10 minutes to end, with both teams having multiple drops (sometimes first-throw drops) and really struggling to assert themselves. Part of this was because we really emphasize pushing upfield and not throwing backwards, but once we got to the goal line and couldnt advance, we got stuck and didn’t adjust well. Another part is that we need to practice being flexible and communicating on the field to solve problems. Finally, we have work to do in frustration management department.

Looking forward to double practice this weekend.

Practice

Had a great double practice at glorious Lums Pond State Park. We spent a lot of time scrimmaging and working on the triangle cutting drill. We focused on defense, throwing deep early, and threatening multiple spaces at once. I really enjoyed the triangle cutting drill. I think it simulated game situations well and really let us work on a lot of good habits.

The O-line motto for the weekend was “play with tempo and trust”. Miggs was coming back from surgery, so he provided feedback to the O line. I thought he was very helpful in setting the strategy (even the defensive strategy) and on giving individual feedback on throwing.

The O line won most of the scrimmages over the weekend. The format of the scimmages was this: if O scored the first goal, they would play defense as if it were a turn. If D scored the first goal, the point ended. Also, O never pulled to D. Instead, we would drop the disc in the endzone and then set up before checking the disc in. This was an interesting format, as it allowed the O to score twice before subs, but it also gave the D a chance to score while O was tired. I’m not sure if this gave O an advantage or not, but the O line won most of the scrimmages on the weekend.

On the O line’s O possessions, we tended to run sidestack or ho stack on the pull plays. On D, we ran aggressive marks (flat-no-inside or even straight-up at times) and tight D downfield. Half the time, we fronted the cutters and trusted the mark to take away the easy deep throw. Alex and Diana really punished us for this strategy, so we tried to play back-hip when they had the disc. When Diana came over to the O line, it became easier for us.

Personally, I think both my D and O really stepped up this weekend. Patrick’s article on perfect positioning really came in handy. I spent a lot of time thinking about avoiding parallel foot positioning and I think that helped me respond to cutters faster. I covered Papa for most of the weekend. In the past I struggled to contain him, but this weekend I think I shut him down pretty often. One thing that Jill pointed out to me is that I spend too much time looking at the thrower and not enough time focusing on the person I’m covering. I’ll be working on that later this week. I also felt that my mark was pretty solid most of the weekend and my cutting is getting better as I practice it more.

My main downside is still my throwing. I don’t think I had more than one or two decision errors, but I did have a bunch of execution mistakes. I rushed several throws when my mark was out of position or on the ground, and ended up turning them over. I even got handblocked once. I also overthrew Panna on what should have been a wide-open goal. Finally, I rushed the last point of the last game on Sunday and threw a dicey upline throw when I should have been looking to swing the disc.

Camping

Between Saturday and Sunday practices, we camped at the campground in the park. The forecast called for rain all weekend, but it ended up only raining at night. Saturday was beautiful the whole day. Sunday was grey and soggy, but almost no actual rain fell on us.

At the campsite, we played disc golf and ate a bunch of food. Alex brought a giant steam pot and made a huge dinner for everyone: 15 lobsters and a ton of clams, mussels, shrimp, sausage, eggs, etc. It was the most gourmet meal I’ve ever had while camping. Then we sat around a campfire, drank beer, and played games. It would have been perfect if not for the nasty park ranger who made us pour out the last of our beer. I thought she was gonna be cool about it (we weren’t even being loud) but she was not fun at all.

Diana and I did make one technical error. We set up our tent on a giant tarp. I thought it was a good idea, but I forgot that tent tarps are designed not to stick out past the edges of the tent. This keeps rainwater from pooling on the tarp. So when it rained at night, the water collected inside and most of our stuff got wet. We slept fine (the thermarests kept us out of the water) but packing up in the morning was annoying and drying everything in the evening was a chore. On the plus side, we had tons of dry socks because our AMP socks had just come in. I had them in my bucket, which kept them and most of my other stuff dry. The duffel bag did not stay fully dry, but it did OK compared to Diana’s backpack, which got completely soaked. Lessons learned there.

Our mid-week AMP practice was cut short by a thunderstorm, but not before the D line kicked the O line’s ass in several short scrimmages. We struggled with downfield cutting and the dump sets. Our D after a turn was also pretty bad. That’s pretty much it.

Played several hours of goalty with Amp. We played 5v5 for most of the time, then switched to 4v4 at the end. I’m completely sold on the clear box vs the clear line. The box encourages you to play defense the whole time, not just near the goal.

