Sean: Club Sectionals

What an odd tourney. I played the worst I ever have, yet walk away from it with good feeling.

For a few games, rather for most of the tournament, it seemed that whenever I touched the disc, I turned it. During the Natty Bros game I think I touched it four times for four turns. Rather. Odd. For any competent frisbee player. This kind of error can be attributed to either a broken hand or head. I choose the latter. I guess I let the "pressure" get to me? Eh. Lost track of the team while finding countless ways to beat myself up. But once I found the team, I was playing just fine. Find the team, forget yourself, play great! Darkhorse X was behind 7-8 at the half, and we came back screaming 7-2 (14-10 X) to finish the game in a fervent manner. Fervent because I along with all of X started to emotionally invest themselves in the game. Emotionally invest meaning we screamed our asses off whenever good shit happened, demoralizing our opponents. But the screaming didn't just deflate the enemy, it pumped us up too. I got back to old form, catching w/o thinking, breaking IO low release flick. I even got to new form, bidding all over the place (albeit to no avail).

Personal Cons
- Let my "head" get to me

Personal Pros
- Was able to recover by the end of the tourney

I won't let my noodle get to me ever again. Only allowed to make that mistake once.

-------

Since the only other sophomore on the team was Tristan, imma only critique his janx.

Pros
- way to get open all over the place with truck. you are building a handler/receiver rapport with Andrew
- way to trust your instinct, from what you told me. you lamented that you didn't throw upfield more, but if its not there, why throw it? always...ALWAYS...go for the open shot, even if its a dump. I think you followed that rule closely this tournament.
- nice hammer, sorry I dropped it...tihtees

Cons
- need more spin/touch on your throws. this comes from practicing your throws super short range while concentrating on throwing the disc as slow as possible with as much spin as possible. side effect: hucks get a ton better.
- cutting in the vert was selfish at times, as in you cut from the stack wherever you wanted. granted there were a bunch of frozen frosh, but dont get in the habit. or do and we will adjust overtime to your style of play haha.

Sean: ...

Personal

Cons:
Defense is weak. Getting beat deep. Their cuts are sleek, while i am meek. Teet.
But yeah I need to suck less at D. Anyone got some tips for me?

Cycling out correctly with Horizontal Handling, dumping where need be.

Flick hucks.

My cleats. The insoles are riding up, as i am sure you have heard from my bitching.

Pros:

Throws are looking ok. Got some breaks going for me now.

My cutting is ok.

EVERYFUCKINGONEELSE:

Nick
Throws look pretty good, even though you said you didn't play much over the summer.
Pro Tip: come to practice
I want you to play more. I want to play with you...?

Tristan
Cutting looks beautiful.
You have some bad throwing habits. Weird releases. Granted your low releases are better than before, but they have room to improve. I understand your fear of hurtin your knees, so no biggie. Mebs try to find a way around it?
I didn't watch you play too much D. I'll keep an eye out. Though I feel like im not good enough to critique it. Meh.

Fabio
Throws are getting a ton better, but have a ways to go. Quicken releases and stop "yanking" it i.e. allow your wrist to do its job, dont heave your arm into it.
Cutting looks good, try different kinds of fakes. You seem to favor the standstill then sudden cut. Try setting up cuts over a few seconds, get your man much more out of position.

Bobby
D is tight.
Use your backhand more often, it needs the practice. In other words: Turf-town population: you.
Your cutting is fine, not shitty like you keep saying. Instead of cutting based off of your teammates, try to find where there is open space developing, potentially where a handler can put it.

Kyle
TIGHT D bid today, even though you didnt get it. Wish i could do that...
Get on the line more you bitch. I can't think of much to say b/c it seems like you dont play a lot. And if you are playing a lot, do crazier shit. Fuck, turn it more, make more mistakes, put yourself out there.
Your throws improved a lot over the summer. They are more accurate and can fly a lot farther. You got rid of a lot of gratuitous motions in your release, but some remnants of your old throwing style are apparent.

