The Ultimate SHubbard

Hubbard Strength and Conditioning Interest Form

2012-01-19T12:49:00.001-08:00

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Impressive Defense From Sockeye

2011-09-27T12:00:00.000-07:00

A recent highlight clip of (the awesome) Timmy Perston of Portland Rhino from their recent upset of Sockeye at Labor Day:

http://www.ultivillage.com/index.php/COTD-2008/Timmy-P.-hammer-catch

The catch was cool but what really impresses me about that clip is Sockeye's defense. The disc moves a couple times but there was no flow. No continuation passes. Flashy is fun, but consistent and fundamentally sound defense wins tournaments.

I am really happy that more full-game video is becoming available. Highlights are good recruiting tools, but full field coverage that can show how team defense shuts down individuals and forces them to make tough plays like this one is what is really worthwhile as a teaching tool.

I would go so far as to say that I WANT to see more clips-of-the-day that show great team defense even if they don't include amazing feats of athleticism. A Streetgang'10 teammate,Matt Welsh, helped me understand by explaining his defensive philosophy at our end-of-the-year party:

If everyone is working hard to shut down their man, eventually a bad throw go up that someone might have a chance to make an athletic play on. If everyone plays so that their teammate will get the D, someone will get the layout D.

Yes, this will get you turns, but not as many as coordinated team defense, and really, you only get the chance to do cool stuff like this if your teammates are working equally hard off the disc.

For a great exposition of the Sockeye team defense, check out the (almost full) gave vs Chain Lightning in the Semis of Worlds in Prague. Most every time their D comes down on the pull they have a coordinated poaching strategy that becomes more strict ManD as the point goes on. Also, a beautifully executed vertical handler switch. Its too bad Ben Wiggins played O handler the last couple years, because while i like watching him play Handler, I love watching him play D and playing fast-break O after they get the disc back.

PS- If my total fanhood for Sockeye hadn't already reached tween-girl-for-Justin-Bieber status, I just found their awesome mix tapes that they make before each tournament and release to the pubic.

Advice for those new to training

2011-09-08T10:58:00.001-07:00

Squat. Deadlift. Bench Press. Overhead Press. Pull Up. Box Jump. Run.

These are the important movements. Most everything else (without cleats) is a waste of time. To be honest, the rep and set and weight scheme for these movements are not nearly as important as the fact that you do them and you concentrate and focus on the form. Im talking, Get Anal Retentive About Form. I'm talking, Get a well trained coach to watch you and train you. Im talking, video tape yourself and study your to compare against competent people you find online.Having good form in these movements will: 1) help you train hard and effectively while avoiding injury as effectively as possible and 2) teach your body the right mechanics for on-field movement.

THIS GAME SUCKED: Great Britain vs Sweden in the 2011 European Championships

2011-09-01T19:04:00.000-07:00

In addition to the travesty that is this goal, the whole game was full of shitty, shitty outcomes inter-spaced with MINUTES of stoppage for players to talk about stupid, trivial shit. It's mindnumbingly boring to watch, but more importantly, I've experienced games like these, and they are boring and frustrating and funless to play it.

The commentators point out a few times that, despite the shittiness of the game, that

"This is what the game is about: self offication even at the highest levels"

Well I say:

Fuck No it's not, Ultimate is about Throwing and Catching and Running and Laying Out.

When self-offication gets in the way of these thing in such a disgusting way, we, as a community, have the responsibility to CALL PEOPLE OUT.While I am pro-third party, Im not NECESSARILY insisting on them in this post. Im saying that WE, as a community, can mold our games into whatever we want. And the way we do that, is by actually criticizing the stuff that fucks our game up. And criticizing harshly at that.

I'm not saying that the individuals who:

Squabble about coming back to the field .5 meters away from where you were going to be:

Argue about whether to come in at Stall2 or Stall3 for a WHOLE MINUTE:

And mark like this ensuring a marking foul on most every turnover:

are necessarily bad people, but the community must harshly criticize the behavior and the culture that leads to that behavior being accepted as normal. It doesn't have to be normal if we stand up and say we don't want to play like that. Lets take the SOTG requirement for inter-community critique seriously.

Fuck. That. Lame. Bullshit.

Not Knowing the Rules IS REALLY UnSpirited

2011-08-31T22:34:00.000-07:00

JohnAllan's RSD post about whether lacking rules knowledge is unspirited:

...the very best professional refs make terrible calls all the time. if your standard of 'good' vs 'bad' spirit relies on the absence of terrible calls, then no one that plays ultimate has good spirit. your standard becomes meaningless.

My response:
Professional refs may make terrible calls, but it is about bad perspective. They make bad calls because they saw something the wrong way; they go to great lengths to avoid these mistakes, but they are going to happen. The bad calls are NOT, however, due to a misunderstanding of the rules. I guarantee you that they could sit down and pass a written rules test with A+ every time because they TAKE THEIR RESPONSIBILITY SERIOUSLY.

I trained as a soccer referee for 8 years and we were constantly being evaluated, trained, tested and observed. When a bunch of us would get together for dinner at the end of a tournament, you know what we would talk about? The finer points of positioning on Corner Kicks from right footed players vs left footed players. Why? Because refs CARE and TAKE THEIR RESPONSIBILITY SERIOUSLY.

When and Ultimate player doesn't know where to set up after a pick or doesn't bother staying on sides, or contests something they shouldn't because they "don't know the rules" , I see that they do not take the heavy responsibility of Self Officiation seriously. It just blows my mind that people spend thousands of dollars a year and all their free time and don't spend the time to practice being a good referee. Read th fucking rules

Watch. Study. Adapt.

2011-08-26T11:21:00.000-07:00

Simon Montague- brings the disc over the head when pivoting backhand to forehand against a tight mark.

Mike Caldwell - push passes against force forehand near the endzone.

Brodie Smith - stands tall and relaxed before making a juke to lull defenders into raising their center of gravity making them less able to react.

Spencer Wallis - lays out with 2 hands.

Jack McShane - hammer fakes as soon as he catches the disc

Andy Collins (and some of the other Furious guys) - fakes the forehand and follows through past the marker's head.

Parker Krug - low and wide stance with the disc forcing the mark to jump far is response to small hip movements

Ben Wiggins - sets up the throw-and-go by slowing down his pivoting and setting his grip with the left hand

Mark Sherwood - shifts his weight right, then left, then right again without really moving his feet when he wants to throw his inside forehand (which is all the time.)

David Billings - stand tall in forehand and throws the low release backhand with dipped left shoulder during the pivot, before the right foot gets all the way around.

Steve Prodan - fakes inside or openside backhand, 360 pivot to around flick huck.

Alan Kolick - Leans back before throws to that the marker comes with him to set up his throw and go.

Cole Sullivan - does a really violent and quick shoulder pump when pivoting from forehand to throw the backhand huck.

Masahiro Matsuno (and lots of other Japanese players) - cock back the forehand high near their head like a blade.

The loaded flick.

If you aren't watching and studying your opponents and the best in the game to understand what they like to do and what they are uncomfortable with, you are missing out on the best way to get better. If you can't tell me at 12-12 what their main throwers like to throw, you aren't doing the mental work it takes to be a great defender. If you get broken the same way at the beginning of the season and at the end by a team you have seen multiple times, you can do better. To improve all the little things in your game, observe how other players do them.

Good Decisions

2011-08-25T18:26:00.000-07:00

How many Good Decisions do you think you should HAVE to make in a point for your team to score?

Trick question.

If you are ever thinking "I just threw 2 sweet breaks in a row, my team should be able to score now" or "My cutting has been flawless, I've been roasting my man all point, we deserve to score" then...

You don't throw with good form because that's what is going to score for you,
you do it because that's simply what you must do.

...you might as well quit.

When you step on the line, you don't deserve anything. There is no "good enough to score" unless your team actually scores the point.

When you step on the line, you commit to the whole point, not to just a few good plays.

A Culture of Excellence

2011-08-11T12:49:00.000-07:00

Ultimate teams take note. This video, along with Sockeye's awesome website ( www.seattlesockeye.org - check out the player bios), is how to build a fan base and establish a culture of excellence. That culture of excellence is what makes them great year after year. Big props and much love to my favorite Ultimate Team, and my favorite sports team in general, Settle Sockeye.

Perfectionism is a Curse

2011-07-28T18:42:00.000-07:00

Perfectionism can be a curse (and for me, is). Putting a large mental emphasis on things going just right has been bad for me in a few ways.

1. Very detailed mock ups of a project beforehand lead to disapointment. Nothing ever turns out the way its planned. Sometimes the end result looks very similar to the plan, sometimes they are worlds apart. Either way, the more one has invested in a very specific outcome, the more disappointed they are when it inevitably isn't so. Further, thinking about how the reality is unfortunately different than the mock up can cloud one's ability to see all the good of what actually is.

2. Perfectionism actually reduces the amount of productive output. I have twice as many blog posts in the drafts folder than I've actually published. If a project must meet an arbitrarily high standard for public display, sometimes only gold comes out ("To Kill a Mocking Bird"), but most times nothing comes out (after TKaMB, Harper Lee never published again and while she has been given numerous awards and honorary degrees, she always declines to give a speech). The thing is, most of us perfectionists have never written To Kill a Mocking Bird.

3. Perfectionism actually reduces the quality of one's work. The perfectionist's head is filled with swirling, ebbing, and developing notions about how to make something just right.

"This part should be after that one." "Change the punctuation to this." "An additional explanation for this possibility is necessarily." "But what if they come with this response?" "Maybe I should wait to release this until later so that it will be received better?" 'This needs another edit." "What if this sounds too wordy?"

The perfectionist misses the forest for the trees. There is a time for all this mental drifting - normal people call it "Brainstorming". But such a process negatively effects the finished product -sometimes drastically so - when a perfectionist's head is full of these sorts of things while their word processor is empty the night before the due date. When that first daybreak chirp-chirp of the birds breaks through my window following the first few rays of the sun, I know perfectionism has screwed me again. The rough draft that was never done a week before because it wasn't even good enough for a rough draft would have been better than what a coffee-fueled insomniac can produce hours before the deadline.

4. Perfectionism makes group-work very hard. Good groups work well because they develop ideas together. Everyone can buy into something they had a hand in creating. This process can be long, but its the right way to go. The perfectionist throws a ratchet in these gears because his is very uncomfortable sharing his half-formed ideas; he is very rude about pointing out the obvious faults in the half-formed ideas of others. The perfectionist says: "If you want something done right, do it yourself." The person who enjoys sleeping at night and being friends with their coworkers is not as foolish.

5. Perfectionists can be made to feel bad when a flaw is found in their perfect idea. If a perfectionist manages to make something good enough to get past his own personally applied censors, there is a sense of pride that can be easily injured by any critic. If one gets in the habit of only expressing ideas of well-formed perfection, it can be a personal insult to take issue with them. Perfectionists can view their projects as children and a parent's blind love for child often clouds rational thought about that child after it has left the womb.

6. Habits of perfectionism promote habits of delinquency. More times than I care to count, I've have read an email, looked it over again, and put it away for later because I couldn't immediately come up with an appropriately perfect response. Then, it gets filled away again after a 2nd look the next day because I can't come up with an appropriately perfect apology for why I didn't respond yesterday. Talk about vicious cycle.

In conclusion, perfectionism brings serious problems with it. Perfectionism ins't who I am, but I do notice perfectionists tendencies in myself sometimes and I am realizing how more often than not, they effect me adversely.

