Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Another Workout

I skipped my last couple planned workouts, merely because I felt lazy.

1.9mi in 14:37, 60min yoga, 1.9mi in 14:39.
The yoga class was more difficult tonight.

Tomorrow, the girls play Sparkle Motion (the CHS girls) for the third and final time this season. Afterwards, I'm going to try to get to the MCUDL A-league game.

Monday, May 21, 2007

Bell Crack

My first Mixed Club experience. I think this was one of the most enjoyable tournament experiences I have had yet. I've joined up with NYNJA, a team with some players I know from Rutgers or summer league, plus some injured kid from Hofstra (what a goofball). I was really excited to play on the same team as Caitlin again, and it was good to see mixed Ultimate where the girls made a big impact on the game. In summer league, I've only played 6-1 and (rarely) 5-2, where the men will often look off the women and a girl will only influence the game if she has a big advantage over the other team's girl. Most of the teams this weekend, however, seemed to use their women effectively, although the men were typically the handlers and would admittedly get the disc much more often. We swept most of our opponents on Saturday, lost to Harpoon but still won the pool by point differential. In the game against Harpoon and both games on Sunday (Crafty and Bashing Pinatas, respectively), we really seemed to suffer from mental problems--bad drops, throwaways, miscommunication, and in general not playing like a team. Which makes sense, given that it was a tryout tournament. Even so, I'm pretty excited about playing with this team, and hopefully it will push me, along with Skylands and (occasionally) MCUDL A-league, to become a better player.

I noticed that Club, even Mixed Club, is hard. The better opponents had some fairly tall guys, and I'm merely average. My legs felt really good, but I feel like I am not as fast as I can be, and summer conditioning should help with that. I think I had one drop and two throwaways on Saturday, but three assists (one to Caitlin!), two goals, and four D's put me at +6 for the day. Sunday was less inspiring, with only one goal to compensate for one drop and a bunch of poor throws--almost all of them were catchable, but they weren't easy passes you could expect the receiver to catch. My goal was exciting, though: the huck went up to a female teammate covered by a Crafty woman, and I sprinted from much farther back to catch any garbage from the expected D. I surprised myself, though, got to the disc in time and snatched the disc simultaneously with the Crafty chick. We landed, I said "tie goes to the offense" and made, according to spectators, a "guilty" face. She acquiesed, I got heckled for skying a girl, but it was my point and it was fun. I also won pokey against Adam from BeaconHS/SUNY-Albany/Bashing Pinatas, a friend whose teams seem to keep beating mine. When we matched up during this game, though, I didn't let him get the disc and he didn't stop me for the few points we played together.

Oh, and it didn't rain buckets like they said it would. Beautiful weather, phenomenal fields, and a great tournament overall.

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Summer Conditioning

I start summer conditioning today.

1.9mi in 15:58, 60min yoga class, 1.9mi in 14:32.

Playing Coach p3

We arrived in St. Johnsbury late on Friday night, having hit traffic on I-95 on the way up. The host family was very accomodating, setting up our parent/chaperone/driver in one room and the rest of the girls in the room behind it. They gave me, as "the coach", a bed in the guest room downstairs. I smiled to myself at the logic behind the arrangement: in order for any "hanky panky" (as my 7th-grade science teacher would have called it), "the coach" would have to walk up a flight of creaky stairs, through the room with the mother, and into the room with all the young girls. I doubt if this was seriously thought out ahead of time, but it struck me as humorous that it worked out that way.

The captains' meeting was scheduled for noon; since we were in bed by midnight, I wasn't too worried about getting enough sleep. In fact, I woke up at 7am with the host family, did a sudoku, and then sat with the mother and her youngest daughter in the living room. We had a nice conversation for almost two hours, at which point I went to wake the girls for breakfast. We had a protracted meal, talking and packing for the day at a leisurely pace, then drove to the fields around 11am. I had the girls do partner throwing while I went to the captains' meeting with Caitlin, where we found out that we had a first-round by. I was frustrated, because this meant that we could have driven up Saturday morning after a decent night's sleep, and it also meant we would have four games in a row on Sunday. With only two subs for a total of 6 games, I would have preferred three each day rather than two and four straight.

