SoCal Club Sectionals In Review

A tournament with perfect weather is always fun. A little misty in the mornings, but the dew burned off by halftime of the first game making for a great weekend.

Streetgang rolled through all of our games on Saturday and our O-line scrimmaged or D-line between games. I am happy to report that the O continued its dominance over the D ;) Three and out, SG's morning started early and ended early.

The team of note for the tourney was OYU (Old and Young United) a team of mostly highschoolers from Burbank with a few old guys as player/coaches. Yeah we beat them 13-1, but I really enjoyed seeing these younins play against great players. I wish I had started that young and chatted with a few of them and told them such. Being exposed to high level Ultimate while still in high school is going to make those kids great in college. Heres hoping they stick with it.

Day two had Streegang playing the Beyondors (the Master's team from Santa Barbara). This was my first time playing against Greg 'Hollywood' Husak of Condors fame who was part of the part of the amazing Condor's 95-01dyNASTY. That guy can ball. Closest game of the tourney. I like that older players can make the game simple: if you cover me deep I get the free in. If you cover me in, I get the deep. Easy as that.



Next was a team from San Diego who i played for 3 years ago - Beefcake. Not really a challenge - just a good time with some old friends. Point of fact: I had THE worst pull of my competitive career in this game leading to them taking the disc at midfield. This was followed by my mediocre deep D, throwing an almost-Callahan turnover on our goal line and then getting beat to the open-side for the score. Oops.



The finals were supposed to be after a bye but got moved up for some reason. Santa Barbara Condors vs San Diego Streetgang. In general, we scored with few throws and our Ds really flustered them. They kept it even at first but the wheels feel off when one of their popper got covered trying to get into the cup. We took half very confidently and kept rolling after it.

Much to everyone's dismay, 2 of our players had their shoulders dislocated on close bids. One was captured on tape and highlights an excellent defensive bid by the Condor's Jacob Baumer. Absolutely not a foul, sometimes players just get hurt - not Jake's fault at all. We continue to press (I get really close to a layout D in the cup) and they continue to have a very hard time scoring. I talked with some of the condors afterwords and they mused that they were not quite sure who their zone handlers were going to be. Either way, i think this game speaks well of the pressure our defense puts on other teams.


Final score: 13-7 . Over all, I was happy with how we played and given the acrimonious nature of past San Diego/ Santa Barbara games, I was happy with the amiable relations between the teams.



While i did enjoy the tournament overall, the flaws should be pointed out so we can have better tournaments next time.

• The front of the enzones should be double coned and the cone placement should be spray painted. I know that fully lining the field probably wasnt possible, but the fact that the 2 best teams in all of Southern California played the finals on a field with unknowable boundaries is disheartening. 
• There were no scoreboards even though I offered to bring all the ones I had built for Presidents Day
• There was lots of room in between fields (props to the TDs) but players and spectators still put all their stuff haphazardly 1 meter away from the sidelines. Sideline safety must be a cultural shift.
• The format was screwy. Pool play straight to placement? Streetgang played 6 games in a row - 5 pool play and then the finals. The team that I coach, the BAGS, got there at 8 both days and left at 5 both days with 8 games and 5 byes total. (yes, I know a 13 team tournament is hard to work with). It might have been ok if people had known the schedule ahead of time but people were learning of their games an hour before hand. (Again, I know how hard it is to TD. It sucks that your fields got taken away last minute)
• I only saw a few non-player spectators at the finals even though we were in Long Beach, a city filled with Ultimate players. We all need to do a better job to get our beach-pickup buddies to attend the finals of big time tourneys. 
• Getting water was a pain, only 1 station very fair away from most of the fields.
• We started at 8am even though everything was done by 5. Give me 1 more hour of sleep and Ill be way happier even if it means I get home a hour later.

All in all, good tourney. It feels great to be sectional champions as San Diego Open has not won Sectionals in 15 years.

Review of SoCal Club Sectionals

A tournament with perfect weather is always fun. A little misty in the mornings, but the dew burned off by halftime of the first game making for a great weekend.