I realize the way to improve one's perfectionism is to practice just getting imperfect end-products out there. Hit SEND. One piece of advice I that seems apropos is:

"For a clean desk, only touch each piece of paper once"

This applies to incoming and outgoing office paperwork (and emails). But I think it applies much more broadly to mental paper. A perfectionist holds onto all his ideas until they seem just right and the only result is that their mental desk is full, cluttered, and unorganized.

Quite upsetting.

Well screw that. This blog post went from idea to published in 1 hour. Perfectionist demons, take that.

Crossfit Open Workout

2011-04-12T12:46:00.000-07:00

The Shubbard Workout: Crossfit Open WOD 2 from Stephen Hubbard on Vimeo.
As part of the nationwide Crossfit Open Competition, Stephen Does:

As Many Rounds As Possible in 15 Minutes of:

9 155# Deadlifts

12 Pushups

15 24in Box Jumps

Final Score: 7rds+ 6 DLs

Thanks to http://pbcrossfit.com/ for letting me work out at their awesome gym.

For more on the Crossfit Open, check out: http://games.crossfit.com/

Music: Party Rock Anthem - LMFAO

The Hubbard Workout of the Week: Special Guest

2011-02-24T11:54:00.000-08:00

The Hubbard Workout of the Week 10: Special Guest! from Stephen Hubbard on Vimeo.

Stephen and Ben do:

As Many Rounds As Possible in 15 minutes:
5 Deadlifts
5 Pullups
5 Box Jumps
5 Dips

Cutting is a Race

2011-02-10T12:36:00.000-08:00

Cutting is a race to a spot.

And only the offense knows when the race starts.

And only the offense knows where the race ends, something that may change at anytime during the race.

So how can the defense possibly ever win this race?

By guessing when and where the race will go or by just being a very very fast racer. The only advantage the defense really has is that they many start anywhere on the race track they please.

Heaven help the offensive cutter who, before the fact, tells a defender when the race will start and where it will end.

Offense: Dont give up your advantage by telling the defender the race specifics beforehand.

Defense: Accept that you can only win races through the mental skill of guessing the race details - a skill that can be trained.

Its especially hard to win the race if the guy you are guarding is a track star.

Defense at a High Level

2011-01-21T21:37:00.000-08:00

Well, since next week's Poaches topic will be defense, there is no better time to transcribe some thoughts that have been floating around about defense...

I have always been primarily a offensive player - I "get" offense at a much higher level so I have always been playing catch up in my D skills.

The first thing I really realized, is that someone should have told me how hard defense is. Its not as though I actively believed it was or should be easy, it is just that I had no idea that one must EARN turnovers at a high level. A defense that relies on being given the disc on unforced errors will not do very well.

So in that light, I will attempt to record some of my insights on how high level players and teams earn turnovers.

First, defenders must realize that the deck is stacked against them. The rules and insedentals of this sport heavily favor the offense retaining possession. One of my coaches is fond of saying "If your guy touches the disc, you fucked up" and I disagree with this. I know why he says this to his college age players: it works to fire people up. But its just not true - the offense will move the disc. Additionally, it must be accepted that it is impossible for a single defender to shut down every single option his assigned O player potentially has: defenders MUST work as a team. Seems obvious - but the recognition of this fact leads to the following conceptual shift:

Instead of thinking that one should be focused on how he can intercept the next potential pass, we must think about removing many of the offense's options before they take advantage of them. Every D is a team D.

Philosophical and wordy, yes, but hopefully enlightened.

So D is not primarily in the business of getting Ds, but of removing options. How do do D's remove options?

More of the answer to come in later posts.

Final Team List for Pres Day Qualifier and Pres Day Classic

2011-01-14T10:57:00.000-08:00

February is going to be awesome in San Diego!

Pres Day Qualifier February 5th, 6th Santa Clara
UC Irvine
USC
Cal State Long Beach
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
Cal Poly Pomona
Arizona State
University of Arizona
Caltech
Occidental
Claremont
UC San Diego B
UC Berkeley B
UC Los Angeles B
UC Santa Barbara B
San Diego State B

Pres Day Classic February 19th,20th,21st
Minnesota
Cal
Texas State
Kansas
UC Santa Barbara
Illinois
Oregon
UC San Diego
Washington
Texas
Davis
San Deigo State
Dartmouth
University of British Columbia
Texas A+M
Carton GOP
UCLA
Cal State Chico
Colorado College
Qualifier Winner Team

San Diego Night Beach Pickup

2010-12-14T00:36:00.000-08:00

Mondays and Wednesdays. 8:30-11:00pm. Under the bright flood lamps of the Capri Hotel at the end of Missouri St.

Soft sand, good friends, high level of play, beautiful weather even at night.

Really looking forward to Lei Out this year.

Goaltimate League

2010-12-08T17:37:00.000-08:00

Tuesday night Mens Goaltimate League in San Deigo. A bunch of SD Streetgang guys, a bunch of Masters guys, the cream of the pickup-game crop and a bunch of the guys who invented this game 15 years back. A bunch of Goaltimate professionals (the first couple big Goalti tournaments had cash prizes)!

It feels pretty good to be the newb. To be the rookie. To be the willing listener and learner.

The obvious thought that comes after playing 3 times is that EVERY ultimate player needs to play Goalti a few times as cross-training for ultimate. The cuts are quick and short and the throws are different so you can't translate too much of that stuff over, but one touches the disc 10 times as much as in Ultimate and everything happens faster. That reaction time training, the confidence that comes from catching zippy bades, can and should be an addition to everyone's disc related arsenal.

The real insight I *think* I've had about this game is that teams actually need to be aggressive, they have to take percentage looks. In Ultimate, I always got the distinct impression that offense should score every single time without nary a turnover or stoppage. The fact that we didn't was a big fault of the offense. In Goaltimate however, you are not going to win vs a good team if you look to play the the possession offense. Even the best shooters cant be 100%. Shoot 70% in the NBA and you are a star, likewise in this game.

I wonder how many other cities have organized Goaltimate. I have heard of Seattle and Atlanta and Boston and SF. Someone said something about someplace in Texas. But where else? What is the cross over from the best Ultimate players? What percentage of the dudes at Club Nationals have wicked scoobers and blades that they only unleash in the offseason through the big PVC hoop?

Loving it for right now (though, like Ultimate, this sport could really benefit from some impartial arbitration.)

The Shubbard Workout: SDHPs, K2Es, PPs

2010-12-07T06:57:00.001-08:00

The SHubbard Workout of the Week 26Nov2010 S.D.H.Ps from Stephen Hubbard on Vimeo.
Stephen does
3 rounds for time:

7 Sumo Deadlift High Pulls (110#)
7 Knees to Elbows
14 Push Presses (65#)

Time : 5:03

Went too heavy on the SDHPs, too light on the presses. Probably should have been 4 rounds, but i'm a wimp.

The Shubbard Workout of the Week #6

2010-11-08T17:13:00.000-08:00

Check It:

The SHubbard Workout of the Week 7/11/10 from Stephen Hubbard on Vimeo.
Stephen does a 3 round circuit of

5 Deadlifts (175lb)
5 Pullups
10 Push Press (90lb)
10 Box Jumps
20 Anchored situps

Final time : 6:48

I am loving the effect at the end. Comment with any questions and remember to post your time.

The (Incomplete) Definitive List of Ultimate Tournaments I Want to Play In

2010-11-03T16:48:00.000-07:00

Competitive:
USA Ultimate College Nationals
USA Ultimate Club Nationals
USA Ultimate Open
Club Worlds
World Games
Co-ed Worlds

Fun:
Potlatch
Poultry Days
Fools Fest West
Fools Fest East
Gender Blender
Kiamna Klassic

Sand:
Lei Out
Chicago San Blast
Wildwood
Paganello
Sand Worlds

What have I forgotten? Post links if you've got them.

Vote for Pumba for USA Ultimate Board of Directors

2010-11-02T14:52:00.000-07:00

Only a few more hours to vote!

https://members.usaultimate.org/members/vote.php

Voting ends today at 5pm M.S.T.

Here is a quick review of my campaign platform:

Professionalism

- The USAU must, at all times, be a professionally presented organization .

- All high level tournaments should receive monetary and logistical support from the USAU to make the event as professional as possible (Lined, quality fields with 5 meter spectator lines. Scoreboards. Official game discs. Early and often TD communication with teams. Publicity to the outside world. Ect…) We pay so much to travel to these events, paying as little as $10s more per person to ensure true professional production is worth it.

Observers

- Observers should be used more often than Nationals. This requires the training and retention of many more of them. Quality observers make the game more fast paced, more fun, and more fair.

- Pay Observers for their work, even if it is a token amount like $15 a game. The pay is not what keeps me refereeing soccer at a regional level, but that incentive did help me get into it when I was younger. Reward Observers who are professional and obviously good at their job.

- Observers should make active travel and up-down calls. Even Observing at the fast paced Club Nationals, I felt confident that I was in position to make those calls as good as, or better than players.

Youth Growth

- More than being supportive to youth teams and providing quality opportunities to play, the USAU should be actively searching out high school aged players from camps, summer leagues and PE programs and actively help them start and grow a team at their school.

- Schools who are attending their first USAU Sanctioned Tournament should have their bid fee waived or subsidized by the USAU.

- Make USAU Coaching Certification classes free and available during the evenings of large college and club tournaments so that dedicated players can advance toward high school coaches.

- Make Regionals a premier showcase event. The drama of the Game-to-Go is more than enough encouragement to get a bunch of high school friends to want to start a team.

Cultural Change the USAU Must Take the Lead On

- Take Sideline safety seriously. Continue to set the example that putting chairs and bags within 1 meter of the sideline is just not ok.

- 20 second hardcap on all on field discussions. We all know that “Foul, your arm hit mine. Contest, we were vying for the same unoccupied space” is a lot more fun to watch and to play with than 2 minute pointless yelling matches

- Better rules knowledge. It is unacceptable in a self-refereed sport to not have a firm grasp of the rules. There should be rules test for teams at Regionals and for players at Nationals.

- “Spirit of the Game” can be nebulous and should be reserved for the Big Picture. In as many places as possible, it needs to be replaced with the word “Sportsmanship” which can be more clearly defined as respect for one’s opponent and for the rules of the game.

- More clearly differentiate between Ultimate as hyper-competitive, spectator worthy competition and fun-oriented events. Of course there is not a line in the sand – Club Nationals is one of the most fun tournaments I’ve played in, but by acknowledging two distinct goals we can better promote both.

SOTG

2010-10-22T10:25:00.000-07:00

Spirit of the Game is Sportsmanship which is Respect for Opponents and for the Game.

The SHubbard Workout of the Week # 5 Heavy Lifts: Crossfit Total

2010-10-21T11:01:00.000-07:00

The SHubbard Workout of the Week 10/18 CFT from Stephen Hubbard on Vimeo.
Stephen tests his Crossfit Total

Shoulder press: 125 (new PR)
Back Squat: 260 (new PR)
Deadlift: 340 (new PR)

Total: 725

Thanks to Choppa for filming

What do you think you could Max on these lifts? Well, go out and do it then!

The Shubbard Workout of the Week # 3 C&Js

2010-10-15T09:56:00.001-07:00

The SHubbard Workout of the Week 10/3/10 30 C&Js from Stephen Hubbard on Vimeo.
Stephen does "Grace" which is a workout consisting simply of 30 Clean and Jerks for time.

He chose 90lb and got 3:15 so that was probably too light.

The SHubbard Workout of the Week # 4

2010-10-13T09:01:00.000-07:00

The SHubbard Workout of the Week 10/12/10 Pullup/Frontsquat Ladder from Stephen Hubbard on Vimeo.
Do 1 Pull Up and 1 Front Squat the first minute, do 2 of each the second minute, 3 in the third and so on...

You get to rest between the last front squat of a round and the beginning of the next minute.

