70 by 40 - Ultimate Ramblings

tempe bound

2009-01-29T23:55:00.000-08:00

Wow. My first tourney on "grass" (Tempe in January = a lot of brown) since Labor Day 2007. W0w again. Lots goes through my head. Sure, I've played plenty of games since then, but not that much. Winter and Summer leagues with a stellar record of course, but probably never more than 5 straight hours of play. This is two days. And while there was some talk of working out, it didn't get very far. I hit the stairs up from the reservoir a few times, but I never was pushing it. That's what I find the hardest now -- just actually caring enough to try. One long league game by itself can be tough, this will be 7 or 8 games. Thank goodness we have a few previous world champs besides myself. Ones that still play, you know, the Fall Season. Throw in the Team USA tryout kids, the UPA champs, you start to see why although I might be out of shape, I'm not too worried about the result. I hear we even have a beach stud -- might be very helpful on those sandy fields.

Any team that plays us needs to focus on one main thing -- be the team that plays us the last round on Saturday. It's a key round. People are focused on important things like lasagna, The Library, hot tubs. The greater Phoenix area has a lot to offer. Apparently, there is even surfing in Tempe! Surfing's probably our #1 nemesis in this difficult last round. Maybe people are thinking about golf, there is loads of golf in the region. And imagine the distraction that is the Super Bowl. What if we run into some Cardinals fans that think we should throw every pass like a Kurt Warner bomb, but in thumber form? Who will be our Larry Fitz? Do people think that will help our chances in the last round of the day?

Yes, those were my last round concerns. But I figured, hopefully, the local and/or UPA insiders on the roster can set the schedule up in just the right way to get us through that evil round. And then a few minutes ago, after all the good things I've ever said about Tempe, I look at the schedule and they have us playing a showcase game. A showcase game? In January!?!?! Unbelievable. I guess it makes sense. This tourney was always about the late finals under the lights on Sunday. But that damn Super Bowl has all the locals running the show ready to bail ASAP on Sunday. And they still want their showcase. So elite pool #1 and #2 play a last round game -- please, pull up a chair to the sideline -- on Saturday night. Well, Big Sweet Onion Co., this is your huge chance. For your sake, I hope you make it count.

Sunday last round is a whole different ball of wax.

how to handle a blowout

2009-01-29T11:35:00.001-08:00

there was a bit in the news last week about a high school girls basketball game which was won 100-0. The coach of the winning team wound up losing his job over the incident, or maybe because he refused to back down against opposition to his team's scoring. i read a few articles about it, and i must say that i didn't disagree with the coach all that much. now i wasn't at this basketball game, so i can't speak to how exactly it was played or how anyone's actions were "unsporting", but the 100-0 score does not indicate a lack of sportsmanship to me.

the days of these types of blowouts in ultimate are limited now, with the proliferation of elite divisions at nearly all tournaments and elite-only tournaments. however, they still come up at sectionals for many nationals-level teams, and in my college days as well as during the condor successes around the turn of the century blowouts were commonplace. these games can be equally uncomfortable for the team that is being beat as it is for the team that is winning.

the black tide and condor teams that i played on had a similar method for handling these games. basically, we would play the game as well and as hard as we could. that was what we owed the opponent, whether that opponent was a nationals-level team, or a pickup team of below-average players. the question was, is it more disrespectful to beat a team 15-0 when playing your hardest, or to beat them maybe 15-2 but with lefty points, or all upside-down passes, or stupid defenses that didn't show respect to the opponent? when given this choice, we always chose to play our hardest and best.

the side benefit is that it is dignifying for the opponent. if they get a goal but are under the impression that you aren't trying, they get no pleasure in that. but if they get a goal against the regional or national champion who is playing hard, that is something they can take with them, something they've earned in the game. i would occasionally have an opponent ask why we were playing so hard, or ask us to let off a little bit, but my response was always that we wanted them to see our best. i think this occasionally ruffled some feathers, but for the most part i think the opponents were grateful for the chance to see a successful team playing well, to learn from the experience, and to feel like they earned whatever it was they got.

i think the coach of the high school team should have couched his support for the score by explaining that he had put his reserves in, but out of respect for the opponent he asked his reserves to play their hardest and best, so that if the other team got a basket it would be one that they deserve. now if those reserves were hoisting up 3-pointers and running the fast break, that would maybe be an issue, but having the reserves play hard, execute and do their best is only fair to both the reserves and the opponent.

learning to play

2009-01-19T13:35:00.000-08:00

most competitive club players have probably used the last few months to explore other forms of exercise rather than training for ultimate. for me this means doing basically anything and everything that doesn't feel like training. this means jogging, playing hoops, surfing, hiking, tennis, etc. the one of these that i've been doing a lot lately is playing hoops, and it has led me to an interesting awakening about my hoops ceiling.

now i stopped playing basketball when i was probably 12, and then picked it up again about 8 years ago with some frisbee guys and others. i didn't have any skills or fundamentals, but i played good defense, liked to jump for rebounds and had pretty good court awareness. in the last few years i've been picking up more skills and learning a bunch from talking to people who played and also from watching others. i've gotten to the point where against shorter or slower or less-athletic players i can get a lot of boards, display a low-post move or two, maybe get a couple put-backs or even hit a mid-range jumper. but when i start playing against better players i get easily boxed out, i have trouble securing the rebounds that do come to me, i frequently lose the ball in the post, and my shot never seems to fall. i have this understanding that i'm not quite at that level, but i hadn't figured out what the difference was.

this last week i was in a lunchtime game and there was a guy who was about my height and build, didn't strike me as particularly athletic, but was clearly the best player on the court. when the ball needed to be pushed, he pressed it on a fast break; when a great pass needed to be made, he always made it; he had an extremely reliable jump shot, burying four three-pointers in my team's short game against his. it turned out that he had played division I basketball at a low-end school from a mid-major conference. i did a little research after the lunch game and it looks from his statistics that he largely rode the pine for this school. but here he was controlling this lunchtime game, with what i had previously viewed as some pretty competent basketball players on the court, including many who seemed bigger and faster than him. i was impressed, and realized that i would probably never have his ball-handling, shooting or passing skills, even if i was playing pickup basketball for a few hours every day of the week.

this got me to thinking about ultimate and how i developed skills to get to the top of our sport. we've all been out to the pick-up ultimate game where there's the guy who is pretty good, maybe even runs the show out there, but for one reason or another has never made the local elite team. see, these people who play pick-up are not so different from me playing basketball. they're good athletes, they have decent field sense, they may even be able to break the mark or huck really well. but the difference between these players and the ones on elite teams, and the difference between me and this guy at basketball, is that truly good players have done the drills to reinforce the basic skills and fundamentals so that they can execute all the time.

this guy at the pickup game probably used to do more hours of drills in a week than i have played basketball in the last year. when i was in college ultimate i was playing in a very controlled situation for about 15 hours a week...when there was no tournament on the weekend. these 15 hours would probably include about 8-10 hours of skills practice. now, when i get confronted by a tight mark, i have the fundamental footwork to step out and deliver a pass. that guy at the pickup ultimate game hasn't seen a good mark, because nobody at pickup plays that way. he hasn't had to make hard buttonhooks, or worry about his defensive positioning, because he's more athletic that most of the people in the game.

i think what i'm tyring to say is that if you want to improve, if you're trying to work your ultimate skills up to a point that will get you beyond the pickup game, and onto the best team in your area, you're going to have to do more than play. you need to find a group of people who are willing to work on their skills, even if it's not the most fun thing to do. playing pickup can build a lot of bad habits because you don't have to work on the fundamentals to succeed, but at the top level you have to have those skills built in as second nature so that you can spend your mental energies focusing on the higher levels of the game.

a great performance?

2008-11-24T21:08:00.001-08:00

now that i'm somewhat relevant again maybe i'll start blogging to try to compete with my worlds teammates for self-aggrandizing ink. having beers with those guys at their condo during worlds was a great way to get my name in lights. anyway, this season provided so many ideas for posts, but i don't have the time or energy to properly organize, so maybe i'll jsut fire from the hip on a few of them over the next month or two.

i think jam's run to the national championship was a bit of a surprise by many involved, and i can only imagine that not many people thought we had more than an outside chance at winning. however, i think there hasn't bene enough made of how well the team played down the stretch...so let me try to let everyone know how great we were. but first i'll try to take a stab at the discrediting way to view our victory.

jam had a very mediocre first two days at nationals. beating the teams they were supposed to (those seeded below them: bodhi, condors, goat) and losing to the teams above them (ironside, sockeye). they were fortunate to play a team they were very familiar with who had played an exhausting first two days in quarterfinals, and then get to play the winner of last year's final after what was certain to be a physically and mentally exhausting game. jam was able to pick up the wins against these beaten up teams and then get a relatively inexperienced (again, not a claim i would make, but some might) boston team in the finals where a solid performance was good enough to take the trophy, and that was exactly what jam turned in.

here's the alternative view. jam had a mediocre first two days at nationals, efficiently taking care of the teams they were supposed to, and efficiently losing to the teams they were supposed to. jam's offense was playing well, and the defense wasn't exerting themselves. as reward for this average play we were drawn into a half of the bracket against 3 teams that we had a combined 2-4 record against, and were 1-3 against in the series (one sectionals win over relolver). in the quarters we came out and got a few early breaks and the offense really started finding its rhythm, giving up zero breaks in the game. the confidence was growing and an attitude was forming that we were ready for the game that ended our season last year, losing to the eventual champions in overtime. we came out strong at the start and got a few breaks of some uncharacteristic bravo mistakes, but to our credit we made those mistakes hurt them. we were getting good matchups and making bravo work hard to trade goals, maybe that extra game on friday and a tough one saturday morning were catching up to them, but jam was making sure that they were feeling every point. while jam didn't pull away convincingly, i think it never got closer than 2 points in the second half and we won with our offense having given up only 2 breaks against a very athletic and physical defensive team. our defense generated 6 breaks against a team that i think we may have only forced into 6 turns when we previously played them in colorado. in the finals we played an ironside team that was having a strong tournament, and had steamed through their half of the draw to get to the finals. after squandering a few early break chances our defense finally got one in upwind and consolidated with the downwinder. the defense's legs were fresh, and the offense was playing pretty efficiently. despite a few too many turns, the offense was able to get the disc back and wound up giving up only 2 breaks. the defense converted 6 breaks on the game, a great performance against what had been a fairly stingy offense when we played them earlier in the weekend (one break on the first point of the game).

the truth might be somewhere in between, but probably closer to the latter. the truth is that jam battled injuries and attendance issues all season (14 at boulder, maybe 17 healthy at labor day), and played without damien at sectionals and regionals. having him back was a huge confidence boost to the team, but especially the offense. also, after a pretty loose first half of the season, there was a little more expectation put on performance in the latter part of the season and a more regimented system was installed that called for particular discipline. the result was one of the more convincing finals victories (biggest margin since furious/ring in 2002 if memory serves), and a subtly exceptional performance on the final two days of the tournament (18 breaks for, 4 against in the three biggest games of the season).

so there it is...i'm back. back on top. of the last 11 nationals i've played in six finals, having won three of them, but this was the first final since 2003.

first crack at the offical seeding

2007-10-15T22:28:00.000-07:00

thoughts from an old dude that's seen two open tourneys this fall season. i love how this is the "condor blog" and there are no current condors that post here. here goes.

