Thoughts on Nationals

I decided not to go to club nationals to spectate this year, although I'm sure it would have been a blast. It was partly because of the money, but mostly because I felt like I wanted to earn a trip instead of being a hanger-on for some other team.

I followed the weekend pretty closely on twitter and the inconsistent coverage from USAU, although I missed the finals live stream on Sunday because of beach league. The most exciting result of the weekend for me was Polar Bears winning the national championship. Amazing. Their average age is probably 24 and I don't think they have more than 2 guys over six feet tall.

When I heard they were planning on taking their Lei-Out team that went to finals to the Series, the idea of them winning nationals never even came close to entering my mind. Going into nationals, I thought they would do well, quarters or maybe even semis, but I figured they would fall to one of the traditional co-ed franchises just because they're a young first year team.

I think they brought a combination of things that other co-ed teams couldn't match. They were deeper in athleticism and disc skills and had younger legs than almost every other co-ed team, so they could outrun most teams on defense. They had a great collection of throwers and team chemistry from their core playing together for years. As a group, they were probably the closest and most dedicated group of any of teams at nationals.

I'm really, really impressed by their performance this weekend, and I'm super happy for my friends on the team.

As for Open, it looked all weekend like Revolver and Ironside were destined to meet in the semis. I'm glad that the young guys on Revolver finally got to see their young team make it all the way. They're the most talented team in the world, and they deserve the win. I hope that we see parity among the top teams continue to grow, though, and we don't see them go on to win the next bunch of nationals. (ie. Fury).

I was pretty disappointed with the Southwest's showing. For the first time that I can remember, we had no one in quarters in any division (Masters doesn't count). I was a little surprised Bravo didn't come through, disappointed for Metro's pre-quarters loss, and bummed out about Streetgang fizzling out. I really thought Metro had a chance to go on a run after their strong showing at regionals.

So that's how 2010 club season comes to a close. Next year Co-ed and Open will both get 2 bids, barring some sort of shake up. I'm left with just Lei Out, Kaimana, and lurking around Smaug to get me through the long offseason.

Recovering

1. Metro*
2. Barrio*
3. 7 Figures
4. BCBC

I'm having some serious post-tournament blues today. Everyday life is seems boring compared to the series. My body is sore like I haven't been sore in a long time.

I'm really happy for Metro taking the region in our own backyard. It's good to see all their hard work paying off in the end. I actually didn't get to see them play at all this weekend, but from far away I could see their big receivers making some huge grabs.

I'm having mixed feelings about the results of our season. I feel like we probably did about as well as we should have, all things considered. On the other hand, things could have been different if we had not had some key injuries and if we had put our team together with a little more organization. That's kind of the nature of the beast, though.

A pretty good measure of an ultimate player is how fun a he or she is to play with. Players that flow well, make big plays, and make you look good are awesome teammates. By that measure, BCBC has some of my favorite teammates that I've ever played with. I would be very tempted to come back to the team just to play with some teammates that are crazy ballers. I doubt that any team (that cared about winning) had as much fun off the field as we did this year, too.

I had a great time during my very short club season and I'm pretty bummed that it's over. BCBC was basically what I wanted out of this summer. We had copious amounts of fun and played some good ultimate, too. In the end, the wins and losses will be buried in score reporter, but my friends and memories will stay with me.

Still, another regionals has gone by and I'm again on the outside looking in.

Sectionals Recap

Sectionals played out just about how they were supposed to. 7 Figures, Metro, BCBC. There weren't any real surprises in open, either.

Saturday we played some games that were tighter than they should have been, and all the injuries to our men really started catching up to us. We went into our game against Metro, the third game of the day, with only 8 guys. Calle, Fever, Tom Hall, Whitey, and Mike Nowak were all unable to play, and we definitely missed having the depth as the game dragged on. They went up 7-3 to start the game after we dropped the disc all over the field. We started playing some serious defense and shifted the momentum of the game to bring it back to 7-7, but then they toughed out a series of progressively longer points to end the game 11-7 at soft cap. The last point lasted around 20 minutes, and I had to come off near the end because my calves started cramping.

I had to take off after this game, missing our last game and leaving us with only 7 guys. We won something like 13-3, but I still felt guilty about putting the extra strain on everyone else. Fei bought me a ticket to see Grizzly Bear and Phoenix at the Hollywood Bowl, which was an awesome show. The tourney schedule changed at the last minute because we unexpectedly lost a field. Oh well.

Semis against 7 Figures was a tough match up. We definitely earned our D's against them, but our offense wasn't nearly as efficient as theirs. They're really good about taking smart deep shots and they use the open space on the field much better than other co-ed teams. The game was pretty heated, but it was never really close. The Lunch Money 3/4 game was much tighter than it should have been. It was a classic letdown game combined with us seriously underestimating them. The 7Figs vs. Metro final was tight until about 5's, when 7 Figures turned on the jets and left Metro in the dust.

Looking back on my weekend, I accomplished about half of my goals. I only turned the disc on about 8% of the points I played, which I think is pretty good considering how much I was touching the disc. I played hard and enjoyed playing a lot more points than I have so far. On the other hand, I didn't get many D's. I think it's a combination of still being a step or two slower than pre-injury and still being a little hesitant to make full speed cuts on my ankle.

I went to the the first Smaug vet practice of the year tonight, and I realized by comparison to my match-ups that I'm nowhere near in the shape that I was in last year. Some of that effect might be from the slower speed and sloppiness of playing mixed. Some of it also might be fatigue from lots of lifting and workouts. I think it's time to start tapering down and letting my body recover for the next week.

Playing with Smaug today gave me some very mixed feelings. I haven't played with those guys since Prez Day, so I was super happy to be on the field with them again. A lot of people have really improved over the summer, and there are some really good transfers and rookies that are showing some promise, so I'm really excited for the team this year. At the same time, I won't be on the field with them, which is tough after losing basically all of last year. For that reason, I'm not looking forward to the end of the club series. I won't have a team anymore.

Look for a write up on Regionals and BCBC in general in the next week or two.

Sectionals Preview

The major players are 7 Figures, Metro and BCBC. 7 Figures has come on strong late in the season and clearly established themselves as the team to beat. Metro and BCBC are both coming off disappointing showings at Labor Day and are going to have something to prove.

I really enjoy Saturday of sectionals. There are lots of people you know, but it still has a special occasion feel to it. I enjoy the ego boost of beating up on teams in pool play, and I'm looking forward to spectating during our bye. Our bye should be especially sweet because it will have the match-up between Condors and The 405, as well as Recess (UCLA) versus USC. Should be good times.

Obviously, the most important game of the day is B1 v. B2, Metro BCBC. It's happening late in the day, so there's a good chance that the wind will have picked up by then. One of the strange things about Mixed is that teams throw zones in good weather as well as in the wind, but if it's windy it might push our game more towards zone and tedium. Winner will play 7 Figures in the finals. Loser will play 7 Figs in the semis.

I think our teams are actually pretty evenly matched this year, so the mental and strategic aspect of the game will be especially important. I think the best way we can approach it is to not treat it differently than any other game and simply go about our business doing what we do. We shouldn't get too worked up about who's on the other line.

I'm going to be playing mostly D line this weekend, which I'm pretty cool with. I haven't played much D in the past few years, but D-line is where the glory is.

My personal goals for the weekend:

a. Value every point that I play equally, with as much intensity as I can bring.

b. Don't force things. Go with the flow.

c. Sky/layout D some fools. I haven't been doing all this work for nothing.

I guess this isn't much of a preview, but Hammie already did a much better preview of both pools and all the teams anyway.

I have a really good feeling about sectionals. My body felt great tonight at our track workout. My throws have been crisp all week. The last time I played at Sectionals in Long Beach, we won it.

There's not too much to be said really. It's time to play things out and we'll go from there.

Labor Day Wrap-Up

This was my first Mixed Labor Day, and I had a great time hanging out in San Francisco rather than Santa Cruz. Some of my teammates put up the whole team in a really fun area with lots of good restaurants around. Usually, when I travel for ultimate, I feel like I don't really get to experience much of the city that we've traveled to, but not so for this weekend.

