Then lunch at Darwins on Cambridge St

Spent an hour throwing chip throws and flick hucks. Then ran 3 sets of 2 reps of 150m shuttles (25m course), resting 90 seconds after the first rep and 1 min between sets.

Played a bunch of mini with team topscore. Probably played for an hour at least. Before playing, did some focussed throwing. Afterwards hucked for ~20 min. Gonna change my pull form to be more like Cenzo’s: wind up hard, pause, unwind. Focus on loading all your muscles, then releasing them one by one. Probably start pulling from my right leg too.

8 150m shuttles (25m course). Rest was 60s, 90s, 90s, 90s, 90s, 150s, 60s.

After shuttles, a bit of rainy throwing. Wet disc + cold hands = good opportunity to work on throws.

First up, 7 150m shuttles (25m course). Rest was 60s, 90s, 90s, 90s, 150s, 60s.

After shuttles, we threw for 20-30min. I worked a little on getting my core more involved in my forehand.

Half an hour of throwing with Adubs. Worked on my flicks. I’m releasing my flick too far in front of my body, which makes it hard to keep it I/O and hard to put power on it.

After throwing, 90 minutes of BAD. Today’s focus was lateral movement - resisted shuffles and shuffle suicides were the main event. Then we did our standard medball core workout and cardio circuit. At the end, I talked everyone into doing sled push relays, which ended up being tougher than I expected (but still fun).

Before the workout, I measured my vert. Standing vert was 25” , and I got 30” with the approach. This is almost exactly the same numbers I got in Boston in 2010 (26” standing, 30” approach). I didn’t warm up though, so I think I can do better. Kevin told me that I don’t swing my arms aggressively enough, and that I need to swing them straight up.

Half an hour of throwing with Diana

Starting the 2015 Spinners conditioning cycle.

5 rounds of: 6x25m shuttles, rest 2 min

Miriam and Barb joined me. We threw between rounds and after we finished.

Ladder stuff, lateral skips, 5-10-5, serpentine, marking and throwing drills. Finished with hucks with Miriam.

Met Miriam at Bayview Park for a quick workout. Did a bunch of ladder drills and resisted sprints. Turns out you can make a great resistance band by tying two bike tubes together. After that, we worked on lateral skips (also resisted) and sprint starts. Finished with half an hour of throwing.

Didn’t do too much in the way of workouts conditioning. Mostly played ultimate:

• 4 hours at a PoNY tryout. Didn’t make the team.
• 2 days at Mixed Easterns with Metro North. Handled a lot.
• 1-day round-robin at Lums Pond in DE. Played against AG, AMP, Tyranis and Jug Handle. Also handled a good amount, primarily for the D line.
• 3 days at Windmill Windup with Cambridge. Played a lot against some good teams. Fairly happy with my play. Got one of the most difficult and awesome layout Ds of my life.
• 4 days of beach ultimate at Bar Do Peixe. Definitely more relaxed that the rest of the tourneys, but still a lot of fun and pretty high quality. Played a total of 11 games, though they were about half an hour each. Played with some awesome women, including probably the best girl in Portugal. Highlights include my first layout handblock, a hammer handblock, some good D and strong intensity and focus under pressure (sometimes). Also ridiculous partying every single night, especially Saturday and Sunday.

Today, a return to real workouts. Threw with Miriam at Wooster Square for over an hour. Worked on torso torque on my flicks, spin on my leftie backhands, and flight path on my hammers.

Threw with Gabe and Himalaya for about an hour at Penn Park. We mosly threw deep throws, but did some cutting and 3-man marking too. Right as we were finishing up, pickup started. So we played for a while in the bubble, then got kicked out and played some more outside. The weather warmed up, so it was actually really nice to play.

Threw with Miggs at Penn Park for about half an hour. Then did a dozen runs through the speed ladder, some abductor/adductor skips, and finished with six different ab exercises.

Did some agility, sprinting and throwing with Gabe in the Penn bubble.

Agility

• Ladder warmup - about 10-12 passes through the ladder with various steps
• Abduction and adduction hops, and related ladder exercise

Sprints

• 6x100yd sprints every minute on the minute. Ended up being about 40 seconds rest between sprints.
• 4x10sec shuffles, 20secs between each set

Throwing

Threw 25 flicks, 25 backhands and 10 hammers at each of 10, 20 and 30 yards apart. Finished with 10 lefties at close range and 50 seconds of plank (10 for each drop).

