The 11th Edition.

Alright, I'll give it to you straight. I love the 11th, because it fixes a lot of faults from the 10th, has fewer inconsistencies, and includes III.G, which is ballin'. XIII.A and XIV.A.2 were clarified, and I like them. XIV.A, actually, was fixed to avoid the controversy and inconsistency of the 10th edition's stall counts, which I guess is a good thing. XV.E and XVI.H.3.a.5 are also important rules. Many happy returns to the SRC.

XIV.B.3 is a problem, though. I feel that this rule is indeed consistent with the general rules of Ultimate, is good for SOTG, and very good for league play. I feel that this rule is crippling to the competitiveness of elite-level Ultimate, and even drags down high school and college competitiveness.

The mark, I was always told, was the biggest change from high school to college, and perhaps even from college to club, other than an obvious improvement of the average player's throws. The mark was touted as the biggest part of team defense, an essential position, not a place to rest. I like the a one-on-one matchup, thrower vs. marker, was the first step of successful defense, and I like that a thrower had to be talented and skilled to throw past his mark, especially so on the break side.

XIV.B.3 takes away from the mark's ability to restrict the thrower. It makes the game less physical, and I like my competition physical. It makes the game less interesting to watch: a close, aggressive mark is interesting, and it separates the men from the boys, the women from the girls, the ballers from the noobs. I grant that there are problems with aggressive marking, especially in friendly games or league play. I grant that an aggressive mark increases the likelihood that somebody will get hurt. I even grant that, as a thrower, I don't like to be hassled--I call foul when an aggressive mark crosses the line and puts his body in to me. At the same time, I mark aggressively, and sometimes I put my body into the thrower; I feel that physical marking (not hacking, but close and active) is an important component of the mental game.

So I'm going to vote FOR the 11th edition. I'm going to love being on offense if we pass it, but two things will frustrate me in the spring: 1) opposing teams will continue to foul on the mark, and my teammates may not call it. 2) I will follow this rule, and teams who don't will have an advantage over teams who do.

Wrapped Up

The fall season is over. It has left me with a strange mix of feelings, and I'm still not sure what to expect for the spring. I've seen a lot of correlations to HS ultimate, and I suppose that some aspects of our sport are conserved over most of the teams within a particular level. The low percentage of interested players who stay, the inconsistency of committedness, and the limiting factors outside of the team's control are all disappointing, if not entirely expected. Namely, it sucks that the athletic admins sometimes forget to turn on the lights, so we have to cancel practice...or it rains the whole week before a tournament, so we come out cold and unpracticed at Delaware. Unfortunate.

But I believe in the team. I've mostly "bought into" the team strategies, although I do not agree with them 100%. I'm really excited about the strength of our freshman class, and I am secretly plotting to throw a club team together for the summer, in order to get more playing time for rookies and recruits. I think that playing together during the summer will build cohesion, and playing against club teams will make us better players. The question is, can I get enough of us together, scrape enough money together, to get to any club tournaments?

But for now, I've decided to take almost two weeks off for recuperation and time to study for finals. I'm jumping into a winter conditioning regimen that I designed, so we'll see how that goes. I'm going to try and snag a couple of the Watchung Hills players for certain workouts, because I'm hoping to include drills and some ultimate-specific moves in my training. I also plan to do Air Alert III, in an attempt to overcome my average height and substandard hops. My goals for the winter, though some are extremely ambitious, are included here:

Run 6mi in one hour, a sub-14:00 2mi, and a sub-5:45 1mi
Sprint a sub-60 400m, sub-26 200m, sub-12 100m, and sub-4.5 40yd
Increase throwing range: 75yds backhand, 65yds forehand
Improve vertical leap to 28"
12 consecutive pull-ups
Bench-press 135lbs

Some thoughts

My back is still pretty sore, but it seems that I only pulled a muscle and it knotted up. It was loose for a couple days, but the tournament stressed it and, during last night's practice, I tweaked it again, trying to rush a backhand huck. I need a massage something terrible.

The tournament itself was about what I expected, although the team did not preform as well as I thought it would. We talked a lot about working on fundamentals and having no expectations for winning games, but I feel like that limited us a little bit. We had two close games that were definitely within reach, and in one way or another we threw them both away. The handlers were less cohesive than I hoped for, and it was a little frustrating to not be able to improve that situation myself, since I was a cutter. Overall, I think I played well--I had a couple drops, but I made up for them with a number of d's, a fair number of assists and several scores. I kinda wish we videotaped the games, or at least kept stats, but whatever.

