Sarasota

Im going to the 2009 UPA Club Championships!

I leave Wednesday evening at 7 (I still need a ride to the airport if you are so inclined) and get back Monday morning at 11. I will be an Observer, which in real world terms, means that ill be a referee. While I'd be really happy to just watch, being able to actively participate is gonna be great. I'm really lucky: I get to fly to beautiful Sarasota Florida and officate the highest level of the sport that I love while watching the top teams in the country compete for the most coveted prize of the year. On top of that, I get to reconnect with friends from all over the map, and finally I get to attend whats touted to be one of the best frisbee parties of the year.

If you are intersted, ill be twittering about interesting events while Im there. Check me out at:
http://twitter.com/StephenGHubbard

And everything about this tournament at the hashtag:
http://twitter.com/#upa09

If you are there to compete or to watch or to photograph or to trade jerseys, come say hi; I look forward to seeing everyone.

Lastly, good luck to Streetgang and Safari. SD Represent!

Oh, and while everywhere else in the country is getting cold right now, its 85 in Florida.

Plantar Fasciitis

....is a shitty affliction for a couple of reasons.

1. In the same vein of Turf Toe, it seems odd that such a physically small area can cause such pain and total body incapacitation.
2. Flair ups are seemingly random; both cause and cure remain mysterious.
3. There is no good way to rest it. I can't NOT WALK.
4. Ultimately, it is generated by my own body's inflammation response, which while potentially usful in acute situations, is totally counter productive when chronic. I find it greatly upseting that our bodies evolved such a powerful non-specific defense mechinism that we must work very hard to shut off.
5. People who haven't had it don't really understand.
6. One of the main causal dispositionary factors in our society is our reliance on ultra supportive running shoes. Once taughted as critically important for running, those super expensive, mega padded tech boots are now shown to be responsible for the epidemic of weak and thus inguried feet in the developed world.
7. And lastly, Plantar Fasciitis is a shitty disease because I can take just enough anti-inflamitory drugs and caffine such that I can play on it all day (when I should rest it) and not feel a thing until the regrets start poring on at 5am the next day when I can't sleep because I reagrivated it.

Georgia On My Mind

Just a memory on my mind....



At College Nationals 2006 in Columbus OH the Southwest Region had 3 bids which went to Colorado, UCSD, and UCSB.

Our first day schedule was game-bye-game-game. We lost a close one to Oregon 15-13 in a game we could have won had we warmed up properly and had any fire at all. After the bye we faced Georgia who surely had a chip on their shoulder from the out-of-nowhere thrashing the Squids handed them the previous year at Nationals.

After they break us to make it 6-4 Dylan Tunnel starts the cheer "These guys are tiiiiiiireeeeeeedddd!!!" as we walk 70 yards. I remember thinking 1. Fuck That*! We aren't tired, we just got off a bye and its early in the game! and 2. That's a really good cheer to fire your team up and make the opponent get down on themselves. The game has many momentum shifts. At 13-13 Dar, a big beast of a D receiver, completes a 35 yard shot for the win but it gets called back on a contested stall. He has Chucky, maybe our most consistent handler, WIDE OPEN behind him for a dump, but because of the noise and confusion of the situation, sends the same pass into double coverage for a turnover. They win 14-13.

Georgia would then go on to beat UCSB Black Tide in the Pre-Quarters 15-13 which scheduled them for Colorado in the Quarters.

The Squid's Pre-Quarters matchup is Michigan State and while it appears even for the most part, I get that feeling at 10-10 that there is no chance in hell we would lose that game. I swear to you I would have bet $1000 dollars on it. When our studs decided they wanted to win, we did. We just did. 15-13

Well, there is only so far Studs will take you. Wisco crushes us 15-5 in the Quarters - I think everyone on the team was mentally ok with this loss to end our season - the Hodags were a much much better team than us. Still, it would have been nice to score a few more.

So we are done and get to watch the Colorado-Georgia game - yes, Mamabird is our regional rival, but it would be cool to see them get to the finals again. And it was a lock - how could they lose? Here is a list of people who were on Colorado:

Beau
Jolian Dahl
Adam Chicken Simmon
Rabbit
Mac Taylor
Pebbles (6Mama-4Wisco)
Some other dudes... Did I mention BEAU?