Post your weight squatted and your score.

(Stephen used 90lbs and got through 11 Rounds + 8 Pull Ups.)

Now this was a hard workout! My arms and back are still sore 2 days latter.

The SHubbard Workout of the Week #2

2010-10-07T15:16:00.000-07:00

The SHubbard Workout of the Week 9/30 from Stephen Hubbard on Vimeo.

4 Rounds for time:
8 GHD Situps
8 GHD Back Extensions
8 Burpees
8 Pull Ups

My Time: 7:24

Whata you think guys? I think I am getting the hang of this video editing thing. Also, Im a big fan of this new Kid Cudi song.

Post your time to the comments.

Ways To Get Good Cleats On The Cheap

2010-10-07T12:10:00.001-07:00

There are lots of ways to get great cleats cheap.

1. Ross and Marshall... selection changes week to week but some times you get lucky like my teammate who go 3 pairs of Vapor4.2s for $12 each

2. Eastbay. Prices aren't great when the cleats are new, but as soon as they run out of 1 size, the price gets cut bigtime. Also be on the lookout for good online coupons. A google search will help with that.

3. Ebay. Ive gotten many brand new $100 cleats for $35 from college football team equipment managers who have extra.

The key is to have your cleat needs in the back of your mind instead of waiting till your single pair blow out and you need some new ones ASAP. Having a few pairs that you rotate will help you never be in dire need like this.

In the end though, you should probably accept paying $15 more than you want to pay. I know we are in college, but you dont really have many expenses. Good cleats that fit correctly are totally worth it if you are invested in Ultimate enough to be reading about it on the internet .

The SHubbard Workout of the Week #1

2010-10-06T04:05:00.000-07:00

The SHubbard Workout of the Week September 21 2010 from Stephen Hubbard on Vimeo.

Stephen does:

5 Rounds of:

5 Deadlifts (150lb)

5 Push Jerks (90lb)

5 Pull Ups

5 Box Jumps (24inch box)

My time: 5:06

Post your time to the comments section.

Whata you think blogosphere? Do the workout and post your times.

SoCal Club Sectionals In Review

2010-09-24T15:34:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-24T15:26:00.000-07:00

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.

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

2010-09-24T11:33:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-14T15:27:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-13T10:45:00.001-07:00

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

2010-09-08T04:28:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-06T13:28:00.003-07:00

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.

For Your Viewing Pleasure

2010-08-30T17:13:00.001-07:00

2006 Rhino vs Justice League Can you spot the coolest swing continuation of this decade by a one Seth Wiggins?

I am very very jealous of these kids: USAU Junior Team Camp

THE new game to play when you are not playing Ultimate: GritZ

Its ok rookie, the pros make mistakes too.

Truths About Ultimate

2010-08-27T15:06:00.000-07:00

Every turnover is a thrower error.

You need to pass the disc to your teammates when THEY want you to, not when you want to.

If you are not actively pursuing a comprehensive strength and conditioning program, it is very likely that you are going to get injuried.

It is way better for the D to set up than for the O to set up.

The best way for a novice thrower to improve is for them to watch the body mechanics of great throwers and attempt to emulate what they see. Precise instruction does not work as way as careful and watchful plagiarism of total body form.

Thinking is bad. Allowing your body to do what it has been trained for is the way to unleash peak performance.

If you want to get a freshman out to practice, throw with them for 5 minutes and then give them the disc.

Drills lasting more than 10 minutes bore people.

Practices need to be hard.

If you forget why or how you love this sport so much, choose a practice or a tournament and try to be the very last person to leave the fields. Think for a bit about the way you feel out on that grass. Is that shop you are sitting on the same spot you got your last layout D?

Beating a Lower Level Team

2010-08-26T14:20:00.000-07:00

The classy way to beat a far worse team is to open up the rotation but remain serious. This may be the first time your rookies get any PT - teach those rookies to play well, to play hard, whenever they step on the field. Also, it feels shitty to get stomped on by a bunch of goofs; if the teams were reversed would you want your opposition to be letting the thumbers fly at 12-5? No, you'd want to be taken seriously.

If you can't use a blowout to improve yourself, you need better coaching.

Get Some Football Cleats

2010-08-24T10:05:00.001-07:00

The large majority of players on good, high level teams wear football cleats. The majority of players on low level teams wear soccer cleats. You do the math.

Think about it: a lot of soccer cleat R&D goes into making a good kicking surface - something we don't need at all. I played soccer in high school so I word what I had been wearing untill my sophomore year of college when I tried on some Speed TDs and never went back.

Defense

2010-08-18T17:25:00.000-07:00

Defense must turn the playing field into a battle field – an inhospitable place for offense to tread. They must make the offense uncomfortable. They must make the offense not want to be there – anywhere but on that line waiting for the pull and the ensuing onslaught. Make them worry; hem and haw. Make them be thankful to lady luck every time they score. Force them to huddle with each other and argue about how to crack the zone you are throwing. Make them pray that their team’s D line stays on the field so they don’t have to go back out there. Defense must parch the offense’s lips and empty their lungs and enlarge the lump in their mouth and fill their hands with the perspiration of desperation.

If you are not doing that when your team plays defense you are failing. If the O players look comfortable or in a groove you are just not doing your job. Even if they are turning over the disc it’s very possible you are still failing. If you look closely, you can tell if they are flubbing it up or if you are actually earning it. Be very wary of the former: wins that you didn’t actually earn with pain and sweat don’t help build your team. Additionally, there is the ever present temptation to not analyze your performance simply because the result is a W.

Ask yourself: are we dictating to the other team or are we merely reacting?

Making the thrower uncomfortable

Congradulations to team USA

2010-08-12T15:23:00.000-07:00

Junior Worlds Champions!!

# 25 Eli Kerns
(Catches the greatest)

I taught him almost none of what he knows!

Check out YouTube for some really quality video of WJUC10

Lucky kids....

Ultimate on ESPN

2010-07-29T15:23:00.000-07:00

If you haven't already seen this sweet catch by Andrew Fleming of Seattle Sockeye from the World Ultimate Club Championships 2010 in Prague, do yourself a favor and watch it in HD (be sure to full-screen it).

Now, go watch it again and marvel at what website you are watching it on. That's right baby, this was the NUMBER ONE play on Tuesday's SportCenter Top 10.

Sweet huh? Personally, I would like more general acceptance of Ultimate in the mainstream and stuff like this can only help the cause. Long throw, huge layout, great crowd noise, intense spike and pretty pan-out shot to see a packed stadium. Perfect!

One of the real problems with Ultimate in the mainstream is its watchability. The highlights, like this Fleming one or this And-1 Mix Tape or this one, are great, but whole games are hard to watch if you are not a lover of the sport.

But imagine ESPN going to the USAU and saying,

"We want to show a game of Ultimate but we have seen whole games before and we don't like players arguing between each other about calls, less stoppages, no players wandering the entire sideline, less time between pulls, and it must be in a stadium. Do that, and we've put it on in its entirety"

This is not inconceivable considering the response the Fleming video has garnered. The USAU would jump at this chance and the finals of Labor Day or E.C.C. would be filmed exactly to ESPN's specifications.For as much as people talk about how to get this sport on TV, all we really need is a ESPN producer to tell the USAU what it want and we'd be good to go.

One last thing, it could be me on the Top10 next - Ultivillage is going to be at Colorado Cup, ECC and Labor Day, all of which Streetgang is attending. I'm excited for this upcoming club season!

History Repeats Itself

2010-07-28T16:50:00.000-07:00

LA Strike Slip > SD Streetgang @ Club Sectionals09
:
LA Strike Slip << SD Streetgang @ Club Regionals09
::
UCLA Smaug > UCSD Air Squids on Sunday Morning of College Regionals10
:
UCLA Smaug << UCSD Air Squids on Sunday Afternoon of College Regionals10

Rules with Definitions

2010-07-26T14:11:00.000-07:00

Check out the way the online 11th Edition Rules of Ultimate now have scroll-over definitions.

Hopefully this will help people learn the rules better. Like this new USAU Rules Clarifications FAQ, anything to help players know the rules is a good thing.

Rules Regarding the State of the Disc, PreStall and Delay of Game

2010-07-13T13:34:00.000-07:00

There is some confusion and disagreement at practice about what the 11th Edition Rules of Ultimate actually say about when you can stall and when you can't. I'd like to clarify.

The first place to start is the State of the Disc (II.R). The disc, at all times during the game, is one of these:

1. A disc is in play when play may proceed without the defense's acknowledgment. An in-bounds disc on the playing field is in play. The disc is subject to a turnover. To put the disc into play at a particular spot on the field means to establish a pivot at that spot.
2. A disc is live when players are allowed to move and the disc is subject to a turnover, but the thrower cannot make a legal pass (e.g., walking the disc to the spot where it is to be put into play). For a live disc to be put into play, the thrower must establish a pivot at the appropriate spot on the field, touch the disc to the ground, and put it into play.
3. A disc is dead when play has stopped and can continue only with a check. The disc is not subject to a turnover.

Am in play disc is when the disc comes to a rest on the playing field after a turnover or during active play.

A live disc is when the thrower is walking it to a spot to put it in play. After a Bricked Pull or after a out-of-bounds huck are two examples. A less obvious example is when a receiver catches a pass and his momentum carries him out-of-bounds: he must bring the disc back to the sideline to put it into play and thus he must touch the live disc to the ground before throwing. This is called a "ground-tap"; it is not a "check".

Finally, a dead disc is after any stoppage of play. If the rule book says "and play stops", then the disc is dead. Picks, fouls, injuries, travels, violations - these calls stop play and require a check to restart play.

So now onto stalling and delaying. Most of the relevant rules are contained within XIII.The Thrower.
XIII.A.3 says that if the disc comes to rest on the field, the offense has 10 seconds to put it into play (because there is no walking with the disc involved, this is an in play disc). Without Observers, the defender must count the 10-second "prestall" (they may choose not to). In an Observed game, Orange ALWAYS counts the prestall with a horizontal chop of the forearm. After ten seconds elapse, a defensive player within three meters of the disc may announce disc in, and then initiate and continue the stall count.
XIII.A.4 says that if he disc comes to rest someplace other than the field (out of bounds or in the endzone) the prestall is 20 seconds. A defender within 3 meters of where the disc is supposed to be put into play may start the stall count.

XIII.A.5 talks about delay of game. It references XIX.B which says: "It is the responsibility of all players to avoid any delay when starting, restarting, or continuing play. This includes standing over the disc or taking more time than reasonably necessary to put the disc into play." I see this as another unfortunate instance where subjective wording invades the rule book. What amount of time is reasonably necessary to put the disc into play? XIII.A.5 says that if a defender finds the offense to be unnecessarily delaying putting the disc into play, he may announce a Delay of Game warning by saying "delay of game" give 2 seconds, and then start and continue the stall count regardless of the actions of the offense.

Delay of game normally happens on a dead disc after a pick, foul, or travel call. Sometimes, after the down field players have returned to their positions, the thrower will spend lots of time calling a complicated play and/or communicating with his receivers and sideline. The classless and foolish thing to do in this instance is for the mark to reach around the thrower to try to check the disc held behind the thrower's back - an ugly, mini wrestling match born from the lack of rules knowledge. The informed defender issues a 2 second "delay of game" warning and then says "disc in".

My personal thoughts: like I said, I really don't like the subjective wording in the delay of game rules. Even the more objective clause in XIX.B ("...standing over the disc") is faulty: what is "standing over the disc"? 1 foot, 2 feet 5 feet away? Is there really a difference? In contrast, I really like how the prestall is well defined. The only real reason for the existence of this loose wording is that it takes a variable amount of time for cutters to reset their positions after a violation call. I say fuck it, put some objective time limits on ALL intervals in the game besides active play.