NY Invite. Haven’t been to this tourney since 2009, when it rained insanely hard and the games did not get called off until after the fields were wrecked. Maybe they haven’t been able to get the fields since…

I continued in my role as the primary O-line cutter. I think I played better this weekend. I only had 3 turnovers - two hit my receiver in the hands and one was a good look but a bit too low and too far for Benny to catch up to. I played fairly solid D after turns (and even got some D points in during the last game) but I think I could have done better. My favorite games were against Slow, Shuyamouf and CLX.

Lessons from the weekend:

• need to continue working on my throws, especially on putting enough snap on my flicks and on reaching out on my backhands.
• am getting better with the shape of my cuts, but need to start deep cuts from closer in.
• need to work on executing the proper dump cut. I went upline a good amount but did not come across for the IO at all.
• pay more attention to the mental prep and the instructions from captains. they set the focus, but it’s easy to forget what is said when you’re focusing on the current point.

My stats:

• 35 O points, 8 D points
• 10 goals
• 4 assists
• 1 D
• 3 throwaways, 0 drops

Played 3 days (Thurs-Sat) of high-level ultimate in the Twin Cities. It was like having an early Nationals. The top 6 teams from last year’s nationals were here, as well as Union (Canada’s national champion) and a mixed team from Colombia. I played almost exclusively O line, which is a first for me. I did not feel 100% comfortable all the time, especially with the effectiveness of my cutting and the number of turns I had. But everyone told me I played well and should be happy with how I did.

Overall it was great playing against such strong teams so early in the season. We played Drag’n Thrust and Wildcard to universe (and had the opportunity to win both) and won a universe-point game against Union. We also played decently against Polar Bears, though they beat us 15-9. After games, we had a great time hanging out, partying and exploring with the team. Much bonding was accomplished.

My stats for the weekend:

• 39 O points, 7 D points
• 8 goals
• 7 assists
• 3 Ds
• 7 throwaways, 2 drops

Worked on many different things at practice. I was less happy with my performance this time, mostly because of the many throwing mistakes I had. There were at least 3 easy backhands that I should have completed but I just threw them away. Besides that, I played OK. The deep throwing practice was useful, and we spent most of the rest of the time scrimmaging with different formats: zone only, 1 score or 2 turns, double-score, etc.

After practice, Diana and I went to our summer league game. We played Satell’s team. They were clearly lacking their top players and we picked up Mike Gentile. The game was fairly lopsided and we won handily. They had a strong deep game, but they turned it a lot and we capitalized well on most of their turns.

We worked on deep throws and defense in the air, then switched to 5v5 and 6v6 scrimmage, then worked on zone (ATC and 1-3-3). All the drills felt very productive and I liked the pace. We went hard up front in the deep drills, running a good amount of sprints with little rest. Then in the scrimmages, we had enough subs to wholesale every point, so we got a good amount of rest. I felt like I was pretty much fully rested for each point. The zone work and scrimmages were pretty good, though with no wind, it tough to replicate zone conditions. I gave into throwing loopy over-the-top throws a few times even though I would not throw them in a real zone game. Still, it was good to go through the reps. We even played with an extra defender and the O still managed to score a decent number of times.

After watching the videos (1,2) from the 5on5 scrimmage, it’s very clear how effective it is to make big deep cuts. Many of them either turned into goals, or became big in cuts. The big unders may be partially because of our emphasis on playing back-hip defense. I’m curious to see how this works against teams that play underneath defense. Hopefully our throwers can punish them with deep shots.

After practice, we hit up Dre’s uncle’s pool for some swimming and burgers. Then I took a short nap and continued the party at Sara’s: DIY pizza and the USvPortugal world cup game.

Scrimmage at the Duck Pond. We played 4 games of 10-12 minutes. All games were 5v5 and on-the-fly subbing, but on a full field. We also added the rule that you cannot throw backwards. I played well for the most part, but had a poor flick huck again. I did have several good hucks though. I’ll keep working on it.

Today’s practice focused mostly on training several important skills: upline cutting and defense, around backhand breaks, breaking out of a sideline trap, and the shape of our cuts. We scrimmaged a bit at the end to consolidate those skills and put them into use. I think my cuts and upline stuff was decent (though I got beat in the sideline drill once), but my throws definitely need work. Some of my around backhands are good, some were pretty bad, and my hucks are just awful overall.

