Finally

The anticipation of our first FULL tournament was killer. Prior to Sectionals we were a team without a purpose, in a somewhat literal and metaphorical way. We practiced, hung out, worked out, pushed each other, laughed together, yelled, fought, drank together but hadn't experienced the point of it all: playing ultimate. Now obviously we played ultimate, but when you play three times a week with the same people, it doesn't really count. So we did our best, as a team we strived for perfection from each other but were still missing the most vital component. Because of four cancelled tournaments, we hadn't become cohesive and hadn't played to any of our potential.  People were getting angsty to play other teams, practices came a bit drearier, and the soul of the team hadn't come out.  Let me say that, when Pitt plays well, with heart, friends, teammates, brothers - hand in hand - we are a force to be reckoned with; a team that plays some balla' ass ultimate.  We hadn't had the chance to do that yet, and

 we were begging for it.

To reiterate, we were REALLY excited to play. I don't remember much of what happened in the first games other then the fact that we were having fun, running our system and because of it running train. I don't remember much other then it being beautiful outside and just being really 

happy and excited to play. Playing was phenomenal. What struck me as i started to cut and move, go deep, go in, whatever was the fact that my teammates are really fucking good. I remember a point at which i literally made five or six incuts and got the disc each time, moved it quickly and got it right back. In practice people are all over my back, getting an incut is - for the most part - a bitch to do, a defender draped on you, a tight throw, basically you have to be perfect. Here i was just jogging around getting the disc at will - an exaggeration, but the point is valid. I do remember getting a breakside cut and pulling a sweet ass drop step for the goal: first drop step evaaaa, definitely invoked my inner Chow.

The Edinboro game was another story; aka not a cake walk. They're a good team. They are dangerous on every possession of the disc because of the ability of each person on the disc: this is mostly Taft or Tad, but it's still a huge threat. The main contributors to the offense can all huck pinpoint hucks and have recievers all who range from 6' to 6'5"; hence, the deep was a bit of a threat. The downside is their total lack of depth. I think they played an eight or nine man rotation the entire weekend, and this is for sectionals. Apparently it ended up working as they got the final bid to regionals beating Penn State - LOLlerskates - badly, something like 13-9. Our game against them seemed really close, but with a second glance at the score it apparently wasn't.  They're defense really isn't anything special and it really confused me why they kept running it when we figured it out and were moving the disc with ease.  

Sunday was a cake walk for the most part. Bucknell, in the finals, was a team that just couldn't hang with us. They had a solid handler and one cutter - everyone else was really just fodder. They may have bagged the game against us, but still aren't anywhere close to the level of play we were bringing. 

Which brings me to a thought about our play. The thing i noticed about this years team is that we are not flashy. We do not get lots of layout Ds or sky tons of people - unless your Tyler and Chris literally throws it 30 feet in the air for no reason whatsoever - we play hard and we play with tons of pressure. That is by no means saying we are not capable, but alot of the turns come from stall 8 or 9 tight throws that are behind the guy or into one of our defenders. The offense seems to be running smoother as the days went on O line looked solid and i think was broken 1 time all weekend (against Edinboro?). The D line offense at points was amazing. My dropstep point was a pinnacle (not to brag or anything). We moved the disc from the opposite goal line to our goal line in probably 15 seconds with at least 10 throws. Moving the disc that fast made us literally unstoppable. 

Now on to the real matter of the day. Who is the front runner for the FOTY?

Alex Thorne

#21

Pros: Doesn't turn the disc over. Alex will not turn the disc over and will still make the big throws when it counts. He throw a goal line to goal line huck for a score and threw a ridiculous high-release bullet-flick breakside for another. He is also great in the air and is a scary little cutter when he wants to be. When this dude bids, it's pretty. 

Cons: Doesn't get any love. With our star studded offense, it's no wonder this little pull catcher doesn't need to do much. When Alex wants to he can kill bitches, but most of the time he really doesn't need to. 

