Joe's Brother

Kev, Lana, and their vehicle

2009-11-17T18:00:00.000-08:00

In case you’ve not heard, Kevin and Lana Seiler hit a deer. They are okay. Their vehicle is not. No word yet on the status of the deer.

The vehicle repair expense is in excess of a few thousand dollars and their insurance did not cover senseless, unexpected deer attacks.

With that, I’m starting a collection to try to raise $1000 to offset their repair costs and give the money to them at CLXmas (or whenever).

This pledgie widget will keep track of the progress for any money donated from it (via paypal).

If you’d like to give money directly to me, that’s cool, too. Just email me at hotlou@gmail.com to make arrangements. Although I accept all forms of currency, casino black jack chips are not recommended if you want the funds to reach their destination.

No amount is too little. Seriously.

So far, $525 has been raised, which is reflected in the widget below. Click it to donate.

Qualities of a really bad fake

2009-10-20T22:07:00.000-07:00

What's the point of faking if you do this?

Fake to the exact spot you want to throw. Doing this only prepares your defender to anticipate your next move.
Fake with exaggerated motions. This fake looks fake. Reallly really fake. Even the worst defenders watch you flail around comically as they get a breather and you bore the soap opera scouts in the stands.
Fake without a plan. Throwing a fake without a purpose is a waste of energy and a waste of time. Your fake should be planned to put a defender in a wrong spot to open up spot for you to throw. Fake with a purpose!

Fake with a purpose!

The Worst Advice in Ultimate (2nd Edition)

2009-07-16T13:33:00.001-07:00

Bad advice: "Playing in the Open division makes you a better player."

Playing the highest level of ultimate available to you is what will make you a better player.

Buying in

2009-06-22T22:46:00.000-07:00

If you can't get others to believe in you, it doesn't matter how much you know or how right you are.

Hopkins: 2009 Westerns Champions

2009-06-22T12:03:00.000-07:00

It's really cool to see all this green:

Tweeting

2009-06-09T15:17:00.001-07:00

Stale around here, huh?

Try http://twitter.com/joesbrother.

Recent tweets also seen in the right side bar --->

Two Coaching Tips

2009-02-22T23:29:00.001-08:00

Two major tips to improve your coaching ability instantly:

When you ask a group if there are any questions, wait in awkward silence for 10+ seconds before moving on. Most coaches (teachers) wait for a 1.5 second count and move on. Kids just don't muster the courage to ask that "dumb" question in that amount of time. If you're not willing to wait 10 seconds for someone to ask, don't make the request in the first place.
Never ask questions of the type "does anyone not understand?" Fact is, it takes a courageous individual to admit to not "getting it." Always phrase your poll in the form "raise your hand if you understand." People are proud to show off their understanding. And for those who don't yet comprehend, their inaction can be easily detected by you, without running the risk of embarrassment for them.

Now go do it.

Five Miserable Things about Observing

2008-06-10T09:00:00.000-07:00

A month ago, I volunteered to observe at College Central Regionals. Well, not really. I was solicited by the head observer -- and yes, I deliberately chose that verb.

When asked to be an observer, I stated, "I'd love to but ______." In hindsight, I regretted using the phrase "I'd love to" because the UPA very convincingly countered my "but" and I got locked in. Still, I do love giving back to ultimate, so I went ahead with it. But it did make me realize the UPA does way too little for its observers, given these reasons:

Missing a Game-to-Watch
Being a Minnesota alumnus, half the reason I go to Regionals is to watch those G Ducks play big games. Problem being, during important rounds, I'm tied up observing another game since I'm exempt from "officiating" any Minnesota game. But to generalize, tournaments requiring observers naturally have a lot of good games. It sucks observing a blow-out 7 fields away from the game everyone is watching. Sometimes the biggest expense is not the travel costs, but what you don't get to see ... which brings me to ...
The Compensation Sucks
Your expenses are reimbursed -- sometimes. I did receive reimbursement this year, but last year I wasn't given a nickel because I hadn't been told receipts were required for any reimbursements (yeah yeah, I guess I should have known that). It should also be noted that the UPA did not reimburse me. It was a Luther College employee associated with organizing the tournament. No additional compensation was offered. I realize ultimate is a volunteer-run activity, but observing is one of the volunteer positions held to a very high level of standards and accountability, despite the fact that it is a volunteer position ... which brings me to ...
Getting Bitched At
If you think it's fun to be approached and rebuked by complete strangers, then by all means, I highly recommend becoming a UPA Certified Observer. Yes, it has happened to me a couple times. And no it's not just irrelevant people with valueless opinions committing this act of wanton disrespect. Sometimes it's a Callahan Award winner. And even if you get a call 100% right, it may not matter given the nature of the rules ... which brings me to ...
Over-Complicated/Ambiguous Rules
For those that think the rules of ultimate are easy, I applaud you. You are obviously someone of infinite wisdom. The rules are lengthy, in large part subjective, and occasionally ambiguous. In fact, there's only one portion of the rules that is considered objective, which brings me to . . .
Sidelines
The only active call an observer makes is in/out. When there is a need for observers, there is generally a similar need for lined fields, but not always. And if they are indeed lined, but it had been raining on Friday and Saturday, the lines -- and objectivity -- are washed away by Sunday. And even if the lines are in great condition, roughly 2/3 of the spectators and players make no effort to stay off the playing field while the disc is live in order to get a good look at a play near the sideline. This is most true when there's a close play on the sideline and the observer's perspective is critical.

All of these problems are correctable, by the way. And I don't know if the UPA (or anyone) is pro-actively doing anything about it. Ugh ... the UPA. Anyone want to tell me what they are really doing except running a championship and recruiting more members?

On a somewhat related note, I realized our sport has virtually no chance at mass spectator-appeal in its current state while I was on the field for the greatest game in Central Regionals history: Wisconsin vs Iowa, Saturday semi-finals. I have one idea that will at least begin to steer us in the right direction. My next post will provide more details and I'm going to need help. Stay tuned.

User-Generated Content

2008-05-22T10:13:00.000-07:00

User-generated content saved the internet:

Now if it could also save lives! Yikes.

T-shirt designers wanted, Brains not required

2008-05-21T07:47:00.000-07:00

Oh ... so I suppose you think this is clever:

You, Mr. Poorly Crafted Novelty T-shirt Designer Guy, are the im-peach-ED one.

Impeached by me.

Soda Can Synch

2008-05-02T09:47:00.000-07:00

Brilliant:

Hopkins Hustle is tomorrow. Come out to Maple Plain and support Youth Ultimate!

True Sportsmanship

2008-05-01T10:50:00.000-07:00

Once in a while I get tired of the myopic, sanctimonious belief in the ultimate community that it is somehow intrinsically superior to other sports. Don't get me wrong, I love ultimate with a passion that runs deeper than a cold Minnesota Winter invades Spring, but the sheer nature of ultimate does not invoke a greater spirit of sportsmanship than other sports.

In fact, in the last several months, I've been hearing sportsmanship stories far more compelling than anything that's happened in ultimate ever. Today in the Strib, there's a story of a girl whose opponents contributed to their own elimination of the playoffs by carrying her around the base pads after she hit her first career home run.

With two runners on base and a strike against her, Sara Tucholsky of Western Oregon University uncorked her best swing and did something she had never done, in high school or college. Her first home run cleared the center-field fence.

But it appeared to be the shortest of dreams come true when she missed first base, started back to tag it and collapsed with a knee injury.

She crawled back to first but could do no more. The first-base coach said she would be called out if her teammates tried to help her. Or, the umpire said, a pinch runner could be called in, and the homer would count as a single.

Then, members of the Central Washington University softball team stunned spectators by carrying Tucholsky around the bases Saturday so the three-run homer would count -- an act that contributed to their own elimination from the playoffs.

Now that's a story.

Anybody experienced anything like that at an ultimate tourney? I'm really curious.

April Tools

2008-04-01T10:59:00.000-07:00

First, Google is pulling a pretty funny today-prank by claiming you will soon be able to send mail with a timestamp in the past -- you know, for when you forgot to send grandma her birthday email.

A testimonial from an investment banker

"I used to be an honest person; but now I don't have to be. It's just so much easier this way. I've gained a lot of productivity by not having to think about doing the 'right' thing."

My grandma actually uses email. I wonder if that's common.

Hemingway supposedly claimed his best work was a six word story: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." If he didn't say it, I gladly will.

Wired had some authors write six word stories, but none are even in the same league as Hemingway's. My favorite: "whorl. Help! I'm caught in a time" by Darren Aronofsky and Ari Handel.

I now officially lead the way for a new Mixed team, which will largely consist of former Moes. The story?

"Electing defaults takes way too long."

Scary!

2008-03-27T07:58:00.000-07:00

In case you haven't been scared in a long time!

Imagine being in the woods. Alone. And hearing that motor-grinding noise get louder and louder. Closer and closer. Chills.

Pretty sure that thing is eventually going to destroy us all.

That said, it's going to be fucking awesome to watch until we all die.

Dear John Madden

2008-02-22T13:02:00.000-08:00

Long snapper Ethan Albright wrote a letter to John Madden complaining about his status as the lowest ranked player in the game (thanks Ells and Rahil). It's genius ... and crass ... and genius. A snippet:

You make it sound like I wake up in the morning, helplessly shit and piss myself, then lose three of my teeth before I discover that I am trying to eat a rock for breakfast.

Long snappers are funny. Mike "the Superstar" Morris has made a career on sports talk radio here in the Midwest on KFAN repeating the line "I'll pop your head like a pimple" over and over until they gave him his own morning show. I wish it were that easy.

Ultimate related, RSD is now just a bunch of people antagonizing two guys. Maybe it's been that way all along.

In other news, I'm getting an arm phone, except mine is going to display as a hologram. Of a wolf. That's right. I'm getting a talking wolf hologram arm phone.

Think of it man. It's fucking brilliant.

Hopkins Fundraiser

2008-02-21T08:08:00.000-08:00

First, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that a news story with a wicked title like "Scientists collect mysterious creatures in Antarctic waters including giant sea spiders" had damn well better include pictures. Because it didn't, it lost all credibility with me.

In other news, Hopkins Ultimate is having a fundraiser on Monday, February 25, 2008 at the St. Louis Park Chili's from 4:00-10:00 p.m.

5245 Wayzata Blvd
St Louis Park, MN 55416

After your meal, you'll need to drop your receipt in a box to be counted toward the fundraising effort. Please talk to you server about it. Your support is appreciated!

Where's the best ultimate?

2008-02-13T18:07:00.000-08:00

Thanks to google trends, you can kind of get an idea of where ultimate is the most popular:

That's a list of the popularity of the search term "ultimate frisbee" by city. The only surprise on the list for me is Philly. I'd expect Pittsburgh to be above them -- especially given the success of their high school and college teams.

Ottawa might surprise a few folks, but they have the largest rec league in the world. The league even owns their own fields. It surprises me that they don't have better club teams coming out of there every year, but I think that's changing (GOAT has some Ottawa players, and just this past weekend, their college women's team won Trouble in Vegas).

Then you've got the Pacific Northwest dominating the 2, 3, 4 spots.

I'm a little surprised Minneapolis hasn't got that 5th spot. With Minnesota's college team always in the mix, Carleton a powerhouse, the high school league in the state is one of the best, and a greatly organized group of rec leagues, I'd expect Denver and Toronto to take a back seat.

Given leagues, club teams, college teams, etc, excluding internet related data, here are my top 10 ultimate cities:

1. Seattle
2. Ottawa
3. Minneapolis
4. Portland
5. Vancouver
6. Boston
7. Denver
8. Atlanta
9. Madison
10. Pittsburgh

Hawaii Chair Follow Up

2008-02-08T12:19:00.001-08:00

I can hardly wait for mine to arrive.

Your secret Facebook friend

2008-02-07T14:34:00.000-08:00

I love Facebook. I send Facebook status updates, pictures, and videos via my mobile phone. I enter hilariously unique little stories about how we hooked up in 1993 in the friend details section. I have a horrible record at poke wars, Scrabulous, and Roshambull. I'm even writing a Facebook application that's going to help every ultimate player. And I now get more happy birthday wishes than ever before.

But one thing I'll never do is accept a Facebook friend request from the CIA.

Turns out I wasn't given the option.

Really, I swear to god about this, I'm NOT a conspiracy guy. I think the UFO people are whackjobs. I'd punch a guy too if I walked on the moon and he called me a fraud. And these 9/11 loose change chowderheads have, in addition to their change, lost their marbles.

That said, in the list of names on the Board of Trustees at In-Q-Tel, you'll find Howard Cox's name. What's In-Q-Tel? An investment firm launched by the CIA in 1999 whose goal it is to fulfill the technical needs of the "Intelligence Community."

And what about Howard Cox? He's an Advisory Partner for Greylock, a company that invested $25 million into Facebook at a very critical time for them.

Chills.

Anybody want to go UFO hunting?

Guide to the Super Bowl

2008-02-06T12:59:00.001-08:00

The author of this blog has learned that the Super Bowl took place last Sunday. I've been watching a lot of highlights from the show and can't find Brett Favre anywhere. I'll keep looking and report back, but I'm really starting to think that the Packers didn't make it in.

From other internet reports, here's what else evidently happened:

The NFL had to show Peyton Manning in his suite a lot to make up for him not being in every single commercial.
In an effort to appeal to a younger audience, the halftime show stayed away from such aged rockers as Mick Jagger (Super Bowl XL act) and went with Tom "young enough to be Jagger's girlfriend's father" Petty.
The shirt below is impossible to order right now. Apparently fans of the game really love the number 17. Google sheds no light on the reason.
The upset victory proved to Mike Huckabee that this presidential race isn't over until it's over!
"Everybody thought [The Patriots] were on the way to a perfect season. The Giants had a different idea about it. "
It's a very legitimate comparison in every way but one: Dude doesn't have the guy who made the greatest Super Bowl catch of all time on his campaign trail, David Tyree:

Meet Randy Newsom

2008-02-04T19:23:00.000-08:00

Speaking of putting a contract out on yourself, meet Randy Newsom. He's an MLB prospect with an IPO.

He's selling 4% of all of his future major league earnings for $50k. If you're really really poor and don't have $50k lying around, you can dig $20 out from under your couch cushions to buy a single share.

You can read more about the story to find out this isn't all that uncommon outside of sports. And really, it's not that far off from gambling on the future success of professional athletes' success.

And before you all jump at the chance to invest, I recommend you do a little research. Here's a video to get you started!

It does have me thinking, with business savvy like this, what's he doing trying to be a baseball player for a living?

It's also got me thinking, what in ultimate is worth investing in?

Current buy, sell, hold list in ultimate:

Buy:

Sell:

Hold:

Time to Exercise

2008-01-31T17:53:00.001-08:00

Hey ultimate players! The club season is right around the corner. What are you doing to get ready?

If finding motivation is troubling you, try stickk.com. Don't be fooled by the mafia sounding motto, it's really just a cool way to give yourself a reward for achieving a goal. You hand over some dough and they give it back if you accomplish your predetermined outcome goals. If not, the money goes to a charity of your choice.

Cool! Succeed and feel good. Fail and feel good!

That is, unless you use what they call an anti-charity, an organization whose ideals you oppose. Knowing your hard earned cash could end up in the hands of someone like Frank H should get you doing those extra 20 push ups or that extra set of stairs.

The site probably appeals to ultimate players on a greater level than the general public considering referees are optional.

What a brilliant idea. I should have become an economist.

Of course, if you think that kind of motivation a little too outside-the-box, you can always try something more conventional and mainstream, like the Hawaii Chair (NOW $293.96, shipping included!).

Vegas

2008-01-30T09:15:00.000-08:00

I wondered if playing an ultimate tournament would change my sleeping habits.

They didn't.

I wondered if I'd be able to leave the 5/10 table at the Bellagio poker room in time to make it to the game on Saturday morning.

