MLU Tryout 2

Up before 3am this time, dragged myself to the car and cursed the cold as Dusty drove us to Dunkin Donuts. Munched a bagel in the car and had to wait for the bubble staff to show up. Tossing, warmups, drills. I forget. Matched up against a former Pike player some. Tore my knee up some more.

Afterwards went to "brunch" with two guys from tryouts, the team staff actually showed up at the same diner and asked to be seated nowhere near us. I was a little out of it and spilled my stashed Dunkin cup all over the floor. Felt bad the waitress had to come mop it up.

After putting food in the tank I met up with my brother and his girlfriend downtown to check out the American History Museum. We stuck to the Price of Freedom exhibitions: brother's girlfriend had to do some research for her thesis, brother and I just think that stuff is really interesting. After walking from the Revolution through to the War on Terror, we got tacos and then hit up the Natural History Museum to see all the dinosaur bones, deep sea terrors, tectonic plates and extraterrestrial rocks. Also the Hope Diamond. Man, that museum is full of cool shit.

Having had our fill of eye candy, but lacking more substantial sustenance, we dropped by my cousin's for coffee and then checked out my new apartment, as yet empty of me and my things. Then we met up with my girlfriend and her mother for a nice family dinner at a Thai place near Logan Circle, where I had my fill before fitting myself into the car for the long drive home, tired after a long day.

Practice

4x(0, 15, 0, 25, 0, 40) suicides before practice, cut short the full workout because of practice.

Practice included dishy drill, competitive scrimmage, ~6x(2x40yd) chaser sprints, one 70yd accelerator and one 70yd sprint. I won half the suicides, all my 40-40 sprints, and came in 3rd out of 30 in the final 70yd sprint. Pretty sore from yesterday, not enough sleep.

Practice, Lift, Pickup

Pike practice yesterday on Skelly Field.

Today, the following with Frenchy and Geoff:

Overhead squats: 10 at 45, 10 at 65, 10 at 95lb

Squats: 10 at 135, 6 at 155, 2 at 185lb

Incline bench press: 10 at 95, 7 at 105, 5 at 105

Mixed pickup with the girls team, 6 on 6.

Workout, Practice

Bench press: 8 at 115, 4 at 135, 5 at 125lb

One arm, single leg DB snatch: 6 at 40lb

One arm DB snatch: 6 at 50, 6 at 60lb

BB push press: 6 at 65, 6 at 95lb

DB push press: 6 at 40lb

Stair workout, College Ave Parking Deck (80 steps):

Every other

Every step

Every other

Every third

Every other

Double leg hop up 2, down 1

Every other

Every third

Every other

Double leg hop every step

Every other

Right leg every step

Left leg every step

Every other

Every other

Speed skater every step

Every other

Completed in 16:18

Practice was warmup, throwing, marking drill (painful after stairs), one-on-one cutting/defense drill, scrimmage. I looked off a lot of open vetern receivers trying to get new players to cut more aggressively. Hopefully they understand and step up to the challenge.

(Pre)Practice

5 rounds of 5 L-hang pullups spaced throughout my morning at work, done on the lip of an I-beam. That started the day out well--after lunch, I couldn't lift my legs into an L anymore. After work I made my way down to Gunswick for practice and got in most of the Pike workout beforehand.

2x(100yd sprint, 20 burpees, 60sec throwing)

3x(80yd sprint, 10 clap pushups, 60sec blades)

5x(60yd sprint, 10 burpees, 45sec throwing)

Then I went right into leading the warmup for Rutgers. At practice we demonstrated throwing, explained how we want them to make deep cuts, then put on a little returner showcase game to show them the intensity and effort we want them to bring (lopsided teams, mine lost 2-3 I think). Finally we split everybody up into four teams and had 2 games of 7v7 going on simultaneously, with only a few subs each team so people got good playing time. I think it went well overall, though I felt rushed the entire time. Maybe it was also the rush of a fresh season, who knows.

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.

New York Invite

After only 3 hours of sleep I stumbled into the back of Jake the Jake's car, complained about the music selection, and promptly passed out for the ride up to Middletown, NY. Though I would later appreciate the shorter drive this tournament came with, compared to the nine hours each way we had last year for Furniture City Shootout, I was really feeling the effects of some less-than-stellar decisions the night before and half of me wanted to sleep through the first few rounds. But I put my big boy pants on, went to the porta-potty to put in my contacts and got into the warmup.