Colin Connor

# 5

Pros: Colin is the glue to our offense. When Colin isn't getting 

the first pass, he is getting the second. He knows the right spaces to find, and knows how to get to them. He can also sky the fuck out of mad bitches. His name is the Coroner for a specific reason. On defense he is tenacious on the mark and gets layout Ds (even on me, i still blame Rakers).  He is also a big thrower. If a flick side break huck is open he will throw it to space: ask Tyler.

Cons: Being a glue man doesn't constitute lots of praise. He works hard and consistently, but unless you're getting the disc every other throw and being a bit of a show off, its hard to get kudos.  Also likes to start fights? Kansas, Edinboro, any others?

Tyler Degirolamo:

#81

Pros: 

Freak athlete. Not only is he the fastest kid on the team, he can jump the highest, is the tallest, and has a fucking INVISIBILITY CLOAK. I swear to god, against Bucknell Tyler jogged through the endzone, wide open, yelled 'Hey I'm open,' of the three defenders in the area no one decided to pick him up. So he clap caught the goal as me and the rest of the sideline were baffled. Oh yeah and then he also gets lots of D's. Hopefully this weekend is more of whats to come from Tyler, but he did get a shit load of sky Ds.

Cons: Still a bit of a freshmen. Throws need to be worked on, but are always improving. Needs to keep his head up when things don't go his way. Tyler needs to keep his cool a little bit more. During the Edinboro game he got a sweet D on some dude (not pictured) and freaked out at him for calling foul. Yes it wasn't a foul, yes we know it was a bitch call - but he did take it back. So just take a breath when someone calls bullshit and call them out on their shenanigans.

Personal frontrunner. A-Theezy. Though he hasn't needed to show up yet, i feel like when he gets a puuuuurdy layout snag for a goal at regionals people will be all up on his jock... fo' sho. Tyler could steal it away if he plays out of his mind like he did at sectionals. And Colin is one back motha fucka, so i can't discount him. Plus he's got the Bird's endorsement.  

The Week in Review

All in all, this was a bad week (9 days) of ultimate for myself. But it was a great social week in ultimate for me.

In both tournaments i went to Terminus Club edition and Terminus College edition i played poorly. Why? I don't know. For the club one with Forge, it was a totally different experience. I played with some guys i knew and some i didn't, so i was very happy and excited to see old faces and also excited to meet some new people. But in all this is the strickening feeling that your being judged and that it's a tryout tournament. Not to say this is a bad thing, in fact i thought it was going to be awesome; i wanted to do things people don't usually see me do, perhaps get a chance to make a nice play or two. But continuing...

We played Chain and Ring back to back, both games were an event, yet uneventful (if you understand what that means), in themselves. I don't remember much about the Chain game other then covering my guy and playing good defense on them, i probably screwed up at some point or another, but i felt as though i was hanging - if not more - with Nationals caliber players. On the converse i remember the Ring game pretty well. They were good, not as good as i had imagined - but damn good at that. Three things stick out in my mind.

- Rob is like pretty good at ultimate.

- We threw a really shitty turn and a guy broke deep. No one picked him up, and instead 3 guys surrounded the thrower and hassled him. Neither the thrower nor anyone on the field cared, he simply took his time and found an opening and jacked it to the WIDE open player for a goal. After the point, some guy on the Ring bench yells, "Nice intentional fouling, douchebags." To which both the thrower (Ring player) and everyone else collectively says, I'm paraphrasing, it's not like we've never done it?

- This has been a really reoccurring theme for this week and been pissing me off. I'm getting beat by shitty ultimate. I cover my guy deep, he stops, i stop, begin to front him - since we're 40 yards deep and a huck seems retarded - the huck goes up and with me in a standstill waiting for a movement forward my defender takes off deeper only to receive the disc in the back of the back endzone for a goal. In total this happened to me 4 times on the weekend most notably twice against Penn St.

Against Ring this happened once, i began fronting the guy, i'm guessing they were playing some kind of handler weave nonsense and my guy stops i look at him, turn my head back for the disc, here 'UP,' look up for my guy and mutter words i hate, "Fuckin' balls." I caught up to him, bid over his back, he comes down with it. He said nice play, which made me a feel a bit better (?), but knew i fucked up. It was annoying on two levels. He was 5 inches shorter then me and that was the play i wanted to make and i didn't do it. I hoped the intensity i showed was good, but i was still really disappointed. Later in the finals i saw the same dude grab a disc between two, much bigger, bidding Chain defenders.