I was! But only with enough time to get an hour of sleep.

I wondered what it would cost to have a stripper meet me in a field at 10:00 on a Saturday morning wearing a cheerleading outfit.

Too much.

Saturday, despite being out of shape, having had just one hour of sleep in an uncomfortable chair, having had no breakfast or lunch, and having been dehydrated, I performed better than any day than I played wearing a Van Buren Boys jersey. That fact no doubt reaffirms the Becky/Lou conspiracy, which I'll expand upon in a future post.

Sunday, I had another good day, not as good as the first, but still good.

I had a deep D, one on one, on Hector. I was on the force side, not guarding him, and a huck went off and I tracked it down, muscled for position, and knocked it out of the air with my left hand. I also D'd up Chicken with a half layout on an upline cut to the break side. "Oh, nice D," he said. I did not expect to hear him say that. Especially after receiving a "I don't think so" and a chuckle when I proposed a VBB/Bravo jersey trade to him back in October.

I got scored on twice on the weekend, both were really nice hucks that needed the back line to be toed by the receiver. No thrown goals allowed.

I also had as many point blocks this tourney as I had all season with VBB: two. One was after one of my two turnovers (a bad OI 30 yard throw) on the weekend. The other was against the Colorado squad on game point.

My other turn was into a really good poach by Pokey. And by really good poach, I mean really bad clear by a receiver on the break side. Pokey still made a nice one handed catch D.

I also had 0 drops and 1, maybe 2, nice grabs. 3 thrown goals, 2 received.

Red Bullsworth made the best play I've seen him make yet, with a nice layout, belly flop, painful-looking grab on the break side. It topped his previous best play of eating 4 pounds of lobster by a small margin.

Also, you may have heard that the Monte Carlo went ablaze on Friday. A teammate exchanged these texts with Ells:

Oosh: The monte carlo is on fire dude!
Ells: Literally or figuratively?
Oosh: It's burnin up man!

Thanks, that really cleared things up. When we saw the smoke billowage ourselves, it was finally clear that Oosh hadn't been talking about the dance floor.

On my favorite topic (stupid misunderstandings of the rules), one player called violation this weekend for the apocryphal rule about not being able to speed up your pace as your walking the disc up to the goal line (Rule X.A.). I hate this misconception, but it's one of the biggest. Please, if you're reading this, tell 5 ultimate players that this is not a rule and ask them to tell 5 players as well.

After the point, I was talking with the guy about it:

DB: I'm pretty sure it's a rule.
Lou: It's not. I'm not pretty sure, I'm sure.
DB: Well, I'm pretty sure.
Lou: That's not sure enough to make a call on the field.
DB: It doesn't matter, I guess, because I just fouled the guy anyway to stop him from making any play ... so it's a wash either way.
Lou: You do realize that fouling intentionally is against the rules?
DB: Yes. So?

Ugh. I just walked away at that point.

In one other interesting moment, the Colorado guys hid one of their defenders on the sideline after pulling, making our team believe there was a receiver wide open in the endzone. Upon the huck, the defender easily jogged out to D the disc. That's just dirty.

I like it.

Vegas in Trouble

2008-01-22T12:31:00.000-08:00

Now that Papagiorgio is officially going to the club tournament in Vegas this weekend, they have renamed it Vegas in Trouble.

Updates to the logo are forthcoming.

We're having a party at the 4000 square foot mansion we rented. Pools, ultimate players, Ellsworth, Nickels, Vegas. Debauchery guaranteed.

The cultimate guys are staying with us, which is gunna be a blast.

This will be my first real PT since winning Club Nationals. The knees are really no better than they were all season. I've tried doctors, medication, and physical therapy. I'd try prayer, but I've heard it requires kneeling, which seems counterproductive.

I've never gotten a single good night's sleep in while in Vegas. I wonder if playing a tourney will change that. I wonder if I'll be able to leave the 5/10 table at the Bellagio poker room in time to make it to the game on Saturday morning. I wonder what it would cost to have a stripper meet me in a field at 10:00 on a Saturday morning wearing a cheerleading outfit.

The Stiff Arm

2008-01-13T11:30:00.000-08:00

Watching the AFC Divisional Playoff, I just saw San Diego running back Michael Turner give Indianapolis free safety Antoine Bethea one hell of a stiff arm. Is there a bigger "F You" in all of sports?

Check out the Best Stiff Arm Ever.

In ultimate, there's the "sky," but unless your receiver's name is Beau, the defender is usually merely an innocent bystander. In Basketball, there's the dunk, but again, generally the defender is victimized by mere proximity rather than direct application of the maneuver.

ETA: ESPN home page had a photo of the same event on their home page, but a slightly better image than my photo of my TV:

Happy Holidays

2007-12-22T09:28:00.000-08:00

While Kevin's blog may address the reasons why we celebrate Christmas, I'm just happy to enjoy the party: Merry Christmas blog readers.

Van Buren Boys Win the UPA Club Championship!

2007-11-09T19:03:00.001-08:00

Admittedly, I don't know much about ultimate or how tournaments work, but what I do know is that it's just like my mom always used to say: it's not whether you win or lose, it's how good your timing is when you win.

Dave says "Plan sounds good Kev, I'm in!"

The Van Buren Boys, of course, reinforced this principle in early September by losing 5 games and winning just 2 to finish higher than our initial seed at CHC. I don't think it needs to be said that we planned our entire season around this principle. The ultimate community at large is undoubtedly aware of Kevin's recruiting platform: We're going to put the least amount of required effort, time, and wins into naming the team, designing jerseys, and qualifying for Nationals, but we're going to get it done. Truth be told, most of us were stunned to read Kev's email about practices being scheduled in June and promptly put an end to that kind of thinking by not showing up. After that, we were back to our minimalist approach toward qualifying for Nationals.

Initially, the plan was to win 0 games and qualify, but teams like Zebra Muscles, Mephisto, and Hustle no doubt had heard of our plan, adopted it, and were just simply executing it better than we were early in the season. Plus, the VBB braintrust had been unable to find a 0 wins path to Nationals that didn't include mass disqualifications and they had foolishly put the only guy capable of disqualifying his own team on our roster. Regardless, had a scheme like that been attempted, the UPA evidently no longer disqualifies the entire team for playing an ineligible player in the series, just the captain, and the plan would have failed miserably.

Next step, try to concoct a scheme to win just 1 game at Regionals and qualify. And it nearly worked! The UPA helped out tremendously with this plan by announcing that Regionals would be held in a state that only 8 people have heard of. It was conceivable that all but 1 or 2 other teams would either get lost trying to get there or just stay home. Sadly, 13 other teams showed up and it was time for plan C.

Heading into Regionals, we were 0 for 12 against teams ranked 39th or higher. We knew there were 2 ways we could win just 2 games against similarly ranked teams and get to the big show. One was to beat Machine in pool play and then win in semis, but since we were relatively sure Machine would qualify and that beating them would be, let's face it, hard, we decided on beating top 39 teams on just Sunday. So that's what we did. And our season was unofficially a success.

But we still had 7 games yet to lose.

Photographic evidence of our Championship

Which brings me to the title of this post . . . we won Nationals! Don't ask me how or why, I'm not a great tournament-format mind, but immediately after the last game on Sunday, they clearly announced our name over the loudspeaker, promptly handed us a trophy, and crowned the Van Buren Boys champions, despite losing every single game of the tournament.

No wonder nobody takes this sport seriously.

2007-09-11T23:49:00.001-07:00

I'll end the suspense.

CHC was rough. Two wins, five losses and yet we beat our seed. That's winning at the right times.

Tensions were high in the Sub Zero game. At least on their side. I think it was even more unnerving for them to hear that we were at times laughing when they were yelling. Their first goal was close to a clap spike type of catch and arguments ensued. At one point, as a result of a foolish call by one of our players that was to our DISadvantage, one handler of theirs announced loudly to the sidelines his deliberate intent to cheat in retaliation. And of course, Shane did what Shane does best. If you can't beat 'em, injure 'em. We lost by 2, the same amount of drops we had in the endzone.

We were up 8-5 on Frontline, when they caught fire and took 10 of the next 12 points. Winning the first half doesn't seem to bode well for the Van Buren Boys.

I had 3 Ds, 2 goals thrown, 1 received, and 3 throwing turns. I D'd up Truesdale near the goal on a huck and we collided, which took me out for the tourney (though I did play one more point in the game). I couldn't walk without a limp for a week and, 3+ weeks later, the bruise on my thigh is still visible. That's probably the second worst collision I've had in ultimate. I don't think Dave even fell over.

A lackluster Sectionals was filled with a lot of off-the-field fun. The Volley Ball Boys made a Saturday appearance. Saturday night: fires, arrests, an impeccable impersonation of my walk, and super dogs. What else is there?

I had 3 Ds, and 9 goals (7 thrown, 2 received). I think only Wes outscored me (in one game, he had 4 goals received in 5 points played). I had a goal in every game but one. I was perfect on throws until the 7th game. Then I lost focus for a minute and had 2 in one point. On the first, my cutter was wide open and going to the endzone, but stopped his cut right as I threw. Bummer. The second was a backhand huck to the leader of the Wolfpack that the wind pushed out of bounds. And in the finals, I had another throw to him that would have been a goal, but Kevin got a really sweet D on it.

Regionals upcoming and although I'm not conveying it well in this post, I'm ridiculously excited. I've never been so excited for a tournament. Ever. The team excitement level, too, is off the charts. We've got a steep hill to climb, but as the video below proves, nothing is impossible. Plano East is down 41-17, with 3 minutes to go. Be sure to watch it through to the very end.

Droppier by the Lake

2007-08-20T15:25:00.000-07:00

After Cooler, it appears the Van Buren Boys have two options:

Cross our fingers and hope it doesn't rain at Regionals
Cross our fingers and hope it rains at CHC, Sectionals, practice, and Regionals

I'm hoping for option 1.

Writing this now, I'm fearing that I'll run out of synonyms for the word "drop." As a sign of things to come, we dropped a pass on the first point of the tournament and continued to fumble with regularity throughout the weekend. As a team, I've noticed we fail to catch easy passes with higher frequency than our opponents, but this past weekend, we did it (to borrow an expression from my mom) like it was going out of style.

So ... why? I have many many thoughts on the matter, but with the growing number of Sub Zero, Machine, and BAT "spies" eying this blog, that information will present itself in a less public forum.

I can't believe I'm censoring my blog, but it's got me thinking that we'll probably only ever see any seriously relevant information trickling down from the Sockeyes and Furiouses of the ultimate world 5 years after it's obsolete.

In addition to the rising stock in Dropsie Corp. (copyright K. Seiler), we had other weaknesses that were exacerbated in the rain, but our defense remained very strong. No doubt, we were the strongest defensive team in Delafield. Hmm, maybe that's presumptuous given that I didn't get to watch Kablammo en route to their Mixed B Division Championship. Regardless, no team outplayed us on defense. I fully expect that trend to continue.

Personally, I played OK. The line: 5 turns, 6 thrown goals, 2 received goals, and (ugh) 0 defenses. The lowlight is that I had 66% of the team's total turnovers early on. My turns:

Backhand to BJ that did not bounce because I was throwing downwind (stupidity)
Backhand to Man Crush that did not bounce for same reasons (extreme stupidity)
Forehand huck that went sideways and directly into the crowd (wet disc, weak grip)
Backhand huck that floated forever (could have done without the hitting myself on the back swing)
Backhand huck that got footblocked loudly and theatrically

On the positive end, I laid out on O once on an upline cut and caught the disc left-handed (something I'm not all that good at). Again, 0 drops. I shut down a TON of dumps, at least half, maybe as much as 2/3. I never got scored on and the guy I was marking never threw a goal. In the Machine game, my guy only touched the disc once, but it got sent back because he wouldn't admit the disc hit the ground before he caught it.

Awards list:

Biggest Ho award: Mike Lun, for his inspirational lay out callahan in the Madison game that should have pumped us up enough to make a comeback win.
Boob award: Becky, for his extraordinary leaving of Milwaukee with all of Gibbs's stuff and most of Smellsworth's stuff.
Biggest Saver award: Lou, for his outstanding receipt of a "one free chain with purchase of chainsaw" coupon.
Doege award: Karl Doege, for his notable performance in persistence despite being told "save it for the 18 year olds" and "don't you ever fucking do that to me again" at the bar.
Lead Foot award: Smellsworth, for his unbelievable speeding down of a hucked disc that looked like he didn't have a chance to D, but did. (Honorable mention: Lou, for getting pulled over by a sheriff after being clocked at 47 in a 25).
Sport Bean award: Joe Nickels, for his outstanding efforts in defense and exemplary usage of electrolytes.

I have more to say, but this has been in draft format since August 17. It's time to post.

Ding Wop Saved My Life

2007-08-16T12:43:00.000-07:00

More often than not, I leave my office around 5:45 to drive home after a long 5 or 6 hour day at the office. Wednesday, August 1, 2007 was one of those typical days.

Quickly, I closed my laptop, threw it in the same backpack that has a bottle of five hundred 200mg ibuprofin tablets, a bottle of Gold Bond, and several packages of sport beans. I then sped up the stairs and into my car. With the radio tuned to 1130 on the AM dial, I hit the road, completely oblivious to the tragedy about to take place.

A few minutes into my ride, I cruised by what at first appeared to be some litter on the side of the road. At the very last second, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed it was a hat. A trucker hat. A BROWN trucker hat. A brown trucker hat with a logo suspiciously similar to that of Ding Wop. I u-turned and then pulled over to inspect it further only to discover that it was INDEED a limited edition Ding Wop trucker hat.

I have included photographic evidence of said hat on the side of the road lying in the middle of a T intersection, exactly where I first spotted it.

I spent a few minutes parking, walking over to it, photographing it, wondering who would leave his Dinger hat on the side of the road. I determined the schmuck was probably from Liquid Assjets.

I then hopped back into my car, still bewildered over the orphaned hat. A few minutes later, someone called in to KFAN to report that a bridge had fallen. It didn't seem like a big deal. It seemed like it might have been a prank of some sort, at least until the producers of the show confirmed that a bridge had in fact collapsed and that the bridge was the freeway where 35W crossed the Mississippi. Or, for those who don't carpool with me on a daily basis, my usual route home. THE bridge that I cross 2 or more times almost every day. Holy . . . shit.

Now in shock of the magnitude of the event, the Dinger hat completely left my mind. Later, though still in shock, it occurred to me that on a normal day, if not for the extraordinary discovery compelling me to pull over, I might have been part of some extraordinary circumstances of an entirely different kind.

In short, Ding Wop saved my life.

Bridge Collapse

2007-08-02T02:15:00.001-07:00

I'm safe. But still really freaked out. I usually drive on that bridge two or more times a day -- and usually right about the time it collapsed. This is un-fucking-believable and really scary. More later.

(edit: I just an unauthorized "video" on CNN of the collapse ... good god this is devastating)

Nice Try

2007-07-24T11:41:00.000-07:00

The artist and player formerly known as The Baron already wrote a masterful summary of the Van Buren Boys experience at MUDI. I know all of you are dying for more, so here we go.

First, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention how I wish this tournament's name hadn't changed to MUDI. Every time I say or hear it, I think of the "I say tomato" song: "I say Muddy. You say Moody." I know it can't be Aquatennial anymore, but I just wish Greggae would have found some loophole and named it something like Aqua Ten Event Loophole (a.k.a. Aqua Ten E.L.).

My fingers can hardly keep up with all my thoughts of the good things about this weekend. Again, just a solid, all around, fun-having weekend.

Friday night, Amesians and Kansians arrived at my house for dinner. I never use canned sauces for my pasta anymore and I think it surprised a lot of people to see me making a homemade sauce. That pleased me. As did hearing that people liked it. I immensely enjoy cooking for people. Making the mini pizzas at Nationals was one of the coolest parts of the trip for me last year. Anyway, we ate, then others showed up and we took a walk down the street for pool, darts, NBA Jam, Buck Hunter, Karaoke, and Gibbler's strip tease.