As a team, we definitely improved. I've always felt that tournaments are the best way to practice, for many reasons: the intensity of having back-to-back games, the increased stress and pressure, and the difficulty of adjusting to another team's playing style. Of course, without team practices we would never be able to function well over a season. Practices, indeed, have been going well. The tournament at Penn State should be telling, but I'm a little worried--at practice last night, after I tweaked my back, I couldn't really cover anybody in the drill, and it sucks not being able to sprint on defense. Hopefully it will be fine by Sunday night, and I can shut down my man properly.

Running Scared

I may have a repeated-stress injury from ultimate. I developed a pain in my lower back, right side near my spine, which feels muscular in nature (possibly erector spinae? or maybe the one that twists the torso). At first, it was a minor twinge whenever I tried to huck, possibly originating at States back in June. It bothered me off and on during the summer, but now that I've been practicing, I feel it whenever I huck. Yesterday was the worst it has ever been, where I felt pain during running, changing direction, etc...it probably did not help that yesterday was the first time we practiced marking and pivoting. It still hurts, and my hamstrings are crazy tight. So I'm worried.

I did a little research, and my guess--essentially based on where I think it hurts and a google search--is that I might have degenerative disc disease. I'm going to the sports-medicine doctor at Hurtado on Wednesday, but the Rutgers home tournament is the Sat-Sun immediately afterward.

I hope it's just a sore muscle, something that I can recover from with a little rest and exercise after the tournament.

Practices

Practices are Tuesday and Thursday, with power gym workouts on Wednesday (more on this later). Our focus so far has been, obviously, fundamentals--cutting, catching, moving the disc, etc. After the warmup/stretch, we run a dishy drill and a triangle drill, which capture pretty well the whole throwing/catching thing, but most people run them slowly. I think that they would be much more effective if everybody approached the drills with intensity and focus, but I guess that's pretty obvious. The triangle drill, especially, is more susceptible to laziness, but I'm biased against it anyway because I don't think it mirrors the game well enough. The dishy, however, fits very well with "my" approach to ultimate.

I still don't really know where I fit in on the team, exactly. During scrimmages, the captains will often call me as a handler, which is a position that I am comfortable fulfilling. I make errors from time to time, but I think it's fair to say that it will take time for me to learn the team, learn when to make what cuts, and when to hold back on a throw. I'm re-learning the game a little bit, too, trying to determine what the outer limits of my hucks are, nailing down my swing passes, and remembering to step out for my throws. I guess what I really want is for the practices to get more personal, for an upperclassman to take me on as a mentee the same way Jimmy, Yee-Wen, Art, and Jon did when I was a freshman at Watchung Hills. Granted, I have more skills than a number of the freshmen here, so I can understand why they don't worry about me as much; nevertheless, I need a little bit of instruction, a little bit of criticism, and a direction to follow. Should I cut more in practices, to learn that aspect of the game better? Or should I focus on handling, as I did in high school? I know I want to get the disc more, because I need to practice the throws that only come up in games: forehand cross-field swings, up-the-line throws with touch, hucks. I need to improve my pivoting/faking as well, something that is hard to do outside a game situation, without a mark.

At the end of the practice yesterday, we sprinted around the playing field proper, with the winning scrimmage team (mine) getting a 15yd head start. I came in 4th out of 31 people, so I'm in pretty good shape for long sprints...which means I need to get some quickness and sprinting speed. I'm ready for it.

In the power gym, we do a series of lunges (forward, backward, side to side) with medicine balls, then some speed-ladder work and a circuit of exercies, including pushups, ab work, squats, etc. It is very tiring, and I think that it will be very good for my game in general. The athletic trainer who leads us through it will probably start to introduce new exercises to target ultimate-specific needs, which is exciting. I also plan to start swimming two to five times per week, if I can work up the requisite willpower.

Founder's Club Sectionals Div2

DISCarded '06: Nicola Caputo (HP), Eli Gabel-frank (HP), Alex Growney (WHRHS '07), David Hsiung (EB '06, Rutgers '10), Jason Hwee (EB '06, Rutgers '10), Joseph Kwiatek (Hillsborough '06, Rutgers '10), Bryan Lian (WHRHS '06, Rutgers '10), Andrew Lu (WHRHS '07), Thales Nazario (HP '06, Rutgers '10), Glenn Poole (WHRHS '06, Rutgers '10), Jacob Price (WHRHS '08), Jake Rainwater (HP), Pin Su (Rutgers '07), Lu Wang (WHRHS '07), Daniel Weingard (HP), Yuki Yamada (HP '07), Paul Yang (JPS '06, Rutgers '10).