1. jam
what can you say, the ex-condors bring a good vibe. at least, most of them do. couple it with what i might call the best veteran team out there (Damien, Pete, Idirs and the Davis boys), they have a great chance to break the "curse of '88" and bring back a title to San Fran. Possibly a double with the Bay Area masters seeded #1 also? Who would have guessed?

2. sockeye
The vegas odds favorites, returning the same old mix. Looking at a "curse" theme, will Kubes bad luck continue? So strong from top to bottom and always underrated at their best strength - defense. you will never work harder to get open than when you play sockeye.

3. bravo
i play at tempe with these guys each year so i feel like i have to plead the 5th here, but i love this team and if they won, i would be happy for so many guys. it really feels like the maturity of the former mama bird champs is at the right level for a club title and it's impossible to stop both parker as a handler and beau as a target. watch out for one of the most underrated players in the game, steve rouisse. he makes big plays in every big game he plays in. very unmentioned in the write up on the epic Condors/Bravo regional final was the fact that bravo was down to 16 guys at the end of the game. if they don't get their injuries (matty, popes) in line they could disappoint at the end of a long tourney but if they get healthy it could be break through this time and bring home a title.

4. furious
i talked to mg for a bit at labor day as we poached beers from woody's cooler. nothing changing for furious there, nothing changing for them in sarasota. they will probably be in the semis like the last 8 years, making them the best team in all of ultimate over the last 10 years.

5. sub
didn't see them anywhere, but great results this year.

6. condors
from rebuilding to contenders in a very short time. jimmy chu and steve dugan bring their (5? 6?) championship rings and that confidence has spread to everyone. sure, they have lost way more ring holders than that since '05, but these two are so much more infectious with their energy, everyone on the team is walking and talking the way a team should in October. After playing better than bravo - but still losing to them - in the regional final, the condor question is can they put together the energy they've brought in their games against jam, sockeye and bravo (a respectable 2-3 against all three with every game tight) or will they throw out the first day jitters of '05 and '06 and not make the power pools? this year, i see them and bravo making quarters and bringing a strength bid back to the horribly unstrong southwest.

7. boston
glad to read all the stories about forch. having known him since he was in high school and seeing him not really go huge since i got a layout block on his throw in the finals of worlds '02, i'm glad he's got his confidence back. haha. i don't know much about these guys but there is so much ultimate in boston, the combo of the two teams from the last few years must be powerful. will they need a year together to fully gel?

8. goat
i see a great record from this team but i'm unable to believe any first year UPA champies team will make noise at their virgin natties. speaking without ever seeing these guys, look for them to really make noise next year, a la a furious '98.

9. ring
every year, back at natties. they will finish their standard 3rd - 11th, depending on luck of the disc.

10. rhino
seeded too high. predicting they won't make q'finals this year like last. of course, i don't know if link is there and if he is, then ignore this and put them at least into wildcard play-in game.

11. doublewide
stunned at the disrespect the south is getting. as per parinella's conversations, i love to look at an overall great result and making the semis at labor day makes me seed this team in the top 10, especially with a regional title. they will finish higher than this seed.

12. truck stop
don't know much about these guys, but i can't imagine their 8-15 record (and oh-fer against the top 10) will get them out of the lower bracket.

13. chain
same commet as doublewide. classic case of just not having a great result this year, but semis last year and adding zip, they will be a q'finalist is my guess, if not a return to semis. i don't know too many guys outside kid, zip, crawford and jason, but if they have any depth beyond 13 guys, they'll do great.

14. machine
dn't know much about these guys except for the fact that cash plays for them and that guy is the best basketball play at nationals. and he knows the condors so that will help the chi town boys match up against a condor team they don't usually see.

15. pike
good luck

16. van buren
welcome to FLA. team full of RSD "hackers" label could win a game or two with natties experience in coed and an obvious ability to play the physical game.

I'll finish up with my q'finals picks:

jam, sockeye, bravo, furious, condors, boston, chain and double.

look for pool C or pool D to be the "pool of death" that could land more than 2 q'finals teams.

good luck everyone.

Format Nightmare for Format Geeks?

2007-08-30T15:20:00.000-07:00

While I do like to geek out on a tourney format pre-event, I've never claimed to be a format expert. That said, from every Tarr post I've ever read, the goal of the tourney format should be to minimize the effects of seeding, provide the same format to everyone, and either crown a champion (in a one-off tourney) or advance the proper total of teams to the next round. So in a multi-tourney event, the most important game is the one that differentiates between the last team to move on and the final team eliminated.

In the current FIBA Americas Olympic qualifying, top 2 go to Olympics automatically and 3-5 move to future qualifying. #6 and lower are eliminated from the 2008 Games. So for the format kids, this shout out goes out to you. Read the article, specifically, scenario #4, but then check the comments below. The writer of the article on the FIBA site didn't actually know the proper tie-breaking format. When I first starter reading #4 I though, "oh shit, someone is being eliminated from further qualifying based on points? That sucks." But the more I read the more it reminded me of a rouge tourney director that didn't know the proper format moving forward with what they decided was the best idea. Obviously, someone at FIBA has already thought this through, but when you are just some dude in some town running a tourney, you don't always have people looking out for you.

Good stuff though for any fans of formats.

Winning the Lottery

2007-08-24T16:59:00.000-07:00

When I went to an early season Condor tryout, I played great. On the first day I even had the game winning block in a scrimmage and then threw the winning goal. Guys were glad to see me back. There were loads of "You still got it" being thrown out there at me. And I was kicking around playing again, but there was one big obstacle - my wedding on November 17th. I just wasn't sure I could really put as much thought into my wedding if I was playing ultimate and working full time. I told the captains, Whit, Rhett and Johnny, I wished I could play, but I'd probably have to win the lottery and not be working anymore. So I bowed out after thinking about it for a few weeks.

Well, who would have known, I won the freaking lottery.

OK, OK, getting a fat buyout from work isn't the same thing. But the results are similar - I'm getting paid to do nothing. So I've been working out, getting back into shape and now it's time to think about ultimate. Amazingly, I've got three options I'm choosing from. I could play for the Condors, JAM or masters with Above and Beyond.

Condors are my first love. Won all those titles. Played with them forever it felt like. And I'm the self-proclaimed "Head of LA scouting" for Santa Barbara (yes on Jimmy Chu, no on Sean Boyle. Sean, WTF?). So many close friends and one of the only pieces of the puzzle they need is a bit more veteran leadership. Could be great playing with them.

JAM. Played and won Davis with them. So many ex-Condors that I won titles with. One might think they are my best shot at the title, but then one would also have to realize they have never won any trophies with the letters "UPA" attached to them. But Idris said he knows I bring chemistry and I am damn close with almost every single player on the team. Would probably only play 2-3 points a game, but that's all an old geezer like myself really wants against young kids. Maybe I need to pull a Joe Montana and end my career with some team I have no rights playing with.

Above & Beyond. With 87 guys already on the roster, they certainly don't need me. But they recognize my game is at the top level of the masters. Plus, I bring some quality knowledge of the Seattle and Boulder teams that the NYers don't really have. Tack on the fact that I'd be playing with two of my best friends and my college roommate, it sounds like fun. Let alone all my previous NY teammates from 94-98 that I have not played with for years.

It's a tough call. The friendships I have go deep on all three teams - each has at least one of my wedding groomsman playing on it. I have to decide by Labor Day so I can get in with JAM or Condors. Masters decision would be the default. What would YOU do!?!?!?

so much for confidence

2007-08-20T10:53:00.001-07:00

if anything, it was MY confidence that brought the team down. i'd gotten so used to them catching every bomb i tossed out there, i figured it would happen all weekend. not. numerous huge perfect hucks from me (and a few dicey ones) went off people's hands, were lost in the sun, or just simply were not tracked down properly. we lost 11-9 in semis to a team we beat twice this season. i think the fact that my hucks were all i was used to on this team didn't allow me to adjust and play a different game (touch every other, me be a target, etc. etc.). oh, that and the freaking OPEN BAR party friday night. sure, i left at midnight, but i was 6-8 drinks deep plus car bombs, so maybe that had something to do with my lack of being able to run.

first tourney lost this year. i was 5-0 before this and my dream of holding every LA county title in "Tiger Slam" style took a turn stinkier than those fields next to the industrial plants of san pedro. but tempe, winter league, st. pat's hat, DUI and Huck It Long Beach was a pretty nice run. Nice enough to make me and maybe others think I still have enough game to play with the pros. stay tuned this week for a big announcement regarding the club season!

confidence

2007-08-15T16:20:00.000-07:00

Quit my job - got a classic Hollywood buyout. Friday is my last day after 7+ years at Nickelodeon and as Nesbitt said, "Your golf game just got a shot in the arm." So yeah, free time also equals blog posts. I actually even am getting a raise to stop working, blog posts might make me feel like I'm doing something to earn the paychecks. And the RSD post about "role playing" got me thinking about how I need to know what my role will be on the internet. Like anything, you need to be confident in what you are doing, so I'm going to try and start banging out some blog posts to up my writing confidence. Here's a fast one to see if I can get into the flow of these crazy "internets."

So getting to the actual topic of Ultimate Talk, in terms of ultimate, confidence is everything just like in all of life, no matter what your role is on the team. A true team player knows they have a specific role on a team and is confident that they can perform that specific job. Because if you aren't confident in your role or in your teammates to know their roles, a team has problems. Role players need to remember confidence has to be found at every level, all the way up the ulty pecking order. I'd bet there are about one hundred guys at the top level that have about the same skill set. The reason why only two dozen or so of those guys are superstars is their level of confidence. And as an old vet, I've really been enjoying watching the confidence level of my summer league team grow. From a record of 3-2, we've reeled off 6 straight wins going into the playoffs this weekend and claimed the meaningless regular season title. I attribute most of the win streak to confidence.