C'est la vie, however. We did some straight-up marking drill and then watched our first opponent (Longmeadow) play our third opponent (NMH). They both played exclusively zone, but it was hard to tell whether it was the best strategy--Longmeadow had a good dump-swing going, but couldn't break through the middle, so they would eventually turn it. The wind was a factor, so there was garbage aplenty and NMH was coming down with more of it. Neither team had consistent hucks, but NMH was putting more of them up and they had the height advantage. Both teams had a lot of drop and unforced errors--painful to watch, but not unexpected. At half, we went down to the fields to warm up for our game. Some throwing, where I helped the soph handler and the tall girl with their hucks. Then, a go-to drill while I wondered where Longmeadow was--the game was supposed to start in 2 minutes and they were nowhere. I ran to find them, asked them to get 7 on the line, and said we wouldn't bother with assessing.

I took no notes, but I remember my impressions from each game. Longmeadow had a lot of players, a couple with throws but none that really took over the game. For the whole game, they played only zone D and we played only man D, force-middle. Our dump-swing worked well enough, but really we were effective at moving it up the sideline and breaking through the middle. The poppers found holes, the wings found spaces, and the handlers did a great job of getting it to them and getting it back. We were able to score both up- and down-wind, mostly because our defense forced turns near the endzone. Longmeadow really was not prepared for man-to-man, and there was less wind on the lower field, a great boon for our zone O. We closed out the game 8-3.

Next up was Columbia, a team the girls have played two or three times over the last couple years, as they are the only other nearby women's team. We both played man for much of the game, although CHS threw zone for one point and we worked it right past them. They were led by a very talented player, Judith, who will attend Rutgers next year and play with Shakti (a great pickup for a struggling program). The Judith-Caitlin matchup was fun to watch, with neither player having a clear advantage. Judith seemed to be able to get open pretty effectively underneath, but not at will. She played good dump defense on Caitlin, but couldn't take her out of the game. It was pretty clear that Watchung had stronger supporting players to back Caitlin up, though, and we saw a lot of high-stall turnovers because of our strong defense. Highlight of the tournament: near the end of this game, Judith was on the CHS goal line, forced middle on the backhand sideline. Caitlin handblocks Judith, but her hand hurts too much to pick up, so she calls herself the iso in the endzone. Our soph handler puts out a low forehand, Caitlin lays out--full extension sideways--for the goal. Prettiest 30 seconds of Ultimate I can remember, but she hit her head pretty hard on the landing, and had to sit. The next point, we play great defense and got a lot of blocks and run-through D's (then repeatedly turn it over on the goal line), and one of our freshman scores with a layout. I think we trade points, then we lose the last point, winning at hard cap 12-4.

I had some trouble on Saturday, though, being the coach for Caitlin. I tried to give positive feedback, but not all of my criticism was constructive and I put a lot of pressure on her as the team's captain and best player. I expect a lot, and sometimes my positive comments are not heard, which makes it frustrating for her. On Sunday, I made a more conscious effort to be constructive and to compliment her when she was doing well. Sunday was a more difficult day of Ultimate, however. Our first game against NMH was ugly--they are another zone team, and kept changing the kind of zone they played to confuse our handlers. They tried three-man cup, four-man cup, three-man cup plus a girl permanenetly on Caitlin, and probably something else that I missed. The girls struggled with these different looks, especially when NMH tried to shut down Caitlin and she couldn't stay back to handle. Our dump-swing was less efficient, and there was miscommunication without Caitlin. Plus it was windier that day, making it was harder to go over the top, and we had a lot of drops. Caitlin wanted to try zone D for a point, but they shredded it (like I said, a zone team). So the beginning of the game was rough, and we lost half 4-8. During the second half, we took more of a huck-and-defense strategy, went back to man and started forcing trap rather than middle, once I saw that the NMH throwers had more trouble with it. The punting worked especially well with-wind, and our defense got us enough turnovers that we would eventually work it up against wind as well. NMH tried to come back at us with the punting strategy, but Caitlin poaching in the backfield was too much for them--she was more aggressive than the other girls when the disc went up. So we crawled back into the game, the cap went on, and we scored an upwind break to make it 9-9, double-game-point. We put it in for the win.

