There are at least three things that I can think of that Strike-Slip does well that Smaug can benefit from. In descending order:
1. Run a System
We sort of ran a system last year, but it was not not nearly enough. The offense should be well thought out and documented in advance. It doesn't have to be rigid, but there should be no guesswork involved for the offensive players on the field. We can beat inferior teams with no system, but when we play teams that are as athletic and talented as us, we need every advantage we can get.
2. Have called plays
This follows closely with point #1. Taking the guess work out of running an offense is an easy benefit.
3. Huck Smart
Hucks are green lighted, but only on the right kind of look. We want to lead our receiver with a flat throw, and the receiver should be to the opposite side of the field that the receiver is cutting from.
4. End Zone Mentality
Our end zone offense needs to change from focusing on a one-man iso to running off give-and-go handler movement, looking for quick horizontal cuts off the front of the stack. This isn't set in stone; the important thing is, we need to move away from a system that doesn't work as well.
The question now is, what should Smaug's offensive system be? I want us to be able to run both a vert stack and some form of ho. There should be as much similarity between the two systems as possible for simplicities sake. The handler motion is the most important part to lock down because it must be the most reliable and it should be the most frequently used part of the system.
I'm not sure if the Strike-Slip vert would work with college players. It's pretty simple in concept, but it might require more throwing skill than we have. Time will tell.
UCLA is a team full of very smart people, but I feel like we've haven't used our intelligence in the right way. Memorizing plays would be a good use of our brain power. Over thinking things would not be.
Monday, September 28, 2009
On the Eve of the First Day of Practice
Smaug's first practice of the new school year is tomorrow night, 7-9. We have no idea how many rookies to expect, because the turnout to the informational meeting was pretty low, but we have a ton of email addresses on our list. Last year it was something like 70 rookies, and I'm hoping that we can at least equal that.
Since most of our players will have never played before, we're going to start off with 15 minutes of vets showing rookies how to throw. Then we're going to break into 4 groups and teach them:
1. How to mark
2. How to cut in
3. How to cut deep
4. Defensive positioning
After rotating through these drills, we'll take as much field space as we can and play some small scrimmages, maybe 4 on 4, for the remaining 45-60 minutes.
The idea is that we'll start to give the players the individual skills they need before they can learn team-wide strategies. The drills should give us a chance to see who are the more athletic rookies that we should take a look at for the A-team, too.
We don't want to throw too much at them too quickly, but we want to show them that we're a serious team and that we're going to work hard this year.
Since most of our players will have never played before, we're going to start off with 15 minutes of vets showing rookies how to throw. Then we're going to break into 4 groups and teach them:
1. How to mark
2. How to cut in
3. How to cut deep
4. Defensive positioning
After rotating through these drills, we'll take as much field space as we can and play some small scrimmages, maybe 4 on 4, for the remaining 45-60 minutes.
The idea is that we'll start to give the players the individual skills they need before they can learn team-wide strategies. The drills should give us a chance to see who are the more athletic rookies that we should take a look at for the A-team, too.
We don't want to throw too much at them too quickly, but we want to show them that we're a serious team and that we're going to work hard this year.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Awww Hell Yeah....!
Thanks to Adam Newon for the pictures!
The pictures say it all.
Strike-Slip came together this weekend in a way that none of us were really expecting. The D line converted their scores, the O-line was efficiently, and, most importantly, everyone was very positive at all times.
Our only real test on Saturday was against the Condors, which turned out to be a shorter game than we'd expected. We won 11-5, and after that game we took a few moments to appreciate the fact that it was the Condors first loss at Sectionals in 12 years.
On Sunday we seemed to have lost a bit of our swagger. We had to finish playing 6 pool play games to 11, mostly against college and pick up type teams, and it was hard to stay motivated. We had an especially long break between the end of pool play and going straight to finals. The loser of finals would have to go on to play a 2/3 game - just a little extra incentive for the winner.
Earlier in the day, George had layed out into my knee and ankle. I thought I heard a pop and I was sure for a few moments that my year was over. After a few seconds on though ground calling injury, I got up and realized that I was nowhere near the level of pain that would mean serious damage. I really lucked out - my massive calves come in handy for something I guess. I spent our long bye icing my joints down and popping ibuprofin.
We did almost a full warm up again, with 3 man mark and a lengthy, intense end-zone game to prep for the game. In the first few points of the game were a shock because we hadn't played anyone of Streetgang's caliber for a long while. They got a few breaks on us and we went down 2-5.