I also enjoyed the turf fields. I really like the flatness and reliability of it. I know that some people really disliked it (and we lost some people to ankle and knee injuries over the weekend) but I think I'm pretty used to it after playing on turf at SC for years. Just be sure to cover any skin that might be sliding on rubber pellets and you will come out much happier.

We started Saturday off strong win over AIR, a team that we've struggled with this year. We jumped out to an early lead and held on to it to finish 11-9ish. Next we faced Barrio, last years SW regional champions. We took half on them 8-6, but they picked up their defensive intensity and stopped throwing unforced turnovers. They came back to win by a couple. Our last pool play game was against CTR, another good Bay Area team. It's silly how much talent there is in the Bay Area, by the way. Mischief, Polar Bears, AIR, CTR, FUNK, American BBQ, and Death Star are all very talented club teams, not to mention Revolver, Wolf, Fury, etc.

CTR came with a field change and a change in the weather. It became pretty windy, and our games were pretty strongly upwind-downwind. It wasn't strong enough that there wasn't a good deal of upwind scoring, but punt and zone was a pretty legitimate option. We toughed out this game to take 2nd in our pool and played Death Star in pre-quarters. The Death Star game was similarly zoney and windy, but they were either slightly better or we played slightly worse and we lost by a couple to end the day.

We played Metro in beer-bracket quarters and lost by a couple. Neither team looked particularly good, but I think we were really showed the signs of partying away our sorrows the night before. Metro didn't have Barrs, (The Uncoverable) Jeff Chai, or Yugo playing, so our next match up at sectionals should be somewhat different. Anyway, this game was ugly for us as a team and for me as a player. Calle also tore his ACL in this game, which really put a damper on our spirits.

In our last two consolation games of the day, we beat Killjoy and then instead of playing AIR or CTR again, we played Operation Kapow, another regional rival. I don't think Kapow was very excited about playing this game, which was again windy and zoney, because they folded and we didn't even finish the game because we up so much.

Overall, I'm feeling pretty strong about our performance, even though we didn't finish particularly highly in the tourney. We got some quality wins, some excellent experience playing together in the wind, and we renewed our confidence that our team can ball when we want to.

This was my first "high level" tourney back from my injury, and my body felt really good afterwards. I played just below 50 points, a relatively light load compared to what I've done with other teams, which makes it easy to perform physically but more difficult mentally. The weekend was full of lots of highs and lows for me. I lead the team in turnovers, but also was near the top in D's and Assists. This says to me that I'm trying a little too hard and that I need to relax and trust in my teammates and the system. It also shows that I'm getting to where I want to be physically, and it makes me want to work even harder.

Chico Recap

Chico proved to be as good of a time as I could have hoped for. I think the trick to making the most of Discos Calientes is to not take it things too seriously. It's going to be ridiculously hot, the schedule will be weird, it will take 9 hours to get there, and the level of competition probably won't be the highest. If you can get over the shortcomings of the tourney and focus on the good, you can have a great time there. I probably enjoyed this years tourney more than the other three DIscos that I've been.

It definitely helped that we were staying with a completely awesome family that took our entire team into their home. Saturday night, I got to take part in the epic rematch of 8 BCBCers vs. the Sir Bjorn, his daughter, and his best apprentice. It ended very much like the battle last year, (with all of us getting our asses handed to us.) Sir Bjorn explained to us that medieval martial arts happens at tournaments around the country, with a small but avid following and rules predicated on chivalry towards your opponent. Hmm... sound like any other sport you know of? No wonder we get along so well.

The mixed division on Saturday started late, at about 2:30. It was nice to have a leisurely breakfast and relax in the shade at the fields before we had to cleat up, although we did start in the worst heat of the day. The temperatures were not nearly as bad as they could have been, though, probably in the low to mid 90s. It didn't end up being a big issue for us because of massive roster that we brought.

Saturday didn't bring too much in the way of competition. Our closest game was against the first team of the day, Sesame Street out of Davis, which was probably about 13-7. We also played Butter and TFT in pool play. We played a pre-quarters game under the lights at the end of the day against some young Humboldt players, but this game was more silly than anything else.


Quarter Finals:

Sunday started bright and early at 8 AM. We had American BBQ as our match-up, who had several recent UCLA grads, including Diesel, DaVinci, Kobe, and Artoo. They had lost only to Death Star, the number 1 overall seed at the tourney, and I was expecting them to be sharp. We started sleepily, getting broken again and again until they took half 7-3. This was really the turning point of the tournament for us. Instead of rolling over, we poured on the defensive pressure and stared running a triangle junk D which gave their offense lots of trouble. Whitey, in particular, got about 3 incredible layout D's in big moments, and we managed to claw our way back into the game and then into the lead. I think we finished up about 11-9 at the hard cap, saving our weekend. American BBQ has some seriously good players, and this was their first time playing together as a team. They were impressive, but it's not a game that a team that considers itself a nationals contender should lose.

Semis

We drew Kamanawanaleaa (or something like that) while 7 Figures and Death Star matched up in the other semis. I don't really know where they were from, although they had ex-BCBCer Tyler Bacon playing with them. By this point in the day, we had gotten over our early morning hiccups and rolled through the game without too much drama. I think we won around 13-8. I was really happy after this game because I felt like was finally getting into a rhythm and had found my stroke.

Finals

7 Figures came into the game with intensity, warming up with focus while we sat in the shade before the game. Our relaxed attitude carried into the game and we quickly went down a bunch of breaks. 7 Figures was by far the best team we had faced up until that point in the weekend, and we weren't ready for the step up in quality of play. In the semis, we had gotten away with a few marathon points where neither team could run an effective offense. That was not the case in the finals, were 7 Figs quickly took advantage of our turns with quick deep strikes. 7 Figs were clearly the better team on Sunday, and easily took the game 13-4.

We've seen this year, with the Polar Bears, the success an experienced Open team can have by connecting with some good women and moving into Mixed. The 7 Figs guys have played together for years, and also picked up some nice players such as Joe Forbes, Milhouse and Chucktown to round out their men (I'm not commenting on their women mostly because I don't really know them, other than Minh and Tai, who are ballers).

I don't think the difference in the score of finals is too huge of a worry in terms of how we will match up in the series. BCBC is a younger team and has a lot more growing left to do this year (not to mention that we have yet to even finalize the roster - can we get on that please?). However, the finals score does show that we will need to bring a different mentality to Labor Day if we want to play with the big kids.

All in all, it was a great weekend, and I'm left with the feeling that I somehow didn't get enough ultimate. I can't wait for our retreat up to SLO.

At least tomorrow is the LA Summer League tournament and party, one of my favorite events of the year. I'm picking up with the Black team in Co-ed, the last place finishers this year. Hopefully Knuckles will come down and Bakersfield and we can surprise some people tomorrow.

Easing into the Season

I finished my first full track workout of the summer today. I've been working extra hard to try to catch up my fitness with the rest of my team, and it's been rough. My body isn't ready to perform the same way that it used to. Lifting has really helped start to regain the leg muscle that I've lost. I won't really be able to tell where I'm at until I give it a go this weekend.

I did a little bit of offensive handling at the BCBC retreat last weekend, but it was a little uncomfortable when we turned it and I had to play D on a cutter. Luckily, though, I'm still seeing big gains in my ability every week. I imagine it will plateau into a very slow return to 100%, and my doctor says that it could take up to a year to feel completely normal again.

It feels amazing to play again, though. BCBC is full of awesome people, and I'm really excited for all of our upcoming events. It was hard to gauge where we're at from last weekend both because we were missing a bunch of people and because I was a little too focused on my own playing and health. Also, I haven't played high level coed in years, so i don't really have a barometer for what is really good.