Tristan: Wrapping up the week

Hey there duderz,

I've been remiss in my blogging this past week, so Imma say a few things. As to what Nick said earlier, we should definitely mention things we notice in each other. This blog is about constructive criticism. That being said, you watch you the most on the field. I certainly know what my strengths and weaknesses are. Mentioning what each of us needs to work on, helps the rest of us notice the next day at practice. An example of this- Sean, who read one of my blog, gave me pointers today on my flick form. We threw after practice and I'm going to consciously think about what he said. Write things you notice about other players, but make sure you put down what you need to personally work on. It helps you think about your own individual improvement.

MMMkay. Monday conditioning was a brutal 4 miles. Billy and I wrecked it. woot woot. I'm going to go to the Friday condish and throw with people tomorrow. Stoked.

Tues:

I had a noice layout bid. They're looking good! Don't remember much else. Oh yeah, taught the nubs ho... booorring. but necessary.

Wednesday night lights. Well well well we meet again. I showed up 5 minutes late and had to run suicides. Womp. I think it fucked my performance because I was exhausted. This happens every time I have to run before practice. I think the suicide should be after practice. I'll stop griping. I did not play well at all. Taught the nubs Iso... boooring. Oh well.

Today (Thurs) I played much better. Made a few stupid mistakes, but I was feeling good overall. Fickley told me I played well, so that's something. I marked up on Sean most of practice. Sean, dude, watch those fouls. Keep your arms down. Bobby (almost) bid through me... nice try Bobby. Bobby, can you give me pointers on laying out on D... I don't have to proper mindset.

The team (because of the nubs) is having a lot of trouble with timing cuts. We HAVE to be vocal about timing. When you're on the sideline, talk to them!!! Tell them to watch one of the more experienced cutters. The nubs need to understand the importance of WHEN to change direction. Also, poach D is killing them. The lane is constantly clogged. We need to explain, guys.

Neil... is a fucking beast. He's going to be waaay better than Chad. He's SOO fast. Also the kid understands how to play receiver D, so he's got baller positioning.

Throws will come to the noobs as long as they practice. We need to encourage it.

RIP Pat. I hope to see you around BROSEF. Nick, goddamn, I miss you as well dawg.

Sorry for the rant.

Peace,

Tris

Fabio: Revelation from Tuesday Practice

I kind of already talked to Sean about this, but I felt that everyone should know.

I feel one big problem we had last year especially with new players and non-handlers was not looking off the strike throw as much. I feel a good portion of our turns, at least from what I can remember, was forcing the lower percentage strike throw. We need to realize that the front of the stack SHOULD be making a dump cut once the dump goes strike. This will get the disk to the opposite side of the field and will set up a deeper break side throw.. For this to happen effectively, however, the front of the stack needs to constantly be aware of where the disk is at and needs to time his cut accordingly (as soon as the handler looks off strike) to receive the disk.

Bottom Line: If the timing is not right/you are not comfortable making the strike throw, holster it and look for the around coming from the front of the stack. Changes in horizontal position, I feel, are SO effective in setting up upfield throws for massive yardage gains.

Nick: Checking In

Sup doggers,

Sorry I haven't been to active on the blog as of yet. I was super pumped when I heard about the idea but somehow it sort of slipped to the back of my mind once we were actually supposed to start using it.

Doubtful anyone will read this before tonight's practice, but I'm still feeling a bit under the weather and will sit out for (hopefully) one more practice and then be good to go tomorrow. It's killing me not being able to play right now, I want to get to know the nubs so badly, let alone get back in playing shape.

Anyway, or is it anyways, I can never remember, I've read over all the posts you guys have put up here and I've seen some good shit. I do have one suggestion, though. I think instead of saying how we felt about our own performances, it could be more productive if our posts are intended more so to provide constructive criticism to each other. That being said, I think no matter which direction we take this puppy in, it can only be a good thing.

