2 E's, 2 L's and a Z in there somewhere

This is a test of your RSS feed.

2009-03-17T22:56:00.003-05:00

Had this been a real emergency, I sure wouldn't be posting it on blogspot.

Madison Sub Zero?

2008-09-03T22:51:00.004-05:00

I always start to contradict people who claim that SubZero is little more than a Hodag club team. Every time I go back and add up college alma maters, they prove I'm wrong as always:
Wisconsin: 12
Carleton: 4
U of MN: 4
Luther: 4
Harvard: 1
Winona State: 1
St. Olaf: 1
St. Cloud State: 1
(This includes Dan Miller as a Hodag and Jack Marsh from Harvard)

I've only been on the team for six years, but I still carry the impression that SZ is still primarily CUT based.

Compare the above with the 2001 Sub Zero roster:
Carleton: 9
St. Cloud State: 3
Winona State: 3
U of MN: 3
Colorado College: 1
Macalester: 1
Marquette: 1
St. Johns: 1
Michigan: 1

Our roster being as young as it is, it's an interesting comparison that highlights how for the life of us we can't get post college players not from this area to move here. Damn you Minnesota.

Adding a third gold star to that sleeve

2008-07-01T07:30:00.003-05:00

(These thoughts have been burning a hole in my drafts folder so it's time to purge)

A belated congrats to the Brodags of Wisconsin (although I've congratulated most of you in person). Taking the 2008 College championship title makes them back-to-back winners, with three titles over the past six championships (and a close loss to Florida away from four in six).

Give credit to CUT as well for making their way into the semis and taking their part in bringing the double strength bid back to the the Central Region. As if there wasn't enough historical evidence of the late season win when it counts during the Series trend, the (comparably) short guys pulled together another great run when most don't give them much attention.

Sub Zero's vacation period is coming to a close soon. I can only do some many early morning hill/plyo/sprint workouts before needing to play some real ultimate again. My nights have become so busy with taking care of my daughter so that we can avoid daycare costs, that most mornings I'm done running by 7 AM. It's a sickness.

SZ's tryouts ended well with (in my opinion) the toughest and most talented additions in all the years that I've been playing here including Hector (brings in welcome elite club experience), Chris Rupp (previous SZ experience and starting O line handler), and Grant Lindsley (elite college talent with elite club time as well), just to name a handful. The current roster contains only two players at 30 or older. I have a feeling that the possession game won't be our style.

There's also been much discussion lately as to Match's writings and the coverage of ultimate in general on the tails of the CBS coverage of college nationals. Compared to the current main stream popular sports environment, ultimate is intriguingly attacking from the complete opposite angle. As an off and on Deadspin reader, I read frequently about bloggers and the non-traditional media outlets gaining ground on sports coverage and the increasing resistance by print and television media due to a perceived lack of journalistic credibility.
Uniquely, ultimate receives little to no traditional attention, and therefore, because ultimate players love reading about and watching themselves, we fill our own need. This puts us right in the middle of "lacking legitimacy" camp. This doesn't mean that we can't or shouldn't gain attention this way, but we do need to have realistic expectations about our resources. Two great examples of which are Match, very entertaining and charismatic but needs to iron out the logical flow of an argument, and Kyle Weisbrod, very positive influence on the evolution of the game but brutal doing color commentary. Both seek to improve and expand the game we love, but journalists, we ain't. I cringe at a lot of the things that are written or portrayed about ultimate (this blog included), but as long as we continue to maintain grassroots culture and organic growth via electronic media. These things aren't necessarily good or bad. That's ultimate.

Not ultimate related but still targeting the nerd demographic

2008-01-24T09:44:00.000-06:00

If you've played the game Half Life,

you need to visit YTMND.com and watch this clip of a conspiracy radio host taking hook, line, and sinker (your sound must be on).

If you've never played the game before, the above clip falls firmly in "I guess you had to be there" territory.

[EDIT: P.S. Because I've been asked, my household still remains at 2 people and 1 dog]

Perfect season gone!

2008-01-18T15:27:00.001-06:00

Although it's a week late, news of Pinkies Up defeat at the hands of Wanna Buy a Duck in the Minneapolis Winter Indoor League has already permeated the ultimate community. It wasn't close, really (i.e. 6 points or so not close). Our decisions were decidedly sketchy, even for winter league standards(and by "our decisions", I mean "my decisions").

I've always enjoyed the timing and general attitude around playing winter league. I treat it as a fun/social way to get back into the mix after getting burnt out on a long club season. However, there still are definite competitive undertones and playing a good game against teams filled with Zero/Bait players makes it even better. Also at some point soon, we'll all have to band together and hire part-time child care staff for all the babies hanging out on the sidelines!

We get the late slot tonight (11 PM) against the revamped Rocket, who continue to go the way of brother pairs and husband/wife combos (the Mooers, Fenskes, Schmits, and formerly Severts). If Tony Severt shows, I really hope he breaks out his .purple and yellow Converse sneaks a la Magic Johnson. Those things are amazing.

In non-ultimate related news, Eli hates the cold...bring on the flurries!

The Club Championship that wasn't (for me)

2007-12-17T19:25:00.000-06:00

The 2007 club season has since drawn to a close, and very unremarkably at that for me, personally. A family emergency kept me from attending this year. It was a decision that I didn't (and still don't) resent. My teammates were all very supportive, which I very greatly appreciated, as I still felt like I was leaving them in the lurch. I obviously would not have lead Zero to the finals had I been there, but that tournament is what we all train for all year long. We often would mince words about not looking past Regionals, taking one tournament at a time, etc etc, but in reality, the entire season is a lead-in to making power pools and further.

In those few days while I was working from home, I mashed the F5 button more than I care to admit. The other benefit of working from home was being able to yell at my computer as I watched Zero lose to Chain, almost lose to Furious and trail Jam most of the way. At some point we need to figure out how to holdour initial second slot in the first day pools (and how to beat Chain at Nationals while we're at it).

While Quarters is all well and good, I still remain very optimistic about Zero's future, as this year definitely felt like a roll of the dice, both regarding the new personnel and a much more aggressive approach to offense. I'd like to think of us as a poor man's Bravo of a few years back, as in a young team putting in solid performances year-round and looking to put it together to push into Semis (if not further).

It certainly seems like there's a great deal more parity in the 4-10 range now that Furious is showing their age, Boston hasn't fully put forward one focused strategy and mindset yet, Chain gaining more talent, and Goat and Condors always lurking.

I guess now's the time to start recruiting more mercenaries to Minnesota.

It's always windy in Sarasota

2007-10-15T21:06:00.000-05:00

...and rainy in Tulsa, apparently.

Obviously Tulsa was a difficult location for Central Regionals, blah blah blah, it's all been said before. Plane tickets are a regularity for other regions (SW, NW) so that's the name of the game sometimes. Once the location was set, the coordinators were in a lose-lose situation. Nothing they could do would make up for the fact that everyone had to travel and were determined to bitch about it (including me). The heavy driving rain and lightning delay on Sunday were just the cherries on top.

The 14.3 format yielded two pools of seven with games to 11. Other than Illinois, who caught us napping at the beginning of the game, no one scored more than 7. We came out with a break in every game we started on D line (4 of 6 games), and dictated the tempo in each game. As the weekend wore on, the D line gained more momentum and was able to break multiple points in a row in each game. The highlight of this was the VBB game where our D-line went 9 for 10 on breaks (although VBB was struggling mightily on Saturday only to rebound with style on Sunday).

On Sunday, we rolled through Hustle first round, then played BAT in the semis (after they were upset by Madcow in pool play). We had played a pretty close game with them at CHC. Maybe I was imagining it, but I that Madcow loss probably took a toll on their confidence and frustrations. Their young players are coming along, but as a team, they still seem to be struggling to pull it all together again like they could a few years ago. Our D line rolls off more multiple breaks in a row to win 15-5. Machine takes Madcow in a chippy game in the other semi, bringing about our fourth game against Chicago this season. And the rain came down. We did our plyos and drills in water-logged shoes while Machine was waiting out the rain under a tent, not needing a warmup after their most recently completed game (and avoiding the downpour). We break to start, multiple turns ensue from both sides, and they break back mostly due to a 50 yd flick upwind into the rain. Brief lightning delays our game (but not the coed backdoor final) for a good 20 minutes. As play resumes, the rain slackened, and our D line started to click again. We take the finals 15-7, and the Central Region title for the third consecutive year.