As a matter of principle, I think teams should always do the prestall in practice - its gonna happen at every game that matters this season.

Let me know if you have questions about these or if there are other rules you'd like me to try to clarify.

-Pumba

The Most Annoying New Trend In West Coast Ultimate

2010-06-24T11:33:00.001-07:00

When you play this game for a a while, you see trends develop. You see fads come and go.

2 examples: Shorts have gotten longer, and the "swagger" thrower have become more common. (see Eli Janin for examples of both)

I am interested to see these trends and for the most part they are positive: bagel-cutter machines, cream cheese, and Nutella at the food tent are very good additions to tournaments.

BUT, I would like to tell you what I see to be The Most Annoying New Trend In West Coast Ultimate. That trend is this:
The advent of players utilizing rule XVI.C.2.B.2 when picks happen NEVER used to happen and somehow it exploded this college season. Its horrible.

For those of you who are too lazy to look at the link and figure it out, I'll explain:

When a pick occurs and the picked-defender's guy gets the disc the disc should go back to the thrower and offender returns to where he was when the pick occurred and then the defender catches up to his relative position at the time of the pick.

This is the way that it has happened with little trouble for the first 4 years of my ultimate career, but players have been invoking XVI.C.2.B.2 which says that if there is an offensive violation during a throwing attempt or during the flight of the disc, and the violation DID NOT EFFECT THE RESULT OF THE PLAY, then the result of the play stands and play stops. This rule is good in the case when there is a pick on the left side of the field and then someone totally different gets the disc on the right side of the field.

The new trend is for a defender to get picked, his guy gets the disc, pick is called, and the player with the disc then says:

Did you have a play on the disc?

The offense's argument is that even though the defender was picked, he was trailing the incut or was to far away to make a play on the disc anyway. In rule speak: the violation did not effect the result of the play. The defender catches up his original relative position - 5 feet away - and play starts with an offensive self-check

And I guess it could be a valid argument, if the defender is merely tripped up while he is already 8 feet behind on a quick 10 yard pass, he will probably not have any play on the disc. But I just hate this occurrence so much because there is always a SUBJECTIVE argument about the defender's ability to make a play. Normally the defender agrees that he couldn't have, but i hat this in every instance: we should try to remove as much subjective judgments from the players hands as possible. Who knows, what if the defender's footsteps sounded a foot, an inch!, closer the offensive player? What if 5 feet and 4 feet make the difference in the thrower's mind in his decision to pass the disc or not? I say that if the picked playeris guarding the person who gets the disc, it MUST go back to the original thrower. Take subjectivity out of the equation as much as possible.

Like I said, this NEVER happened 2 seasons ago and now I see it twice a game. Im happy that people are reading the rules, but this is a shitty interpretation and I hope it goes the way of the T-shirt jerseys of the 90.

Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I Was 16

2010-06-15T22:31:00.001-07:00

Some people are going to make you mad because of how wrong they are - wrong about the facts, wrong about how to handle a situation, wrong about what is the right thing to do. Don't ignore this person as all your instincts tell you to do, but watch them closely and identify the specific things you don't like. Us that individual and their faults to learn about the person you don't want to be. Its easy to learn from the people you love, but harder - yet very beneficial - to learn from the people you despise.

Playing defense is hard. Its very hard. It is tiring and painful and very hard. If you want to play good D, you have to be more than smart, you must exert yourself - push yourself physically to the limit. That's just the way it is. Never think you are good enough at O that you can get by without balls to the wall D.

You will learn the same lesson many many times through your life. Try not to get mad at yourself for not getting it the first time.

No matter what, you will always look back and wish you partied more.

You must flirt with Exhaustion and Fatigue in your workouts so that when they start a conversation with you on the field, you know what to do.

You never know where your joy is going to come from. Sometimes it surprises you. Try to have multiple ways for happiness to find you - some will never pay out, but you will be able to forget those if you are cashing in on others.

You got to battle with the army that you have, not the army you wish you had.

Don't be surprised by your emotions. When you cry, you cry. When you yell, you yell. When you hate, you hate. When you love, you love. Let them be - experience them for what they are. Don't measure them against what you think they should be.

You are a guy. You will probably have a hard time expressing how you feel. On average, your life will be a constant struggle to be more honest with the people around you and yourself. More honesty, less white lies.

Breaking stuff is one of the most satisfying actions you can participate in. Especially so when drunk. Try to do this with things that aren't very valuable.

Say that you are sorry. Not "I'm sorry that this happened to you". Just "I'm sorry." The words don't really matter, so don't get hung up on their meaning or what you commit to by saying them.

You are going to feel very very lost sometimes. That sucks, I'm sorry. Just try to think about all the times you have felt very at home. They tend to balance out.

While making fun of something or someone seems like an easy joke or an easy way to fit in, being positive and supportive is what will make other people respect you and make you feel good about your actions. Take the high road.

People need to learn their own lessons. The best you can do with advice is to make someone think about a subject in a way they haven't before. No matter your experiences, no matter how intense they were, no matter how good a story teller/teacher/coach you are, and no matter how convinced they look while listening, you cannot make up someone's mind about anything with your words.

Its ok to be a different person day to day, year to year. The charge of "Hypocrite" and "FlipFlopper" ain't so bad; if it means that you are able to change what you think based on new experiences and changing situations, then they are complements.

Be a good teammate. Be a good friend. Be a good listener. Be a good host. You will be remembered for the things you did for others, not the things you did for yourself.

Things aren't just what they are. They also are what others take them to be. Picaso's art ain't that special by itself, but the cuture, the fandom, the theory, the story IS unique and worth respect and appreciation.

Don't let anyone tell you that you are not an artist because you are not paid for your art. The idea of a "professional" artist prevents "regular" people from expressing themselfs or making beautiful things. What a shame.

The first step to healing is admitting to yourself that you are injured.

Its ok to want what you want, to feel what you feel, to be who you are.

Remember it. Write it down. One of the greatest joys of all humanhood is looking back fondly.

The Ultimate Thesis Project

2010-06-15T09:21:00.000-07:00

I think it appropriate for me to write a thesis about Ultimate - what did Jerry Maguire call it? A Mission Statement, a Memo? Haha. Through my last 5 years of college, I have studied Ultimate as much as I have studied the subjects in my classes. I think about Ultimate a lot: for all the times I've said that my blogs will be about lots of things, 90% of the content is Ultimate. Sometimes its hard to be honest about this, but i'll just put it out there: Ultimate has been my life for the last 5 years.

So that's why I think I should write a thesis. A thesis about Ultimate.

I promise you, this will not be hard because of a lack of things to say - if you have read any of my blogs or talked to me on the field, you know that I could fill a book. The challenge of actually being concise is what really intrigues me about this project.

So far, I imagine a "Thesis" about Ultimate could be about a couple different things:

The Unique, Strange, and Challenging Existence of Spirt Of The Game in our sport
Ultimate Offense and Defense strategy
The Unique Community of Ultimate players
How Ultimate is viewed by its Players and by Outsiders
Why People Play Ultimate
The Unique Niche of "College" Sport
Sports Psychology through Ultimate
The Rules (and their Ramifications) of Ultimate
Build a Winning Ultimate Team
The Mental Game in Ultimate
The Differences from the Top Level to Pickup in Ultimate

I'm sure that many of the sub-topics appropriate within each topic would find their way into the others and I am sure that some of these are way too general (especially the Strategy one). AND i'm sure I am missing something that I have thought about before.

So I would like to ask you, reader, what would YOU be interested in reading a thesis about? And secondly, if you were tasked with writing something long about Ultimate, what would your title be?

Looking for a Personal Trainer?

2010-06-11T16:00:00.001-07:00

Hello Loyal Readers,

I am looking for people who would be interested in doing some gym workouts under my training. I have always thought about trying to be a personal trainer and I guess this would be like a first trial run. Ideally, I would have 3-5 people in a group and the session would last between 30 minutes to an hour.

My philosophy on physical conditioning is that the best results in power, strength, and overall athleticism come from constantly varied functional movements, executed at high intensity. Functional movements are defined as those that can move large loads, long distances, quickly; examples of these are pull-ups, cleans, jerks and squats. I also see it as critically important that results are measurable quantitatively.

A sample workout of mine might consist of:

4 rounds for time:

-9 20inch Box Jumps

-7 75lb Clean and Jerks

-5 Pull Ups

-3 165lb Deadlifts

You can see that if you first complete the workout in 12 minutes, and then complete the same workout 3 weeks later in 9 minutes you are obviously in better shape, you are more powerful. Quantitatively Measurable Results.

I am in town all summer and am generally flexible time-wise, so I’ll certainly try to work out a schedule when a couple people are able to get together. I would hope to have 2 sessions a week but I don’t want to scare anyone away with requests for commitment. These sessions would be free. The only payment I ask for is for you to be honest with me about how I can improve as a trainer.

One last thing: You should know that I believe strongly that people need to LEARN how to work out – they actually need coaching on how to do the movements that will help them become a better athlete. I am not looking to coach so can I sit next to you and encourage you to finish those last leg curls, I see coaching in the gym as the teaching of the movements. If you have ever entered the gym without knowledge of what to do, and so you settled on seated calf presses, you especially should take me up on my offer.

I guarantee you will see results during the first session in that my teaching will show you a new side of the weight room and my workouts will put you on your ass like nothing you have ever done in the gym before.

If you are interested, even a little bit, please email me back (StephenGHubbard@gmail.com) or respond here and we'll work something out.

Quality Hucks and Sideline Talk

2010-05-20T10:07:00.001-07:00

I posted two really good IOTDs today and yesterday that are more appropriate, length wise, for this blog. I seem to get more diverse Ultimate-related viewers on this blog so I wanted to forward you the links.

What to Say to Your On-Field Teammates

Quality Hucks Follow the Rule of Thirds

Madison in 7 days! If you are going to be there, come say hi!

Also exciting: the UPA is FINALLY going to open their new website in 4 days!

Good Morning

2010-05-05T05:36:00.001-07:00

The Squids are having 6am practice today - the last one we will have before Regionals.

Its a beautiful day.

Peace.

Canadian Ultimate Mag

2010-05-03T11:52:00.000-07:00

I am absolutely blown away by how cool this is. I like Canada 15% more just because of this.

My Contribution to the San Diego Ultimate Community

2010-04-30T11:52:00.001-07:00

I have brought 4 things to the San Diego Ultimate community (maybe more, but of these I am sure) . I am not saying that these are original ideas, but I do want to take full credit for their existence here. Yeah, I guess its an ego thing.

#1.
The 4-line warm up. We never did it, they I recommended it and people were against it for no reason than that we'd never done it before. Then we started doing it after I continued to push for it, then we started to do it as a warm up before games but not at practice (in my conversation with my coach, his reason for not doing it at practice was, I kid you not, "If we do it too much, people will learn how to "game" this drill just like they "game" the breakmark drill." I don't understand what he was saying, Ill i heard was "We don't do it that much, even though it is a good warmup, because we never did it in the past." Then we started doing it at Squid and Streetgang practices and I think there are 3 reasons:

Empirical - 75% of all the good club and college team have started to do this drill.
Philosophical - the point of a warm up should be to touch the disc and run a whole lot which is not achieved by any drill where you are only using 1 or 2 discs.
Empirical - People actually do run more and touch the disc more in this warm up than in any other warm up. People's throws are better after doing lots of them, people are actually sweating after this drill.

