As Soon as the Season Starts...

...The Season Starts to End.*

Are you working every day to make your team better?

See you all at Colorado Cup



*stolen from the Bravo website

Setting Up

It is WAY better to set up on D then to set up on O. Ceteris paribus, fast breaking is WAY better than slowing down to set up your offense. Take a lesson from the best college woman's team of all time: Oregon2010 picked up the disc after a turn as fast as possible EVERY time.

The counter argument says that it takes time for the O to get into their formation. To that I say you have too high an opinion of formations. Better that people set up the offense while the disc is moving between handlers.

Heuristics, not Algorithms.

Reciever Picks

The disc should NEVER stay with the receiver if he is involved with a pick. Never.

Fuck

" did it affect the play?"

Fuck

"did you have a play on the disc?"

Fuck XVI.C.2.B.2


A pick is a pick is a pick is a pick. Even if the defender had been 1 foot closer on the reception, that is more pressure which could have lead to a drop.

Take subjective judgments out of the game as much as possible: a receiver who gets the disc after his defender gets picked should never get the disc.

The Ultimate Thesis Project

What would yours be about?

Just a Little Trust

If you don't think your offense can throw 25 open passes in a row, you have big problems. If the thought:

I hope someone hucks it soon, because I don't trust our team to work the disc up the field with in-cuts.

enters your head, you've got big problems. If you don't trust your teammates with the disc, no matter the defense, you've got big problems. If you are equally worried about the defense earning a turnover as you are about your offense giving away the disc, you've got big problems.

The drill that can easily build trust in the ability to string together 50 short passes: small-field keep-away with 1 or 2 players playing all-time offense. Soccer teams do it all the time, I really don't understand why more Ultimate teams don't.


Vid of the Day: What I'm talking about.

Song-Your-Sure-You've-Heard-A-Million-Times-but-Never-Knew-What-it-Was of the Day: Justice: Genesis

Microbiology fact of the Day: You body is composed of 10 times as many bacterial cells as human cells.

Love

I hope you all can one day love something as much as I have loved playing for the UCSD Air Squids for the past 5 years.


That's it for today.

SW All-Region

My votes:

Justin "Bobble" Elliot- UCSD
Josh "Forge" Nickerson- UCSD
Jacob Baumer - CSULB
Max "Nero" Sheitr-Dunn- UCSB
Matty Zemel - Colorado

Evan Padget - Colorado

Mark "Arbiter"Elbogen -UCLA

Joke of the Day: BPGlobalPR

Vid of the Day: How LongBeach Won Sectionals

Changes to the Women's Game

Women's Ultimate should be played on a shorter field (maybe 50x35yard +25 yard endzones) with smaller discs (155-160g). You would see less turnovers per point and a greater ability for throwers to use creative touch throws, blades, hammers, and scoobers. I contend that this would make Women's Ultimate more fun to play and more fun to watch. Lastly, a smaller disc and a smaller field make the game much more accessible to newcomers - to a large percentage of women, it is very hard to learn the game when the disc is just too heavy and the field too long.


Joke of the Day: Why did the walrus go to the Tupperware party? Because he was looking for a good seal.

Vid of the Day: Fugue's Callahan Nominee Julia Sherwood (sorry to be a downer - but 1:14 is the worst travel I have ever seen on a huck. I understand who she gets it from though: Janin :20, :33, :52, 1:17, 5:37, 7:18, 10:33)

Teenagers Who Are Better Than Most of Us Will Ever Be of the Day: 2008 Worlds Highlights

A Whole Lot of Turnover in One Half for Two Teams That Do Know How to Play Possession Ultimate of the Day: Wisco v Texas Nationals 2009

Helpful Things to Say to Players on the Field

There is a short list of words and phrases that can be said by a sideline teammate that are actually helpful to the player on the field.

While on O

• Toe (as in Toe the line)
• Go to (Because your defender is going to make a bid on the disc)
• Milk (Milk the disc for a little bit before catching it (in the endzone)
• Greatest ( you must perform a Greatest to keep the disc alive)
• Man on (You thought you were poached and now you are not)
• You've got time (on a high disc, you don't need to jump just yet - wait to make a play)
• See**Someone's name** (when someone is ridiculously poached )
• See **Some throw** (when some option is obviously the right one but the thrower is not seeing it - examples: Hammer, Swing) (This mostly goes for DOffense players with the disc. If you need to tell your O-line players how to move the disc and what options to see, you need to reconsider the composition of your O-line.)