Now the week in between was awesome, Spring Break in a fuckin' mountain top mansion. I'm not going into it, but a lot of fun stuff happened. The team officially knows every good line of 12 oz. Mouse and the Chappelle Show, without ever needing to watch them. I've found a new appreciation for hot tubs. I hate baseball world series. I'm not good at poker and Eddie's crazy ways of getting me to pay are awesome. And i need to stop falling asleep at 3AM. But on the Ultimate side of it, it was not good... I think a few of us actually ran around when we found the time. I had a restless morning on Tuesday and went for a jog. It was nice, if not bland, but other then that and throwing a disc 130 yards off the porch of our house, that was the extend of my ultimate training.

This did not pay dividends when it came time for Terminus 2nd ed. I felt slow and i didn't have my 5th gear. The 5th gear used for getting that second acceleration and that second quick step for a D or for a finish to a disc, i just couldn't muster. I remember during the first game against Georgia Tech, Chris threw me a disc deep when i just began a cut in and in my usual motif, i would turn quickly and try to find the gear to go get it, but when i turned i just couldn't do it. It was not a good way to start the weekend.

From there it was a muddle of busying work in the midst of a few good things done well. I thought my zone offense was good, i got a lot of touches and moved the disc efficiently. But other then that, i was out of rhythm and not seeing lanes on the offensive side of the disc. Defense was also poorer then with Forge. I was getting beat to spots i wouldn't have and i was losing match ups that i shouldn't have. I had a few really good spots against Penn and some really low ones. Against Georgia Tech and Tuffs i played well, if not memorably, i remember that anytime my player caught the disc it was a 71% chance of a turnover against Georgia Tech (5/7 total, 3/4 on their main handler/cutter dude), and against Tuffs it was 50% (2/4), Dayton it was 3/5 or 60%. That's not a lot of statistics, but i think that also does show something within itself and i did keep very specific note, considering i didn't make any key plays that i wanted to. Against Penn i didn't have that kind of success i think the guy i covered for most of the game threw back field and the other guy i covered for a point did break me for a goal, lowest point of that game.

I also got really unlucky with that mother fucker. This is the shit i was talking about before, huck went up, i got in position, in this case a bit behind him, pushing forward, the disc is high so i'm going to get the D, and then all of a sudden it dips literally right into his bread basket. I tried to grab it, but he caught it as well, i'm guessing first cause i ended up tangled with him and the disc. I thought for a moment to try to argue, but between his yelling and my embarrassment i let it go saying, that i was going to get the D on him the next throw. I over commit to stop the dump throw to him, find myself on the wrong side, bid for the breakside, and Boom, break goal.

I'm not really going to say much about the team. I thought we had moments of beauty amongst a busying performance overall. I was disappointed in two tactical things. The first being our total lack of physicality. There were not many fouls called against us, and even less so bids. The former may sound like a good thing, but a team built on aggressive under defense, pressure and containment can not be doing it's job if someone isn't pissed off at either the cutter defenders, the handler covers, or the marks. The second is our total lack of defensive cutting and our lack of offensive endzone. Our defensive offense is let the handlers do some shit, and hopefully we'll get a huck off and score, if we get to the endzone we're kinda screwed. Our offensive endzone was impatient at best. Everyone wanted the break side cut and everyone wanted the force side cut. I tried to bring calm during our games against dayton and whatnot, but i don't know if that translated well. Needless to say, it sucked.

Goals for myself now.
Run.
Around a month until the series starts, so that means for the week i took off i need to work harder to get back into shape and get back into great shape.

Throw.
No need to explain, be better, throw better.

Agility.
I've had some good ideas about cutting motions that i want to translate into some individual drills and exercises. I need to get my directional change into top gear.

Without going further, i need to refocus, get my shitty performance out of the way, and start working hard. I will be great.

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.