Next up was Stuyvesant, a team of many players, most of whom were athletic and had decent throws. They played zone-D, perhaps the most organized zone we had seen yet. Our dump-swing worked well, especially when we broke the mark, but they shut down our downfielders and wouldn't let the handlers gain yards on swings. Add to that a few handblocks trying to break the mark, and our offense was pretty much tied, and we ended up trying to punt again, with less success. On defense, we were not fronting like we should have been, and we had a lot of trouble getting the mark on and forcing the right direction. Since Stuy had a bunch of solid players, they were able to work it right up the field against us. Another big problem for us was fatigue, and I saw Stuyvesant players streaking deep after a turn and only Caitlin running deep with them, the rest of our players lagging or looking around confusedly. We lose 4-11.

But we had upset seed to make second in our pool, putting us in the semi-finals against St. Johnsbury. They have two or three girls taller than 6', and we played the game on the field with the most wind. They played zone. Our dump-and-swing was great when we could get it off, but sometimes the dump would get stuck with the disc and we only lost yards. We broke through the cup fairly well, but could never get any flow once we did--it would go back to a handler, and SJA would push us back again. Punting never worked because of their tall deeps. We played man D again, forcing middle with moderate success. I told the girls to force one of the SJA handlers permanently forehand, because I noticed that her backhand was much stronger and she often turfed the flick. Eventually, we went to permanent force-forehand, but our offense simply wasn't working in the wind, and we ended up getting shut out 0-11.

For the 3/4th place game, we went up against the Canadian team, Sherbrooke. We pulled ahead right away playing zone-D, trying to conserve energy overall by making three girls work hard at a time. We were up 5-2 when Sherbrooke found their dump-swing, and started working it up again. Our deep looks were working well, especially in the beginning, but we had some trouble with endzone offense. Fatigue really hurt us, and our offense overall stagnated. We scored to tie it up at 7-7, double-game point at the cap, but we were pulling against wind and lost 7-8. Overall, I was very proud of how the girls played. It seemed like they improved, but the lack of subs was really rough in later games. Even so, it probably helped early on to have a tight rotation, and I don't know how much better we would have done with more subs. As a coaching experience, I felt the tournament went well for me overall, and I enjoyed myself. I would like to coach. I think I would do it well, especially as I learn more and work out the difficulties I had. It felt good when, after the game against Columbia, one of their mother/spectators told me, "It was a pleasure watching you coach." I got another compliment at some point, too, although I don't remember who it was or what they said. It's definitely something I'd like to pursue in the future.

Monday, May 14, 2007

Playing Coach p2

On Tuesday, we arranged a scrimmage between the girls and the JV team, which was simultaneously encouraging and discouraging. On the one hand, I love that the freshmen boys have so much potential and already play so well, but it is nonetheless difficult to watch the girls struggle so much. We were missing at least three of our "starters" that would be at the SJA Invite, including our sophomore handler and our only "tall girl" (the 6'ish sophomore). I think the score ended up being 2-11. In the two points that I played with the girls, my matchup scored (d'oh) and then I assisted for our first goal. The only other point that the girls scored came when Porter, the varsity/JV coach, went on with them and hucked it to one of the girls, who jammed it in to another girl for the goal. I could cite a couple reasons that the girls underperformed during the game, but I feel that the score really wasn't important so much as the fact that the girls got to play as a team for once.

At practice on Wednesday, I had the girls do partner throwing for a while again, then warm up and do a straight-up marking drill. I then split them into 3 teams of 3 to do the Box Game: 3v3 in a 15x15yd box, the object being to complete 10 passes in a row with defense and the standard stall count. The game was intended to get the girls a lot of touches and teach them how to complete passes in tight, confused situations. We didn't have enough time to work on dump movement, so I thought this game would teach them a way to move the disc at high stall counts, albeit an ugly way. It was more difficult even than I anticipated, and though Caitlin's team eventually won the first round, they only got up to 9 completions against the other team before the girls couldn't continue. It was a hot day, and it is a very tiring game. We then ran through ho-stack in an attempt to teach the basic ideas of that offense, because I thought we might try it out over the weekend (I ended up never using it, but Stuyvesant used it against us, so at least the girls had seen it before).