After practice, we also got together and talked about team goals and individual goals for the season. Some highlights:

• throw every day
• you’re doing a disservice to your teammates by not going all out in practice. we have to push each other to work harder so we know how to deal with difficult situations.
• the best competition we’re going to see for most of the year is ourselves.
• season goal: stay injury-free, touch the disc every day, focus on things we can control and on constant improvement.
• everyone needs to be a threatening player. last year we relied on Birdo to make plays and be open for us. everyone should be able to win their matchup the way Birdo did.
• be open to receiving feedback from our teammates. we can always learn from each other. similarly, feel comfortable giving feedback to others. let the captains set the general strategy and make major corrections, but also look to help.
• its important to build trust in each other. we should not feel inhibited in our game or our decisions because of deficiencies we perceive in others on our team. we should play our game.
• aim high. don’t settle for winning games or even tournaments. aim to win every point and every cut.
• identify our own weaknesses and tailor our workouts to eliminate them.
• besides lifting and running, we need to focus on eating and sleeping well.
• if we’re down 9-3, we can not change the past or control what happened. we can only focus on what we’re going to do next. this mindset is a good way to stay positive when we’re down without pretending to be happy.
• think about that end-of-season talk when we’ve played our last game at nationals. visualize us, sitting in a circle, all smelly and sunburnt, cleats and socks littering the field. what do you see us talking about? how do you want that conversation to go? now think about what you’re going to do today to make sure that happen.

Played a bunch of 5v5 and then 4v4 at Haverford. Warmed up with the warning track drill, then emphasized deep cuts and deep throws to space in the scrimmages. I need to start wearing knee pads, at least on my left knee. After scrimmage, supper club at Tiffin for some Lamb Saag.

Had our first practice with the final roster. Butter was there but he had just had shoulder surgery yesterday morning so he was not 100%. I took over clapping duties and some play calling when I was in. We worked on the usual things: attacking vertically and to the break side, playing defense, etc. The main new elements were working on Sauce, getting out of a hard sideline trap, and our 3on3 redzone set. The trap work was particularly useful - we do get stuck there sometimes and its good for everyone to know how to get out. I rally enjoyed playing the thrower role (5 for 5 on goals) and also attacking upline from the dump. I also really liked marking Owen. Even though I felt that I gave up the inside break too much, the sideline was happy with the mark.

One thing I did not do well is swing the disc on O. There were a few times where I got caught up in moving the disc up the force side and did not look for the break soon enough. I also got stuck clogging the dump space for Zumba on one play. I thought I was open on a late bailout in cut. He didn’t look at me (which makes sense in retrospect because he was looking at his dump) so I just stood there and called for it. I should not have been there in the first place and should have gotten out sooner.

After practice, I taught Papa how to do backflips on the highjump pad. I was also gonna teach Lexa but she kneed herself in the nose on her first attempt and that was the end of that.

Excellent weekend of ultimate. I haven’t won a non-playoffs tournament since Philly Invite last year. Also, I really felt like our team grew and learned a lot this weekend. We had a lot of subs on Saturday and won all our pool play games (none were very challenging). Then we lost our crossover to SHUYAMOUF because we did not defend the deeps well. We started strong, going up 5-2. Then they scored 10 points in a row. We came back some with a run of our own, but it wasn’t enough to win the game.

On Sunday, all the Spinners left for their game so we were down to about 10 guys. But I liked that better because I got to play more and connect more with everyone else. We won our first game against Bang, then played Lions in semis. They took half 8-3 to start, then we got a break to go to 10-5, and then we scored 6 straight to win the game on 11-10 on hard cap. That was one of the most exciting comebacks I’ve ever been a part of. Devlin gave a great half-time speech about wanting to feel our team from the sideline and our defense refocused to execute our gameplan. We took away the deeps and the arounds, and they collapsed. I caught a great huck from Harrison to tie it at 10s and Katie hit Ben with a hammer to win the game.

In the finals, we played SHUYAMOUF again. They gained their MLU players (Sean Murray and Lucas), but Amp was on fire. We started off strong and never looked back. They only beat us deep one or two times, scoring most of their goals in the front corner of the endzone or on nice IO breaks. We did slack off on taking away the arounds - will have to work on that in the future. Our ladies were especially dominant, getting several nice Ds and shutting down their assignments. In the last few points, they were completely uncovered for multiple cuts in a row. The guys also played well. Bulb caught the winning goal by walking to the throw in the enzone - there was no one even close to him.

I had the honor of being named the mens MVP for the tourney for playing strong back-hip D, attacking the break side with my throws, and deciding to stop throwing my deep throws that weren’t working. Sara got the women’s MVP for repeatedly breaking the mark and for several heads-up Ds during the day. We celebrated with some all-natural chocolate milk and dinner at GuacamoleDesi Village. Amp!