I wasn't sure how much playing time I would get at this tournament. I made the roster but am in a very different place than last year, where I got all my playing time on the O-team after the Boston Invite. This year I've been playing D-line almost exclusively, and haven't yet proven that I deserve significant playing time in big games. Our pool play games were perhaps only big in the sense that we had to take care of business this weekend to get ourselves into bigger games against better opponents for the rest of the season, but I was happy when I got into the first game early on and decided to keep track of what I did on the field. We pretty much rolled over Colt .45, so I got 7 points (3/4) and had one assist in our 15-3 win. The next game against Brooklyn started out close, and I think it was tied at 4 or so before we started running away with it. 6 points in this game (2/4) with two assists and a final score of 15-7.

During the bye round I snagged a pulled pork sandwich and a Dr. Pepper, both of which took some effort to get down but made me feel much better afterwards. Then a nice nap on some carboard under the sunshade and I finally felt great. Re-warmed up after the bye and we got up for the game against Wiretap, a team that beat us at Cazenovia and Boston and we were out for blood. Tight at first, but we went on a big D run in the second half that felt very satisfying, 3 breaks in a row that I was on the field for. During the second point of that run we had them pushed back in their own endzone, all the downfield cutters shut down, tight D on the dump and I took the thrower to stall 9 and then handblocked him to put icing on the cake. 5 points in this game (1/4) and that one D, final score 15-11. Last game against Wilmington I got in a lot more, 6 in the first half and 7 in the second, putting up 2 goals and 2 assists to bring my fantasy for the day up to +8 with no turnovers. I also had another half of a D when I knocked down a blady flick that the mark forced, but I'll also take credit for half a turnover when Fink threw a big bendy backhand huck over my head in the endzone--I half-bid for it, but it was coming in fast and I didn't have much of a shot at it. I did get beat deep for a goal once on the day, late in the Wilmington game but it was a breakside huck after two other break throws, so it was more frustrating as a team defense failure. I got beat in a few times as well, but I think overall I was tight to my man when I was in and didn't let up any really dangerous break throws.

Rounded out the day with a legendary stop at Olive Garden with Frenchy, Bo, CJ and Jake the Jake, putting away bowl after bowl of soup, something like a dozen breadsticks and a ton of water, then watched Will Smith dominate in MiB before falling asleep aroudn 10pm.

Sunday started out very well, I felt good in warmups even as the rain moved in, but I only got 1 point in the Poenix game where we went from down 6-8 at half to a 15-13 win. That set us up for a a quarterfinals match against host PoNY, where we stayed with them through the first half and went up 10-9 before they ran off 6 in a row to win 11-15. I got in 5 points this game (4/1), and had my first and only true turnover of the tournament on a contested throw to Tous upfield. The rain had really started coming down during this game and when we found out our loss put us against Mephisto in the 5th place bracket I could feel the team's energy drop. I tried to pick up the team from the sidelines but didn't get put in, so I was also trying to not freeze under Kinsey's rain jacket. We went down 4-9 before the game got called due to waterlogged fields. We spent a few minutes trying to put turf back on top of the mud we'd kicked up with our cleats, shook hands with Mephisto and hit the road. Some clutch Wendy's on the way back, I napped in the back seat and then lost $5 in a bet to Rainwater that he couldn't make it home from the 206/287 intersection within 20 minutes. He made it in 18 with some serious speedage on 287 and Easton Ave.

While I look forward to practices for the opportunity to put in the work I need to, I'm also excited about how the team came together for the first 5.5 games this weekend. Even as I work to be a bigger part of this team, I'm looking forward to Pike rolling over other teams, as a team.

Boston Invite

4:15 to get up there, nice hotel. Couldn't sleep at all Friday night--between the A/C unit and the snoring teammates, I don't think I got more than one hour of uninterrupted slumber. That didn't help much for Saturday, where I made poor breakfast decisions that included some kind of egg/bacon/cheese monstrosity and a cup of yogurt with fruit. I think the combination upset my stomach. In any case, we got up for our first two games and built leads but had trouble finishing the door, winning 15-8 and 15-9 against Medicine Men and Brooklyn respectively. Next up was Providence Pack Dogs, where I'm pretty sure we built a lead and then let Josh Ziperstein run all over us. It was frustrating that we couldn't stop a team whose offense basically depended on big deep shots, but our offense wasn't on point enough to prevent our 12-15 loss.

We started our crossover game against Sons of Liberty and traded to 3-2 in what would have been a very upwind-downwind game, but forced a turn on the goal line right before the game was postponed to Sunday due to lightning. Chipotle and "White Men Can't Jump" rounded out the night. The next morning was a little wet as we got off to an early start, 8am gametime so we could finish the crossover before the other rounds. My knee was really bothering me in warmups, so I guess it was a mixed blessing that I didn't get any playing time against SoL. We quickly went down a bunch of breaks, started to climb back and brought the game to universe point but couldn't seal the deal. That sent us down to play DoG where we built a 7-3 lead before shitting the bed and letting them take half. Game ended 13-15. That sent us down to play Roots of Rhythm...I think it was tight at first, at some point we pulled away by several breaks and then gave a couple back, but I believe the game ended 15-8 (score reporter says 15-13?). We then played Mephisto for 13th place and stomped our way to 8-2 at half. But the trend continued and we blew our lead in the second half to lose 13-15.