Frankie Rho, who drafted my team for me while I was out of town, picked an excellent summer league team stacked with athletes, but a lot of youth gave us an inexperienced team and only 3 veterans to teach the under 25 crowd. I've experienced this type of thing before in draft leagues. You end up on teams with players that have never won anything in ultimate - maybe you get an "I won a hat tourney once." As someone that has won 50+ tourneys, I always forget that. I always (incorrectly) just assume I'm going to win every game of ulty, beach or grass, that I ever play. And I would like to think that the team I'm captaining has had some of that rub off on them, because everyone on the team looks more talented in throws, D and catching, all the main skills of the game. And lord knows I don't teach any of that crap - I'm just about attitude. Hopefully this weekend we can use that newly discovered confidence to win 3 more games and wrap up that summer league men's league title. It could be the team I most aided in terms of "off the field" contributions, which would be a proud moment. I'll fill you in next week from my couch around 10:30am on Monday - hope you are logging on at work to read it.

paganello 2007

2007-05-22T12:54:00.000-07:00

"every paganello you attend takes 2 years off your life" - anonymous player

so in my season of breaking out and attending "fun" tournaments i wound up making it to italy for the biggest beach tournament in the world, playing with the defending champions (NoTsuOh). i had been on the road for nearly 2 weeks when i got to rimini, travelling in africa and italy/switzerland for various work meetings.

i should have realized the trouble i was in for after the first night. i arrived at the hotel and met up with some of my teammates as well as some other americans and europeans in the hallways. the sight of familiar friendly faces was a pleasant change from my work travels. after a little socializing we went to the tourney party, which was quite a festival where i saw even a few more familiar faces. sometime after midnight we headed to "the barge" where most nights ended. after a few drinks there and meeting with more of the teammates a number of us took the beer taxi home to get ready for our 11am match. i think this left us about 4 hours of sleep to get ready.

our team was composed of a few condors, a few doublewide guys, and an assortment of other current and ex elite players. the first day's games were harder than i anticipated. i was hoping for a few sleepers to get used to new teammates, playing on the beach and getting 4 hours sleep, but we were thrust right into it. don't remember opponents or scores, but i remember working harder than i wanted. on the first day i also ran into some south african players who had hosted me when i went there in fall 2002, and it is great to see their program developing so well.

i had dinner with just one other teammate as we went back to the hotel after playing rather than going straight to dinner. definitely some of the best tourney food i've eaten, but i guess that's what you would expect in italy. the second night was similar to the first, except everyone backed off the partying a little bit, which didn't really mean more sleep, just less pollution. the barge proved to be a veritable minefield of drinks, which some of us maneuvered more successfully than others. the second day of playing was to set up the quarterfinal brackets. again some hard games, some we overlooked and made hard and others where we had to play well to make them hard. the strange thing was that two of the four 'power' pools looked very weak, and 2 looked strong. we were in a strong one, and we had to cross over with another strong pool for the quarters.

again another great meal, although this time with the team. another party, this time at the tourney tent. it seemed like an optional costume party, and some of the teams and people had good setups. very entertaining. then to the barge. sunday play started with a game that was meaningless to us as we had already secured the top spot in our pool. for our efforts we got another tough american team in the quarters. we were focused and played probably our best game of the tourney in delivering a solid victory. after this tough game, the semis were a rather easy affair, and saw our biggest margin of victory of the tourney.

at this point it should be said that the stadium court at this tourney is one of the best venues in ultimate. big enough to handle a large crowd, but small enough to pack in all the energy that sometimes gets lost on a big ultimate field in the middle of a bigger polo grounds or soccer complex. we were lucky to play one game there each day, and the semi gave us a taste of what to expect in the finals.

sunday night was another great meal and because of the late start on monday (men's finals were at 2pm i think) people heated up a bit. i woke up at the last possible minute to get breakfast on monday, and it also turned out to be just in time to see some of our guys get home. the finals set up a match against british/swiss/american team who eeked out their semi victory with a hand block on universe point. we knew they would be a handful. we started on offense and gave up a break right away. however, the first 4 times we pulled we had chances to get that break back and just gave it away. after trading for about 8 points we gave up another break and things seemed to be slipping away towards the end of the first half. the opponents worked the disc well and were able to connect on a lot of short stuff to keep the disc moving and keep our defense off balance. the second half was more trading, with an odd break here or there and when the cap came on we didn't have a last push in us to grab the title back.

overall this tournament is a lot of fun, but the quote at the top is right on. i think 4 days of staying out late, drinking too much, and being out in the sun all day definitely took a toll. we were probably the less disciplined team when it came to sunday night behavior and that may have cost us a bit of an edge in monday's final. i'm not sure i'm quite comfortable with the whole concept of these frisbee tournaments that don't focus on the frisbee, and this tournament is definitely more than just a couple of beach ultimate games. but it was good to see some old friends, and meet some new ones.

kaimana 2007 review

2007-03-09T08:02:00.000-08:00

this year i'm really branching out. going to all those hippie [sic] shindigs that i never had money or desire to go to before. i was initially approached to play with a southern team, but i guess that fell through because i never heard anything more about it, so i picked up with a team of some ex-condors and other assorted players. i was excited at the chance of taking down the famed nada mooger crew. i've been on the other side of a legacy pickup team having played for long list of whores in 1997, the year they/we lost their/our first solstice after 9 years of winning. the chance to break someone else's streak was very attractive.

anyway, the hawaii tournament has to be one of the best run events. you get to waimanalo on friday afternoon and don't leave until monday evening. beer is flowing from night one and never taken off tap (our team tried to guess how many kegs they go through on the weekend, and we all dramatically underestimated, with the closest guess being about 1/3 less than the total). byes are abundant and well-placed such that you get adequate time to enjoy some beach time or take a hike. the camping is a 5 minute walk from the field, and besides the fact that it was windy as hell this year and that the bathroom/shower facilities are a disaster, the location is awesome.

i arrived thursday night and met up with some teammates in waikiki and posted up at duke's while teammates slowly filtered in. by the end of the night we were about 10 people sucking down local beers and umbrella drinks. friday we drove up to the north shore and checked out some of the big surf spots before setting up camp and heading over to the fields at dusk. checkin brought some swag and then i started throwing down the beers in what turned out to be my big night at the tent. it was good to see some old friends and talk to some players that i've matched up with on a regular basis.

saturday morning i managed to miss most of the opening ceremonies, although i caught the helicopter part, which was very cool. our team assembled and it turned out we were 14 players. 5 were current condors, 2 were current revolver, 3 were current justice league, and the other 4 didn't play UPA open this past fall (by my count 2 had never been to club nationals). 8 had been on team USA in finland, 11 had been condors at one time or another. it was generally a really good mix of personalities, and a good mix of talent with some good throwers, good receivers, and good versatile players who could fill in. instead of getting uniforms, the powers-that-be got us some aqua terrycloth shirts for hanging out around the tournament. so we'd play in an assortment of brown shirts and after the game immediately put on our lounge uniforms. a perfect fit for this laid back tourney, where the down time is as important as the game time. we rolled our saturday games 13-3, 13-3, 15-5. back to the tent and then back to the party for dinner and drinking. an intense game of spoons got everyone lubed up and ready to party.

sunday morning was pretty windy and we started with what turned out to be the third seed in our pool. they had some players i recognized, but we were able to run some zone on them to get cheap turnovers to convert. this was also the game where we pulled the 'lemon tree' play. worked to a T, and left the opponents trying to figure out what just hit them. then the game for the top seed in our pool. a back and forth first half that i think we took 8-6, then we came out and ran zone in the second half, again earning some cheap turnover and a few bad hucks that we were able to convert and we won going away. this earned us the afternoon off. get on the lounge shirts, get some hawaiian food and i headed back to the fields to have some beers and watch the pre-quarters. our morning opponent lost this game, largely after passing up the perfect opportunity to run a 'lemon tree' of their own after seeing it's effectiveness in the morning. went down to the beach and did some bodysurfing before trying to clean up and get some dinner. i was planning on taking it easy sunday night, but some ice luging and general festivities found me ahead of the curve but not in as bad of shape as our guy who passed out on one of the tables in the middle of the party.

monday started with a pretty hard quarterfinal against a bay-areaish team. it was close early but we slowly pulled away. this set up our semi with voltron, a mix of players including one current condor, and ex-black tide, a current monster, at least one current bravo (i think) and an assortment of seattle guys. we started out by spotting them a 4-0 lead, looking like we weren't sure we belonged in the semis or maybe hoping they would get overconfident, i'm not sure which. we struck right back and tied it at 5's. i think they took half 8-6. in the second half we went predominantly to zone. this is where having a bunch of players who have played in the same system, and even more have played a lot together paid off as our zone was firing like a well-timed machine. we got a few turns and took advantage to tie it at 13's. at some point before this i realized that this was a really fun game, good players playing hard and at a high level of skill, nice weather, and no calls. we took our first lead of the game at 14-13 and won 15-13. this set up the matchup we were hoping for. it turned out to be a little anticlimactic as nada mooger's loose play gave us some early turnovers that we converted with solid, patient offense. we took half 8-2. they started putting out their top lines in the second half and made a bit of a run, maybe getting as close as 11-7 but we finished it 15-8. the fact that we had a tough semi to dial us in, while they waltzed (i heard) to a 14-2 lead in their semi, probably accounted for our quick start. after the game we got some cool champions shirts and started sucking down the beer, daquiris and margaritas provided. people started leaving, but for the most part our group hung around and about 8 or 9 of Ono (hawaiian for delicious) won the fields finishing off the booze right at dusk.

this tourney is amazingly well-run and it really caters to the players having a good time. the vibe among the players is generally friendly, leading to games with very few calls even while people play hard. our team was a lot of fun bringing together a good mix of old friends and new teammates where everyone contributed to the final victory. a great weekend.

spatial patters

2007-01-05T16:49:00.000-08:00

i've been discussing with some non-frisbee friends about ways to describe players movements on the field of play. i'm especially thinking aobut games which have continuous play, like soccer, or at least a continuous possession like basketball or maybe water polo. Geographers use metrics like nearest-neighbors or other tools to determine how "clustered" a set of observations are. i've thought about using a similar technique to look at how players move to try and categorize different styles of play. i haven't come up with a real good technique yet, but maybe by describing my idea someone else will have something to contribute.

basketball is an easy example to describe because there are only 5 players. i'm sure one can imagine the difference in player spacing between a team running a classic phil jackson (or tex winter) triangle offense that is more equal opportunity and relies on good spacing between the players, versus a classic pick-and-roll offense where two players work in harmony and the others spread themselves out, versus a classic shaq offense (i.e. lakers pre-phil), where movement is predicated on dumping the ball into the big fella and everyone standing around. the spatial setup of these offenses would likely be very different and over the course of a possession that spatial relationship would change in a unique way. there is probably a way to quantify both the spatial value (clusteredness) and how that value changes. then, a team's style could be defined by this metric and a comparison of styles could also be made (i.e. that team plays a lot like the spurs) and tactics could be developed to create certain values.

this could also be the case for ultimate. no-dumps, one-dump, two-dumps, spread, horizontal stack, vertical stack would all likely have different values, and we could discuss a team's style by this value. we would all guess that how a huck-n-hope offense moves is very different from how a conservative offense moves, even if their initial setup is similar. strategies to disrupt a team's offense could be based on this metric somehow.

right now, it's all just some very unrefined idea in my mind, but i bet someone real clever with a ton of video footage, computer programming skills and a love for frisbee details (like corey) could figure this out in a snap.

sarasota 2006...

