Another indoor double header. Won our first game handily, then eked out a last-second win on universe in the finals. Zoya came again. She’s getting a lot of ultimate-watching in. Hope it rubs off on her (just the good stuff though).
Another year, another nationals. This year it was back in Sarasota. The weather was hot, but the location is the best - the fields were beautiful, the ocean was amazing (even at night, and even despite the jellyfish), and the Daquiri Deck was even better than I remember it. The only thing lacking was our game. We lost all our games on Thursday (9-12 Blackbird, 11-12 AMP, 11-12 Toro), then won the next 4 games and clawed our way back into the top 8 before losing the 7/8 game to Drag'n Thrust (13-10 Love Tractor, 14-11 Steamboat, 12-11 Blackbird, 15-9 shame, 9-15 Drag'n). So, no finals appearance this year, but we did win the spirit award, which is almost as big.
Personally I played fairly well. I was only in 2-4 points a game, so I was fresh overall. I had 3 turns total - a drop against AMP and two throwaways on hucks. Both were good decisions, decently well-thrown, and just a little off the mark. We talked about taking calculated risks, so I stand by them. I scored 5 goals, threw one, and got a D. I felt I could have contributed more, esp filling in as an O line cutter when our O was tired (like the last game on Thurs), but we ran a fairly tight rotation so I did my best to help from the sideline.
Another nationals highlight was watching AMP make it to the finals for the first time ever. They played really well, but ended up losing on universe to Mixtape in a very exciting game. Despite that, I’m really happy for them. Their team is very young and they’ll be strong for a few years at least (if they stick together).
Finally, the best part (as always) is spending time with people you know and like. I had a great time bonding with the team (chai time, skinny dipping every night, getting kicked off the beach at 4am, dirty dancing at the Daquiri Deck, spikeball vs Truck/Scandal) as well as people I don’t get to see that often (again at the Deck, and at the fields, and the beach, and random places in between).
Hope to do it all again next year.
Brought Zoya to her first ultimate game. Found some parents on the sideline who agreed to watch her while I played. She was great - no more stranger danger, all smiles and giggles. Our team crushed the other team, who was on the second game of their double-header and didn’t have many subs. Afterwards, we went out to lunch.
We came, we saw, we conquered (except for Slow). We started the weekend off in classic Metro North fashion: by ignoring everything we practice and jamming it in the jamhole repeatedly. But we eventually got our shit together, moved the disc well, and raised our game. The crossover with Slow was an epic back-and-forth game, and we even got the D on the goal line on universe and had the opportunity to win it, but a nice D by Todd got them the disc back and they converted for the win. On Sunday, we had a really close game with Xist - another universe-point game, but this time we won it and qualified for Nationals. We played Slow again in the finals, but it was just for seeding and half our team sat the game out.
Peronally, my main errors were on hucks. When I’m rushing my huck or I feel like I have to throw it (when we call Sausage), it never goes well. When I’m throwing in a power position or it feels natural, I’m great. Besides that, my game was great - solid defense (including several points where not only did my guy never touch the disc, but I felt like he was never open at all), strong cutting, and consistently moving the disc to the breakside. My only turns were 3 hucks, and only one of them was a bad decision. I even felt strong and fast all weekend, never feeling like I cannot keep up with my defender or cannot keep cutting well.
A weekend in Boston with Metro North 2017. I’m in the worst shape ever going into a season, with several nagging injuries. Despite that, I still played pretty well. My two turns were both poor-decision, poor-execution hucks. I also had some mistakes on D, getting beat badly a few times. On the upside, I had 3 Ds including a fall-over handblock on the mark, I threw some nice throws and hucks, and my legs felt ok at the end of Sunday. Even running the nine 40s at the end (one for each OB pull all weekend) felt pretty good.
An exciting weekend for Metro North. We won the region, beating Slow White (the top seed, and #2 in the country) 15-13 in the finals. That game was one of the cleanest and most focused games I’ve ever played. Our O line only had two turns, and only let Slow convert one of them. Our D line converted two breaks (I caught both of them :-) ), and had a chance to convert at least one more. I felt like I was completely in the zone and focused on the game. I did talk to people on the sideline, but I barely remember what I said.