I built some confidence and learned a few things. Playing time was slim to none in some games, but I think/hope I started to earn more by the end of the weekend. Like last year, I played mostly D points. I was better prepared for that this time, though, and I think it showed. I did get beat a couple times, but handled my business much more of the time. For the few O-point I got, I did good things if I got the disc. Only one turnover all weekend, in the Roots game when I second-guessed myself and held back a throw to Bill on an open in-cut, then threw it anyway into the dirt behind him. Execution error, throw to the open man when he's open, simple fix. My huck to Jake the Jake for a goal against Mephisto left a much better taste in my mouth.

Lots to work on. We'll see within a few days if I get the chance to continue working with Pike this season.

Double Practice Tryout

in Philly. Saturday was a good mix of drills and scrimmages, Sunday was all scrimmages. Body is holding up, but clearly not conditioned enough and that may be the long-term cost of earlier injuries. Seems I'm shutting down more of my man's cuts, but still getting beat. Staying tighter and not getting beat by as much, but still getting beat. Other than a few flubs (including one dumb drop), felt pretty good on offense. Some layout catches, some key break throws, a couple nice hucks. Wet all day Saturday, the fields soaked for Sunday, definitely impacting the game with players slipping and tripping.

Can't wait to bring it in Boston.

Pike Practice

in Princeton, but got kicked off the fields and moved to Mercer. Rough practice for me, at first--with few subs and high energy drills, I felt out of shape. Probably because I am. Damn. But after lunch and once it started raining, I felt better. Gave more effort. Still getting used to playing at that speed and with the requisite focus, but I'm learning and doing. Should be doing more/less, because of conditioning/injury. My ankle still hurts, but not enough to keep me from playing...we'll see how that goes, I suppose.

Pike Tryouts

Two days watching from the sidelines. I tried to warm up on Saturday, but couldn't get through even that. Couldn't change directions because twisting the joint was too painful, especially unilaterally. Couldn't use the full range of motion in my knee. Frustrating, but I tried to help where I could--from the sidelines, feeding in drills, etc. Lots of strong players, lots of hungry players, both ups and downs for some of the new guys. You can tell who already knows what it's like to play at club speed, but hopefully the focus and intensity get better and better as we move through the season.

Saturday night was delicious, Sanborn's mom made us chicken and cookies, then I had a cider and watched the Magic put down the Cavs to win the conference finals. Actually wanted the Cavs to win, just so there would be another game in the series, but they didn't deserve it with the way they were shooting.

Sunday was scrimmages and I didn't really stick to just one team, tended to talk for whoever was on defense. Didn't cleat up, but worked a lot with the 4lb and 8.8lb medicine balls on the sidelines, doing slams and tosses. Got sunburned. Got hungry. Never enough. Team First.

If

the team is smaller, and the rotation is smaller, then my role is necessarily different from last year--on the surface. As an "O player" I could start with the disc, and do whatever it was that I could do to get that disc in the endzone. But all too often, we gave that disc to the other team, and had to get it back. All too often, we didn't. So really, my "role" last year was a sham--a superficial category applied to my name on the roster, which I welcomed as an opportunity to remain more often within my comfort zone, and used both productively--we're the "O line" and we should not give up the disc--and non-productively. All too often, I worked hard to not look silly--the pansy approach to Ultimate. Don't look bad, you might not get as much playing time. You're not the D superstar, so your job is to contain your man as best you can if we've given the disc up. Make the play if you can, and try not to resent your teammates when they can't, when they've made the error in judgment or execution that made it so you have to play defense, so you're forced outside of your comfort zone. Why couldn't they just throw and catch? They're the veterans/ballers/tallers, don't they know that I'm new here?

Well now I know (for now). If I have the disc, I move it to a more advantageous position. If my teammate has the disc, I create an opportunity to move it to a more advantageous position. If an opponent has the disc, I take it away, or don't let my man get it. At the very least, I make him get it in a less advantageous position, make him uncomfortable.

Being better conditioned is basic to all of these things. I can't rely on my teammates to push me. Walk, not talk.

Here we go.

Practice, Bell Crack

8am in Philly. Warmup, drills, scrimmages. Few to no subs. Hard.

Not in shape. Out of touch with ho-stack offense. Hard.

Doubt. Frustration.

Noon in Kennett Square. Warmup, game, rest, game. Subs. Easier.

Picked up with Full Service. Beat Levitation Holmes 15-3.