Next, Caitlin wanted to do a simple tutorial on how to call some of the more important violations that come up in a game--fast count, pick, double-team, marking fouls, etc. We explained some of those rules, then sat in the shade and reiterated what we wanted for the tournament--to remember the things we had worked on in practice, to play hard, and to have fun. We reminded the girls to get plenty of rest, start hydrating early, and eat lots of vegetables/pasta to prepare the body nutritionally for the rigors of a savage tournament.

Playing Coach p1

I had what could be considered my first real coaching experience over the past week, culminating in a trip to coach the Watchung Hills girls' team at the 2007 SJA Invitational Tournament.

After a couple conversations, Caitlin and I decided that our primary goal was to field a girls' team that was "self-sufficient" in the sense that they knew how to play the game, understood some basic strategy, and could play well enough within the strategy to score points and win games. With that in mind, I developed a simple kind of "action plan" to prepare the team for the tournament, given that we would only have three days to work with in the week leading up to it. I decided to focus mainly on the nine girls who would attend the SJA Invite, but I by no means wanted to neglect the other players, because my underlying hope was that all the girls would have fun. If they have fun, they will be more likely to keep playing, and I'd like to see Watchung Hills develop a women's program. I therefore tried to find a balance but not spread myself too thin, because ultimately I believed that girls who won games would have more fun. Since only those nine girls would have the opportunity to win games, they had priority.

The Varsity/JV coach for the high school had already taught everybody the basic three-man cup, and all the girls had had some instruction/practice throwing. We have four sophomores in their second year of experience (one of whom is JV co-captain), seven freshman (three coming to the Invite), two seniors playing for their first time (one coming to the Invite), and Caitlin--a fourth-year player with tremendous experience. Other than Caitlin, only a few girls have consistent throws, so that was the first thing I wanted to work on. I've always felt that individual instruction is imperative for new throwers, and I like to think that I've become effective at not only recognizing improper form and bad habits, but helping people to correct them. So I had the girls pair up 10yds apart for throwing, and I went around to correct form and give tips for close to half an hour.

The next step was defense. Caitlin and I decided to try Force Middle as a way to confuse inexperienced teams, with an emphasis on fronting downfield cutters. I predicted that most junior women's teams don't have accurate hucks, so we would give up the deep look until the other team can prove to me that they can complete them. We did a drill to practice shifting over to the force side every time the mark switches, and I tried to get them to call and echo the force every time the disc moved. After practicing this for some time, we did a dishy drill--I was hoping to make flow a little easier by keeping the disc moving and keeping it in the hands of our experienced throwers. Plus, dishy drill is a good way to practice cutting deep, coming in, then going deep again. We also did a 3-man marking drill to work on our marks and our throws around the mark, something I knew we could have trouble with in games. That was Monday's practice, which we concluded with some 4 on 4 scrimmage on a small field.

Sunday, May 06, 2007

Belated Sectionals Post

Metro East Regionals is playing out as I type.

I wonder whether my team deserved to be there. The sectional-regional-national format doesn't get the best teams into the same place, it gets the top X of arbitrarily-defined geographic zone Y, sorry if you got stuck with a strong section or a weak format. But Rutgers is not in a strong section, or even a strong region. We did get screwed over in terms of the number of bids to Regionals, and in terms of the format: one large double-elimination bracket, Sunday postponed, not all games legitimately scheduled. Play through two hard games on the way to the back-door finals, then play the tournament's first seed in their first game of the day.

