Coaching

Team meeting to recap the tournament and do some film review

Chalk Talk, Coaching

Did a strategy overview with Georgetown leadership, then a 2 hour practice

Fall League, Lift

12-15 vs DC Ultimallers

Focus for the game was denying the disc from my matchup, not being content to contain but trying to completely prevent them from getting the disc. Did a good job of matching footwork and maintaining proximity for the most part, but got slipped a couple times in one point and failed to lay out on a playmaking opportunity. Offense wasn't the focus but I moved the disc effectively, apart from one no-look Jesse Shofner move to a clearing reset. Whoops.

Press in snatch:  5 at 45, 50; 3 at 55, 60, 65lb
Muscle snatch: 3x3 at 65lb
Tall snatch: 3x3 at 65lb
Snatch: 3 at 95, 115, 120, 125, 130; 1 at 135lb
Snatch pull: 3x3 at 145lb
Pullups: 3x4 at +10lb
Front squat: 5 at 115, 125; 3 at 135, 145; 2 at 155lb
Kettlebell swing: 5x10 at 24kg
3x10 ab wheel roll-out from knees

PT, Doe Film Session

50min PT

20min throwing, 7min jog
Doe film session: Patrol vs Temper
20min throwing

John Doe Practice

4 hour practice, got to throw but mostly watched.

Afterwards, watched the All-Star Tour vs Schwa plus footage from our Triforce game in a team film session.

Lift, Coaching

Snatch: 2x1 at 60, 65, 70; 2x1 at 60, 65, 70kg
Snatch pull: 3 at 70kg

Rough day in the gym. Felt better about the meeting with next year's Justice captains and coaches. Went over the logic model / framework for planning the upcoming year's tryouts, practices, and long-term vision for the program. Got down into some specifics, but most of that will come in our next meeting.

Lift, Commentating

Snatch: 1 at 132, 142, 152, 157, 162, 167lb
Clean and jerk: 1 at 132, 152, 167, 181, 187, 192, 197lb
Front squat: 1 at 132, 157, 187, 197, 207; 4-4-3 at 176lb

Snatch grip push press: 3x5 at 132lb

Toes to bar: 3x15

Commentated the 17-16 Current win over a scrappy Rumble team, super fun to watch.

Lift, Coaching

Front squat: 1 at 60, 70, 80, 89, 94kg
Snatch: 1 at 60, 65, 69, 72; 3x2 at 67kg
Snatch pull: 4x3 at 76kg
Back squat: 1 at 60, 73, 82, 90, 95, 100, 105; 3x3 at 95kg

Film session followed by a short practice

Commentating, Coaching

Did the color with Greg in the booth at the Breeze game. It's not me on the field, or even on the sideline, but it's a way to be involved and I enjoyed doing it. Good game, good crowd, fun atmosphere, and some pretty delicious BBQ.

Rushed over to Georgetown afterwards to find the guys down 0-4 against the Black Cans squad. Rocky start, but we were able to get it together a bit to at least score most of our offensive points. Came close to some pressure blocks as well, but in general did not match up well against a much smarter group of players. Lots of little things to work on, but only one more week until the Series.

Lift, Coaching

Snatch: 3 at 20, 33, 50; 2 at 55; 5x2 at 60kg
Clean and jerk: 3 at 60, 65; 2 at 70, 75kg
Back squat: 3 at 70, 83; 1 at 90kg

1 hour film session, 1 hour reset work. Participated.

Also invented a new game: Around the World. 32yd box with 6yd triangular endzones at each corner, play 4v4 and score in each endzone consecutively clockwise. We got three of the four corners four or five times, but nobody ever made it around the world.

Back Squat, Press

Warmup, snatch form work*
5 overhead squat 95, 5 front squat 115lb
Back squat: 5 at 135, 155; 5x5 at 165lb
Military press: 5 at 65, 85; 5x5 at 100lb

The oly coach suggested that I shorten up my snatch grip, that a closer grip and more shoulder rotation would make for more stability in the catch. It doesn't quite feel natural, but that might just be a lack of flexibility or me not being used to it, so I'll keep playing around with it and see.

Breeze Workout, Car Crash

Did some footwork and positioning drills before talking team business over beer and pizza at the coach's pad. On the way home, our car got hit from behind as my co-captain was driving and we slammed into a pickup truck on New York Ave just inside the District. Nobody was hurt in the accident but we were pretty shaken up, and the cars were pretty busted.

After getting out and walking towards the cops I fell into a storm drain where the grating was missing a bar, and didn't stop falling until my knee got caught in the grate. The bars scraped all the skin off both sides of my knee and bruised the hell out of my hamstring tendon.

This is the third major injury I've sustained in two months, and two of them had nothing to do with playing or training. Frustrated does not begin to describe the season.