I stayed around to watch the Madcow-VBB game-to-go, and I really have to thank Andy Dikeman for providing Ben Hahn with a chew for the game...it might as well have been LSD mixed with ecstasy. Ben's mixed alcohol and tobacco buzz was off-the-charts good times. Both sides were playing very physically and intensely (as a game-to-go should dictate). Honestly, observers probably should have been in place from the start. Madcow is an over-the-top emotional team (to the point of being detrimental), and VBB have a couple personalities that are more than happy to fan that flame. As those faithful RSD readers know, VBB prevailed and there was much crying on both sides (for obviously different reasons). Having friends on VBB, I was very glad to see them come through (especially after that terrible Saturday). I look forward to your beer points against Jam in Florida. I'm really hoping that someone gets a picture of Karsten or Berkseth skying Steets with a beer in hand. I was also able to catch some Rackages points as well, and I'm pleased to see they're in a similar situation with big success with a new roster.

Couldn't forget ICE and Poodle Club. Apparently practice and formal practices are detrimental in the coed division, as the Iowa and Carleton kids ride on to besmirch the image of mixed division yet again (I'm looking at you Rupp, Leon and Hahn).

Aside from the obvious personnel differences, this truly is a new generation of Zero. Even when I made the team in 2003, BAT and Machine were not guaranteed wins, and Madison was always a threat (especially at Sectionals). Barely anyone bought plane tickets ahead of time. This year some had them booked in August. We had no doubt in our minds what the results of Regionals would be. With all the Brodag talent, Sub Zero is hitting a high cycle and have drawn a fifth seed at Nationals. This team still has a lot to prove on Thursday, Friday and Saturday in Sarasota. but of all the Zero teams that I've played on, this is by far the most dangerously talented.

Leave your sundresses at home, because it's going to be cold in Sarasota, bitches.

For the crotchety old crank in all of us...

2007-09-27T19:49:00.000-05:00

My favorite website of the moment. Enjoy, but keep the volume down you damn hooligans!

www.ihateyoungpeople.com

"Why do you pierce your nose? I've got allergies. I can't imagine having a runny nose with piercings."

NW Plains Sectionals

2007-09-26T16:55:00.000-05:00

This past weekend was the first step of the real season. I'm of course talking about the Badgers defeat of the Hawkeyes and the start of their Big Ten football schedule.

Sectionals were played in Delafield at the Milwaukee Polo Club fields, where when you think about it, we've played a whole load of tournaments there as they hold Cooler, Sectionals, and Regionals there over the years. 14 teams and 3 bids left us with a 4 pool into semi's mish-mash (maybe a preview of regionals?). We were in a pool with Goose Egg and the second best college team out of Northfield, MN (aka CUT) with games to 17. We cruised in both games, only allowing 6 against CUT and 5 against Goose. High points from the games:
1) My CUT defender seemingly trying to prevent my around by bowling into my knees, me taking exception, calling foul, shoving him to the ground and throwing a push-pass blade at him (without any intention of hitting him). What can I say? I'm very conscious of others hurting my knees as I've put a lot of money into them. (He had tripped and apologized to me).
2) CK taking the Goldstein mantle and controlling arguments with opposing teams and making fun calls to annoy the other team.
3) Beast Master lay out D's for Goose Egg against CUT. That kid may be skinnier than Timmy, but you gotta feed the beast.
4) Lagging as a team against Goose Egg, the game reaching 5-5, then reeling off 12 points in a row enroute to a double oat bag.

Semi's were against Ding Wop. Our D line came out firing, and we essentially won the game shortly after it started. 15-5. Sunday finals were against Frontline (Madison), and they seemed to be as psyched out as Ding Wop was, making bad throwing mistakes and decisions. We win 15-4 and keep Dan Heijmen's Sectional title streak rolling.

Overall, I think the loss to Goat in the finals of CHC may have been a goood wake-up call for us. We played much more relaxed and that allowed us to bring a much higher intensity on D. This team operates well under much different conditions that Sub Zero's past. We can do the "intense yelling" thing to get us motivated but seem to perform better under more relaxed almost fun attitudes than when we are very pissed.

There's been some discussions about lifting versus technique in ultimate in the blogs and RSD. While throwing technique is paramount, after playing more with the likes of Shane Hohenstein, Will Lokke, and Muffin, no one is going to convince me that a good weights program won't take your game to the next level.

Favorite moment of the weekend that made me laugh besides Pat Baylis getting lost and making CUT almost miss the start of our first game:
Poodle Club (Mixed Carleton currents and alums) playing Flaming Moe, Leon going after a deep throw, and a Moe woman gets in his way as she runs for the disc too. Without her there, Leon definitely gets to the disc for a score. So what does Leon do? Calls the foul. I've never seen such shock and disdain at a call before from the Moe side.

CHC

2007-09-17T17:10:00.000-05:00

I'm sure if I wrote these recaps within a couple days of the actual tourney, I probably would remember more (unless I could remember every point I ever played in). Therefore I rely on a spotty memory and the UPA Score Reporter...

San Diego United (mostly UCSD players) and Mad Hatters games were the first two of the day and went through without any hitches. PoNY was the third game of the day, with Masulis only fulfilling the "coach" section of his player/coach responsibilities. Obviously BVH is their player, and a good one at that. As would be a preview of a few other teams playing us throughout the weekend, they held tough through the first half before relenting in the second 12-8.

Going 3-0 in our pool led to two power pool games to round out the day. First, Madcow is an improved team and could make a push for a Nationals spot (and thus the opportunity to win the E. Pig Game). We didn't struggle against them, but it was certainly a chippy game from the outset (which from what I heard from other teams, was a common occurrence with Madcow throughout the tourney). During one series of ticky tack calls by one player on Shane, the cuddliest Hodag proceeded to back down the (rightfully) frightened Madcow player and flip his hat off his head. Madcow players flipped, tempers flared, and after the point was done, everyone apologized and was fine. BAT was next and this game held close to point-for-point until we pulled out a couple breaks in the second half to win 12-10. Undefeated on the day.

Everyone's favorite blogging personalities were on hand for the VBB-Zero matchup on Sunday morning. As I've said before, VBB will always play up against us. Just like playing against the Packages during winter indoor tournaments, there is something about the matchup that they relish. As well as they typically do against us, VBB seem to struggle against the other top 4 teams in the region, and are going to have to prove they can play up to other teams, too.

Semi's brought Machine, another tight first half, and then a second half drubbing by our D-line. To this point in the weekend, the O-line hadn't been broken more than once in a row (insert ominous foreboding feeling here). As anticipated, we faced Goat in the finals. They were running a smaller roster than the rest of the open teams, but are just past the peak of the CUC season (and show it). They have three or four of the 6'4" or taller players with good deep throws (specifically to each other). This was mostly an upwind-downwind game with Goat collecting only a break or two here and there. We were getting turns but weren't handling the disc well after the turns. Eventually the breaks added up and their deep game continued to be spot on, taking finals 14-10 and the free 5-Ultimate jerseys (it should be noted that 5 created a WUCC style players lounge area with couches and coffee tables, very excellent setup!).

We're on to Sectionals next weekend. I may actually complete a couple existing drafts that I have kicking around about refs in ultimate as well as the big-fish/small-pond corollary to Timmy's old post.

(E)CC

2007-08-22T22:24:00.000-05:00

I never ended up posting any results or recaps from Colorado, so let's just use that as a good transition into ECC/Spawnfest Elite...

I always enjoy Colorado Cup. Tourney food is fully stocked, water refilled, and they always have little bonuses that push it over the top (this year was mini-Clif bars and Mix1 energy/protein drinks...the lime flavor kicks ass). I also love that this is a tourney played at elevation, thus making it a great training opportunity.

Boston was very short on numbers (i.e. 15 or so before injuries set in), and we dealt with them pretty easily. Machine rolled over for us as we almost put an "oatbag" on them (ask a Hodag if you don't know what that means). Revolver and Truck Stop were a little bit closer, but I still felt that we were in control. We let both Condors and Jam back into those games, but we ended up losing the Jam game and beating Condors. Bravo remains one of our struggles. The 14-10 scoreline was very deceiving as they were out in front by 7 or so before we rattled off a few breaks in a row to gain little dignity back.