W vs. Swarthmore (12-6)
L vs. Pittsburgh-B (9-12)
W vs. Divine Disc (W-F)
L vs. Delaware (10-13)*

*came back from 3-9

I think that I act like an asshat from time to time in the ultimate scene. I do not intend to be an asshat, but maybe I come across that way. I like to talk smack; the whole smack-talking thing is amusing to me, and I appreciate it when other people heckle me. I'm one of those people who doesn't mind being heckled in good spirit, and usually I don't see it as malicious--I certainly never intend to incense my teammates or opponents. I almost never talk smack, unless it was initiated by another person, but I have been known to speak my mind, both on the field and off. I am pretty confident in my knowledge of the rules of ultimate, and I have worked hard to overcome the urge to argue calls: I tend to not argue when somebody makes a call on me, and rather fall back on "contest/no contest." Today, though, I saw something that bothered me.

I don't know if I had best perspective, but I was only ten feet away when I saw my teammate running toward his man, who was in the endzone about to receive a huck. The offensive player jumped and landed on top of my teammate, then called foul after he did not catch the disc. As the offensive player started outlining the reasons he called foul, I asked my teammate if he thought he fouled the other man. My teammate said, "No, I don't think so." So I, silly me, looked to give the disc back to the thrower and said "foul, contest." The offensive player in question yelled at me that it was not my place to make a call here, and then he again tried to pull my teammate aside and discuss his reasoning. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for explaining the rules to people who do not understand them, but this was a pretty clear-cut thing to me: guy jumps forward onto another player (violating that player's vertical space, by the way), and then calls foul? On a stationary player who didn't even jump? Would you like some cheese with that whine?

So my teammate reiterates his "contest" call, plays moves on, but the other team's player continues to try to engage me in debate over the matter. I wasn't happy about it, especially after what happened in an earlier game. Another teammate of mine caught the disc, then the opposing team set up a cup around him. The problem was that the marker, who I heard calling "stall seven," was never less than 15 feet away from the thrower, clearly not close enough to call stalls. I said "dude, you can't mark him" and he yelled at me, "you can't make that call! only the thrower can, he has to call fast count!" I was shocked at the lack of spirit, the lack of knowledge of the rules (see XIVC2 and 4), and the sheer audacity of this player (who, I was informed, was the captain of a certain college team).

So, post-tournament thoughts:
1. Sorry if I hog playing-time?
2. I need to nail down a few things before I can handle for Rutgers:
a. look before I leap. I do this in general, but sometimes I forget.
b. be something other than a handler. like a cutter.
c. stop working on endurance, work more on sprinting speed/recovery (see #1)
3. Of the three hammers I threw, two were completed in the endzone and one was really bad.
4. I think I might have a half-decent forehand huck now?
5. I am getting more confident in my backhand huck, but a certain muscle in my back hurts when I rip it.
6. People need to learn the rules, then play by them. Especially that part about SOTG.

So this is college?

I am really loving it here. I feel confident that I came to the right college, picked--to a large extent--the right classes, and have some decent teachers. The football team crushed Illinois at the home game yesterday, and I saw 30 of the 33-0 game, so spirit was high and exciting. Rutgers is definitely the place for me.

I gather that practices for the team will start within a week or so, and I've been going to a couple pickup games around campus that the team is running. So far, I see several solid players who play, several scrubs with potential, and some of us in-betweeners--partially skilled, close to athletic, and excited to play. I say nothing, of course, of the countless kids chucking mini-frisbees, and accept them as a feature of college. I do meet, however, a decent number of people who either played some pickup in high school or are interested in playing some college disc, but either "have no time" or are not "good enough" to play. I get the impression that the ultimate team, in years past, was a little exclusive and isolationist, maybe because they got jaded when scores of people showed up for the first two weeks and quit, year after year.

I take a different view of the matter. I honestly want to bring as many people as are interested in the sport, because I know what it has done for me. Of course, I recognize that not everybody will fall in love like I did, but how could they without at least a taste? So my big idea is an intramural league that runs all spring, rather than one single intramural tournament. At some point, though, I know I'm going to shift focus to my own game; in my junior and senior year of high school, I helped and coached other players far more than I improved my own game, and I don't want to miss the opportunity I have now to improve.