There was a small upwind/downwind aspect to the game, and going in the downwind direction the SD didn't hesitate to bomb it to Rookie or a few of their other athletes. We didn't really have an answer for their deep game, but we didn't have to.
We clamped down on their dumps and forced them out of the middle of the field. Our D-line caught fire and got a series of poach blocks and pressure throw-aways and we took half 8-6.
I know the UCLA guys at least gave a few passing thoughts to the Squids game at sectionals where we took half on them, but then gave up a late lead to lose on universe. I definitely felt the pressure of the game when I was on the sidelines. But when I got on the line, I took a few deep breaths and did 4 years of repetition took over and I played unconsciously.
Our O line played a strong possession game for the rest of the game. Our handlers were unstoppable with our dumping swings and give-and-go's. The D line got 1 more break, but we got broken near the end of the game and gave it back. Streetgang was playing a poachy transition zone, so point after point I would run to the back of the endzone and wave my arms around and try to get the deep deep to respect me. I cut as hard as I could every point, but I hardly had any touches. Bobble was on D and he was doing a good job and our throwers were respecting him. Alan broke deep for a couple huck scores, one of which was a full field bomb from Bofa.
Near the end of the game, one of the SD handlers put of a bladey OI huck that didn't have quite enough on it. Bofa got one of the sickest D's I've ever seen in my life. He bid upwards and tipped it away by his fingertips while Keenan was bidding parallel to him on O. Keenan came right down on Bofa's head and shoulders and he was down for the count. The trainer was over him for probably 5-10 minutes, and we were are really worried for him. Amazingly, he got back and seemed to be OK, coherent even. He iced down his shoulder for the rest of the game.
Eventually, we got the game to 14-13, with us receiving going downwind. I put my head down and was running big deep and under cuts. I got faked under and was coming in wide-open at Bob. He put up an low OI flick that wasn't quite leading Linux. Linux came flying in sideways with the bid pictured above and made an amazing catch with his hand literally on the ground. His entire body lifted up onto his neck from his momentum, but he was holding the disc in his hand! Our sidelines went wild and we rushed him with a huge celebration. It was the biggest win of my ultimate career, and the first competitive tournament that I've ever won.
I've felt all season that people have been too quick to write us off as a team. We have too many players to not be good. Something happened this weekend, though, where everyone started to believe. We let go of our mistakes and worked towards making the next great play happen instead. We picked up our teammates and supported each other. Individually, everyone played the best ultimate I've ever seen them play. It was special.
In a sense, no matter what happens now, I will consider our season to have been a success. We've seen what our team can do, and what we have to do to as individuals to get there. Our goal isn't to win every game, but instead to play every game as well as we can. Winning comes naturally if we can achieve this, and we should expect to win every game we play.
I hope we can roll into regionals and continue with our "nothing to lose" attitude. San Diego is great team, but now we know with no uncertainty that we can beat them, and that we have a legitimate chance at making it. The idea of going to club nationals seems so strange to me after just a few years ago, I was shedding a few tears with my teammates on the Ghettobirds after losing a heartbreaking game to advance to college regionals.
My first priority right now is healing my knee and ankle, and then it's back to work in the gym and on the track. I'm looking forward to regionals, and I really want to get to the game to go. From there, we'll give it our all and see where that takes us.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Sectionals Preview
Pools have finally been posted. No guarantee that they'll stay the same, but seeing as to how it's Wednesday already, I'll go ahead and give a few thoughts:
Pool B:
Strike Slip
Condors
Old Men from the Sea
Las Vegas
Santa Barbarians
Claremont
Ghettobirds
Interesting that they went with 2 big pools instead of lots of pools and a bunch of bracket play. I guess we'll have a lot of short games and lots of down time between games. It's can be a tough to keep focused playing a schedule like that.
Street Gang is the #1 seed overall, no surprise there. I am a little surprised to see that we got the first spot in our pool over Condors after our scrimmage last weekend, but I don't think it really makes a difference either way, other than that we get to stay on the same field for all our games.
We have three consecutive games, a bye, and then our big match up of the day against Condors. I don't have much to say about this game. We will have to be mentally tough to pull out another win.
The seeding for the teams outside the top four is pretty arbitrary. Most of the teams are college guys (that aren't playing club) or pick-up kind of teams. Old Men from the Sea are a some older Long Beach guys, I think. I know I've played them somewhere or other, but I don't remember exactly where. Las Vegas, Santa Barbara and Claremont should be quick games.
The only other thing that I'm excited to see on our schedule is that we're in the same pool as the Ghettobirds. I love playing the Birds. It's my old team and I love seeing them get better. I'm glad that they're playing Open this year instead of Mixed; it's a sign that they're taking more steps to get better. Hopefully they can get enough people out on Saturday to play a game - last year it was an issue.
