Had an excellent time playing with the Molar Bears at Mosh this weekend. For a first-year team, we set the bar pretty high for level of play, level of fun, and finish in the tourney (lost in the finals). The wind was rough and the cold was somewhat annoying, but I had a lot of fun.

Highlights

• drinking tea on the sideline
• recruiting for the team turned out awesome
• everyone was very positive, had a lot of fun and partied pretty hard (though separately). need to have unified party next time.
• every team except Trey’s played pick-6
• the rollers-are-live rule was fantastic in strong wind
• my wind throws have gotten better, and my throwing turns came more from lazy throws
• we beat Trey’s team on universe
• jeremy skied 3 guys in the endzone while wearing fairy wings
• jeremy dropped a hand-on-hip hammer for an upwind break in the finals
• papa owes me a buffalo
• I threw a Rochester for a goal (to the break side to the front of the stack)
• I threw Diana a honey goal. She played with her boot on and still got Ds and was effective.
• the costumes. next year, no jerseys

Bicuspids bite, molars crush
Bears love cold. Let’s win Mosh

Takeaways

• if the wind is so strong that scoring upwind is tough, choosing the wind is equivalent to choosing O/D
• conversely, starting on O upwind is good for focus and mental prep. accept the challenge.
• we lost in the finals in part because of lack of leadership.
  • we were up 7-5 after half and playing D downwind. we should have broken for 8-5, then overloaded our O and sealed the deal
  • millersville adjusted to our strategy at half. we didnt. we should have tried to play more handler-y O going downwind, and I should have called handlers (scottie and brown) to play upwind O points.
  • I should have put myself into the cup to stop their crashes
• as the captain, I did a good job keeping the vibe positive but I did not attend to the team’s needs. I got caught up playing and talking from the sideline, but I needed to take a step back (multiple times throughout the game) and ask myself “what does the team need? what have I done already and what am I not doing yet?”
• catch my Ds, then run them back for goals
• continue to work on throws in the wind, esp flicks and hammers and short-range throws

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.