See you dudes tonight,

ZL

Sean: Tuesday Practice

Bummed I didn't get to go on the run on monday. Womp.

Hurt my groin for some reason. It'll be better tomorrow.

Pretty happy about my O today. I *think* that I personally scored 5-6 out of 8 points I played today. Pretty good.
My deep cutting was great, especially in Ho. Burned Vereb on some cuts. Good times lololololzerbeam. Kinda bummed out I am better with O than D. I was gettin beat easy by Fleming and Byah...which was weird lol. Fickley asked me after the point I covered Byah if I was ok. Womp.

My flick huck was mediocre at best. In other words, it took a trip to blade town. Miles still got a hold of it, but I could have placed it better.

Freshmen lookin real good dude!!! I am excited to continue teaching em the lurvely game of Ultimate. It's gonna be a good year.

Bobby- Sunday Practice 9/5

Today I learned that playing drunk is AWESOME!!!! drink a lot on saturday night and you will be able to bid whenever but your throws will BLOW!!!

Alright, seriously though, pretty cool practice, freshmen looked reaaally good, damn we are gonna be so dirty next year if not this year, they are so fucking athletic and pretty damn good throws overall so far.

Cutting I was getting open pretty easily thanks to the strategy that i mentioned in an earlier post, my timing was a little bit off and so I was early on a few of them and people couldn't throw it to me early enough. Also i need to cut more i think i have a tendency to kinda let the rest of the team cut, if i want to contribute more on offense i'll have to change my mindset a lil.

My D was pretty solid i think, one huge mistake I made was fucking up the force on the mark, that shit is unacceptable. Also I realized that on the mark i have a predisposition to try to stop the force side throw a little too much leaving me really open to break swings, kinda weird that i never noticed it till now.

I had some really fucking high bids today (i think), and im just starting to feel it now. I suppose bids take a pretty big toll on your body, they are a lot of fun though, and good to show the freshman how to be a crazy ass.

2 guys that will basically be in our class(graduating with us), Miles 2.0(ox?) and Neil are gonna be dirty, that kid Joey seems to be good. damn I'm pumped!

its all about the swag

Fabio: First Real Practice

I pretty much agree with Sean...to add to that though, I'd say that Tommy Vereb played considerably well. He had a couple D's during the scrimmage. Nothing that really stands out in my mind from Matt, John, Joey, or Minner, which, like Sean said, means the freshmen knew their place and stayed the hell out of the way, haha.

As for my play, I played pretty well today during the scrimmage...I had no turns, a bookends, and solid upfield throws. I did let Kyle go deep and get a score though...damn.

Sean: First Real Practice

Thought the freshmen looked good. It seems hard to compare our class when we started to the freshmen class now. Because of this I will try not to compare our class to theirs.

Sean needs to learn to read. Playing since 5th grade...?
Neil looked great. He won't have throws for a time, but he will get open.
Cody looked smart. He got a score from yours truly.
Didn't notice anything else remarkable. This is good because this means they stayed the hell out of the way lol.

Need....more....practice....

Sean: Final Tryouts

I am pretty unhappy with how tryouts went. Those who were on the fence deserved closer examination. Will, Miles, Townley and maroon Matt all were not that different in terms of ability. I think we took Will just because he is tall. Granted there is some sort of intimidation factor that comes with height but I am not sure he will be much of an athlete. What I am really getting to is this feeling of uncertainty and instability. I think the elimination process was not thought out well enough. Come to think of it it wasn't thought out at all. I do not blame this on the captains, I would place the blame on precedent. Anywho...

Final Roster of New Guys:

Tommy
Minner
Cody
John
Will
Matt
Miles
.....can't remember the others lol. Three more or two more...


Sean is going to be super pissed. Kinda wanna know how he reacts, how he is gonna handle this. I hope he goes out for B.

Don't feel good about the Justin decision. Shitty all around.

Regardless of bad feelings, I am excited for this year to get underway.