Streetgang rolled through all of our games on Saturday and our O-line scrimmaged or D-line between games. I am happy to report that the O continued its dominance over the D ;) Three and out, SG's morning started early and ended early.

The team off note for our Saturday was OYU (Old and Young United) a team of mostly highschoolers from Burbank with a few old guys as player/coaches. Yeah we beat them 13-1, but I really enjoyed seeing these younins play against great players. I wish I had started that young and chatted with a few of them and told them such. Being exposed to high level Ultimate while still in high school is going to make those kids great in college. Heres hoping they stick with it.

Day two had Streegang playing the Beyondors (the Master's team from Santa Barbara). This was my first time playing against Greg 'Hollywood' Husak of Condors fame who was part of the part of the amazing Condor's 95-01dyNASTY. That guy can ball. Closest game of the tourney. I like that older players can make the game simple: if you cover me deep I get the free in. If you cover me in, I get the deep. Easy as that.


Next was a team from San Diego who i played for 3 years ago - Beefcake. Not really a challenge - just a good time with some old friends. Point of fact: I had THE worst pull of my competitive career in this game leading to them taking the disc at midfield. This was followed by my mediocre deep D, throwing an almost-Callahan turnover on our goal line and then getting beat to the open-side for the score. Oops.


The finals were supposed to be after a bye but got moved up for some reason. Santa Barbara Condors vs San Diego Streetgang. In general, we scored with few throws and our Ds really flustered them. They kept it even at first but the wheels feel off when one of their popper got covered trying to get into the cup. We took half very confidently and kept rolling after it.

Much to everyone's dismay, 2 of our players had their shoulders dislocated on close bids. One was captured on tape and highlights an excellent defensive bid by the Condor's Jacob Baumer. Absolutely not a foul, sometimes players just get hurt - not Jake's fault at all. We continue to press (I get really close to a layout D in the cup) and they continue to have a very hard time scoring. I talked with some of the condors afterwords and they mused that they were not quite sure who their zone handlers were going to be. Either way, i think this game speaks well of the pressure our defense puts on other teams.

Final score: 13-7 . Over all, I was happy with how we played and given the acrimonious nature of past San Diego/ Santa Barbara games, I was happy with the amiable relations between the teams.


While i did enjoy the tournament overall, the flaws should be pointed out so we can have better tournaments next time.

• The front of the enzones should be double coned and the cone placement should be spray painted. I know that fully lining the field probably wasnt possible, but the fact that the 2 best teams in all of Southern California played the finals on a field with unknowable boundaries is disheartening. 
• There were no scoreboards even though I offered to bring all the ones I had built for Presidents Day
• There was lots of room in between fields (props to the TDs) but players and spectators still put all their stuff haphazardly 1 meter away from the sidelines. Sideline safety must be a cultural shift.
• The format was screwy. Pool play straight to placement? Streetgang played 6 games in a row - 5 pool play and then the finals. The team that I coach, the BAGS, got there at 8 both days and left at 5 both days with 8 games and 5 byes total. (yes, I know a 13 team tournament is hard to work with). It might have been ok if people had known the schedule ahead of time but people were learning of their games an hour before hand. (Again, I know how hard it is to TD. It sucks that your fields got taken away last minute)
• I only saw a few non-player spectators at the finals even though we were in Long Beach, a city filled with Ultimate players. We all need to do a better job to get our beach-pickup buddies to attend the finals of big time tourneys. 
• Getting water was a pain, only 1 station very fair away from most of the fields.
• We started at 8am even though everything was done by 5. Give me 1 more hour of sleep and Ill be way happier even if it means I get home a hour later.

All in all, good tourney. It feels great to be sectional champions as San Diego Open has not won Sectionals in 15 years.

Audio Interviews for the USA Ultimate Board of Directors

Check out my audio interview for the USAU Board of Directors. The Election is Oct 1st - Nov 2nd http://bit.ly/StephenHubbard4USAUaudio

 

How do my answers stack up to the other candidates?