That being said, we should bagel them. The game might last 20 minutes.
Pool B:
Strike Slip
Condors
Old Men from the Sea
Las Vegas
Santa Barbarians
Claremont
Ghettobirds
Interesting that they went with 2 big pools instead of lots of pools and a bunch of bracket play. I guess we'll have a lot of short games and lots of down time between games. It's can be a tough to keep focused playing a schedule like that.
Street Gang is the #1 seed overall, no surprise there. I am a little surprised to see that we got the first spot in our pool over Condors after our scrimmage last weekend, but I don't think it really makes a difference either way, other than that we get to stay on the same field for all our games.
We have three consecutive games, a bye, and then our big match up of the day against Condors. I don't have much to say about this game. We will have to be mentally tough to pull out another win.
The seeding for the teams outside the top four is pretty arbitrary. Most of the teams are college guys (that aren't playing club) or pick-up kind of teams. Old Men from the Sea are a some older Long Beach guys, I think. I know I've played them somewhere or other, but I don't remember exactly where. Las Vegas, Santa Barbara and Claremont should be quick games.
The only other thing that I'm excited to see on our schedule is that we're in the same pool as the Ghettobirds. I love playing the Birds. It's my old team and I love seeing them get better. I'm glad that they're playing Open this year instead of Mixed; it's a sign that they're taking more steps to get better. Hopefully they can get enough people out on Saturday to play a game - last year it was an issue.
That being said, we should bagel them. The game might last 20 minutes.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Santa Barbara Scrimmages
This past weekend, Strike-Slip went up to Santa Barbara to scrimmage the Condors and the Beyondors. We played in a softball outfield across the street from beach, with an ocean view. I'm jealous of how easy it is to get field space in just about every city but LA.
We arrived at about the halfway point of the scrimmage between the Oldors and the Youngdors. The game looked pretty intense and I saw Husak get about 3 D's during my glances towards the field while we were throwing and warming up. The Beyondors won about 15-12 or so.
The Beyondors:
The Beyondors are the Master's team put together by Steve Dugan, the coach of the Burning Skirts. Dugan seems to bring success with him wherever he goes, and the Beyondors should have a great run in the series. Greg Husak and Brandon Steets, both coming off national championships with Jam, are their big name players, but they have a number of older ex-condors that tooled on us. However, they don't have a ton of depth, and their star players had to play nearly every point.
The game started off with us going up a break or two. Knuckles had a nasty layout D on the first point of the game, bruising his ribs, but played like a stud for the rest of the game. Linux hit me with a flick huck over Steets for our second point of the game. It seemed like we were cruising, but we got broken on the next O point to bring the game back even. I picked up a swilly overthrow but quickly turned the disc back over with a shot to BOFA streaking towards the back cone with not enough touch on it. I had three turns on the day - too many.
They started playing zone against us, and it got them a few easy breaks. Our handlers were having trouble moving the disc around their double and triple team-ey cup, and they ran the score up to 7-2, Beyondors. We switched up our handler looks to have Orin and Bob do more handling and things turned around.
Our D line was the star of this game, getting tons of turns against the older dudes. We started picking up some steam and I think we rattled off a couple breaks before they scored another point to take half, around 8-5 or 6. We had smaller numbers this weekend, maybe 14 guys, so as we started gaining momentum we opened up the lines as our D played multiple successive points.
We brought it back to about 10-10, then 11-10, then 11-11, when our "hard cap" was called. Universe point. We were pulling on D. We were playing very physically and both teams were making lots of foul calls. One dude threw an upwind janky backhand that floated into a crowd and got D'd, but called it back on a foul. They moved the disc around their handlers for a few more throws until Dugan saw Husak cut deep and ripped a backhand, for what I was sure was going to be the game winning score. Instead, Orin, playing heads up defense, saw it happening and picked up Husak deep and skied him by getting better position on him. So clutch.
We worked it to midfield. Sultan caught the disc on an in-cut and turned to see Bofa streaking deep with 2 defenders on him. I was screaming "Sultan Nooooooooo!" as he threw a downwind backhand huck. It was out in front, and Bofa made an incredible layout catch past both of his defenders for the win.
The Condors:
The Condors seem pretty thin this year. They rely heavily on Ian Meyer, Jeff Silverman and Dan Bellinger to be the core of the team. They weren't at full strength Sunday - Dan wasn't playing as well as a few of their Tide guys. The Arbiter had also arrived in SB from Costa Rica at 2 AM the night before, and he looked pretty tired.