Before the finals, we had a few close games with 7X and Wildcard. I played fairly well in those too, though I had one or two turns on Sat and missed some D opportunities.
6 games across 2 days. We didn’t have many players, and lost some to injury as the weekend went on, so I got a lot of reps. I tried out KT tape for my knee, and am happy to report that it did not bother me at all on Saturday and only hurt a little on Sunday (whether this correlation implies any causation or not, I still don’t know). I had more turns and less Ds this weekend than I did in Colorado, but I also had to handle more since Lucas wasn’t there and Liz is out for the season. I esp played poorly against Amp and Drag'n Thrust, with several turns in each game that were caused by rushing a throw - my main problem area. If we converted just a few more breaks, we could have won those games (or at least kept them competitive).
I threw the longest huck for a goal of my life - an 80-yard endzone-to-endzone huck to Mari. To be fair my mark was slow to get set so I had a wide-open backhand, but it’s still a nice achievement.
Another glorious OMK is in the books. Highlights from the weekend:
Bears finish together
6 games over 3 days at the US Open. We did really well, winning our pool (despite a last-game loss to Polar Bears) and then losing a close game to Slow in the semis. Personally, I wasn’t at the top of my game because my toe was killing me, but it actually got better throughout the weekend and I played my best game against Slow. I even got a shoutout after games on Saturday for continuing to cut hard even late in the day/tournament.
Besides the ultimate, I had a lot of fun hanging out with the team. We drank beer, went swimming in the ocean, played games, watched ultimate, and enjoyed each others company. It was a great start to the season.
Low-key summer league game. I wasn’t gonna go but decided it’s good to move around some. Ended up being great weather and the ideal amount of running. Even my messed up toenail wasn’t a problem (good to know for this weekend).
Two long, hot days of ultimate with not many subs. The D line guys were practically savage all weekend, especially Saturday. DJ left halfway into the second game, so the four of us (Lucas, Billy YoungJo, and I) played every D point after that. Occaisionally one or two others would sub in and help out, but that was basically it. On top of that, I did a bad job taking care of myself (not enough water, salt and sunblock, not enough sleep and food the day before). In one of the very last points of the fourth game, I cramped up super-hard (both hamstrings and a calf) and had to lie on the ground for 10 min before I could get up again. Thankfully the game ended and we were done for the day.
On Sunday, I took extra care to eat and drink a lot (I also ice-showered the night before), and felt way better. We were still low on numbers, but DJ returned and John G’s hamstring felt better so he played a few points. Despite playing the whole previous day, I felt less tired after Sunday than I did after Saturday. The caffeine and electrolyte pills probably helped too.
Game-wise, I guess I played well. I’m not happy about my lack of forced Ds and how tired I felt, but its hard to compare that to a normal game where I’ll have proper subs. I didn’t throw many turnovers, which is great for me, but I did make several fatigue-induced mistakes (not helping out on a few discs, getting beat upline, dropping two discs that I had my hands on, some throwaways). Then again, I played solid defense the vast majority of the time. Even in the last game, I stuck close to my guy a lot and ran a few nice switches with Billy. I guess my main problem was summoning the will to cut hard after a turn, esp late in the day. On the points where I forced myself to go hard, we usually did well and scored quickly. On the points where I was too tired, it was hard to make things happen. I gained a lot of respect for the other guys on the line (esp Billy) and their nonstop effort after turns.
I picked up a few minor injuries (a bruise under my big toe nail, some soreness in my tendons), but my tendonitis doesnt seem to be bothering me today. I hope it still feels good after US Open next week, and continues to hold throughout the season.
Played a close game against Alex Morrone’s team. We started off slow but came back at the end to win it 16-14. I played an ok amount at first, but then played most of the last few points to bring us back on top and take the win.
Straight from there, drove to Porcfest for two days of camping, LBRY and freedom.
7 games across 2 days at Windmill. Played the Portuguese and Polish nationals teams, club teams from all over Europe, a team from Israel, and one US-ish pickup team. We were very solid for a pickup team, but were inconsistent and plagued with injuries. Finished 17th with a 4-4 record - a lot of close losses and hard-fought games.