This was the first time we "qualified" for ECC since my first year on the team, 2003. That year we went 0-7 or so and generally embarrased ourselves. This year either marked how far we've come as a team, or how much worse everyone else has become (I'd like to think that it's the former). We finished 3-3, losing only to Sockeye, Furious and Buzz Bullets.

Chain--We come out flying, and they come out extremely flat. We took advantage while we could and took half 8-3. Then it was our turn to be sluggish. We switched roles, and they went on a 9-3 run to take the lead at 12-11. Our O line scores the next point. D line gets a huge break courtesy of a Jeremy Allred layout D on a high stall in cut. We trade points to take the game 14-13.

Furious--Zero typically matches very well against Furious, but never seems to get over the hump. Today would be no different. We were less intense on D than the previous game, but held tight through the first half. We had the score at 11-9 before Furious rolls out 4 straight breaks to take the game 15-9.

Revolver--Hey guess what? Their offense through Robbie Cahill. Most of the sets were keep three cutters close to the disc, let Robbie cut by himself, deep or in, and then follow up with another ISO cut. They have the throwers to get this done and obviously have other options (as witnessed by their rolling of Furious in quarters in the rain), but we seemed to be able to chip away using zone transitions to slow down the Cahill threat. Zero wins 15-11.

Voodoo--We ended up winning 15-8 in a game that was never in question. They were at the end of a tough day, but they are no slouches. Their new Five Ultimate jerseys are sweet close up, but look to be dirty yellow shirts from far away. NW Regionals are going to be a difficult weekend for Rhino and Voodoo to contend with Revolver, Furious, Jam, and Sockeye. Oh, and I threw my first scoober turnover since I've been on Zero (unless Timmy can contradict that) on a throw to the endzone to Baylis. It was truly not good.

Buzz Bullets--We've faced them before and this game was better for us (i.e. not getting broken six times in a row). They never really pulled away from most teams, but still are obviously very good. Our D line was generating turns here and there but (painfully) not converting. Nothing else new from me versus what's being said about them on RSD. Lost 15-12.

Sockeye--I love a good challenging game. This game was tantalizingly close for a long while. We were generating turns but making bad choices to give it back. As Sockeye (and all great Elite teams) typically does, they maintain a high level of play and outlast you. Apply constant pressure and make the other team crack first. We ended up losing 15-11 in a game that seemed closer than that purely because I was playing for the team that scored 11, and I'm delusional while playing. Highlight of the game was Muffin picking up a turn in the endzone, bringing the disc to the goaline on the backside corner, seeing a straight up mark and bombing an 85 yard forehand to Will Lokke in stride. Besides being a disgustingly sick throw, Muffin did not release the flick until Will (being covered by Nord) was a good 40 yards downfield. Filthy.

Overall, I've been very happy with how the team is shaping up this year. We are playing up for big opponents, but more importantly are eliminating playing down to lesser opponents. We just need to keep working towards maintaining an even keel throughout the game and making constant pressure work for us instead of against us.

Fashionably Late to the MUDI Party

2007-07-25T23:21:00.000-05:00

This past weekend brought the first tourney for the '07 version of Sub Zero. I think we've had a total of two weekend practices together as a team. Being as young a team as we are, we decided to nix the extra plane ticket for Boston Invitational this year. However, the powers that be decided that Regionals should be in Tulsa, which brings back that extra ticket that's actually more expensive than flying to Boston.

Maple Plain, no cloud cover, little shade, and a fairly heavy upwind-downwind. The ground was hard as ever, but I was very pleased to be back in a tournament setting. The first three games in pool play resulted in three quick wins and five total points scored against us. In the fourth, Goose Egg ran out a quick lead on us, as a foreshadowing for the finals the next day, before we reeled them in a won 13-8.

Day Two brought a shade more cloud cover, and a comfortable 11 AM quarters start. Blerge went down to the wire against TBA, leading to a 13-0 warmup to Winnipeg in semis. This wasn't the same General Strike as years past as the personnel has started to shift. We won 13-7 but they could definitely make a good show at Regionals if they're willing to make the 16 hour drive.

This brought a finals showdown against Van Buren Boys. I was glad that they made finals so I could play against a new unknown opponent. Plus, the crowd seemed very pumped to see them prevail. Now, there have already been many accounts written from the VBB side of the coin (seriously, VBB is dominating the blog scene right now, just edging out Moe).

My personal side of it goes something like this (in a stream-of-consciousness sort of way):
We start off slow and go down a break or two to start. Pregame, I would have said that their D-line's offense would be their weakness without any "take charge" handlers like their O-line has, but sure enough they convert a few in the first half, including up-winders. Our defense is not having much problems creating turnovers and converting either. I am very intrigued to see how our D-line handler set of Kevin Riley, Muffin and myself work out. We had a couple of handler cut miscues, but things were getting ironed out. Much like the Goose Egg game from the previous day, even though we were down a couple early, at no point did I feel like we were in trouble. I felt like we were going to continue to get lots of chances at breaks and that our O line would come around and be more consistent. Sure enough, down 6-7 with half at 8, we break twice to take half (even with some solid crowd heckling directed our way). We proceed to hit the gas from there and extend to 13-9. Our depth took over by the second half as VBB's were clearly more gassed.

Overall, BAT and Machine can't ignore Van Buren when it comes time for Regionals. As of right now, they still fit into the "dangerous if underestimated" category. They need to keep their play consistently good over a full game in order to beat a high caliber opponent. If Regionals follows previous formats, it would definitely help them by limiting the number of games played in order to qualify for Nationals to 6 or so. Also, keep in mind that it's only July, and this tournament will mean shit come September and October.

Parting thoughts: By the end of the weekend, there were more guys on SZ reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on the sidelines than not. This is my third title in a row including Come Inside Where It's Warm, and Winter League Playoffs. After those, ECC should be a walk in the park. Also, blogger doesn't recognize sarcasm html tags, so I leave it to you to figure out where those would apply.

Goaltimate, Shtick, Natties, etc etc etc

2007-06-13T12:13:00.000-05:00

This is more intended as a roundup of sorts than anything in depth. Let's see where this goes...

Work-Insurance is crazy. Mostly crazy for geeks that choose to work in the field and not be in sales. On the morbid side, I now know what the medical term and symptoms for lung cancer developed from asbestos exposure.

Zero-Tryouts round up this weekend. If I had two words to describe the team this year, they would be "not old". With departures and retirements, we are going to be as young and athletic as ever. We may have to start utilizing a modified HnH offense depending on the handler staff. I have found myself taking on more of a leadership role (probably because I am one of the handful over 25), and have been trying to step up my game. I have always been the "conscience" of the D line handlers and probably will have to move more into a "initiator" role.

Wednesdays-By the middle and end of our season, numbers for Wednesday practices consistently dwindle and we work on our goaltimate and shtick as we can't field two full teams. With all the Madison guys trying out and lack of local numbers, we have already made the shift. Two weeks ago it was shtick in the rain and last week was goaltimate (although I couldn't attend). I've always loved the weird capture-the-flag type games. When I was in elementary school, there was an after-care program called "Super-Sports" that consisted of hours of games involving all those kinds of weird games, and I loved every second of it.

College Nationals-I've been able to congratulate the Hodag guys in person but wanted to make a quick note. Their performance at Nationals was ridiculously sick. Total domination. It was like Wisconsion was able to convince everyone "Just be happy that you're at Nationals, now please move aside". I am especially glad for the Hodag alumni whose vicarious lifestyles have another highlight (and I'm not even being sarcastic. I graduated from Olaf and am glad when their current team finished top 5 at Regionals dammit).

"Shaqapulco"

2007-05-04T16:16:00.000-05:00

I'll be back to more Ultimate topics soon enough, although I won't be able to see Central Regionals this weekend.

I just wanted to let you all know that Shaq is quite possibly one of the funniest people alive. Via a Bill Simmons link, read Dan Le Batard's Miami Herald interview with Shaq. It includes such gems as:
"Last time I looked at a check, I said to myself, `Who the hell is FICA? And when I meet him, I'm going to punch him in the face. Oh my God, FICA is killing me.'"
-and-
"When I'm in my car, I know I need to go to Sharper Image and get the damn seat massage thing. I wiggle my way there and get the damn seat massage thing."
-and-
"I take them...to the five-room guest house that leads out to a 20-foot pool -- aka, Shaqapulco."

