Tuesday, July 31, 2007

"Wildwood Night/Day 1" OR "Oww my feet"

Wildwood. The stuff legends are made of. The guido-filled miles-long boardwalk is typical Jersey shore, replete with funnel cake, saltwater taffy, 99 cent pizza, and rib guys advertising "two for one rib dinnas, I got ya meal right here, just tryna save you money!"

We arrived in Wildwood around 8:15 after a scary and exciting drive by Benny Haim to get us there in two hours flat. Idaho Sweets beckoned to us from the road, and it boasted a real wood BBQ pit. We stopped in and were blown away. Jon Lin and I split a huge basket of meat, which was half pulled pork and half brisket, with ribs thrown on top. It was absolutely delicious.

Sated, we moved on to the hotel where we met up with our other car of teammates. We had to sneak into the hotel's back entrance because we had to pay by person, rather than a flat room rate, and each additional person was $50 a night. So the manager could only ever see four people. We accepted this, settled into our new suite, and began the party. Friday night was relatively relaxed - we chilled amongst ourselves, took a little stroll on the boardwalk, took a little stroll on the beach (before being chased off by the beach patrol), and soon 'retired' to our beds. At least most of us did. Benny was missing and later reappeared by climbing through a window that he had removed earlier that night. Ed's two friends from Slow White, one of whom was supposed to be our second girl, showed up at 2 am just as we were drifting off to sleep.

Saturday morning I rose early and put on the Tour de France individual time trial - the race's deciding stage. I was following intently as everyone was getting up slowly, trying to figure out how much longer they could still sleep and not miss the games, and recover from the previous night. It was exciting, and unfortunately our games were at 10, so I had to miss the actual contenders' rides. After changing and cleaning up the previous night's mess, we hit the beach for my first ever day of 4v4 beach ultimate.

It's hard to play on the beach. The sand negates most of the normal advantages that our team had over the others - mainly speed and aggressive defense. This is how teams with a thrower and a tall guy can win at Wildwood very easily - especially with the 2 point line, which is one of the worst rules I've ever played with. We had our wakeup call in our very first game, as we went down early to some 2-pointers, clawed back, and then lost on a 4-point swing at the end to fall 24-20. We were scoring 1-pointers with ease, especially with our women roasting the other team's girls time and time again. But when they got up by a few late in the game, we couldn't hit the 2-pointers to close the gap. Yes, there were the pitiful 40-yard dumps in order to get the disc back into our own endzone. And unfortunately, the other team's tall guy was very athletic and able to shut down all but one of our 2-point attempts.

Between games, I went over to the main tent area, picked up some of the delicious fresh fruit that was available, and ran into a bunch of players that I knew, and one ex-Stanford player that I knew about (hi Lefty Tim!). Wildwood really is huge - I recognized players from tons of teams and tournaments that I'd played, not to mention summer league and Prospect Park pickup. By this point I wasn't really that dirty - I actually wore a shirt for the first game and my only layout came *before* the game.

The second game changed that. We played Princeton alumni (of the non-Bailey Russell type) and only a couple points in I get a layout D that ends with my entire body covered in sand. After a couple cuts on offense, I end up having to take an injury timeout because there's so much sand in my eyes that I can't even see. Thank you Amanda Davis for pouring water in my eyes, and Jon Lin for letting me use your Gaia dry-wipes to remove/cry out those last pesky grains of sand. Fortunately, the game goes our way, as they have an anemic hucking game and we are unstoppable moving the disc. I'm pretty sure that this is the game where I manage to pointblock my man on our own endzone line with two open receivers, but he manages to get to the ricochet just before I do and catches it for a goal. They also ran a guy out the back of the endzone into a port-a-potty and almost knocked it over. 12-10 victory, good guys.

After this game I'm absolutely covered in sand, my feet hurt a lot, the heat is starting to get to me, and all I really want to do is sit down. So I sit and watch other games, get off my feet, and engage in general lethargy before our final game of pool play. Our next game is against Cornell alumni, and we roll this game. Our women absolutely roast the other team's, and the rest of us generally don't turn the disc over. I think the final score was 20-11 or something similar. I wound up cutting my feet on shells and a chunk of concrete. Ouch. Then we wait over an hour for the prequarters matchups to be posted (we're the last division to hear, of course), and we end up playing against a team that can't throw forehands.