Personal highlights include a big layout D, several nice hucks, solid handling and cutting all around, and some good lessons learned about leadership (mostly: if the team expects you to lead, you have to lead. Even if you like to keep it loose, you are in charge and need to provide direction)
The best part of windmill is, or course, the people. Our whole team was talented, extremely friendly and nice. The Portuguese team was awesome (my fav game, I think) and I saw a bunch of BDP friends. I also made some new friends that I hope to see again sometime. Maybe windmill ‘17?
Played a fun hat tournament run by Slow White. It was great to play with some people that I only get to play against (Miller, Ralph, Davis, etc). The level of play was reasonaly high, but there were some newer players (league and college players), so it was more fun than intense. Still, it was a great workout. I got to handle a good amount and cover some great players. Plus our team won the whole thing and got a last-round bye. What more could you ask for?
Tryouts went 3-6pm Saturday and then 9am-noon on Sunday. The format was mostly this: warm up, a bit of cutting/throwing drills, 3v3 mini, 4v4 full-field, 7v7 full-field. I had a lot of fun both days, playing against good players and being outside. The weather was a bit cold and rainy today, but it really was not a problem.
Personally, I feel a bit more tired that I should (and felt somewhat more tired throughout the weekend then I think I should). I’m chalking it up to early-seasonness, but I don’t think I’ve felt this way in previous seasons (even last season, when I took 5 weeks off in April-May). However, my flick hucks were pretty good for most of the weekend (only had one mistake), my breaks were solid, and my D was good for the most part. I had a lot of trouble with Korber and Match, but did a good job on just about everyone else. My main problem was my backhand hucks (I’m 0-for-2) and timidness in the air (got skied a few times when I shouldn’t have). My I/O flick was also a bit shitty at times during mini, but that’s probably due to fatigue for the most part.
Two days of semi-serious ultimate in tiger costumes. Calvinball was a prety stacked team, but we managed to play quite poorly. We lost some games we shouldn’t have (including one on universe after being up 8-2 at half), we failed to take advantage of our 2-pointer rule, and we were overall not very focused. But that’s ok, it’s fools fest. Personally I tried not to play much, and I was mostly happy with how that went. I got a layout D on a hammer, caught a two-pointer, caught a Callahan on a scoober dump, and only had a few turnovers. It was quite windy, especially on Sunday, but even my “start-on-O-upwind” strategy failed to backfire :-).
Record low attendance (4 guys, 6 girls) meant lots of PT for me. I was extra tired by the time we finished. Maybe its the two tough games yesterday, maybe its the focus on lifting over the past few months. Either way, time to take a day off tomorrow.
Two solid indoor games. The first was against UConn (Liz/Saipher/Mary/others). We didn’t play well (start off down 5-1) and the game was quite chippy overall. We eventually clawed our way into the game, switched to backhand to prevent their easy hammer scores, and went up a few points at the end. As time was running out, we buckled down and closed it out to win by 2.
The second game was the best game of the season. We played Colt/Baywatch. They were the favorite, with lots of solid club guys and a deep roster. They only had two women, and we tried to take advantage of that, but I think it was pretty even. The whole game was very close and very spirited. We forced middle the whole game (props to Bosco for the brilliant idea) and made sure we were subbing super fast. We even created two subbing groups for the second half to make sure our lines were well-balanced.
I think the force middle really got to them, because their offence (normally very fast-paced and trigger-happy) slowed down a lot. We often forced them to throw 20 or even 30 throws before they could score. Big props to the improved defense from everyone. On offense, Shockey dominated. He probably scored half our goals that game. Bosco started throwing him floaty dimeballs, and eventually I found my stride and hit him on a few nice hucks too. I think he only got beat in the air once.
When time ran out in the second half, the score was 20-20. They had just scored, so we decided it would be a universe-point game with us on offense. We subbed in our best line and started working the disc. After 3 throws, Bosco unleashes a floaty hammer to CJ for the win. It floats a bit too long, and gets D-ed toward me. I catch it and throw CJ game-winner. A very exciting end to a very good game.