The Classic

2007-05-01T20:21:00.000-05:00

The club season is looming. I'm jogging with the pup, running stairs and hills and such. I was down at Olaf for a work seminar and stopped by the fields to play some Goaltimate with the Olaf team and Coach David Truesdale before Sectionals and was pleasantly surprised to find that I'm in much better shape that I thought I was.

However, the real purpose of this post is to tell you to watch more ESPN Classic. Today alone I was able to catch Liverpool beating Chelsea in a shootout to advance to the Champions League Final (which was just earlier today) and American freaking Gladiators! (People forget that Joe Theismann was a color commentator on this show when it started). And you thought the channel was just for watching old NBA games with guys in short shorts.

Northwoods Open Sectionals

2007-04-23T14:51:00.000-05:00

I had the chance this past weekend to get out and watch the second day of Northwoods Sectionals. A steady wind held throughout the day, and from what I heard, was only a slight breeze compared to Saturday's weather. CUT cruised through their semifinal matchup against GOP while Minnesota did struggle initially against St. John's in their match. At one point, Minnesota was down 5-8 to the Johnnies before running a 7-1 stretch to 12-9 before pulling away. St. John's was only running about 12 players deep in their rotation and were clearly more fatigued down the stretch.

CUT v. Minnesota turned out to be a very entertaining game. It wasn't nearly as chippy a game as the sectional finals in 2005. U of MN ran mostly man, trying several different people in order to contain Jacon Goldstein. Carleton mixed up more man and zone looks to take advantage of the windy conditions.

Teams traded points through to 5-5 or so. Kyle Gill threw 4 of the first 5 MN scores. Carleton gained a break, and then Minnesota went on a 3 break run. CUT failed to connect on a couple deep shots to Goldstein and Jerome. MN found a good matchup against Goldstein and shut him down well enough to cause CUT's offense to misfire. Also, one the funnier moments of the weekend involved CK from CUT trying to catch a Minnesota pull by Colin McIntyre. It was a backhand with the wind behind it that was coming in very fast and promptly ate CK alive, giving Minnesota the disc on the goal line.

After half, CUT refocused and started generating D's and converting turns. Minnesota just came out too tenatively after realizing how much they were up. CUT gains back 4 scores in a row to retake the lead. I give lots of credit to CUT for knowing when to stack their D line (Baylis, Goldstein, Jerome, CK) in order to generate breaks and turn the tide without wearing down all their stars. They did it at the start of the game and coming out of half to great advantage.

After CUT went up 12-11, they collected another break and finished the game off at 15-13. Minnesota definitely takes their momentum and runs with it, much like Madison. When they play up to their competition, they can be very dangerous. CUT's fate lies with Goldstein. In the middle part of the finals when CUT started to fade, it seemed mainly to be due to Minnesota doing a good job of locking Jacob down.

The beauty of this tough game? The winner was getting the 2 seed and the loser the 3 seed for Regionals, so they'll be doing this all over again the last round on Saturday anyways. The format sets up the finals as the first game on Sunday, which, if CUT makes it through to play the Hodags, plays well to their strengths.

CUT reminds me a lot of Rhino during last year's club season. They can pick a game to get up for and be very dangerous, as evidenced by their victories over (early-season)Colorado, Oregon and Florida. Now, do I think CUT can do the same to the Hodags? Probably not. But as always, people will underestimate them at Nationals.

One for the index finger...

2007-03-26T14:23:00.000-05:00

The Lady Zerks have succeeded where so many teams have failed before: beating Wanna Buy A Duck in the Minneapolis Winter League finals. Apparently, all it took was all our women leaving for spring break tournaments and rotating in six women (mostly from Bait and CLX) not from our roster into the game. This unintenionally allowed us to avoid Duck's previously successful strategy of letting our less experienced women catch unders and then force no-dump. Call it an Asterisk Game if you will, but it's still a black mark on Duck's record.

Even though it makes me feel unclean, this title is going up on my wall of sports accomplishments including, but not limited to, 2003 High Tide Ultimate Champs, 2000 St. Olaf Intramural Volleyball Champs, and the Most Improved Player on Chippewa Falls Senior High's Varsity Men's Basketball team for 1999.

Isn't it supposed to be difficult to beat the same team three times?

2007-03-19T15:14:00.000-05:00

At least, I'm hoping that's the case. The Lady Zerks prevailed by 3 points in our semifinals matchup against Rocket, who did not have any non-Masters males playing for them on Friday. This leads into a finals appearance against Wanna Buy a Duck. However, most of our women will be gone, so we may have to play 5 on 3. It would be their third victory over us this year if they win.
My prediction? Pain.

The First Love

2007-03-01T20:15:00.000-06:00

Ultimate is great, don't get me wrong. I love the dynamics of the game. But most everyone has started with another sport before picking up the disc (okay, some naturally freaky athletes don't play sports until college). That's right, dammit, I still love watching soccer.

Be it the English Premier League some afternoons on ESPN, or highlights over at Footy Tube, I still love watching the (supposedly) boring sport that the rest of the world loves (okay, lump college basketball in there, too). I think that it has something to do with having at least some experience in a sport allowing someone to appreciate the best a sport has to offer at least a little bit more than the casual fan. This results in people thinking that NBA players don't try as much or that anyone could make a top-flight soccer team if they tried. And that's precisely what I find most amusing about professional athletics: they make it look effortless to the point that any schmuck thinks they know how to run an NFL team or balance a MLB roster. I'd lump Ultimate right in the middle of that as well.

Fall and Redemption

2007-02-21T21:48:00.000-06:00

Friday night marked my first ever loss to Wanna Buy a Duck at winter league and our first loss of the season thus far. As I suspected would happen with our inexperienced but athletic women, they let our girls catch unders and forced no dump to try to generate turnovers to fair success. We actually played one of our cleaner games to date but wound up 2 points short. I skied Reed, Charlie and Jeremy each once, and Jeremy takes exception and gets a deep D on me later in the game. Having a 4 man rotation for 3 spots is not a sound plan either. We pulled close in the middle of the game when their guys forgot for a stretch that they could throw overheads.

Saturday brought 7 games of indoor at the annual one-day Minneapolis open tourney aka "Sub Zero guys versus CLX guys in the finals with some other games leading up to it" tourney. Last year, the CLX guys prevailed in the finals against my current and former SZ teammates, and there was much rejoicing. This year's team featured a new name (F*** Anna Nicole) and a steamlined the roster. The 6 games leading up to the finals where mostly a breeze.

The finals against the CLX contigent started with a very flat slow 0-3 run on their part. We pulled the game back to 3-3 and traded points until about 7-6. They are running only about a 7 man rotation for 5 spots and by the end of a full day of indoor, are clearly worn out. We push through a couple breaks in a row to help put the game out of reach. I caught the winning score on a breakmark forehand from Naz.

My favorite highlights from the day:

While playing the Flaming Moe men, Todd scored on Paul Norgaard and hit him with the spike after earlier in the same point, Paul contested an obvious foul by saying "I'm just playing like Todd does".

Winey and Todd both threw multiple wrist flip scores.

Naz using his typical "jump in the air and shimmy shake" dump cut and making defenders almost fall over.

Pat Baylis and Ben Hahn spooning while taking a nap together between rounds.

Tom Walker's disdain for everything and everyone.

2007-02-16T11:35:00.000-06:00

To help a nation in mourning...

Tomorrow, my team at the Minneapolis Indoor tourney will be dedicating all wins to help further the healing.

Tonight, my winter league team hopes to take advantage of Wanna Buy a Duck's lack of skinny-former-SubZero-captains-turned-Big-Sky-chemists. If I were on that team, considering their huge advantage in RRI ratings (2,364 to 787), I wouldn't bring more than 5 people, and those that do come should throw left-handed (except Chris York). We wear pink jerseys for crying out loud!

from home, but about Worlds

2006-12-16T15:39:00.000-06:00

I believe I left off at Day 3. After spending another leisurely few hours in the Spirit Lounge, we faced Doublewide later in the day. Off all the Open teams in Australia, DW brought one of the biggest rosters. Part of the reason they were able to bring so many was actual forethought concerning finances. DW has organized some tournaments around Texas earlier in the year and work out some local sponsorship and get many things covered without having to pay out of their own pockets.

This started off as the chippiest game we play all tournament. A couple unappreciated calls by both sides lead to a retalitory call or two. People were jawing on the sidelines, but eventually tempers settled in for another long game. We were within two or three most of the game but couldn't close the gap on defense. We started to come together more as a team but still weren't generating enough breaks to help out our O-line.

