MCUDL Canceled

So we got some of the guys together for 90 minutes of throwing and drills, instead. Not real real difficult, but some of it got the blood moving--dishy drill, comeback drill, redemption, cut/defend with a thrower/mark, and some mini. Plus we made a new throwing game--the thrower stands 20yds out from a lacrosse goal, and has to throw a "completion" into the goal past a mark (no sliders or rollers, no upside-downs). 3 shots each, most points wins, shootout for ties. I won this game--and redemption, too!.

Get in shape.

8 DB bench press 25lb
8 overhead squat 18lb
8 decline front lunge
16 exball crunch
8 DB bench press 25lb
8 overhead squat 18lb
8 decline front lunge
16 exball crunch
8 DB oush press 25lb
8 DB bench press 25lb
8 overhead DB squat 10lb
8 decline reverse lunge
16 exball crunch
2x8 DB push press 25lb

30 minutes yoga

2mi jog home (7:50, 8:09)

Get in shape.

60 minutes yoga

2mi in 14:49

1:37, 1:49, 1:50, 1:54
1:54, 2:02, 1:58, 1:41

12 90degree pullups
8 close mixed grip chin-ups (4 each side)
2x8 incline pullups

My shins hurt a little--new shoes, ran on a track--and I felt a little out-of-practice running, but it was okay. I plotted out my route to getting back into shape for the fall. Knee/tibia still healing, it was feeling good until I banged it on a cabinet earlier. Ouch.

Defense

aka, a lesson in failure.

Pike went 1-6 at the Boston Invite. Given my place on the team, a tryout yet, I'll limit the thoughts I share to how I felt this past weekend. I felt ready to step up to the challenge of making myself a member of the team, something I had been looking forward to after weeks of rest and several missed team events--CUT and two practices. I was dealing with the anxieties brought up by my recent absences, quieting my mind and really just trying to prepare myself as much as I could with the little time I had. I was especially looking forward to playing on offense with separate O and D lines--I've struggled in the past--in college especially--with being limited to only offense, but being told ahead of time allowed me to embrace that opportunity. It came as a small shock on Saturday morning, then, when the D-line captain told me I had been switched.

Immediately, I was off-balance. I started thinking about how I have struggled on defense, how it was always pointed out as my biggest weakness, how I had missed two practices worth of Pike's defense. I feel confident that I can fit into an offense even without practicing it extensively, just by virtue of having some experience with different looks and knowing some sound offensive principles. I know how to cut to space and create it, I know our team emphasizes possession, I have concentrated on improving my mental focus on offense all year to be more conservative with the shots I take. I have always felt like an O player who maybe wanted to be a D-line handler someday, when I am good enough. I knew that this tournament was my last chance this season to prove myself worthy of a spot on Pike, and I felt the pressure of not having attended CUT/etc. I wondered whether the team leadership was doing it to me on purpose, to see whether I could play defense--that perhaps I had shown enough promise on O that all I had to do now was show I was not a defensive liability. The long and short of it is that I was pushed outside of my comfort zone, and immediately faced with self-doubt.

I made it my job to push past that, but I began to feel more as time went on that I was nowhere near as prepared for stopping club open offense as I had to be to earn a spot on Pike--certainly not a spot on the D line. I did not feel especially out of shape in terms of my top speed, but my sprint endurance has suffered greatly from my injury and subsequent rest. I have not been practicing, and so my ability to triangulate and stay in good defensive position was not even close to 100%, and all of this just fed into the mental garbage that was coming up for me. I never felt like I was able to get into a rhythm because we were playing a lot of offense, and I was only called in for maybe 30-40% of the D points we had. I saw the O-line suffering at times, especially against zones, and this made it even worse--I believe zone offense is one of my strengths, and felt I could have contributed much more positively and directly on the O team.

Despite all this, I knew it was important to take it on as a challenge. I ate up the advice that the veterans had for me--especially Ellis'--and tried to implement it when I was able to get back on the field. I felt I improved over the course of the tournament, but not consistently and not by much--I started playing better dump defense, got a better idea of how to play zone, and eventually found myself more comfortable while chasing in our 1-3-3 zone, but still got beat far too much by cutters in man D. To make matters worse, when we were able to force a turn, I was a little out-of-place. I felt like some of my teammates did not trust me, looked off my good cuts and only saw the times when I couldn't get open. I was out of practicing making handler cuts and the few deep shots I took, while good choices, were never completed--two were flat space throws slightly out of bounds, and one was blady and too far. I scored a couple points, but was nowhere near satisfied--especially because our D-line's offense was something that struggled already and we really needed the breaks each game, often finding ourselves behind by only a few.

So I failed, failed, and failed, but kept trying to succeed, to improve. I did feel like I covered the pulls very well, was often the first or second one down, and wondered how that could be possible. There were a few points when I did move the disc well, even one against Bhodi where I felt like I shredded the defense and worked it all the way up--then hucked it to an open receiver when I had run out of real estate, and my flat put sailed out the back. Throughout all of this, though, I kept my energy up and tried to be a strong presence on the sideline, encouraging my teammates on the field and off. There were times when I watched more than yelled, but I never sat down for more than a moment while the action was live.