EDIT## How did I forget #17 Martin Cochran (13:10 - 13:45) ?

We crack some beers and prepare to watch them smash Jojah. Long story short: Beau plays handler and while they got lots of free dump passes, they get beaten 17-16. Every single player watching that game was wondering when they were just gonna jack it to Beau, and they just didn't.

That sucks, especially beacuse Colorado's loss, combined with Oregon's to Stanford in another Quarterfinal, mean we must play EGO for the strength bid. Uh... our cleats are off and our beers are open... maybe you could have told us about this possibility before 13-13??? I guess the UPA staff didn't think Mamabird was gonna lose either.

So the Squids and Oregon go to another field for the most frustrating game I've ever watched from the sidelines. The guys who were graduating didn't really want it and resigned themselves to lose even though our pool play loss was by only 2 points. Long story short: Aaron Bell does a chicken wing pull, EGO is blasting the tunes and having a good time, and I don't get to play a point while I watch the Southwest go from 3 bids to only 1 which leads to a very unfair outcome of regionals next year for a great Black Tide Team.


Heres the real interesting memory though:
Georgia beat each of the Southwest teams by a combined score of 4 points. It turns out that we would have retained a Strength Bid if we had won any of those games. In fact, if ANY of the SW teams had won ANY single game that they lost, we would have retained the strength bid. Any single win. Haha


I don't know why Georgia is on my mind, but thinking about this little tid bit of history makes our win vrs Jojah at Nationals in 2009 all the more sweet. 15-11, we avenged those 4 points.

Do Work

Today the Squids ran a brutal track workout:

-Warmup
800, Stretch, 3 xBuild100s

-Indian run 800
Rest 1 min
-Sprint the straights 800
Rest 1 min
-400, 4 stadiums, 400, 4 stadiums continuous
Rest 3 minutes
-400 at 80%
-2 Stadiums
Rest 1 minute
-Indian run 400
Rest 1 minute
- 400 at 80%
- 2 Stadiums
Rest 1 minute
-3 consecutive 150yard hill runs
-Cool down lap

Then I threw for half an hour.

Holy shit! Now that's a track workout.

So what have you done today to help your team get to Nationals?

(Sweat Angels made a nice showing at the end of the workout)

Gym Today

I was doing a pretty standard warmup today in the weigh room: push-presses, squats, snatches, overhead squats, double under practice...

and I was feeling very routine . So I decided to surprise myself. I know that sounds like a weird statement, but I just happened to think about doing Fran with no prior planning and then just did it. It is a intimidating workout so it was kinda fun to push myself to go to that level without mental preparation.

Three rounds, 21-15- and 9 reps, for time of:
95 pound Thruster
Pull-ups

The result?

Time: 10:54.


To be honest, I'm not that happy with my time, but I am very happy that I all my reps were legit. Ive attempted this workout before but I had to rest A LOT and reps were sloppy. I'm just gonna go ahead and consider this as my first real attempt - the others don't really count.

The alternation of Thruster and Pullup is perfect. I felt like my body was gonna fall over after the thrusters but really I was just fatigued in the push-type muscles and I could continue to hit the gas with the pull-type muscles letting the pusher rest. With this mix I could really maintain the intensity the whole time.

The result?

A shitload of chalk got used and the floor got a big wet sweat angel afterwords. I literally could not get off the floor for a minute.

After catching my breath 10 minute later I decided to do some 40inch box jumps. Bad idea.
I was fine for a while, did my 20 and decided to be done. Then this new guy on my team comes in and I give them some squatting advice. To further impress them, I go for a few more massive box jumps. I am over tired and not focusing; my shin and ego pay the price.



On one hand, hurting yourself in the weight room sucks - the possibility of an injury is probably what keeps many people away. But in another way, I like the pain of a dropped weight, ripped callous, and a failing muscle. This new minor shin contusion reminds me that I actually am working hard, I actually am pushing myself. Yes, it is masochism. Or maybe a better description is self-flagellation. The pain is there to let you know you are invested in something you really really want.