We were feeling good coming straight out of our last game, and we rolled out to an early lead. We went up a few breaks to start off the game and cruised into half up maybe 8-6. We relaxed and hydrated and I took some pleasure in hearing one of their captains going ape-shit in their huddle, screaming about how they needed to play better defense. It must have worked because they came out of half fired up and broke us a few times with some transition poachy zone looks to bring the game to 9-8 or 9's. But then, for maybe the first time, Strike Slip toughened up and put away the game by going on a run. Soft cap sounded at 11-9 and we got two quick D's to finish the game 13-9.
It was a solid win for us, and for the first time in my life, I can say that I've beaten the Condors. It was two really solid wins for us. It was great to see Strike Slip finally gut out some games and come through in the clutch. I don't want to put too much stock in these games, but I feel like it was something that we really needed as a team.
People forget, but this was only the third weekend that we've played competitive ultimate together. We've played Colorado and Chico, and that's about it. It takes much more time than that to build the chemistry that winning teams need to have. People have been bummed about not winning right away, but I have faith that our team is good. If it doesn't happen this year, then next year, but it will happen.
That being said, the Condors at Sectionals are going to be better than the team that we played on Saturday. I expect them to bring their A-game and I know that it's going to be a battle.
Sectionals are in Long Beach on the 19th and 20th. There are going to be 14 Open teams, including SD, SS, Monster, Condors, UCSB, Claremont, USC, CSULB, SD2, Las Vegas and a few others. It should be a good time, and I would recommend coming down to hang out by the blue pyramid.
One last thing: I made my car stay and watch the USC-Ohio State game at my parents house on the way home until the end. While everyone else was bored by the lack of scoring, I felt sick to my stomach because I was sure SC was going to lose for 90% of the game. Way to pull that one out! If only Sanchez was still starting at SC...
Later that night, there was even more hanging out with LA ultimate for Geoff's birthday. Those of us that stuck around until late were treated with GVP singing James Brown's "Sex Machine" in one of the best karaoke performances I have seen in a long time.
It was one of the best overall days I've had in a long time.
Once Pools and Schedules are up, I'll do some sort of quick write up.
We arrived at about the halfway point of the scrimmage between the Oldors and the Youngdors. The game looked pretty intense and I saw Husak get about 3 D's during my glances towards the field while we were throwing and warming up. The Beyondors won about 15-12 or so.
The Beyondors:
The Beyondors are the Master's team put together by Steve Dugan, the coach of the Burning Skirts. Dugan seems to bring success with him wherever he goes, and the Beyondors should have a great run in the series. Greg Husak and Brandon Steets, both coming off national championships with Jam, are their big name players, but they have a number of older ex-condors that tooled on us. However, they don't have a ton of depth, and their star players had to play nearly every point.
The game started off with us going up a break or two. Knuckles had a nasty layout D on the first point of the game, bruising his ribs, but played like a stud for the rest of the game. Linux hit me with a flick huck over Steets for our second point of the game. It seemed like we were cruising, but we got broken on the next O point to bring the game back even. I picked up a swilly overthrow but quickly turned the disc back over with a shot to BOFA streaking towards the back cone with not enough touch on it. I had three turns on the day - too many.
They started playing zone against us, and it got them a few easy breaks. Our handlers were having trouble moving the disc around their double and triple team-ey cup, and they ran the score up to 7-2, Beyondors. We switched up our handler looks to have Orin and Bob do more handling and things turned around.
Our D line was the star of this game, getting tons of turns against the older dudes. We started picking up some steam and I think we rattled off a couple breaks before they scored another point to take half, around 8-5 or 6. We had smaller numbers this weekend, maybe 14 guys, so as we started gaining momentum we opened up the lines as our D played multiple successive points.
We brought it back to about 10-10, then 11-10, then 11-11, when our "hard cap" was called. Universe point. We were pulling on D. We were playing very physically and both teams were making lots of foul calls. One dude threw an upwind janky backhand that floated into a crowd and got D'd, but called it back on a foul. They moved the disc around their handlers for a few more throws until Dugan saw Husak cut deep and ripped a backhand, for what I was sure was going to be the game winning score. Instead, Orin, playing heads up defense, saw it happening and picked up Husak deep and skied him by getting better position on him. So clutch.
We worked it to midfield. Sultan caught the disc on an in-cut and turned to see Bofa streaking deep with 2 defenders on him. I was screaming "Sultan Nooooooooo!" as he threw a downwind backhand huck. It was out in front, and Bofa made an incredible layout catch past both of his defenders for the win.
