Playing the Greatest

So there have been sweeping summaries, and dramatic cliff-hangers posted so far. Let me add to the blogosphere with just one play. I will openly admit at the beginning of this that I did indeed make the wrong choice, but that having made the right choice may have lead to a worse outcome.

A brief warning that previously in this point I had dropped a 15 yard pass, and that is just humiliating. Then after this play I am so unfocused that I throw a 20 yard turnover to a covered man. In short, this was my worst point at nationals and the one that most sticks in my mind. It was the one time I felt like I let my team down.

So the play, as it happened:

I am covering my man pretty hard on the incut somewhere near mid-field. We are playing Machine and the game is close enough to be taken seriously. My man sees an opening to go deep down the center of the field. I pursue and have the force side covered and am gaining ground on his deep cut. I see the pass immediately and it is level and out of bounds. The wind is coming from the break side and will continue to push the disc more out of bounds. I am getting closer to my defender as he veers towards the sideline to play the disc. As the disc comes into both of our playing area, I lay off of it because I know it cannot be caught in bounds. My man makes the bid and catches it at lest 4-5’ out of bounds. I get yelled at a bit for laying off the D and then disc is brought in at the cone, which I now realize is the wrong location since the disc was OB the whole time.

Side discussion:

In one of our previous game, a disc was thrown high and OB. 3 of our guys went for the D and since the disc could not possibly be caught in bounds the other team threw a greatest and scored a goal. Should one of our 3 guys read the disc as OB and stayed off to play the greatest attempt? If you see someone jumping to catch a disc a little out of the endzone, you might be willing to not play it and drop off and play man. Should greatests be treated the same way? As someone who is not much for battling in the air, I would be willing to lay off the high and floaty disc, and instead cover the man who would catch the greatest.

So back to the play.

Choice 1: I go for the D as soon as possible and tip the disc. It could then either be a D or it could be a mac for a score. It would also make the disc check in further downfield.
Choice 2: I wait to get closer and layout and catch the D. It is checked in further down field, but no chance of a score!
Choice 3: I wait to get as close as possible and catch the D but make contact with the other guy. It could be a solid D, it could be a contested foul.
Choice 4: I wait too long and completely miss the D. The guy catches it and calls himself “out” or calls himself “in”. In reality he did ask me if he was “in” after the catch and I told him he was “out” because I stood there and made sure he was “out”. If he had called himself “in”, I would have gone to the observer saying that I thought he was “out”. This could be a turn, a completion, or sent back to the thrower.
Choice 5: I wait too long and completely miss the D and he does a layout greatest. They keep the disc and everyone tells me I tried my best.
Choice 6: I don’t play the disc and he catches it OB. I call him out and he agrees or he could argue and refuse to admit he was way out. Go to observer.
Choice 7: I don’t play the disc and he attempts a greatest. I see this happening and D it easily or maybe I miss it.
Choice 8: I don’t play the disc and I misread it. He catches it for a score. I cry like a baby for not know how to read.
Choice 9: I layout and get injured. Ummm, I don’t think this is ever one of my concerns.

What are the key points to take out of this?
-I should not initiate contact that would cause them to maintain possession.
-Someone needs to make sure that he is OB, but we had observers to do that.
-Playing a disc that never came in bounds causes us to lose a lot of yardage.
-Passing up a layout D opens the door for a lot of possible bad outcomes.
-Sometimes a greatest is the other teams only choice and you should try to stop that.

I do admit that I should have just sped up and caught the disc, because that is the most fundamental play that would have the best chance of us keeping the disc, but when I saw the disc flying past me, I knew that it was already a turnover and that was my goal.

I would say that everyone should have said nothing while we were on O, since I did get the turnover. Then if there was an other turnover, someone could have yelled at me that I better layout the next time I see a disc go by me and not just watch my man catch it.

I would really like to hear some more opinions on how to play this disc.

Continuous Improvement

Making Nationals has been a signature goal in my life over the past half-decade. Now I guess I need a new goal. Actually, this is more a goal to accomplish within the next year. Outside of ultimate, I spend a great deal of my free time rock climbing with Jenny.