This game is notable mostly for their complete and utter inability to throw forehands, as well as Jake Levine, the non-ultimate-but-wiffleball player, getting something around 6 D's but being absolutely awful on offense. In trying to get Jake bookends, I was 0-3 with two turnovers. That was just a mistake that I apparently couldn't learn from. After we ended the game 18-4, Jake treated one of the teams on the sideline to some wiffleball pitching, after going off by himself to "scuff up the ball." It was impressive to watch, but I can't really believe that he hit 78 mph. With a wiffleball.

After that I finally took off my ankle brace and hit the ocean - it was cold, fun, and absolutely necessary. I was covered from head to toe in sand, and that rinse was clutch. Part of the consummate Wildwood experience has to be finishing your game and immediately running down to the ocean to cool off and splash around before your next game. Eventually, we headed back to the hotel for a long round of showers, and me watching the rerun of the Tour de France time trial, basically from where I'd left off in the morning. It was a great testament to the sport, Levi Leipheimer was amazing, and Contador was inspirational holding on to the maillot jaune and finishing 5th on the day. After we were all cleaned off, we played a little catchphrase and split off into smaller groups for dinner on the boardwalk.

Night/Day 2 to follow ... full of interesting Night 2 stories.

Monday, July 23, 2007

YCC Practice 2

Yesterday was our second (and, unfortunately, final) YCC practice. It feels odd to be heading to a tournament with only two practices under our belt, but I think that this practice went a long way towards building team camaraderie and spirit. Fortunately, we will have a chance to play together at Nucci's Cup in two weeks, where we'll see how we gel on the field with our O and D lines, and who can step up in pressure situations against good club players and teams. I think that this last practice was also great for learning each others' strengths and limitations, so we can have reasonable expectations for what throws can be made and caught in what situations.

We started practice with a long jog and I led an abridged version of the warmups that Stanford used all season - abridged mostly because I couldn't remember all of the exercises. We broke right into an extremely tiring drill that emphasized following your throws and communication between thrower and receiver - something that we need to maximize in order to limit turnovers between players who come from different systems. Afterwards, we moved into run-throughs of endzone offense, first without defense and then in a 6v6 competitive setting. Unfortunately, we only had 13 players at practice, and soon after this drill we lost one to heat exhaustion/asthma/difficulty breathing.

We followed up with a lot of tough running and defensive fitness drills that pushed everyone to their limits. But team morale was high and we pulled each other through, even though we all felt like dying afterwards. Then we actually got to practice playing defense on the field, with isolation man defense. There were some incredible battles and great D's, as the same players matched up for many reps against each other. Then we split off into "receiver" and "handler" groups, but the handler group was a little receiver-heavy, since four of the six players not present/playing were handlers. I was put in the handler group, although I'll probably spend a lot of my time downfield in actual games. It felt good to work on handler defense and communication, as well as handler motion on offense.

Communication will be extremely important as we go forward this summer - not only for us but for every YCC team, especially those that are drawing from a number of schools. Teams that are on the same page, or can communicate effectively during the course of a point, will be able to force more turnovers on defense and keep the disc longer on offense. No teams will really be able to "peak" at YCC's ... it's a matter of which teams will have mastered the familiar early-season jitters the best.

We closed out the practice with a lot of intense mini, playing 3v3 games to 3, with turnovers counting as -1 (bottoming out at -2). Some teams could cope, actually getting to 3, but some others (mine included) got ever so close before getting tired and making bad decisions to fall permanently negative. Hopefully we got the importance of limiting turnovers drilled into us by these games, and I think we'll do well in two weeks when we get our first chance to play together as a team. I'd like for us to finish in the top half, but this tournament is not about results for us - it's about gelling as a team, figuring out how our offense and defense can respond to what other teams throw at us, and seeing if we can take the punishment that a two-day tournament deals out.

Monday, July 16, 2007

YCC Practice

Well, Glenn did a pretty good job describing practice on Sunday. It was a grueling five hour practice that helped get players familiar with one another and working in an offense that was unfamiliar to each of the 16 players there. Included was a two-dump set that was similar to, but much simpler than, Stanford's. Unfortunately, this was an offense-focused practice, so there was not much introduction to defense until the hour or so of scrimmaging we had at the end. We split into rough versions of O and D teams for the first time. Most players will have been used to playing nearly every single point for their high school teams, so the transition to making the most of their playing time will be something they'll need to adapt to. I'm confident that being able to rest will be a welcome change - especially if the O team can have a conversion rate comparable to a high-level college team's and the D team can continue to get D's at a high school level.