2006-11-28T09:37:00.000-08:00

it wasn't the nationals result i had expected or even planned for, and looking back maybe i should have seen it coming. at nationals we had a lot of players have average tournaments and probably no player had an outstanding tournament. at the root, that was the core of the problem. the list of lame excuses that didn't actually cause our poor result, but didn't help create a better one includes:

this condor version had only 5 players (out of 22) who played on the condor team that made the finals of 2003 nationals. this means that we've had 77% turnover in the last 3 seasons.
further, we had 8 players who were at nationals for the first time and 3 more who were there for the first time as condors
injuries had prevented some players from practicing/playing in september and october

given this we had our chances. the pivotal game on thursday was against rhino and we were up 8-6 at half, scored on O to start the second half, then were tied at 9's before getting another upwind break to go up 11-9, before losing 15-12. we also had a tough one against machine on friday to get in the pre-quarter, but i remember less about that game. hopefully this group will stay together and certainly be an improved bunch next year.

personally, i had maybe my worst nationals ever. forced throws and risky chances on offense led to many turns for me. defensively i had trouble getting into a good rhythm and never got locked in. physically, i had a troubling knee in the spring that finally healed when we switched workout programs in July, but that annoying knee got traded in for tempermental hamstrings (first the right, then the left). i may have been a little overprotective of my hamstrings this year after pulling one the weekend before regionals last season. this led to sitting out some practices and throttling back the training a bit to make sure they were healthy for nationals. finally, this was my first year as the oldest guy on the team (32), which i only realized when corey bailed on us in the spring to pursue "professional responsibilities" (which was also code for "no more blogging" i guess). i think our oldest guy should try to set a better example on the field in coming years.

my tally for nationals now looks something like this:
champions: 2 (2000, 2001)
runners-up: 3 (1998, 1999, 2003)
quarters loser: 2 (2002, 2004)
lower half: 2 (2005, 2006)
didn't qualify for semis: 1 (1997, before the current format)

worlds changing hands

2006-11-14T14:10:00.000-08:00

maybe i'll try to revive this thing. during the season it was hard to write anything that i thought would be informative, but also not give away anything valuable. before i write about how i had what was probably my worst performance at nationals (a future post), i'll point out that the last major title that the condors hold will be changing hands this week. however, since we can all agree that this is a watered down worlds, i vote for us all (the frisbee community that is, not just the 7 people that read this blog) continuing to recognize the condors as world club champions.

MLU - reffing

2006-07-18T16:16:00.000-07:00

so much that could be said about the MLU games at potlatch (i know this is almost outdated now), but for starters i'll try to give a little bit of the refs perspective. i reffed one game between the NW and the NE, and it was a pretty clean game for the most part, save some NW player's attempts to foul out. i didn't see things in this game like i saw in the SE games where the players were really putting the onus on the refs to make the call.

as a ref coming from an ultimate player's perspective, you generally don't want to blow the whistle, much like you'd rather not call the foul in ultimate. the difference is that when you don't make the call in self-reffed ultimate you are the one who potentially suffers. it was very easy for refs to swallow their whistle and let play proceed, even if it wasn't just.

my experience started as a line judge. in the game i reffed there were 4 officials, 2 on the lines and 2 on the field. a little more organization would have had the assignments a little better defined, but we made do alright, and i think it wasn't a lack of positioning which prevented us from making calls. in general i tried to go with the soccer model of linejudging, where i stuck to my sideline, and closer to one endzone. when the disc was going away from my endzone i looked for fouls on the mark and on receivers around the disc. when the disc was coming towards my endzone i looked for picks and fouls on the receiver. i didn't really even have the chance to make any calls, and i was a little hesitant about stepping on the shoes of the on-field official, but there really wasn't much to call.

in the second half i was switched to the onfield position. this time when the disc was going away from me i looked for travels and stalls and didn't concern myself too much with fouls on the mark (hoping my sidejudge would get those). again, there wasn't much to call, but i probably could have blown my whistle a few more times if i wanted to reign things in. as it was i think i called 2 travels (maybe 3) and one foul on the mark. a few times when the disc was coming towards me there was some upfield movement that i could have blown, but it looked like the contact turned out to be minor and incidental and play proceeded no worse for the wear, so i let it go.

from a referee's perspective, it's a very tough game to call. a lot of the contact is subtle but may greatly impact the game. i think a better definition of the responsibility of each official would have greatly improved the calls, just because there would be a focus point. as it was, i occasionally found myself just watching the game, waiting for something to catch my eye. more (read: any) training would have better prepared me for how to ref. i would guess that i was much better by the end of the game than i was at the beginning, and i think another game could have made me better still.

it's a tough job, but i think it was a great experiment for the players and at least pushes the envelope of the sport. i was explaining to someone before the tourney that there was a time, not so long ago, when playing the pull where it landed in the endzone didn't exist (you walked it up to the goalline), but it's only because people experimented with things that we found a new way to do things. maybe refs are the next brick mark.

ultimate time

2006-04-28T10:30:00.000-07:00

i was pretty sure ultimate time had been removed from the sport. it was probably on it's way out in my early playing days (mid-late 90's), but there were still remnants. like the first round of a tournament would be 15-30 minutes longer than the other rounds to account for the fact that they would be started a little later than the schedule said. well, at the davis tournament we ran into it, and it was rather perplexing. here's the scoop...

sunday morning, quarterfinals. we're supposed to play a team that finished 4th in their pool the day before. the team is one of those composed of decent players, with maybe even a few really good players (especially one who i battled with in college a bunch), but they probably don't practice and are really out there just to have a good time and try to have a few memorable moments over the course of the weekend.

condors do our typical warmup and as game time is approaching we notice that there's no opponent. well, it gets to 9am and one guy from their team sheepishly walks over to say he's the only one at the fields. poor guy. he thinks the rest of his team will show up, but they all live in the bay and have families and may have to mow their lawns or something on sunday. so he's not quite sure any of them will even make it. oh, wait...here comes one guy...nope it's two.

a few more minutes pass. i'm looking in my handy 10th edition to see what the formal rules are on assessing points. low-and-behold, i don't think that rule is codified, and it must just be a thing that is written at nationals. bummer. but if i didn't know that, i'm sure these guys didn't either. another car pulls up...maybe that's 6...no, one more running in from the parking lot.

the nice co-captain goes over to them to arrange for the start of the game. it's probably about 10 past nine, maybe even a quarter past. he comes back to tell us we'll start in 5 minutes. "how many points are we assessing?" i ask. turns out the nicer co-captain didn't bring this up. we'll iron this out. i approach and it goes something like this...

me: hey guys, so it's well after 9, and in fact, at 9 you only had 1 guy here, so i think we're going to assess points.

nice guy 1: well, we were at the other field, and the TD told us we played over there

me: really? because that's not in any schedule that was ever distributed, posted or discussed anywhere. why would you be at the other fields? and why wouldn't you tell this one guy who was here waiting for you?

nice guy 2: i really don't think you guys need points. and we just want to have a fun game with you all. and that's not cool. and it doesn't really seem right, you know, because, well...we're nice and all, and i'm smiling but inside i'm actually a little hurt that you would feel the need to assess points, especially since nobody on this team has ever scored more than 7 points against the condors in our lives.

okay, maybe i exaggerated that last part a little bit. but these guys were incredulous at the suggestion of penalizing them for having one person at the fields at the designated start time. furthermore, to have the gall to suggest that they just want to play against us seemed insincere at best given that they didn't really feel like playing that game at the designated time.

in the end we assessed zero points, more because i couldn't find it in the rules than because it was the 'right' thing to do. the threat of points maybe served to get them on the line a little quicker than they would have without that looming, but it probably didn't. the good news is that they can all continue to say they've never scored more than 7 against the condors.

death on the fields

2006-04-14T10:01:00.000-07:00

i hesitated to write this column, but i figured that of my 11 readers, maybe 3 weren't at the tournament and it was a very unique thing that happened. everything i'm writing is from my perspective and memory, and may not be the actual facts as they occurred. i had never met ana hammond.

we were at a group of four fields, with the condors being on field 3 all day. the whole team had put their stuff on the sideline between field 2 and 3. we had finished our second game of the day and were facing a long intermission before our third game. i was meandering to and from frisbee central getting some food when i saw a teammate and an ex-teammate talking on the sideline between field 1 and 2. we had been watching a little of the coed game on field 2 and then the game on field one (i can't even remember what game it was) when we started hearing sirens.

it didn't even register that the sirens would be coming to the fields until a women went running from the sideline we were on to flag down the fire engine. i thought maybe a broken bone or something along those lines. then, we hear something like "she's not breathing", i think from the woman running to get the fire engine. at that point i think maybe a concussion with some severe effects. the three of us chatting on the sideline wrap up our conversation as the action on field one had come to a stop and my teammate and i walk back towards our team sideline 40 yards away. the action on field 2 had stopped and as we walked across i looked over and saw a person giving respirations to the person on the ground. as we walked the firemen were reaching the victim, and an ambulance had also just arrived at the field and was begining to drive onto the fields.

when we got to our sideline we asked around to see if any of the condors had seen what happened (still thinking it was maybe a concussion or something). one guy said he had been paying some attention and it looked like the teams were about to begin a point when an observer pointed out to the pulling team that they had a player in convulsions on the sideline. this was when i realized it wasn't an injury sustained in the course of active play.

the paramedics were now on the scene and had relieved the good samaritan who had previously been giving respirations. soon enough they were doing chest compressions and it seemed like things were getting more desperate on the other side of the field. our team pretty much stayed put and watched the proceedings from 40 yards away. after a number of minutes of CPR, and as they seemed to be loading her on a stretcher, field staff came by and asked everyone to clear off the fields. i've never seen a group of ultimate players as cooperative as this as the whole fields were cleared within a 2 minutes. we got off the field just as they were loading up the ambulance and driving off. there were still police there talking with players who seemed to be either on her team or somehow connected to her or the events that took place.

at this point nobody really knew the severity of the situation, but i figured it was a pretty bad thing to be doing CPR on somebody for as long as they had been doing it. a captain's meeting was called and the timing for the remainder of the day was laid out. the show must go on, i guess. after the 'showcase' game that night we heard that she had passed away, and i thinke veryone was pretty much in shock that such a thing could happen. it it was an extraordinary and extraordinarily sad event to witness.

davis...one aspect

2006-04-11T17:32:00.000-07:00

it seems like there is suddenly an overwhelming amount of topics i could post on, thanks to the first tournament of the spring season. things such as the condors prospects for the season (i probably won't post on this), the shakeup in the bay area teams(i may post on this), a player dying on the fields (i may give my perspective of the events, since it doesn't seem like anyone has written much, and it's a very unique thing), how to improperly assess points to a team that isn't there for quarters, potentially being the second oldest condor this season (is 31 really that old?), and my personal play (this post).

i've had a very unique offseason, and it didn't prepare me for this tourney at all. my typical pattern is to take off from after nationals until sometime in mid-to-late december, and then get back into training for the upcoming year. however, with a pulled hamstring at nationals, i took all of november off to heal, did rehab for december and early january, then spent the last few months doing nothing. i think i've had 2 frisbee specific workouts in the last 3 months.

it turns out that having long breaks between each game on saturday was not the best thing to help my body get through the day. long warmup after a 1st round bye on saturday saw my hamstring feeling great, but my whole lower-body was sore from the previous week's weightlifting and workout. quick game, 13-4 or something. 2-hour bye. long warmup again, slightly longer game, 13-6 maybe. long bye including health emergency which happened on the adjacent field to ours. slightly longer game again, 13-7?

my legs were shot. the warmups before the 2nd and 3rd game were much shorter than the first two, but it was still a lot of energy to get the engine revved up and the legs didn't want to loosen up after being shut down. additionally, i forgot to take any ibuprofen, so i felt all the pain...quads, hamstrings, calves, feet. when i'd play i could usually follow my guy around for one or two cuts, and then i'd start trying to cut my losses. my mark had dramatically deteriorated as i couldn't muster the strength to move my feet.

