Played several hours of goalty with Amp. We played 5v5 for most of the time, then switched to 4v4 at the end. I’m completely sold on the clear box vs the clear line. The box encourages you to play defense the whole time, not just near the goal.

• Deadlift: 3x5@225lb
• Bench Press: 5@125/130/135lb
• Knees to Elbows: 2x10
• Tendonitis Rehab (eccentric squats): 3x10

NY Invite. Haven’t been to this tourney since 2009, when it rained insanely hard and the games did not get called off until after the fields were wrecked. Maybe they haven’t been able to get the fields since…

I continued in my role as the primary O-line cutter. I think I played better this weekend. I only had 3 turnovers - two hit my receiver in the hands and one was a good look but a bit too low and too far for Benny to catch up to. I played fairly solid D after turns (and even got some D points in during the last game) but I think I could have done better. My favorite games were against Slow, Shuyamouf and CLX.

Lessons from the weekend:

• need to continue working on my throws, especially on putting enough snap on my flicks and on reaching out on my backhands.
• am getting better with the shape of my cuts, but need to start deep cuts from closer in.
• need to work on executing the proper dump cut. I went upline a good amount but did not come across for the IO at all.
• pay more attention to the mental prep and the instructions from captains. they set the focus, but it’s easy to forget what is said when you’re focusing on the current point.

My stats:

• 35 O points, 8 D points
• 10 goals
• 4 assists
• 1 D
• 3 throwaways, 0 drops

Went through all of Kung Fu throwing with Liam at Clark Park. Only had a few turnovers. We made it through 96 of the Rinky Dink throws before we dropped one. I thought we would get through all 100.

Played a bunch of goalty with the TopScore crew, Colin, and Matt Michelson. We must have played at least 8 games to 3. The level was pretty high, though D started slacking towards the middle. The last game really picked up the intensity though.

After goalty, dinner at Vientiane Cafe.

Played a game against Venose & Drake’s team. Venose and Adam weren’t there, so we went up early and didn’t have a tough game. They came back towards the end, btu the game got rained out at 12-9 so that’s a win for us. Was gonna do sprints or shuttles after the game, but the rain killed that.

• 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.