The first of our regular midweek meetups. We warmed up with a bit of plyos and the give-n-go drill, then scrimmaged (5v5, then 3v3) for over an hour. It was a lot of fun. Playing with fewer players gives you way more touches and lets you feel like you’re killing it on O because you’re way open. On D though, its a lot tougher. I did ok for the most part. My cutting was pretty good but my deep throws were way off. Throwing higher has been helping, but now I’m sometimes throwing too high. I guess that’s ok for now.

After the game, we went to Luigi’s Pizza in Fairmount and talked about jersey designs. I’m starting to feel pretty good about it. They are not gonna wind up as boring as I feared.

Great practice with AMP. I was a bit hurt so I didn’t go 100% on everything, but I still played a decent amount. We worked on defense for the most part: deep D, under D, etc. There was a good amount of scrimmaging, which is always nice, and the drills were pretty fun and felt useful. Also my throwing on Friday definitely paid off because my throws were pretty good today (except when they were catastrophically bad). Especially in the away cut drill, my flicks finally had enough IO on them to stay straight in the wind. Unfortunately, it did not translate well to in-game hucks. I did have a really nice full-field huck to Diana, but it was just a bit too far :-(

Another amp tryout, another injury. I think I strained my quad during warmups or the first drill or something. It feels very much like the time I messed up my right quad at OMK. But this time I’m gonna take good care of it and not come back until I’m ready. So I spent most of the practice watching the drills and the grames.

20 seconds ice-cold shower.

Amp’s first tournament of the season. I’m still coming back from my tendonitis, so I only played half a day on Saturday. The weekend was a mix of ups and downs for me. I started off on a huge down, with two drops and three turns in our first game (which we ended up losing). The rest of the games went pretty well. We beat AG on Saturday, then won our quarters game on Sunday and lost a very close game to AG in semis. I caught a layout Callahan against AG.

Things I need to improve: cutting on O. My awareness is decent but needs work, especially paying attention to my teammates. I also need to learn to stop and cut faster and to throw better into the wind. Finally, fewer turns. Maybe it was just my first game outside, but the throwaways were poor decisions and that’s no good.

EDIT: also got bit by a tick sometime this weekend. This might come in handy later.

Did our first structured tryout. We did several drills (give-n-go, breakside cuts, 3 on 3 for 3, 3 on 3 for 2 turns) and then went to a full 7 on 7 scrimmage. It was a bit windy and I threw some bad throwaways. I’m also out of shape after not running for a few weeks. But it will come back to me.

Played a full game against Delaware’s college team. They were pretty athletic and had decent throws, but their girls were not great and they didn’t have the experience we had. The game was close in the first and most of the second quarter, though it was our fault for turning over a lot of endzone opportunities. We got our shit together some more in the second half and pulled away to win by 6 or 7. I had a good amount of inside breaks for goals, but I also turned over a bunch. Butter is right, my IO flick needs work.

Had a long meeting about the upcoming Amp season. We talked about the importance of player retention, changing up the practice structure (midweek practices, more intense weekends, fewer but longer weekends), focusing on cutting and on-field problem solving, tryouts and setting the roster early, and many other things. It was mostly a brainstorming session as well as a feedback-for-the-captains session. There was some disagreement about early-season tournaments and whether going to a beach weekend with a bunch of people you don’t know is a good or bad things for new players. We also talked about holding each other accountable and creating standards of fitness. Dre mentioned that every DI program she’s ever coached or played for has fitness standards, and they are a good way to force people to get in shape, but she would not advocate them for Amp because the primary goal is not to win a championship at any cost.

After the meeting, we went to Spinners practice. We mostly scrimmaged and worked on dump offense and defense. I threw some good throws but also had a few bad turnovers. My D was fairly good allaround. I’d give me a 7 out of 10. Or maybe 6. Need more work.

Played against the Spinners team (the Baers, Brando, Zargham, etc). They were missing half their guys, but still gave us a great game. I don’t think the point diff was ever more than 4, and the final score was 32-31. We won on a last-second Raha handblock and score to go up 1, then a D from Satell to seal the win.

I did not play very well. It was cold and my hands were freezing again, so my throws were not good. I was also pretty tired from yesterday, so my D was weak at times. Now it’s time for a day off to prepare for Phoenix tryouts tomorrow night.