then the big matchup of the day against a team composed of a lot of players who played jam last season...let's call them 'project X' for short. just in time. i was not so secretly rooting for my legs to cramp up so i'd have an excuse to stay off the field, but instead they stayed under me just enough to allow me to make a number of mistakes. we started out strong as a team, but as we lost more guys to injury (we finished with 13) jam wound up capitalizing on mistakes that we were getting away with early on. my fatigue led to one terrible decision (a hammer on the goal line for a TO. i maybe throw 5 hammers in a whole season, but i thought i could end the point quick with this one), two poor executions (one an overthrow which caused two of our guys to take an injury sub, another underthrow) leading to turns, and another quick throw which was where it should have been, but was a bit unconventional and led to a drop. final score, 15-13 bad guys.

sunday starts early, but again we get the old game-bye pair to start the day. so after playing a team that stayed with us to 2-2, we got to sit around for a few hours until the semis. a rematch of the second game from saturday, with similar results, although they kept it close a bit longer, and we were playing project X in the finals. the first point saw a patient X work it up against our man with about 40 passes (so much for the huck and hope). i diligently chased my man around for most of the point, but took everything out of the tank in the process. then they get the next 3 after a miscue, a pointblock and an errant huck. poor/lazy defensive poaching by me sees me get burned for a huck. we lose half 8-2. trade for most of the second half and wind up losing 15-8 or something.

this is probably the most out-of-shape i've ever been coming into a spring, and it showed. the good news is that it reminded me that i can't just go out there and perform how i expect without putting in at least a minimal amount of training. the small roster and scheduling wasn't doing me any favors, although i was helped by the fact that there were few quality opponents to force us to expend more energy than necessary. hopefully some diligence over the next few weeks will help correct some of this and at least get me prepared for what lies ahead.

going hard

2006-04-05T16:38:00.000-07:00

i played in a men's only, invite only beach game in santa barbara a few weeks ago, and there was a play that stuck out that at least generated a little talk, but no real controversy.

my team is on defense and one of our guys poaches into space at a high stall count. the throw goes up in his neighborhood and he commits to going hard to the disc. the intended receiver, who was going with a full head of steam has to adjust a little to get a hand on the disc. both players arrive at the disc around the same time and the disc winds up on the sand. if i'm on the offensive team i probably ask the receiver why he didn't call strip (actually, i guess i asked him this anyways, but after the game was over), but being on the defensive team i clearly saw a block.

as i was thinking about it afterwards, the defender would have had zero shot at the disc if he hadn't committed as soon as he did. if he hesitated a little, either at the begining or possibly sensing contact at the end, it probably winds up looking really ugly with a collision and a 'late' bid.

it's a very fine line between playing hard (and committing to making a play on the disc) and being a hack who winds up barging into everyone on the field. i suppose if you are a little late once or twice in a day, maybe you have to reevaluate what plays are in your range, but there's really only one way to find out what you're captable of and that's to go after the disc.

side note: first CA tourney this weekend, maybe there will actually be stuff to write about next week.

hoops parallel

2006-03-07T16:37:00.000-08:00

i'm no basketball player, but the last few winters i have played a little intramural hoops at a pretty low level. this year i'm on a team composed of some guys who played in high school and then me. my job is generally to play defense, get rebounds and pass to the guys who are going to score. there are referees, which makes it a much different game than the occasional pick-up basketball i play.

anyway, last week i had a bit of a run-in with one of our opponents. (i should preface the story by noting that since i never played organized hoops, i'm generally unaware of the etiquitte of basketball.) it was the second half, and our team was on a bit of a run. the other team was getting a little tired and i would say they were about to lose their grasp and go from "we have a chance" to "this game is over". i pulled down a defensive rebound and my opponent took a poke at the ball. i gripped it hard and shielded it by turning away from him and looking for an outlet pass. he took another swipe, and then reached around, eventually with both arms, nearly hugging me in an attempt to strip the ball. the referees, who are far from skilled (although they try hard), were slow on the whistle, so i started moving in what could best be describes as a squirm in an attempt to shake him. of course, it was a bit of an agressive squirm as i got my elbows out to help clear a little space. well, the whistle came, but my defender took exception, and we squared off for a moment before the ref and teammates stepped in.

as we went down court i asked him what his problem was and he said something along the lines of "i was just trying to foul you to stop the momentum and give us a rest". at which point i realized what he was doing was not really malicious at all. by the end of the game i had apologized and told him i just wasn't ready for that.

this got me to thinking about foul limits in ultimate. here i was in what could best be described as a "friendly" game of hoops, but the intentional foul was already present. if this were ultimate, would it be a good idea to use the fouls? maybe when your guy is throwing a short pass to an unmarked receiver? would that be "bad spirit"? certainly, as the game presently works, that would be a gross violation of what's accepted, but if there were refs, it might become perfectly acceptable to play the man in that situation.

i'm not sure i'd be ready to deal with that, but it might not take long to change the mentality. maybe, more importantly, the rules aren't set up to handle a situation like that, as there is really no disadvantage to the marker. if there were a more severe penalty for the foul, maybe it sould become an acceptable tactic.

to quote the violent femmes

2006-02-16T16:30:00.000-08:00

learn, learn, learn, learn, learn, everything you can learn.

after my last post about the marks in college ultimate there was some requests for expanding on what makes a good mark. rather than get into the specifics of a good mark, i think one of the first concepts is that a good mark needs to learn throughout a point or game to become more effective. this was what i thought was missing at the college tourney i saw.

the college marks tended to start quite tight. however, the few good throwers at the tournament were easily stepping around these and either breaking the mark, or getting a free throw with the foul. at this point, these marks should have started learning, and stepped off these players who could easily step around these marks. by taking a half-step, or even a full step off the mark, these throwers would have been much less successful at breaking the mark.

i think every top defender does this, but maybe it's what separates the best from the next tier of defenders. if i get broken by a high-release, i'm going to be aware of that throw, and either have my hand up there near the release point or have it ready to jab up there. by slowly dialing in the throwers release points and 1st choise of throw i can force him to start going deeper into his bag of tricks to beat me. the hope is that by getting him to go to these less comfortable throws the odds of getting a turnover will improve.

it's a pretty simple concept, but as a marker if you say "this is how i mark" and refuse to adjust to the thrower you're really at a disadvantage. you've got to do everything you can to make the thrower uncomfortable, and that includes changing up what you do.

Tempe - Guest Author Scoop

2006-01-31T16:14:00.000-08:00

Since Will Deaver already did an awesome write up of my team's events from this past weekend, I got his permission to post it here. I'm traveling on business this week, it's easier to do this and it's probabaly better writing than mine too.

Will wrote:

Zippo scoop - Upon arrival at the hotel Friday evening, started partying like stars. Much beer consumed. Funny jerseys made (nice work Rouisse,Kyle, Richter, Andrew). Kyle loses sleep after "modifying" a new teammates jersey with some, what really can only be described as "nippleart", b/c the guy (Stephen Poulos from Tampa) made a bad travel call at a pick-up tournament like 3 years ago. So, if you made Kyle mad withinthe last several years, don't think you've gotten away with it just yet. Saturday morning and day were spent alternately drinking and digging huge holes to teams made up of 8-12 guys ranging from club players from the Desert to the Midwest to Cali and then digging back out of them by the skin of our 20 sets of teeth. Maximizing points played and wearing our opponents down were clearly effective strategies this year, and it worked perfectly as we took our pool and all 20 of us were tired enough to truly enjoy all three combacks. This was followed by continued drinking, hottub, lasagna and s'mores at Sammy's, hours waiting at the bar for a drink at the party (unless you were near Alden, who spent last month's paycheck feeding shots to anyone within arm's length), and cramming 16 people into 2 cars for the ride back to the hotel b/c Kyle left earlywith the van with only 3 people in it without telling anyone. (Note, Kyle and 7 other people claim there were actually 8 people in the van and that they told us they were leaving. However, that would have negated our right to bitch all the way home piled on each other's laps,so we're sticking to the 3 people and no notice story. Sunday we continued to maximize our points in the quarters, then actually played some Ultimate against MamaBird. Hit the finals in stride ready to bring one home for Sammy after 23 years of playing NYF. However it was not to be. I follow up my 2-drop Saturday with the first part of my 2-getting handblocked Sunday to set the tone for a nice, team-wide series of individual gacks. We just couldn't muster another comeback, although there were some nice moments. Richter with the two handed, layout point-block on a Steets backhand huck that you could just feel from 30 yards away. The crowd cheering crazily after a towering hammer is hauled in by Sammy for a goal, only to have the cheering turn to even louder booing after Dugan calls a pretty weak travel on the throw. Chance to take it back and minimize reputation damage is not taken. Corey proceeds to call a travel on Dugan every time he throws for the rest of the game. Classic. Also of note from the weekend, CSU Mickey's sick Callahan catch block on the dump to start one of our rallies, afore-mentioned Stephen Poulos making plenty of plays while also making Parker and Rouisse and Curtis and all the other notoriously far-sighted CU/Bravo huckers look likeMother Theresa protecting the goods, same Poulos doing pushups on the sideline after the day while the rest of us were "hydrating" after a long day, Kyle rallying us against theMonster guys with his very own clutch travel call (oh the irony), andWill dominating on the sidelines, where apparently decreased skill in catching Frisbees is mitigated somewhat by increased skill in wiffle-ball. Also, it is apparently very difficult to catch perfect hammers from me... so I will work to start floating them and try to getat least one if not more helixes in before they drift into the waitingcrowd of players. Hector's commentary on the finals is probably worth hearing, so hopefully Brask can score us the tape. Sammy wistfully states afterwards that we would have killed either half of that team, but since the CA boys don't have enough friends to bring to a fun tournament, they wrangled their way from two 10-person squads (Jam and Condors), into a single, loaded 20-person team at the captain's meeting (Condams...soundsabout right). Chalk up another moral victory for Zippo, who really maximized the fun factor up until the bitter end. Hope that was worth reading. I take no responsibility for the factual accuracy of any of the above statements. As always, Zippo and Tempe continue to be the place to ring in the Ultimate New Year. Looking forward to getting back off my ass and playing some disc.

Great write up Will, thanks!!!

college marking

2006-01-30T16:36:00.000-08:00

so i had the chance to watch a fair amount of college ultimate this past sunday. i strictly watched elimination games starting with the men's quarters through the semis and finals. as an expert in winning college nationals, i'm sure there are thousands of people out there desperately seeking my opinion. this post won't be about how the black tide 1996 version would have waltzed through the tourney running backwards and playing upside-down only throws, however true it may be.

the biggest observation i saw was on the mark. i was already focusing in on this because a teammate had commented the week prior about how that was the biggest thing he noticed in the transition from strong college player to bottom-of-the-roster condor player. i guess the thing is that disc skills make all the difference. he noted that in college he was always close to getting handblocks, while when he first got to club he wasn't even in the neighborhood.

from watching this weekend, it seems like the college mark basically requires you to be tight to the thrower and try to limit his pivoting. i would guess that club players are skilled enough to step around or through this mark. of the games i watched, i saw a number of good blocks by upfield defenders called back because of a foolish foul on the mark. at the same time, i saw the few strong handlers on each team throwing behind the mark at will, and frequently getting the free throw while they did it.

i guess this mark is probably particularly effective against weak or panicky throwers, and against this person it will give you a good chance of a turnover (not only will the thrower make a bad throw, they're probably not experienced enough to call the foul). however, the top defenders on each team, who are probably guarding the top throwers on the other team, should figure out how to take a 1/2 step off the mark and move his feet and hands a little better. it'd probably help the team in the long run.

separately, but maybe related, i saw a number of fouls go uncontested by the marker, and even a number of other upfield fouls on defenders went uncontested. so maybe this is just guys going as hard as they can and when they're on the mark they are a little more physical than even they realize is allowed.