While on D

• Inside (shift your mark inside)
• Around (shift around)
• No huck (no huck mark)
• No Dump (shift all the way around to prevent all throws to the backfield)
• Strike (Jump over to the open side for a count)
  
• Team D or No foul (Back your mark up so the thrower can't draw a foul or an And-1 throw)
• Drop (you need to book it deep to prevent a huck score)
• Now you are in (your guy is only viable to cut in)
• Aggressive/conservative (for in zones that shift between aggressive cups/containment cups)
• You're last back (you should be aware to help deep)
• Bid (make a play on the disc)
• Up (a throw has gone up, often used for hucks)
  
• Right Shoulder (a huck/dump pass has gone up and you should turn right to find it/ D it)
• Left Shoulder (a huck/dump pass has gone up and you should turn left to find it/ D it)
• Guy on your right/left/behind (telling defenders in zone were the threats are)
• You've got two (telling defenders in a zone that 2 threats are in his zone)
• Looking, Looking (telling face-guarding defenders that the thrower wants to hit your guy)
• *Describing noticed tendencies of someone's defensive assignment: "He likes the lefty backhand"
• Edit: Thanks to Sam Swink for the suggestion. Peel (leave your guy to defend the open guy in the endzone. Often happens after your guy catches a huck just outside the endzone)
  

Am I missing any?


Conclusions: if you are saying anything else from the sideline like "Nice cut Mike!", your on-field players are tuning you out at best, but probably distracted from the task at hand. Celebrate after the point is over, not before.


Joke of the Day:
The early bird might get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

Highlight Vid of the Day: Wisco Women Whomping at PresDay Weekend

Game of Last Week: Cal vs Oregon NW Regional Finals 2010. Damn Ego looks good. Its all solid fundamentals... give-go, high speed of play, touch on every throw... 8:16 isn't fundamentals though, that's just straight-up Jedi.

Nail-Bitter/Barnburner Game of the Day: CUT vs Pitt, Qrts, Nationals 09

The Rule of Thirds

Quality hucks follow the Rule of Thirds.

The Rule of Thirds:
Hucks involve 2 players, the thrower and the receiver. Quality hucks satisfy 1 or both of these characteristics:

• The receiver catches the huck in a different vertical third of the field than the thrower threw from.
• The receiver catches the huck in a different vertical third of the field than he started his cut in
  

The consequences of this rule: bad hucks are to receivers that start and end their cut in the same lane as the thrower. Hucks that go straight overhead are bad.





Joke of the Day: Why don't blind people go skydiving? It scares the shit out of the dog.


Copycat Highlight-Vid-Musical-Selection of the Day: Club2009 and BrodieForCallahan. Further proof that there are only so many viable songs to put over your highlight video.

Best-Posting-of-the-2010-UPA-College-Nationals-Seeding-and-Format of the Day

Best-First-Round-Opponent-at-Nationals-for-the-UCSD-Air-Squids of the Day: Jojah

Sorry For the Hiatus

I apologize for the long unannounced break. Regionals were in Colorado, then I had jury duty on Monday and Tuesday, then we had 6am practice on Wednesday and I had to grade lab reports continuing until I had to teach on Thursday and then the SunGod Festival was Friday. The weekend was booked with Ultimate and yesterday the sickness I have been putting out of my mind for the last 5 days caught up to me. But you don't want to hear excuses.... So I'll just say that I hope to be getting back to a more regular posting schedule.


Without further ado, The Idea of the Day:
THE UCSD AIR SQUIDS ARE GOING TO NATIONALS!!! See you in Madison!



Joke of the Day:
"Why did you quit your job at the Noble Gas factory?"
"Because I just will NOT be talked to in that tone!"

Highlight Vid of the Day: Oregon Fugue tearing it up at Pres Day (Shout outs to my friends #2 Christina and #8 Shannon who housed my entire club team when we played at NW Regionals.)

Quote of the Day: From the Radiologist who took X-rays of my right foot today: "Wow, I have never seen that many pockets of calcification in an ankle before!"

Further Reason for Having a Massive Crush on Cree Howard of the Day

Advice

This morning I got up at 7 and went for a run to loosen my legs. Standard stuff for me... jog...rest...stretch... I did some plyos... nothing too hard.

Then I found myself at an elementary school playground. No one was there as it was before school so I sat on a bench to think and stretch a bit. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a small piece of sidewalk chalk. What a great thing it would be for me to write something really interesting, to write some piece of advice for the kids to ponder during recess! But what to write?

I couldn't think of anything that I was sure would be good advice. I could talk about doing well in school, or respecting one's elders, or eating healthy, or enjoying one's youth but nothing sounded right in my head.

And then it hit me. The thing that I can recommend without reservation, the single piece of advice I wish I had had when I was younger, the one thing I would like to say to today's children:

PLAY ULTIMATE.

Ultimate has been one of the best things to ever happen to my life. Most of my friends and most of my fun comes from Ultimate. Most of my perspectives on the world are shaped in some way by the things I have learned from Ultimate and the people that play it. I love Ultimate.

Many times over the last 5 years, Ultimate has been THE most important thing in my life - that has been the case these last few weeks before Regionals. And I am happy with that fact. May you all want something in your life as badly as I want to win this weekend.


Clip of the Day: The Next Generation and The Best Endzone Celebration Ever

Joke of the Day: If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the precipitate.

Excited.

For this Weekend.

Nothing else to think about.