Interestingly, I was put on the O team. I was really encouraged by our quick disc movement - we didn't have to mention holding on to the disc too long at all during the scrimmage. We still need to play a little more conservatively if we're going to have a high conversion rate, and pick the times to huck a little better. Overall, it was very encouraging for a first practice. The D team looked hungry but had some problems gelling on offense, but again, it's a first practice. Once we get more time playing together and some time to actually practice defense, I think the team will look very strong.

In terms of health, my ankle didn't bother me much, although I injured my shoulder on an early layout and cramped up about 10 minutes from the end of practice. I'm still not ready to play at a high level without the brace, although I played about 2 hours of low-level pickup on Saturday without it.

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

How will Mamabird cope when Beau leaves the nest?

When Colorado takes the field in 2008 in their familiar yellow jerseys, one figure will be noticeably absent. Beau Kittredge, perhaps the most dominant player in college ultimate over the last four seasons, will not return to Mamabird. Beau twice finished in the top 5 in Callahan voting, was a huge part of Colorado reaching the finals three times in four years, and a player forced that opposing teams to change their defenses around to stop him. How can he be replaced?

He can't. But Colorado will be a better team in 2008 without him.

To anyone watching the 2007 College Nationals final, it appeared that, on defense, Beau was more of a liability than anything. Watching 6 determined Colorado defenders struggle to switch off and contain 7 excellent, speedy Wisconsin players while Beau parked himself in the middle of the field, waiting for a huck that never came, was painful. Beau's place on the field was well-deserved - at his best, he's Colorado's best offensive and defensive player. Even hurt as he was, torn hamstring and all, he was among Colorado's best 7 on offense and defense. But Colorado's "6 + Beau" defense was shredded by cutters like Jack Marsh. Colorado's zone was slightly more effective in containing Wisconsin, but nobody was going to stop them this year.

So how can I say that Colorado will be better sans Beau, after losing in the finals of Nationals to one of the best teams to ever hit the college series? And let's not forget that they're losing their other Callahan nominee, Rabbit, along with their most consistent handler of year (besides Jolian), Gonzo. How could they be better without winning Nationals? Yes, I'm done asking questions that I will answer in the course of the post.

Mamabird returns an incredibly strong lineup, especially with Jolian, Martin, and Mac Taylor all coming back. No doubt it will take time to adjust to the loss of Beau, especially when it comes to breaking down a zone defense or throwing hucks as far as possible. Colorado will have to learn to play a better brand of ultimate - but they have the personnel. I've learned over the course of the year that good handlers are everywhere, but great handlers are hard to find. Colorado still has Jolian, their great handler. Rabbit and Gonzo can and will be replaced. To borrow one of the oldest and most meaningless sports cliches of all time, they have players who know how to win.

Colorado will still be a team that makes people think twice about playing zone against them. Their willingness to throw hammers and their ability to catch them will become more and more threatening even without the possibility of a zone-breaking huck to Beau. They will bring up tested players from their B-team who can contribute right away, and they have hungry defenders itching for playing time. The system at Colorado is one of the best in the country, as speed and defensive intensity are the ways to make the A-team, and those are two things that will make any college team a threat to win Nationals. Catt and Juice are fearsome coaches that inspire incredible loyalty in their players.

The offense that was so feared, supposedly because of the instantaneous threat of a huck to Beau, will not be so radically different. Beau spent far more time behind the disc this year than he ever had before, and Colorado was able to score by working the disc, breaking the mark, and launching hucks to their other talented receivers. Don't be surprised if the Colorado team we see in the fall is radically different than the one that appears in the series. It will definitely take time to make the transition, but only a fool would bet on Colorado tanking without Beau.

The college ultimate scene will be radically different next year, as many teams are coping with the same issues as Colorado - losing their marquee players and team leaders. Not all of them will be able to rebound with the same level of success. Teams like Carleton and Oregon will be hoping to finally make it out of quarters as these "young" teams continue to age without seeing a hint of Nationals glory. Colorado is well-poised to remain at the top, as perennial contenders Stanford and Wisconsin will reload after graduations as well.

The true test remains whether or not the supporting cast from this year can make the transition to leading men. They'll have hungry players on their heels regardless, and Catt will expect nothing less than dominance from a Mamabird team that looks to take advantage of a seemingly wide-open 2008 College Series. If those role players can't step up, they'll remain role players, while rookies and B-teamers will be happy to fill the void and be a part of yet another successful Mamabird team. We know that Martin and Jolian can deliver - they've shown it time and time again. But only when the entire team plays well will Colorado be able to wear gold again at Nationals.