The Pre-Season Tour Continues

2006-01-27T14:43:00.000-08:00

To me there are three ultimate seasons: the pre-season, the spring season, and the fall series. Usually the fall and spring you play with you club team, but the pre-season is wide open and this year I am taking advantage of it yet again to play with top-level club players from other teams besides the Condors. I always enjoy it. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Condors and I have made life-long friends in my last 7 seasons in Santa Barbara to go along with winning a few titles. But there is something about playing with new people at tourneys, where the whole life of the team is that one weekend, which I enjoy. I've already played in one tourney, the Leiout beach event a few weekends ago with Carbomb. This weekend I’m playing in Tempe with ZiPPo, which will consist of club players from last year’s Condors, Bravo, Ring and Tampa’s Bulge. I played with them last year and we came up 3 points short of a perfect weekend: made new friends, partied like rock stars, got some sweet preferential treatment with our local grizzled vet that got us on the “good” fields all weekend and almost won the whole thing, losing 17-14 in the finals.

I’m confident we will have the same results in everything we had last year in regards to partying and good times. I’m looking forward to playing with classic ultimate icons like Mickey and Jimmy Price. I’m just hoping that we can secure those last 3 points this time, should we make the finals, and bring home the Tempe trophy. A win would be a solid accomplishment with JAM ’06 making their 1st appearance of the year (apparently there is no pre-season in San Francisco) along with other great ringer club teams. And it would be nice to win a major tourney 6 years after the only other time I’ve won there, marking what would be the longest I’ve gone between winning a tourney two different times. I’ll try and get a recap up next week.

Ultimate History Book – Help me get some more press

2006-01-19T11:03:00.000-08:00

Sure, Kenny doesn’t like the book, and I found a mistake in less than 1 minute of reading, but I’m pro ultimate and I like Tony a lot, he’s a funny funny guy. So…

According to RSD today, they are going to be getting some upcoming mentions in both Sports Illustrated and the NY Times.

My girlfriend’s dad is a sports reporter for the LA Times. He’s already gotten two free copies of the book from PR reps. He would love to get us in the sports section somehow again(he got the Condors a small mention when we won Natties in ’01), but it needs to be organic to something either relating to Los Angeles or Joel Silver. Apparently, the PR guy wants him to interview Joel Silver. He asked me if I had anything that would make a good question that I could ask him that might make a Briefing item? I talked about how ultimate is attracting more athletes, and talked about how one of the Condors from LA has a brother that was a QB in the Rose Bowl a few years ago and some other LA-centric stuff.

Today, I’m throwing it out there to the blogosphere. Got any other ideas/angles you’d like to see Larry try and explore or ask Joel to help the book? If you do, let’s hear those comments.

rose-bowl

2006-01-18T15:26:00.000-08:00

i was fortunate enough to get tickets to the rose bowl this year though patagonia, our team's sponsor. besides it being an absolutely awesome game, i had a number of observations. i'll share two right now:

1. it's gotta be damn hard to find the football with the stands in the background. as ultimate players we rarely have anything but green trees or fairly solid skies in the background. imagine if ultimate got really big time and was being played in a tall stadium and you're trying to pick up the angle on the hammer as it flies through a mottled background of replica white jerseys in the stands. i know a little bit about this from playing goaltimate at halftime of a chargers/steelers christmas eve in 2000. we were playing with a yellow disc and even routine passes were a little trickier to receive as they flew in front of a background of yellow and black steeler jerseys and terrible towels. i guess you'd probably adapt after a while, but it would probably be an advantage to the teams that played in those big games more regularly.

2. the texas fans were amazing, and were really focused on supporting their team. we were seated in an area of USC and texas fans. when SC was up their fans were all about heckling the texas fans in our section. it never got too confrontational (largely because the texas fans generally ignored it) but it was very ugly. when texas was up, even after enduring SC's taunts as the game wound down, the texas fans in our section were very loud and boisterous, but only in a way that was supportive to their own team and not at the expense of the SC fans. very classy and given the volume in the stadium, maybe more effective than the SC method. in thinking about how this translates to ultimate, i'm not sure if it is applicable to players on the sidelines, or if i should only think about this as a spectator of a game.

lei-out

2006-01-17T15:45:00.000-08:00

played at the beach tourney this weekend. hamstring held up well, started to feel a little weak after the long downtime before our semi and i wound up playing very little in that game.

a few things reminded me why i don't like playing casual ultimate. one big one was at the time when our games were supposed to start on saturday we had only 4 people, 3 men and 1 woman. 20 minutes after the first game was supposed to start it was the same story. ultimate time is definitely far less prevalent than it was when i first started playing, but even still it rears it's ugly head at these casual events. if we're going to say "games start at 10" then let's be there at 10. if games aren't going to start until 11 then just say that. if i was our opponent i would have forced us to put 4 on the line or start assessing points. we're only screwing them by showing up late.

of course, when push came to shove in the semi-finals we showed that it's really difficult to play well when you're out late drinking on saturday night, and that sometimes the things that work when you're sober don't always happen the same way when you're hungover/drunk. of course, we also showed tremendous resilience in continuing to huck even after it didn't work the first 25 times. so after winning the first 2 or 3 of these lei-out events, i now haven't made the finals in 4 (3?) years.

running

2006-01-06T16:36:00.000-08:00

so i'm about ready to come back from only my second serious injury during my ultimate career. my first was a broken collarbone (nationals 2000) that pretty much meant 8 weeks of inactivity followed by some range-of-motion stuff and i was back. recovering from a hamstring is a different deal.

maybe i should start with some background. the week before regionals i was at practice and my hammy was having a hard time loosening up. after warmups and even an initial drill i couldn't get it loose. we went into a scrimmage and while some teammates told me not to press, another said he felt a similar thing previously and some tiger balm and a leg sleeve solved the problem. i probably knew that this was a little more serious, but i followed his advice anyways and the first sprint i made i felt it pop up high. i had ice on it within a minute. 4 weeks later it was time for nationals and i thought i had a 50% chance of surviving the tourney, but the first time i tried to stress it at all it tweaked again in a different spot (probably due to a tape job to reduce stress to the initial injury, which resulted in extra stress to other areas). i tried to run on it a little more but there was not strength and nothing could be done. the leg had no power in it. one of the biggest disappointments of my ultimate career, as losses are difficult enough to take, but watching our team lose close games where i felt i could have made an impact was even rougher.

this time i had the luxury of time off. 3 weeks of total inactivity. probably the longest stint of my life. i don't think my heart rate ever crested 100 bpm in this period. then i went to therapy and had a great therapist who pushed me. the fallout from the first week of therapy was rough as my body wasn't ready for exercise. things that would have hardly caused exertion in september were now kicking my ass. a few weeks of therapy and some work on my own and i was ready for the new year. i made a deal with the hamstring that i would baby it until Jan 1, and then i would expect it to be ready. i tested it on monday with some light halfcourt hoops (very casual) and tuesday with a moderate track workout. 880's at a moderate pace. no sprinting, but fast times under some level of fatigue. it held up quite well, although i've been pretty sore for the rest of the week.

this weekend...probably some beach ultimate. my first cutting since september. should be a good test, without too much stress. i was hoping it would take longer to recover so i would have a good excuse to avoid the stupid social tourneys (like the LA beach tourney next weekend) where you have to pretend like you really enjoy hanging out with ultimate players that you don't really recognize, rather than competing against/with them. i think that came out wrong...i keep meaning to write my "ultimate community" piece, but it would take some significant time. so much for focusing my writing.

2005 – My Year in Review

2005-12-30T11:23:00.000-08:00

Idris keeps telling me, a la Jim Rome, “Have a take” for each post. A lot of you that might have ever talked to me know that I’m mostly a rambling fool, so I guess this post doesn’t have much of a take either. But for anyone that played against me in any of these tourneys, I guess it might remind you of good times.

Leiout Beach tourney – worst results in the past decade. I told Tony Leonardo I’d play on his team, he recruited no one. We went 1-6 or so, I couldn’t remember a worse weekend of ulty.

Tempe – played with a mostly Bravo-ish team, lost in the finals to a team heavy with JAM and Condor players. We were down huge and came back, had the disc FIVE times at 14-13 to tie it and I threw the last of our 5 turns. We lost 17-14.

Kaimana – Nada Mooger won their 6th straight and my 3rd. Large amounts of rum and pog make for another hazy weekend in Hawaii. Someone lost us our shot at the spirit trophy by hitting the tourney director with a chair in a drunken rage.

Winter League – epic 15-13 win in finals. Only time I’ve ever played in the rain in LA. My 2nd winter league title

Texas Shoot Out – Most heart breaking loss of the year in the inaugural version of this event as there was a 1st place prize of $3,100 and we had big plans to blow it all on cowboy hats before we left the state. We went 5-0 in pool play beating every team there with the closest game being 13-9 or so, and then lost in the semis when Chain played an AMAZING game that had only 1 or 2 turns the entire time (for them). They then had 4 turns in the first point alone in the finals Glad they didn’t win the money.

Cal States – My 1st win ever at this tourney! The Condors were the repeat champs, but I was coming off my ACL last year. We beat JAM in the semis and half of Sockeye in the finals; they had 2 teams there for tryouts. I have the trophy at my house. I think it’s the oldest trophy in ultimate, dates back to Foothill’s win in ’77. Still trying to figure out how to not give it back.

Summer League – LA summer league is a joke, no real comp, but I like to go and play while drinking beers. Increased my lifetime LA summer league record to something like 40-1. Had to miss the finals once again due to Condor practice.

Potlatch – Played with Sleeveless in Seattle. We are the 3rd best co-ed team in America! I signed onto the amazing stacked squad a week before the tourney only to learn rock stars like Idris and Ryan Y. bailed at the last minute. We had only 13 players and drank box wine all day every day. Had no business being in any kind of contention, and yet we made the semis in the best co-ed tourney anywhere. Highlights included beating Ben Wiggins team in the quarters when one of my teammates said “We have GOT to win this game, I’ve never beaten Wiggins.” All I could think was “Really?” Lost to some team from Canada in semis, I think it was pretty close….

ECC – This is the best tourney you will ever play in. The comp is amazing. We went up 3-0 against Sockeye in the 1st game and held on to the very end where we choked, losing 15-13. Beat Furious in game #2, 1st win over them in a few years. We scored like 7 of 8 to end it. But another 15-13 loss in our last game of the day to Ring hurt bad. Sunday we stepped up to go 3-0 and make the tie-breaker game to 5 to be in the finals against Sockeye, but JAM beat us 5-4 in the mini-game when my guy, Big Jim, caught a blade huck forehand huck from Ron. Ron, if you are reading this, that throw SUCKED!

Labor Day – Another big tourney win! We beat JAM twice and also Bravo. Highlight was 15-4 win over DoG. They couldn’t even complete a pass our D was so fired up. I’d never won this tourney either, so it was a great time.

Sectionals – highlight was skying my Condor LA workout partner for the game winner in the finals. He was uncovered and going to the endzone for an easy goal, but I didn’t see him and brought in my 6’4” defender from San Diego, thus the need to make the awesome play going up over both of them.

