A close game vs DJ, Fro, Toddy, Moronne, and the rest. Came down to universe point, though they had the chance to tie it after I got the score wrong and was running around frantically when I should have just been playing possession.

Another indoor double header. Won our first game handily, then eked out a last-second win on universe in the finals. Zoya came again. She’s getting a lot of ultimate-watching in. Hope it rubs off on her (just the good stuff though).

Two back-to-back games of indoor. Diana and Zoya came too, so we took turns playing and watching her. We lost the first game (didn’t have any women at first, then only had Diana) but won the second after reenforcements arrived.

Brought Zoya to her first ultimate game. Found some parents on the sideline who agreed to watch her while I played. She was great - no more stranger danger, all smiles and giggles. Our team crushed the other team, who was on the second game of their double-header and didn’t have many subs. Afterwards, we went out to lunch.

Ran around a little at woodbridge. I mostly wanted to see how my knee felt after taking several months off. The good news is that it doesn’t hurt, but the bad news is that its pretty sore and does not feel ready yet. Gonna up my PT and workouts at home.

Played an hour of indoor with the Colt guys and Baywatch girls. We were pretty low on numbers and we were playing make-it-drop-it, so by the end we were pretty dead. It was still fun, and I’d do it again.

Record low attendance (4 guys, 6 girls) meant lots of PT for me. I was extra tired by the time we finished. Maybe its the two tough games yesterday, maybe its the focus on lifting over the past few months. Either way, time to take a day off tomorrow.

Two solid indoor games. The first was against UConn (Liz/Saipher/Mary/others). We didn’t play well (start off down 5-1) and the game was quite chippy overall. We eventually clawed our way into the game, switched to backhand to prevent their easy hammer scores, and went up a few points at the end. As time was running out, we buckled down and closed it out to win by 2.

The second game was the best game of the season. We played Colt/Baywatch. They were the favorite, with lots of solid club guys and a deep roster. They only had two women, and we tried to take advantage of that, but I think it was pretty even. The whole game was very close and very spirited. We forced middle the whole game (props to Bosco for the brilliant idea) and made sure we were subbing super fast. We even created two subbing groups for the second half to make sure our lines were well-balanced.

I think the force middle really got to them, because their offence (normally very fast-paced and trigger-happy) slowed down a lot. We often forced them to throw 20 or even 30 throws before they could score. Big props to the improved defense from everyone. On offense, Shockey dominated. He probably scored half our goals that game. Bosco started throwing him floaty dimeballs, and eventually I found my stride and hit him on a few nice hucks too. I think he only got beat in the air once.

When time ran out in the second half, the score was 20-20. They had just scored, so we decided it would be a universe-point game with us on offense. We subbed in our best line and started working the disc. After 3 throws, Bosco unleashes a floaty hammer to CJ for the win. It floats a bit too long, and gets D-ed toward me. I catch it and throw CJ game-winner. A very exciting end to a very good game.

Team Wins

• Force middle. Damn smart.
• We finally subbed at the right pace. I’m just as guilty of staying on too long as anyone. I’m happy we finally did it right.
• Great execution on the force middle. Sideline presence was strong and got everyone into the game. Several people had never played FM before, but they did a great job figuring it out and implementing it. I’d say this was the biggest factor in our win.
• Strong deep game from Andy/Shockey. Really kept us in the game.
• Excellent spirit from both teams.
• Free beer for us after the game.

Personal Wins

• Reeled in my bad throws from the first game, threw better deep looks in the second game.
• D was on point. Got a nice layout D on Timmer in the endzone, an almost-handblock, and generally played my guy tight (plus ran some nice switches).
• Biggest win was the last point. Not that I saved the hammer or threw the goal, but that I made myself get in position to clean up the trash. When I’m tired, I take mental shortcuts and just hope that things will work out. I clearly remember thinking “oh, I don’t need to back CJ up. either he’ll catch it or its a D”. And my next thought was “well, I can get close enough for a small chance at a second attempt”. And that’s exactly what happened, and it won us the game. This mental weakness has been a point of internal struggle for a while, and I won that struggle today.

Needs Improvement

• Still too risky/inconsistent with my deep throws.
• Need to learn to better recognize when someone is open or not. I’ve been hesitant on some throws to open players, when I should be hitting them.
• Starting giving-and-going towards the end, but still not natural.

1.5 hours of metro north indoor. Only had 5 guys, so I got to play a lot.

Feedback: my decisions are good in general, but sometimes I do something stupid. Diana called it my “let’s see” throws.

Double header at Woodbridge, then 2 hours of outdoor pickup. Felt great to be outside, but definitely not ready to run so much yet.

Close game at woodbridge. We played poorly but still won.

Highest-level Trumbull game yet. Didn’t have many subs, and everyone was going pretty hard on both sides of the disc. I got new cleats right before too (my first pair of lacrosse cleats) and they felt pretty good. One of them gave me a bit of a blister, but hopefully that goes away soon.

Played the Colt team. Good game, good competition, lost by a few points.

Another solid indoor session. High level, fast paced, good times.

1.5 hours with the team, plus some friends. Tried a bit of continuous sub-on-the-fly play, but we don’t have the numbers to sustain it. Went back to standard score-and-pull mini.

Played a game with my team, then picked up with the high school team right after.

1.5 hours of indoor scrimmage with Metro North. Played 4v4 (3-1) with 1 guy sub and 1 girl sub per team. I was pretty tired after lifting. Ended up covering Shockey and Ben most of the time. Ben ran me around a lot, but I did a good job on Shockey on several occaisions.

Played a close game against the UConn team. They were young and athletic and did a much better job moving the disc to the break side than we did. They also got more Ds and were more patient outside the endzone. We lost 27-24.

1.5 hours of indoor mini. Mostly Metro North and 7x ppl. Lots of fun.

Our biggest IOP yet. We had 16 people. Played 5 on 5 the whole time with a good number of subs.