Ill end with one of my favorite pieces of wisdom on training:

It's not a secret, but it bears remembering: If you do not flirt with pain and exhaustion in your workouts you won't know what to do when they start a conversation with you on the field.
-HH

While this obviously applies to pushing through a grueling workout or drill, I think it also applies to throwing up in the middle of a set of 400s and getting a your legs a little bloody while deadlifting.

Or maybe I just need to better learn when to call it quits.

Loving Ultimate Right Now

There are good practices and bad practices and shitty practices and fun practices. And then there are those that make you really really happy to be on the team. Last night was one of those.

I wasn't playing particularly well and had some weird turnovers due to muscle fatigue (from the Crossfit Total I did an hour beforehand (new PR: 690lb). My team was not bad - we won our scrimmage - but we certainly were not good. The weather was nice, my new Speed TDs were fitting perfectly, I was running well, and our Guppies (new guys) were learning quickly and having fun. On top of this, our coaches showed me the list of guys they are considering for A team: its appropriately long and has all the guppies that I like. We ran a really simple but beautiful drill to teach cutting hard and making good throws when tired and I had the last goal of the night on a fast break bomb to one of those favorite guppies. Afterwords a different guppy threw down some meal points for my massive salad at the Dining Hall. Siting with 3 new guppies and 3 new Psychos (our girl's team), we recanted how cool the party I hosted was this weekend.


Moving on. I have big news: I will be going to Club Nationals in Sarasota to be an Observer! While I was thinking about future frisbee goals 2 weeks back, I decided that I want to be on a team that makes it to The Show - I guess if the Observers count as a team... well we all were the same uniform...

I am particularly excited because both the Men's (Streetgang) and Women's (Safari) San Diego teams made it which has not happened in a long while. I am really looking forward to hanging with these old friends and meeting new ones. I am also particularly excited because the UPA is picking up the tab.


Finally, I really must do a write-up of my Club experience this summer with the Bay Area's EndPhase, but for now: Thanks guys for a really fun time; I learned a lot and made a lot of great friends.

For now, keep enjoying disc.

PS- Carmalization torches are great for starting backyard bonfires mid-party.

New Alumni pt 3 Dibs

Mark “Dibs” Johnston is a great Squid. To my knowledge, no one else has been a captain two years in a row. While we have had Junior captains, none have remained captain in their last year. Dibs’ captaining style was calm, confident, and fun. I personally would have liked him to be more vocal and assertive because he had a great intuitive sense for spacing, io forehands, and D positioning. More importantly, he knew what he was good at and what he needed to stay away from. I feel like he was also one of, if not the single most, well rounded players of last year – he was great on any line, at any position with the throws to fit any situation and the read to catch any huck. He certainly led by example.

Interestingly, Dibs spent 5 years at UCSD but the Squids only got 4 years out of him and his first year playing he spent on our B team, “Lite”, where the play call was always a huck to him. In one sense, his play was very by-the-book and I think his beginnings on the B team where strategy is more basic had a hand in this. On the other hand, he threw the most beautiful cross field blade to my deep cut from my offside handler position at regionals, so he could obviously get creative at times.

One of the joys of playing with him was it was pretty easy to know what he wanted to throw. I could just stand on the breakside waiting for the inside forehand and he would get it there. The most memorable instance of this was in our DGP win vs Black Tide at Centex when he threw 5 IO flicks in a row to break through the cup upwind. They obviously knew it was coming but couldn’t stop it.

He shared Cork’s matter-of-factness (they lived together along with Duffy). Dibs was great at pointing out the absurd things the girl’s team was doing – of course we all saw those things, but the way Dibs phrased his pity always cracked me up.

One last thing: I have seen many unique throwing mannerisms, but none as consistent as his. When Dibs throws he always puffs out his cheeks like a chipmunk. Always.

Oct 3-4

This weekend is gonna be big is the Frisbee world. Lots of regional tournaments, lots of games-to-go.

Im about to fly off to Portland for NW Open Regionals and the weather doesn't look great which means its gonna be a crazy weekend with the potential for upsets.

Southwest Open Regionals is in Arizona and will feature the game I am most interested in besides my own. Strike Slip / Streetgang matchup will be epic. (Although I think Streetgang will show everyone whats up and take down Bravo for the 1st spot).

Im excited. Lets go EndPhase!