#2.
When putting a live disc is put into play at any spot on the field besides where it comes to rest, you must tap it to the ground after establishing your pivot at the right spot. Often, when the new offense is walking the disc to the goal line, side line, or brick mark the thrower will offer the disc for a check. I could just tap the disc like everyone else, but I make a point of telling them that its a ground tap. Cons: I lose 2-3 seconds of the stall count. Pro: I teach people the actual rules of our sport. Minor pro: I don't feel bad about calling a travel when they throw without a ground tap. Im not saying that everyone knows this rule now, but I would estimate that there were, AT MOST, 3 other players in San Diego that knew when a ground tap vs a defensive check was required before I started my crusade to teach people the rules.

#3.
Lefty backhands. I can't take full credit for this one; I was majorly influenced by the first player in SD that I really looked up to: Christopher "Phelps" D'arrouzet-Nardi. His last year was my first and he threw a lot of lefties. His reasoning was simple: you could get a lot more spin on short throws. There certainly are situations where the off-hand backhand is useful - short breaks, dumps, dish passes - and it seems that the big restriction on them is just people's own mental limitations of seeing what is possible. I don't know if other SDers are adding lefty backhands - I think some are - but people are figuring out that you actually can cut to areas that previously were off limits because people didn't have that throw.

Joke of the Day: Did you hear the joke about hydration? OF COURSE YOU DIDN'T, BECAUSE HYDRATION IS NOT A JOKE!!! (#4. )

Idea of the Day

2010-04-27T11:50:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry that I haven't posted on this blog for a while. I have started a new project recently: The Shubbard Idea of the Day - a more varied mix of ideas that are running through my head. Worry not, there are plenty ideas about fitness, weight training, Ultimate, and sports in general. I hope to write in this blog soon, but I have a lot of other stuff on my mind right now.

Props

2010-04-07T08:29:00.001-07:00

To UCLA

Flops to the algorithim that gave the Great Lakes 3 and the Northwest only 2. But hey, I'm biased.

Here's to an exciting few weeks. Playoffs Baby!!!

PS- UCLA is money on the Woman's side too. Could this be the year that the Squids and Psychos both make it to the Show? That would be so sweet!

San Diego StreetGang Tryouts Today

2010-04-04T09:15:00.001-07:00

Time to go earn a spot. I love tryouts.

Tragedy

2010-03-15T13:54:00.001-07:00

It is with a heavy heart that I must tell you the bad news. Tragedy has befallen the UCSD Air Squids.

Long considered one of the most important parts of the team and a dear friend to me personally, this old pal will not be with us this year.

I am talking about the Squid tradition to not shave one's facial hair the month before Centex. For some reason or another, the captains never made a point of telling all the the youngins that it is tradition to let the your scragly-ass facial hair run wild for Febuary and March. To quote '07 Captain Chucky,

"I dont care if you have a girlfriend, if you are meeting your parents for dinner, or if you have a job interview. Let that shit grow!"

I have always had ugly facial hair but it was kinda fun to do each year (Mine was so puny that freshman year I went the entire week with Just For Men on my face). Don't worry, I have been growing it for a while and there are a awesome few who have been growing it since before the start of the school year, but part of the fun was making everyone do it.

Alas, some traditions die if we do not breath life into them each year. Next year's Squids, I recommend you make a point of this.

P&BS

2010-03-08T23:39:00.000-08:00

Empirically,

President's Day Invite 2010 from Tim Gilligan on Vimeo.

its obviously the best song for a

highlight video.

Anyone can throw together some clips with this song; its practically made for a highlight video.

Using a song you'd never think of; now that is art:

More sweet work (and high quality music choice) from Shy and the Brains:

Success

2010-03-08T22:09:00.001-08:00

Sometimes I don't really know what I am doing in my life. Sometimes I'm lost.

But tonight I ran a 5:26 mile at the track. Not a PR, but an improvement from earlier this season. Then we had a ton more exercises... broken 400's, 200's, 40s, 25, and stadiums...
It hurt so bad but I kept pushing myself. I pushed so hard that I puked after the last stadium.

Thats the point really, to push yourself to your current physiological and psychological limit so as to move those limits a little further away. Yakking isn't strictly necessary, but it obviously shows that I did get close to those boundaries. It was a nice little moment bent over those flowers, a nice vivid reminder of my dedication to the team.

I "got it right" tonight. I won track practice, I did it correctly. At least one thing is my life is going according to plan.

Dogma

2010-03-08T17:21:00.000-08:00

Fake and pivot a lot, be spastic, but don't do any 360 spins.
Ultimate is like football.
Run a lot of 400's.
Throw to height mismatchs.
Cut from the back of the stack.
Open side.
Hi release= bad.
Stay on your man, no poaching, no switching.
Pivot upfield. If nothing is open, then look dump.
Movement is thrower initiated.
You get 1 fake to get open.
When marking, put your balls on his hip.

Ugh

2010-03-03T16:24:00.001-08:00

I have been feeling really sluggish for the last week. I hurt, especially in my stomach. I have been trying to completely ignore this and this weekend I tried to put it out of my mind but I am not confident it is going away....

I am in the weird situation in which I have ignored dis-ease before to positive results. How am I to know now whether my lack-luster performance at Stanford Open and at Monday and Tuesday's track practice and field practice are the result of being ill or being wimpy?

I know that the frequent pain in my stomach is not normal, but I don't know what it could be or how that could translate to not being able to run fast at the track.

Do I know my body enough to figure this out? Should I go to the doctor? What could they even do? Yuck.

Normally, when I am not feeling well, I go to the weight room and that makes me feel better, but thinking about a barbell just makes me feel weak right now.

Have I been overtraining? What is going on?

The worst part is not knowing what to do.

On the bright side, I recently found the Radio Lab Podcast and its awesome. If you like This American Life (and you should), you will really like Radio Lab.

Track.

2010-02-23T12:36:00.000-08:00

At 6pm this time of year our track is only illuminated by the moon and the diffuse light of the nearby buildings. The darkness helps with the introspection.

The Squids run track practices every Monday night . We start in October and we go until the end of the season. Our coach, Angry Kevin, programs the entire thing - we do not know what we are going to do until he tells us during the practice.The workouts change but in general, the intensity builds. Every A team member comes and we typically have 3 to 5 B teamers.

The elements throughout the year are:
3 mile hilly campus loop, 1 mile, 800s, 400s, 200s, 100s, 40s, 25s, Stadiums (50m height) (big steps, little steps, big step hops), hill sprints (about 100m), standing jumps, and agility latter drills. All of these have numerous modification potential. Everything is times, that it, if we do 400s they will start every X minutes until we are done and each of are times for each 400 are announced.

Yesterday's workout was :

800 warmup
Stretch
3x Build 100s
Stretch
6x400s on 3 minutes
1x Broken 400 (Run a 50 & turn around, run a 50 & turn around x4)
rest
5x200s on 2 minutes
rest
10x 40s on 1 minute
rest
10x 25s on 45 seconds
8 staduims with 10 standing jumps at the top
Cool down 400
Stretch

Sometimes I cannot wait to get there, sometimes I dread it. Sometimes I run great, sometimes I feel like shit. Some times I come joyful and leave destroyed, sometimes i'll be having a horrible day and leave on top of the world. No matter what though, I always go.

So why do I write about this now?
Last night I had this really awesome experience: I just killed the 200s; pushed myself hard on each one. When I was finally able to think again, it hit me:

"I feel invincible. I can do anything, I can beat anyone."

At 6pm, our track is only illuminated by the moon and the diffuse light of the nearby buildings. The darkness helps with the introspection and I was overpowered with this realization.

Colorado, I'm coming for you.

Pres Day 2010

2010-02-15T22:34:00.001-08:00

The UCSD Air Squids win Pres Day 2010 in a great final against Cal, 15-13. For sure one of the top 3 games I've ever played.

We take a 1 break lead at half, they tie it up at 10-10 and then advance to 13-11 Cal before we score out O point and then rattle off 3 straight breaks to win! Great plays by every player on each roster. The sportsmanship was very high and the observers, full fields, scoreboards, and perfect weather combined to make an absolutely great game.

Thank you to the many many people that helped make Pres Day happen.

Obviously, more to come.

In The Zone

2010-02-04T13:04:00.001-08:00

"In the Zone"...is heightened awareness...is meditation......is Flow...is "Blink"ing...

It can be attained during all of these things...

playing sports
rock climbing
weight lifting
having sex
drinking coffee
drinking alcohol
listening to music
being at a concert or dance
playing music
cooking
gardening
making art
doing hard homework
watching tv
reading a book
hiking
running
people watching
blog writing
driving
teaching
writing code
sudoku
prayer
running a gel, titrating a buffer, western blotting
just sitting

Or you could totally miss the opportunity... its really just up to you. Just pay attention and try a little bit; its worth it. To get "in the zone" you must focus on the moment, you must figure out how to get the past and future out of your head. You must pay attention to the task at hand. Sometimes we think we are paying attention when really we are thinking about something else. You'll be in the middle of a lecture class and suddenly you'll realize you are thinking about what you are having for dinner; you be guarding a cutter and you'll tune out for a second and think about the last miss break opportunity. The key is to be good at realizing these lapses in focus and be able to return to your intended focus.

Acromioclavicular

2010-01-31T16:41:00.000-08:00

Strained AC joint. Thanks to my lucky stars something wasn't broken.
Sometimes in Ultimate you just get injured. Not really anyone's fault, but its gonna take a while to recover fully. Basically I suck at anything that requires two hands or the left hand exclusively.

I don't hold any grudges vs Cal because of this and look forward to actually getting to play them at PresDay.

Lei Out 2010

2010-01-22T12:56:00.000-08:00

So let me get this straight:
Your team name is "Hazed and Confused" which is a riff on last year's "Hazing" (which was a nod to the famous Psycho "hazing" of 2007) using the Led Zeppelin song "Dazed and Confused"?

Yes.

And your shirts have a purple Jimmy Hendrix on the front... because his song "Purple Haze" has the word "Haze" in it? And you didn't actually use Led Zeppelin in any way?

Yes.

Talk about a well thought out theme. Synergasm.

This year I was the captain of our team of UCSD players at Lei Out which basicly meant I fronted the money and got the emails from the TD. Thanks to Ariel "Ziggy" Whitman for doing much of the actual leadership stuff like "enforcing" our after-game hazing of the other team. I did make one important leadership decision though: originally the TDs had placed us in the B-bracket and I was kinda miffed about that; we were all UCSD A team players and were gonna whomp on the B-bracket teams. At the captain's meeting before the first round there was a team looking to switch from the A to the B so I jumped at the chance. Every single one of my teammates was really mad at me: this was supposed to be a fun tournament! It did not help that the first team we played had the famous Beau on it and crushed us 11-3. Here's the thing though: we drank just as much as if we were in the B, we actually won a game in our Saturday, and we got to be next to the 2 other SD teams and play 1 of them while if we had stayed in B we would be on the field farthest away from everything and near no one we knew.

Here is my last word on it: "fun" frisbee tournaments should not be just drinking events. We paid a lot of money to compete. I like trying hard. I have more fun losing a good, hard-fought game than winning a blow out. We are all good players who are serious about the sport. We can "have fun" and goof off but still play at a high level.

And you played a team named "Vurple Haze"? That must have been confusing.

After a pretty serious "ordeal" we finally made it back to the hotel (The Huntley), showered, and rallied for party with plenty of time to enjoy the tourney bar tab and dance the night away. I really really enjoyed the party. I was perfectly drunk to the level when I am an amazing dancer, everyone is my friend, I don't care much about how sweaty I am, and I couldn't get too pissed about my beer breath when I made out with those 2 girls because ... well... what could I do?