On wall climbs, in the US, we use the Yosemite Decimal System to rate climbs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yosemite_Decimal_System

Don't worry, I will get to my goal eventually. Most new climbers can start climbing at 5.6-5.8 range. At this time, getting your forearms and your grip strong enough to hold you on the wall is the biggest challenge. Once you get the basic muscles to learn to climb, you can easily cross into the 5.9 range. Now you hit the first big wall (a bit of pun intended). Climbing a 5.10 takes much more than just the strength to hold unto the wall. At this phase, you must learn to keep a lot of weight on your feet to save your arms. To do this you must line up your body to place the weight very intentionally. This will at times place your body into new positions that require a great deal of flexibility and thought. You will also need to learn to remember what you have passed and where you are going so you can find hand and footholds with ease. Moving your body into the correct position to make long reaches is also very important. Your grip will need to evolve from being able to hold you on the wall to being able to lock into one shape and not break under a great deal of force. Climbing your first 5.10 is a big step in any climbers life.

Now that you have cleared that level, most people would consider you a pretty serious climber and this is more than just a hobby. The area from 5.10a-5.11d is a long grueling journey. You have to be able to grip onto smaller and smaller holds. The walls start to become more and more overhung. You have to be able to pull yourself up with your upper body a lot more. Moving slightly out of balance will easily pop you off the wall. Now I bring you to my goal. If you start to ignore one skill you will get stuck very quickly at a given level.

"In the sport of rock climbing, 5.12 is a magical grade. Looked upon as the “door” to the elite levels of difficulty, 5.12 is believed by many intermediate climbers to be out of their reach." Eric Hurst from How to Climb a 5.12

I want to climb a 5.12 outside on a well recognized climb. Sometimes new climbs are not ranked very well and indoor climbing rankings can never be completely trusted. 5.12 is normally the line in the sand, at least for male climber, between those who really like climbing and want to be good, and those who train for climbing and really care about being good. The truth is I don't train for climbing. I don't practice my 2-finger pull ups, I don't lift weights, don't do yoga, or hang out in the bouldering cave burning my forearms into ashes. I hope to take my light weight, flexibility, and focus up a 5.12. The tricks to climbing a 5.12 as best I can tell include, being able to hold on to smaller holds with only a couple of your fingers, being able to push your hand into the rock to create friction, using your feet to push and pull your entire body, not letting your forearms get pumped, having the upper body strength to pull yourself through big overhangs, and maybe being really tall might help some people. More than anything it comes down to focus and understanding. You have to know the result of each move of your body in order to stay in balance and you need to anticipate the upcoming moves.

Currently, I am hovering around a 5.11b-c indoors. I did all of the parts of a 5.12b outside, but took breaks between many moves. I know Jenny and I will be spending a lot of time climbing over the winter, and I just need to keep pushing myself to improve not only physically but mentally. I also hope to watch Jenny clear the 5.11 barrier. She took awhile on the 5.10 goal and has been doing awesome ever since breaking that goal.

For those of you who are interested, I am not sure where the next big break is, but I would just guess around 5.14. This is about the ranking where you are climbing for a living and the 5.15b is just sitting there taunting you as the hardest climb in the world.

The Sandbox Kid

So, it is 5:50 AM. This could be morning to many normal folks, but to me it is the dead of night. I wish I could explain the thoughts I have as a close my eyes. Let's just say random would not do it justice. Here is the closest I can come to a possible series of sentences I might think if I closed my eyes at this moment.

"The apes throw curve balls. I don't want to have any butter on my milk. It would leak on the ceiling and debris is soft."

I don't think I am insane. I might be, but I'm happy. I just think my head gets on this random word generator sometimes and it likes to toy with me. Normally, when this happens the part of my mind that comes up with the next thought I am going to have seems very dissociated from the part of my mind that tries to understand why I thought that.

So I went back and read some poems that I have written in the past year and it brought some sense of calmness to my thoughts.

I really hate sharing poetry and that is why I force myself to do it.