Chico is almost always 90-100 degrees, but it has some redeeming factors that make it worthwhile: Sierra Nevada, the river, the party, and the Castle. I'm really excited about staying in the medieval themed house that BCBC traditionally stays at in Chico. Actually, I think the Castle is a good part of why we're going to Chico instead of ECC. I can't say that I complained too much.

We're leaving on Thursday to head up to Sac and do a river float down the Sacramento River on Friday. An extra full day in the sun couldn't hurt, right?

SW Open Club Outlook

The club season is underway, even though I have yet to join in.

I'm not sure how interesting the Open category will be this year, as Johnny Bravo and Streetgang are the clear frontrunners for the (two?) bids out of the SW.

Johnny Bravo - Boulder, CO

Bravo lost some big players last year, but they have a constant pipeline of top quality players from the colleges in the area and I think they'll have another very successful year this year. Until Streetgang shows they can beat them, they're considered the top team in the SW. However, they're also not the juggernaut Bravo of a few years ago. Look to see how CO and SD stack up nationally at Colorado Cup this weekend.

Streetgang - San Diego

Look out for a very talented club team in its second year together. The first year always has some hiccups, and San Diego's second year together should see them reaching national prominence. They picked up some good Squids guys that didn't play last year, as well as Allen Lai, Evan Valdez and Matt Welsh from LA and SB. This should help them run deeper into their roster than last year. Talent-wise, their roster stacks up well with nearly any club team in the country, and the sky's the limit in terms of potential for them.

Condors - Santa Barbara

Last year, the Condors chose to go young and rebuild with local talent. Predictably, they had a tough year, although they made the most out of what they had. This year should be a much stronger year for them. They picked up a pair of dominant receivers in Jake Juszak and Jake Baumer. They also strengthened their roster with some quality Long Beach guys as well as Fawkes from UCLA. They had an impressive win over Wolf at Cal States, but it looks like they're not going to get much of an opportunity to see what they can do during the regular season because they're having trouble getting accepted at the top level tournaments. Breaking into top level tournaments can be a bit of a catch-22: You have to have an impressive resume to get accepted to the tournament, but you have to be at the top tournaments to face the top teams.

I wouldn't expect the Condors to upset either of the top two teams to earn a spot to nationals this year, but I wouldn't be shocked if they did, either. SB brings a lot of mental toughness and fundamental soundness that could be too much for one of the top teams given the right scenario/conditions. They're a solid number three out in the SW.

Beyond the top three teams, it's kind of a crap-shoot for how things will play out.

Entourage - LA

I'm pulling for Entourage because I think we need a young, committed ultimate team based in LA. They should be the best club team in LA, but they haven't played a tourney yet so it's too soon to say where they fit in.

Sweet Roll - Albuquerque, NM

They played Strike-Slip tough in the desert heat last year at regionals. They would probably be my choice for 4th this year, but who knows what kind of roster they will return from last year.

Sprawl - Arizona

Another decent desert team. Where do all the best U of A players end up? Barrio?

Recess - LA

A bunch of UCLA have been putting together a more chill club team to enter the series.

This year, most of the depth of talent in the LA area has gone to the co-ed division, leaving the SW one of the weaker regions in the country in terms of depth. I know I'll be watching the Santa Barbara/San Diego final at sectionals if I am able.

Home Again

I've been all over the place these last few weeks. The trip up to Seattle was awesome. I drove up with Jaws and Balls the entire way up, and Jolie and Scout for portions of the trip. Oh, and Whiskey, Balls' puppy made the entire trip with us, too. I always think of San Francisco as being far north in CA, but the drive from there to the Oregon border is endless. It took us over 12 hours to make it to Scout's ranch, although some of that was thanks to our leisurely food stops and subsequent getting lost in the middle of nowhere in the dark near Bend.

Our day at the ranch was relaxing and awesome. It's about an hour from the nearest town, 45 minutes of which are on a dirt road. The cabin is right next to a cold river with good trout fishing. It's been in his family for a long, long time. We spent the day playing horseshoes, swimming, skeet shooting, fishing, and drinking beer on the porch. Needless to say, it was a good time.

Friday we drove up to Seattle, which should have been a short 3 hour drive, but instead turned into a day long ordeal. First, Scout's volvo completely lost its tire outside of Portland. Then, pulling into Seattle, we found out that Whiskey had Giardia and had to go to the Vet to get special medicine before she could be checked into her kennel for the weekend. So, after a long day, we finally pulled into the fields right before dark and Potlatch ensued. It was a great roadtrip, but I'm glad that I flew home and didn't have to make the ride down.

Following that, I had the Oettinger reunion in Thousand Oaks. 44 Oettingers from across the country flew in for an intense long weekend of huge amounts of eating and socializing. Then, the next weekend, I flew to Boston for a family reunion for my mom's side of the family.

I really enjoyed the change of scenery in New England, and the week was generally more relaxing than the Oettinger reunion because we weren't hosting people, there were fewer people and more time to enjoy things. On Saturday, my uncle got us tickets to go to Fenway and see the Rangers play. It was fun to see the scene around the ballpark, and even though our tickets kind of sucked, it was awesome to stand 2 feet behind Cliff Lee and watch him warm up before the game in the bullpen.

The next day, we drove up to Maine for a week in a lake house. Every day I went swimming, ran, played badminton, and played pool. We did lots of cooking every night and went on day trips to interesting local places. It was a really nice time, and all the activity was really good for my ankle. I ate lots of lobster and clams while we were there, and I was a little bit bummed to be back in the "real world" of LA when we got back Sunday night.

Now I'm just waiting on an appointment with my PT to see where my ankle is at. The time until I can play again is shrinking pretty quickly.

Off to the East Coast

Tomorrow morning at 5 AM I'm leaving for Boston and Maine for over a week. My grandparents are renting a lake house and my mom's family is having a reunion for the next week. It should be very relaxing.

See you in a few weeks.

Why Not?

This week I'm going to road-trip up to Redmond. Normally, I would think it's crazy to travel three states to go to a tournament where I'm not even going to play. However, Potlatch is my favorite tournament ever. I've never been to Kaimana, Paganello, Poultry Days, Nationals, or Worlds, but until I do (and maybe even after I do), Potlatch will stay #1.

Potlatch is best of every thing that I love about ultimate - the best athletes, the best parties, the best silliness, and some of my best friends. It's a great feeling of escape from everything. For three days, the fields become your home. The festival atmosphere and quality of competition has had me playing some of the best ultimate I've ever played in the past. You roll out of your tent in the morning, and you're standing right on the fields. Play. Float down the river. Party. Repeat.

Unfortunately, this year, worlds fall on the same weekend so spectating highest level games might not be quite as good, but I don't think I'll mind too much. It might be nice to be able to walk around and watch some different games a little more than I've been able to in the past. Maybe I won't be as tired by the end as I have in the past. Last year, it took me about a week to recover.

I'm looking forward to the drive up just as much as the tourney itself, too. We're going to leave on Tuesday and take our time, and see some of the sights along the way. We're going to spend most of a day at Scout's cabin in the woods doing outdoorsy kind of things like fishing and hiking. I fully expect this next week to be awesome.

Summertime

I haven't played any ultimate since February. It's the longest stretch I've gone since I started playing in winter of 2005, and it's going to keep going until September at least. For the first time in a very long time, I really miss playing the game just for the sake of the game. Up until now, my motivations have been centered around team goals or personal goals. Now that the college season is over, I realize that I'm starting to kind of forget what playing is like. I can't visualize situations or plays as readily as I used to, and it's strange.

I really miss playing for the sake of exercising, too. I realize now that I'm much less productive and happy when I'm not getting regular workouts. I don't sleep as well at night and I generally feel unhealthier. I've gone from crutches to now walking in my walking boot, and next week I think I'm going to start PT again. I can tell already that it will be hard to not push myself to be more active than my doctor wants me to be. I find that once I break a self imposed barrier in rehab, like walking instead of crutching, there's no going back. I'm worried about what playing will be like and what I'll be able to do after being a couch potato for 5 months.

