Chumps

Adam

- Hide quoted text -
- Show quoted text -
> On Apr 18, 6:24 pm, Jeffy wrote:

For reals, Pitt won't win the region. They have played very few teams
in their region. They'll get second though.

I like what Rob talked about at this practice. He said that he wanted to win the region handily, to show everyone that even though we are in the ME we are not an ME team. I think this is a perfect example of the kind of people that i want to look in the face, after we demolish them, and say, "really?" Our wins at Centex and other tournaments have put us in the limelight, but it's not cause we're lucky: it's because we worked our asses off. And that's the difference between us and Hofstra. We have a legion of athletes that have a passion for the game, we're all willing to work our asses off, shift schedules, and miss class for ultimate. We are willing to put money, time, and energy into something we find to be a once in a lifetime experience.

Honestly, i'm not shocked that people think they can beat us, but it makes me laugh when they have no idea what the fuck they are talking about. We have beaten teams that would trounce all the teams in the ME, we dominated everyone at Roll Call, we had a minor brainfart with Penn but then we taught everyone else a lesson. I can't wait to come into regionals and play it as though it was sectionals. What i mean is not that we take it for granted, but that the score lines look like sectionals. I want us to be intense from game 1, and not give anything until the day is over. We can do it, we know we can. We beat some of the best teams with that attitude, now imagine playing chumps with that attitude: complete domination. Let's rev up into regionals and keep the intensity going. I want to see at least 7 layout ds a game, two callahans, and no breaks: i want to make the sickest highlight video, i want us to play how we know we can, i want to win the region. Let's fucking do it Pitt!

Mourning Aftermath

Lately, I've been listening to Sage Francis. He's actually one of my favorite rappers, mainly because he is lyrical and very different. I don't like the whole gangster rap, bitches and hoes, rich bitch shit; I'm about actual music, not the ridiculousness behind them. But i digress. The reason i say all of this is that all my titles have come from his music, titles, and CD's. I don't actually think this is pertinent to my blog post, but just a fun little factoid.

So here's my deal. I feel like ultimate itself has been on the back burner recently. It's weird to say and think about, but when i take a step back, i can't say that i have progressed in ultimate at the moment. My throws have gotten exponentially better, my fitness has gotten better, and my knowledge of the game has gotten better. But i still haven't improved as a player. I know i sound retarded right? But bare with me.

Cutting, playing defense, throwing to space, skying, laying out is what ultimate is about. I have learned about it, but i have not done it. It's like that philosophical example. Jane learns everything in a bubble, she only knows about things through books, she lives in a black and white world, no color, nothing but books. When she steps outside and sees a red apple, does she learn something new, even if she has "learned" about it. The answer is yes. And it's an obvious one. It makes sense right, experience and knowledge together will build.

So this is my deal, i will probably not transform as a player until maybe, hopefully sectionals. I'm honest with myself. I know i won't play at Stanford, at Centex, and i know it's because I'm not a great player. I understand that. I know I'll play maybe 5 or 6 points total at a tournament and that i should take it to heart and take as much as i can from them all. But the thing is, playing 5 points were no one expects much from you does not a player build.

Here's my point or remark. Rob, Nick, Wes, Brent, Sean were all like me at one point. Maybe they were better, maybe they were worse, that's not the point. What I'm saying is, they were inexperienced players; they threw a throw behind someone as they cut to them, they may not have layed out when they could have, they maybe have been beaten deep, skyed, ded whatever; but they learned, from each of those experience you learn something. Each of those games, where they won or lost, they learned something about themselves, their opponents, tendencies, anything. But now as the team gets better and better, the stakes grow and there is less room for error.

Some will say practice is that time for you to grow and learn. Which i agree with completely, the more that you practice the better you get. Yet here's the deal. You will eventually guard everyone on the team, you will learn about them and they will learn about you. It becomes monotonous and monotony does not promote growth. Which is why tournaments become, maybe, the most important thing to the growth of a player.