Breeze Workout

3x10 pistol squats
3x15 inverse rows
3x15 SL RDL
4x7 HSPU

For time:
50 burpees (2:45)
50yd inchworms (walk-out pushups)
50yd forward bounds
100yd walking lunges
Completed in 11:25

2x(25yd slow shuffle left, 25yd slow shuffle right)
2x50yd wheelbarrow

Marine abs in group of 4:

10 pushups, front plank
10 leg lifts, front plank

20 scissor kicks, side plank
20 flutter kicks, side plank
10 toe touches, front plank
10 toe touches, front plank
20 flutter kicks, side plank
20 scissor kicks, side plank
10 leg lifts, front plank
10 pushups, front plank

After dinner, watched the footage from Sunday's game against the Philly Phoenix and recorded commentary.

DC Breeze - Season 1 Game 1

13-30 vs Toronto Rush

Team	Comp	Throws	Comp %	Ds	TO	TA	Drops
Toronto Rush	150	179	83.8	19	29	28	1
DC Breeze	227	273	83.2	16	45	33	12

Player	PT	Comp	Throws	Comp %	GLS	AST	Ds	TO	OPT	DPT	OEff	DEff
Glenn Poole	52	34	38	89.5	0	5	0	4	48	4	37.5	50

One turfed throw while I was double-teamed, another turfed throw because I'm out of practice, one drop where the thrower put it behind me, one flat huck to a short receiver that floated too long. Second in points played, second most touches/completions, led the team in assists. Only two guys with more turnovers, but three others also had 4. Threw almost 14% of the team's throws, 9% of the turnovers (twice as many as my "allotment") and 38% of the assists.

IR Track Workout #1-2

800m warmup jog

3x(400m, 1:30 rest) in 1:15, 1:16, 1:18
400m jog
3x(400m, 1:30 rest) in 1:19, 1:18, 1:16
400m jog, 400m walk
3x(1:00 run, 100m walk) for 300m, 330m, 315m

400m cooldown

I drove to the high school track dreading this workout, and just as I was about to warm up I saw another guy getting ready to do his own workout. It happened to be Mike Porter, a Rutgers alum and coach of the Watchung team, so I asked what he was planning on doing. Apparently he ran a 50k race two weeks ago and was looking to do some 800s, but thought they'd suck and so he was willing to hop in on a few of my 400s. Despite assuring me that he was in no shape for "speed work", he didn't trail by much. He said he ran a sub-19 5k earlier this year, at 43 years old, something he hadn't done since he was 19 or something. He's crazy fast for a guy in his 40s and it was nice to have somebody breathing behind me to take my mind off how much I hate 400m repeats.

So he ran the first set with me, skipped the first two reps of the second but came back for the third. He also called out split times, which was helpful because I'd forgotten my watch. The times are actually approximate because they were his own, I was slightly faster on each one.

Instead of doing a third set of 3x400m, because I was heaving and ready to quit, he started to tell me about Jack Daniels (no, not that Jack Daniels) and running economy. It helps that Porter is also a cross country coach. Apparently a stride length that is too long means that you're wasting energy with inefficient movements. It's physics. Porter convinced me to test it out so we did another three 1:00 sprints and counted strides. I hit 170, 200, and 186 strides per minute for each of the respective sprints and saw a pretty significant increase in distance covered (though sustainability was an issue). I'm gonna keep playing around with stride rate to find out if a faster turnover is helpful on the Ultimate field.

Yo-Yo Test

Took out the measuring tape, counted off 65'7", cued up the beep test on my busted iPod and tackled the pre-season fitness assessment for Inside Rakete. We're using the Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery Level 2 assessment and it was my first time doing the test, so my performance was a little disappointing. But, to be fair, I was doing it on a wet stretch of asphalt in near-freezing temperatures. I made it to level 16, also known as stage 14.5? for a total of 640m. I would say that I can't wait to give it another go, but it's supposed to be a vO2max test and maxing out isn't always fun. Their formula for estimating vO2max from the beep test, incidentally, puts me at 54.0 mL/kg/min. It's a far cry from what I tested back on 12/13/10 but we'll see if I can't improve it over the next few months.

Deutsche Nationalmannschaft Tryout

"Inside Rocket" is the name of the team, I believe. Their logo is awfully reminiscent of Johnny Bravo. In any case I hitched a ride with one of the Mainz captains and we got to Heidelberg comfortably before the 9am start time. After gathering and quatching for a bit the 40-odd of us went over to the track for a fitness test. Unaware that we'd be running anywhere other than the field, I didn't have my running shoes...but no biggie. It was a heart-rate/VO2-max test of some kind, involving a heart rate monitor and a jog around the track following a pace-bicyclist. The jog got harder and harder though, speeding up every 400m, until eventually I tapped out at 3600m with a heart rate of 198. It wound up being approximately 2.325mi in 18:30, or 7:47 average pace, which sounds easy (considering I've done 3.1mi at like 6:27 pace) but I haven't been running and it showed. Compare to my last VO2 max test.

Anyway after that we split into 4 teams and did a breakmark drill, then played a mini-tournament with games to 7. After breaking for lunch we had another game to 7 and then a combined scrimmage, which my team won (putting me at 3-2 for the day in scrimmages). I played fairly well, but I wasn't used to playing that much at that high a level--not every player is strong, but enough are that it was no picnic trying to play defense. I also had to play downfield a lot and was having trouble working myself into the offense at times, problems with timing and not pushing deep enough in my cuts. The biggest problem though was that each team had only three or four subs, so there wasn't a ton of rest. Lots of fun, though. Looking forward to tomorrow.