During other times in my life, if things were going badly or if I was unemployed and bumming around, I could always turn to ultimate or working out as something constant I could rely on while other things in my life changed. Right now, though, I'm just a bum.

I've been watching a huge amount of sports on TV and ultimate videos online. When I'm watching the world cup, or the NBA finals, I'm constantly thinking about how what I'm seeing applies to ultimate. I think watching Smaug for the better part of a season from the sidelines might be a good thing for me in the end, because I feel like I got a more objective, slightly removed perspective on the game. In the end though, I think about ultimate entirely too much and I miss it a lot.

Media Coverage of Ultimate

I find it very interesting that the last video that I posted, Luke Johnson's own footage of finals, was sent DMCA takedown notice by CBS Sports. I haven't taken copyright yet, so I don't have a fully informed opinion about this, but my impression is that copyright laws only protect your coverage of an event, not the game itself.

If Luke had posted the Go211 stream itself on Vimeo, that would clearly be an infringement of their copyright, but the video that he posted was entirely filmed and edited by him. I'd like to see what the contract between CBS and the USAU looks like, but it seems to me that Luke's video is his own property.

From about 2 minutes of Googling the subject, I found this case:

National Basketball Ass'n v. Motorola, Inc. 105 F.3d 841 C.A.2 (N.Y.) 1997
As noted, recorded broadcasts of NBA games-as opposed to the games themselves-are now entitled to copyright protection. The Copyright Act was amended in 1976 specifically to insure that simultaneously-recorded transmissions of live performances and sporting events would meet the Act's requirement that the original work of authorship be “fixed in any tangible medium of expression.” 17 U.S.C. § 102(a). Accordingly, Section 101 of the Act, containing definitions, was amended to read:

A work consisting of sounds, images, or both, that are being transmitted, is “fixed” for purposes of this title if a fixation of the work is being made simultaneously with its transmission.

17 U.S.C. § 101. Congress specifically had sporting events in mind:

[T]he bill seeks to resolve, through the definition of “fixation” in section 101, the status of live broadcasts-sports, news coverage, live performances of music, etc.-that are reaching the public in unfixed form but that are simultaneously being recorded.

H.R. No. 94-1476 at 52, reprinted in 1976 U.S.C.C.A.N. at 5665. The House Report also makes clear that it is the broadcast, not the underlying game, that is the subject of copyright protection. In explaining how game broadcasts meet the Act's requirement that the subject matter be an “original work[ ] of authorship,” 17 U.S.C. § 102(a), the House Report stated:

When a football game is being covered by four television cameras, with a director guiding the activities of the four cameramen and choosing which of their electronic images are sent out to the public and in what order, there is little doubt that what the cameramen and the director are doing constitutes “authorship.”

Now, I haven't researched the subject, nor am I qualifed to be giving any legal advice, so please understand that this is just speculation.

If the USAU didn't want anyone else filming finals, they should have prevented people from doing so at the event. Did they post notices on the admission tickets that filming was not allowed?

More importantly, does USA Ultimate really want to prevent ultimate players from sharing and enjoying material from ultimate games that they've created themselves? I know USAU wants to become a more "legitimate sports organization," but at the same time we have to accept that media coverage in ultimate right now is overwhelmingly provided by the players themselves. The video that Luke made is excellent promotion for the sport, and in many ways more enjoyable for experienced players to watch than the professional coverage because Luke knows what he's doing and there doesn't have to be announcers explaining every rule of the game.

Maybe it's not appropriate to blame USAU for this. It might be that it was just some guy in an anti-piracy department cubicle sending a take-down notice for what he believed to be CBS property. I assume that USAU sold (how much is that actually worth?) the exclusive rights to film and broadcast the finals, so they're protecting themselves by not wanting other people to have video up. In the future, it seems they'll either have to go more open or more restricted with access to events that they plan on televising. My guess is, things will become more restrictive.

It's just another small step towards taking the sport of ultimate away from the players in an effort to become a "real sport."

Is that what we want?

Nationals

Carleton vs Florida - 2010 USAU College Finals from luke johnson on Vimeo.

There's a great video of nationals finals on vimeo (thanks to Luke Johnson) in high def and with all the arguing edited out. It's about 1000x more watchable than the live stream on Monday.

Carleton seems dedicated to slowing the game down and playing fundamental ultimate. Florida takes the huck look whenever it's there, and sometimes when it's not. They get away with this because they're playing incredible defense and Carleton can't seem to get much decent flow against them. Maybe it would have been dumb for Carleton to throw more aggressively, or maybe they just didn't have the players to match up with Florida's in the deep game. The first time I watched the finals, I felt like the outcome was somehow erroneous or unexpected. Watching it again with more clarity and continuity, Florida was the better team for the conditions and should usually win this game.

Florida has an amazing amount of athleticism, and Brodie really is the most dominant player in ultimate, although I don't regret not voting for him for Callahan after watching this game. My first thought on watching the game was that Carleton didn't adjust well enough to stop Florida's style of play, but upon watching the game again it seems like they were doing nearly everything they could. He was just unstoppable.

If we were doing a draft of college players to club teams (how sweet would that be?) I suppose Brodie would have to go #1 overall, but I would have concerns about melding his playing style into a team that isn't completely tailored to him. I really hope he decides to play club because I'd like to see how his skills translate to a higher level of play.

An Observation

I found this email in my inbox today. Actually, I never realized that. Thanks, Warehouse:

To: Me, Danger

If you take out the Oettin in vector's name, you get the name of the other person included in this email.

Potential applications include vector being able to proclaim that "Danger is my outer name".

Thanks,

WH

Callahan Videos

Eli Friedman for Callahan 2010 from Oregon Ultimate on Vimeo.

I love the Callahan propaganda videos that come out at this time of year. A good one can swing the election. If you know of any other good ones, please pass them along to me!

Regionals Write-Up

Coming out of this college series is the best I've felt about any team's performance that I've been a part of. Strike-Slip made the game-to-go this year, but that was exactly what were expected to do so it wasn't as fun as it was grueling.

We went into the weekend as the 7 seed. The tourney was a huge bracket, so we would very quickly be playing in important games. Shockingly, the weather was great. Maybe 65 degrees and light wind. It worked to our benefit.

Saturday:

Game 1 - Colorado College

This game was supposed to be easy, and it was. They seemed decent enough, but they had serious problems with our box and zone looks. They also dropped it a lot. I think we took half 8-1. They scored a few more in the second half, but we won pretty easily 15-(not very much).



Game 2 - Long Beach

Long Beach was only playing 10 guys, so it was bad luck catching them this early in the tournament. They took half by a break or two. At about 9-7, we called a time-out and the team got fired up to make a last ditch effort to make a comeback. We started gaining momentum with a couple breaks. Thor had a huge layout D on a bad dump throw. We brought the game to 10-10 universe, with them receiving. We got the disc a couple times (once on a 50 yard hammer look) but they punched it in on a sky from Jake. Flood did a good job trying to contain him, and there were some spectacular plays in the air, but in the end it wasn't enough. Uni, Bogo, Marcos, and Mike all played great in this game as well.

Game 3 - Air Force

The guys were down after our universe point loss with LB, and I think we all assumed that we were going to walk through this game. And we should have. But we let them hang around, down only a few points. They scored a few breaks and started acting like the shirtless pilots in the volleyball scene in Top Gun. Going up wind, someone put up a janky, floaty huck and Spectre had a huge sky for the score.

During soft cap, we received on O to end the game. Arby hucked to Curse wide open on the goal line, and the coaches called for a time-out. During the timeout, the other coach insisted that we had called 2 already in that half. He was right. Turnover. Before we knew it, it was universe point with us receiving on O. We worked it downwind calmly and put it in for the score, but not with some serious sweating. We almost ended our season against Air Force. I don't even want to consider what that would have been like.