We met our expectations of Saturday victories, going 4 for 4. We had the perfect game, no goals scored on us, 0 turns. TBA and Ding Wop both gave us a little more than we thought they had. And then the St. Cloud young team scored one on us ... er, okay okay, scored one on me.

On the day, I had 4 D's, though Becknasty kindly pointed out that one of them kind of came right to me. I got scored on once, the only goal in our 13-1 win. I threw 5 goals and caught 1. Zero turnovers.

Saturday night, I saw Rosco's place for the first time. What a cool house! For a while, we sat in front of a campfire listening to fireworks (note: not as cool as watching them). I regaled teammates with stories of the Tranny Patrol, my old magic days, and shared an exact figure of how much I lost on those two hands of poker while we counted out chip stacks. Kevin killed me at poker with his notably disciplined hand selection. Wimer then buried our team early in a game of spades with some extravagant bidding so Kevin got to win .... again.

Sunday morning, my man crush and I drove out to the fields on our way to face Goose Egg. I said to him, "we better be careful with them, they can beat us if we don't take it seriously." Sure enough, they go up on us 5-2, then 6-3. We fight our way back to 11-11 and Kev calls some big lines to lead us to the win. I had 0 D's in this game, a few shut downs on the dump, and allowed one thrown goal by J-Rod. Again, 0 turns.

And now for the get-to-know-ya portion of my blog:

If you weren't there for it at Rosco's, I revealed to everyone that in high school, I performed magic for cub scouts, third grade classes, and the like. When challenged about the authenticity of my story, I proceeded to fail at a few flourishes with a plastic deck. Once I got my hands on a Bicycle deck, however, I was truly, extraordinarily, amazingly impressive with my 4 types of one handed cuts and 0 magic tricks demonstrated.

Madison was next. Maybe they were fatigued from their one point win against Climax, but they put up no fight at all. I got 0 D's. Twice, though, I poached well that resulted in a wild throw for a turnover. I also turned it over for the first time in this game. Then again the next point I played. I made a really poor decision on the first one on a swing to Rob and on the second, I tried to hurry it into Joe's hands in the endzone, only to overthrow him by about 3 field lengths.

And then, the long-awaited Sub Zero game. I'd never played in front of such a large crowd before. Ding Wop played Sub Zero in the sectional final in 05, but the crowd size was not as large or as interested. I think players in the region had been anticipating this game as much as we had. One, they wanted to see if Van Buren is for real, and two, they apparently wanted to see Sub Zero lose, quite reminiscent of Come Inside Where It's Warm.

We pull. Two throws later, Jimmy's huge block of Todd Owen's huck attempt can be heard from fields away and is echoed with a thunderous roar from the crowd. We pick up, and a few throws later, we're in the endzone with an upwind break on the first point. Again, the crowd is roaring.

We pull. Same line for us, but this time, Zero methodically works it up the field and scores on an upline cut. The crowd is deafeningly silent. Even though we had talked about it in the huddle about how there were a lot of people wanting to see us win, it wasn't until Sub Zero scored that it became obvious just how lopsidedly the support favored VBB.

Up 7-6 and receiving with the wind at our backs, fatigue had set in. Sub breaks us twice to take half and to return to serve. And the remainder of the game was much of the same. They go on an 8-2 run to win 13-9. Their depth dominated us. As it probably should have; they had a larger roster and have had just a few more practices than us.

Some highlights from the game:

Jimmy's block of Todd Owens
Charlie's eruption of "it's down it's down it's down!" followed immediately by a calm "oh, okay" with a what-did-I-do look on his face when told that it was up in an equally eruptive manner
Ben's hand block of Todd
Karsten catching everything
Todd's gratuitous air spike following a play in which he was not even remotely involved
Ross faking the air spike, in mockery of Todd, followed by a 90 second ovation by the crowd

Personally, I didn't do a whole lot, except try really hard and shut down 3 dumps. I had a small layout catch to save a dump. I laid out 3 other times. Two were really really close ones that I thought were all mine when I saw them go up, but missed them by inches. The third was just a desperate, try-to-be-a-distraction-to-cause-a-drop attempt (the one time I got scored on). Again, 0 turns.

On the weekend, I had just 2 turns, 0 drops, 2 received goals allowed, 1 thrown goal allowed, 4 D's, 6 goals, and a bunch of "nice try's." The layout I had underneath while I was guarding Truesdale was probably my best in 2 years, only I missed the D. Regardless of the outcome, it felt amazing. In general, my body is doing great. No soreness, a little fatigue (especially since Fridays are my hardest workout day right now), but 10% of my skin is decomposing somewhere on the field with all the horse manure. After being denied a cortisone shot from the Doc last Tuesday, he gave me a different NSAID to replace the 1600 mg of ibuprofin I normally take on tournament days and my knees feel brand new. No doubt, my ability to play at a higher level than I have a long time was a result of the pain-free running. I left the fields wanting to play MORE because I hadn't driven home from ultimate in about 2 years without a throbbing right knee.

If this post bored you, replace "right knee" with the body part of your choice and comment with "nice try."

What Motivates

2007-07-19T08:00:00.000-07:00

Maybe you've already heard the inspirational story of the first couple of rock, Beth Rodden and Tommy Caldwell. As professional climbers, they were on a "job" in Kyrgyzstan where they found themselves in a 6 day struggle for their lives. Kyrgyzstani rebels of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) kidnapped the vulnerable Americans while they were resting on the side of a cliff. In the end, they and the others in their group were under the supervision of a single rebel
while they fled Kyrgyz soldiers by scaling the slopes of the mountains. Seeing an opportunity for escape, Tommy pulled their captor, the inexperienced climber that he was, from his grip on the mountain, causing him to fall 2000 feet.

Not believing he could ever kill a man, Tommy broke down, stricken with grief. Only under the support and comforting from his group did he go on.

Later, after finding refuge at a Kyrgyz army camp, Tommy was temporarily relieved to discover the rebel had miraculously survived the fall and subsequently captured (but then, of course, sentenced to death).

Today, despite all the horror they experienced while doing what they loved best, Beth and Tommy are married, continue to live their professional climbing lives, occasionally appear on National Geographic climbing and park programming, and are building a home with their bare hands near Yosemite National Park and El Cap.

It's got me wondering, what have I done today?

Misery Loves CompaKnee

2007-07-16T14:40:00.000-07:00

Friday my right knee ached a little.

Saturday, I began to limp and both knees were hurting.

After practice Sunday, I wanted to go straight to the doctor, hoping the cortisone injection would be waiting for me.

Four 200mg milligram ibuprofin tablets aren't doing the trick anymore. I feel like the Luis Castillo of the VBB right now, except I'll never set a major league record for consecutive games without an error. I could, however, become the Spanish interpreter of the team. Just ask the extremely impressed server from La Fuente.

The sweatfest that was the last VBB practice was not to be repeated. Slightly cooler weather allowed for a couple tolerable practice days. Still hot, but tolerable.

Practice for me was okay. I turned it over twice on my first 3 throws, then not again until Sunday, when I turned it over 2 times in one point, and a third time on what I felt was a pretty good throw. Defensively, I got just one D. I should have had about 7. At least 5 times, the disc was within reach and I was hurting too much to give it the little extra. The one time I did lay out, I landed in a bad patch of grass, got up and my hand was perforated by tiny thorned seeds. My hand was bleeding in little tiny spots all over my hands that reminded me of when Inigo Montoya gets stabbed by the sword in the Princess Bride and little circular blood stains magically appear on his shirt.

Drill-wise, I had much fun. A lot of marking and breaking, my favorite things. Throw in a handler up line cutting drill and my perfect practice comes to life. Oh, and for the few minutes on Sunday morning before my knee started to ache, I was able to chase down a disc on D in the huck drill and knock it away, followed very aptly by "Now who's slow, Kevin? Now who's slow?" obnoxiousness.

The answer to that question was, of course, "Lou ... on every sprint after that one."

And now a brief interlude for you numerous readers out there who loyally monitor my blog and know very little about me, fasten your seat belts:

Ever since learning that a banana can be gently trisected into even thirds, every bite of a banana I ever take, I coax the banana apart in my mouth into the three chunks before chewing it up.
I have an extra vertebrae. It's great fodder for an excellently dirty pick up line that I'll probably use on Dave Karsten sometime soon.
I cannot for the life of me remember song lyrics. If fantasy singing-to-the-radio-in-the-car were one of the fantasy sports, "negative Lou" would be the top pick. I don't even remember the lyrics for some of my favorite songs of all time, but I do try to sing along anyway. And sometimes when I'm actually able to remember the words, I've memorized the wrong ones. I was reminded of that on the way back from Ames listening to Spirit in the Sky when I sang "I've got a friend named Jesus," while Becky sang the correct lyrics. Oops.
I once lost more money in one hand of poker than I earn in an entire month. I lost even more on the very next hand. To the same guy. In both hands, I flopped the nuts, he went all in, I called, and he caught a card to beat me. That's poker.
I read a LOT, but almost exclusively non-fiction.
I love food. I like to cook, bake, and eat it. I watch a lot of Food Network and I'm willing to try to cook just about anything from homemade fried chicken to fettuccine alfredo. Given all that, it might surprise you that my favorite food is pickles. I like them so much, I sometimes open the fridge in the morning searching for breakfast and have to talk myself out of eating just pickles for my first meal of the day.

And now back to our regularly scheduled blogging.

VBB has been a lot of fun. On the field, between points, during breaks, socializing in general. You can't ask for much more than what the VBB roster brings to the table: good humor, competitive play, tremendous blogging skills, etc., etc. I like everything so much that I'm even really hopeful that I will still like our team in a couple weeks when we receive our ghastly jerseys.

At least they aren't turtle necks, I suppose.

The Proactive UPA

2007-07-10T11:33:00.000-07:00

To answer George's question regarding how can RC's (and indirectly, the UPA) be more proactive, I have a few undeveloped ideas. I think the biggest thing they can do is not only remove any financial risks assumed by the tournament directors, but also help them profit.

I think long gone are the days of players resenting other players making a buck off of ultimate -- given the service provided is of a high quality. Look no further than Rob of UltiVillage for evidence of that fact. The guy is obviously turning a profit, else he'd have given it up long ago. Either that, or he's got a sugar mama and is the hardest working volunteer in ultimate.

I have no idea how much Rob is making, nor do I care, nor has any real resentment toward the profit he's making amassed. Why? Because he's providing an extremely valued product. We players value PT, probably more than video footage, which is why I've never really heard much backlash against steep tournament fees (at least not for a couple years). Even Potlatch, the world's biggest and most expensive (from a registration fee perspective) tournament, no longer has "why is the registration fee so expensive?" on their FAQ page. I guess it's not asked very frequently anymore.

Of course, they do publish their $5k+ deficit budget, so maybe that's why no one's asking.

Regardless of the profiting, let's face it, tournament fees are the smallest of the tournament expenses for individuals. I typically spend $20+ on travel, $40+ on food, and $20+ on lodging. Yes, I've spent less than that at tournaments. At some point, every ultimate player has put 7 people and all their gear in one minivan, only to meet another car at the hotel to share one room that by Sunday morning makes you wish you were in a gas station restroom because you need relief from the odor. But now, I'm employed and prefer to sleep without feet next to my head and on a soft surface. As such, being that my club team is 14+ players, it's rare to see my share of the tournament fee more than $20.

With that in mind, after having a conversation with Greg Williams over the weekend, I know he's lost a lot of money over the years putting on tournaments. And I know he's not alone. It's a lot of work and a lot of risk. The UPA needs to assuage that risk to promote the likelihood that a TD will step up and run a good tournament AND not lose any of his or her personal money. Frankly, it's ridiculous for the UPA to ask a person to put dozens of hours into a thankless job that will also potentially leave his or her wallet hundreds of dollars lighter.

How does the UPA do that? I don't know exactly, as I've not seen every budget of every UPA tournament and I've only personally directed one tournament (it wasn't UPA sponsored). Maybe they already do this, but if the UPA were willing to assume some of the financial risk of every UPA Championship Series tournament (in exchange for capitalizing on a percentage of their profits), I'm sure individuals would be more willing to step up. The UPA Event Hosting outline doesn't explicitly address who pays and who profits.

It was not long ago that tournament fees were regularly just $100, but those were the kinds of tournaments run on "ultimate time." The transition to better run and more expensive events happened quickly. Maybe the trend needs to continue.

Bottom line, TDs need not be afraid of making more money and UPA should not only encourage them to make a buck, but help them do it (by promoting the event and supporting the TD's decision to do so). For tournaments such as Regionals, with literally 1000 players, an extra $5 per player goes a long way toward the TDs' pocketbooks, without affecting the individual player's budget. This is especially true in the Central Region this year. A centrally located regional tournament could save hundreds of individuals literally hundreds of dollars each. I know I'd gladly rather choose to personally pay a TD $200 for a tournament within driving distance, than spend $400 on a plane ticket and rental car. Now multiply that by 10 teams of 20 players each.

Is there a TD out there willing to put in a good bid in Chicago and get paid $40,000?

Tulsa spelled backwards ...

2007-07-05T09:48:00.000-07:00

The "official" word on Central Regionals is that it will take place in Tulsa, whose state's abbreviation is ironically "okay." It will require roughly 10 hours and 33 minutes drive time for me and my Minneapolis counterparts to get to Tulsa. Taking a rough guess at the average drive time of the players on elite teams competing for spots at Nationals, I'd say it's around 12 hours. Yikes.

Alternatively, they can always spend $250+ on a plane ticket. Sorry Big Ass Truck.

Maybe it's less time or money for some of the teams not competing for a Nationals bid, but what's the drive time or price tag threshold for teams not playing to advance? How many teams who are going to win two games or less will drive 6+ hours to attend, particularly since the Regionals format tends to "eliminate" teams in fewer games?

I said it far more concisely on RSD, but a distantly located Regionals does not promote growth. It hinders it. Let's face it, some teams have a greater vested interest in Regionals. The UPA's efforts should tend to cater to those loyal, committed groups.

Timmy's point about players in the region whining needing to step up to put in a bid is valid, but becoming less legitimate by the minute. The UPA is now generating a 7 figure revenue. Granted, it's still run heavily by volunteer work. But the fact is, as ultimate (and the UPA) matures, more and more players are graduating into more administrative roles (Greg Williams, George Cooke, that one observer guy with the mustache and aviators, etc.). As a UPA member, I expect the UPA to begin leveraging these resources more effectively to improve competition. More precisely, rather than accepting the best submitted bid, they need to be more proactive to ensure excellent bids are submitted.

Here's to hoping the Ultimate Revolution puts it into action.

Another Season, Another Club Team

2007-07-04T17:33:00.000-07:00

This my 8th season playing club ultimate ushers in yet another club team to add to my resume: The Van Buren Boys. Not once have I played consecutive seasons for the same club team. I did play for Moe in 2003 and 2006, and it remains as the only team with which I have played 2 seasons.

Year 0: U of M B team
I had been on the team for literally 6 days when I played at UPA Club Sectionals for the first time. This is year 0 because I literally had no idea the context in which I was playing. I was simply told I could play in a tournament that weekend if I paid something like $35. I didn't know where the money was going, I just knew I wanted to get into shape again and compete for something. Jason Curtis was our fearless captain and Dave Perry screamed at me a lot in the games about all the things I was doing wrong. It didn't matter to him that we were a B team and I had only been playing for 6 days. It reminds me that last summer in TCUL, Dave Perry melted down in a game so badly and for such an absurd reason, that both my and his team asked him to leave. That's the only time I've ever seen someone's own team ask that someone to leave midgame.