It's too early to say whether or not Colorado is the team to beat in 2008, but a fourth finals appearance in five years is definitely in their sights, Beau or no Beau.

Monday, July 2, 2007

Montreal Jazz

This weekend was my first trip to Canada for the Montreal Jazzfest tournament, which I attended with a group of Columbia High School alumni and two friends of CHS. And a large group of non-ultimate players from Columbia, who helped out with the partying but not with the playing. Coming in to the tournament, I thought that we could do really well, especially with guys who had played at club nationals for Pike and Truck Stop, and college nationals with Colorado and Stanford (well, sort of), and other elite-level college players. Plus, we'd basically all played together in high school and sort of knew each other's playing styles.

The trip started off ominously when we spent approximately four hours going from 15 miles outside of Albany to 15 miles out of Albany. We kept expecting some sort of accident or construction that would explain the ridiculous parking lot that I-87 turned into, but no, apparently New Yorkers just can't drive. Incidentally, we were the only car that ran into this traffic at all - the completely unexpected 1:30 to 5:30 Albany rush. Fortunately, passing through customs was easy enough, despite the skeptical border agent not happy with our answer to the question, "What's your reason for coming to Canada?" "Pleasure." " ... What kind of pleasure?"

We finally arrived at the hotel around 9:30, only to find that we couldn't check into our rooms without a $200 security deposit and a credit card. One of our cars had gotten their earlier and done this for one of the rooms (stupidly put it on a debit card), so we dropped off our bags and hit the town. Montreal is an amazing city - or at least the few blocks of it we got to see were. Our party stretched from our hotel to Crescent Street (several blocks away), which seemed to be the center of the nightlife. We spent several hours there, along with what seemed like all of the young (and some of the old) people in Montreal.

Thankfully, we had a first-round bye and didn't have to be at the fields until 10-ish for our 10:40 game. Two of our three hotel rooms managed to get up in time to eat breakfast, and arrived at the fields around 10:20. Our third car got terrible directions and got lost, and didn't get there until late into the second half. Fortunately, our game was against Canadian Masters team Scotch, who were not in any condition to run with a bunch of young athletes. We had a shutout going until about 10-0, and closed out the game 13-1 with the last car getting there in time to play the final three points. The highlight of the game was definitely the postgame celebration with Scotch, which involved a kilt, a Scottish drinking song, and some delicious Glenlivet Scotch.

Afterwards we had to face a completely different team, the Philly-based team LOVE, composed of a lot of players I'd played against or seen in high school, along with some very athletic guys I didn't recognize. We came out flat, expecting them to roll over like Scotch did, and we quickly got broken twice to go down 0-2. We battled back, converting on offense and trading to about 4-6, when we decided to throw on a trap zone and quickly started to break back. We ended up taking half 7-6, on serve, and extending the lead to 9-6 after the break. Personally, I felt like I improved a lot on the mark during this game, as the pusher in the cup. I only got one point block but consistently forced LOVE to move the disc onto the trap sideline, where we got quite a few D's. They called a smart timeout and started to work the disc better, even throwing a zone of their own, but it was too late and we basically traded out to 13-11, despite getting broken at 12-10.

This was a good, strong game for us, as we beat a team that had practiced together and had some fast receivers that they weren't afraid to huck to. We bounced back after a poor start, and we solidified our trap zone. It was at this point that we realized we had a great chance to actually win the tournament, with a group of players where basically everyone could handle and everyone could get open downfield. We had a bye next, and we all went to get some free food and check out the merchandise - VC had a pair of Stanford shorts in their bargain bin! For shame, VC. I think the bye was bad for my ankle, as it felt really awkward to run afterwards, which made me only play O points in our next game, against "Red Tide".

This was nothing like the Red Tide club team I saw at Boston and beat Brooklyn at CUT. It was eight guys, probably two or three of whom actually played for Red Tide, and one guy in jean shorts and with huge hippie hair. We coasted to 11-2 before giving up three straight goals, then closed them out 13-5. It was a generally uneventful game, except for Evan scoring a goal on a breakside cut past a bidding defender, then rolling the disc to him while he was still on the ground and yelling "Too easy!" But that's Evan for you.