Game 4 - Arizona

We started off with a few breaks. And then a few more, until we had taken half 8-1. Arizona is a better team than that, and I don't know if they were just tired or what, but they really rolled over in the first half. Their best player, the tall blonde guy, was going crazy in their huddle. They came out of half and went on a run, but they were too far down. We started trading until hard cap, 12-6. The team was tired after playing all day at altitude. Thor also hurt his knee pretty badly skying the balls off the blonde guy after he came down and got landed on. Despite our "big roster," we ended up playing on Sunday with only about 14 or 15 able bodied players, and it definitely hurt our chances.

Saturday night we went to HoHut, Ft. Collins best (only) AYCE mongolian bbq place. It was actually pretty good, and perfect for a big hungry team. After the Lakers game, the coaches and injured people went out to check out the local Brew/pub. It was a fun night.

Sunday

UCSD

We came out fired up quoting this guy. We felt like we had nothing to lose, and because of that I think we went into this game with the right attitude. They gave us a bunch of turnovers, and our D-line was taking good huck looks when we had them. They took half 8-7, but I was feeling really good about the attitudes both teams were playing with. They threw their box, which has always given us trouble in the past. We struggled for a point, but the second point we shredded right through it and did the same on each subsequent point. My main memory from the end of the game is Avatar getting a huge layout D on Kattan and the macking the disc squarely off his chest. We received the disc on universe, and slowly marched it down through their zone for an easy score. 12-11. This win really felt good. To my knowledge, UCLA has never beaten UCSD before in the series and I don't think they ever saw it coming.

SDSU

SDSU had beaten us pretty squarely the last 2 or 3 times we played them, but we were riding high off our win against the squids. I think the altitude made the games a little more turn heavy because peoples hucks were misfiring and we were getting more chances for breaks than we normally would. We sat on a nice 2 point lead for most of the game, until the end. We called a couple of time outs late in the game to help run out the clock, and SDSU took issue with it. However, we played completely within the rules and the game was observed, so I really don't feel too bad about it. They scored the last point after hard cap blew, but the game was over, 10-9.

UCSB - 2nd Place Game

Tide was coming off a blow-out loss in finals to Colorado, 15-5. They were very strategic about resting for the game they could actually win, I think, and it worked out for them. We came out hot and went up 2 breaks to start the game, but the fatigue from the weekend started to catch up with us. It also got fairly windy in this game, and it hurt our hucking game and benefited their more fundamental style. However, I don't think they would have won had it not been for stellar play from Max and Tim. Those two destroyed us like they have every time we've played them this year. Once they got up a couple points, they held on and never let us back in the game. We were running out of gas pretty quickly by this point. Pagoda, Thor, and Spectre were not playing by this point, too, which also really hurt us. We were running 14-15 guys and were looking pretty ragged. Huge props to Curse for working his ass off all Sunday though. He was our best and most consistent cutter, and favorite target for Arby's hucks. He also skied the balls off a Tide guy on an upwind floater near the sideline.

UCSD - 3rd/4th Place Game

It really didn't look coming into this game. They were up and throwing, and our guys collapsed on the side line. They broke us twice before we got on the board, 3-1. The whole first half we looked like we were just ready to give up. Forge was skying the balls off of everyone, and we just didnt have the energy to put up much of a fight. They took half 8-3.

During our huddle, we reminded everyone that this was likely the last game that our seniors would ever play with Smaug, and that there was no reason not to give every last ounce of effort we had. We we're the team that was not supposed to be there, and we should just play to enjoy our last half of ultimate of the year. We came out looking revitalized in the second half and got a bunch of breaks to bring it closer. I think at one point I think it was 11-9ish, and we were bringing all the momentum. Unfortunately, we ran into the soft cap and they calmed down and played "the most boring point of ultimate of their lives" to put in the final point.

A lot of guys came up huge for us in this game, when our stars were running fumes. Syntax came in and looked great running the offense. Attica had an amazing goal line layout D on two guys that were standing about 5 feet apart. In the end, we were just too tired to take advantage of the position that we had put ourselves in. I hate to speculate, but if we had had Pagoda, Spectre, Thor and me playing, who knows what would have happened.

Still, we earned the highest finish in the history of Smaug, and made it to 2 games to go. The end of year circle was amazing, and there were more than a few happy tears from the guys that were finishing their years on Smaug. I hope the young guys can take the experience of this weekend and realize what it will take to make the jump from a high placing team at regionals to a team that will go to nationals. We had wins this year over Stanford, Davis, Victoria, Florida, SDSU, and UCSD. On the other hand, we had some losses to some teams that we probably shouldn't have lost to. It seemed like everyone on our team peaked individually this weekend. Going through our roster, I don't think there's anyone who I can point to and say that this weekend was not the best I've ever seen them play (except guys coming off long-term injuries. I may have seen them a few steps faster).

I'd like to think that a lot of our younger guys, especially the guys that have never gone through a season on the A team, saw this weekend how amazing ultimate can be. The high that you get from winning big games after a full season of working towards that goal is incomparable. Now that they've had a taste, hopefully they'll keep working so Smaug can have that feeling again next year.

Surgery Photos

My surgeon sent me these photos he took during my surgery. With his iPhone. I didn't ask too many questions, or want to know how much he uses his iphone during surgery. The pictures are pretty cool though.

In them you can see him pulling my peroneal tendon forward into view. Then he pulls the retinaculum up and sews it together and anchors it down to the bone. Hopefully, it will heal strongly. The good news is, you get to see the inside of my ankle. And it DOESN'T look anything like a vagina.

Post-Surgery Update

For those of you who don't get bombarded with my twitter feed or google buzz, I re-tore my ankle last Monday night at practice. I was popping in a zone and I pushed off my ankle as I caught a pass and the exact same ligament snapped. It wasn't super painful, and I wasn't sure at first whether I had torn it or whether someone had kicked my ankle. When I was able to pop my tendons out of place, it was pretty obvious, though.

Anyway, I went back to my doctor and scheduled surgery for yesterday. I was pretty nervous because I'd never had surgery of any kind. I'd never even had an IV, so all of it was a pretty new experience. My mom's job has amazing health insurance, so all of my health care so far has been pretty swanky. The surgery center had a super minimalist, modern style and was totally empty when I went in. I got dressed in a gown and they hooked me up to an IV, but my doctor was running behind schedule on his first surgery so I ended up waiting for like an hour and a half. I passed the time by chatting with a young guy who was teaching people how to use the cold water circulating machine about LA for like 45 minutes.

Eventually the anesthesiologist came around and gave me a nice shot of valium into my IV. After that I was pretty cool with everything. They wheeled me into the freezing operating room and and had me roll onto the operating table. The doctor gave me a shot of something stronger because I don't remember anything that happened after they gave me an oxygen mask to breathe into. I know they were going to give me a nerve blocking injection and then test it by using electro stimulation, but the next memory I have is waking up in the recovery room with the big splint on my leg. My leg was completely numb for rest of the entire day and through the night, which was probably a good thing, but it's kind of scary not being able to wiggle your toes.

The pain in my ankle woke me up this morning, but I took a pill, crutched out to the couch and fell back asleep. I have an awesome machine that circulates cold water over my foot, and I've been hooked up to it pretty much non-stop. I spent a good part of today napping, but I've been feeling better and better.

I have tickets to fly to regionals on Friday, but I'm not sure yet if I can go or not. If the weather report says rain, I won't go, but so far it looks good. I'm worried about getting through the airport and keeping my foot elevated, etc. I could really use those three extra days to work on my term paper. However, this is maybe the last tourney of the year. What we've been working for all year long. I don't think I could feel ok with myself if I didn't go. I'm going to wait and see how I feel Thursday before I make my decision.

I should have 1 month of cast, 2-3 weeks of walking boot, and then I'll start rehab mid-June. I'm going to take my rehab slowly and carefully, and it should be easier cause I won't be at practice all the time. I should be able to play again mid to late August. I'm committed to playing with BCBC when I get, assuming they still want me by then.

For now, I'm just trying to focus on finals and recovery. After that, I'm going to enjoy my time off and focus on my job search. I can watch the last season of the Wire, watch the Yankees in HD and do some reading. Should be nice.