Year 1: Zero
At this point in my career, Minnesota such a riff raff organization and ultimate was so much younger than it is today that I wasn't even really aware of the difference between some independent tournament that Gustavus would host and the UPA Series. Ultimate was ultimate to me. The leaders of our team didn't really explain the context of our competitions as it related to our team goals. I don't know if we even had team goals then. In any case, a few of our resident team leaders put together a club team that would come to be known as Zero -- because, as they explained it, we were to be better than Sub Zero. I had no idea who or what Sub Zero was. Oh yes, and we were a Mixed team. I honestly cannot remember how we finished that year or who we played. My complete lack of comprehension of our competitive context is probably to blame. Nonetheless, I'm relatively sure that had we played Sub Zero, they would have beaten us.

Year 2: Yellow Number 5
A handful of mostly U of M boys. I was duped on to this team, being told I would be something like the 12th man. Well, for 1 of the tournaments, I was the 7th. We picked up a couple Quebequians that stalled in French at FUCT. I also broke my rib (the first time) in a summer league game this year, then reinjured it 2 more times by coming back too early. That year in TCUL, I had the worst loss of my ultimate career, having been ahead 14-7, and losing 17-15. Club wise, I think I actually played the series with the Minnesota college team and I have no idea how we did. I still was a little unaware of what "club" ultimate was all about.

Year 3: Hot Action/XXY
In what would become maybe the second biggest mistake of my ultimate career, I ended up making the cut on Hot Action, only to quit a few days later because I wasn't having any fun on the team. As a matter of fact, I was miserable. I ended up joining Paul Norgaard's Mixed team, XXY, with aspirations of qualifying for Nationals. Well, of course, Hot Action went on to qualify, and we didn't even make it to a game-to-go. The team was, however, the germinating seed of what would become the Nationals qualifying Flaming Moe team, with Wade, Vu, Rita, Paul, Rachel, and me. The SJU/SBU portion of the group really helped catapult the team into contention, not only by themselves being awesome, but by helping to recruit the excellent talent that seems to come from there.

Year 4: Flaming Moe
This season was the first crossroads of my career. So much stuff happened.

I'm told that I was the last to make Flaming Moe this year (2003) and that the captains vehemently disagreed on whether to take me. This season was also the closest I ever came to making Sub Zero. I made it to the last cut, but as was revealed to me, it basically came down to me or a still wet-behind-the-ears Dan "Q-tip" Miller. At the time, I felt disappointed. I was surprised, too, especially since some of the friends that I did have the team felt I was going to make it. But in retrospect, I'd have taken Dan over me, too. It certainly paid off for Sub Zero and I'm sure Wisconsin wouldn't complain, either. I still can't help wondering what would have been different for me had I made the team. As it was, I learned more about handling in just those tryouts than cumulatively in the rest of my career (somewhat because, before the tryouts, I hadn't done much handling at all). Looking back, I find it very telling that I very nearly made Sub Zero, but I also very nearly got cut from Flaming Moe.

Around the same time as tryouts, Minnesota asked me to captain the team in 2004. I accepted.

By the end of the Moe season, I was on starting line and playing all the key points. My best memory of the team is probably making the upwind layout catch on the first point of the Sectional finals against Hot Action, then getting a celebration injury when the team rushed the field toward me. Wade, who had thrown the break throw to me, raced into me and drilled his shoulder into my jaw. It hurt for about 3 weeks, but regardless, that moment was one of the most exciting of my career.

At Regionals, we lost just two games, both 11-10, one in pool play and one in the back door bracket semi. In the back door bracket, we were up 10-7, too. Had we called a time out, killed some clock, we'd have won 10-9. It begs the question, is killing the clock with a time out a noble way to win a game in ultimate? I say when your season on the line, when months of hard work can be punctuated so bitterly and so disappointingly, who gives a shit about nobility. Just win.

In the end, Moe took 7th at Regionals, having lost just those 2 games. It sparked a small debate on RSD that enlightened me and infuriated a couple Moes.

It seemed like the season for me was littered with moments like the ones in the Woody Allen film Match Point. The tennis ball hits the tape, bounces up, and can come down on one side or the other. One side, good fortune. The other, perhaps defeat. Is it better to be lucky or good? Or, perhaps in my case, would it have been better to have sucked than to be unlucky?

I have a feeling some anonymous commenter will say that the events of my season weren't because I was unlucky. Seriously Kev, just log in and make those comments. I know it's you.

Years 5-8 (FOE, Ding Wop, Flaming Moe, Van Buren Boys) yet to be detailed . . .

Boozetown Invinationals

2007-06-26T14:48:00.000-07:00

Van Buren Boys have recorded their first victory of the season. You can stop holding your breath now.

First game, point trading to 10-10 against GOAT, cap goes on. We pull, GOAT scores the next two. We had so many drops in this game. And our non-existent offensive scheme was running like we practiced it: not at all. At 11-10, GOAT threw at least 7 passes that were high and floaty that we failed to knock down and were caught by someone other than the intended receiver. Nonetheless, they scored the upwinder. We lost. Maybe it's funny to say, but I think the game was just a few mistakes away from us winning by 5 or 6.

The second game belonged to Truck Stop. Our offense was still firing on no cylinders and we had even more drops and plenty of throw-aways. It felt like we were in reach most of this game, but it just wasn't happening. 15-11 loss.

Third, we had Zebra Muscles. Right away, we determined that they weren't capable of a good forehand huck so we slapped on a forehand force and protected the deep. Forcing a lot of throws, they'd eventually turn it. Perhaps not the greatest individual defensive effort, but good defensive scheming resulted in a historic win (the first) for the VBB. 15-2.

Play-in game to the quarters, we had HOV. These guys had a bit of a chip on their shoulder. They were losing and spiking on us. They also once picked up the bricked pull, walked about 2/3 of the way to the brick, then sprinted the last 1/3 away from the mark. We later comically did a similar thing and our team laughed while they asked us, "it's not illegal, why are you whining about it?" I guess I'm kind of glad they thought we were whining instead of what we were actually doing: namely, mocking them. We didn't take this game seriously at all (and we probably should have, because I'm sure it could have gotten out of hand), but we wound up winning 15-10 anyway.

Quarters, we got Boston. Their O line turned it 0 times. Their D line probably turned it around 5 times. 15-4. We barely put up a fight. I hope that teaches us to warm up better.

Fifth place semis, we had Mephisto. Again, we weren't really taking them all that seriously, but we managed to come up with a couple breaks early on and took half 8-6 when we started to realize how good these guys were. In fact, in the second half, their O line had 0 turns. Our O line had a few, but still managed to convert on 7 of 7 chances to win the game for us, 15-12.

Then all but 9 of our players left for the airport. Good thing we didn't make the finals! Pike wanted a game. Badly. We agreed to a game to 13. With about the junkiest zone I think we'll play all season, we forced turns early on and jumped out to a 3-1 lead. We gave back a few breaks, though, and had just a 1 point lead at half. Kev assigned me to the deep in the zone because, as he put it, if I remember correctly, I am so good in the air and so quick on fast breaks. He'll probably talk a lot about it in his blog. Anyway, we ran out of steam after being ahead 9-8, allowing a 4 point run, then rattling off a couple before losing 13-11.

My personal play roller coastered. At the first practice I attended, given the competition, I thought I was drafted way too high for our scrimmage, but my captain revealed that between a certain other blogging VBB and me, "Lou just makes sick catches, so I had to pick Lou." The thing you've got to get comfortable with on the VBB, is that everyone exaggerates a million times an hour. Well, everyone but me, I haven't exaggerated in a thousand years. But the point is, I guess I've made an early impression that I make some cool looking catches. It was really just one catch past Dave "when is Tai's next birthday" Karsten on a floaty pass to another handler. Regardless, I guess I've never felt that to be big part of my arsenal. Nevertheless, I did make a neat catch really early in the first game as a result of my poor upline cut. And yet another tournament has gone by without a drop. Last season I had 0 drops and I think the same is true of 2005, but my 2005 blog records were lost when I moved out from my old internet and into the new google, so I can't say that with 100% certainty.

My two other big streaks came to an end, though. I got handblocked in our game against GOAT and threw a callahan in our game against Boston. I can't recall the last time I got handblocked and I can't recall ever throwing a callahan. For the callahan, I made a weak attempt to stop the roll on a high pull, the disc made like an olympic vaulting gymnast and stuck the landing: Zero bounce. And zero bounce equalled zero stopping, but not before I touched the disc ever so insiginifantly. It rolled out the back and I had to take it on the back endzone line. I tapped it in and immediately threw to Mike, who was immediately cutting upline. His cut was so good in fact, that he froze his defender, who's surely blogging about the easiest callahan of his ultimate career at this very moment. I really don't understand why I'm so bad at stopping the roll sometimes. My last season in baseball, as shortstop, I had 0 errors. Good luck finding someone to help you work on that skill, Louis.

Stat wise, I didn't keep track as well as I should have. I'm pretty sure I had about 5 turns on Saturday and 2 on Sunday. Except for the hucks (2 for 4, I think), I think they were all D'd up, rather than uncatchable passes to an open man.

For D, I was good and bad. I barely ever got to guard handlers and when I did get to, I did well. There were a lot of people on the team competing over who got to guard handlers, and it wasn't that important to me to fight for it. On receivers, I was doing well guarding the underneath, but I was handing out free trips to the endzone like a travel agent with an overstock of gift certificates. It got ugly. The big problem for me was that our opponents were just smarter than I'm used to. What would frequently happen is that my guy would be 30 yards from the disc and I'd be shutting him down underneath AND there was another receiver (and his defender) deeper than me. Then the deepest cutter would clear quickly underneath, someone would get open for a 15-20 yard gain underneath, have no mark for a couple seconds, and I was toast. So one second I was doing really well, but the cutters and throwers would move quickly and smoke me. I'm going to need to start anticipating that faster since it happens much much faster in Open than in Mixed. Of all the times I was scored on, though, only 2 were up wind. One was a break. The other, I had help over the top that was right there. Oh yeah, and one time in the Zebra Muscles game, my guy caught it deep off a huck, but not in the endzone and I should have peeled off to guard the receiver, but I stayed on the mark and BOOM ... footblocked the guy, my second one of the day. His team was really pissed at him for not calling a time out, but who can blame the guy when he's got 2 on 1 at the goal line. I guess I did lead the team in point blocks, so that's good. And during one point, a disc was floating up and the opponent's two tallest guys were there, as well as Joe Brisbois and I D'd it -- ahem, well, COLLEGE D'd it. It got caught after my deflection. Oh, and I guarded Kurt Gibson for a few points and he never touched the disc.

In all, the flashes of brilliance are a sign of things to come for VBB. And I personally had an amazing time about which I hope to say more in another post, since this one is about twice as long as it should be already.

Bottom line, the Van Buren Boys have now arrived, but have much work to do. You can commence holding your breath now.

Hopkins: A season in review

2007-06-11T08:56:00.000-07:00

The Hopkins season has ended and we failed to become 3 time defending state champions. All in all, the season was a good one in which most began the season all thinking this was a "rebuilding" year. Our team was composed mainly of players who last year lost at State to Como Park in a Chumpionship bracket game. No disrespect to Como Park, but no one will argue that they are contending State Champions any time soon. Maybe I'm still mad that I didn't get a hot dog from them at the Granite City Letdown ... I mean ... Granite City Classic, which was officially the worst tournament I've ever attended.

Story time: games were to begin at 9:00. At 9:10, there was an impromptu captain's meeting in which about 75% of the important information was discussed. Then "is there a girl's schedule?" was asked. "Um ... ", a dramatic pause, "... yeah, I think so, there should be," was the response. Still, no full schedule or maps were out for the boys and the first round was to end at 10:00 because there were 9 rounds in this one day event. That's right, we had 8 games and 1 bye. We began our game at round 9:35. We did manage to complete the game before 10:00, however, with a winning score of 11-0. The rest of the game were not all that different, including the finals against Cathedral in which we won 13-3.

Cathedral went on to be given the 1 seed at the State tournament, forcing a semi final between the two best teams (by far) in the state, Hopkins and Cretin-Derham Hall. We lost. Despite an 8-6 lead at half and receiving with the wind at our back at half, CDH went on a 6-2 run to defeat us 12-10. In the other semi, Mounds View (a team that we easily defeated in pool play) defeated Cathedral. CDH went on to win a well deserved state title in a 15-3 domination of Mounds View.

On the girl's championship game sideline, John Sandahl was asking about whether we had played CDH before (somewhat in reference to the seeding) and I said we had and we lost by 2. I added that we had defeated Cathedral 13-3 two weeks earlier. "Yeah, but there were missing their best player," John said.

"John, we were missing our two best players," I countered.

The next thing he said really surprised me. [closed circuit to Greg: do not read this next sentence] Greg Arenson, our captain, and one of the finest high school ultimate players in the country was standing directly between John and me as John replied, "Eric Johnson is way better than anyone on your team."

Greg says, "Gosh, thanks a lot, John."

I then said, "John, Eric played today and they lost to Mounds View."

"That's true," he conceded. He didn't add anything further and slowly walked away.

This addresses (on the surface) a point I've been making a lot this season: one player in ultimate cannot elevate a team as he can in most other sports (especially the 4 majors). I'll dedicate an entire post to this later.

Back to the item at hand, back in September, knowing our squad, it would have been hard to believe we could come as far as we did, but with such massive improvement from some of our guys, we did fight our way back toward the top of the pack at State. A third place finish was not indicative of our strength and more a product of some really poor seedings as I think everyone would agree we were at least the second best team there. Even at Nationals, we were about the 6th or 7th best team there.

With that in mind, I'd have to call the season a success. At times, the talk nationally was that Hopkins was "a joke" because we "lost everyone that was good" and other similar notions. But we overcame that and picked it up to be in the pack of some National caliber teams. We survived losing a very strong senior class AND a changing of the guard in the coaches' positions. We nearly doubled the number of participants in our program, which necessitated replacement of 3 coaches who left and recruiting one more. I learned a ton as a coach, too much to mention here, but I will outline it in another post. Not to mention, we strengthened an already very strong group of sophomores and juniors, as well as solidified some younger talent (and their learning structure) to prevent future "rebuilding" years. In fact, if you ignored wins and losses, and took only into account everything else that this team is about, this season was probably the most successful Hopkins has had.

And next year, we're not going to have to ignore wins and losses.

U of M Alumni Game

2007-05-08T10:09:00.000-07:00

The alumni game was fun. The U of M alumni is growing very strong. Lou, Pat, Eddie, and JereBear for the 2007 game and next year we'll add Kyle, Colin, and Carl. But man, I can't even say how much fun it was to play again with Pat. Just like riding a bike, the first opportunity we got, I cut under for the patented 2 yard gain, launched the disc, and Pat ran it down for a goal.

Overall, I played well. We pulled to start the game and on the second throw, I footblocked Kyle's backhand. A good start. Later, I got another footblock on the mark in the cup on Luke (I think). I also allowed one thrown goal and one received goal (on a break throw).

Offensively, not unlike my college career, I hucked a bunch. I had 8 hucks and completed 6 (5 for scores). One incomplete huck floated over the receiver and he lost sight of it just long enough for it to land 10 feet from him without ever touching it. The other was a backhand laser that zoomed past JereBear and spawned a bunch of "LASER!" heckles. I threw one other goal and received one other. I also had one other turn that Andrew could have run down, set up some bleachers, taken a seat, ordered a pizza, and then waited another minute until it got to him, but instead he jumped for it, didn't reach for it, then let it land somewhere toward the back of the endzone. Oh Andrew.

We actually had the lead late for one point, but our fatigue hit us like Zach was hitting the huka on the sideline (well, maybe at his house before and after) and we ended up losing 15-12. I think that's the exact same score as last year. Actually, I think that's going to be the score for a few years to come.