Day 4
Unline Nationals were you have to finish in the top 2 of 4 in two power pools to avoid pre-quarters, Worlds only required that you finished in the top 4 of 5 in two power pools to go straight to quarters. By this point, we were 0-2 in our power pool and needed to at least win one game to advance.

Nomadic Tribe:
Nomadic is the #3 Japanese team. While keeping with the fast handler and flat huck style that we had seen from the Boushears and Buzz Bullets, Tribe didn't have the athletes to pull it out for them. Their main handlers played most of the points, and as the game wore on, they threw away more and more bad decisions. 17-11, we thankfully had our win.

Clapham:
Our best growth game of the tournament as a team. Coincidentally, it came against my favorite team to play against. We previously played them at Boston Invite in June at the end of a dreary rainy day with depleted roster on both sides. They play a bit more of the North American physical style and have one of the best receivers in Eurpore in Nasser Mbae (aka Nas).
This game came down to momentum for us. It marked the first game that we were able to pull out a close win for the first time all tourney. Both teams were within a point or two of each other for most of the game. Late in the game, the D-line was able to roll two breaks in a row and generate a lead that the O was able to maintain for the win.

With all the power pool games complete, we earned Fakulti (Australia's #3) in quarters with the winner most likely facing Buzz in semis. DW faced Chilly, and Thong got Clapham. If we had lost to Clapham, we would have had to go through Thong and then Chilly to get to finals. While the momentum gained from our Clapham game was sorely needed, the other route would have definitely be an easier way through.

Day 5:

Fakulti:
This team was almost entirely composed of college kids from Sydney. They ran a tough modified four man cup in some heavy crosswinds. Their cup looked amost exactly like the standard 3man, but with one extra person standing 3 yards back in the lane between the marker and the middle cup man. This effectively cut off the inside break to a swing position that would allow us to the the disk to the upwind side of the field and jailbreak. Charlie Reznikoff's hammer became our most lethal option. We came out of the gate strong and gain a five point early lead on bad long throw decisions. Outside of half, we suffered a small letdown while putting the game on cruise control but were able to earn a few more breaks back to win 17-10.

At this point we know we have Buzz in the semis. We always felt that of all the Open teams, we had the most potential to knock them off.

Buzz Bullets:
We came out hot in this game, and played our best first half thus far. We were determined not to let them catch force-side unders, but mindful to not let a denied undercut pull you so close to the disc that it opens up an easy deep. Rotations were shallower, and we used Brown and Naz more and more on D line to help convert the infrequent turns at a higher percentage. This helped up to a 9-8 lead at half. The halftime vibe throughout the team had a very peculiar feel to it. It felt very much like a "we're just happy to be here taking half on the tourney favorite" atmosphere. Buzz regrouped well in the second half and rattled of six breaks in a row on us before winning 16-10. They came out and applied serious pressure to us, and we lost our aggresive edge that helped us stay in the game. You can even watch highlights from this game on UvTv. We pretty much knew the finals would be a forgeone conclusion.

Overall, Worlds was incredibly well run for the size, scope, and sheer length of time (8 days!). Aside from delayed Gaia shipments of tourney apparel, it was definitely worthy the trip, time and money. Maybe I'm crazy, but, like Nationals, maybe it isn't a good idea to put out all your stock at once and not leave any for subsequent days. But what do I know?

from Worlds

2006-11-13T21:22:00.000-06:00

Having some computers at Worlds with internet access is a very nice perk. However, people are only allowed on for 20 minute at a time, due to the high demand. A short synopsis of the games thus far. I'll save the post-mortem on Nationals until I can get to an Internet cafe or when I come home.

Day 1
Boushears (Japan)
The talk of most of the Open side has been the Japanese teams. As expected, all of them are very quick with lots of handler movement. More surprisely is their tendency to gun deep shots very often. Call it the Reverse Chain Lightning Theory if you will. They know teams are careful to guard the unders, so they will bring you in close and then cut hard deep. They definitely prefer forehands to backhands. We take half 9-3 by contesting many of their deep hucks and working methodically through their zone D. We have a slight let-down in the second half, but still take the game 17-12.

Thong (Australia)
On one of the farthest fields from the Spirit Lounge and showcase field, we still drew quite a crowd for the second game of the day. The wind was gusting very heavily, and was entirely upwind/downwind. The crowd of other Aussies teams cheering against us, we came out firing and broke them twice in a row to start. From there, their height and athleticism started to take over more and more. Our O line started to falter, and the D line wasn't converting turns. Thong did play very well, but this was also one of the worst games we've played in a long time. Easy drops, easy throwaways plagued us the whole game. With the time cap put on due to a couple marathon points, we come up short 15-10.

Day 2
Too Bad (Canada)
Our only game of the day. Let's just say that Furious George, Goat and Phoenix and didn't come, so they sent Mephisto as the #1 Canada team, and Too Bad is somewhere under that. 17-5. Nice guys, though.

We proceed into powers pools. Format is two pools of five. The top four teams from each pool advance to quarters.

Day 3
Buzz Bullets (Japan)
The best Japanese team around, they gun as much as the others. We stay on serve with no breaks to 7-7 before the bottom falls out on us. We start throwing things away (mostly into their very poachy man D, including one by myself) and they break us with quick plinko throws leading to break side hucks. In the second half, they broke us 5 times or so in a row to take the game 17-8. Very embarrassing.

One more game today against Doublewide. Tomorrow we face Clapham and Nomadic Tribe. The talk was of letting off the gas if we were down too badly against Buzz Bullets. Hopefully that won't hurt our momentum against DW I'd like for us to finish as high as possible to ensure an easier Quarters match up for our small roster.

More updates to come. It's 90 degrees and sunny, but apparently Australia doesn't have much on an Ozone layer. No worries, mate!

The bids are in...

2006-10-08T19:40:00.000-05:00

All the regionals have finished up, and predictable as club qualifiers can be most years, there were a few interesting developments this year. Monster took SW#3, Justice League didn't qualify out the Northwest, Truck Stop advances in the MA over rebuilding Pike and Potomac squads, and Doublewide misses out on qualifying from the South.

If the seedings were based on RRI (corrected for obvious contradictions like Sockeye/Furious):

1) Furious 2767
2) Sockeye 2832
3) Ring 2725
4) DoG 2714
5) Revolver 2704
6) Bravo 2691
7) SZ 2686
8) Rhino 2684
9) Condors 2673
10) Chain 2665
11) Vicious 2711
12) Metal 2585
13) TruckStop 2559
14) BAT 2553
15) Machine 2609
16) Monster 2378

I'll take a stab at the real rankings later on this week. My initial impressions:
The Sleeper Pick That's So Obvious That They Shouldn't Be Considered a Sleeper: Rhino (have pulled off some impressive wins when they decide to play up for big games against big teams. The question is, can they pull of a bunch in a row to get to quarters.)
The Real Potential Sleeper: Vicious Cycle (This is a complete guess not based on their RRI score, but they have bolstered their roster with some good Florida college experience, reminiscent of G-Unit 2003. However, they haven't beaten or played anyone of consequence outside of Metal.)
The Top 8 Team Poised for a Fall: Revolver (my initial thought was Bravo, but their mental block is firmly placed right inbetween quarters and semis, which always keeps them in the top 8. Much like the Vicious Cycle sleeper pick, I have no hard evidence, just hunches and guesses. Although, like Condors and Ring last year, it's much harder to guess who is falling than who is rising.)

CHC-The short of it

2006-09-11T17:20:00.000-05:00

Heavyweights in Chicago this past weekend. We (Sub Zero) ended up losing to DoG in the finals 14-12 after taking half at 8-7. We were able to pull together most of our large roster to help spread the points around. Mahoney is tall, and Boston may or may not like to huck to him when their D-line gets turns. The finals crowd was almost entirely pro-SZ. Bulge loves to make tons of calls but does not appreciate spikes made in their general vicinity. Rumors of Madcow's dramatic upset of DoG in pool play were greatly exaggerated (re:not true).

Labor Day (continued)

2006-09-06T12:39:00.000-05:00

By the way, if you haven't recently seen Drew Mahowald rip a hammer or blade out of the air over 3 people, it's a frequent occurrence. Come check it out.

http://freeheelimages.smugmug.com/photos/93347892-M.jpg

Labor Day

2006-09-05T22:27:00.000-05:00

Three straight wins, three straight losses, and we ended up in 3rd/4th place with Justice League (no 3/4 game was played).

