Played Woodbridge. Opponents were not strong. We won by a good amount. I worked a bit on my IO backhan.
2 hours of indoor goalty. I bought 2 home depot buckets, filled them with sand, cut a hole in the lid, and shoved the goalty posts in. It worked out pretty well for indoor play. The game was pretty high-level. Hoping to make this a regular thing.
Lost two close games to finish 4th for the season. Both were solid games. My highlights: got bunch of nice Ds, esp in the second game. Also completed two skipsies for goals (out of three attempts). Lowlights: still more turns than I’d like (esp first game) and some weak defense at times. I also could have been more aggressive as a cutter throughout.
2 solid hours of indoor ultimate at North Branford. I was hoping for more people and a higher overall level, but it was pretty good considering its thanksgiving weekend and it’s our first session. We played a couple games for score, plus a lot of just scrimmaging. Already looking forward to next time.
Started our first game with only 3 people. Had to pick up some friends for the first half, until reinforcements arrived. Ended up losing by a couple. Second game was closer and more intense. We won in OT after they had the disc to win bun turned it over.
In general, I thought we played pretty poorly (probably not a popular sentiment). Lots of high risk throws and turnovers. Some of the risky stuff worked (Including the winning throw of the last game), but it’s not a sustainable way of playing.
Our closest Woodbridge game yet. We went down a few points early, then clawed our way back to win by a couple. The endzones were really shallow this time, so the deep game was limited. We threw a lot of difficult throws that were turns, and didn’t play defense that well. Granted, much of our team was hung over from Bosco’s wedding the night before and from various other Halloween parties.
Another strong finish by the Rockford Peaches in fall league, though we played quite poorly in our second game. The guys didn’t have many subs, so our rotation was pretty tight. Our decision-making got really bad in the second game, especially towards the end. There was a 10-minute stretch right out of half where neither team scored a goal. We even called a timeout to talk about reining in our throws and going for the easy ones, but then kept making bad choices even after that. In the end, we did manage to turn down the aggresiveness and score some easy, patient goals. It also helped that the other team was missing Bosco, their best player.
Since Halloween is on Saturday, we all dressed up as the Peaches - pink dresses, red socks and hats. Our team was the best-dressed of the evening.
Played an hour of indoor at Woodbridge. We played a team of fairly young but very athletic players. They all ran pretty hard, and one guy had really nice throws that he used to find the endzone a lot. They only had one girl, but she also played very well most of the time. She got really tired at the end. Our team was lacking most of our strong players, and we didn’t play very well at first. Eventually we got our shit together and stopped turning it over so much.
Two games, two very different results. First game, we smoked our opponents. We scored twice as many points as they did, which is pretty difficult to do in indoor. We were even missing our first-round guy, and started off with almost no guy subs because many of our guys were running late. Still, we played well, moved the disc to the break side easily, and got a lot of Ds.
Second game, the exact opposite. We started off pretty weak and went down 5-1. After a timeout, we refocused and picked up our game, but we still struggled with poor spacing and unforced mistakes. Our opponents backed us hard and forced us to cut under, which we did. But we moved the disc to the open side too readily and got stuck in the black hole corner too often. People didn’t stay out of the endzone, so scoring was also difficult. And on turns, our defense was lacking. We did close the gap to 3 points at the very end, but they were in control the whole time and milked the clock nicely to end the game.
First night of fall league. Met my team, which turned out to be pretty cool. I was told it was very top-heavy, but I think all the players are at least decent. No one’s unathletic. We lost our first game to Bosco’s team by 1, then beat shockey’s team by 1. Everyone played well, though some of the newer players need some coaching. I got a decent number of Ds (mostly poach Ds) and threw some nice goals (mostly to Kamil). Indoor is a great workout.
Played Delaware in the WL chumpionship. Our team played quite well overall, and I finally had a game where I’m happy with pretty much everything I did. I subbed fast, I only threw one turnover, and I was fairly effective on O and D. I even threw Diana a huck for a goal and intentionally macked a hammer to Furf for a goal (against the rules, I know, but it was awesome). I’d say the biggest difference between that game and our semis game was the feeling of relaxation. I did not feel pressure, I did not rush my throws or decisions, everything was more relaxed and smoother. I don’t know how much of that is because we weren’t in contention to win the league, how much was because of skill differences (Del was not bad, but they play a slower college style), how much was something else. I will meditate on this some more.
Played Bill’s Team (Rag Tag) in the semis. Lost by one point (just like the first time we played them) but the game went a bit differently. This time, we were down most of the way and went on a 6-point run at the end to bring it within 1. We were missing Furf, Raha and Diana. The game was a lot of fun. Butter instructed me to win with my legs, and I did that fairly well (perhaps too well - I didn’t sub enough and got caught tired at moments). Ben’s fitness seems to have helped, but I stil had some bad throwaways. Billy and Sachie played especially well, and Truskin was unstoppable in the air. I threw the last throw - a blade to Tom in the endzone - that Owen D'ed very nicely to prevent us from going into overtime.
Started the playoffs with a game against Vanni’s team again. They scored the first few, but then we jumped out to a 10-3 lead and never looked back. We got pretty sloppy in the fourth, messing around and throwing fullfield hammers and thumbers. We just barely missed the big 4-oh, winning 39-16 or so.
Played RABS in WL. We were close most of the way but got frantic on O in the 4th quarter and let them widen the lead for the win. We played pretty solidly overall and adjusted well to their game (taking away the deep cuts and the around throws). I did not play that well down the stretch, throwing away some bad throws in the 4th quarter. I also hurt my knee on a high layout in the middle of the game, but that seems to be doing better.
Practice was basically the same as last week, except we also ran the 4on4 drill with defense and with live play after the drill starts. I played much worse this time than last time - lots of bad throwaways, lack of focus. Not sure how much of it was mental - I told Billy that I’d be missing most of the season and basically took myself off the team. He told me they were planning to offer me a contract and he’s really happy with how I’m covering handlers and breaking the mark around (this was before the shitty practice), but now I’ll start as a practice player and maybe move onto the roster if that works out. So now that I wasn’t in the running, I think I loosened up. Stupid placebo. Need to pretend I’m staying in Philly and still gunning for a starting spot.