So HOT!

Weekend 4 of Strike Slip practice. We scrimmaged for about 6 hours between Friday and Saturday. I thought this was a nice break from the tons of drills that we've been running most practices. It was in the upper 90s today in Pasadena, and we only had 15 players, so we played a series of games to 3 with lots of shade and water breaks in between. It was really nice to build some chemistry and just play ultimate with my teammates. We're definitely getting better at running the system, but we have a long ways to go before we'll be doing really well.

For whatever reason, it's been tough to get numbers at practice. People have been sick, traveling, injured or whatever, but the turnout has been very disappointing. We have a roster of 22 and I don't think we've had a practice with more than 16.

In other bad news, we lost two big players to co-ed. Welsh decided to play with Metro, and Lafitte left for BCBC. I don't really blame Lafitte because the last two times he's played Open, he's hurt himself seriously. He's a great player, but if he can't stay healthy, BCBC is probably the way to go. Losing Welsh really hurts us because he's probably one of the most underrated receivers on the West Coast, and even though he has his shortcomings, that guy is a phenomenal player. Metro now has three big receivers in him, Keegan and Barrs (not to mention some very dominant ladies) and it should be really interesting to see how the SW Mixed division plays out this year. BCBC, Metro, Barrio and at least one very strong CO team will be fighting for 2(?) bids to natties.

Anyway, I feel that what LA Open needs right now is commitment and hard work form it's members. I had a lot of fun playing in the scorching heat this weekend and I really think there's a lot of talent on our team, we just need to get some experience.

Personally, I played alright this weekend. I'm feeling really strong after a few months of lifting, and I really want to start stepping up the intensity of my track workouts. I had a some pretty good deep receptions, but I really need to work on not throwing to receivers that are too deep. They look so tempting, and it works most of the time in college, but defenders are too fast and discs move too slowly. Also, we have about 8 plays that are all very similar, and I really need to make some flashcards of them or something.

Overall, it was a very positive weekend because this was probaby the most fun I've had playing with SS. Uniforms are coming soon!