Game of the Day: UCSD vs Georgia Nationals 2009

Big Weekend In Colorado

"The great secret of success in life is for a man to be ready when his opportunity comes."
- Benjamin Disraeli

I like to think about the first point, of the first game, of a tournament. The whole week, if not the whole month prior to a big tourney like this upcoming one, I rehearse in my head. I actually don't really think past the pull - I just visualize standing on the line, putting my hand up and watching the disc sail toward me. I don't know anything else about the weekend besides who I am going to be standing on the line with and that I am going to catch that pull.

Over and over again in my head. Over and over again because those will be the most important moments of my Ultimate career up until that point. Let bids to nationals be distributed later, that first pull must be caught right now.

See you all in Fort Collins.


You Make the Call of the Day: Cornell v Pitt at 09 Nationals 12:05 Travel or No Travel? I agree with Observer Jason.

Copycat Musical Accompaniment to a Highlight Video of the Day

Joke of the Day: What do you call a cow with no feet? Ground beef.

SW Regionals 2010

Fire in your eyes...


Game of the Day: Wisco vs Cut 2006 Central Regional Final. 1 bid to nationals. Both teams ranked in the top 10. 30 mph winds.

My Contribution

Its OK to stand up and say: "Yeah, that was me. I deserve the credit." People don't like a snob or an egoist, but a healthy appreciation for your own work is attractive.


Joke of the Day: Did you hear the joke about hydration? OF COURSE YOU DIDN'T, BECAUSE HYDRATION IS NOT A JOKE!!!

Clip of the Day
Game of the Day !!!

Throw on One Leg

--Ultimate related

Next time you go out to practice throwing, try throwing while only standing on your pivot foot for a couple minutes. This drill accomplishes a few things. First and foremost, it quickly shows you how utterly reliant you are on your non-pivot foot step; most people train themselves to throw incorporating that step but it is very limiting to only be able to do things a certain way. It is just intuitional fact that your body will be put in varying complex situations during a game and if you have trained yourself to have very specific, interrelated mechanics, you will not be able to perform when the game situation does not allow you to operate exactly how you trained.

Next, it teaches you balance - a balance very different than you are used to. While throwing 1 legged, I experience a very interesting proprioceptive phenomenon: I can feel the hip torque and its connection to arm movement a lot more. I don't really know how to describe this better; you just gotta try it for yourself and pay attention to the sensations that are different than "regular" throwing.

Lastly, give-and-goes are thrown with the non-pivot foot off the ground and this is a good way to work on the fundamentals that rarely get addressed in traditional Ultimate pedagogy.



Joke of the Day: Why didn't the Buddhist vacuum in the corners? Because he doesn't have any attachments.

Turn Break-Side

In fairness to the people who read this but don't play Ultimate, I will be labeling ideas that only an Ultimate player would understand:

--Ultimate Related


When you catch a straight in cut and decide to turn up field, there are two ways to do this: turn to the open side and turn to the break side. Most people turn open side and I just don't know why. Turning to the break side causes your defender to respect the around break a lot more in addition to allowing you to look at that around throw before the mark is on. I find that when I turn break side to start, I have a much easier time breaking the mark throughout the count.

Josh "Forge" Nickerson on the Air Squids is particularly good at catching a force-forehand in cut and turning right so that he can throw a break backhand. Upon further inspection of his cutting, it appears that if he knows he is open on an in cut he will make his last 2 steps such that his body is at a 15° facing the break side to facilitate this break-side turning. He is really good at it and it is hugely advantageous to our offense.

Just to clarify this advice is not hard fast when you are catching in cuts that are not straight up and down the fiend. On these cuts that swing the disc side to side, it can be good to turn to complement the direction of the flow of the disc. But I should also point out that sometimes its good to pivot against the momentum of a swing to get a easy break off: the D assumes you are gonna pivot with the swing and will run past you.



Joke of the Day: A magician is going down the road, cruising at a decent speed, and then he turns into a driveway.

Play Smart

There is no amount of offensive strategy, cutting schemes, set plays, or audibles that can substitute for the developed skill of cutting and throwing with your eyes open. You must always be looking around the field trying to work with your teammates. The intuition that comes from having played with them enough to sense what they want to do on the field is invaluable.

There is no amount of defensive strategy that can substitute for thinking a step ahead: predicting what the O wants to do and try to take that away.


Its all pattern recognition.

The Most Important Thing Boont Ever Taught Me

Stretching is the quickest, surest, and easiest way to maximize athletic abilities

-Macklyn "Boont" Eick (Former captain. I don't normally cite my sources, but it's his birthday).

There is nothing you can do in the weight room or at the track in 2 weeks (or 2 days) that will prepare you for athletic competition better than working hard for 30 minutes/day with a foam roller and yoga strap.

Specifically related to Men's ultimate, I guarantee, I GUARANTEE!!!, that if you have tight hips and groan (as most men do), stretching for half an hour each night will make your throws (you'll get much lower) and your cutting (you'll have better acceleration and turning) MUCH better.