The Sandbox Kid

A hole is never half way dug,
So dig a little deeper - kid.
Find what you ain't been lookin' for,
So look a little closer - boy.
Complicated is easy if you're smart,
So think a little harder - bro.
It was always just sitting there,
So be a little better - man.


--Dedicated to those who pursue another's heart.

Heart of the Dream

What does it mean to go to nationals?

Numerically speaking:

• The Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association of America estimate that there are 824,000 Americans who play ultimate more than 24 times a year.
• Think of all those league players who play once a week for four months. They do not count.
  
• This also excludes all those Canucks.
• To be one of the 400 or so players to make club open nationals puts everyone on my team in the top 0.04% of the ultimate community.
• There are also about 13,000 adult men who have paid to join the UPA. This puts all the men on my team in the top 3% of that category.
• I could go on with more stats, but let's just say we reached an impressive level of competition.

Emotionally Speaking:

I have competed in sports my whole life (read previous injury blog). I was not an athlete. I wrestled for 6 years without winning a match. I played an entire season of baseball and was only put on the field for one inning. I played soccer for years and never scored a goal. My first ultimate tournament I did not catch a single pass. I am by all definitions a nerd. A nerd with a highly competitive addictive attitude. One day during my Sophomore year of college, I said to one of my friends that I was going to be the best player on the team next year. This was not arrogance. It was a goal. I needed something to focus on in life that was good and hard. I played as many tournament as possible. I believe 32 that year. By Spring Break of that year, I stopped taking subs as a part of conditioning. This was 500+ points without a sub. I played 3 days during the school week and tournaments on the weekends. All of this at best lead to a midlevel Regional appearance by Purdue.

After college, I moved around a bunch. I played for Smoklahoma/Rawhide over the next 3 years. This introduction to club ultimate drove me insane. I was used to hyper-competitive college ultimate and could never adjust to a more relaxed style of play, even if the team was more talented than my college team. This experience showed me a lot about club ultimate and what it takes to win. I then found myself in Minneapolis and now their was finally some hope to take my game to a new level.

Minneapolis is the home of Subzero a perennial national competitor. I went out to their open try-outs and made it through 2 rounds of cuts. In the end, I did not make the team. After years of leading teams and being depended on to take charge, I was told that I was not good enough to play for a team. Rewind to the beginning of this portion of the blog. I am used to failing at sports. I have dealt with it all my life, but this hurt more. I actually tried to be good at this. I wanted to make it the highest level of this sport and I failed. I continued to play and have fun with the Liquid Assets guys over the next year. I failed again the next year at tryouts and to save the suspense, I failed again the year after that. So maybe nationals wasn't out there for me. Next year Jenny and I will go where her Residency takes her and maybe all hopes of finding a national level team.

While lamenting about missed opportunities, I sent out a request to any team that might get me to nationals. I talked to the captain of Machine. He was not looking for tournament-only players. I talked to players from VBB. They were just looking for people they new from past experience. Nothing seemed to work for me. Eventually, over a couple of drinks I asked the right person to speak up for me. At this point, I would like to sincerely thank Ross for speaking up for me and Kevin for giving me a chance. I was given a tryout and made the Van Buren Boys.

I have loved this whole season. Even in our losses, I felt comfortable playing with these guys. I never felt like a hindrance to our success or the cause of our failure. I immediately felt like a part of the team. The team had potential. Potential makes me feel great when day dreaming about the season to come. Man, how I loved to dream about going to nationals.

Now I find myself in Tulsa playing at Regionals. Wow, are we not doing so well. 11-4 against Machine. 11-3 against Subzero. At least we will get to play a bunch of games and maybe have some fun "trying" to get to nationals. But really, what are the chances of us playing 3 games in a row without messing up just a bit.

In a perfect world, we win those three games and go to nationals. I guess this world is perfect.

Lost Holster? Keep Firing!

Let’s just say there will be multiple posts about this adventure. For actual results, I can refer you to Kevin’s blog. I will need one post about how important this moment is to me. I will also need a post telling the story of how this came to be, but that may be the same as the first. Finally, I have this generic unemotional post about my goals and performance this weekend.