We started off with Rhino, starting a bit slow as per our SZ trademark, but Rhino's deep game never really took hold. We generated enough breaks to take a victory. I was also the receiving end of a foot-block for the first time this season. Syndicate was next (a combo of California, Utah, and others). This game wasn't close from the start. They were running a small squad, and we were starting to hit stride. Chain was the third game, and our last win of the weekend. Simpson wasn't there, and he would have definitely helped them. This was one of those weird games where we were never down, but never up more than a few points. Even though we won by just one point, I never considered the game out of our control.

At that point we were in a great position to get ourselves into semis, as we were the only undefeated team at that time. Bravo was 0-3 and would soon lose their fourth game as well. Furious lost to Rhino, and all we had to do was beat Furious. Considering our history of close games (the last three games between us was decided by a combined 4 points, in the monkey's favor). We came out seemingly very satisfied with how the previous games had gone and promptly lost. The next day brought a first round game against Bravo, who caught fire early and torched us again this season. Thanks to a Rhino loss to Chain, we advanced to semis thanks to victories over both of said teams.

The Sockeye game was extremely close. Turnovers were plentiful and we broke each other several times. We emerged on the other side of half on-serve with the fish up 1 point (8-7). They broke our O-line twice and our D-line couldn't come up with any of our own, and the game was capped at 12-9. Overall, it was a good weekend to gain experience against more West Coast teams.

As I've said in this space before, being able to take advantage of leads is an extremely important quality for successful teams. Be it advancing ourselves into semis by winning the first game instead of thinking "we can win the next one and still get there", or "we own the point differential" or having a 3 or 4 point lead late in a game and not closing the door. If you want to win consistently, you have to approach each point and game as if they are the most important one you've played all day, regardless of where you stand in that game or the tourney standings.

Has the Ultimate Blog World died or just passed out?

2006-08-31T23:20:00.000-05:00

Posts have been a rarity (from myself as well, obviously) amongst the Ultimate community. Aside from running commentaries on tournaments, it seems that there may be only so much strategy and profound analysis to be done about ultimate. I had a sneaking suspicion that my posts would dry up pretty quickly as well when I started this blog.

It makes obvious sense that the elite players that reside at ultimatetalk wouldn't be sharing their teams' specific strategies and tips while the season is going on. Also, the offseason brings little material for predictions or tournament summaries (unless you like reading about winter league games). Maybe, like professional sports, the most entertaining and interesting stories and information come from those not directly playing. When was the last time you heard any honest, intriguing and in-depth analysis from a player or coach? Problem is, there really isn't anyone like that in the ultimate community who is in tune enough, but yet not playing, who provides consistent material.

At least we'll always have RSD. Rules questions that pop up there are like reality shows for me. I swear I won't watch, I end up looking anyways, and it always ends with me yelling at the screen.

Labor Day in Santa Cruz this weekend. SZ finally gets to visit the west coast late in the season. It's a great chance for us to overcome some mental hurdles against other elite teams. Hopefully, win or lose, we can gain some good experience and be able to apply it later on in Sarasota (specifically the first game slow start/jitters that always plague us). Hopefully we'll have our whole roster playing together by Regionals.

One round down...

2006-05-15T14:49:00.000-05:00

The first round of tryouts was completed over the weekend. Those that remain (not including those on SZ last year) are mostly comprised of CUT, Hodags, and a few Minnesota guys. Unfortunately, there were no real small school surprises that emerged. I always enjoy seeing a random player come out of the woodwork and make a splash.

The quality of ultimate at tryouts has definitely risen over the early rounds of the past couple years (considering barely none of those attending had played together previously). The Central high school and college scenes seem, in general, to be on an upswing. I think that there are less superstars than previous years but the skill of the average player is higher. Granted, this is still the Central, and no one has the potential to knock off CUT or the Hodags quite yet.

I am curious if leading a struggling team can hinder your chances to make an elite club team (versus the same player with the same skill set attending a successful program). Obviously, big game experience is very helpful in development. Does being a big fish in a small pond make it harder to fit into a more supporting role, or does carrying a team cause players to become more reckless and less consistent?

Outdoor Pickup?

2006-03-22T17:02:00.000-06:00

I'm looking for some outdoor pickup in the Minneapolis area. Could someone please email me times and places? Wait, there's still 6 plus inches of snow/ice on the ground? It's still barely above freezing and supposed to snow more by the end of the week? Well at least weather.com is looking to upgrade the "Golf Index" from Very Poor to Fair by Sunday. Time to hit the links with my Ice Wedge!

P.S. We are t-minus 17 days until Northwoods Sectionals and 38 days to Regionals. Is Iowa at least considering a temperate climate zone?

Defensive Mentality

2006-03-09T12:18:00.000-06:00

From an article interview I read recently:

If something's yours, you need to protect it. You don't want guys coming into your house and taking over, kicking off their shoes and putting their feet on your coffee table. Defense, in my opinion, is more important than offense. If you can get stops when you need to, eventually somebody is going to make a shot. I don't smile when I'm out there competing against you. It's not funny.

This is from Ben Wallace, who definitely isn't a bad defender.

For me, defense is all about attitude and especially confidence. Coming off two down years, I'm healthy again, and my confidence is much higher. That's helped to restore my love for shutting people down. I'm also anxious to play another season with Shaner, Q, Heijmen, et al.

Come on, doesn't playing just offense get boring?

How the mighty have fallen

2006-03-06T09:32:00.000-06:00

I don't like to dwell on the past, especially when the past involves losing in the semis.
I'd rather look forward to next year and a new team name: The Best Team to Never Make Finals. I would blame the loss on a lack of people named Matt Berkseth (and if you think Timmy didn't convince Matt to go to an out-of-town interview that particular day to avoid playing us in the finals, I've got a boat to sell you).

We also had the team meeting for SZ 2006 over the weekend. I'm definitely pumped to be able to play outdoors at full speed with two ACL's. However, given my history of jinxing myself, expect a report of me blowing 6 of my 8 remaining ligaments.

On Top of the World, Ma...

2006-02-20T17:14:00.000-06:00

Winter Advanced Record RRI SOS %
1 Casual Backhand 6-1-0 994 229.5 129
2 Wanna Buy A Duck 6-1-0 908 209.7 200

Of course, there's only one place we can go from here.

Disneyland.

I'm fully expecting the return of Kaiser against us in the finals (if we make it that far). Nothing more deadly than someone 6'8" tall throwing 40+ yard scoobers.

New link posted

2006-01-26T08:39:00.001-06:00

Normally, I wouldn't make any note about adding a link, but this one is special:

http://www.firedanmonson.com/

What would Minnesota fans do if the men's basketball team failed to make the NIT? More importantly, is it possible to not qualify for the NIT?

UPDATE: You can go straight to the newly available petition at http://new.petitiononline.com/firedan1/petition.html

Missed my anniversary

2006-01-17T09:03:00.000-06:00

Luckily, I'm not talking about my wedding anniversary.

As of January 6th, I'm one year out from my second ACL rescontruction. I'm kicking your ass this year, knee. I know you hate all that cold weather running we've done thus far, and the indoor ultimate, basketball, etc. You should just consider yourself lucky I decided to hold off on the broomball and that I don't hurdle anymore. Yes, you'll probably win the war in the end with your best weapon: arthritis. For now, I have restored confidence in you. Keep in mind that if you even think of re-tearing this year, medical technology has come a long way with artificial joints. You can be replaced.

It has begun

2006-01-05T12:57:00.000-06:00

Indoor Winter League has arrived in the Twin Cities. January 6th, 11PM.

I'm placing the over/under for number of scoobers I throw at 6.

...but you can't take the Beer and Cheese out of the Sconie

2006-01-03T16:38:00.000-06:00

I may live in Minnesota, but I still cheer for the Badgers.

P.S. Until tomorrow night and USC versus Texas, I say, "Reggie Who?"

P.P.S. I also dig Calhoun's number.

2005-12-23T12:40:00.000-06:00

Overruled!

2005-12-23T11:35:00.000-06:00

You can quickly assess your status on the team by trying to overrule a call made by a teammate. It's obviously acceptable for captains to have the final word when someone on your team makes a questionable call. For those of us lower on the totem pole, it comes down to a combo of respect/reputation of rules knowledge if your teammate will accept your decision or stick with theirs (if the opinions are contrary to one another).