Played against Roots and then Trey’s team. We played fairly well on the whole and won both games. We were a bit savage and some of our players were sick (including me). I had a few bad throwaways but played with discipline besides that.

Pullups

• 8 pullups
• 5 chinups
• 5 neutral
• 4 chinups
• 4 pullups

AMP Indoor

Played more amp. We spent more time focusing on cutting. Did a new drill where one cutter cuts in, catches the disc, and hits a second in-cut at an exact location. The goal is for the second cutter to time their cut so they get the disc i nstride at the correct spot. We also scrimmaged a lot.

Ultisquash

Played a bunch of ultisquash in the morning. We hav enough people for two games, so we played pretty much nonstop. I was undefeated until the very last game.

Amp Indoor

Another great indoor session. We spent more time working on downfield cutting. One thing we did was eliminate the dump in several drills. We also worked on cutter timing and some short 3 on 3 drills. We finished with a bunch of scrimmages, throwing, rolling and dinner at Butter’s house.

My indoor throws have definitely been improving. Fitness is still a bit lacking, though that may be because of the ultisquash.

An awesome 2 hours. We did some short stretches and drills, then scrimmaged a lot. First drill was a give-and-go drill with 3 stationary receivers and one cutter running down the middle of the field. I liked the drill, but I’m unsure about the in-game usefulness. Going from catch to throw quickly was good practice. But when I try to do this move in a real game, the hardest part is throwing to a moving cutter while also moving.

After that drill and a 1-on-1 cutting in space drill, we played a bunch of scrimmages. For the first few, we were not allowed to throw the disc backwards. For the last few, it was just standard indoor ultimate with a slightly longer stall count.

I need to match up against Papa more.

Reproduced here in it’s full glory.

AMP’s made progress again! Meeting physical ambitions, mastering planks and maneuvering past all Mid-Atlantic predicted adversaries, making postseason annual migration pattern.

Aggressive marking positions and magnificent plays are making people afraid. Meanwhile, Princess and Miggs [pseudonymns] are match-up problems, and Michael Panna a major pickup, adding more potent attacks. Mustached Purifico assaults molded plastic, Andrea’s most passionate and Melissa’s perfect at motivating players. Adept Melanie preserves AMP’s major possessions, and Maddie, Pelleg and Matt Paparone are massive performers. Alex’s mammoth pulls and magical point-blocks always mystify people.

Allowing momentary pause, all members prepare and meticulously plan a merciless push. After mental preparation and much practicing, another mighty pool awaits mixed Philadelphians. AMP’s mission plan: attack, make plays, achieve maximum pleasure and modern prominence.

Good practice. I played with the O line this time, which was a nice change for me. I think I did well overall. My spacing and timing wasn’t as great as it could have been, and I threw my only turn of the day on a wide-open cut to Alex. I put too much edge on the disc and it dropped right at his feet. I also did well in the redzone scrimmge and the upline drill. On D, I played tight on my guy but got beat deep once or twice and wasn’t as decisive in the zone as I should have been (pick one side and commit, don’t hang out in the middle).

Last practice before regionals. Worked on transition offense, fitness and marks. Played a few games focusing on transition offense, then played a game to 3 where you can only score if you didn’t start on O. Finished with a flick-huck drill. Lunch at Circles was delicious.

4 hours of practice at Ballfields. I played offense most of the time, which was a nice change. I think I played pretty well, though I had two back-to-back turnovers that should have both been easy goals. Besides that, I did a reasonably good job cutting, throwing and scoring. Raha even said she felt I played well.

I think the O line won one double-score scrimmage out of three (though we won it 4-0) and also won the first red zone to 10.

A fun and useful weekend of practices, beach play and hanging out. The schedule:

Friday night: fishbowl charades game.

Saturday morning: Grass practice. We worked on dumps to the open side, then redzone offense, then scrimmage. My ankle held up pretty well throughout, though its not 100% yet. Offense won the first scrimmage, defense won the second.

Saturday afternoon: Beach practice. Playing in the wind and on the sand was great. We did a breakmark drill and the Petter drill. The wind really added a new level of difficulty. Then we split into 3 teams and played a round-robin tournament with the non-playing team doing Jamals, agility and throwing drills while the other teams played 4 on 4.

Sunday night: pool, grilling, crossdressing, psychiatrist, football via Apple TV.

Sunday morning: Back to grass. Did a Jackpot drill for vert stack and ho stack, then a bunch of O vs D scrimmaging, then a breakmark throwing/marking drill, and one final scrimmage. I started doing drills but sat out for all of the scrimmages at first. Then I got back in for the second drill and played the last game to 5. My ankle still needs time off. Major icing and ibu still needed. Also got my captain feedback: I need to get faster.