I have had a long standing goal of making it through one tournament with 0 throwaways, and 0 drops. I use to have 0 getting scored on as a part of this, but those tend to fall into murky break mark area of ultimate and lead to not well rounded D. I will now add not getting D’ed to this list. Sure a large part of getting D’ed is bad throws, but if you make the right cut, I feel like you can go a tournament without being D’ed.


So I introduce the weekend sans holster.


I really don’t know where I left the silly thing. It normally keeps me out of a lot of trouble and saves me a lot of regret, but instead I showed up to Regionals and unloaded on the end zone. I managed to make it through 7 games of this style of ultimate without a single turnover. I had my first turnover in the BAT game. I got a little tunnel vision on a break mark throw to Joe B, but never got the eye contact. I know I heard a dump call before stall 5. On 5, I turned to dump. I didn’t see much movement coming from Rob and Kevin was behind me pretty well covered. After a couple of seconds, Kevin made a sprint for the end zone. There was plenty of room to lead him and get the score. I left it a little too high and a bit too far out front. Someone on BAT got a solid poach D on the throw. I can never remember to call TO’s when I don’t like the look of the field. The next turnover was a bit more dramatic. I looked off a passionately cutting Joe B and then got the disc again a bit later. I saw a fire in his eyes and let it rip. This was an ill advised throw with poor execution and ended with a lot of screaming and one injured player from the other team.


Now that we discussed my failures, let’s move on. I did not get D’ed this weekend and I did not drop any discs, even in the pouring rain. This would not be impressive if I was playing conservative possession ultimate, but I wasn’t. I was a samurai.This goes back to a conversation in 2000-2001 about ultimate styles. A samurai, in my mind, tries to kill every time he gets a chance. Not just hucking, but intentionally looking at the end-zone first and seeing if you can throw it there. Maybe this was more a weekend sans scabbard than holster, but you get the idea. Other choices were Ninjas who were sneaky about killing the other team, gunslingers who just hucked everytime, boxers who slowly pounded you in the face until they got the score. I would love to explain in excruciating detail the events of each score as I so well remembered them, up until our last game. At the exact moment that I fully realized we were going to nationals my mind went blank. I know that by the end of the day Saturday, I was confident that 60-80% of my throws were for scores. This is including games that we lost 11-3 and 11-4. To be clear, I am a D-line cutter. So I only get the disc if we get a D and I need to get open for a pass too. Of all these free flowing end-zone loving throws, only the two turns even came close to being D’ed and I would really like to give the credit to the other cutters for timing and placing their cuts just right.


Here is what I do remember and it is really sketchy.


Tulsa:
· I catch a huck from Ross just a bit short and give a quick pass to someone for a score.
· I’m sure there were a couple of others because this is when I started feeling like I wasn’t dumping ever.

Machine:
· Forehand to Joe B after he yelled at me to get out of his way when he was running deep.
· Caught short pass from Joe B at high stall count for a score.
· I really think I threw another one in this game, but it’s all foggy. Sub Zero: · I catch a tipped disc and realize there is no mark and throw a backhand to Karl D for a layout score.

Hussle/Illinois (I can’t tell them apart):
· Float a short pass to Wes in the endzone. Use some height.
· Karl makes a quick horizontal cut across endzone for a short forehand. He is able to stand still and catch it.
· Make a sliding layout catch on one sideline. Knee hurts like hell. Stand up and throw a cross field forehand to the other sideline and about 15 yards forward to Drew.

General Strike/Dingwop (It’s all a blur):
· I am willing to bet something happened during these games, but maybe I had calmed down.

BAT:
· Ross throws me a hammer at a high stall count for a score.

Madcow:
· Not many chances to play offense.

Best guess at my stats:
Throwaways: 2
Drops: 0
Scores thrown: definitely >10
Scores caught: probably >2
Scored on (including breaks): 3
D’s: no clue, not enough
VBB had 98 total scores
Trip to Sarasota: Priceless