Party Highlights:
6 People complemented my shirt
5 People complemented my dancing
4 24oz Four malt liquor/energy drinks drunk
3 People mentioned that they read my blog.
2 Girls
1 Ben Wiggens coming up to ME and said hi. OMG HE KNOWS MY NAME OMG *Faint!* hahajk

Downstairs at the Monsoon (sorry LPC folk: the cool people partied upstairs)

One last note about the party. I have been making a conscious effort to NOT take my shirt off at parties recently. I think that while I have certainly been a big fan of it in the past, I realize it is sometimes (read: often) tacky - a thinly veiled attempt to increase the sexuality and nakedness of the party. It seems unbecoming, if you will. But I just couldn't resist when I found my way to the shirtless LPC team. Sometimes you just gotta take your shirt off and wave it in the air. When in Rome...

Sunday we walk to the fields from the hotel, play a really close game verse Joe Kersher's team (2nd Callahan-winner's team we've played) and lose because... well... many people didn't recognize we were in a close game until double game point. I tell Kersher how much I like him and everything he did for Arizona and for how classy Arizona is.

Then we beat some team by a lot. Then most of the team leaves to watch the Charger's game. Then the remaining people play the best game of the weekend. I finally get a sweet layout D, a sweet reaching layout huck score, and complete the best trick throw ever for a score to Meg. We win 12-10 but let the other team advance because we want to go meet up with the rest of the team.

In the end, most people had a really good time, only one toe got broken, and Im out a ton of money until my teammates pay me back.

Congrats to the Polar Bears for an awesome run to the Championship!

See everyone next year.

Things I've Learned about Being on an Ultimate Team

2010-01-20T16:41:00.000-08:00

I've been around this sport on various teams for a while. Here are some of the tidbits of wisdom that I've learned about being on a team.

-The way to build your teammates trust in you is to let others throw scores. Make passes to them that put them in very good position to throw easy scores. Instead of trying to impress them with the craftiness of your basketball-assists, make them look good with the selflessness of your hockey-assists. Holster the 80%-20% huck and throw a break to a teammate on the other side of the field so they can throw the 95%-5% 15 yarder. It wont show up on the stats sheet, but people will notice over time.

-The second way to build trust is to NOT tryout those tricky throws in the end-of-practice-scrimmage. Be solid, save the 40 yard hammer for warm-ups and hammer drills. When teammates see you taking a practice scrimmage seriously, they will know you can take a game seriously.

-When you do something good - throw a critical break, get a layout D, and especially catch a difficult score - its necessary to celebrate in the appropriate way. People often say "act like you've been there before" but this DOES not mean you must act like its no big deal or be diminutive or shrug it off like it was lucky - look at how football and soccer players celebrate. Perhaps a more apt analogy is volleyball players: when they score they fist pump, scream, high-five and jump. The key is to demonstrate your high energy level to motivate your team and NOT direct anything at the other team. Look to Moses Rifkin on Sockeye for how to celebrate with class.

-This next point is really a continuation of the last. Learn to take a complement and you'll be much better off. When someone says "Nice throw/catch/shutdownD/ect.!" don't reply with "Yeah, well I could have.... and really it happened that way because .... so it wasn't really that good". The correct way to respond to a complement is "Thank you." That goes for the rest of life too. It does not feel good to complement someone and be told you were wrong to commend them.

-Learn to take criticism and you'll be much better off. This is a big one in the Ultimate world that we all need to work on. Your teammates just want to help you and help the team. They are just trying to share their knowledge. Accept that the person giving the criticism, even if they are your captain or coach, is no expert on the subject. Don't get mad because you are being told that you're wrong, don't argue because things look a lot different to the person actually on the field than to the criticizer watching from the sideline. Simply listen and think about it. If there are things you want to discuss, do it AFTER the commenter is completely finished with his comments - he probably has a specific train of though that he wants to express without interruption - its better to let the moment pass and then discuss it 5 minutes later after both parties have given it some thought. This is especially hard when your blood and your ego are pumping quick from getting scored on but no one is helped when teammates argue: just listen. Even if you completely disagree at first, think about what was said and then decide if its helpful or not. If it does not help you, just disregard it: again, no one is really an expert on anything so even if we say "This is the way to do ..." what we really mean is "In the past, I have had some success with..."

-Learn how to give constructive criticism and you'll be much better off. 1 on 1. Stationary, not walking. No yelling. Keep it short and directly relevant - the sideline is no time for a rambling blog post. Understand that you are not the expert - you are simply sharing your experience. Say "thanks for listening" at the end. Don't get your ego hurt if they get mad, just let it go: no one is helped when teammates argue. Be open to talking about and debating the advice later. You can learn a lot too by making your criticism the beginning of a thoughtful discussion.

-Its OK for there to be silence in a huddle. Better that there be 1 constructive thing said and nothing else than lots of people talking just to say something. Look at people in the eye and show them you want to win: that's the best thing you can do in a huddle.

-If you are not playing well you can get out of your slump and help the team by focusing on other players. Be positive about others' good play, yell from the sideline, give high fives and smiles. Rush the field after goals even if you are getting benched. Focusing on your own bad play will not help you that much to fix it, and doesn't help the team at all. Often I have felt that I must curse myself and act mad when I screw up to SHOW my teammates that I am appropriately upset about my poor play - that I care enough about turnovers. Fuck that. Just let it go, the rest of the team wants to think about the next point and you should too.

-The best way to get to know people is to travel to a tournament with them. I absolutely LOVE long drives up the 5 because I can really get to know my teammates. Don't put on your headphones; make a mix CD of your favorite music and share it with the rest of the car. You'll be amazed at how much better your team plays together after they all know about each other's girlfriend situations, high school shenanigans, and philosophies on life and politics.

-Its good to get really really drunk with your teammates. Throw hockey-assists to build on field trust, stumble around plastered to build off the field trust.

-You must try to include the newer members of the team in fun stuff. We've all been on the other side of the equation and it sure feels nice to get invited to the after-practice lunch. Even if they have made the roster, they will not feel fully "on the team" if they are not part of the extra-frisbee activities of the team.

-Enjoy your team for what it is even if you are striving to be better. Take some time every now and then and say to yourself: "I am on a team with my good friends and we try hard and have fun." Even if everyone around you is dying of heat exhaustion and loosing to your rivals or on the verge of vomiting in the middle of a track workout at least you are doing it together.

-Live with your teammates. Its awesome. No one else can put up with or understand all the muddy stuff by the door after each practice like your fellow teammate who just dumped his sogging wet cleats next to yours.

Some Nonstandard Drills

2010-01-11T23:26:00.000-08:00

Is your team in a rut? Doing the same drills every single practice? Mix it up and try some of these. Let me know how it goes.

Breakmark with Intentional Fouls
Same as regular 3-person breakmark, but from stalls 1-5, the marker is allowed to foul in any way except for bear-hugging. From stalls 5-10 there is no fouling allowed. 2 points for completing a throw before 5 and subtract a point from the marker, 1 point for any D, subtract a point from the thrower for getting blocked or stalled. Most points wins. Teaches throwers to pivot through chest fouls and throw through arm fouls. This drill is not about teaching how to foul but how to deal with them. Don't mislead yourself, even if you are a saint, you will still get fouled at the elite level.

2 Person Quick Toss
2 people stand 5 yards apart and toss the disc to each other. The kicker is that you must catch the disc with only one hand and must throw with the same grip you caught it with. This will quickly show the value of throwing with the goal of accommodating your teammates' quick releases and the value of catching palm-up.

Keep Away
I don't get it, every soccer team does this but I have never ever seen a Ultimate team doing it. Whole team in an endzone, try to string the most consecutive passes without a turnover.Double team is legal. Stall 5.
Fun variations: Strips (but not fouls) are legal after stall3, 2 discs in play at same time.
Teaches quick movement and short passes.

Quick conversion
4 players: 2O 2D;

D1--5yards--D2,O1 ----Disc----10yards-------O2 ----------------------ENDZONE

On a whistle or "Go", all players run in the same direction toward the endzone. O1 picks up the disc and looks to put a flat huck out in front of O2 while D1 puts on a no-huck mark and before D2 catches up to the receiver. This teaches no-huck mark dynamics, huck-recieving body positioning, and catching up and coming from behind to D a huck.

Mini
3on3, Field is 20 yards wide, by 30 yards long, with six yard endzones. Make-it-take-it. A goal is worth a point, a turnover i.e. drop, disc thrown out of bounds, stall, block, counts for negative one. A game is won when a team reaches 3, a game is lost when a team reaches negative two. Teaches quick movement and fast thinking with lots of touches for everyone. A mini-Mini tournament would be a perfect competitive warmup before practice.

Plugged In

2010-01-07T18:09:00.001-08:00

The double latte is connected to the...
5'oclock shadow which is connected to the...
Ears which are connected to the...
Iconic white ear buds which are connected to and bumping tunes from...
The iPhone which downloaded those tunes from...
The laptop connected to the internet...
That is now connected to Facebook...
Which is now burning the stati of my high school acquaintances into my retinas.

Im Plugged In baby! But I don't know the frist name of anyone around me.

The Problem With Self Officiation In Ultimate...

2010-01-05T00:24:00.000-08:00

... is differential understanding and application of the rules.

Lets face it, some players call pick if they even have to think about any other body on the field besides their mark - some only call it when there is contact between players and have no problem running through the stack to follow their guy so long as they don't have to clobber anyone. Some call a travel on the fast breaking give-goer, some don't. There is a wind range of violation criteria in our players' minds. Further, call selection tends to change as the game gets closer to the end.

Compare this with soccer officiating. I have been a referee for 11 years. Yes, different referees call things differently. There even is a change in call selection when the ball is in the penalty area and depending on requirements of game control. One referee will even call a foul in one game that he let go in a previous game. The difference, is that all the decisions are left to one mind who applies the rules equally to all players and both teams. Even if one team completely disagrees with the foul selection, at least both teams know the standard.

With 14 different referees on the field, it is very hard to have a consistent standard for what is deserving of a call and what is not.

Spring Break Jokes

2010-01-01T18:27:00.000-08:00

06: ToNIGHT!, Smegma go get Booker - Booker go get Hutch - Hutch go get Smegma
07: You don't want the last drop - NO! You DO want the last drop!, Leave room for Jesus, Tall Horney Bitch, Stealing flags successfully

08: ROLFADARO! Water balloon attack on "Irene!", Getting fire extinguished, Stealing flags unsuccessfully

09: Shitting on the girl's van, Threevadro! Fish suck at throwing eggs. Pissing on the girl's van.

10: ???

2010 BeWareHO?

2009-12-25T15:30:00.000-08:00

Anyone know If BeWareHO is happening this year? Twas a blast last year.

Rules Knowledge Advantage

2009-12-01T14:00:00.001-08:00

If your rules knowledge is not particularly high, you may need a copy of the rules nearby as you read this. I really like this electronic version as it allows me to Ctr+F anything. Bookmark it.

What do you think Ultimate Blogosphere, is it "unspirited" or prohibited in some way to gain an advantage through your better knowledge and understanding of our sport's rules?

This has been on my mind for a while and I have discussed it with many people, including other Observers, and there are varying opinions and lots of "it depends". I can think of many situations where my question applies - in my mind all of these have some of the same fundamental features but I have had mixed reactions from the same person to presented scenarios I see as equivalent. I don't advocate some of these, some of them seem wrong, some of them feel OK, but I am not sure why. What makes a situation innocent or seedy?

Here are some of the things I have in mind:

- ---------When a defender is unaware of the state of the disc and thus their right to check the disc. If they are honestly under the impression that they get to check a bricked-pull at the brickmark, is it wrong to put it in play without their acknowledgement?