College Central Regionals

2007-05-07T11:38:00.000-07:00

College Central Regionals has come and gone and again the top 3 teams were Wisconsin, Carleton, and Minnesota, with Minnesota on the outside looking in. All in all, it was a fairly boring weekend. Even the most exciting game, CUT vs. Minnesota semi, was frustrating to watch. With CUT ahead 9-8, there was a 2 turnover, 25 minute point in which there were rarely 2 consecutive passes without a stoppage. Minnesota did have the lead 11-10, game to 13, but CUT scored 3 of the next 4 to win.

The most interesting part of the weekend for me was that I was an official observer for the first time. In all, I did 4 games, including the finals. I had been scheduled to do the Whitewater-Minnesota game, but Whitewater understandably denied my role as an observer. "He used to spike it on us," was their quote, I believe. That I spiked it on them often, regularly, or even more than once is not true. That I spiked it ON TOP of one of the their players exactly one time is 100% true. We had had a series of heated games against Whitewater from 2002 to 2004 and I scored 2 throws after another big rules argument at Hallowinona 2003. I meant to stand up and spike it but the disc accidentally flew out of my hands and right into the Whitewater player. That's the closest I've gotten to getting into an ultimate related fight. What's especially funny/stupid about all that is the previous Spring, one of their players basically punched me while marking me. There used to be a video of it on the U of M site that showed exactly what happened, but it's since been taken down. Bottom line, I footblocked Scotty "the Body" and he punched the ground a bunch of times, got up, put the mark on me, and slapped the bottom of the disc and slapped it into my face. I didn't even raise my voice. I just said "what was that?" No answer and play continued. So, lesson is, make bad calls and I will retaliate foolishly, punch me in the face and I won't care.

The Championship wasn't much of a game. Heijman made a couple nice catches. Dan Miller made some good D's. Goldstein turned it over a few times. Goldstein also subbed out on an injury time out where his legged got rolled over on game point on the doorstep of an upwind score. He called in FOTY mentionable Sam Kanner, who proceeded to throw it away, then later drop a pass. Michael Arenson for FOTY.

For me, the most interesting moment in the game was when Shane "who else here hates" Hohenstein got hit by someone else. He was looking to throw deep as his mark was catching up and he pump faked the throw. His mark ran into him pretty hard. Total accident, but the Wisconsin sideline EXPLODED. F-bombs started flying and both teams were exactly one comment away from receiving a Team Misconduct Foul. I don't currently have a strong opinion on Shane one way or another, but the times I've played against him in the past (2 years ago), he was as reckless a player as I've ever seen. I just found the situation immensely ironic. If my memory serves me correctly, Shane stayed on the field and his defender took an injury. How dare you hurt someone by standing in an avoidable spot in their path, Shane. How dare you.

St. Johns expanded their growing reputation of unnecessarily pissing everyone off. You can now append Iowa State, Iowa, and UMD to the list of teams that dislike St. Johns.

Overall, a pretty boring weekend of college ultimate. Is it too soon be looking forward to next year?

The State of High School Ultimate

2007-04-17T10:58:00.000-07:00

Hopkins Hurt attended what is arguably the most prestigious high school tournament in the world last weekend: Paideia Cup. From Wikipedia:

To the ancient Greeks, Paideia (παιδεία) was "the process of educating man into his true form, the real and genuine human nature." (1) It also means culture. It is the ideal in which the Hellenes formed the world around them and their youth.

The Paideia School is a neat private school system that started out as a small school wanting to challenge kids differently than they had been, by introducing new creative and intellectual challenges they hadn't seen elsewhere. The school later began to consume the neighboring housing and converted it to classrooms, as well as constructed their own new classroom buildings, which makes for a very eclectic campus environment.

For the first time in team history, the team lost every game of a tournament, going 0-5. I was thoroughly surprised by what I saw from the other high school teams, with the exception of us and Paideia, the other teams strictly played a field position game. I'm not sure if it was a conscious strategy decision by them or not, but the teams would just huck, huck, and huck. I had never seen a high school team huck as much as our first opponent, Columbia, did. At least not until our second opponent, North Hills. And then, our first game on Sunday against University School of Nashville (Grassburn) was almost comical. If they caught a D near their own endzone, they would at times literally just wind up like a pull and throw it to no one. I'd never played in a game like that before.

Actually, that's not true. It's close to the exact strategy I used to lead my team to back-to-back TCUL championships.

There's only 2 ways to overcome the field position strategy: one, execute the exact same strategy (only better); or two, play a solid possession game. In the windy, rainy, cold condition, possession just wasn't an option. We had to resort to playing the field position game in the Grassburn game, too, only we didn't execute it well at all. By the end of the game, Grassburn had scored 7 of their goals with a combined yardage of 0 yards on those scoring drives.

I'm looking forward to college regionals in a couple weeks to see if this strategy is being utilized more in the college division, too, since the level of turnovers for most college teams is high enough that it would be a very effective strategy. Maybe I can even talk Becky into convincing his team to do it at sectionals as an experiment. I can't imagine that the 6th best team in the Northwoods wouldn't succumb to a field position game (if executed properly).

Speaking of, my predictions for the Northwoods qualifiers are, in order, Carleton, Minnesota, Winona, Olaf, GOP, and St. Cloud.

Go lucky dogs!

What NOT to write about

2007-03-30T01:40:00.000-07:00

My latest writer's blog block has more to do with which subject to write about first than what to write about. I have a long list of things I've been trying to poignantly address for all you loyal readers out there, but have not found the time to write them in the edge-of-your seat fashion that they deserve. On the short list is a TO post and a response to the negative feedback I received following a recent post (through comments and live and in-person exchanges).

For now, just a quick note to say that the club season nears. What are you doing to get ready? I've been lifting since December. I weighed roughly 175 pounds then. I began dedicatedly lifting with the intention of trying to get below 170. I hadn't counted on my lifting to surprise the crap out of me and account for almost 10 pounds of muscle added. I almost hit 185 when I saw a Jack LaLanne infomercial and decided, what the heck, I'm gunna eat healthfullier (imagine that were a word). I hope to reach a conclusion regarding my question. Now I'm at about 180 and am well on my way to towing 70 boats with 70 people from the Queen's Way Bridge in the Long Beach Harbor to the Queen Mary on my 70th birthday.

But then I read about Cliff Young tonight and I think I might give up dieting, the gym, and wristwatches to take up sheep farming.

But not until I'm 61.

Ultimate Stats

2007-03-16T02:30:00.000-07:00

The Count brought up the issue of stats in his blog.

To get to a point where stats mean more to us, first we need to better define them. If the current nomenclature were a type of defense, it would be the Cupasaurus -- not entirely useless, but ignoring too much of what's happening on the field and (in highly technical terms) really sucky.

For defense, the "D" stat is just too generic. In football, there are sacks, hurries, knockdowns, interceptions, tackles, etc. We don't need that level of granularity in Ultimate, but we can all see the difference between a point block and an interception when it happens, just not when we read "D" on the stat sheet.

For offense, here's something I wrote 2 years ago:

The thing about goals being scored is that the thrower often actually deserves more of the credit than the receiver. And further, the deserved credit to the thrower is directly proportional to the distance from which the goal was thrown. The term assist suggests they didn't have as much involvement in the play as is reality.
And as a pre-emptive strike, this is entirely unrelated to any debate on being a team player and who cares who gets the credit. It's about being able to understandably and accurately record the events of the game.
Typically, people are recording stats in an effort to determine who is making the most valuable contributions to the team and conversely who's hurting it. In that regard, I think there are 3 (positive contribution) offensive stats that are important:
TG - thrown goal
RG - received goal
A - assist
TG and RG are obvious. The assist is the throw that provides an excellent opportunity to the new thrower for a TG (e.g. the 55 yard throw to within 5 yards of the goal, the 15 yard crossfield swing to the break side of the field, etc.). The current use of the "assist" stat is both inconsistent with current sports stats and doesn't make sense semantically -- since the player didn't just "assist" in the goal, but had a direct contribution in creating it. The throw prior to a TG, however, very often contributes to creating ideal conditions in which a TG can occur and makes sense semantically to be referred to as an assist. This throw has historically gotten way too little credit.

Yeah, two years ago I wrote that! And the UPA has yet to address my concern. Sometimes I get the feeling they don't even read my blog.

Mo[vi]e on DVD

2007-03-13T13:22:00.001-07:00

Moe appears in 3 "highlights" on the UltiVillage DVD. I'm in one of them allowing my guy to cut up field on the break side while I poach the dump. Of course, an easy break to my guy is followed by an easy huck to a wide open receiver. I'm bummed because that was the point after I made a similar play where, instead of essentially allowing a goal, I intercepted a pass on the dump followed by a forehand to Jeanine for a goal and the break. Why couldn't THAT play have made the highlight reel?

Also not making the video was Jake's awesome spike that literally bounced higher than his head (I realize that's not saying much) and would have been the best clip in the spike montage, had it not been left on the cutting room floor.

I learned later that the pass I intercepted was intended for a man I spent considerable time on the phone with in 2004 after my eligibility stupidity: Josh Greenough. I wish I had known. I'd have liked to have a conversation with him.

So ... I bought the team package DVD set from UltiVillage, which was supposed to guarantee Flaming Moe 5 minutes of highlight footage on the DVD. Rob reneged on his promise due to our failure to have any important games of interest to the general ultimate viewing audience beyond Thursday. In an effort of good will, he did provide DVDs of all the Moe footage he captured. How do I feel about that? Well, the 3 clips that made the final cut are among those that portray Moe the most poorly of all the footage. I don't feel good about that. I don't blame him, but I still feel cheated, since I wouldn't have made the team package purchase without the 5 minute guarantee. He asked me about it, but I've not yet responded and I am undecided on how I will.

Which brings me to ... I have several of the DVDs available for $35 ($13 cheaper than ordering from UltiVillage). If you want one, email me at hotlou@gmail.com.

UPA Championships

2007-03-12T23:27:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd better write about the UPA Championships while it's still fresh in my mind.

I actually feared this delay in posting may occur considering the ensuing lack of interest in ultimate that invariably follows the end of the season. Having realized my fear, I took the precaution of recording my stats in a planner after each game. Problem was, that planner belongs to a girl whom I'm no longer dating. She was, I believe, one of about 3 non-ultimate playing, non-familial spectators at the UPA Championships. Why is that? I have lots of ideas, but that's for another entry, scheduled to be written in October.

Of 2009.

Anyway, so I don't know what my stats were, but I remember going into the last game having fewer turns and more Ds than games played. I also scored a lot. The last game I had a lot of turnovers, though. The entire team did. The game was frontloaded with double digit turnover points. I wasn't on the field for any of them, thankfully. That visit to turnover town, though, caused the time cap to go on just before half time (I believe). Three of my turns in the game were all intended for the same handler, one of which was a downright comical 3 yard dump that probably floated in the air for 5 seconds and was at a catchable height during the entire flight, but was not caught. Ugh. I also had one other overthrow and several punts (something we did too little of, considering the turnfest that it was). Overall, I was very satisfied with my play. I had a lot of touches, I got some clever Ds, I got scored on once, I allowed 2 thrown goals, and I small amount of turns relative to how often I touched the disc and compared to the rest of the team.

For the team, Thursday obviously sucked. We lost all 3 games.

Brass Monkey is the only team we played all year that we could not beat. No way, no how. They overmatched us in just about every way and came to play, in addition to an overwhelming sense of nervousness on our team. It felt like everyone had jitters except for me and Mike.

In our game against Briefcase, we actually led 9-4, and ended up losing 15-12. They went on an 11 to 3 run on us, complements of our O line, who just could not seem to convert. There was a turn on just about every point and a lot of fatigue. And we just seemed to stick with them break after break after break.

It sucked, but I had to miss the Deliverance game. The landlords for our lodging were threatening to kick us out if I didn't pay that day. I left immediately after our Briefcase loss, but with the long trip, the traffic, and the construction, I didn't return until we had already been virtually eliminated. We had to win by more than 3 to avoid needing some serious luck to make the play in game. Deliverance already had 12 points by the time I had my cleats back on. I played my first point of the game when we trailed 14-12 and a huck to my guy was caught over me for a score. In retrospect, I should have told our landlord to shove it. They already had my credit card and we were paying around $3k to be there. The customer is always right. Especially when that customer is me.

Our next 4 games did not feel like Nationals at all. We were at the Thanksgiving dinner kids' table equivalent for fields; the intensity was low; and there was hardly anything at stake (although, I think our victory over the Flycoons did take away a wildcard from the Northwest). For me, my memorable moment was when I made an inspirational timeout speech about how I would not get broken, only to be broken moments later by the classic falling-over backhand. I will say in my defense, however, that the receiver was left completely open on the break side. The intent of my speech wasn't to give permission to leave the receiver wide open.

All in all, I had a good time. A quick highlight summary:

We stayed in a 5000 square foot penthouse on the beach (pictured above)
We left Nationals with a 4 game win streak
One night, we cooked mini pizzas from scratch
The open finals game was phenomenal to watch (Chase layout, that Jimmy Chu D (almost), the accidental catch, and a greatest)
Playing well, scoring a lot
Purchase of a 5 ultimate hat
Learning to love the jacket that I bought even though I didn't like it but I wanted to buy some tourney merchandise
Taking 2nd in spirit (I had a feeling we might be up there)

Lowlights:

Spending (basically) an elimination game in traffic in a van
Moving our best O line handler to D, when our O was already not performing well and our D was already awesome
Losing Sam to burn out
Losing to Briefcase
Losing at Scrabble anagrams
Losing at liar's dice, the game I taught everyone
Picking up a Becky so drunk he could not dial his own phone
Dyeing my hair blond, only to remember 5 days later that I was to be in 2 weddings in the following 8 weeks
Jenni's drunk boyfriend pissing on the carpet in the middle of my room in the middle of the night for about 5 minutes

Cake, Death, or Defeat

2007-02-20T10:34:00.000-08:00

I put some thought into some way we (Cake or Death) could have been considered the winner of the indoor tournament last Saturday so I could title this post "Cake or Death Wins Come Inside Where It's Warm!" but I couldn't think of anything even remotely feasible, given that we exited in the semifinals by virtue of a loss to the team that lost in the finals. Instead, I'll give credit where credit is due: to St. Johns University.

I'll bet you didn't see that one coming.

SJU is a bit of an enigma. Somehow they produce solid talent year after year despite having a team that is hardly competitive. Wade, Schwa, Dave Klink, and Moss are the players that immediately come to mind. There are others, but those are the standouts. Two of them even made Sub Zero (though both declined the opportunity). Only 5 players from the U of MN have made Sub Zero (though 2 of them are not the same caliber players as the other 3). The difference? If I'm not mistaken, SJU has never made the top 10 at Regionals, whereas the U of MN hasn't missed the top 9 since I started playing in 1999. Additionally, my Hopkins High School boys effectively tied SJU last weekend with an 8 man rotation that did not include one of our captains.

Seiler made the same observation about Iowa State, but I don't think that it's equivalent. Iowa State is WAY better than SJU and has a much more impressive history. That said, Iowa State sure does produce some high caliber ultimate players. Rachel Derscheid and Lana come to mind. Hmm. That's all I can think of right now.

All that said, I was joking. SJU doesn't deserve any credit. It wouldn't surprise me if an Iowa State women's alumni team beat the current SJU team. Seriously. Why all the bitterness toward SJU? I'm just a little irked over some calls the SJU team made against my Hopkins boys and the overall poor spiritedness of that game. I was really proud of my boys for the way they handled it, though. Way better than the way their coach did.

The finals was interesting. Seemed like everyone in the field house was rooting for the Small Packages. Big cheers for SP scores, only cheers from their own team when Anna Nicole (Sub Zero) scored. Maybe it was due to the somewhat insensitive name of their team. Even if she was a bit of a mockery in her time on this planet, was it appropriate? Even if it was appropriate, was it funny? I dunno, who's to say their motives weren't innocent and it was actually a tribute to her legacy. It was still weird that there wasn't anyone cheering for Anna Nicole. Someone had mentioned that the Anna Nicole team was made up of a bunch of jerks, but that just wasn't the case. Pat, Naz, Truesdale, Schmellzlzlzly, KG, etc. are all some of the nicest guys around. If it were about personality, it must have been the Todd Owens effect, who, by the way, will have a dedicated post in this blog at some point.