The Condors:
The Condors seem pretty thin this year. They rely heavily on Ian Meyer, Jeff Silverman and Dan Bellinger to be the core of the team. They weren't at full strength Sunday - Dan wasn't playing as well as a few of their Tide guys. The Arbiter had also arrived in SB from Costa Rica at 2 AM the night before, and he looked pretty tired.
We were feeling good coming straight out of our last game, and we rolled out to an early lead. We went up a few breaks to start off the game and cruised into half up maybe 8-6. We relaxed and hydrated and I took some pleasure in hearing one of their captains going ape-shit in their huddle, screaming about how they needed to play better defense. It must have worked because they came out of half fired up and broke us a few times with some transition poachy zone looks to bring the game to 9-8 or 9's. But then, for maybe the first time, Strike Slip toughened up and put away the game by going on a run. Soft cap sounded at 11-9 and we got two quick D's to finish the game 13-9.
It was a solid win for us, and for the first time in my life, I can say that I've beaten the Condors. It was two really solid wins for us. It was great to see Strike Slip finally gut out some games and come through in the clutch. I don't want to put too much stock in these games, but I feel like it was something that we really needed as a team.
People forget, but this was only the third weekend that we've played competitive ultimate together. We've played Colorado and Chico, and that's about it. It takes much more time than that to build the chemistry that winning teams need to have. People have been bummed about not winning right away, but I have faith that our team is good. If it doesn't happen this year, then next year, but it will happen.
That being said, the Condors at Sectionals are going to be better than the team that we played on Saturday. I expect them to bring their A-game and I know that it's going to be a battle.
Sectionals are in Long Beach on the 19th and 20th. There are going to be 14 Open teams, including SD, SS, Monster, Condors, UCSB, Claremont, USC, CSULB, SD2, Las Vegas and a few others. It should be a good time, and I would recommend coming down to hang out by the blue pyramid.
One last thing: I made my car stay and watch the USC-Ohio State game at my parents house on the way home until the end. While everyone else was bored by the lack of scoring, I felt sick to my stomach because I was sure SC was going to lose for 90% of the game. Way to pull that one out! If only Sanchez was still starting at SC...
Later that night, there was even more hanging out with LA ultimate for Geoff's birthday. Those of us that stuck around until late were treated with GVP singing James Brown's "Sex Machine" in one of the best karaoke performances I have seen in a long time.It was one of the best overall days I've had in a long time.
Once Pools and Schedules are up, I'll do some sort of quick write up.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Catching Up
Sorry about the lack of updates. Things have been crazy since my last post, and I'm doing all I can to stay on top of things. In the time between my last post and now, I have:
Pretty soon the undergraduates will invade the campus and Smaug will start up again. I'll have the added responsibilities of helping run recruiting events and running rookie practices, which will be a three ring circus if the turnout is anything like last year.
Next weekend Strike-Slip is going up to Santa Barbara for a scrimmage against the Condors and the Beyondors, Dugan's masters team with many of the ballers from the Condors dynasty. My parents are awesome enough to have the team over for a BBQ and pool party in Thousand Oaks the night before, and I'm looking forward to some quality hanging out time with the team.
I'll try to make writing updates a more regular part of my schedule, once I have a schedule. I have plenty of thoughts on Strike Slip, Smaug, the Series, law school, and fitness. I'm just finishing up The Inner Game of Tennis. It's a good read, and it's applicable to pretty much any sport. I've heard that some of the John Wooden books on coaching are good. Any suggestions for good books on coaching or sports psychology?
- Moved
- Played Discos
- Played the LA Summer league tourney
- Gone camping
- Started classes
Pretty soon the undergraduates will invade the campus and Smaug will start up again. I'll have the added responsibilities of helping run recruiting events and running rookie practices, which will be a three ring circus if the turnout is anything like last year.
Next weekend Strike-Slip is going up to Santa Barbara for a scrimmage against the Condors and the Beyondors, Dugan's masters team with many of the ballers from the Condors dynasty. My parents are awesome enough to have the team over for a BBQ and pool party in Thousand Oaks the night before, and I'm looking forward to some quality hanging out time with the team.
I'll try to make writing updates a more regular part of my schedule, once I have a schedule. I have plenty of thoughts on Strike Slip, Smaug, the Series, law school, and fitness. I'm just finishing up The Inner Game of Tennis. It's a good read, and it's applicable to pretty much any sport. I've heard that some of the John Wooden books on coaching are good. Any suggestions for good books on coaching or sports psychology?
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