Recap of the Month

Alright, it's the end of the month and i wanted to recap as i wait to figure out when the fuck i get my paycheck. Alot has happened, I've made the A team, we played at Collegiates, I've started strenuous workout regiment, Josh's dad kicked our asses, and we're doing team workouts.

So i made the A team. A big whoopy! That wasn't a joke, i don't know how to express joy over the internet. I digress. Charlie was talking about how he was on the "bubble" when before the final cuts and we both chatted about our chances and how hard we had worked. But here is the deal, i felt like i was on the bubble more then Char. He is a solid handler, reminds me of Chowder minus the muscles, and i am a ______ . Exactly. My game has improved seriously from defense, to offense, to intensity, but improvement doesn't mean i have a specialty. So before and after cuts i've had a very strong sense of "i need to be able to do something?"

I've loved playing defense as much as i would hate my self a year ago for saying something like that, but it's true. I find offense quite boring, watching Rob and Christo and the other cutters literally make 2 or 3 cuts and then score. Which is amazing, literally amazing, but i find it boring and see that it is a much tighter rotation on the O line. Defense on the other hand, you don't know what you're doing, you just know that you have bust your ass down the field and shut down you're guy.

Which brings me to Fall Collegiates. We played very well as can be seen on the UPA score reporter, and there was nothing much to say, considering i had a groin injury. Hmm, when i did get to play i felt as though i was making a difference, ie not letting my guy get the disc, but as soon as i got that pesky injury along with sitting for a game or two, i couldn't do the same: couldn't sprint, keep up, or bid, i felt terrible. So i sat the rest of the time, the next day i felt better and still realized that i couldn't play [at all] so i just sort of sat and watched.

Workouts and Mr. Suskin. I feel as though Mr. Suskin has taught us a lot in his short 7 hour (cumulative) stay. I learned i don't have baby making muscles. I learned i need to strengthen those bad boys and i learned that i will never do martial arts. First off, a lot of what he showed us was great the leg lifts and the things for the core; all the things he showed us reminded me of swimming and how i use to be absolutely dominate at them and how i need to get back in that shape ASAP. Second, i think some of the stuff is great but useless, no offense to him, he showed us many different styles of kicking and bobbing and weaving stuff which was fun and hilarious [Chowder the Ewok]. The thing is, he is a martial arts sensai (?), he knows his martial arts backwards and forwards, he can teach me how to kick higher, punch faster, hit stronger and roundhouse kick some into next Thursday; but i feel like some of the things don't correlate extremely well to ultimate. People say, well it makes your muscles stronger which is always a benefit, but that would be like me training a rower by showing them how to box, there muscles would be stronger but they wouldn't know how to utilize them. I understand the metaphor was a big wild and ridiculous, but my point is this: making muscles stronger and utilizing muscles on the field are two different things. I could show everyone on the team a great water workout that would work your upper body and back and core, but i know that using something in the water and using it on land are two different things.

Bringing me to workout regiment/team workouts. Both are great. I've gotten into a rythm at the moment, MWF i do lifting on machines and things at night - this is the only free time i have and i personally hate free weights - and i am running and rehabbing my groin/lower back on T&T, this is feel is going to be the most beneficial for me: i am doing the stuff i am bad at (running) and i working the muscles i have lost. The team workouts (for me at least) lack exhaustion. Last tuesday i fell apart, not literally, doing stairs and that was great, i felt like shit and was ready to do it again, but we were done. I later realized i was wearing a heat shirt and that was making me overheat and die. When we got to the core i started to feel the burn at bits at a time, but nothing actually amazingly helpful. I feel my abs whenever i wake up, meaning they are getting worked, but if it would be more helpful if we did more repetitions, not just one. I return once again to swimming, drylands (core) for us was absolute hell/fun. We did everything with a partner. Medicine ball work and we did tandem core stuff, but then we did everything else to a time. So planks we did to two minutes, leg lifts to two minutes, abs for minutes at a time. And that's the mentality people don't have yet: Rob says, "go til you drop," well i could drop at 5 seconds or i could drop at 2 minutes; we need people to push themselves if they have it or not: planks for 2 minutes, no question, no bullshit, if you fall get back up.

At least that's my mentality. Bust your ass, grit your teeth.