Overall, the tournament was a good experience. I realize that in order to compete at this level, the level I am actively seeking, I will be constantly outside of my comfort zone, and need to be comfortable outside it. That will take time, effort, and tenacity. The tenacity I have, the effort I am ready to expend, but since January I have felt that there is no time to wait. Aside from the few weeks I took off for my injury to heal, there is no time when I am not pushing forward, learning and pushing further. No time to think, next year it will be better. It has to be better this point, this cut, this decision. It isn't easy, and I will continue to fail, but I'm not trying out for Pike because I want to win easy. I want to learn from this team, become better, and make it better as well--to be constantly reaching. And then bring that reach to Rutgers.

Pre-Boston

30 minutes of yoga/stretching, a contrast shower, and icing the knee/tibia. Restocked the ipod, too.

3 Minute Workout

Tabata pushups: 20, 15, 9, 9*
6 door frame pullups

Yoga

90 minutes yoga

Run

Bought new running shoes. It is time.

1.3mi in 11:02
1.2mi in 8:35

Very hilly terrain. The first quarter-mile is at least a 30degree incline. My knee felt okay, but my shins were a bit unhappy with the steep decline running (I lengthened my stride, so I knew that it would put stress on my legs). It was hot, and I had not had much water all day so I was fairly uncomfortable. Especially because this is the first legitimate run I've done in several weeks--jogging a cut or two in a game doesn't count, nor does the breif jog I did after MCUDL the other night, because it was 3/4th of a mile at most. I'm hoping that the time I took off helped more than I felt like it did while taking it, because I was feeling all sorts of weirdness--hamstring tightness, knee discomfort, and heel pain were the most common. I think my body doesn't deal well with being sedentary, so it is time to take a more active approach to recovery.

Summer League Shenanigans

Took stats again in our MCUDL game vs Roots of Rhythm. We played a game to time, and lost 8-21. A lot of weird decisions from the team, some bad throws, and less effort overall than the Pennsbury+ kids. I played three points, walking the whole time...the last point was ended by time though (nobody scored), so we scored 50% of the time I was on the field. We would have scored 100% but my throw was too crisp and the receiver dropped it in the endzone. We would have scored the final point, but the receiver misread my huck (to be honest, it floated a little more than it probably should of, but it was flat and afforded an opportunity to box the defender out). Maybe I'm just feeling egotistical about my play because I was in jeans and work boots, so please ignore my ridiculous boastin. I had a lot of fun.

Practice?

Well, not quite. I went to a yoga class this morning before breakfast to get myself back on the road to recovery, because I've been doing next to nothing for the past couple weeks other than what is required of me for work. The job, unfortunately, has been rough on my body by itself, due to the long hours and constant walking, kneeling, etc in less-than ideal footwear. Gotta get some new kicks, work less crazy hours, get better sleep, and--most importantly, in my mind--start being active again. I think my body has responded poorly since I started asking less of it, so I don't want to wallow in the pool of tendonitis anymore. Hopefully I can heal within another two weeks or so with just rehab exercises and swimming, because right now my knee-area still hurts and I don't want to start running again until it doesn't. Unless, of course, I go back to a doctor or PT and they tell me otherwise.

In any case, I made the trip down to Philly for Pike practice, trying to learn some of the offense and become a member of the team. We've been working mostly on handler motion; even though the offense I've (ostensibly) been playing with for the last two years is not foundationally different, there are subtle differences that I think make a global difference in the game. For instance, in college we often stressed that the dump had to be set up in proper position before making his cut. Now, I'm realizing that being set up is nice, but it's silly to waste precious time trying to go set up when really you should get the disc. While it may not be with ideal momentum or strictly within "the offense," it is probably less risky overall than being unavailable for a few seconds, then rushed while the thrower is forced into a bail-out situation.

And then, of course, the ho-stack look is new, but with similar handler principles. I have sort of resisted ho in the past, but I like it more as time goes on, have been ready for it since the beginning of this year because I felt having only one offense means you're going to be predictable, which is bad even in college.

Scrimmage tomorrow morning!

Nothing

I played some 5v6 pickup today. I only walked during the game. I've done nothing but rest, stretch, and work for the past two weeks. Time to do yoga and body weight exercises.

Pike Invite - Day 2

Woke up 6:45am, threw my shit in a bag and flew to Ariel's house, picked him up and flew down the Turnpike. Made it down to the fields at 8:03, so we made great time.

Use what you got

In Boston, visiting the girlfriend, I have no access to a gym. So I use what I got.

4 ledge pullups (ouch, hurt my hands)
10 pullups (on a sprinkler pipe, so not full ROM)
8 pushups
4 pushups with a 115lb person on my back (top half ROM)
3x8 RDL with a 115lb person piggy-back

Lift

A little light something before dinner.

12 pullups
6 jump pullups (imitating the first 20secs of this)
Narrow mixed-grip chinups, 2 to each side (bar perpendicular to chest)
6 narrow parallel-grip chinups
3x8 upright DB row 25lb
abs (situps, bicycles, v-ups, etc)

Jump pullups...frackin' hard. I was going from wide grip at the bottom to narrow grip at the top (reverse of what those dudes do), plus it was after a PR in consecutive dead-hang pullups, but my "jump" was only like 6 inches. Those dudes are ridiculous. I'll definitely have to try it again, if I can find a suitable place.