------------ If a defender is under the false impression that a player may not change speed when walking the disc to the line (a popular misconception in San Diego until I started doing it intentionally in practice), is it wrong to trick them with a walk and then run when they aren't looking?

- ----------Drawing a marking foul when I have the disc at stall 7? Decide on the meaning of "drawing" yourself.

- -----------In an observed game I tell my team beforehand exactly when it is beneficial to go to the observer and when the risk/reward is not in our favor. I tell them to never call "strip" and always "foul" (*bonus points to the commenter who knows why). Is this advantage that comes with my Observer experience unfair? Do I have a moral obligation to tell the other team these things?

-----------Not putting a live disc into play for a while as I wait for my cutters to get open so I can put it into play and throw to them at stall1. What qualifies as "reasonably necessary"? Throwers call plays all the time before putting a disc into play.

-----------What do you think of the fact that I use the actual wording of the rules in discussions of fouls? It doesn't sound off, but I believe I might have a better than average success in arguments if I use phrases like "Contact resulting from adjacent opposing players simultaneously vying for the same unoccupied position, is not in itself a foul"

- ---------I have never ever seen the procedure after a contested or uncontested stall performed correctly. Here is the procedure proscribed by the rules:

If the thrower has not released the disc at the first utterance of the word ten, it is a turnover. The marker loudly announces stall and play stops. A stall is not a violation and rule XVI.C does not apply.
The marker calling the stall takes possession of the disc where the stall occurred and then may either:
place the disc on the ground and after acknowledgment by the defense, touch the disc and loudly announce in play or
retain possession and have the former thrower restart play with a check.

Now, ever stall I have ever seen ends with the thrower dropping the disc and play continuing as if the disc was live the whole time. Often the marker will sprint toward the endzone and a teammate will pickup the disc and throw it to him. Is it unspirited to call violation when my team gets stalled and then is on the receiving end of this aforementioned play which is almost universally accepted? How about me NOT calling violation if my team BENEFITS from a quick stall-to-breakaway huck- score even though I recognize the disc is dead as soon as "stall" is called?

----------The seemingly most shitty one: if a thrower loudly says "time out!" but clearly does not make a "T" with his hand and the disc and puts the disc on the ground would me enforcing a turnover be acceptable? How about if it was 13-14 in the finals of a tournament with a $50,000 prize for first. Rules are rules, right?

----------And my personal favorite, philosophically: while waiting at the spot the disc is to be put into play at(my team just turned it on an OB huck), may I not check a disc presented to me because the ONLY way the rules allow a live disc to be put into play is a ground-tap (II.R)? The confused thrower might start faking (the disc is not in play yet so I do not count stalls), and he might throw the disc. If he does, I stop play with a violation call because he threw a disc that wasn't in play. (If the throw is incomplete its a turn because a live disc is subject to turnovers; if the throw is complete, it comes back). Is it Unsportsmanlike to apply the rules so thoroughly ?

I can see how me even thinking about this could make me seem like a dick but I promise you I really don't want to be a dick about rules. The timeout situation seems completely abhorrent but the change-change-of speed one doesn't. I am philosophically interested in why. I actually like thinking about our rule set as a philosophical question.

I would never WANT to win because of rules disagreement, but I am actually kind of offended by the poor rules knowledge of my competition (and even players at the highest level). From my current point of view, we are the referees of our sport and referees should know the rules. Period.

I would really like you to comment on these situations with your thoughts about rightness and wrongness. As you think about them, here are a few select passages from the rules that make it a little more complicated:

Spirit of the Game: Ultimate relies upon a spirit of sportsmanship that places the responsibility for fair play on the player. Highly competitive play is encouraged, but never at the expense of mutual respect among competitors, adherence to the agreed upon rules, or the basic joy of play.

Captain’s Clause: A game may be played under any variation of the rules agreed upon by the captains of the teams involved. In tournament play, variations are subject to approval by the event organizer.

Etiquette

If an infraction is committed and not called, the player committing the infraction should inform the infracted player or team of the infraction.
It is the responsibility of all players to avoid any delay when starting, restarting, or continuing play. This includes standing over the disc or taking more time than reasonably necessary to put the disc into play.
If a novice player commits an infraction out of sincere ignorance of the rules, it should be common practice to stop play and explain the infraction.
In addition to the assumption that players will not intentionally violate the rules, players are similarly expected to make every effort to avoid violating them

So I am left with this: I assume loosing because an opponent knew the rules better hurts one's basic joy of play, but I also assume that being criticized for trying to play the game by its rules hurts one's basic joy of play. What are we to do? Please leave a comment.

"This isn't 'Nam, this is Ultimate, there are rules"

First Practice

2009-12-01T09:29:00.000-08:00

Hallelujah!!!
My team's cuts get sent out today and we finally get to practice with the team that will be competing to represent UCSD across the country and in the UPA series. No longer will the team's focus be mainly teaching rookies the game, we will be about forming and training a group of players to complete our goal of qualifying for (and placing well at) Nationals in May. No longer is a focus error or a silly mistake O.K. - do it once and you get admonished and then you never do it again. No longer do the vets have to smile and be supportive when a 15 yard forhand is turfed. Finally I can really ENJOY Ultimate for the COMPEDITIVE side of it.

Here is what I am thinking about saying tonight:

"Congratulations, you've made the first round of cuts but know that no one here, myself inlcuded, has earned a spot on the final roster - were nowhere close to that. You should know that this is A team and you may have picked up a lot of misconceptions playing with everyone through the Fall. Yeah, people joke around a lot and yeah, most of the vets don't take the Fall as seriously, but that ends right now. The commitment level goes way up and the dedication level goes way up. This is a tough team to be on - the hard work starts right now. If you had any inclination that this was going to be easy or that you were ok or could just cruse because you knew something about frisbee or because you are a decent athlete then you need to get that out of your head right now. We are going to be much better at disc skills and athleticism and team cohesion and we need you to get on board right now: being a top 20 team in the nation last year doesn't mean much for this year. Ultimate is really fun, this team is really fun, but you need step up your intensity right now if you want to be on the team in the Spring."

Boy am I excited. I know that I have lots of studying to do for my midterm tomorrow and I have a paper due as well, but I am having a hard time putting the joys of A team's first practice out of my mind.

Burn Out

2009-11-24T09:12:00.000-08:00

In the last few weeks I have:

-been an Observer at Club Nationals
-moved into a house with 4 other frisbee guys
-become deathly ill
-helped my team get to the finals of Sean Ryan (our best finish at that tournament)
-made the freshmen in my car read through the entire rule book on the 8 hour trip to Santa Cruz
-attended track and practice and pasta feeds when I should have been resting
-organized and TD'ed SoCal Warmup with less than idea field space (11 fields, 24M/20W teams)
-trying to play in SoCal while juggling illness, other teams, and a Sports Clubs department that is very angry with Ultimate

and I have been feeling a little burned out. This burn out became very apparent to me when I realized I just was not having fun playing at SoCal with all these rookies. I used to be really patient with rookie mistakes but in my fifth year, I just get really annoyed when people don't do the right thing that's so obvious to me. And that's fucked up of me to get upset when people don't do something that they have only seen once or twice and have no real experience for. I don't yell at them and I DO try to talk calmly with people after a point, but I have a hard time caring or getting motivated or getting other people motivated. I just could not bring myself to try very hard for my team: maybe it was that my mind was elsewhere because of the sickness or my TD responsibilities, but I just couldn't bring myself to care.

Don't get me wrong, I still love frisbee: I am pumped that the Championship Finals are finally up, (even though there aren't any good shots of me making calls in the open final). But I was starting to get a little tired of it.

That's why I am really happy about last night. I got back into the weight room for the first time in 2 weeks, and even though I probably have lost 10 pounds in snot, my strength was not feeling as bad as I thought it would be. Then I went to track and watched our coach beat the crap out of the guys with a brutal workout (really glad I opted out because of sickness). Afterwards, the coaches, captains, and I got together for a few hours of discussing who was gonna make the A team. Damn did it feel good to think about playing with only the rookies who know whats up. Just the thought of not having to worry if a teammate will doink an easy throw or forget the force brings a smile to my face (Don't count your chickens before they hatch).

A team is gonna be really hard for the rookies this year because we have a ton of them and even more guys that are gonna be on the B team that want a spot. Ever A player will have to continually earn his spot with commitment and hard work. I am very eager to see which dudes step up and which can't hack it. Deciding on the A team list really rejuvenated me because Santa Barbara Invite just got a lot closer in my mind.

Now if I can just survive this quater of school...

Anything Insightful?

2009-11-18T18:05:00.001-08:00

This is my 100th post so I am going to go back and pick out the posts where I actually said something insightful. That was always the point, after all. Its nice to write simply to put it out into the vast interwebs, but I would actually like to Say Something. If you have ever taken the time to read something from my blog in the past, thank you; I'm sorry that it is less focused than it could be.

^^ - signifies one I like a little more than the others.

Without further ado:

Thoughts from Club Nationals 2009

Thoughts on Planar Faciitis

10 Stages of Wind Throwers ^^

Thoughts on Primalsim

Finally getting the Crossfit Movements Down ^^

American Made Fireworks

Similarities Nats 06 / Nats 09

Thoughts from Stanfo...er...Ripon Invite

Thoughts from PresDay which I TDed

Zone O Skills ^^

Trust Pt1 ^^

Trust Pt2 ^^

It must be the Shoes!

The Reality of the Team Mental State ^^

Jitters Before the First Tourney of the Year

Don't Be Offside ^^

Sideline Talk ^^

Choose ^^

Olympic Lifting

A Winter Break Promise

Crossfit

Inner-Game links

I am a Mutant

Forcing It ^^

Some Pet Peeves

Great Ultimate Blogs

Quick Observations from Club Nationals

2009-11-11T08:26:00.000-08:00

Here are some quick thoughts about my first Club Nationals:

-First, it must be noted that there are a ton of people that work really hard to make this tournament. I was happy to volunteer as an Observer and thought I worked somewhat hard to deserve my UPA sponsored vacation, but all the writers, Ultivillage people, UPA staff, and countless other volenteers put in many more hours to make Nationals the amazing tournament that it is.

-Sarasota heat and humidity is a REAL and LEGITIMATE game changer. As a team from the cold can has a distinct advantage in the rain, those who were accustomed to throwing a sweaty disc while battling the energy-sapping sun had a real leg up. This was most noticeable in my Truck Stop – GOAT game; Hassel&Co just looked sluggish and tired even though this was the second round. Truck pulled off the upset by grinding and grinding for the entire game. One field over I got to watch Streetgang pull off the most likely of upsets vs Ironside. San Diego had been bathed in sun while I bet Boston hadn’t seen sun for a month – this had to be a big factor. Ironside was also on the wrong side of one of the worst timed humidity-caused-turns I saw of the weekend: mounting their late comeback in their Semi vs Revolver, Will Neff has the disc on the breakside and throws a cross field forehand swing but it slips out and goes 10 yards opposite of where his dude was cutting leading to a easy D and another score for Revolver. Its always a heart breaker to watch one of your studs make such an unforced error in a big game. Remember: in the heat and humidity, dry towels for the hands, ice-cold towels for the heads.

-Surprisingly, I did not witness that much intentional fouling at this level. I think the “And-1” function of the foul rules is enough to deter overly aggressive marks AT THIS LEVEL. Some throwers are better at this than others, but when the D knows it gives up a free throw and risk misconduct penalties if it chooses to foul, you get a much cleaner game.