From playing at Collegiates i learned so much. I played maybe nine or ten points in those first few games before getting injured, but i learned so much. I learned a bit about how to cut, i learned how to play ho-D, i learned some things about guarding in cuts, out cuts, deeps, everything. And it all happened in those first two games. It was amazing, i felt like i had learned a whole new facet of the game. I was exposed to new players, new tendencies, new cuts, new threats, and from each of those things i gained at least one valuable thing.

I may have made this remark in a prior post, but it's a valuable one. I had talked to Weasel at Collegiates, and had told him that when i attempted to restart playing on the Sunday of the tournament, and had made some obviously freshmen mistakes and dumb ones, that i beat myself up about, i felt as though it was because of the time i had been injured the other day. It sounds odd right. How can i say that the time i had missed from the day before could possibly affect me? Easily. We played 5 games. That's 5 opponents with different players, different plays, different tendencies, different everything.

Honestly, i think i have the best attitude about my situation now. I admit i was pissed after QCTU because i had played 4 points on the weekend, and i had every right to be. I understand i had just come back from injury, but i couldn't grasp how i didn't play in the first game where we had beaten VU by 8 or 9? Whatever I'm over it. This isn't the attitude i was talking about. I had an idea that i wouldn't play a lot of points, i told Nick that weekend that we weren't going to play like the veterans, and he was shocked, i actually just hadn't recognized the magnitude that this was true. My wave length was this, "I will play enough points to learn things and be able to take ways of changing my game to improve it." What i ended up with was a shaky resolve and a disheartened out look.

That was my attitude after QCTU. But, after the first week of being mopey, of being a little pissy, i said to myself, "fuck that, I'm not breezing through my freshmen year, being pissy and sitting around not caring." So what did i do. I worked my ass of at practices and still have. I started retraining in swimming. I've started running at nights to make up for missing track practices. I've done everything shy of skipping classes to lift, to improve myself. My backhand is now very respectable, i can fight through an Eddie mark. I can pivot better (it's really not that impressive, but it's better then ever before). I've learned a lot more about cutting and defending. I've regained a sturdy resolve, I've realized being a bitch isn't going to get me playing time. Work is.

This all brings me back to my first point. I've worked hard outside of ultimate. I've improved myself as a player, but does my play actually follow suit? I don't think so. Sadly, i know this. I won't get better at throwing a backhand unless i get a stiff mark and have to throw to a player who is being guarded tight. I won't get to defend unless I'm fighting with a guy to get a disc in the air. But does that dishearten me like it did after QCTU. I'd like to say no. I know I've worked hard prior to this coming season, and i know i can say that I'm not ashamed or regret anything i did - following my injury - and hopefully it gets me somewhere.

Amp Energy: Overload

Alrighty, i have not much to say and i am just sort of killing moonlight.


Finals suck because they break my routine, which is basically how i have motivation to do anything, ever. Therein i have worked out less and ate more, which will change and i refuse for one week to truly deter me from my goals. On a more positive note i finally bitched out my shit T.A. and he began to whine about how he had too many students and he has a personal life and blah blah blah. To which i retorted, "is being a T.A a hobby, or do you get paid for it?"

Finally, the Bird has gained mad respect points for me in every category possible. A quick factoid about respect points: everyone has an infinite supply, and you can give them out accordingly for let's say witty comments, a dare, something hilarious, something bad ass; the counter opposite is also true, you can take them away for stupid shit. Bird has not only gained it as being a badass ultimate player, but also for being legitimately funny 24/7. If Bird doesn't have a gem to share he is literally sleeping. Overall + 20 respect points - i usually give them out in quantities of 1 or 2.

Positive note for Ultimate. I am consistently fixing my backhand and have - to my knowledge - sort of figure out my backhand. Thanks to Eddie and Christo. +2, +1 respect points to them respectively, and a definite +3 to Geoff for helping me practice constantly.