Sunday afternoon: more pool, hoagies, Space Jam.

Amp practice 9am-1pm. I rolled my ankle at about 9:30, so I spent most of the time watching and icing. It was a good practice. We worked on proper swing/continue cutting and applied that in redzone offense. This is one of my weak points so I wish I hadn’t hurt myself because I needed the reps. Hopefully I’ll be ready by Wednesday.

Did 50 AMPs throughout the day and then 20 more with everyone at the end.

Played a few games to 5 at the Duck Pond before the thunderstorm kicked us off. Spinners season is done, so all those guys came out. Also a new girl named Claire. The games were good but the weather was really muggy, so it was kinda rough.

4 hours of practice at Edgely. We spent a lot of time scrimmaging with a focus on defense. We tried several poachy defenses, different marks and downfield positioning. We also spent a little time on reading/catching hucks and throwing deep to women. My defense was not the best and I turned over a wide-open away throw to a girl. I was better on offense: cutting was pretty smooth and I threw a nice huck. Need to work on fitness and quickness more.

Played a bunch of games to 5 at the Haverford Duck Pond. Mostly AMP people, a few Bitmapers. We played 4 on 4 the whole time. Overall I played OK, same story as always: too many turnovers.

Scrimmaged for a few hours at Lower Merion HS. We played 4-2 ratio for the most part, with some 4-1 at the end. It was a good workout, though I busted my right heel pretty badly. I hope it heals (punny) by Saturday.

Had a double-length practice today. We had over 40 people there. Did a bunch of drills for marking (esp straight-up) and breaking the mark. We also worked on a sequence for getting the disk off the sideline. We scrimmaged for about 3 hours total, which was awesome. After practice, we went to Percy Street BBQ for some delicious brisket and beer.

This practice went almost exactly like last week’s practice. We did the same drills in pretty much the same order. The only additions were that we broke into three groups and one group did fitness while the others played full-field 4 on 4. We also played some 7 on 7 at the end, and then conditioned with 3 Jamals and 9 20m sprints.

Last AMP workout of the preseason. We warmed up with some throws, then worked on defense. We did the hunger drill (focusing on boxing out) and then the defensive positioning drill (focusing on bodying up while remaining balanced). Then we moved on to a 3 on 3 flow drill, where two cutters and a thrower (plus defenders) had to complete three passes on a full field (focus on defending in space, disc movement, setting up continuation cuts). Finally, we played several 4 on 4 games on a full field (focus on disc movement, smart decisions). We finished with a bit of sprints and ab conditioning.

First AMP practice of the season. We worked on sideline situations: dumping, swinging and defending the dump. Then we played some full-field 3 on 3. At the end, some sprints and core fitness. After practice, spikeball and lunch at Llama Tooth (good food and beer, super slow).

Scrimmaged with Amp for a few hours. We played about 8 games to 4. It was pretty cold and kinda muddy, but it’s good to play outside as much as possible. It’s also the last week before Worlds tryouts. Good luck, Raha.

First, played an hour of indoor with AMP. I tried out my abbreviated warmups and I think they went well. I just need to speak louder and demonstrate the new exercises up front.

After that, we drove over to MapleZone and played in the first-ever Indoor Regionals. We won our first and third poold game easily but lost the second one to Tad’s team. We still made semis though. In semis, we beat Scorpio (BLo’s team and probably the favorite to win it). Then in the finals, we had a rematch against Tad’s team and beat them by 2 points to win the whole thing. Tad’s team ended up beating BLo in the backdoor finals to take the second bid to nationals.

Played 3 hours of indoor at Tee’s. We didn’t take many breaks and played pretty hard. By the end, I was pretty beat. I played about the same way I always play: good on D and receiving, too many throwaways (some stupid decisions, some just bad throws). I always forget that hammers are a good throw indoors.

Played indoor at Tee’s with a bunch of AMP players and some friends. We put in a solid 2 hours of scrimmaging. I relearned for the millionth time that I’m much better at getting blocks than throwing goals (or even passes). After scrimmage, we raged at the Furfs’ house and then swung by Noah’s housewarming party. A grand time was had by all.

A few guys and gals got together to scrimmage AMP and play some mini & spikeball. We played 3 games to 5. The first game was close, the second game they killed us, and the last game we killed them. It was nice getting in some touches while the weather is still warm. Good luck at Natties, Amp. Hope we helped.