So we got the short end of a few sticks. But it seems to me that we did not deserve to be at Regionals, the way we played through the season. I realize we were looking to peak, but we never played well enough to permit ourselves to reach that peak. We chalked up early losses to inexperience, graduation of key players, missing members of the squad, and overall team youthfulness. I think that we found limited success because we missed practices. I think we were too quick to blame inexperience and be content with mediocrity on the field, especially in the early season. I would hear things like, "That won't happen when our marks are better," or "Once we practice zone O, we'll crush these teams." I was convinced, had confidence in the system because it looks good on paper, and it works really well when you do it right. But it takes repetition and committment to learn a structured offense, and it takes hard work to learn shut-down defense. I don't think you can say we lost for a lack of hard work, or an unwillingness to do what it takes--we all put in the effort during workouts, and we all bought into the system. I still think we did not practice enough. Too few practices in the early season, missed because of weather or other uncontrollable factors, brought us to tournaments underprepared. That is no foundation for future success. I'm not trying to say that we have to win early tournaments, but I am saying that we have to learn the system earlier, and not be content with hope that we will peak at just the right time.

Of course I'm going to think we deserved it more than the other teams who made it. But it didn't happen. Not making Regionals was a blow to my ego and a blow to my spirit. In high school, I felt like I had to be the general. I felt like it brought us to success. I watched a video yesterday of our game vs. Millburn at States, and it was ugly...I realize the game was windy, but I played like a moron, throwing turnovers left and right. I was a different player back then. Now, I don't want to be a player who carries the team, or even one that tries to. Now, I want to be a crucial gear in the Machine. I want us to grow together this summer, step up as individuals and move cohesively on the field. I expect greatness, now.

Now, there are no excuses.

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

JV Ultimate

I attended the high school's JV practice yesterday, and I left with a few thoughts.

Prior to practice, the coach gave a brief chalk-talk on the whiteboard in his classroom. He wanted to tell the kids about throwing deep, at the request of some of the new players. Well, almost all of the JV kids are brand-new players, because fewer than 6 have more than one season of experience. Almost all of them are freshman.

So the coach outlined a few rules about throwing deep. 1: Don't do it. Most of these kids can't throw accurately with any distance, although a few are learning semi-consistent short throws without a mark. So I understand the concept behind telling them to not throw it deep--most of them can't do it yet. He went on to explain a few tips for throwing deep afterwards (don't force it, throw io, use lots of spin, etc). But what stuck with me was the difficulty in teaching Ultimate to novice players. You can't simply teach "good Ultimate" because it requires fundamentals. So how do you build a team without fundamentals? How do you lay a foundation for structured and competitive Ultimate when most of the kids are uncoordinated, goofy freshmen? I was at a loss. I knew that the things he was teaching were horribly wrong for a competitive team, but they made sense for these kids. Where do you draw the line between short-term and long-term education in Ultimate?

I would probably do things differently if I were coaching, but it is hard to say exactly what I would do in situations like this. I can already see the temptation to focus on promising players, the need to give individual attention to the kids who you expect to step up to varsity next year, and the competing need to help the struggling stragglers. I have always liked the idea of a buddy system, where an experienced veteran takes a new player under his or her wing to teach individual concepts in practice and work with them on throwing outside of practice, but that's hard to do when most of the team is not very experienced. I remember my freshman year of high school, when I was one of two freshman and fewer than 6 brand-new players at the time. I got lots of individual attention, and I really think that was the biggest factor in my early growth in the sport. I remember being on the starting seven in the spring, getting playing time against teams at Nationals--no way would that have been possible without all those seniors taking me aside to show me how to throw, cut, and catch.

So later, everybody split into three teams, where each team had one or two experienced players. After my team's first point (with me on the sideline) I asked my team to circle up. I gave maybe two or three specific thoughts about what was going on and how they could improve: hold the force, prevent in-cuts by giving up the deep ("they can't throw deep!"), and cut to the open side on offense. Then I got on the field with them and tried to shape how things were going--calling for them to stack instead of throwing to the fast break, or trying to get the thrower to dump at high stall counts. But I found myself playing a little poachy at times, rather than sticking to my man. Three reasons: poaching helped my team's defense, enabled my (new player) matchup to learn to recognize when he is poached, and I found it frustrating to play tight defense when the force switched. So playing with JV, I played good offense and bad defense, because it seemed like the best way to teach the new players. I guess that's just how it goes.

I hope to learn more when I coach the girls at the SJA Invite next weekend.