Georgia Slowdown

There is nothing much to say about CCC on the whole. It was a good tournament to see what the Spring team will look like, see what we have to work on, and see the players and their capabilities. I felt like we achieved that, at least to an extent that a fall tournament can show you. There were quite a few slowdowns that i feel like all are because of one complex problem. The problem I really saw and lamented on was our idea of subbing and how it should work. Let me first just approach the bench and say that, i am in no way displeased or unappreciative of either PT or where i played.

The problem that i see is the one that i saw last year too. We will play our best players tired. Honestly, we harped on it this weekend that veteran players who are exhausted will not be playing over fresh rookies. It happened. It happened alot. I understand that a rookie is not a someone you want on your O line if you really need to score, or if you really need a break you can't take out your best defender, but something does need to change.

I think i read in Eddie's blog that the team is going to take a more active approach in subbing, in the sense that even the tight O line will have a few active subs, and this is in my opinion the correct way. Last year - i bring up last year because a) i can't see into the future and b) because last year was when it was the most prominent - we had roughly two lines worth of players that were the go to guys and if a game was close or remotely close those are the guys who would be playing alot. If Ultimate was not a tournament based sport this would be perfectly fine, you play your best because at most there might be 33 points and you have subs so whatever - but it's not. This is a tournament sport and we have 21 or whatever guys.

Having six to eight guys not see a lot of PT in a game has many drawbacks. First and foremost is the fatigue the others take. We are all not Tim Gehret, we can not play 17 of 20 points and be solid rocks. No one who has played 4 to 5 points in a row can say that he is 100%, and if he does he is lieing or, is not working hard enough. The second is the morale of the sideline and the a fore mentioned players. It's not surprising our sideline becomes lulled when players have little emotional attachment to a game. Being out of a game and not playing is hard, it's hard to just sit and watch and say, i wonder how i would have played. But now if the sidelines are lull how is the team suppose to be up and active in a game.

Rookies and players in general have a more crystalline memory - i'm envoking some sweet psychology information. There is a theory that older people have a much more crystalline memory and happiness mechanic, what this means is that if they see their grand children every two to three weeks they will be happy with those small few moments for a longer time, while a younger person has a more fluid happiness (happiness comes and goes). I feel this also applies easily to Ultimate. If you are out of a game for ten points, you will be not as good in the one or two points you may play: basically you are either upset and can't get up for the game, or you're injured and actually can't get up for the game. On the other hand, playing two points every three or four rotations keeps you happier and more involved.

All i am saying is that when we start going on runs of Defensive breaks, you need to start subbing more evenly. Whether that means taking the sockeye method and making Pods of rotations or something crazier. Basically people need to play to learn, to grow, to be active. I don't think it will be a big problem this year, i actually feel like was better then last year and it got the job done. I think the POD system is really cool and would be great to implicate on this team. The tough part of all of this is that you want to WIN games, it's not a matter of always being happy and having people like you. This is a sport and people want to WIN.

Sharing some thoughts.

Regional Thoughts

Not winning the region is something that has been on my mind for a while. The game was really rather lopsided unlike the score suggests and we were for some reason in a huge rut. Delaware was a one dimensional team that consisted of bombs from their main handler to their main cutter. They had played a really tough game against Edinboro and we had been rather well rested: demolishing Princeton 15-2. Yet for some unknown reason to me we couldn't even touch them. The score and game was slow, boring, and frustrating. Our cutters couldn't catch and our D line couldn't break. The drops in the game edged into the teens and the unforced errors were much higher. We played shitty. We played slow. And we really didn't preform.

Reflection:

1)
I am really, really proud of the O line. Not only did they keep us alive in the Edinboro game and game us a fighting chance in the Delaware game, they also played nearly flawlessly. I'd rather not put the competition down, but would rather talk up the fact that our O line is really a brilliant, cohesive, gelled unit of guys who really don't take on too much on their hands. They played smart in every game and were truly keeping us alive in a few games when for some reason the D line couldn't score.

2)
I'm rather surprised at the D line. We played unemotional, boring, and without urgency. It was really shocking to watch Delaware put up fucked up, swilly, nonsense bullshit and see their players come down with it. There isn't much to say other then the fact that no one was fired up.

3)
I was talking about this with some one. The D line plays great when the team is fired up and screaming in their ears, but the problem lie with who is on the sideline when the D line is on. It's not that i am bringing fault on the O line for not being excited and urgent, but it's the fact that the mentality they need on the field is not conducive to the emotion the D line needs from the sideline. Chris, Josh, Vatz, Chowder are all very cool, calm individuals, but that's not what the D line needs when the disc is on the sideline, they need people screaming kill, strike, whatever to make sure the turnover is coming.

4)
I'm not really shocked about the RSD posts about us being in the bottom tier of the Nationals rankings, but honestly, i don't understand what people see when they put us in the bottom 4. I'm perfectly fine with, somewhat excited about the upsets we're going to make. Vatz, Weasel, and I were talking about it after regionals and we are going to be the shittiest draw for a 3/4 seed in our pool as we come in with an underdog mentality and a yearning to win the pool. Much like what happened at UCCs last year where pool D turned over, i have a feeling we're going to make a lot of people upset and a lot of noise. I know there won't be any lack of urgency or complacency from the sideline, or from the players on the field so i'm truly excited.

That is all. Otherwise i am just pissed the someone stole my camera.

Chumps

Adam

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> 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!

Centex Highlights

I don't know if anyone else has found this gem of a video on the interwebs, but i thought i'd post it.




Also i'm going to attempt to keep this a youtube free zone, so this maybe one of the last youtube video's on this blog. Enjoy it.