SoCal College Sectionals

Sectionals results were surprising to say the least. I don't think anyone expected Long Beach to show up as the best team at the tournament, but they did and won very convincingly. They beat Tide in pool play, Squids in semis and SDSU in finals to take the section. Those guys love ultimate, and they love playing with each other, and the effects are really starting to show. Jake has taken a big step up as an ultimate player and has become a near unstoppable force. A college team can go a long way with those things.

The other surprising part of the weekend was the squids dropping from the #1 seed down to #4. I don't think they were prepared for the quality of LB in the semis. It reminded me of our semis against them last year, except Long Beach had the mental strength to close out the game. After that, I would guess that the team checked out a little.

As for us, I think it's fair to say that our results were disappointing. Sectionals is always a weird tournament, with maybe one tough game on Saturday and lots of unfocused, sloppy ultimate in the other ones. We gave up a combined 5 points in our first 3 games of the day. Irvine played well against us, and we weren't super focused, but we pulled it out at 11-7 despite great play from Stig, Miller, and Fish.

Our Sunday morning game against against SDSU started with 2 breaks for them. We traded basically for the rest of the game, maybe giving up another break or two at the end of the game. They play hard nosed ultimate with solid fundamentals, and they have a lot of young athletic players to complement their senior leaders. Our defense just wasn't good enough to stop their systematic deep and under cuts, and on the few turns that we did get, our D-lines O looked pretty helpless moving the disc upfield.

The Tide game was the most frustrating for me. We've played tight games with Tide so far this year, but Boucher and Max were both hurt for this game. They were just the mentally tougher team, falling back on their excellent system and coaching and we didn't. Not enough of our cutters stepped up to make plays. Tim was all over the field for them, moving the disc and being generally impressive. This game was the most frustrating to watch and the most that I've wanted to play since I hurt myself.

The huddle after this game was one of the most emotional huddles of the year. We stood for a long while in silence just thinking over the game. I hope that we can use the feeling that we had in that huddle as motivation for the remaining few weeks of the year.

Going into Regionals, I really have no idea what to expect. I was very impressed by SDSU and CSULB. UCSD is too loaded with talent to not contend, and every year Tide proves that no matter what their roster is, they will compete at a high level. I think we're seeing the benefits of Strike-Slip (and Streetgang) with the parity of the top handful of teams at sectionals, and once again, I'm bummed that Strike-Slip fell apart.

I think the weather in Ft. Collins will play a big role in determining who gets the bids. I fully expect it to be windy and horrible, but I'm not really sure which teams that would favor.

I finally cleated up and played some real ultimate at practice tonight. My PT would not be very happy if I told him about it, but there is absolutely 0% chance that I will allow myself to not be ready for regionals. It was great to finally be on the field again, and it's so much easier to get a sense of what the team needs to do. However, right now my legs feel like they're made of lead. There's no way I'm going to be in good shape in CO. I'll just do the best I can.

Music

As I get older, I feel like get I really excited about fewer and fewer albums. It takes something unusually good or extreme to catch my attention nowadays. Maybe I just have less time to search around for new things to listen to.

I'm super excited about LCD Soundsystem's new album, This is Happening. I've listened to it a few times through, and I have a feeling this is what I'm going to be into for the next few months.

I go through phases where I listen to albums that I really like obsessively. Those albums become inextricable from that time and place in my life.

A few that come to mind:

Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend: Spring semester of Senior Year, Living in Olympic Village

LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver: Studying abroad in Edinburgh, Fall '07

Tegan and Sara - The Con: First semester of Law School Fall '08

Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga: Spring '07, living on Kenwood

Lately I've been on an Andrew Bird kick since seeing him in January, but I think I'm ready for something new.

The problem with LA Open

I'm really frustrated with the break-up of Strike-Slip. I thought that we had a really successful first season, winning sectionals etc. We had the core of the team coming back, and for once there looked like there would be some continuity in LA Open. No team is great in its first year together, and I thought we were really going to do big things this year. I thought we were committed to a new season.

Honestly, I don't really even know what the full story is. I think that some people thought that we weren't going to be good enough this year, or that we weren't going to get the players that we expected and decided to form a new co-ed team instead. Or maybe they decided that they just didn't want to play open at all. We lost a fair amount of players from last year to people moving away, and I was part of the problem because my status for the summer was up in the air with my injury. People left and the captains were left with a different team than the one they had signed up to captain.

People are just too afraid of losing. We just want to win as quickly and as easily as possible. It's understandable that some of the guys are getting older and don't want a multiple year commitment to rebuilding a team, but that is exactly what being a successful club team takes. The best club teams are the ones that have a core committed to continuity. Team chemistry and experience is extremely important.

It's true that LA doesn't have the type of player that dominates at the elite level, but those guys are just icing on the cake. LA has great players. I was always really impressed with my teammates last year. The commitment to building a lasting, quality team is more important than the players you have on that team. Of course you need some minimum level of talent, but we were definitely there.

Maybe what needs to happen is for LA Open to start over. Build a team with young guys that will commit to playing for multiple seasons. The first season will be rough, but it's all about developing players and building a team. Maybe in the second or third we'd start attracting the top players in LA who would have previously played co-ed, but want the challenge and reward of playing open. The club team would improve all the area colleges, who then feed it with higher quality players.

After all of that, I'm still not sure what I'm going to do this summer. I have my career to think about, and I don't know if I can commit huge amounts of time to helping lead a young team. I don't mind playing on a young and inexperienced team, but I don't want to play on a team without enough talent. It's very tempting to go play co-ed or to commute from Thousand Oaks to play with the Condors. For the first time, I don't have the obligation to my college team to play in the situation that will improve me the most as a player.

I'm going to check out the different teams and see what I like. I'll see what kind of roster the LA Open team could put together. Then I'll go from there.

First things first, though. College regionals are coming, and we have big goals. I have to rehab properly and make sure I don't re-injure myself.

SoCal sectionals were crazy. I'll do a write up of them soon.

Dan-O-Mite!

I'm super excited for our all Dan team for Huck it Long Beach. Everyone on it will have a first name that starts with Dan.

Not only do we have all have sweet names, but we're going to have some ballers on our team as well. I think I'm just really excited about looking forward to a time when I can actually play.

The only problem is finding talented women with names starting with Dan. Finding talented women is hard enough as it is. Finding good women that names that start with Dan is downright impossible. We might have to stretch the rules a little.

Props to Peaches for coming up with the awesome name.

Btw, Huck It Long Beach will be June 12-13.

Overload

This past week was full of crazy ups and downs in terms of ultimate news.

I went to the doctor on Monday and had him check out my ankle. He told me that it looks like it's healing well, and that I could stop wearing my giant protective boot. That was great news, and I scheduled physical therapy for the next day. Walking around with nothing on my foot feels totally exposed and weird, but I love it. Each step of my recovery makes me totally happy, which makes the whole process seem shorter and more bearable.

Wednesday, the final UPA rankings came out. We jumped up to #17, and earned the third bid to nationals!! I guess we jumped because results where teams had ineligible rosters got discounted, but I have my suspicions about the whole process. Hopefully it will work better in future years. I've heard bad stories about teams changing their rosters exclude players who quit and having their results disqualified. Huh? Anyway, the third bid is exciting and motivating for me to get healthy as soon as I can.

Finally, yesterday I found out that Strike-Slip is no more. Some people decided that they wanted to play co-ed, and the captains thought that we wouldn't be able to get the quality of team that they had signed up to captain. And like that, LA ultimate fell apart. Now we have 3 good co-ed teams, but no good open team. I was super bummed out by this because part of my motivation in rehabbing was to get back and play during the club season with Strike-Slip. Now I have no idea what I'm going to do this summer.

The one bright spot from all this: LA Open gets a new name.

Sam already wrote his opinion on the recent developments in LA ultimate, and for the most part I agree with him. I'm planning on writing a post later on the ordeal, both to inform and to sort out my thoughts on the matter.

I'm about to ride my new bike to PT. It's sunny and 70 degrees outside. Sectionals are tomorrow.