In any case, the out of towners seemed to have home field advantage with the crowd on their side. Down to a 6 man rotation, they were really only behind during 3 points of the game. Two of those were at the end of the game, though, and the crowd did not see their heroes successfully defend their championship. There was some speculation afterward about the Joe Brisbois impact. I don't think there's any arguing that he alone can make up for 2 points.

How did I do? In the games where I was trying, I did well. Zero turns and a few good D's -- including a nice deep D where I made up a lot of ground against a Karsten backhand huck. In the games where I was goofing around, I had 4 turns and got served in the air 3 times by high schoolers. My backhand huck flew solidly. The forehand just sucks.

There aren't any more indoor tournaments for me to play this year. Thank goodness. In fact, I'd like to take this opportunity to officially retire from indoor tournaments. Until December.

SMRT Wins Minneapolis Winter Mixer!

2007-02-06T22:35:00.000-08:00

I dedicate this post specifically to 3 world class ultimate players and worlder class people. Wait, did I say that right? Anyway, this one goes out to Dave "that water spill was Lou's fault" Karsten, Shawn "I downloaded Screech's sex tape" Walding, and Kevin "I blog more frequently than Joe's Brother" Seiler (the player, not the indoor coed team with the same name). It is expressly not dedicated to David "I like to play with my Wii" Bequette.

Moe (doing busiiness as SMRT) once again proved its pool play supremacy by defeating all of its pre-bracket opponents at the indoor Winter Mixer at the Midtown Y in Minneapolis this past weekend, including the game against the Seilerless, Brisboisless, Lunless, indoor version of CLX. By securing the top seed in its pool, SMRT also secured an easy path to the finals, having to go through only CSBSJU to reach the championship. It also set up an exciting CLX+randoms vs. CLX+ringers semis matchup. As last year's results might have predicted, the team with the Open division superstars fell to the coed cohesiveness in thrilling fashion (a one point victory), setting up a rematch of SMRT against the previously mentioned CLX squad. I was one of the exactly 3 men who said they would continue playing for SMRT. The 1 woman who had never played before didn't want to play on, leaving us with just 2.

Playing savage, we won the flip and received. We proposed a game to 1, but that proposal was evidently rejected because we scored first and were handed no trophy at that point. Next, they scored, then we did. Up 2-1, Becky changed his mind about playing and jumped in. CLX scores. Then, someone on the sideline blows the horn. I'm not sure who, so I'd say it was officially unofficial. Universe point, Becky still in, we get broken and CLX goes up 3-2 (Becky +/-: -2 in 2 points played). The SMRT men return to the line. Meanwhile, the SMRT women are taking off their shoes and CLX is crowning themselves champions. We insisted we wanted to play without our women, 5 on 3, but CLX refused and declared victory, citing the officially unofficial horn blow as the end of the game. But you know what I call refusal to play? Yup! Forfeit! Hence, the title of this post.

Something tells me not even my mom would side with me on that one.

Oh well, I had a really good tournament -- especially for someone who was ready to retire from indoor ultimate a year ago. All day, I had one turnover on a huck that went a little long and bendy. In the 2 CLX games, I had 2 pretty good D's (one in the air against Russ Barr and one clever poach D), 1 other not so impressive D, and was involved in the scoring on 4 of our 11 points (including catching a deflected disc in the endzone where I let the girl D it because I thought she was my teammate Gizmo catching the goal).

The verdict? Indoor still hurts. My knees especially. I rested my knees for 12 weeks after the end of the outdoor season hoping that I could walk up and down stairs without pain. The respite worked. I was pain free. But after just one indoor stint at the end of December, my knees were sore again. It always amazes how I can be playing, sprinting, lunging, and generally killing my joints and feel no pain, but just walking two days later can sometimes be a chore.

So for now, it appears there are 3 ways for me to deal with knee soreness:

1) Rest (Ice, Compress, Elevate)
2) Play Ultimate
3) Ibuprofin

One of those options is really good for my joints (#1). Too bad I'm most diligent about the other 2.

Regionals

2006-10-20T10:34:00.000-07:00

Well, I was hoping that the video below would not be a metaphor for Moe's performance over Regionals weekend. Thankfully, my hopes were realized.

Okay okay, so maybe I had more lofty goals than "don't tank," but given historical precedent, it's not like I hadn't considered the possibility that the 2006 Moe train might jerk it into the bridge. Still, I'd gone into the weekend fairly confident no team would score 10 on us. And after an undefeated Saturday, during which our highest scoring opponent WASN'T Briefcase, my confidence was reinforced. Perhaps the most unexpected moment of the day was after scoring the game winner in our game-to-go, not only did Moe rush the field, but so did CLX. It's interesting that in the past, Moe's biggest rival (Hot Action), was also its mortal enemy. Times they have a changed. It appears that our biggest rival is now our biggest fan. Perhaps the biggest twist is that apparently a large contingent on CLX (and, as previously noted, the Mixed world) has historically hated Moe. Why the change? Someone suggested guilt, but I don't see it.

a) It's in their best interest to see us do well, seeing as they won't be at Nationals
b) I've never felt guilty beating a team that I hate

My personal play on Saturday left a lackluster taste in my mouth, a flavor not unlike that of Sour Skittles -- bitter, tough to chew, and tougher to swallow. I threw just 1 goal and received just 1 goal. I had 3 turns. One, a huck that caught 1 yard too much of the wind. Two, a long bending flick that was about 6 inches too wide. Three, on game point of the game-to-go, I had no mark and a chance to make the throw to make Moe history and I managed to find the precise 4 foot window between our 2 best D line female receivers waiting anxiously in the endzone that made the pass uncatchable for either. On D, I knocked down exactly 0 discs. That said, I had numerous shutdowns on the dump that resulted in turnovers, I forced several bad throws that failed to make it to their intended receiver, and not one man I was covering threw or received a goal all day.

Sunday, what can I say, we played well, but our opponents played better. Barely better, but still better. Moss wisely elected to sit out the games to avoid further injury and ensure plentiful PT at Nationals. I'd like to think we're the same offensive team without him, but that became painfully obviously untrue in the championship game against the usual suspect, CLX, as his replacement was visibly fatigued by late in the first half. Consequently, our offense struggled. It's just too bad that our offensive shortcomings aren't in the vein of being outplayed, but instead, in the vein of unforced error. The result? Another 3 point loss to our biggest fans.

For "third," in the seemingly always ill-fated "backdoor" game in which a team on a winning streak faces a team coming off an emotional loss, we had a rematch against Briefcase. Briefcase will never play another game so well again. Our D line had just 2 breaks in the game, probably the lowest number all season, and not for lack of effort. Briefcase just came to play. First point, all cylinders were firing and they scored in just a few throws. As the half progressed, our defensive prowess flourished and we earned 2 breaks for a 7-5 lead. Briefcase then took 3 straight, getting their 2 breaks back to take half. The second half featured exactly 1 break, theirs, and it was to win the game 15-13. The O line defense was just superb. Though they had their turnovers, they fought like, in the words of a certain redheaded curly haired handler, wild rabid dogs that have been tazered. I was downright inspired by it. I just wish our D line could have played at 50% of that intensity, but because we didn't, there would be no repeating of the beating.

My Sunday play was solid. Defensively, again, nothing big. I did intercept one pass. Offensively, I felt great. Just one turn on the day, early in the Briefcase game. I overestimated Giner's cut and overthrew her by about a foot. I played 6 points in the CLX game, and we broke them 5 of those times, 3 of which were goals I received. The sixth point was the only point all weekend where my player threw a goal. In the game, I think we had one other break. I played 7 points in the Briefcase game, only 1 of which was a break, but I threw the goal. So, in total, we had 8 breaks (6 vs CLX, 2 vs Case) and I was on the field for 6 of them and involved in the scoring on 4 of them. I'm very pleased with those numbers.

Apart from the obvious moment where we qualified for Nationals, my unforgettable moments were . . .

Baker being yelled at to swing to the open handlers on more than one occasion when instead he just threw to an open person in the endzone.
The look of jubilation and disappointment in Gloede face after being told that we had, indeed, qualified for Nationals. Jubilations because, yes, we had qualified. Disappointment because she missed the initial excitement and emotion, having not known that we were in a game-to-go until someone explained it to her several minutes after the original rush.
My embarrassingly failed attempt at the "the meaning of this half of this game is over" speech. I still don't see what's so confusing about it. No one was confused when I heard that speech the first time. It seems somewhat microcosmic of the greater experience I've had on the team this year.

Overall, I think it was a great Regionals. As Davey put it on Saturday night, "we did not come here to get beat by CLX," but alas, having to play at less than full strength yet again really hurt us. I think the loss-loss ending is going to have a good effect on the team, though, now knowing that we've got to prove something at Nationals. Being the underdog is kind of our specialty. Just ask Puppet Regime, the team that was up 5 breaks on us at CHC. Or Briefcase when they were seeded above us.

Up next, Nationals breakdown.

O Boy

2006-09-29T12:35:00.000-07:00

My offensive woes are over.

Northwest Plains Sectionals was this past weekend. On Saturday, I was perfect. I think I played a little over half of the D points, which amounted to probably about 26. Every pass I threw was caught and I caught every throw to me, including one I probably shouldn't have caught -- a laser shot behind me that I caught between my middle and ring fingers, no thumb. I threw 7 goals, including 3 in our game against my Hopkins kids and 2 hucks. I caught 2 goals. At most, my line was scored on 5 times, which meant I was involved in the scoring 9 of 21 chances.

On D, there were really too few opportunities to do anything. I don't recall a single BIG D by anyone all weekend, but that's because we were putting enough pressure on marks and cutters that we were forcing errors rather than making big Ds. I had just 3 Ds. As usual, solid on the dump all day. My one defensive highlight was a huck deflection about 10 yards from the thrower, close enough to make me worry for a second that my hand might be broken. My guy only cut deep once all day and I ended up hacking the kid they call Hopkins on Hot Dish pretty badly. And altogether, my downfield D was pretty solid. My guy barely ever got the disc and when he did it was usually on a break throw, after which I never allowed an easy continuation throw. I was scored on once by a Norgaard hammer to Matty Spillum.

Sunday on O was a bit different. We had just one game, the Championship. I threw 3 passes that fell incomplete. One was a horrible horrible huck that should not have been thrown in the first place. I had no mark and Baker was open by 20 yards, but there was still a woman and her defender 20 yards behind him and the wind had picked up since I had warmed up. Another was something I talked briefly with Mike about. I saw him start his cut and I threw to him, but he had already started cutting away and he never even thought the throw was to him. I'll take 75% or more credit on that one. The other was a swing to a male handler who was jogging directly at a female defender. The female poach came off for an easy D. At the time, it looked like one step closer to the disc or just a reach out to catch it and it would have been completed, but from watching the video last night, it looked much worse, although the video was shot with a poor perspective of the play. While I thought this was about 25% my fault, I'll take 75% based on the footage.

The closest I got to a D in the finals came on a tough mark that forced a bad huck. It might have been the comical highlight of the weekend, too, since there were people on the field telling the thrower to call the foul when there was literally no contact. The thrower even said something to the effect of "I wanted to call a foul, but I didn't expect he wasn't going to foul me."

So, 2.5 turns on the weekend and plenty of scoring. On Saturday, I'd even say I was probably the most productive and efficient offensive player, with maybe Jeanine as an exception. Every time I turned around she was catching a goal. I'll bet she caught 10+.

Our team? Well, we just plain dominated. Our O line was perfect on 23 of 23 chances. Our D, while we weren't laying out left and right, was forcing errors all over the place. The score reporter says Salsa Police scored 7 on us, but my guess is that no one in that game would know the difference or probably even argue if it read 13-3.

Team D, I noticed, was exceptional with Schwa, Mike, Baker, and Lou for the men. Our women almost always outmatch our opponent's women. With Schwa and Mike down field and me and Baker guarding handlers, everyone on the field has to work to get open AND to throw (if they do manage to get the disc). A good combination. I really feel like it's a nearly guaranteed turn when Baker and I are covering the handlers and a weak thrower gets the disc or even if a decent thrower lets the count get above 6.

Altogether, our only weakness heading in to the UPA series was O line conversion and this weekend was a huge testament to its improvement -- and we've still not gotten back our 2 arguably most valuable O line players.

Up next: Regionals talk.

2006-09-20T23:08:00.000-07:00

I saw The Illusionist tonight and am so thankful I did. After rewatching SE7EN yesterday, I longed for a feeling I've not had in a long time, a feeling I never know I'm having until it's gone. Now that I've seen SE7EN, I can never ever EVER watch it again without knowing Gwen's head is in that box. I'll always know. Occasionally I do forget how movies end, but that's because they are largely forgetable. It's the big twists that I can never forget and never again be surprised when the secret is revealed.

Leaving the theater and reflecting on the movie gave me pause to contemplate that, after this season is over, I'll know exactly how it ended for Moe. Good, bad, average, or mediocre, once I know and I'll know forever. Right now, however, it's a mystery. All these moments leading up to the ending are what make the ending special. Truth is, no ending, either good or bad, will ever signifcantly affect me if I've not invested in it. The greater the investment, the greater the impact. So how will this end? And is it worth the wait? I don't know how it will end, but what I must remember, no matter the finale, is that the journey has been reward enough already. And yes, it is worth the wait. I have my hard work and my teammates to thank for that.

2006-09-12T15:04:00.000-07:00

Chicago HEAVYWEIGHT Championship sure lived up to its billing this past weekend. Well, at least in the Mixed division. I unfortunately screwed up my predictions slightly because of my misread of the 1 seed crossovers. At the risk of dislocating my shoulder, let me pat myself on the back:

1. On the pool play predictions, I nailed every spot except the C1/C2 spot. ICE won 9-8 to take the pool by a hair, else I'd have been 16 for 16.

2. Though we didn't meet in the 1 seed crossover, Moe's D was indeed too much for Puppet Regime. Our O line troubles in this game were a microcosm of our tournament as we began the game failing to get a break on D followed by our O line being broken 4 points in a row. The 5-0 gap closed as soon as the O line scored, though, and our D line got on the field. We closed it to 6-5 before the D finally missed a break. The O line then got broken again to make it 8-5 at half with the cap nearly upon us. The O line started second half going downwind and scored in just a few throws, then our D line ran the table to win the game 9-8. D line was 7 for 9. Exciting win to make it to semis.

3. Briefcase did, in fact, make use of their home field advantage with an impressive showing.

4. DoG and Sub Zero in the finals with the DoG victory. I wish I'd have recorded my predicted score, as it was just what I was thinking.

I think my Moe predictions to win weren't because of my provincial nature, but because at press time I didn't know we would be missing 2 of our top 4 O line players, including our #1 handler whose name I won't bother mentioning.

One thing I really liked about the weekend (and all season long) is that we're shedding what was evidently a very bad image. Call it what you will, but many refer to it as the Paul Norgaard effect. With Mr. Norgaard off the roster, it's pretty hard to find anything or anyone to dislike about any of our players. Even the remnants of the hateable me have seriously diminished if not completely vanished -- though that still doesn't prevent some people from occasionally projecting fault of bad circumstances onto me by virtue of proximity. A number of our opponents didn't say "good luck" or "good game" in the post game handshake, but "we better see you guys at Nationals" instead. We even had a player in the finals wearing a Moe temporary tattoo. On his forehead.