One of the more interesting unstated rules of Ultimate:
Player A and Player B disagree on a call. If one of Player A's teammates agrees with Team B, and makes their opinion known, Player A will change their call most of the time. There is a correlation with the respect/reputation of the teammate who disagrees with Player A (and the stubbornness of Player A).
"Even your own teammate says you weren't fouled/inbounds/stripped/humped!"

This definitely leads to a lot of players from Team A either not voicing their opinions on calls (if it's contrary to their teammate) or going the "I don't know, I didn't see the play" route. Especially those on the sideline.

Is this an effective way of deciding a call? Obviously not, as your teammates could be just as wrong as the other team.
But it does pose an interesting question going back to the essence of Spirit of the Game:
At Nationals in the championship game, in the last point, a teammate of yours is called for a strip in the endzone. You, standing on the sideline, get a 100% view of the play, and it was absolutely a strip, but a debate ensues. A "No Contest" from the defender (your teammate) will lose your team the game. Do you make your opinion known even if it will cost you the game and the title?

The Illusion

2005-12-21T15:08:00.000-06:00

Seeing as I can't go more than two straight posts without breaking the Ultimate theme, ESPN Radio has proved my "You're better off not knowing Theory" aka "Ignorance is Bliss Theory".

The Sports Guy is guest-hosting the SportsBash radio show, and I should have stayed away. It's reminiscient of a very nasaly Matthew Broderick. The show proves that you shouldn't hear the voice of good authors. Rarely, if ever, does their actual voice compare to what you think it should sound like. Likewise, Radio DJ's almost never look like what their voices make you anticipate.

Here's the breakdown of my theory:
Authors should be read, can be seen, but not heard.
Dan Barreiro should be read and heard, but not seen.
Radio personalities should be heard, can be read, but not seen.
Singers should be heard, can be seen, but not read.
TV personalities should be seen, can be heard, but not read
Exception to the above rules can be classified under the Jon Stewart corollary.

If you violate the above rules, that picture/voice/opinion will reappear in your head everytime you see/hear/read that person's work. Hence, ignorance is bliss.

On-field Personae

2005-12-19T14:48:00.000-06:00

In ultimate, as with most sports, your on-field persona (or personae for those schizo's out there) can be drastically different than off-field. Personally speaking, I am normally very intense on the field, but not to the point of being a dink about it. If you escalate things, I have no problem getting loud, though. My favorite example is senior year at regionals, I encouraged an opposing player to "go [make love with] himself" after he labeled one of my correct calls "[cow manure]". The best part: the same player became my teammate a year later, and things were fine.

In my (short) experience, it seems that most of open elite behave the same way. You get respect when you give it. Play like a hack, expect to be hacked back. It reeks of ego, but if it's too hot in the kitchen. Our relationship with BAT has been up and down but mostly is directly correlated with the few Type A personalities from both sides. Our quarters game with Furious was that way as well, but interestingly enough, no other Nationals game was that amped up for us. Game importance obviously played a role.

I have no problem with intense on-field personalities who are extremely nice and subdued off the field. It's the on-field colossal dickheads/cheaters that try to act like saints off the field that bother me. I realize there's a separation where competition is involved, but those extreme opposite players almost seem to be acting.

Then again, there's a large difference in perspective regarding teammates versus opponents.

Who am I? Why am I here?

2005-12-16T12:42:00.000-06:00

You'd think that working from 7AM to 9PM a couple days this week would give me more time to blog, but apparently the insurance industry never received that memo. That's what year-end does to us working stiffs.

Side note: Simmons has produced one of his funniest columns of recent memory. You should read it. I know Timmy will, and then he'll send me an email with his favorite quote. That's what captains do for their underlings.

Recounting my origins with Zero:
I played college for the best college team in Northfield not named Carleton. I never played CUT or the Hodags once in my entire college career, which is remarkable in that:
1) CUT was in our section (we were the perennial 3 seed and always lost to St. Cloud thanks to Naz, Todd, Winey and Raker)
2) We qualified for Regionals every year
Senior year, I was the D-Line captain and a handler (by necessity). From what I remember, no one on SZ even had an inkling of who I was. Although, I did get mistaken for a freshman somehow. Tryouts came, got layout D's on a captain who shall remain unnamed (one D) and UofMN players (many more than one). Incidentally, none of the UofMN guys made the team...great comedy considering the ongoing feud between Olaf and them at the time. I made SZ as one of the last picks (it is bad when you get the "you may not play that much down the stretch" speeches when you first make the team?)

Three seasons later, I'm down one of my own ACL's and up a dead guy's ACL, a quarters appearance, and a Worlds berth. We'll just call it a wash.

PS. I have a new dining room table. Should I be worried about poker chips on a good veneer (ie high quality, not crappy/cheap/thin)?

I apologize

2005-12-08T14:38:00.000-06:00

I apologize to my thousands and thousands (re: couple) of readers for being so busy at work that I don't have anything insightful or thought-provoking to post.

Wait, who am I kidding? I've never posted anything insightful or thought-provoking.

Instead, please visit one of my favorite Craigslist posts of all-time.

It always passes the "makes me laugh out loud at work, thereby making me temporarily embarrassed" test.

Amazing what a month can do

2005-12-06T10:35:00.000-06:00

(Blogger ate this the first time. My healthy paranoia and copy/paste saved me.)

Close to 30 days out of Nationals, even with doing some running and lifting over the past month, 2+ hours of drilling and scrimmaging indoors this past weekend thrashed me pretty well. It could be because of the marathon points (by-product of playing with a 3rd tier college team) combined with those calling lines appointing me the primary cutter on most plays. Or I might just be soft.

To improve their team, my old college team has been recruiting track, basketball and football players. They actually had one guy (soph wide receiver) come out on Sunday towards the end of practice. He was as raw as you could get (following the flight path without reading, hovering deep without cutting), but damn was he fast. It basically became a "throw it deep to the new guy" competition. Will he catch a bit of the fever and stay on? Probably not, but it was good to see a little bit of progress made on the recruiting front. For a borderline team, even 1 good athlete can help quite a bit.

P.S. Apparently Ultvillage has a clip of Bravo and SZ today. No internet at home + filters at work=No Clip of the Day for me. Someone care to fill me in on the highlight?

Previous Team Sports

2005-12-01T11:22:00.000-06:00

Are defensive or offensive (as in offensive, not offensive) mindsets a result of assigned roles in team sports or does your personality dictate areas of strength in athletics? It's like asking which came first...fat guys or the Monster Burger?

Most ultimate players are much more effective at one versus the other, which is obvious in other sports as well (ie the recent KFAN debate on Torii Hunter versus Paul Konerko). Those that really excel at both are few.

This ended up being more a question post than a statement post, but has previous sports experience influenced your role in ultimate? Does your existing skill set have a greater pull (no pun intended)?

(As for me, I play or have played sweeper in soccer, rebounding 4-man in basketball, 2nd base in baseball, and blocker in volleyball. I appear to be set in my ways.)

Double Dip

2005-11-30T12:02:00.000-06:00

Couldn't resist a Sports Guy quote of the day:
"I like Ron Artest. He's my favorite NBA player who was ever suspended for a season for attacking a fan."

The Spew

2005-11-30T09:57:00.000-06:00

Where was The Spew when I needed it in college? Idris recently wrote a great post about different approaches to improving if you're a 2nd or 3rd tier college/club team. Coming from a borderline 2nd/3rd tier college team (and that's a generous title for a team whose best finish was 4th in the Central in 2003), it's advice that we somewhat used my senior year in 03. Build a solid base of talent (4 players on that team now on elite club teams), focus on what you do well (setting up long throws to our few tall and fast guys) and be realistic about what you can accomplish. That was also our best recruiting year.

It's just amazing to me how seemingly obvious points like those made by Idris and especially those in Zaz and Parinella's book are missed by most teams and players. Other than at the elite level, I think it has more to do with a lack of previous high-level athletic experience. Yes, it does have to some do with the lack of basic ultimate common knowledge established by years and years of competition (ie football, baseball).

I have to add that "seemingly obvious" applies to my current knowledge of the game, not my college self, which is the point of this whole mess.

Everyone on a newer team (especially those new to the game) has a tendency to see the team they're playing as doing great. I know I did. Then my team got better, and I couldn't believe that I thought the previous year was quality. We missed obvious strategy points and didn't set clear expectations.

