• Deadlift: 5@135/185/205/225lb
• Pullups: 3x5@20lb
• Press: 5@65/75/80lb

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

Did the T25 Cardio video with my dad and Diana. It was decent, though doing it on cement was a mistake. The bottoms of my feet hurt a lot and I had to stop at a few points to rest them. Overall I didn’t feel too tired, but that might be because of the breaks and the down-scaling to minimize impact. After the cardio, we swam a few laps in the pool.

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.

40 burpees for time: 2:32

Then swam some laps in the pool.

Threw a bunch of long throws at Left Bank. Then worked on around flicks and backhands. Finished with a few ab exercises and this selfie:

Our team was kinda short on guys. Our opponents were short on guys and girls. They were missing Leon and possibly another guy, so they struggled against us. We took the opportunity to work on zone (1-3-3), force backhand, and break-side cuts. We were up the whole time and won without too much of a struggle (though they were close the whole way till about halftime). After the game, Obert, TS and I threw deep throws for about 20 minutes. My flicks are getting back on track somewhat. I changed my grip a bit (moved my thumb back and toward the center). I think this gives me more spin, which helps level out hucks. After that, beers and pizza.

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.

Played a close game against a good team tonight. We were up most of the way, starting from the first break, then taking half 8-6, then being up 12-9. But then, they scored 4 in a row and ended up winning 15-13. We played solid D and O for the most part, though we didn’t go to the break side as much as I would have liked. Our main problem was our endzone O. When we had the disc on the line, we either struggled to score or failed completely. Jeff noticed it too, so hopefully we’ll work on it next game. We also got beat deep too many times, especially by this one girl on their team. Deep D is still a weak point for us, though our girls did a great job running switches and helping clog the lanes and the deep space. That will probably be a plus for us all season (at least when Diana and Katie are there).

After the game, we ran 4 sets of 5x20yd shuttles in the endzone with 60sec rest in between.

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.

Warmed up my throws with Diana and Bulb. Then played a decent game of ultimate. I threw away three hucks, all flickside. Two were short and bladey, the other was over Katie’s head. Besides that I played well, got a bunch of Ds, and we won.

Afterwards, I ran the 10cut drill 5 times. I focused on figuring out my footwork, getting low on turns, and running at top speed the whole time.

Played my first A League game of the season with Roots. We played PTA, our perrenial rival. The game was close the whole way, but we pulled ahead to take half 8-6. They caught up and tied it at 9s, but we pulled away 13-10 and then closed out the game 15-13. I played most of the D points and maybe 1 O point?

The squad is pretty stacked this year. The Sauls, Bode and Quinn are back in town, Dundala and Pauly are back from hiatus, and a few of the younger guys are looking pretty strong. As long as we don’t choke when the pressure’s on, we should be in good shape.

Did basically the same throwing routine as yesterday, but only on the backhand side. We also didn’t play defense on the cuts because it’s not that useful and you just get tired. Instead we tried not to slow down our cuts so that the thrower has a real idea of whether they timed their throw well.

I returned to FitGym after a two-year hiatus at the Pumpatorium. They’ve added a few new things - non-bent bars and a new squat cage, plus a kettlebell area upstairs. I started off easy:

• Deadlift: 5@135/135/185
• Press: 5@65/85/85
• Pullups: 5/4/3@25
• Box jumps: 5@24/24/30 inches

After the gym, we went to Penn Park and worked on our around throws. We practiced throwing goals into the endzone and used a mini soccer goal as a mark. We simulated a flat mark, 30 degree mark and 45 degree mark, and challenged ourselves to step out far to make the throw. The cuts were about 80% speed, but had a trailing defender to ensure that the throw is timed well and on-target. We did backhands first, then flicks. At the end, we threw hucks for a bit.

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.

Threw for 20 min at the high rises before dinner picnic. The less I try to throw hard, the better it works.

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.

Lexa and I ran the following shuttles:

• 300m, 3min rest
• 300m, 4min rest
• 300m, 4min rest
• 150m, 75s rest
• 150m, 75s rest
• 150m, 50s rest
• 150m

I ran the 300s in 54 seconds, 150s in 24. We also threw during the long breaks and at the end.

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.

Played a solid bunch of goalty at edgely. We managed to plays 4s the whole time and even had subs for most of the games. Colin and Z showed up late and added some more oomph to our games. After games, we ate some PADA pork and beer (spring league finals were going on at the same time) and headed home. On the whole I played pretty well - got a lot of Ds and scored a bunch. But I also threw away so many. Colin played really well and had almost no turnovers.