In that vein, I hope to attend div2 of the founder's club sectionals on the 17th with a pickup team of fellow Rutgers freshman, plus a couple others from high school. Should be fun.

Grass Roots Growth

About five minutes ago, I was watching South Park on Comedy Central. During a commercial, I started flipping through the channels, and came upon something astounding.

The Disney Channel was showcasing a clip of several minutes length called "Live your Dreams," where they focused on a boy who developed cancer. His story was that he loved to play ultimate frisbee. They taped his parents talking about how he was athletic, but didn't play any sports after getting sick, until he found ultimate. They explained (briefly) the rules of the game, describing it as a mix of soccer and football, and they showed the kid's coach talking about the kid and the sport, Spirit of the Game and how anybody can play. They showed flashes of the kid leaping into the air to catch the disc, throwing in his jersey, and other kids running on the field.

They looked young, and talked about how you didn't need to be tall or fast to play (which is true, I suppose), but the parents acknowledged that it was an exciting and athletic game. They said that the participants played enthusiastically, but not aggressively (true in some levels).

I was amazed, and I am elated to see my sport growing and spreading, and on the Disney Channel, for young kids and their parents. I'm thankful for CSTV so that I can watch high-caliber ultimate, but how cool is it that somebody is showcasing the sport to future generations, and giving it some credit?

Summer League Woes

When I got home from summer league yesterday, I saw that one of my players (decent handler, but not much else to speak of, let's call him Mr. Complaints) had written the yahoo group and complained about how the game had degenerated into a "callfest." He noted that most of our players were in high school, none of our players were over 21, and so our lack of experience meant that we didn't know the rules that well. Mr. Complaints felt that it was unnecessary for the other team to make so many calls in "bad spirit" and that it was especially uncalled for in a summer league game.

I disagree.

Yes, some of the calls were "bad calls." That's what happens with a self-officiated sport in a league setting. Some people are inherently competitive, and will play their heart out regardless of the venue, and some may even take advantage of the rules. True, some people on the field didn't know the rules. There were only 3 high school players present, though, and none of them made bad calls (in fact, they could have made more calls, and didn't). I found that I was the one explaining the rules to the other team when they were not sure about specifics. I read the rules, have read them many times (I had to play Columbia High School). I know most of the rules pretty well. Not all, not perfectly, but pretty well. It seemed to me like there may have been questionable calls, but they came from both teams and none were made with intent to cheat. I felt like most of the animosity came from Mr. Complaints, and the only thing that this negative energy achieved was to provoke the other team into being more abrasive.

For example, I usually marked up against the other team's main handler, a tall and reasonable quick guy with good hucks and hammers. I've played with/against him before in pickup, and he's generally a nice guy. After a couple bad calls were made, this guy started to justify the calls of his teammates, or cite the rules. Once, he cut deep into the endzone, the throw went up high, I ran behind him to set up my position, boxing him out as the disc flew behind us. He turned around and said "I would appreciate it if you didn't elbow me when trying to defend me," but made no call. Another time, his teammate caught the disc near the outer edge of the endzone, and Mr. Complaints said "check feet." My check yelled "he was still in after he ran five feet." Unnecessary animosity, yes? In any case, his attidude definitely changed once Mr. Complaints started bitching.

I have dealt with bad spirit and really bad calls before, and learned to deal with them. Honestly, it seems like the best way to handle the situation is to be the "bigger man," not stooping to their level and not complaining about their lack of spirit. You lead by example, and beat them by playing a hard, fair game. I'm a big fan of observers, although I hate the idea of referees. I think we should be able to play the sport without compromising SOTG or individual integrity, and still have the sport be exciting and fun. Self-officiation is part of ultimate, and you have to respect the other team's right to make calls. If you can't handle it, play another sport.

The Cut of OUCH

As risk of reiterating what other notable ultimate bloggers have said, I'd like to talk for a moment about the so-called "Cut of Death". For future reference, the "CoD" describes a cut which begins behind or to the side of the thrower and is made up the line.

Initially, I regarded the CoD as a useful dump cut, with great potential for creating flow. When I joined my high school team as a freshman, I was taught an offense that began with a cut from the front of the stack: front man fakes to one side of the thrower and then flares out in a CoD. It was phased out after my first year, for whatever reason, and for a long time I thought that it should be brought back--we had the throwers to complete this pass successfully, and it made for some nice yardage gains. The only apparent drawbacks were the fact that the fake was not a viable cut, and so any decent defender would expect the flare and could shut it down with reasonable effort. Also, a poorly timed cut would generate a lot of clogging, something that we always struggled with. Thinking back, it would have taken a lot of effort to get it right, and nixing it was probably a good choice.