Things are good.

Post-Centex

I chose to drive with the team to Centex rather than fly because, hey, it's my last year of playing college ultimate and it seemed like a very college ultimate thing to do. It ended up being really fun (besides really loooong) and a worthwhile experience, although I spent most of the rest of my spring break recovering.

Saturday morning we awoke to horizontal rain blowing past our door and lightning bolts. We went back to bed, and I woke up every hour or so to check Cultimate's twitter feed for updates. It was pretty clear we weren't playing that morning, but when and where we might play was up in the air. We finally rolled out of bed and went to get a late mexican food breakfast around 11. During breakfast, we got word that cultimate had found "super secret backup fields" near San Antonio, a mere 90 miles away. We paid our bill and booked it to the hotel so we could hit the road.

The fields were muddy, and the wind was absolutely brutal. 30-40 mph gusts made it almost impossible to throw more than twenty or thirty yards. We were scheduled to play Illinois, Florida and Kansas. Illinois won the flip, and we traded downwinders the entire game. We actually managed to almost score upwind twice, but both times we failed. We lost 6-7 at hard cap.

We won the flip against Florida, and put down our first W against them in school history. True, the conditions were terrible, but we did play terrific defense to stop them from working it up, which they were always threatening to do. We won at hard cap, 13-12.

Kansas decided not to play their Saturday games. We heard that they had found fields and had intense practice all morning, thinking that Saturday would be canceled. We got a forfeit win against them.

Saturday morning the conditions were actually decent for half of our pre-quarters game against Stanford. They didn't seem to be fully awake quite yet, and our guys were pumped up to play. Our D did a terrific job of stopping their dumps and forcing their throws upfield into waiting poaches and layout blocks. Bishop and DaVinci punched it in on their goal line again and again with break throws, and Arby was money with hucks to Flood and other people. By the end of the game the wind had picked up and game had devolved into zone in a strong cross wind. We still managed to punch it in for the last point at cap, 13-9. (Stanford went on to beat CUT 13-4 later that day. Baffling.)

In quarters we matched up against Oregon, the pretty unanimous #1 team in the country. Unfortunately, we weren't really playing ultimate by this point. It was more like throwing turnovers in a windy field. We basically traded hucks back and forth, both teams afraid to turn it in front of their endzones until someone brought down the swill. Their athletes were really good at bringing down their bombs and they went up to an 8-1 lead. I think we were a little too happy to be sharing the field with the #1 team and no one really expected to win. We picked it up in the second half and brought it 15-8, a more respectable score. It was more than UNC or Colorado scored on them in Semis and Finals, for what that's worth.

We lost our next game to Michigan 14-11 because they were slightly better at throwing in the wind than us. By our last game against Cal, our guys were gassed and we didnt want to put up much of a fight. I offered 40 oz of incentive to everyone who got a layout D, and the guys had some fun in the second half trying to earn theirs. We brought it back from something like 0-6 to a final of 9-13.

Overall, it was definitely worth our time going to Centex. We benefitted from the quality of teams we played, but the most important was the bonding experience for our whole team. I wish we could have stuck around for spring break on the beach somewhere, but I guess that is for future years of Smaug to do. We got some quality wins over nationals level opponents, and it should have been a boost for our rankings and region. I'm very confident that if the weather had been good, we would have had at a couple good wins for our region.

As it was, the results were just totally wacky. Tide had a really tough weekend, and their RRI rating went down and dragged us and the SW down with them. The wacky conditions created wacky results, and the hierarchy of teams was totally overthrown. Teams like Harvard, with at least one dominant thrower and one dominant receiver were able to beat almost everyone because everyone point had about 30 turnovers (not to take anything away from Redline, but normally they don't beat Cut and take Colorado to universe).

CSULB and SDSU just played Easterns this past weekend, and they both had some quality wins, SDSU especially. Hopefully they can gain some strength points back to the SW, but it looks like we're going to be getting 2 bids to Natties this year. I'll share my opinions on the ranking system and bid allocation process later.

We went into the tourney seeded somewhere in the 22-28 range, and we ended up finishing 8th. Not too bad.

I had forgotten...

...what an amazing photo this is.

http://www.mei-photography.com/gallery/8834345_zc8BK#585371509_Kvvdr-XL-LB

Potlatch is definitely my favorite tournament (so far).

I don't think I'm going to have the time/money/will power to organize a Potlatch team this year. Plus, I'm not even sure that I'll even be able to play by then, although I wouldn't be against going just to hang out.

Anyone have a team that might take me?

Ankle Update

I'm finally free of my cast!

That thing was absolutely awful - it was dirty, broken and smelly. I scrubbed my leg and foot for about ten minutes in the bath tub as soon as I got home.

I'm now in a walking boot, but I'm not supposed to start walking for about a week still. The tendons and ligament on the back of my foot are contracted and tight, and I need to ease my foot back into a flat position over the coming week with a series of pads under my heel.

I have some good news and some bad news:

Bad: It's still not clear whether my ankle is healed, or will heal fully. It probably won't be for another 3 weeks or so. Basically, if it pops out of place, I get cut and I start over.

Good: I could make it back for Regionals if I do heal properly.

I'm going to have to stay disciplined and stay off it to allow it to properly heal. It feels exposed and fragile when I take it out of the boot, but I know I'm going to be tempted to push it. Knowing myself, if it's not fully healed, I'll discover it sooner rather than later.

Anyway, I'm in good spirits now that I have the fiberglass off my leg, and I'm super excited for our road trip to Centex.

Pools below:

http://scores.upa.org/scores/#college-open/tournament/7064

I just wish I could play. Maybe with a little luck I'll get to play against some of those teams at nationals.

Stevinson Open Preview

Our schedule is tough, but full of goodness. We play UCSD, SDSU, Arizona, and Davis, in that order. I wish Stanford had varied up the schedule a little bit so we got more than one out of region game (and a rematch at that), but I'm not complaining too much about that.

A few thoughts on the games:

1. UCSD - The Squids are legit this year. The guys that they lost last year have been more than made up for by the addition of 3 grad students/transfers. They're also benefiting from the experience of 2 nationals appearances, college and club for the guys that played with Streetgang. Their players are big dudes, and are playing with a lot of confidence.

2. SDSU - SDSU has looked very good this year, beating some good teams and playing very tough games with some good teams like Cal. We really can't overlook this game because SDSU is definitely a team on the upswing. They've beaten Tide twice, something we haven't managed to do yet.

3. Arizona - I really don't know what to expect out of them this year. I'm pretty sure they graduated Gregerson and Gaffni (unless they're back for 5th years). Regardless, they're a quality program and have lots of athletic guys. They're a fun team to play and this should be a very good game.

4. Davis - Rematch from SB Invite. We we went up 3 breaks on them and then blew the lead in the second half. I hope our guys are hungry for some revenge. They're very good this year, and well coached. They move the disc quickly and are smart players.

This is going to be a big weekend for us. I'm expecting us to take a step up after our first full tournament 2 weeks ago. We've gotten some experience under our belts and our squad should be at full strength (minus myself of course). I smell an upset or two in our future.

Ankle Update

I finally got through to my doctor and got his opinion on my MRI. It's what we suspected it to be, a torn peroneal retinaculum. There are signs of a bad sprain, but not much else beyond that.

My doctor thinks that there's a 60-70% chance that my ankle will heal on its own without surgery. Of course, that leaves a significant chance that I will spend a bunch of time in a cast, and then in rehab only to find that it didn't heal properly and then have to start over again. However, my doc thinks that the best course is to try to let it heal on it's own, and I guess I agree with him.

The thought of another 4 weeks in a cast if it doesn't work out is really scary, but I'm pretty optimistic about my healing powers. I guess the best thing I can do is try to stay off of it, eat well and get plenty of rest.

Ankle Injury

In our last game at Prez Day, I rolled my ankle awkwardly landing on someone's foot. A few points later, I was making a cut and I heard a "pop" in my ankle. I went down, and it was pretty clear that I had done something really bad.