This statement must be qualified twice. First, I was watching mostly Observed games – because I was the observer, and there were many non-observed games where this could have been different. Secondly, its probable that I didn’t see many intentional fouls because throwers played through them as if they weren’t there (or they were just a part of the game). I haven’t finalized my thoughts on this, I must say that I noticed a cleaner game at this high level than at an average mid-level college tourney.

-I talked to Dutchy, Revolver's Captain/Line caller, and despite what I have heard about what Mike Payne said before the game, Dutch told me it was their game plan to let the studs play. They apparently had to "promise they were good for another point" each time. His words: "Its really hard to take Beau and Cahill and Mac off the field when they want to play". Yeah, this weirded me out too.

In the same way its impossible to be truely objective in calls when you are deeply invested in the outcome, I can't see those studs being level headed about their playing time. When Im in a big game I forget how tired I am until I have to run down a zipping huck. Chain's D had the perfect answer to Revolver's stud lines - run them into the ground with in-cut D. Even when the studs scored, it was after a shit ton of juking and cutting. Revolver had to grind WAY harder for their in cuts and when those same cutters where put out on D, there was no way they could gaurd the Chain cutters as tightly.

Yeah its cliche, and seeing as this post is a week late this has been said everywhere else on the blogosphere, but its so very true: Chain's victory was truely a team victory.

- Fury is the shit. Georgia and Alex have better throws than many on my college team and Cree would be faster than a few of our guys. In the Fury-Traffic game I observed Cree caught a few goals with the next defender 20 yards away. Plus she's super cute.

-Way to go Troubled Past and especially Ricky Nultemeier who taught me how to play this game. If I had to choose anyone to epitomize "solid with the disc" it would be him.

-A fair number of teams' DOffense was better with the disc than their Offense. Especially TruckStop. I would take that southpaw with the yellow hat hucking to Brian Stout any day.

-Beer Garden. Daquiri Deck. Sieta Keys. Best Ultimate in the world. Yeah, im gonna come back next year.

-And lastly, I finally realized the full extent of my fandom of this sport. Like the ultimate nerd that I am, I went around getting the autographs of all the Team USA members on my Team USA replica jersey. To be honest, I have never felt the intimidation of being in the presence of such celebrity before this. Dorky, I know. I think I am just missing Kathy Dobsona and Gabe Saunkeah.

Sarasota

2009-10-27T10:34:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-25T05:20:00.000-07:00

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

In the same vein of Turf Toe, it seems odd that such a physically small area can cause such pain and total body incapacitation.
Flair ups are seemingly random; both cause and cure remain mysterious.
There is no good way to rest it. I can't NOT WALK.
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.
People who haven't had it don't really understand.
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.
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

2009-10-23T06:51:00.000-07:00

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
Rabbi t
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

2009-10-20T00:15:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-14T21:55:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-14T02:21:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-13T14:35:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-02T14:11:00.000-07:00

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!

New Alumni pt 2 Cork

2009-09-26T15:41:00.000-07:00

Continued from the last post - Saying goodbye to last years Alumni

Brooks "Cork" LeComte

Cork is a natural athlete. He doesn't seem to have to try very hard but is good at anything physical. I guess thats kinda the model for a good high school quarterback. I don't really think he was even that into frisbee until the middle of this year. Players like him make me wonder how awesome he would have been if he had tried hard the whole time.

This year, Cork was a monster on D. He has the best field sense of anyone on the team hands down which must come from playing football. If I had to put a label on him, it would be "snake in the grass". More poach D's than anyone, more "Holy Shit, Where Did That Come From?!?"s than anyone. He was good in the air, but the DOffense revolved around him as a handler. His hucks were not the touchy ones we O players dream about, but instead they were quick lazers that went really far (he also had more out-the-back hucks than anyone). These were perfect for our D receivers, Biel in particular. The DOffenses plan was for Cork to throw and receive every short pass or dish in the Vert stack until he found the right time to jack it deep (to Biel). I think Cork leaves the biggest hole to fill strategically in this upcoming year - we are going to have to totally rework the way the D scores its points.

More than his field sense, I was quite impressed with his view of the game, the way it is played, and his overall demeanor. I might describe him as serious or no-nonsense, but he is super funny and always down for drinking games (Which, like any other game, he is seemingly naturally good at. Playing Quarters with him on Spring Break was ridiculous.) Instead, I think the right description is "matter-of-fact". He is very good at seeing situations for what they really are. Games are for winning, parties are for having a good time, beer is for getting drunk, big games are for proving yourself, the silliness that is inherent in our sport is actually really silly. His humor is the same way - out of the blue he will make a comment, completely straight faced, that is totally true and observant but at the same time ridiculous.

One of the things that I liked most about him was his ability to question why things were done a certain way just because thats how they had been done before. We share the extreme dislike of practice drills that don't really mimic game time situations. One of the most insightful questions I've ever heard from Cork is this: "Why do girls play on the same sized field with the same sized disc as guys? Every other sport is modified in women's leagues to fit their bodies and skill levels, why not Ultimate?" We were running a warmup lap at Nationals and he causally made this observation and kept on running while I literally had to stop for a bit to think about how right he was.

I really like Cork; he is a great friend to be around and an amazing teammate to have because of of his field sense, athleticism, attitude, and humility.

New Alumni pt 2 Hutch

2009-09-18T11:58:00.000-07:00

Continued from the last post - Saying goodbye to the new alumi.

Alec "Hutch" Miller

I’ve played more ultimate with Hutch than anyone else. We were the same incoming class and were both A-team freshmen. He was always naturally a receiver and I was always naturally a handler so he has caught a whole lot of my swill over the last four years.

Hutch was a baseball player in high school and a good one at that so he was always very competitive. One thing that I noticed from our first year was that he was always quicker at picking up the “right” way of doing things. He always ran the right cuts while “God Dammit Pumba!!” was practically our captain’s motto our freshman and sophomore years.

Since then, there isn’t one thing I could point to that he does amazingly, he just does everything well. His method of breaking the mark was pretty consistent: he would pivot really really really fast back and forth for 4 seconds until the mark was thrown off balance or committed high or low and then he would take the other – this aways seemed weird to me, but it worked well for him. Another thing that was unique about his play was the fact that he made a lot of difficult looking catches. I don’t know if this was because all the other receivers were 6’3’’ so our throws were meant for someone with 8 more inches of reach or because we were subconsciously trained to throw trash to him because we knew he would catch it our because he was just making it look hard in order to milk the glory. He was a solid player and that’s all there is to say about that – the last point of nationals vs NC State, 14-13 us, our coach wanted to put me on but I insisted that Hutch play and was 100% certain that we would score. We did, and the last thing I did in my 09 jersey was give him a high five.

I think that Hutch enjoyed college more than anyone on the team. He was a party animal, he genuinely loved his studies, he was an intellectual, he laughed constantly, and he was always down for…well… anything. He greatly enjoyed the people he surrounded himself with. I can’t believe it when I write it, but I have spent 4 spring breaks with him in rented houses on the Texas gulf coast, Jesus Coast as we called it. We have been to an uncountable number of parties together (I don’t think he missed one Ultimate party in his entire career). He was a motivational team leader.

While we didn’t hang out that much outside of a Frisbee setting, I consider him a close friend who I could call on if I was ever in the Tahoe area. He was a great teammate who cared deeply for the good of the team (knowing that sometimes the good of the team included shot gunning 16oz of malt liquor in a hotel bathtub).

4 years, 3 drinking holes, 2 Nationals appearances, 1 very soiled dorm floor.

Oh, and by the way, Best Facile Hair On The Team.

New Alumni pt 1

2009-09-01T23:40:00.000-07:00

I am getting really excited about the upcoming year of college frisbee. I guess its because I'm having a great time with club - the good times I have with the End Phase guys remind me of all the good times with the guys I've chased at track practices for 3 years.

Before I get I get ahead of myself about next season ( it is only September), I would like to look at last season and say goodbye to the team mates who graduated last year.

Without further ado:

Anson "Duffy" Brune

Duffy is a year ahead of me so I always automatically thought he was legit but he certainly has earned that demarcation on his own. He was never the best player on the field but I can't really remember ever seeing him attempt something that was obviously outside his skill set. He was on the D line and was solid and consistent. The exception to this was as Sean Ryan this last year in Santa Cruz: The first game on Saturday vs Chico after a shitty night's sleep on dorm floors was our first of the Ice session and everyone was still groggy. Duffy, out of nowhere, gets a amazing layout D up high to prevent a zipping huck that surely would have been a score!
What a way to show the freshman we'd brought how to play D!

I think a large part of why he was good was his high pain tolerance gained from wrestling in HS. He was the opposite of the average tall and lanky ultimate player - shorter and husky, but he still managed to smoke most of the team at the track in old shitty cross trainers because he could endure the pain well.

In addition to going hard at the track, he goes harder than anyone at a party. He started a power hour on spring break at 5am. What the fuck? I remember one Saturday night of Santa Barbra Invite it was raining hard and while people were scrambling to take their sleeping bag and shit to wherever they were staying, he calmly strided through the flooded streets with a case of 40oz's of Cobra Malt Liquor on his head as his only possession - what else would he need?

(PS- His preferred method of celebrating anything, is picking people and things up and flipping them)

Yui "Yui" Takeshita
Yui was a transfer from Carlton-GOP and is studying at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. UCSD is pretty lucky as we normally get 1 good transfer student on the A team a year (not as lucky as Stanford which seems to get 4/year). I'm sure it has to be hard to walk into a new situation and integrate well into a new team, especially when dealing with loads of school work, but Yui became a vital part of the team and a great friend as if he'd been here since freshman year.

I think it is really great to have a different perspective on Ultimate strategy, tactics, and team dynamics. He has a great throw and go, around flick and a tendency to bid really big. Some people think of Asians as natural lightweights but Yui is a heavyweight is everything he does. He slams beer with the same reckless abandon that he bids, he can almost out-eat me (Im 6'3", 200lb and didn't get the name Pumba for just one reason), and he works really hard at grad school to boot.

When we beat Tide in the game to go I was immediately overcome with exuberation, but with some time to reflect on the plane back to SD one of the many strong emotions I had was a overwhelming happiness for the ability to take Yui to nationals. As a member of Carlton-G.O.P. , he was peers with CUT guys but never got to share the fame - GOP will always be the "2nd" Carlton team. He truly earned this trip to Columbus this year and when he was able to joyfully celebrated with his longtime friends on CUT after their Championship win, I felt deep happiness that I could be part of the team that took him there. I consider him a great friend.

(You can see it in his eyes how much he loves his new teammates)

Up Next Time:
Cork
Hutch
Dibs

(Most photo credits go to the wonderful Amy "Meeko" Chang)

PS- NorCal Open Sectionals is this weekend in Davis and I am pumped to play everyone and get another shot at Jam and Revolver!

PPS- Why am I so bad at buying plane tickets? Is it really gonna cost me $350 to fly to Eugene for San Diego for Regionals on Oct 2? Fuck!

PPPS- I would like my blog to not look so much like puke - I think a design overhaul is in order

The Writer's Task

2009-08-29T17:27:00.001-07:00

The writer's job is a hard one. He is charged with making generalizations and identifying zeitgeists but he knows that that every individual (because he is one) has their own multifaceted and wondrous experience that defy description- every generalization is gross. She is expected to find clever double meanings, half-puns, witticism, in-the-know allusions, and mirth in words but she knows that such things are false pretenses and distracting from what really needs to be communicated. Asked to write a report or a synopsis, we know we can only hopelessly fail as 99% of the story will necessarily remain untold. We all wanna be Vonnegut. If we write not enough, we will fall into the great trap of history - remembering only what we thought we should remember. But if we write too much, none gets reread at all. Any bold proclamation is willful hypocrisy and any silent enlightenment would make for a great blog post.