Oh, also. Fundraising, I've actually been super hardcore about this. I already realize that the team is going to cost a shit load of money and i have a plan of saying money from each pay check. But i also know that i hate spending money, so I've been pushing and giving lots of suggestions and all that good stuff, and have kind of been all over this. So if you read this check out one of three places facebook [which is a combination of the following two] or instead go to the donation page or the credit card page. Help out, and spread the word.

Grit Your Teeth

So as expected the change from College Ultimate from Youth Club mixed has been a drastic one. From being the go to guy to becoming a pion, from being the best to being one of the worst, everything has changed. Yet my role on the team and my level of craptitute is not what leads me to blog. Attitude.

Attitude is the name of the game. For myself i have gone from being a very lazy, no-work ethic kind of kid to some one who busts his butt. It may have been the college change of atmosphere, ie courses and standards and all that business, but i blame it on En Sabah Nur. The fact of the matter is i have never been so behind in anything that i loved. I sit here a rookie on a chopping block surrounded by great players who have the knowledge, skills, and speed that i want to possess.

Practices have gone from being a social event to more of a burst your lung and break your hand event. Before, ie BlueREY, i would be one of few who attends practice mainly because i loved Ultimate and wanted more and more, and because i wanted to be the best. Here and now, i am one of many who has a passion for ultimate and one of many who are on a path to become great. Everyone i play with is better at me in one or multiple fields, usually the ladder. From simple drills to scrimmages the people who mark up on me and who i mark up on are impervious to me.

So I'm on Geoff. He gets the disc off the line and i put a stiff mark on him and get him to stall 9 before he dumps it. A quick background story; i have been sick for the last three weeks from a combination of strep cold? It feels like strep but doesn't make you sick enough to be one. Since i live in the freshmen dorms when one person gets sick everyone does. So the point was a long one. I was feeling like complete and utter shit. Jeffy was working my ass off from the handler position, after all he does have to keep his "Practice Player of the Week." I had alot of lame lunging hand bids but nothing actually worth anything. Finally i got a chance as a disc went over his head from a bad read and we both had big bids on the disc so i layed out and tried to knick it. No luck.

Here is the point of my entry. When you're playing against a national level player nothing matters; how sick i am, how many points i've played, how hard my workout is, nothing. You play as hard as you can. You grit your teeth and you lay it all on the line at practice. Practice is just that, practice for the game. What you do in practice is what you do in a game. I was tired all practice today, but i never did anything lazy i made my cuts as though i was fresh. I may not have been as fast or as threatening as before but i defiantly worked my ass off. Grit your teeth and work as though your life depends on it.

Time Killing

Since i have about half an hour to literally kill, before i begin a hardcore study session followed up by hardcore math test, i've decided to type out some stuff and recap the last tournament we (the rookies) had gone to. On a side note, that is what the picture is of; the rookie class of '11 that had gone to the Rutgers tournament.

How to begin, oh yeah. On a quick side note, the captain of the team sent out an email late the night before probably around 10ish or 9ish and told everyone to be at the buses a half our earlier then his original departure time; funny thing is most people had already left by that time to go out and party. We were leaving saturday morning, we had friday completely to ourselves, so what else are we going to do? Ah but back to when we left. We left around 8:30. Thank you hangovers.

So in all honesty van rides suck. We tried to get boobs, but boobs didnt want us. I don't know whether the order of the signs (Show titties, c'mon, please, be a legend, :( ) detoured the girls from showing us them or what, but we didn't get any.... The saddest part of the trip though was missing the Sheets that everyone was dieing for. Nick, no fault to him, thought it was the next exit in four miles, but it was actually off the exit and then four miles. We were all shocked and hungry, but none such as Mumbles. As we drove mumbling and grumbling in miles of construction and between two very high cement walls, Mumbles stared blankly at Nick and shouted, "Turn the van around, now!"