At one point in my junior year, we actually established set groupings: 3 groups of 4 people, and 4 groups of 3. Each combination of 7 would play 2 points, and then another would rotate in. How stupid does that seem in retrospect? We were just looking for some kind of organization but had no idea how to go about it. It had everything to do with our leadership, which vastly improved when Ross and Dale were captains the next year.

We knew we wouldn't be able to grind out wins against better teams. So we went with the long ball as our two primary receivers were better than most of the college defenders in the region. As someone so astutely pointed out, we "hucked, hucked, and hucked. And if that doesn't work, they huck it some more." The result? The best finish (for us at least) resulting from a change in philosophy late in the year.

Oh, and the chicks really dig the long ball.

Must be winter...

2005-11-29T10:32:00.000-06:00

because the trick knee is acting up. Snowing, melting, snowing again. Minnesota is such a wonderfully schizophrenic state (as are the drivers). If you're looking for any real point to this post, I apologize for the lost time.

Sometimes I just feel like posting some comatext.

Fox 9 Investigates!

2005-11-23T10:21:00.000-06:00

Those of you in the Twin Cities Metro probably know about the flak Fox 9 has been getting about their hard-hitting exposes on things like psychics, naughty massage parlors, and underage college hockey players who drink. Shocking, I know.

Well, chalk up another profound story last night. Titled "Injury Plague", Fox9 did a story on the prevalence of serious injuries in high school athletics and their supposed increased frequency.

**Disclaimer: Keep in mind I have a degree in statistics, have torn my left ACL twice, and nearly burst a blood vessel yelling at the TV during this broadcast. The facts are as close as I can remember as I may or may not have blacked out in the middle from extreme exposure to stupidity and lack of context.**

Interview subjects include:
1) A female soccer player who blew one ACL, rehabbed for five months, and then proceeded to blow her other knee out (ignoring the classic case of over-compensation on your good knee when trying to come back too soon, although Fox9 only admitted that women are 4-8 times more likely to suffer a knee injury than men)
2) A male baseball player who wore had to have serious elbow reconstruction, which Fox9 blamed on overuse (ignoring that throwing curves year-round since age 9 or 10 does most of the damage)

Their grand conclusion? The increase of injuries is mostly due to an increase in the number of participants and improper deceleration. They also made the bold statement that football has the most injuries of any sport.

Now that's mind-blowing shit right there!! Even if the injury rate per 10 kids had decreased, an overall increase in number of subjects could still result in more total injuries as compared to last year or the year before. Combine that with better diagnosing abilities and better ortho docs and voila, more injuries! These people would be better suited to investigate the relation between the number of pirates and the average global temp.

Basically, all they were able to prove was that kids playing sports in high school get injured (especially football players). Congrats, your Edward R. Murrow Award is in the mail.

2005-11-10T13:21:00.000-06:00

The Unword of the day is "webshite".

This definitely describes this space.

Natties

2005-11-01T08:34:00.000-06:00

6th place. Not too bad considering we came in ranked 10th. Our quarterfinal game with eventual champ Furious George seems to be getting lost in the mix (16-15 defeat with us up 14-12 pulling to them), much like our high finish. I think that's better for next year as flying under the radar is always a good thing.

We basically didn't try in the game to finish 5th (which I wasn't too happy about). The top 5 US teams earn an automatic bid to Worlds in Perth, Australia. Seeing as the Canucks with Furious won this year, we were automatically the 5th US team and earned a spot! I've already stopped eating and turned my furnace to 50 degrees to save money.

See you on the flip side...

2005-10-25T19:45:00.000-05:00

http://club2005.upa.org/

Playing within yourself

2005-10-21T17:04:00.000-05:00

It's such a cliche, but most phrases that end up there have some truth. I've never been the go-to guy on any team, college or club (offensively at least). Of course, I only played two years of college, one of which was the 6-12 months after an ACL reconstruction. I then land on Zero where I joined an army of D-line cutters. The point? I love D-line and cutting but if you approach practice the way you should (as it they were tourneys), then when is the time to push the boundaries? Especially towards the end of the season, you want to practice closely to your nationals behavior. I guess that makes the beginning of the season the experimental time by default. And don't tell me that rec leagues are the answer because I'm not concerned about my throws to garbage cuts.

As demonstrated by my old cross-the-river friends at Carleton, an army is good only as long as you have a few to lead them. In college, the talent pool is more shallow (shallower?) and the turnaround quick. In club, your leaders can stick around for 8-10 years if things play out right. However, that transition seems to be accompanied by a auto-qualify drop (auto semis to auto quarters, ie DoG and Condors, not meant as a jab like most others do nowadays) or an outright disassembly (NYNY, Windy, Z).

This meandering leads me back to my original point: playing within yourself is probably good for the team, but if you're always PWY (sorry, I work in insurance and acronyms are a way of life), when do you push it and improve?

Briefly...

2005-10-21T16:57:00.000-05:00

Tall has put up some nice shots including Champs

and Velocity (caption being "F, that guy is fast.")

Miscellaneous

2005-10-13T16:05:00.000-05:00

The rain was too much and the numbers were too small. No Goaltimate or shtick last night.

Reports from RSD...there's a thread going around about the best deeps, which means that people are posting mainly about their own teammates that have the "biggest ups you've ever seen!!!!!!!!!!!". Someone actually took the time to reference Matt Berkseth, but spelled it wrong. It's close enough that I could almost take half credit, but we all know that doesn't apply to me.

Threads like that just provide more evidence that either you're a big name (MG, Kittridge, Nord, Chase, Lugsdin, etc) or your own teammates have to hype you to get your name out. Call it a lack of media, an old boys club, or whatever. Yes, great talent should be immediately recognized. Obviously. Those who can most effectively evaluate talent (and therefore are less likely to exaggerate) are those that are very good themselves.

Probably another reason not to read RSD...for those that maintain some of the best deeps play for a mixed team named Whor$hack. If you say so.

PS "Beware Boardman." Indeed.

The End is Near

2005-10-12T13:01:00.000-05:00

Well we've qualified for Nationals, I've got a ticket and time off work. Wednesday night practices are scaling down (just in # of those participating), and hopefully we don't lose focus. I do love hard scrimmaging, but playing games like shtick (running-allowed disc-related game much like capture-the-flag except the goal is to set the disc in a small square on your opponents side without getting tagged) are incredible fun. Reminds me of elementary school and staying after to play dodgeball, CTF, and random other "super-sports", as we called them. I'd throw Goaltimate in that grouping as a good break from the norm as well. I do miss my contact sports.

Central Region Champs

2005-10-10T12:13:00.000-05:00

15-8 and we did with some flourish. Fouling wasn't out of control and most went uncontested. No yelling or taunting worth noting. Our O line was spectacular (ie wasn't broken all game). 6 tournament titles isn't something to sneeze at, but given the strength of said tourneys, we'll most likely end up around 9th.

Side note: Matty B beat me in Fantasy Ultimate in the CLX - Flaming Moe game-to-go. He chose negative Berseth(aka Delaware), and I had negative Norgard. Normally, Paul would have come through for me in grand fashion, but Delaware went on an unrivlaed waterjug kicking spree/tantrum. It was like Matt hit the slots, and the money just kept on coming.

He does it again

2005-10-07T11:59:00.000-05:00

From The Sports Guy:
"Some other questions: Does Charles Rogers exist solely to make Detroit fans feel better about the Darko Milicic Era? Is Joey Harrington the Freddie Prinze Jr. of the NFL, or is it the other way around? ... Wouldn't you feel 10 times better about the Joey Harrington Era if he just changed his first name to 'Joe?' And does anyone else feel the Mike Williams Roto Breakout Week coming on?"

Why randomly post a dig at Michigan? Because Central Regionals is this weekend, it deflects attention away from Green Bay, and there's a decent chance Timmy may read this.

Certain things

2005-09-28T12:54:00.000-05:00

Should make you laugh out loud, especially after long periods of work.
Among those that should, Conan O'Brien's Walker Texas Ranger clips First, Second, and Third.

So blogging...

2005-09-22T10:54:00.000-05:00

Wow...the blogworld...I guess that work boredom/avoidance has finally taken its toll. I really should have worked out my political agendas (agendae?) before launching into cyberspace.

Ultimate? New cleats before the weekend, and knees can suck it. That's what I got.