Beat Aunt-Flow All-Stars 10-9 after being up 6-2, then down 6-8. Fun.

Fun, yes. Pike, yesser. Nationals with Pike, yessest. Let's go.

Regionals

One season ends.

Focus shift:

Go.

Pike Practice

In Philly. For some reason, I couldn't throw. I think I played decent defense, but I had a lot of turnovers--dropped an easy huck in the endzone, threw the disc into the dirt or defense, stupid shit like that. I tried to work hard and put in a lot of effort, but the focus of the practice was to stay focused, and I did not.

Frustrating.

Using this week to get ready--physically and mentally.

PTW, Practice

8x(sprint 40, sprint 10, sprint 40yd)
rest
8x(jog 10, sprint 10, sprint 40yd)

Practice was good. I matched up with DB in the scrimmage, played good D but threw a few turnovers.

Pike Double Practice

Drove DB's manual car down to Philly for practice without too much trouble. The BBQ on Saturday night was awesome, but I don't think I played well enough this weekend. Not enough energy, I kept realizing too late in a point that I had more in the tank. I was really angry today, and overall I think my attitude sucked at different times.

I realized today that I have only ever played containment defense [when I played defense at all, I ruefully think to myself]. I want to take the disc away from my matchup, to dominate him like I see my teammates dominating their matchup. I can tell when my teammates are thinking to themselves that I let them down, by the voices on the sideline and the reactions of the players on the field--that I failed, again, to make the great athletic play, failed to make the defensive effort, played without energy or heart, gave up. Today I allowed myself to get boxed out and skied three times in the endzone by the same player. I'm angry. If I had played perfect offense, I wouldn't be as upset, but I remember the bad choices, bad vision, the trying-to-do-too-much that I've fought to overcome. I'm also frustrated by teammates who show the same weaknesses, and I know that all I can do is support and push them--and I know that first I have to push myself.

So I have two weeks to do it.

Granted, I do believe I had good moments, good plays, periods--however brief--where I played good defense, attacked on offense. I just expect more of myself than I felt able to give these past two days. It doesn't help, of course, that my feet are killing me.

Heavyweights

We played a couple good games, a couple games not well. I'm not very interested in explaining the weekend or even talking about it very much, except to perhaps recall some of my highlights and lowlights. I turfed a forehand that should have looped through wide-open space to Ellis in the endzone. I got a block in the endzone. A teammate hesitated to throw to me for a goal, and when he finally threw it my defender layed out and D'ed the disc into my face. A (Machine or BAT) defender threw himself onto my back, but I caught the pass and moved the disc. A (Los?) defender fell into a heap at my legs, kicking my achilles and getting in my way, but I finished my cut upline and threw a goal (or, at least, we scored within ~2 passes, I forget). I threw a few forehands into the wind over the heads of my receivers. I dropped a pull. I boxed out a Machine player very well, for a goal. I tossed the disc up in a nonchalant semi-spike, and got some dirty looks from the opponent sideline (I intended no ill-will or disrespect, honestly). I struggled at times to feel like I was contributing positively to the offense. I doubted at least one of my teammates, and felt justified and yet bad about it. I had a nice forehand huck in our Pike-v-Pike scrimmage at the end of Sunday. I ended the weekend wondering where we will take this team, but even more hungry to pull and push because I know we can be better.

I also had fun getting out of the parking lot...

Pike Double Practice

Saturday was a good rough practice, lots of punishment. The O team still only shows up around half the time it steps on the field, but at least our good moments are getting better. I know I started playing strong(er) D by the end of the day, but don't remember much else.

Sunday was marred by lower attendance, and I personally stunk up the field for one of the 3-pulls with 2 turnovers--one quail forehand into the wind and a huck to a receiver who was too deep. Then we split into teams based on which players we would or would not want to date our hypothetical daughter, and I was put on the upstanding team. After getting bodied up by a skinny O-line player in the first point while making an in-cut, costing us the disc, I turned up the heat. I played better defense, made a few bids on offense (not real layouts, but good efforts), and started moving the disc like crack in a bad neighborhood. Dishies, dumps, handler cuts, and one sweet forehand huck to Tous. That was fun. My team won the scrimmage by a fair margin.

Afterwards, lunch at Chipotle and a drive through traffic to Turkey Swamp Park, where I paced the fields to figure out how many we can fit for Sectionals. It's getting closer...

PTW

Suicides on turf, with cleats:

4x200yd (0-15-0-25-0-40-0-40) with 1:45 rest
37.78, 36.41, 38.44, 39.19
3:00 rest
6x120yd (0-15-0-25-0-40) with 1:15 rest
23.87, 23.59, 23.44, 23.94, 23.22, 22.64

I am humbled once again.