Regionals – 2nd worse loss of the season in the finals to Bravo. The D from both Bravo and Condors combined to score ONCE in a 14-12 loss. Embarrassing loss and it also cost us a top 3 seed in FLA.

Nationals – This is the one you try and peak for, but injuries to some of the best players in the game meant we were coming in weaker than we had been a month before. Two flat games to open the tourney and just like that our season was pretty much over. Showed some heart by not rolling over and at least winning the losers bracket. Can we move nationals to Santa Cruz? No one could be us there in '05!

Beach League – Ended the year in style winning the final tourney of the season, the inaugural LA Beach League. I blew up all day!

I guess my take is the year had its ups and downs, but it was a fun year and I proved to myself I've still got some game after coming back from a year of rehab in ’04. See you all out there in ’06.

try to focus

2005-12-21T09:49:00.000-08:00

i drove to and from vegas this past weekend (nearly 6 hours each way) with an ex-teammate who now plies his trade in the mixed division. as we were discussing things i realized that my posts cover way to much ground and that i should try to focus them a little more, or else i'll have touched on, but not discussed, nearly everything i think about in ultimate.

so one small thing that we talked about was how ultimate would be difficult to referree. one classic example was from the finals of worlds in finland two summers ago. one of our teammates went up for a deep huck and the disc wound up bouncing off his hand. he called foul. the crowd was incensed and let him know it. our opponents, even the guy that he called the foul on, also seemed pretty upset. his claim was that he got hit in the face as he was making the catch. upon watching the video, it becomes more clear that he did get hit in the face, but the only thing the crowd sees is that he seemed to drop the disc and this call was a make-up for his mistake.

one of the advantages of self-officiating is that you can't really get away with anything because the person who was wronged will call it. so maybe people should be thinking about ways they can foul where the person won't realize they are being fouled.

one thing that a lot of top players get away with is that when they go up for a high ball in a one-on-one situation, the off hand can find it's way on their opponents hip. this subtle move keeps the opponent from jumping so high, and also gives the offender a bit of a boost. yet because it is hard to realize what's happening below your shoulders when you're going up, it is frequently not called. i called this once at a very crucial point in a pre-season tourney against another top team, and the other team was irate, but my opponent had clearly gained an advantage by pushing down on me. i felt it was a good call, and a teammate of mine who had alerted me to this years before said it was a clear example of that move, making me feel quite justified (which is what it's really all about, right?).

back to my point, both of these are examples of calls which would be very difficult for observers to make as they're watching the disc come in to see if there's a foul on the hand or if a strip occurs or something like that. of course, hitting your opponent in the face (i believe this incident was an accident) is much less subtle than a hand on the hip.

I Hate Hat Tournaments

2005-12-14T20:23:00.000-08:00

I don't think it makes me a bad person, but when I play Ultimate I play to win. I understand the point of a hat tournament or a draft style league is about getting everyone involved and make sure everyone plays roughly an equal amount. I know it's okay to try and win and it's not like people don't care about winning or losing in these competitive situations, but its secondary. It's probably a character flaw, but it's just important that I've recognized it and don't put myself in those situations. Last night I went out to play in this indoor league they have here. You can just show up to play as a sub. My wife is playing in the league and so I tagged along with her. I end up on her team, which was cool since we've not played together in 5 years due to having kids. There is a mix of players, but most are young with only a few people that can handle the disc. In the 2nd game we're winning 9-6 with ten minutes to go. The wheels come off and nobody can catch or throw. This is the type of setting that keeps me away from this type of competition. I want to figure out the best way to win the game. That is going to mean not playing people and calling some plays that invole the 3 people that can handle to make sure you score. People don't play in this type of league to come and stand on the sidelines though, so that's just not an option. So, of course we lose and I'm annoyed and thinking I shouldn't have even come out. I've played in leauges where I put the team together and that's a different story. I've assembled the team and have confidence in all the players on the team, even Corey and belive me that guy can be turnover machine in league play. I find myself feeling guilty about being this way. Ideally I could just go out and enjoy playing in a hat tournament and have fun with it. It's just not that fun for me.

One of the greatest ultimate players in the country

2005-12-14T15:39:00.000-08:00

This is a terrible post, but I have to tell the story. Twenty minutes ago I'm sitting in my office and these two guys walk by. One guy, Kevin, whom I know, says "Hi" and the other guy just stares at me for a second.

"Corey Sanford?" he asks me.

"Do I know you?" I ask him.

He replies, "My name is Chris. You might not remember me, but I worked on that Condor documentary in 2001, I was one of the producers. Kevin, did you know Corey is one of the greatest ultimate players in the country?"

So needless to say, Chris will not have any problems working here on any of my shows.

taking advantage

2005-12-13T09:31:00.000-08:00

there are a number of ways to take advantage of the rules of ultimate, but i think most of them can be grouped into one of two categories. the first are plays that may bend the rules or be a loophole in the rules where the onus is on the opponent to make the call (for instance, moving your foot on a throw to the break side of the field). the second are calls, either those which are a technicality in the rulebook or an excessive amount of calls (calling a travel for a slight foot movement on a throw to the open side). for a moment i'd like to discuss gaining an advantage with calls.

it's been said before that we're actually all players and referees in this game. even in refereed sports you find different refs call a different game. some may call the high strike, while others let it go. some may be looking for pushing underneath the basket, while others may let the big men play. just because an ultimate player calls a tight game, doesn't mean that he's a cheater. it may not be good for the fans, but some games (especially with a lot at stake) will create a lot of calls for a number of reasons (disjointed offense creating picks, defenders not wanting to give any advantage calling slight picks, players trying to make big plays which lead to fouls on the mark or on receptions, etc). while boring, a game with a lot of calls doesn't inherently mean that either team is cheating (more on this at another time). the problem is that high-level players may find themselves more prone to make calls when their team is down in a big game. this is the danger of self-officiating. i typically don't get that irked by players who call a tight game, so long as they don't complain every time an opponent makes a call. some of these differences may be regional (i always hear about west-coast teams travelling all the time), but i think so long as a team or individual calls every game consistently, there shouldn't be something inherently "cheating" when someone calls a tight game.

politics

2005-12-10T19:52:00.000-08:00

This crazy blog world never slows down. I'd been thinking about this topic, and the pups almost stole it from me with a throw away, multi-topic post including a rant on cities with two teams.

Two teams in one city? It's not rare to Boston. It's almost every frisbee town. OK, maybe they don't all have two teams in one division that go to natties, but most decent sized cities have lots of teams with talent level across the charts. And in almost all these towns, teams don’t usually field the best 20 players on their squad. Why? Politics. You could use Boston as an example, but San Fran always has been the paragon of ultimate politics discussion. One of the old NYNY guys always told me that the best talent was in San Fran, but it never was all on the same team. And it doesn't have to be a big city for politics to get in the way of fielding the best team. What about Gainesville? They made it to Sarasota this year in two different divisions and coed players like Dan and Palmer must be as good as anyone on their open team. Almost every team that is put together does not always have the best 20 people available in that town. It's got people that supposedly gel together, but we all know that isn't necessarily true either, as every team has tensions by the time you've all spent months playing together.

So why is it that it’s hard to get all the best players on one team? The reasons are different, here are some good examples:

up and coming players think they are the shit, but still want to play with old friends
old dudes not ready to play with new young guys
some players packaged together, usually around someone that is an amazing player and his buddies
And my personal favorite, the old “I won’t play with that guy anymore”

So then why is it that politics and friendships become so important? Don't all of us trying to make it to and/or win nationals want to play on the best teams we can? Or is this some sort of secret admission that ultimate also is truly a social diversion for most of us? Why are we all party to this game where we know for a fact that certain players get cut and others make the team, and that talent is not the final decision maker in those cuts?

Beats me why it is, I just like playing politics.

Annals of an ACL repair--the surgery

2005-12-10T07:41:00.000-08:00

It occurs to me that having ACL reconstruction surgery is quite a bit like being shot through the leg with a very carefully placed bullet. They literally drill a hole from below your knee, until the drill comes out around the end of your quadriceps.
They've been doing ACL repairs for at least 20 years now, and the surgery have changed a lot over that time. I've run into a few people that had it done in the 80's, and they have 10-inch scars that run up the side of their leg.
At one time or another, they've:

Stapled the original ACL back into place
Used xeno-grafts (grafts from animals) to replace it.
Used artificial grafts (teflon ACL?)
Used allografts (from a cadaver)
Used autografts (from the patient)

The grafts have come from:

a hamstring tendon
a quadriceps tendon
an achilles tendon
a patellar tendon
the original ACL

But most of those aren't even used anymore. Who would want to be the first person to try out some new technique? Many of those techniques they don't use anymore. As of 2005, I believe the "state of the art" is a patellar tendon autograft or allograft. There are lots more "choices" as well. In many cases the doctor makes those choices for you.
My doctor doesn't believe in using a brace--thinks it makes you reliant on it and the ACL never strengthens because it never gets much use. These days it's usually done arthroscopically, to minimize the damage to the knee, but if you get an allograft (same link as before) they gotta make a pretty darn big opening to get the patellar tendon out!
My doctor did let me choose between an autograft and an allograft. The downside of an autograft is the damage done to the patellar tendon--they say kneeling may be difficult for many years afterwards. The downside of an allograft is mostly a small chance of rejection, or infection (even HIV, which can also happen when you get a blood tranfusion).
(The extra damage to my leg seemed to outweigh the small chance of infection--my doctor put it at around 1 in 100,000 to 1 in 500,000--so I chose allograft.)

Back to the bullet through the leg.

It seems like recovering from ACL reconstruction is probably a bit like recovering from a bullet wound. The drill probably tore up a bit of muscle in my quadriceps when it reached the surface, in addition to going through bone and anything else in the way. 1 week after the operation, I've got a big bruise showing up near the quad, and it feels almost like I pulled teh muscle there.
I spent the night in the hospital with one of those morphine drips, you know, where they give you a button to push when you're in pain. Some of you know what I mean. When you need it, morphine is goooooood because pain is so very baaaaaad.

The pain diminished pretty quickly. I didn't need morphine after about 3am (12 hours later). I went home in the morning, and about 36 hours after the surgery, I didn't need Vicadin anymore. 48 hours post surgery and it was easier to hobble around slowly than to use crutches (I had no meniscus damage, so I was allowed to put my full weight on it.) Starting about 4 days after the surgery, I only periodically take a few ibuprofen. I had heard there could be considerably more downtime, and considerably more pain. Different cases vary a lot, but I attribute some of the progress to the allograft. I figure an autograft might have about doubled the initial amount of damage done.

1 week post surgery, I can walk around slowly, but I need to keep my leg elevated for a large portion of the day, or it gets really sore. The amount of mobility in my leg really hasn't increased much yet--maybe it was 20degrees 1 day after, and now it's 45degrees, but not really increasing, despite a bit of physical therapy. I'm very happy with the progress, compared to what I've heard from others. In fact, starting about 24 hours after the surgery, I've had considerably less pain than I did when I had a meniscus repair in the other knee 2 years ago (so don't think I've gotten off easy.)

Progress reports will follow...

Jim Rome of ultimate? He did go to Santa Barbara...