In terms of how Moe played, as I mentioned, our defense was more than any team could handle. Our O line, however, was a bit worrisome. Despite missing 2 of our top 4 offensive threats, we still should have been able to convert at a much higher rate than we did. Just 2 of 8 in the quarterfinals and I think it was 4 of 14 in the semifinals. I think maybe part of the problem is that our O line tries a little too hard to win the game for us. Truth is, O line can't win the game for you. The O line can only lose the game (barring 0 breaks, 0 turns, which will never happen against an elite opponent), whereas the D line can only win the game. Thankfully, that's exactly what the D line was doing most of the weekend.

Overall, I think we established ourselves as being in the UPA Championship conversation. With an anemic offense we still only lost 2 games, one point each to the two teams in the finals. It seems, though, that we need to feel like our backs are against the wall in order to get to get really fired up. If we can manufacture that state for ourselves, I don't envy our opponent, whomever they may be.

My play was a little better on O, a little weaker on D. I still made several unforced errors, though I did come closer to identifying the cause. On Saturday, I had 5 passes that fell incomplete. Two of them went to receivers who were wide open and made a totally unexpected cut in a direction away from where I was throwing and one hesitated as I threw the disc to make the pass uncatchable. I'll take 25% credit on the first two and 75% credit on the last one, leaving me at 3.25 turns for Saturday. My first two touches on Sunday were turns, but perfect after that. On hucks, I was 2 for 3. One was about 55 yards and perfect to Pat. Another was ugly, but right on target. And the turn was about 50 yards and caught, but the wind pushed it about 1 yard out of bounds. As usual, no drops.

Saturday, I had 5 Ds. One point block, one block from the cup, 2 dumps shut down, and 1 D on a cut underneath. I was scored on 3 times. Twice deep, and once on a break throw while guarding the ISO that I still hit pretty hard. One deep score on me was pretty embarrassing. The guy had position on me while we waiting a long time for the disc. He boxed me out and was pushing me back and back and back until he caught the disc easily. My embarrassment got the best of me and I didn't call a foul. Thinking back, calling anything would started a serious argument, even though it was unquestionably a foul. Sunday I shut down 2 dumps that resulted in turnovers. My D play of the day, though, had to be stopping a first throw after a pull that landed in the back corner while we were putting on our zone D.

Saturday I had 4 thrown goals and 2 received. Sunday, 1 thrown goal.

Total line, 5 TG, 2 RG, 7 D, 5.25 TO. I'm very happy with these numbers. Relative to the rest of the handlers on the team this weekend and most of our O line, that line is pretty good. Moreover, I'm happy with my play. One thing I noticed is that I was again involved in another momentum building big play. I like making big plays. Last season at Sectionals, I had a callahan that started a run of 7 points needed to beat Madison in the semis. At MUDI in the CLX game I had a poach D and huck that helped start a run. In Madison, I made a first throw layout D in the endzone against Optimus Lime that sparked some more focus in a contentious game. At Cooler, I had a pretty unexpected layout D in the endzone, although that didn't have the same effect as the others. And in our Annapolis game this past weekend, up by one late in the game, I shut down a dump that forced a bad throw. Mike caught the pass and I was already busting deep. I ran it down and caught it just inside the goalline. The team got a bit energized and we ran the table to win the game. I'm not saying that I'm the team inspiration, because in fact Baker's and Mike's catches this weekend were far more inspirational, but lately it's been fun to be lucky enough to be a part of momentum shifting type of plays.

As well as our whole team played this weekend, if we're able to get healthy enough by Regionals, I can honestly see us not giving up 10 points to anyone until Nationals. Considering our season until this point, though, that's kind of a big IF.

2006-09-05T21:37:00.000-07:00

Wow. Everything is happening at once. Fantasy football has started (2 drafts yesterday, A+ in one, C in the other), the big project I've been planning for 12 months at work is in high gear, HUrt (high school ultimate) first practice is tomorrow and after my promotion to coach the A team there are high expectations (state champion streak, 2nd place finish at Nationals, with a higher finish at Nationals every year we've gone so far), my poker play has gotten better (and more profitable) than ever, and most importantly the UPA series is nearly upon us.

It's true what Schmelzeielzelze wrote: no one worth reading in the ultimate blogosphere is writing about cool strategy stuff right now. And with good reason! Everyone worth reading is likely being read by their competition. No one wants to tip their hand. Well, no one except Seillor, but he and CLX have nothing to lose. I've actually felt the same hesitation to post team strategy stuff for most of the season. Although, I'm not sure why that is, considering the only readers of my blog are either (a) the man who designs our strategy or (b) in the high school division.

For some reason, no one in the ultimate world does predictions. It's time for that to change. CHC is this weekend so let's do this. I don't know what kind of roster to expect from the teams traveling from the east coast, but I imagine they'll be bringing a full squad. Which mixed team wouldn't want to play in this tournament? Three of the top 5 ranked teams (Ice, who probably doesn't belong, CLX, back to back semis appearances, and Moe, my team) are there, plus a couple perennial championship contenders and a few others who look to be preparing for a UPA Championships berth, and George Cooke is the TD. Sounds like a good formula. Now, to my predictions:

My inclination here, given CLX's seemingly weaker early rounds in previous tournaments, given that 6 Trained Monkeys edged out CLX last year, and given that they lost a couple big men from their roster, is that CLX might again fall to 6 Trained Monkeys. 6TM, however, is seeded 8th! This tells me George knows something we don't know (i.e. they're not bringing a full strength squad). Pool standings: CLX, 6TM, Third Coast, Hot Dish

Well, after what looks like it was probably a pretty disappointing finish at a seemingly hometown tourney (that looked to be filled with several odd resuls), I don't expect the Annapolis All Stars to bring a very strong squad. I'm guessing Pleasuretown was "Friends with benefits" at thier hometown tourney (FWB won it), but their subsequent results weren't all that impressive. Seiche has the capacity to bring a good game so you can't really take them too lightly. I think we'll take the pool pretty handily, maybe keeping 2 of the games close for a while, because that's what we seem to like to do. Standings: Moe, All Stars, Seiche, Pleasuretown.

Gooseysnakefister must be the Carleton team. Who knows what ICE will bring, but Seillor's assessment about how they might be win-the-UPA-championship-good might be a little overblown considering they didn't give us much of a game after about the sixth point of our game at Cooler. I heard two things from multiple sources about them at Cooler: (a) they were missing people at Cooler and (b) they had their new players with them, but the ringers can't play at Regionals. We'll see if they're at CHC. Puppet Regime looks pretty solid. Posting two victories against each of Slow White and AAS? Pretty good. I think the phrase least likely to be heard by anyone in this pool is "and we would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for those Meddling Kids." They've got their hands full. I'm rooting for them to score 10 points in their pool play games, combined that is. Standings: Puppet Regime, ICE, Goosey, Meddling Kids.

Slow White is hot. They've not lost since mid July. Black Molly sure is getting a lot of respect after such a mediocre showing at their last tournament. Again, might have to do with a tuned in TD. Mr. Briefcase has shown a superior ability to make short order out of inferior teams. Unfortunately that ability has not translated into better battles against better bodies. I think that's about to change, though, as they do have a bit of home field advantage here. Another 4 seed has a tough road ahead. Hopefully Soy Nuts brings a deck of cards or some other form of alternative entertainment. Standings: Slow White, Briefcase, Black Molly, Soy Nuts.

CLX had a good run, but the winning streak ends here. Slow White is going to take them down. CLX just has not played any elite team yet except Moe, a team they know well and a team that hasn't been playing to win, but playing to give everyone PT in "the big game." And it's too bad, too, because it's going to set up yet another CLX-Moe meeting. This time it'll be in an earlier round, though.

Puppet Regime is in for a surprise. Moe D isn't just good. It's "routinely shut down 6 receivers for 10 stall counts" good. Plus, our best downfield defender returns this weekend and a move on the O line is going to pay big dividends. Moe wins.

The only team that has a chance for an upset in the quarters is ICE, but they'll draw us and we'll win.

Semis:

Slow White vs. Puppet Regime.
Slow White just seems too hot right now and the stars are aligning for them to build some serious momentum. Slow White wins by a decent margin.

CLX vs. Moe
Well, there's a little more at stake in this game. Until now, our meetings haven't meant you don't get another game if you lose. That'll be the extra motivation the team needs, both to play better and to tighten the lineup. Plus, games to 13 are for suckaz. We win 15-12.

Finals:

Slow White vs. Moe
Our D is just too good. Plus, if the weather forecast is accurate, rain is likely. We've had rain in just about every tournament. That experience is going to come in really handy, especially given that our O line handlers are turnoverless machines right now. Slow White is going to have to work hard to keep this one close. Moe takes the trophy home, 15-11.

Oh, the open division? Well, Sub Zero has this year traveled more than ever. They've lost most of the games you'd expect them to lose, plus a few more, without really pulling off any big upsets. That said, they're getting some big big game experience against big big teams. They got games against both Furious and Sockeye last weekend. They lost to DoG earlier this season, who also made an appearance at ECC. DoG's results were far less impressive, but I have to imagine they had a much weaker roster, given the greater travel distance. I'd be pretty shocked to see anyone but DoG and Sub Zero in the finals. And DoG should win. If you get bonus points for each player over 25 players on your roster, however, Sub Zero will win by 10.

2006-08-22T11:32:00.000-07:00

This post expects to be a report of my play this weekend. I'll be sure to write a more interesting read very soon.

Last weekend was Cooler. This means I've had what feels like 20 tournaments since my last update. It's not, however, hard to wrap up my personal play into a compact and accurate summary: 4 highlights and an innumerable number of errors. With that, I'm thankful for 2 things: to be a part of a incredibly talented team (Moe) and that the Championship Series doesn't begin for another 4+ weeks.

Mad-disc-on was most likely my worst tournament statistically since 04, featuring a point in which I threw 4 incomplete passes -- more than my total at Regionals last year, when I was playing 80% of the points as our primary handler. I partly wish that the reason for the increased number of turnovers is that I'm throwing high reward type throws, but it's just not. I'm throwing 10 yard uncatchable passes. Embarrassing. At least I still have my hands. My only legitimate drops this season were in a Ding Wop jersey (I dropped one in heavy rain in Bozeman and one this weekend on a layout trying to catch an errant pass that wasn't intended for me). And I've still got my D, more on that in a moment.

Cooler was a little better for me offensively. I played roughly 42 points, give or take. I had 7 turns, 3 of which were completely uncatchable, 2 those 3 were completely unforced. The other 4 required a challenging or really difficult catch. I had 4 hucks: 2 backhands that were completed and impossible to defend (1 was 70 yards into a light wind) and 2 forehands that gave the game a true TCUL feel. I had at least 6 thrown goals, one received, out of probably about 25 that the line I was on scored over the weekend.

Until this weekend, I think I'd only been scored on twice in a Moe jersey. A perfect throw to Seillor in the MUDI finals was one. The other was a chump in Bozeman who picked up a garbage throw. Boy did that run come to a screeching halt this weekend. The only consolation was that it was only on hucks. In one game, I played 6 points and got scored on 4 times on hucks, almost half of the other teams points. Then there was a fifth time in the game against Meth with the score 12-5. I was running down on the pull, the cutter made a move in and I accelerated towards him almost to top speed and he bolted deep. A nearly perfect throw came and the receiver made a nice play to milk an extra couple yards out of the throw and landed 2 inches inside the goalline. In total, my offender was hucked to 6 times. Four of the throws were perfect. I had a line on one of them, but got cutoff by a teammate. And on the last one, I knocked the disc away and a very suspect foul was called. I contested, but the first throw after the stoppage was a huck to a girl completed for a goal.

Apart from that, my D was solid. I'm challenging myself to completely shut down the receiver (handler or cutter). The only weakness is a huck. Although, calling it weakness may be a bit liberal. The only time I wasn't right in the play was on a perfect 50+ yard throw. I can play containment if necessary, but that's for game-to-go D, not quarterfinals at Cooler D. I'm on the D line to create turnovers, not to slow down the opponent's offense, hoping they give it to us. Which is precisely what I did this weekend. I had 8 takeaways total (2 point blocks, 1 layout underneath on a cutter, 1 big layout in the goal on an upline cut in the finals, 2 poach D's, 1 in the air on a floaty upline throw, and 1 in the zone). I had another catch "D" on a poor huck in the finals and probably another 2 or 3 other pressures that indirectly caused a turn. So, maybe cumulatively 10 Ds, which I'm sure was at or near the top of the team stat sheet.

Oh, and I pulled about a dozen times -- 2 out of bounds, 1 only made it just past midfield, the others ranged from the 5 yard line to 10 yards deep (none of which were all that great on hang time), all were "upwind." We had 3 comical pulls this weekend. One, our puller fell over, another didn't wait for the opponent to signal, and I had the one that landed two fields over and barely past our own brickmark. Ugh.

On the season:

First, at the beginning of the season, when I was still on the bubble for making the team, I was told that my huck completion percentage should be 90%. At the time, I laughed a little to myself because it's my personal goal to complete 100%. And at that point, my hucks WERE completing at a 90+% rate. And in the huck drills, I was completing like 14 of 15, whereas everyone else was completing less than half. Since then, though, I've been trying to keep a season long log in my head. Including practices, I'm somewhere in the neighborhood of 35 for 50, with the majority of the incompletions coming in tournaments. So, even if I complete the next 50, I'll still fall well short of 90%. It's just strange that my throws have regressed so significantly since the start of the season. My best huck of the season was at Bozeman where I threw a forehand about 80 yards perfectly to a female receiver whose defender had no chance -- well, at least not until the receiver caught it and was tackled by her defender. The receiver dropped it and no foul was called. Since then, I've only had one good completed 50+ yard forehand in a tournament (thankfully, it was in the MUDI finals for a goal).

If there's any consolation in my offensive slump the last 6 weeks, it's that in the 3 finals games, I have 5 good Ds, 5 thrown goals, and 1 incomplete pass. My incomplete pass was this weekend. I picked up in our endzone about 5 yards deep and Davey said "do it." I looked up and saw Alicia open by a good 25 yards behind everyone. I let off a pretty weak forehand that went no more than 50 yards and hung for way too long. Turned out Alicia wasn't even watching or expecting the huck so early and didn't find it for about half the flight. Tai closed the gap and layed out for the D.

The big question is WHY I've had so much trouble throwing lately. Davey suggested I ditch the nickname Grandpa. Only problem is, you can't really pick your own nickname. I was the last on the team to go to bed after the Cooler party and I woke in the morning to tell everyone Grandpa died of old age the night before and Hot Lou is back. No avail. Everyone still called me Grandpa Lou throughout the day and my carmates even bought me an "Over the Hill Gift Grab Bag" from a gas station, complete with oversized playing cards, a "50" button, a black rose, and some trick chewing gum. Oh well, I'm satisfied knowing that my 2 big layout Ds are among the 3 best (and most timely) the team has had all season. Call me Grandpa if you want, but Joe's Brother is Hot Lou.

I think the problem is that for the past 4 years, it's been my routine to play 4 or 5 consecutive points, then sit 1 or 2. I'm having a little trouble achieving my Ideal Performance State (IPS) in this adjusted playing routine, but I definitely made some headway this weekend. I noticed in the couple times I had an opportunity to play consecutive points, my offense (and defense) was more comfortable, calm, and confident. It's not realistic, however, to think I'll have the opportunity to play consecutive points in games that matter, especially given that I'm on the bottom half of the depth chart right now because of my poor offensive output and that we have 12 other super athletic men on the team. The good news is I'm confident my D is currently among the best on the team and improving on offense is easy (compared to learning to play better D). Just throw the easy pass, Lou, just wait for the easy pass.

So, I'm convinced I'm starting to find my method in achieving my IPS for this level of playing time. I've got 2 more tournaments to see if I can make a full transition in time for the games that start mattering.

And that's more than enough time.

2006-04-27T14:02:00.000-07:00

The Worst Advice in Ultimate (1st Edition)

I'll be writing more than one of these kinds of posts. Their order will be random. And I should say that I don't know what THE worst advice in Ultimate is, but I do know a handful of things that are among the contenders. And further, these posts will only include discussion of commonly heard pieces of advice. I think for it to qualify as "advice in Ultimate," it has to be said more than a couple times by a couple foolish players.