Today, I was playing a summer league game, my first in two weeks (the fields were rained out for a week, and then I was in West Virginia when the weather was peachy). I noticed that bodying the dump cutter mostly shut down the up-the-line. The dump then had to explore other options, and, since he was an experienced CHS alum, he pretty much got open at will by mixing it up. When he defended me, I set myself up lateral to the thrower, a good 15yds away, and faked as if to catch the dump pass behind the thrower. Once my defender's shoulders turned, I cut up the line--the throw goes up a little high, my left hand snags it, and then two opposing players sandwich me. My defender had barely caught up and the other man was playing the disc, sure, but they crashed into either side of me, flipped me over, and banged my shin and foot up pretty well. I called strip, thinking "clearly, the disc was mine, and they knocked the shit out of me on purpose. Easy call." The opponent who was not my defender (i.e. the six-something dude who came out of nowhere and jumped on top of me, let's call him Bubba) contested the strip. I was flabbergasted, and simply limped off the field, mumbling "I need an injury sub..."

I think we won the point anyway (but lost the game 8-15), but it gave me pause as I recalled the talk about how the CoD was taking down players and tearing their knees up. It seems that most people talked about how the stack was too close to the cutting lane, and some poaching defender got in the way. But this was different. I had cut well away from the stack, and Bubba had to leave his defender, sprint to where I was and then collide into me (thereby violating XVI.I.8.b). Technically, it was a foul, but I called strip because I had possession (I guess my mind was somewhere in the 9th edition or something). I probably would have called foul, had I not been so interested in how painful it was to be squished and flipped. What's up with dick calls and contests at summer league?

End result, I now have instant shin-splints and a tough time extended my foot. I also have some new ideas about how to run dump cuts (laterally, for instance, despite the way vets warn n00bs to not cut laterally, ever). I grant that Bubba was playing balls-out and maybe could have d'ed me cleanly, but how do you avoid being clobbered by aggressive players? It wouldn't take a CoD to take me down, I'm still learning to be physical on the field. What happened to the "responsibility of all players to avoid contact in every way possible" ?

Back into the Swing

3.1 mi in 22:19.
7:09mi down Regional Drive and up Stirling Road, 7:29mi over the hills of Old Smalleytown, 6:07mi down Valleyview and Mountain Ave. 1:34 up Regional Drive (0.2mi uphill). Average mile: 7:12 (7:09 without the last uphill of death).

Then, yoga--which I enjoyed enormously, and plan to continue.

This and That

Yesterday, I went for a decent run. Don't know the distances, but a 13 minute and a 10 minute, short break in between. It's a bit of a struggle to keep a real schedule, because there isn't anything else in my life right now that provides structure. Plus, I'm leaving for a week-long work camp in West Virginia on Sunday, which will not really include running. I think I'll finish out these couple days with some good workouts, then do a lot of body weights while I'm down there, building cabins and such. Upon my return, a schedule is in order.

But honestly, what is up with cancelling all the summer league games this week? The park shut down, and I haven't played ultimate for like two weeks. I haven't played good ultimate since the state tournament, but I won't point fingers--mostly because they would point back at me.

The Longest Run

Yesterday, I ran the longest distance I have ever run.

~6.8 miles in 57 minutes. Average estimated mile time of 8:38, or 7.16 mph. The final two miles were completed at a significantly faster pace, but I had no timing device on my person--the iPod ran out of power with 3mi to go, and I had to rely on my start/finish times to figure out those averages.

It was surprisingly easy, at the end. The third and fourth miles were unpleasant, but I expected that. I think I will step up my workout plan (after today's rest) to include longer distances; two 3mi runs, for instance, rather than one 3mi run, or perhaps even ten miles at a time. Of course, I'll soon be integrating track workouts and interval work, so we shall see.

I'll take a two-day hiatus for a road trip to North Carolina, where my uncle and I are going to pick up my brother's car and drive it back for him. Catch you on the flip side.

The Hills are Alive...

...with the sound of panting.