2005-12-09T10:20:00.000-08:00

If you're reading this, you probably also have looked at Ultimatetalk today. But if you haven't, get there now and listen to the first ever ultimate talk show. I was honored to be invited and look forward to working out such complicated technical issues as the "volume" button on my phone for future broadcasts. Thanks for setting it all up, Idris.

Check out the podcast now.

striking back

2005-12-08T12:22:00.000-08:00

i'm back from my weeklong internet hiatus, and before describing the details of hamstring rehabilitiation and other boring offseason activities (see previous posts regarding mixed, beach and injuries) i figured i would post something relevant to the open game.

remember a while ago when the pups started quite a stir with this post? it seemed like everyone was outraged that defenders might play their hardest, and not concede even the smallest advantage to their opponent. as a defender (even made their top 7) i appreciate this sentiment, although maybe parts of their post were over the line.

on to my point, have any throwers tried fighting back? i think intentional fouls on the mark, where the marker is making no attempt to stop the flight of the disc, but only the movement of the thrower, constitute cheating. it's been rare, but there have been a few times when playing, both in tournaments and in scrimmages, where i have had the disc and felt like the marker was intentionally hacking me. maybe a few of those i haven't made a big deal of. but maybe the best way to end it was by firing back. something along the lines of "if you do that again, i'm going to throw a backhand across your forehead", can really send home the message that enough is enough. one time i even tried it, but went for the ribs instead of the face after the marker in a zone, who was behind me, grabbed the disc on my wind-up on a backhand, so i traveled to throw a backhand into his side. while i came up with this method independently, i have heard stories of jim "daddy" doing this in 1996 nationals to saucy jack.

this whole thing reminds me of a quote i heard from my buddy garthe, "an armed society is a polite society".

Annals of an ACL repair

2005-12-08T09:26:00.000-08:00

Well, I've been playing Ultimate for 16 years now. Highly competitive ultimate for 13 years. During that time I've witnessed the destruction of at least 5 ACL's (probably more I don't know about). 4 of them were while the person was playing ultimate. (The last one was Bonzi Wells, and I was actually at the game, and was looking right at him, so I count that.) One of them was my live-in girlfriend at the time, so I remember taking her to the hospital, picking her up afterwards, watching her recovery. But that was in 1994, and the technology of the surgery has advanced considerably since then. Still after see all those, somehow you figure "it can never happen to me". But, of course eventually it did (Club Nationals, 2005).
I didn't get it on video like Corey did (the video footage seems to have been taken down), but it really wasn't that gruesome. I just turned to cover the guy going to get the dump, then he goes up field. I plant, spin, push. My knee spins a bit at the joint, the lower part of my leg doesn't move. I hear a lot of popping noises. It's more disturbing that painful. I drop the ground, yell (mostly out of fear), clutching my knee.
ACL injuries can happen fairly easily (my co-worker tore hers getting out of a taxi cab), but Ultimate's a dangerous game. I'm convinced that the tournament format has something to do with it. As Brandon says "In what other sport do you do so much sprinting for up to 6 hours a day for 3+ days straight?". People get tired, and as a result they are more injury prone.
Anyway I thought I'd keep an account of the progress of my ACL injury and subsequent repair surgery, perhaps of some use to those go through the same thing in the future.

After the event, I knew something was wrong--I iced, then need crutches for 4 days. I was lucky I got a doctor's appt 2 days after the injury. (HMO's can be a bitch about that. For a previous knee injury, it had taken me roughly 5 weeks to finally get an appt with a knee surgeon.)
3 weeks after the event, I could bend my knee enough to bike short distances (3 miles to work) without discomfort. Symptoms vary a great deal. I never had much instability, just swelling, pain, and reduced range of motion. 4 weeks after the event, I went on a 20 mile bike ride, without any problems. 5 weeks after the event, I had surgery.

Today, I'll share some background on ACL that I have uncovered in the last few weeks.
Apparently, ACL injuries are often accompanied by meniscus damage and a tear of the MCL. The MCL can actually repair itself, but often only if the ACL is intact to provide some stability. The 3 injuries together are commonly referred to as the "triad" or something like that.
Some stats on the internet say that some 200000 ACL's are torn each year, and 100000 surgeries are repaired. So obviously you can live without your ACL, and many people are. But active people are likely to be very unhappy without an ACL, and surgery is probably recommended unless you lead a "sedentary lifestyle" which doesn't sound much like the lifestyle of any ultimate player I've ever known.

Next time, the surgery. Here's a animation Corey sent me that gives you an idea of what they do during the surgery.

LA Beach Ultimate

2005-12-06T17:15:00.000-08:00

Having moved to Ohio in July from Long Beach, I left behind many things including my job, Ultimate and friends. I miss my friends and Ultimate the most. The scene in LA that Corey describes is hard to replace. When I first moved to LA in the late 80's I was playing Ultimate 6 days per week and even twice on Sundays sometimes. The League system isn't huge like other cities, but playing outside for Winter League is pretty awesome no matter how many teams there are. For whatever reason we didn't play on the beach that much back then. There was no tournament and no organized pick up. The Lei-out tournament didn't even start until 2000. Now it's huge and more and more people are playing on the beach in LA. Beach Ultimate is awesome for many reasons.
1. You never have to fight for field space
2. You don't have to wear cleats
3. You don't need very many people. You can have fun playing 4 on 4.
4. You can play in the rain (of course you can play in the rain on grass, but you have to worry about damaging the field and that's not an issue with sand)

I find it to be a great work out and easier on my body. I started a beach game on Saturdays in Long Beach so that I could play without having to drive very far. This was essential when we started having kids and time became more of an issue. That's one thing about Ultimate in LA, you do have to be willing to spend some time on the freeway. Playing Ultimate and then kicking it on the beach afterwards having some beers is a great way to spend a Saturday. To make it even better you hit the Belmont Brewery after that for some great food and microbrew. I've played indoor here once and it was okay. That new turf is nice, but not the same as playing on the beach in Southern California.

Life's a Beach

2005-12-05T22:32:00.000-08:00

It’s a tired cliché for the title to my first blog entry, but I live in Los Angeles and one thing that makes it so great to live here is the beach. That’s where we were this past weekend, at the beach league playoffs. As I said to a few different people before the last game started, “I wish we could play this one forever.” We were on the beach just south of the Santa Monica pier. It was beautiful blue skies, one of the clearest days of the year and everything from Mt. Baldy to Catalina was visible from our “field.” Temperatures were hovering around 70. And my team, She Sells Seashells by the Seashore, was battling Deeeeeez Nuts for the world’s first ever beach league championship. I’m sure you are dying for the recap.

But before I get to the finals, I’d like throw out a shout to the Los Angeles weather. Ultimate players seem to have an overall aversion to LA. Traffic, crime, smog whatever it might be, people feel like they have an opinion about the place, with or without ever having been here. But if you love to play ultimate, and I mean really love the game enough to need to play all year, this is certainly one of the best places to live. Whatever level you are looking for you can pretty much find 365. Hell, one of my favorite events of the year, Winter League, will get going in less than a month. If you get depressed in winter because you have to play on frozen ground or in snow – or not at all – think about that move to So Cal.

Back to the beach finals and also a little bit about the before mentioned Winter League. These two tourneys were the perfect bookends to another fun year playing ultimate. They both hinged around big plays I made late in the game with all the pressure on me. What were these amazing plays you might be asking yourself? Well, it’s a little embarrassing. Perhaps these plays were a bit unclean or messy. They were not the most spectacular plays I ever made, that is for sure. But I’ve always been a big fan of results, and in the end these were big, huge, late game catches to help secure victory in the finals both times. And both of them bounced off my face.

Back in March in the winter league finals, it was 13-13 when Butta tossed up a quail of a hammer to me. As I went up with two hands like I usually do for hammers, Sandy closed hard and might have got it first, or maybe I bobbled it. Go here to the 27th – 29th photos in the sequence to see the pics:

http://www.stephenchiang.com/WL05/index.html

What isn’t clear from the pictures is I eventually ended up gaining possession by pinning the disc to my face before clamping it in one hand. We score the next point to win 15-13, so it was a big catch.

For the Beach League finals, the face catch came one point later. It was game point and we were working it upwind. While conditions were tough for the Winter League finals with rain, the beach finals were chocked full of wind. All day it had been tough to score upwind, but on game point, as I reached for a throw coming up the line, I bobbled the disc and juggled once, twice, three times. And then as history repeats itself, I pinned the disc against my face as I toed the sideline and fell out of bounds. With my teammate only feet from me on the sidelines laughing their asses off, I stood up, surveyed the field and threw the only upwind hammer of the day to Jeff for the championship.

It was a great day and a great inaugural beach league. Seriously, Los Angeles has its perks. Have a great winter everyone!

World games mixed stats...

2005-11-30T16:23:00.000-08:00

it seems like there is quite a bru-ha-ha about the involvement of women in the coed game. i remember thinking about this during the world games as i looked at some of goals scored and assist data being reported from the tourney. as i understand it, those games were all played with 4 men and 3 women on the field at all times. this allows us to set some expectations about each gender's involvement in the number of goals.

i made an assumption of randomness, meaning that i expected that any player on the field was equally likely to throw a goal and each receiver was equally likely to receive a goal, which allowed us to group by gender. of course it isn't true that each player has the same likelihood of throwing/receiving a goal, whether the game is same-sex or mixed, but for the purpose of argument let's just go with it. under random conditions we would expect that 4 out of 7 goals would be thrown by men, and that their goals would be evenly split between men and women (because when a guy has the disc, 3 of his receivers are male and 3 are female). 3 out of 7 goals should be thrown by women and two-thirds of their goals should go to men and only one-third should go to women. so for a given goal, the probability of it being:

man to man = (4/7) * 0.5 = 0.2857
man to woman = (4/7) * 0.5 = 0.2857
woman to man = (3/7) * (2/3) = 0.2857
woman to woman = (3/7) * (1/3) = 0.1428

my review of the scoresheets from the world games site shows the following breakdown of goals, with the opponent order being japan, canada, germany, australia, finland, australia (gold medal match).

man to man = (8, 9, 7, 8, 7, 7) 46
man to woman = (1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 1) 10
woman to man = (2, 2, 4, 4, 3, 5) 20
woman to woman = (2, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0) 4

so they scored 80 goals over the course of the weekend, our expectations should have been 23, 23, 23, and 11. as you can see the man to man goals were double the expected value, with woman to man goals being about expected. the big dropoff occurred in the category where women should be receiving goals. why aren't the women catching goals? as someone who never plays competitive coed ultimate i don't quite understand it. my questions would be along the lines of: are the women cutting for goals? are the passes to them being thrown but are out of their range or being dropped? is the fear of men poaching so great that it's best not to throw to women (especially for long goals)?

i think that you'll actually find that the US team was one of the better balanced among the teams in attendance. a quick look at the 3rd place gamesheet shows that the canadian women threw 2 of their 15 goals, with men on the receiving end of all their goals.

70 by 40 is born...

2005-11-29T08:05:00.000-08:00

the goal of this site is to have an outlet for a few ultimate players to sound off on various happenings in the ultimate world. there's no guarantees that it will prove to be anything interesting, but just maybe there will be some clever, insightful or thought provoking material that others outside our group will find enjoyable.

but seriously, is there anything more self-important than a blog? it was only a matter of time.