After the last scrimmage we listened to a little training advice, showered and then gorged ourselves on Greek food at a nearby restaurant. Nice.

vO2max, power gym

Went down to the Rutgers Psychophysiology Lab and took a VO2max test. A lot of obscure data aside, I wound up going five rounds of three minutes in their protocol at (1.7mph 3% grade), (2.5mph 12% grade), (3.4mph 14% grade), (4.2mph 16% grade), (5mph 18% grade), burning a total of 222kCal in 20:08 including warmup and cooldown. My heart rate reached a maximum of 198 BPM, my max VO2 4.37L/min or 64ml/kg/min. Technically speaking, I never plateaued and therefore probably didn't reach my VO2max, but after finishing that fifth round I knew I wouldn't be able to complete the next one so I cut out early. Looking at the data, I can see where my breaths per minute and respiratory exchange rate spike. I don't want to think about how painful another three minutes would have been.

Afterwards I hit the power gym and did a solid workout, practicing my power lifts in their last day before they close for the winter.

5 deadlifts 40kg

5 power clean 40kg

5 front squats 40kg

5 squat clean and jerk 40kg

5 snatches 40kg

5 deadlifts 50kg

5 power clean 50kg

5 front squats 50kg

5 squat clean and jerk 50kg

5 deadlifts 60kg (only 3 with good form)

5 power clean 60kg

5 front squats 60kg

5 squat clean and jerk 60kg

1 clean and jerk 70kg

Double Practice

Arrived a little late both days, but both days in time to finish the warmup. Good mix of drills and scrimmages, mostly D vs O, I'm working on my game. Strange to think how my priorities in practice have changed. Trying to take matchups that challenge me, but are within a kind of comfort zone--there are often the players I feel motivated to stop. At tournaments I have to find that drive in other ways, but it helps to feel what that feels like at practice. Then I can't be content with telling myself my guy got the disc because somebody else failed to do their job. It's like when I complete all my passes on offense, get open on my cuts but get looked off, and somebody else throws the (dumb) turnover--yes, that's an opportunity to lay blame and resent my team/mates. But digging deeper, there's almost always something I could have done better to prevent that turnover, prevent my guy from getting the disc. Maybe not reasonable expectations to have of myself, but how else am I going to play like I need to play. There are just certain people who you hate to let beat you, and those are the ones I want to cover. Or have covering me after we get the disc.

Sometimes I worry that the personalities of certain teammates will influence the way I interact with this and other teams I play for. I wonder whether I will be like them when I get older. I wonder whether it's intentional, whether they think they're going to make me play better. I wonder whether it does. I've long believed that I'm more of an interior player--that the way I play is not dependent on being demonstrably "fired-up" or visibly angry. I dislike when people shove in huddles, trying to get their teammates "fired-up." When people told me it helps to get angry on defense, I always sort of mistrusted that in the back of my mind. Maybe it's true, but I don't think there are limits to how true it is. I also don't believe there's only one way to be angry, to be over-the-top violent and shaking. Either way, I often feel that those people trying to get on my case, get on my nerves, get under my skin, are wasting their breath. Throwing stones from glass houses. I think their energy is misguided. But then I have to remember that that doesn't matter, because there is an underlying truth to what they say--regardless of the particular circumstances and whether or not their criticism is in that moment justifiable.

Would I prefer a more even mix of breaking-me-down and building-me-up? Yes. Would that make me play better than I do now? Maybe. Does that matter? No. I have to find it.

A-Leauge Game 3

vs Roots. I got there late because other kids in the carpool were late, so the game was already going on and we were down by two. I got in a few points on O without warming up, we scored them so I sat, not ready to play a whole point of defense. My first point I went deep, got hucked to, BLi fouled me and I lost control of the disc, didn't call the foul. But the thrower had been fouled too, so disc came back and I got it underneath, we worked it up and scored. By the second half I was ready and got in for both O and D points. I remember being tight to my man the whole time, denying his first cut and being close enough to put pressure on the second option, but that was generally deep and I got skied twice. It was good that I caught up both times to at least make a play on the disc, especially considering they were flat throws past a straight-up mark, but it still sucks to get skied.

The game was physical, which I generally welcome and enjoy, but I felt like a few players crossed the line I draw for myself when I'm playing physically--grabbing and blocking with the arms, pushing off the defender when cutting, etc. I'm still not really sure what to do about it, because I don't feel comfortable calling these kinds of fouls. On the other hand, I don't like the intentional fouling and I don't do it, so when my opponent does I'm putting myself at a disadvantage. Plus it's summer league, so I feel like upping the ante with an elbow or two is really not appropriate, whereas it might be for an intense club game. I usually walk away feeling like it's my responsibility to just play better, and not let the opponent be close enough to pull cheap moves on me like that. Easier said than done, but at least I can work towards that without having to feel like I've sunk to their level.

Anyway, we ended up losing by a couple. I think that result will change as Illuminati gels more into the season, but what I will say about Roots is that they play with a lot of fire--and that's fun, even if I'd sometimes prefer things to be a little cleaner.