The hill I mentioned previously, Regional Drive, has been used in the past by the high school track team for grueling sprint workouts. It is extremely steep, straight, and, from a painted white arrow at the bottom to the painted white line at the top, measures exactly 200m. It is rather too steep, but we use it nonetheless for off-season conditioning in ultimate. My workout today was:

Stride 100m up, sprint last 100m, jog down.
Upon reaching bottom, immediately sprint 100m up, stride last 100m, jog down.
Upon reaching bottom, immediately stride 100m up, sprint last 100m, jog down.
Upon reaching bottom, immediately sprint 100m up, stride last 100m, jog down.
Rest, two minutes.
Stride 100m up, sprint last 100m, jog down.
Upon reaching bottom, immediately sprint 100m up, stride last 100m, jog down.
Upon reaching bottom, immediately sprint 100m up, stride last 100m, jog down.
Upon reaching bottom, immediately stride 100m up, sprint last 100m, walk down.
Rest, two minutes.
Jog 3mi back home, whereupon I immediately drink copious volumes of water.

I skipped my 3mi run yesterday, and played pickup with the old teammates. It wasn't anything special--I threw some decent hucks, but played no defense whatsoever (partially because I guarded, every point, our best deep). I am also trying to work off the Cold Stone excess from two nights ago--never do a running workout, skip the after-workout meal, and replace it later with a big bowl off ice cream. My body went into some crazy hibernation-state, storing calories like there was a winter ahead, rather than a blistering, humid, 95º summer.

on Moving On:

Having graduated from high school, finished my last season of juniors Ultimate with a 3rd place finish in the State Championships, colored the rest of the season with strong performances in various tournaments, and led my team to a 22-11-2 record, I now feel a little lost.

I fell in love with Ultimate immediately in the fall of my freshman year. It is my passion. Throughout high school, though, I had a team, and I had a place on that team. I knew the story we had, and cared deeply about the team. Now, I'm captaining a summer league team, and there's no story. I'm leading college kids, guys that are better than I, and for no real reason other than I stepped up before the season started and asked to captain. I don't quite feel like I belong, especially because my performance hasn't fallen into place yet.

So I'm ready to be a freshman again. I need a captain, somebody to take me under their wing. Also, it's time to stop talking about making better decisions on the field, playing chilly, and playing better defense; it's time to do it.

It's time to get back to the game I love.

Oops

I did the 3mi run again today. I then paced out the distance in the car, and I will now be able to take lap times for each mile that I run. The total run is actually 3.1mi, and today I completed it in 22:38, which is 7:32 pace. The first mile is the absolute hardest: 0.2 down a steep grade, 0.1 flat ground, and then 0.7 up a crazy hill. It took 7:46 for that leg. The rest of the run is up and down hills of varying difficulty, except the last 0.2mi is back up the ridiculously steep grade that I jog down at the start of the run. Taking out the first mile and the last 0.2 uphill, I ran two miles at 7:09(.5) pace, which is not bad at all. Running up the hill at the end is freakin' hard, by the way (I should find the rise in altitude and figure out how steep it is).

Afterwards, I was supposed to do plyometrics (oops), but instead I went and cheered on my dear in her swim meet. I think I finally figured out what's wrong with my ultimate, so I'll post more on that tomorrow.

Run and Throw

Did the 3mi loop today in 23 minutes exactly. Ran with music, but I'm not sure yet if that helps or hurts.

Had a summer league game as well, which was pretty unexceptional. I had a couple d's, but I also got d'd and my hucks were all too low and short (one was still caught for a goal). We were outmatched in height and speed, and the other team was more cohesive by far. Our players, at times, didn't know what the force was, or what play we called on the line; we still have to grow together as a team. I am half regretting the choice to be captain, and I am really looking forward to being a freshman again.

After the game, I sprinted 3 cross-field down-and-backs. I completed the first with good speed, feeling fast, but the second and third were slower and more difficult. I know that I have to concentrate on distance and endurance right now, but it was nice to throw a couple sprints to mix things up. My program will last ten weeks, and I can't wait until the second half, where I concentrate more on sprinting, agility, and throwing (the first five weeks are endurance and strength training).

Initiation

Today, I start training for College Ultimate.

Keep coming back for updates on my progress and my thoughts about Ultimate. I may post from time to time about skills, drills, and strategy. Enjoy!

Workout (6.26.06): 2mi run
first lap (1:55), second lap (1:45), third lap (1:40), fourth lap (1:35)
fifth lap (1:35, sixth lap (1:40), seventh lap (1:40), eigth lap (1:32)
first mile (6:55), second mile (6:27)
Body weights:
5 pullups, 40 pushups (some wide or with clap), and an ab circuit.

I noticed that it was much harder to throw (esp forehand) afterwards, but this may be attributable to the rain.