One stop at a wa-wa later and 300 miles between us and Pittsburgh we finally made it to the tournament. Our first game was against a NY team called Purple Haze, who i had oddly enough looked up recently because of my lingering thoughts about "what if i had gone..." As we played them i realized my choice.... let's put it this way: THANK GOD. I'd played these bums before at a previous tournament, in which literally a bunch of kids took them to universe point. But then again we were a bunch of kids who had played a lot of ultimate and played together for a long time. Sadly thats the two things we were missing, in this early morning game, chemistry and all around ability. We played well though, but no one knew anyone really, we didn't know what to expect from each other. But as the game got going people just began playing better, D-bands were handed like hotcakes (whatever that means). In the end it came down to universe point, after the NY team had rallied back two or three. We put a studly D-line out, but to no avail, they threw a swilly huck that floated out to a receiver, and no amount of laying out could stop him from scoring. On a postive note, they sucked the big one and went 1-2 in our pool, losing to the two teams we crushed...

Second game was against Franklin & Marshall. It was a blowout, i don't actually remember anything memorable, except for when i d-ed a guy, who called a foul... caused by his own player. His team mates were telling him it was his own guy, but he didn't want to hear it nor did he care. It didn't matter though, we scored that point. We won 15-6.

This was the highlight of the day. We were rolling. All i remember is hearing people yell, "GET THAT MAN A D BAND!" People were possessed everyone wanted a d and no one would let their man catch an easy throw. Everyone was running their asses off; whenever some one came off the field they were weezing and tired, yet still ready to play. This game was the contrapositive of our first game, we played stingy and shiesty defense and were rewarded. Nothing mattered and everyone was laying it on the line. Before the game started we were told that they, Salisbury, were going to play well and efficient and that we needed to really step up and prove ourselves. I guess people get fired up hearing that, and we went insane. 15-9 Win.

Weslyan was seeded second in our pool and had beaten both teams they faced that day. Apparently in their last game one of their stars was injured and their play really slowed down. We ended up beating them pretty swiftly, trading for a while before we broke them a few. The game really highlighted people's ability to catch anything and everything. One point i was on the sideline with some other guys and we watched as one of our guys send a huck on the opposite sideline, the first guy macked it out of his hands and then two defenders followed his lead, macking it to the ground. As it spiraled towards the ground a kid layed out grabbing it literally centimeters before it touched the ground. Brilliant! Overall it was a good game, we played well and everyone got to play. Win 15-9

The next day we played Princeton. Whether everyone was over stuffed from the feast at the Zettels house or what, we started playing real slow and painfully. We started real slow and got broken 3 points in a row before finally getting one off, but as the game went on the athleticism and true tenacity of the our team shined. Our d was playing great and our o was rolling. Final score 14-8.

Sometimes, only sometimes, can you say, "it doesn't matter if you win or lose, it's how you played." This may be one of those times. JMU comes from one of the top regions in the nation Atlantic Coast, they got fourth which is amazing considering their competition is Georgia, Florida and UNC. They started play off very well, they were big on D and even bigger on O; sadly that's not a good thing for us. The game started sorely as we went down early and we went down big. Four straight breaks for them had us begin playing a tighter rotation and made peoples heads slump. We picked it back up but they managed to take half 8-4. This is where people apparently said to themselves, fuck this shit? What the hell are we doing? We started playing harder and harder doing anything and everything to stop them from scoring. We came back to 11-9 and softcap went off; game to 13. They scored the next point making it 12-9. We knew we had to step up, we scored two gruelingly long points consisting of many turns, many ds, and lots of miscues on their part. We clawed our way back in 12-11 but it was too little too late. They managed to get the benefit of a rule we hadn't heard and had to end the game there. 11-12 lose.

We played really well, and i am super excited to play here and hopefully make the A team. I've been busting my ass learning from each thing a veteran has said to me, and been trying to improve my game with each passing day.