I've actually been writing the list for this series of posts in my head for a while now, but it wasn't until this weekend at the first outdoor practice that I was reminded it's time to start writing them where everyone listens: my two reader blog. Hearing, "when you're cutting, make your cut straight at your defender," is what triggered my memory.

Before I continue, I should note that I honestly don't know exactly how effective the "cut straight at him" technique is. What I do know is:

(1) it's virtually useless against me
(2) it's dangerous
(3) it's a foul if the defender fails to or doesn't move out of the way
(4) it's not difficult using a different technique that doesn't risk (2) or (3)

I think the advice isn't inherently among the worst, but combined with the fact that you so often hear it given without a follow-up on what to do AFTER you've charged your defender, clearly places it among the worst. I guess when people preach the "cut straight at him" strategy, they assume it's obvious what you do next. Frankly, I wonder if even the preachers know what to do.

Along similar lines is the defensive equivalent of this, which is "jump in front of your man when he cuts." I don't put this advice in the same "worst" category, mostly because, quite simply, the defense works. In fact, it works remarkably well. Too bad it's cheating. Case in point, at Regionals 2003, it was seemingly the only way CUT played D on us when I was playing for Minnesota. That year we had a number of players still learning, but our offensive was for the most part very effective (against man defense, our Zone O sucked as always). I'm not spewing sour grapes here or trying to say, "CUT is a bunch of cheaters," I'm just saying that CUT flat out shut us down with that D. And with a mostly green squad, most of our players failed to recognize the fouls when they occurred. It's different from the "cut straight at him" advice because the "jump in front of him" technique actually works. Fact is, though, this defensive strategy is categorically a foul, which makes consciously doing it illegal (i.e. cheating). The truly foolish part about this technique is that so many players have been taught that "I got to my position first" is an argument to contest the foul. Unfortunately for them, rule XVI.I.8.b* clearly states establishing position first does not grant the perpetrator clemency for his infraction (unless of course there was ample time for the moving player to adjust his cut).

The common thread between these bad pieces of advice reminds me of the flaws in this game; the game that from my non-Ultimate friends' perspectives seems comically important to me at times. I don't think by any means do these flaws make it a less great game, but it does sadden me a bit when these flaws make it less fun.

Still to come: "Watch His Hips"

* When the disc is not in the air, players may not take a position that is unavoidable by a moving opponent when time, distance, and line of sight are taken into account. Contact resulting from a player taking an unavoidable position is a foul on the blocking player.

2006-03-16T11:05:00.000-08:00

Favorite Ultimate Moments (1st Edition)

This being my 7th year of ultimate, I've collected memories too numerous to mention all in one post. I imagine I could write about 2 dozen favorite moments from my ultimate career, but none of which involve a single game at Nationals -- college or club. My teams have never qualified and being that I vowed long ago to make my first trip to the Championships by UPA-invitation-only, I've never been a live-and-in-person spectator either.

The first edition favorites will include some memorable moments from two rather exciting games on Sunday at Beasterns of '03. Three teams finished 4-1 in our pool on Saturday. Our point diff was 0, which put us at #2 in the pool and pitting us against Kansas B first round Sunday. The rain came down hard on Saturday afternoon -- which reminds me, Lehigh had a kid pulling a soaking wet disc with his forehand and the disc still was making it to the back of the endzone. I wonder if that kid's still around. Anyway, the hard rain left large, deep puddles on the fields for Sunday morning. Several times during our game, while getting on D after the pull I would discover in a large puddle between me and the player I was to mark. One time in particular, a player that had been arguing with my teammates earlier in the game had the disc as I was approaching him. As I waded through Swamp Midfield in a full sprint, I made less of an effort to lift my feet out of the water with each stride. My failed efforts caused a significant deluge of muddy puddle water, engulfing the player, soaking his uniform, and disorienting him for the first 6 counts of the stall. In the four seconds that remained, he failed to find an open receiver and threw an incomplete pass as I snickered to myself.

Later in the same game, in what I believe to be one of his teammate seeking revenge, the player made a dangerously aggressive bid on one of my under cuts. He landed near my pivot foot and was slow to get up. Jakob was well covered, but streaking deep. As my mark slowly started to get up, predicting he'd have to push me off to get all the way up, I straddled his body, hucked it (as it was a free throw to the endzone), and called a foul as he fulfilled the push-off prophecy. My throw wasn't very good, but the disc came back on the contested foul. Actually, he never offically contested. He just yelled something like, "well what the hell was I supposed to do?"

We defeated Kansas B and faced Columbia in the quarters. A crosswind grew in this game and I made two fun plays. The first wasn't all that good, but the Columbia coach's reaction made it unforgettable. I was cutting on the backhand side when one of our handlers threw a floaty, bendy flick to the forehand cutters. As the 2 forehand cutters and their defenders positioned themselves under the disc, I started running towards them. I saw an opening among the group of 4 and jumped up and snagged the disc out from between them all. I landed awkwardly, falling to the ground about 2 yards away from the feet of the Columbia coach. With nothing but resignation in his voice, he exclaimed, "well, that's just the greatest play you're ever gunna see," and literally tossed his clipboard and pen in the air in defeat. Greatest play ever? Not hardly. Funniest opposing-coach exclamation ever overheard? Pretty much.

Late in the game, on what was probably the 50th floaty pass of the "tilt," I was chasing down a disc drifting out of bounds and yelled "get over here" to Bruss. I jumped out of bounds and completed the World's Greatest to him for a goal to extend our lead to 2, the final margin of victory for us.

Oh, and less of a favorite moment, but still memorable was when for about the 12th time in the semi-finals against Iowa State, Zach drew a ticky-tack foul to restart the stall by motioning a backhand into the arm of his mark (as is his trademark move). From no less than 25 yards away, Kevin Seiler in a determined pace towards Zach screams, "fuck you, you fuckin' faggot!" We all stood in shock with "where did that come from?" looks on our faces. Apart from that, the game was pretty uneventful, other than setting the groundwork for what would become a season long theme for us: Iowa State defeating us by a large margin.

More to come . . .

2006-03-02T11:45:00.000-08:00

I’ve never heard the term Winner’s Remorse before, but I’m sure it’s been already been coined. I experienced it last night slightly and this morning in a big way. I guess it’s bound to happen when my opponents are usually my friends.

My games against my weekly match against Paul went

W, 15-8
W, 15-6
W, 15-4
W, 15-6

I was especially motivated to win today because for the first time since we’ve begun playing regularly again, he won 2 games in one session last week. He probably should have won a third game since he was up 13-8, but I ran the table to win 15-13. I probably only play at around 60% of my top game against him now and I’m winning easily (with the occasional random loss).

Despite my motivation to win, I really was only giving it about 70% effort today, though I will admit I was putting forth more concentration than I usually do. In each of the games, I had 11 points before he had 5, at which point he became very vocal with his frustration – with his misses and with my consistency. This is when I started experiencing this Winner’s Remorse.

And I let up.

I actually started making less of an effort and allowed him to score more points. Particularly in the third game, I gave no effort to finish the game four times serving at 14-1 until he finally put up a few points on his serve.

Last night in my league match, I experienced some Winner’s Remorse, but not quite to the same degree. My opponent, maybe the top player in the league besides myself, happens to be an angry, vocal guy. I destroyed in him the first game, 15-6. But when it got to be around 13-4, I stopped giving it my all. The second game surprised me a bit because it turned out to be one of the most fun games I’ve ever played. I was ahead 12-6 and we had a really long point, maybe 12 shots each, in which he dived twice and ended up killing it on a spectacular running shot that barely came off the back wall. At 12-7 then, I felt like it was over. I couldn’t beat that. Sure enough, he fought back to make it 13-11 and we each served probably 5 or 6 times at that score before I got an ace and an easy kill for the win.

We left the court and a crowd had gathered watching our game. Someone asked me what the final score was and that twinge of Winner’s Remorse hit me. I actually felt bad telling someone I had won directly in front of my opponent. In those situations, I’ve always felt more comfortable saying, “he whooped me,” than something like, “I won by 12.”

I have felt it in Ultimate, too, especially in the years where I played against Brother. After he transferred to UMD, the Main U matched up against them frequently. And it was always easier for me to shake hands/hug after the games where I’d lost.

What’s odd is that I do prefer winning, by an enormous margin, but this Winner’s Remorse is starting to get to me. Maybe it’s pity, maybe it’s sympathy, but at some point it might cost me more than a meaningless league game so whatever it is, I want to get rid of it.

2006-01-26T10:36:00.000-08:00

I want to know just how much nutrition can affect my performance without actually having to subscribe to a rigid diet.

Let me stop here and say that as I type this post, I am periodically reaching over to the barrel filled with 4 pounds of gourmet (not the Sport Beans) Jelly Belly jelly beans invitingly neighboring my keyboard to pull out a half handful and deposit the beans individually into my mouth, savoring each one -- except those lousy buttered popcorns. And I might add that for lunch today, like most days of the week, my lunch consisted of the $1.50 Costco Hot Dog, a Coke, and the available free samples offered near the freezer section.

That said, I have attended numerous nutrition seminars facilitated by nutrionists. I've got a pretty good idea what makes a balanced meal. And granted, my breakfasts are generally of the nutritious ilk (smoothies w/protein, fruit w/cottage cheese or yogurt, etc.), but my dinners -- particularly those following a workout -- are gluttonous enough to make hog blush. I can repeatedly disobey every voice screaming at me that the last set of stairs is not worth it all season long, but to win the "don't stuff yourself" battle just once is a minor miracle. Food is just too good.

I guess food discipline is harder than exercise for me because despite my gluttonous irresponsibility, I'm not overweight. And I don't know what advantage I have to gain from laying off that second or third can of Mountain Dew. And since I have in the past gone on 5 or 6 week health binges, eating very healthfully, but I've failed to observe any increased performance, I'm further convinced of the futility of diet.

So being that food is so good and that depriving myself of it appears not to have a noticeable affect on my performance, I guess I've resigned myself to my Hot Dog and Jelly Bean paradise.

2006-01-25T10:33:00.000-08:00

My 17 game winning streak against my racquetball partner came to a screeching halt last Thursday. We play 3 or 4 games each week, depending on time, fatigue, etc. He defeated me in our first game last week 15-10, scoring the first 11 points. I was really tired from the games and sprinting I had done the night before and it took those first 11 points for me to sufficiently warm up.

My racquetball partner's name is Paul. He's 57, my former Calculus professor/boss, and a former Minnesota state champion. In 2003, my racquet strings broke and I was unable to find someone capable of restringing it. After a few weeks of not playing, I just stopped altogether -- after having played once a week for 5 years. I mostly only played Paul, with an occasional exception of when he'd put on a little mini tournament among his regular opponents.

I did once play in the U of M Intramurals tournament. In the first round of pool play, I faced an atheletic kid named Eric Gruen. Our match went 15-14, 14-15, 11-10. If you didn't already know, racquetball is NOT "win by 2" and the tiebreaker is a game to 11. So I won, but became worried that this was going to be a lot harder than I thought it would be. Every opponent from then on, however, failed to put up double digits on me. That is, until the finals where I met Eric again. I'd like to think that if IM Racquetball tournaments at Big Ten schools were at the forefront of the casual sports fan's interest, this championship match would have been the lead on SportsCenter because I intensely fought to repeat history in dramatic fashion as our match again went 15-14, 14-15, 11-10. I won the tournament and a "U of M IM Champion" T-shirt, which I proudly wore exactly one time before misplacing it.

I bought a new racquet and started playing again this Fall after two and a half years off. Before this hiatus, Paul and I matched up pretty evenly. I'd even say he had a slight edge. After two weeks, though, I started to dominate him. I've probably lost no more than 5 games to him out of roughly 60 that past 2 months. I'm not sure if it's his old age or that I've started playing other opponents regularly now, but he doesn't seem any worse and I don't seem any better.

I'm trying to get into the racquetball tournament scene at a similar level to the Ultimate tournament scene, but I've only played in 1 tournament since returning from my hiatus, and it wasn't nearly as dramatic. I played in the B division and never broke a sweat against anyone except one lefty who couldn't hit a backhand -- and he embarrassed me. He maneuvered around the court for nearly every shot to get a forehand swing. I was depressed after having lost 3 games to such a chump. My goal is to compete in the A division by the end of the year, but that was a huge blow to my confidence. Maybe getting to the Open division before I'm 30 isn't realistic.

Next tournament, February 25.

Next Ultimate tournament, this weekend in Tempe for New Year's Fest.

2006-01-19T11:04:00.000-08:00

Indoor last weekend. MLK Tourney up in Duluth, MN. I had planned on playing with the club team with which I played last season (Ding Wop), but they had 17 players already. For a 5v5 tourney, I wasn't too excited to be the 18th guy. Instead, Truesdale brought up his St. Olaf freshman. My brother Joe and I elected to play with them as the 8th and 9th players.

I made the 2+ hour drive in the morning and was late getting there. I ran around, got a sweat going, and jumped onto the field. After 4 or 5 easily completed forehands, I threw my first backhand of the day that flew as well as if I had thrown a tourney bagel. My self-serving bias would probably influence me to say the disc made it to the receiver's feet, but it probably only made it 3/4 that far. I got off the field and didn't return until I had thrown 50 backhands. I never want to make that mistake again.

There's a phrase in Ultimate. If you haven't already heard it, you soon will -- mostly because I'm about to say it. "Hell hath no fury like Lou Abramowski's scorn." The St. Cloud team learned this axiom the fun way. One of their vets, Jack, was cutting for a dump while I was covering him. He had made one or two moves and didn't shake me, but the pass went up anyway. I reached out and caught the disc with my forearm across the top of it and fingers grasping the far edge of the rim. At about the same time, Jack made a clap catch that included my forearm. I yanked the disc free and he called a strip. I hate the rules in this scenario because there's nothing the defense can do. O retains possession. I argued, noting that he had caught my arm, but that lasted about 2 seconds when I realized there was nothing to come of it. I didn't bother contesting because I wanted to be on the mark. Sure enough, I got the point block [insert "disc never lies" comment] and bolted deep. Truesdale hung a high floater and Jack got inside position and swatted at the disc. He got all of the disc, too, but I reached over the top of him and got a firm grip before the disc sailed away.

On the sideline, he complimented my play and apologized about the argument. I shrugged and said "eh, part of the game." In retrospect, I should have offered an apology in return. I know he wasn't cheating, but I was still blowing off some residual steam, despite already having exacted my "revenge."

TBA also beat us in as fun of a game as you'll get indoor. In OT, they came back to beat us 15-14 at the cap. Despite the loss, it's always nice to have that "this is why I play Ultimate" at the most unexpected times.

In the evening, we played CUT in the quarters. They beat us deep for at least 8 of their 13 points. The only memorable moment for me was when I was guarding Rupp, a long pass was underthrown and Rupp had the inside. I lunged in and knocked the disc away at the last second and he announced incredulously, "but I had it right in my hands!" He then added, "nice D," which I never expected Rupp to say to me ever in my life.

We met TBA again in Chumpionship semis. I think I set a personal best by having 4 D's in 1 point and a fifth during the next point -- 2 point blocks, 2 poach D's, and one just outrunning the guy to the disc underneath. I footblocked a guy on 3 consecutive throws during the same point once, but didn't have a fourth D. Sadly, we didn't even score the point in which I got the 4 D's. And I'm pretty sure all 4 of our turns were unforced. Even still, we defeated TBA something like 13-9.

Ding Wop stomped us in the Chumpionship. I missed 3 D's that were inches from my finger tips on passes that I tend to classify as "so bad, they are good."

Not that this is news, but indoor Ultimate is hard on the body. I don't hurt nearly as much after a weekend of outdoor. MLK 2006 might have been my last indoor tourney.