The Lover of Learning

      There are two types of love regarding learning. The first is the love of pure learning. This is the absolute thirst for coming to know things that one didn’t before. This love is derived from the immense pleasure that comes from figuring out what a factorial is, finally being told what MSG is, learning about the actual anatomy of the human shoulder, seeing the elegance of the periodic table, and finally having grammar concepts make sense. This love could be called the love of knowledge. It shows itself in everyday life – the spark of passion that is alive when one comprehends the factoid that will allow a person to ace a test is the same spark that is ignited by a conversation about something out of the blue with a stranger on a bus. I see this love expressed as a disposition; those who do indeed possess it act a certain way – they are inquisitive, obviously, but more precisely, they are interested in everything. This love is not bounded by an academic subject or aim. To a person that loves in this way, the world is a fantastic place, full of wonder, intrigue, and enchantment at every juncture.

      The second type of love is the love of a subject. By this, I mean love for math or writing or history or anatomy or soccer or computer games or ultimate frisbee or herb gardening or whatever! The specific subject is not important – the critical factor in this love is one’s approach to a subject. These lovers devour the knowledge contained in their field of study. They MUST learn more and more – they have an insatiable hunger to learn everything they can about the thing in which they are interested. The level of understanding in their subject is not necessarily important: the highschooler who cannot get enough of his AP Biology textbook displays the same love as the PhD who spends 70 hours/week in his laboratory – they differ not in kind but in degree, and only really in degrees that matter little: maturity and market value. While love of knowledge is a disposition, this love for a subject is akin to a quest. This type of lover is on a journey to find more of the magical world of study he finds himself in. He travels with deliberate pace. While the world comes to the lover of learning, the lover of subjects goes to it – he hunts it down. This second love grows from, and is sustained by, a recognition and appreciation for the true, innate beauty that lies within their subject of study. It is this beauty that drives their quest forward: the sublime is a powerful motivator if only it can be comprehended. This love manifests itself quit visibly - if you could access the sublime and the beautiful inside a textbook or Wikipedia site or seminar wouldn’t you act a little crazy about that fact too? These loves for the subject are certainly not mutually exclusive; one may have as many passions as they like.

     Not everyone who is interested in a subject is a lover of that subject. In fact, someone could spend many many hours participating in something and not love it as a subject of learning. The computer gamer who spends the majority of the day online doesn’t necessarily want to learn about their game of choice. The lover of the computer game as subject wants to know about who made the game, what the best players in the world are like, how he can contribute to the online community. He probably has a blog about his gaming experience.

I will expound on these two types of people in future posts. The preceding have been some initial thoughts that came to me very clearly one morning.

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
• 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

NW Club Regionals

Revolver, Sockeye, Furious George, ECU, Rhino, Wolf

Damn, it is going to be one exciting October.


PS- Don't count out Pizzahuttacobell. They are young and fast. Very darkhorse right now.

Get Your Bags Off the Sideline

 

At the Labor Day Championships in Santa Cruz this weekend (maybe the best field site in Ultimate), the TDs set up the field so that there was at least 10 yards between fields and most times more. Where there were 4 fields last year, now there were 3 full sized ones totally clear of any fixed hazards (rocks, light poles, asphalt). While the TD’s forethought was praiseworthy, players and fans still put their bags, chairs, and tents within 2 yards of the sideline.

Even during the finals WHEN NO OTHER GAMES WERE GOING ON there were obstacles  very close to the line. While I am sure those girls were excited to get so close to their heart-throb, the fact that Mac Taylor nearly clobbered them on a great full speed catch near the sideline is indicative of a big problem in the Ultimate community. We all need to respect sideline safety much more.

While change can and needs to happen from the top down (2010 USAU College Championships in Madison are a great example of progress) there needs to be a cultural shift – a shift away from the sidelines. Your view of that great play is just as good if you are 3 yards further back.  Be that guy on your team that stubbornly insists that everyone puts their bags further back, we all will be better for it.