Our crossover game was against Run Silent Run Deep, a team that we'd beaten with Brooklyn at Boston Invite, and a team that has some serious distaste for defense. As such, I don't think we were broken the entire game, and our D line came up with a lot of D's, and their O line just plain turned it over a lot. We won this game 13-5 too, and I didn't play at all, since I wanted to save my ankle for Sunday and it just wasn't worth it to play in a blowout that was over in about 45 minutes (or less). We also confirmed that we would lose Evan for Sunday, with what ended up to be a torn meniscus in his right knee.

Saturday night was a lot of fun. Ridiculous amounts of fun. We didn't play until 11:30 on Sunday, and that meant that there was to be no limit on the Saturday night carousing. We went to the 3 Amigos Mexican restaurant in downtown Montreal and enjoyed some 28 oz. margaritas while seated next to a bachelorette party that kept taking ultimate players and making them eat the candy bracelet/necklace around her wrist/neck. I wouldn't mind going to the wedding (July 27th), but that's the same weekend as Wildwood. Also, who has their wedding on a Friday? Nobody but a group of bridesmaids who want to get their party on for a whole weekend.

We returned to the hotel and continued to party, and I became an old man by enjoying Jack far too much, and then half of the team promptly returned to their beds and passed out. The rest of us hit Crescent St again, first hitting up Karina's, a club with a supposed $10 cover that we managed to get around by threatening to leave (since when does a group of 10 guys threatening to leave ever bother a bouncer?). After a while there, a few of us left and wandered around Crescent again, and I managed to run into a much smaller and more party-going version of the same bachelorette party! Ed and I quickly attached ourselves to them, they loved it, and together we proceeded into the exclusive Club seVen. Thank you domineering hot blonde (maid of honor?), that made the night. We stayed with them for about another 45 minutes in the club before they left, and Ed decided to leave too. I chose to stay, and had a great last hour at the club. Unfortunately, the party ended at 3 am, and I staggered back to the hotel.

At 10 am, my phone alarm (the only one anyone had set) went off, but I turned it off after announcing the time, and we all proceeded to sleep another 15 minutes or so. After a frantic round of packing, we checked out with enough time to get to the fields but not enough time to grab any breakfast. We got there around 11:15, to see one car (the other on-time car from Sunday) there and our opponents (GLUM) tossing and warming up in numbers. Fortunately, they looked old. Unfortunately, they were all in shape and had great throws - this was no pushover Masters team like Scotch. And they looked like this was another tuneup for Canadian Nationals in slightly more than a month.

We started the game with eight players cleated up and fell down two breaks early again, but our other car arrived with us down 2-4 and receiving. We managed to be patient on offense, working it through their zone and clam, and playing hard defense to force a few turns and eventually take the lead. But they came out of halftime a different team, and they worked it on our defense meticulously, with some extremely patient endzone offense, while we started throwing the disc away. That resulted in several breaks for them interspersed with several hard-fought but unsuccessful D points for us. We eventually managed to battle back, pulling downwind at 14-13, but in their typical fashion they worked the disc well and punched it in after a very patient endzone possession.

It was a hard-fought game, it was extremely fun, and I finally managed to "fix" my cutting. I realized that before, I was content to sit in the stack and make my cuts when I thought I was in a good position. But I wasn't ever in a good position for anything more than a swing when I was just sitting in the stack. But midway through the GLUM game, I remembered what Nick Handler and Jit had emphasized for cutters - always keep moving and cycling through the dangerous positions on the field. I began cutting and was open all day on my defender, and all of my clears were just beginnings to new cuts. I touched the disc about every fourth throw after that, and I finally felt good and confident about my cutting, for the first time since SB Invite against UCSC (or, come to think about it, all of the times we played UCSC). It's something I'll take with me for the rest of the summer and into the fall - and I realized that it's one of the things that always made me hate to cover certain players. Even if they weren't the fastest or the best cutters they never stopped moving. And that's what I'm going to bring to my game.

After decleating and being exhausted from the previous nights festivities as well as the 15-13 game we just lost, Q approached us and basically forced us into a consolation game. We agreed to play to 9, and promptly went down 1-6. Q looked a lot stronger than when I played them at Boston Invite, but our team definitely could have beaten them had we not thrown in the towel after the GLUM game. I got to work on my handler defense on that pesky #7 they have, while continuing to experience the joys of being perpetually open. We mustered a little bit of a fightback, but fell 5-9 and began the long trek home. It was largely uneventful, including a particularly uneventful two hour wait in the line at the border.

Overall, this was a great tournament, and Montreal is a fantastic city, despite its funny money and general French-ness. I can't wait to come back next year and to see Montreal without a frisbee tournament in the way.