• Warmup plyos
• 2 laps around the field - jog the short sides, stride the long sides
• 4 resisted sprints. You sprint while someone pushes against your shoulders and slowly yields ground. After 5 seconds, they step off and let you finish the sprint.
• 3x150yd sprints (50yd course). Ran them in 22-23 each. Gabe and Jesse were a second or two ahead of me on each.
• 2x150yd sprints (25yd course). Don’t know the times, but beat Jesse on both.
• A bit of throwing. Worked on leftie backhands.

Dinner: crepes and walk home with Butter.

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.

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

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.

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

Afterwards, worked on throwing intermediate throws to moving targets.

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.

• 1x150yd (50yd course)
• 1x300yd (25yd course)
• 5x150yd (25yd course)

120 seconds rest between each, 4 minutes rest after the 300.

I threw between most of the shuttles. Then Diana and I went to Left Bank and threw medium-distance for 10 min or so. I worked on keeping my flicks high and flat, and throwing flicks after a backhand fake.

Shuttles

• 3x150m with 50m between cones. 150s rest between each.
• 5x150m with 25m between cones. 150s rest between each, 120s before the last one.

Threw for about a minute between each shutle.

Throwing

Spent about 10 minutes working on my throws. Primarily worked on the full-extension backhand fake to the flick throw. I have trouble getting power when coming all the way back from a full step-out. Watching Melanie throw, I noticed that she doesn’t pivot the full 180 degrees on the way back. She goes about 135, with her right foot out in front of her left. That seemed to help, will try it next time. Also, gotta throw the disc more up and IO when reaching far or pivoting hard.

Hung out with AMP in Vancouver. Did a bunch of walking, a bit of climbing, and good amount of eating and throwing. Also bought myself a flannel shirt.

Week 2 shuttle workout. 150 second rest between each shuttle.

• 2x150m with 50m cones
• 3x150m with 25m cones

Gabe, Sara and I threw between each shuttle. Then we threw for about 20 min afterwards.

Did the first of the new BenJ workouts with Ben at penn park.

Shuttles

• 2x150m with 50m cones: about 25 seconds each
• 4x150m with 25m cones: about 27 seconds each

150 seconds rest between each rep. We threw during some of the rests but forgot during others.

Throwing

Mel showed up during the end of our shuttles and we threw for about 15 min. I worked on my flick throws - trying to get them smooth, flat and high enough.

Lateral Shuffles

• 4x10m shuffles with 15 seconds on, 45 seconds rest

Pickup

Played half an hour or so of pickup in the park. It was not very high-level but a few good players were there so I got to cover them.

Had a short throw session with Diana and Raha at Clark Park. We did 10-throw twice through. We didn’t stand too far from each other, just focused on reps and pushing our limits. We threw a lot of throws at full extension or as high/low as we could release them. We even threw scoobers and lefty backhands. Those should come in handy at Wildwood next weekend.

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.

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.

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.

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

Shuttles

8 150yd shuttles (3x50yd) with the following rests: 50,75,90,120,75,90,50

Did them all in 23-24 seconds. Felt kinda slow on the last 20-40 yards of each, and my times are down two seconds from last shuttles workout.

Throwing

Then Bulb and I threw for about 20 min. My mid-range throws are coming along nicely but I still have a bad tendency to throw them too low. Need to aim higher, even if it seems weird to me. My deep throws were not great, prolly because I was tired and not very focused. Scoober is coming along nicely - need to not throw so far from my body and need to think about throwing it into a trash can.

Short field workout with Rachel, Norm and Diana.

• 4 sets of 10-20-30 suicides with throwing
• Triangle breakmark drill for 10 throws
• Hucks to away cuts
• 2 minutes of hucks to a partner. Catch a huck, bring it back, catch the next. Goal: catch as many as you can in 2 min.
• Triangle breakmark for 30 stalls

21 seconds cold shower.

Ran pretty much the same workout as yesterday, with a few extra 150s thrown in. Then threw with Jesse for 10 minutes.

Running behind Purifico is demoralizing. He’s not even trying and he’s kicking my ass on every lap.

Workout:

• warmup 150m
• 2 min rest
• 300m
• 2 min rest
• 300m
• 4 min rest
• 300m
• 2 min rest
• 150m
• 90 sec rest
• 300m

Warmup

Some jogging, dymanic stretches and agility ladder work. A few accelerators and a tiny bit of footwork efficiency stuff (cutting, following a cutter).

50m Shuttles

• 300m
• 2 min rest
• 300m
• 4 min rest
• 300m
• 2 min rest
• 300m

Throwing

Threw with Papa for about 15 mintutes. The MLU discs really fly much straighter and are not as affected by the wind. I’m sold.