2 hours of Ultisquash. A great high level game with amp ppl and wheels. Owen’s first time playing, and he played really well. Everyone was a bit hung over from last night’s power hour and houseleaving party, but it was great to get out and run around some.

Climbed for an hour at PRG East Falls. Also did some muscle ups, abs and static hold work.

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

Sara got a few AMPers to come to Haverford and help coach the Sneetches. We worked on upline dump defense and then pulling. I brought Diana’s iPad and the Ubersense app, which was really helpful in showing the girls where they were missing out on extra torque on their pulls.

We play better when we eat our Cheddar.
We never miss when we eat our Swiss.
We get the D when we eat our Brie.
We win the party when we eat Havarti.

After practice, we went over to the squash courts and played over an hour of ultisquash. It was good to get back into the game. We had a wide range of talent, from people who’ve played a lot to people who’ve only played once or twice. The games were pretty fun, but with lots of turns. I need to figure out how to minimize my turns and throw more effectively.

Came out to Haverford to help coach the Sneetches for a day. We did the Gauntlet drill in slow motion, focusing on body positioning and footwork. Then we ran it faster to simulate more game-realistic moves. After that we did the hunger drill with no jumping, focusing once more on body positioning, as well as reading the disc and catching with the opposite hand. Finally, we played 4-on-4 winter-league style until it got dark.

When I say we, I really mean the women’s team. I mostly coached, watched and gave feedback. I did get some throws in during the hunger drill, and also at the end with Stu.

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.

I’d taken the whole week off before last practice, and took Monday off as well to make sure my knee was 100%. But I couldn’t keep doing nothing, so I came out for the last workout to do some shuttles, shuffles and throwing. We took forever finding a place to run because most fields were busy with intramurals or other team practice. Eventually we ran 4 shuttles and 4 shuffles, then threw till the IM ultimate game kicked us off.

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.

• 6x15secs shuffle, 45 secs rest between each
• 3x10cut, 90 secs rest between each
• about 10 minutes of medium-length throwing

• Power Clean: 3@145/135/135lb
• SLDL: 3x5@35lb
• Box Jump: 3x10@10lb vest, 30in
• Pullup: 5/5/6@10lb
• Speed skaters: 3x5 with vest
• Eccentric squat: 2x10
• Knees to Elbows: 1x5

15 or so minutes of throwing medium-long distance throws with Miggs.

• 1x150yd (50yd course)
• 2x300yd (25yd course)
• 3x150yd (25yd course)

Ran the 300s in 1:03, 150s in 28

Threw for a while after, then did some speed skaters and talked about shuttle turn technique.

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.

• 3x15secs 5yd shuffles, 45secs rest after each
• 2x10cut, 90 secs rest after each

Afterwards, worked on throwing intermediate throws to moving targets.

• Power Clean: 3x5@130lb
• SLDL: 3x10
• Press: 3x3@105lb
• Box Jump: 2x10@30in
• Single-leg Eccentric Squat: 2x10

Shuttles

• 1x150(50yd course)
• 1x300(25yd course)
• 2x150(25yd course)

150secs rest between each, 3min rest after the 300

Throwing

We threw between most of the shuttles. Then after we were done, we worked on throwing a dishy and cutting deep for the huck. We did that a few times with and into the wind, but only caught about half the hucks. The rest were either overthrown (with the wind) or just bad throws. After cutting for hucks, we just worked on our deep throws. My backhands are decent but my flicks are still awful.

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.

• Power Clean: 3x5@125lb
• SLDL: 3x10@15lb
• Bent-Over Row: 3x5@60lb
• Press: 5@95/100/100lb

Gorgeous day outside. Snuck in a quick workout with Diana at the highrises:

• 2x5x single-leg lateral hops. Focus on sticking the landing.
• 2x5x shuffle-and-hops. Same as single-leg hops, but take one shuffle-step, then hop.
• Several starts with feet parallel, then with facing 90 degrees to a side.
• 6x10secs 5yd shuffle, 30secs between reps.
• 3x10cut drill, 90secs between reps.
• 5 min tired throwing. Ended with 10 crisp backhands, 10 crisp flicks, 5 hammers.