The next day I noticed that the tendons on the side of my ankle popped out of place very painfully when I everted my foot. I went to the doctor, and he thinks i tore the peroneal retinaculum in my ankle that holds down the peroneal tendons.

I had an MRI on Wednesday, but I'm still waiting for the doctor to get back to me with the results. For now, I have a lower leg cast on and it sounds like the chances of it healing on its own without surgery are about 50%. I'm also hoping that there was no tendon damage either, which would make it more severe.

I have my fingers crossed, and I'm trying to stay optimistic about it. I'm super bummed that I'm going to be missing most, if not all, of Smaug's season. Right now I'm just trying to deal with basic problems like getting myself to school, getting disabled parking, switching cars with someone in my family (so I dont have to drive my stick). I've always relied on my bicycle to get me everywhere at school, and now I have to sit and watch my new bike gather dust after getting to use it for about three days.

I'm hoping that the doctor will call tomorrow, but not during my mid-term that I should be studying for right now. Regardless, I'm going to have a long rehab ahead of me, and the possibility of surgery if it doesn't work. A part of me just wants to have the surgery and avoid the possibility of spending 3 total months in a cast instead of 4-6 weeks, but I suppose it's best to avoid cutting if possible. It's all speculation anyway until I know the results of the MRI.

Anyway, I'm going to try to keep leading Smaug as best as I can from the sidelines, starting by going to all our practices this week. All of this news really bums me out, so let me focus on the bright side of my injury for a moment:

• I get a disabled parking placard, which apparently allows you to park at meters for free. How baller is that?
• I can focus more on school now that I'm not focusing on improving myself as a player. This is a good (and needed) thing.
• I got to see Andrew Bird last night in Bovard at USC. FO FREE.
• There's an awesome black fixie waiting to be ridden as soon as I'm rehabbed enough.
• I have an excuse to sit around on my ass and watch nature documentaries on Netflix.
• Finally, and most importantly, I'm very grateful for my friends, family and girlfriend that have done a ton to help me out during the past week. I really appreciate everyone that's offered me help, rides, notes, etc. Thank you!

Anyway, this injury has led to bit of an identity crisis in my life. For a full week, I did nothing Smaug or ultimate related with my days. I've always identified myself as an ultimate player who happens to be doing other things with my life. Without a team and season to focus on, where should I put my attention and energy? Smaug can still use my help, true, but in reality my role on the team is much smaller now. If I'm not playing, I'm just another assistant coach, and if there's anything Smaug doesn't need more of, it's opinions.

Anyway, I'll keep updating the blog with news about my ankle, Smaug, the upcoming club season, and whatever else in my life needs talking about.

My Letter to the SW Regional Coordinator

Hey Cambell,

I'm writing you on behalf of UCLA Utimate. We think that you should reconsider your decision to host regionals in Colorado for a second year in a row. Traditionally, regionals has moved around each year, and I think somewhere else, either in SoCal or Arizona, would be more fair.

I've been working with Frankie Rho to help get a bid together to host regionals around here. We've been working on locking down a couple different sites that would work for both men's and women's regionals. I've heard a rumor that the bid deadline has passed. I can't seem to find any announcements on RSD or any other public forum calling for bids or announcing a deadline. If I'm wrong, please send me the link.

I realize that it sucks for Colorado teams to have to fly to tournaments most of the time, but locating regionals in an area with a higher density of teams is a much more efficient solution. Last years regionals were extremely expensive for our team, between flights, rental cars, hotels, etc. I'm sure the facility in Ft. Collins is very nice, but it's very difficult and expensive for 25ish of the 32 teams to get to.

We're trying to get our team to fly out to Centex for the first time this year, and we're working hard to fundraise for the expenses. We were relying on the fact that college regionals is usually not in the same place two years in a row, but this announcement has a very good chance of killing our chance to go to Centex.

One last point: the last two Colorado regionals that I've been to have been cold, wet, and miserable. I promise our weather will be better.

Please give our Southern California bid a fair look, and consider the interest of the majority of the SW ultimate players that you represent as RC.

Thanks,
Dan Oettinger
Co-Captain, UCLA Smaug

Sideline D Help

I wrote up some short instructions for Smaug after this weekend. Our sideline D talk can be much more productive. These are few of my favorite ways of helping. If you know of any other ways to help from the sidelines, please let me know in the comments section.

1. The most important thing is to just be saying something. Even just yelling to run hard is better than saying nothing.

2. Tell your guy where the disc is on the field. Tell him whether it's far side from your voice or near you. This is a good thing to do when your defender is on a cutter so he knows how to adjust his positioning. He knows to play tighter or to sag off a little bit because the disc is not in a threatening position. You can yell "HOT" at the person when he is clearly the focus of the handler or when you can see a dangerous situation developing. eg FAR SIDE, FAR SIDE. MIDDLE. NEAR SIDE. HOT.

3. If you are talking to the dump defender, tell him what the handler is doing. The most important thing is to tell your guy whether the guy with the disc is looking at his offender or not. Echoing the stall count is helpful, and also saying where the disc is going (up, break, etc.) eg: NOT LOOKING, NOT LOOKING, STALLING 4, 5, LOOKING, LOOKING.

4. If your guy is on the mark, be sure to tell him where the receiving threats are on the field and where his marking emphasis should be. The words INSIDE or AROUND are the standard. Also, as you see the stall count get above 5, remind the person on the mark to shift his emphasis on taking away the around and pressure the dump throw.

5. Old school: yell "UP" calls. Yell HUCK or BREAK if it applies. Also, if a person is in power position, yell "POWER, POWER"

6. If there is one dude who is hucking a lot, every one should echo the call "HUCKER" when he gets his hands on the disc.

7. Special situation: If a team is being very successful with their huck looks, 1 person should stand at each of the front cones of the endzone that we're defending and help out the defenders as they come into the deep area. Make sure to tell them where the huck is going when it goes up. ie: LEFT LEFT or RIGHT RIGHT or SHORT or BLADEY. This is the only situation in which you are excused from following the play on the sidelines.

SB Invite Preview

Tomorrow morning we drive up the 101 to Santa Barbara. The tournament is notorious for having bad weather. This year, it rained for a week straight, from sunday at Leiout until Friday night. Weather reports say that there is only a small chance of rain over the weekend, but I know better than to believe them. I'm bringing all my tights and trash bags in preparation.

Black Tide lost all of their grass fields because of the week of rain, so only 12 men's teams are playing this weekend. Fortunately, we were seeded high enough to make it in, but CSULB got screwed over again, getting un-invited from their second tourney this year. That really sucks.

Because they're going to have to shoehorn in all the men's and women's games onto the artificial turf fields, the schedule is going to be pretty wacky. We're playing Colorado and Davis in pool play, with cross over games until 10 PM at night. One nice thing about losing the fields, at least, is that we get our first game at 10:40 instead of 8 AM.

Colorado and Davis. I'm excited about playing both of them, but they will be tough games. It's time to see what we've got.

A few more...

I'll write something about it soon.

Lei Out 2010: Success

Mah Na Mah Na! rocked Lei Out. Definitely the best one I've been to. Im still recovering.

Back on the Horse

Sorry for the long break between posts.

Finals hit, then Nicaragua, then the holidays, and then a whirlwind trip to San Francisco for new years. I didn't think much about ultimate from mid-December until now, and the rest was pretty rejuvenating. This semester is going to be a lot of work, and it was nice to pretend I'm a normal person for a little while.

We're practice and one track workout into the season so far. The SB Invite is three weeks and I'm really excited about our pool:

http://www.upa.org/scores/tourn.cgi?div=122&id=7110

We have Tide, Stanford and SLO, in that order. Tide and SLO are good regional match ups, and Stanford is a semis team from last and we will get to play with nothing to lose.

First, though, is Lei Out, one of the highlights of the year for LA ultimate. We're debating whether to move up into the A pools for a second year in a row. It worked out OK last year, but we will see.

Anyway, here are some pictures form Nicaragua: