Update Club Practices, College Nationals

It's been awhile since you've heard from the Goby Bloggers. Thought I might step in and put in a few words on whats been going on lately.

I think most of us have still been getting settled in to a summer routine. I started working this Tuesday with Kevin at a company called Team Wendy - a step towards Regionals - as we spend much of our time talking about Ultimate as we develop helmet padding for soldiers abroad. Don't get it twisted, it's legit. I tried to get Mark a job there, but I guess it wasnt meant to be this year. I think Mark has been interviewing for a few jobs here and there, deciding where he wants to spend the rest of his summer. Best of luck to him. Anyway, though we've been busy, we've been fitting in as much work as possible.

Club practices have started in Cleveland, and right now it's just a lot of pickup. The team is headed by former Goby John Richey, and local Shawn McCarthy (AKA MC). I think right now they are trying to get a gauge on the scene this year, see who is committed, and keep the interest level up in the beginning by running a lot of structured pickup. I think it's a smart move by them, and I've actually been impressed by the level of professionalism and leadership demonstrated by the captains. They generally start with a little warmup, then break into teams and every point or few points they focus on a specific task - breaking the mark, swinging the disc, forcing backhand, vertical stack strings, etc. That's the way any scrimmage should be run. Players need to know what to focus on, they need direction, even when playing a seemingly innocuous pickup game.

What I've been even more impressed with is the number of Case people showing up to these practices. I think it's the most we've had since I started playing, and I really hope they stick with it. To name a few I think I've seen Jason, Corbett, Solomon, Kevin (of course), Ed (of course), Franz, Evan, and a few others. That's really exciting, and the veterans on the team have really been stressing the younger players to come out. Good to see them out there. Though I have been practicing with the Open team a little here and there (since they have open pickup to the city), I am not planning on playing with them over the summer right now - I'm trying out for the Co-ed team. However, what I have noticed is a lot of hard work being put in, especially by the Case players. I know I made it a point to mark up on Kevin a lot, and focus on playing solid defense on him, and on offense breaking the mark and not turning it over. We're breaking a good sweat out there for sure. I also had a couple co-ed practices over the last couple weeks, and those have been going well too. Last Thursday we had our optional conditioning practice, and I ran it with former Goby Will Link and captain Mac. We ran hard, and I definitiely need to put more time into conditioning. The thing I really liked about the co-ed conditioning practices is that we did all of our conditioning with a disc - the highlight the importance of disc skills when you are physically exhausted. In other words, running repeat 800's is great, but it really doesnt simulate gameplay at all. I'm looking forward to the next couple of weeks with the team.

If you follow College Ultimate at all, you know that Nationals was in Columbus this year, so naturally with it being in our backyard, all the locals made a trip down, including myself with long time Ultimate friend Weston, and a few of his college teammates. I went down with him in 2007, and had a great time. It's always nice to watch top level Ultimate to know what you're striving for. I said it before in my Regionals post, but there are a few things that standout as dividers between top level teams and the rest of the competition. 1) Fundamental disc skills, 2) Athletiscm, 3) Spacing on the field, 4) The mental game - intensity, focus, determination. Those are the qualities we need to work on. Beyond that though, the weekend was relaxing, and it was nice seeing players I havent seen in a long time. I picked my boys from Carleton to win it all, and they did, barely facing any competition throughout. Want to know whats scary? Most of the top level players on that team are sophomores, they're only going to get nastier. Shoutouts to Pbob, Evangelides, and Grant. Ya'll are sick.

Watching Nationals was great for another reason. It reignited my motivation to work hard and do work this summer. More on that in my next post.

Poll Results

So the poll "how pumped are you for regionals '10" has closed

I'm glad to see that 62.5% of you are "super pumped" and a respectable 12.5% are "big pumped"

but what is frightening is that 1/4 of you said "nah, im just chill"

I sincerely hope this is just a strategy for getting yourselves from a state of chill to chill-tense. Being chill about the prospect of regionals is absolutely unacceptable

-Kevin

Tricks of the Trade: The Swim Move

While watching the Gobies, I'm sure a lot of you have taken note of our incredible skillset of effective and stylish ultimate moves. So I'd like to take this opportunity to dissect the anatomy of my own special ability: The Swim move

Step 1: Begin Your Approach


















Show your defender that you mean business and start coming at him like an angry freight train carrying a shipment full of cuts. He'll be too busy wetting his pants thinking about you burning him deep to be prepared for the trickery you're about to pull


Step 2: Plant and Turn
















The swim move starts like many other cuts. It may be hard to slow down your burly, hulking, glittering mass of muscle (see picture), but this is one of the most important parts of the move




Step 3: Get low and close






























Lowering your center of gravity helps keeping you from tipping over while making your cut. Also, staying close to the hips of your defender confuses the crap out of them. While they turn around to see you go past them, you duck out of sight and begin your path towards the disc.




Step 4: Confuse Your Defender













The gentle, non foul contact will not only confuse your defender into thinking you're going to the endzone, but also cause him to be confused sexually. While he faces the endzone in frustration wondering where you went, you'll be hurtling headlong towards the thrower wide open with a defender left stuggling with his inadequacy.





Step 5: Attack the disc











With the swim move complete, all thats left is for you to grab the disc, lock and load, and fire off a huck to a waiting teammate. However, make sure you let them know you're about to swim move. They may get distracted and aroused while watching you swing your hips around your defender.


class dismissed:

-Kevin

Essentials #2: Chill-tense: for your listening pleasure...

It's been a long tradition of any sport that a player/team listens to pump-up music before a big game. You know, listen to pump-up music, chest bump, yell out of sheer adrenaline, rip off your warm-up apparel and roar like a lion defending his land; every team does it to get psyched for the game. But is this music selection really the best choice?

I think not.

Sure, getting pumped up will help intimidate the other team, but in the great sport of Ultimate, patience and "chilly"ness is usually more important than sheer manliness. How do you think our short and small team dominates wild beasts of nature from larger D-I and D-II schools? We play smart and conservative, and wait for an opening and take advantage of it by striking quickly and effectively (example: K. Poke lulling his defender to sleep by looking like a lazy chump while the handlers are swinging it. Just when his defender gets distracted, he busts deep and catches a perfect huck from The Bulge).

We've found out that we need to listen to music that represents this play style. We call it chill-tense music (chill + intense, duh). We first tested out this music pre-game at High Tide, and look how well we did there. Listening to this music will get you pumped up, but in a more intelligent way. We know we gotta play chilly, but always be ready to take advantage of a big play opportunity.

If we get the whole team to embrace this new musical way of thinking, we will be the chillest and the ill-est of the teams out there. You better be ready.

Some artist recommendations of chill-tense music:

- Minus the Bear - the music listened at High Tide, recommended by Kevin.
- Explosions in the Sky - this music will make you explode in your pants from its awe-inspiring mixture of chill, intensity, and pure epic-ness. THE definition of chill-tense; also recommended by Kevin. Recommended song: "The birth and death of a day".
- Sigur Ros - my personal favorite of chill-tense (I know the ac and evan love them too). If anything, they just make you feel all good inside. They sing in icelandic, so you know it's legit. Recommened song: "Saeglopur"
- EDIT: thanks to Andy for pointing out one of if not THE MOST chill-tense composers of them all: Clint Mansell, the man behind the Requiem for a Dream and The Fountain soundtracks. Recommended song: "Death is the Road to Awe" (The Fountain)

Get yo chill-tense on; it's good for the heart and soul.

- Marky Mark

It Has Begun

Yesterday I completed my first offseason workout. With the help of alumnis Matthew, "Wendy" Lehman, and Daniel "Cumminghard" Cunningham, I blasted almost every major muscle group into the next dimension. That would be the buff dimension. We maxed out pretty hard, and just when we thought we were totally maxed out, we pushed it even further to the limit. We even did these sweet sit ups while we threw medicine balls at each other. It was legit.

Wendy is training for the new cleveland club team thats forming this summer. And I guess I am too, because I'm totally ready to get in shape to play some ultimate at a higher level. Even though the two of us are going to be teammates this summer, I made it clear to wendy that my heart is with the gobies, and with every workout, I'm thinking about how it will help us get to our one goal:

Regionals

-Kevin

Player Profile - Ed Yanosik

Name: Ed Yanosik
Nicknames: Big Chill, Big Captain, Big Calves
Age: 20
Height: ~5' 11" + 20" from Air Alert
Position: D-line Master/Cutter/Handling Threat
Major: The best major around, Computer Science
Special Move: Smooth fakes, the opposite foot foot block

Description: Ed is basically the Jack of all trades of frisbee. When it comes to defense Ed will make your job of getting the disc almost impossible. If you do manage to get the disc (which usually only happens when he is poaching the lane and actually wants you to get the disc) he will put on a mark so sick that he’s still contagious.
On offense Ed usually starts off the cutting making a perfect short/deep threat. If he cuts in he’ll beat you to the disc and then be more than capable of throwing the up field continuation. But don’t be tempted to cheat in on him because he will burn you deep and sky you if he has to. Ed also has the hands to drop back and handle if he is needed.
Off the field, Ed is the chill-est of the ill-est. He’s always voted best dressed and most lovable person on the team, and for good reason. Overall, Ed’s the man and we are looking forward to having him as a captain next year.

A Fellow Bro,
Andy

Ladies

Follow the girls:
courtesy of webmaster Kumiko "Kumitron" Sano

Lady Gobies: The Road to Nationals

Kevin's GL Regionals Wrap Up

So great lakes regionals has come and gone. It was pretty hard to see the ladies come up just a bit short for the nationals bid. Still, watching them suck wind on the sideline and keep themselves in the game because they wanted to do everything in their power to win was pretty endearing. It really shows how great ultimate can be. Every tournament we go to, we see people going out and dying for a game that most people regard as little more than recreation. We've always said that the first step to improving your game is start to love ultimate. I'm pretty sure everyone out on the field at regionals today, guy or girl, loves what they're doing and if our whole team can get that sort of passion, we've got a chance of being there next year. I'm proud our girls got as far as they did, and I know they'll get even further next year. After all, Its better to have lost, and gave a shit about what you were losing than to just fail and write it off. Even if we don't make regionals next year (but we will), I'll be satisfied that we actually cared enough about something to change our approach to the sport. Its even pretty satisfying just to care enough about something to make a freakin' blog about it.

Gongrats to Timmy Lee and Magnum for making nationals. Too bad it had to come at the expense of OSU. It wouldve been nice to see both teams at columbus this year.

-Kevin

My GL Regionals Wrap-up

So I just got back from GL Regionals 2009 at Oberlin College. First of all the fields were great, and the weather was perfect, with only the slightest wind for most of the idea. All in all, great Ultimate weather.

I'll start with the pressing news. Unfortunately, the CWRU Lady Gobies did not make 2009 UPA Nationals. They lost in a tough game to Northwestern playing in the semis of the backdoor bracket. On the other side of the semis was OSU Notre Dame. I think if they were on that side of the bracket, their road would have been a tad easier. Nevertheless, excuses need not be made. The women played phenomenally all year, and exceeded most expectations. The should be returning most if not all of their seniors, as well as developing and picking up new talent. The road to Nationals next year starts tomorrow (if they so choose that to be their goal). Great season Lady Gobies.

In addition to cheering the women whenever I could, I was an official observer this weekend for the first time. Honestly coming in I had few expectations for how much I would be able to do - I havent gotten full certification yet. However, I was essentially thrown into the deep end this weekend and expected to grow quickly. My first game that I observed was North Park vs. Illinios. It was pretty smooth, I made the calls I was supposed to, and things generally went well. One thing that really helped was that the earlier games were pretty clean - they didnt have to come to me (or the other Observer) very often. My partner, Jason Weddle, was an experienced Observer, nationally known, flown in from Wilmington to call these games. It was great working under/with him, as he taught me everything I needed to know in very little time. The other games I worked were OSU vs. Notre Dame in the Semis, North Park vs. Notre Dame in the backdoor semis, the tournament finals - OSU vs. Illinois, and the backdoor finals - U Michigan, vs. OSU. It was a great experience, and very fun, even if pretty difficult. So in all, I did most of the final games of the weekend - which means I got to watch a lot of high quality Ultimate.

So what did I learn that I can hopefully bring back to the team? Well the first obvious one is the soundness of every top team's fundamentals. Almost never is there an errant throw, or a blown catch. Everyone can pivot, throw around marks, and break marks. I cannot emphasize enough how important that is. Everyone on a top level team can handle, and everyone can cut. The single biggest thing that our team can do to become better is to have really sound fundamentals. After throws and catches, the other big fundamental to have down is cutting - making hard, purposeful, sharp cuts, every time, and not getting lazy about it.

The second thing that differentiates top teams from the rest, are the athleticism of their players. Everyone is sprinting on every cut. No one is lazy, and the game moves much faster.

Probably the last thing I noticed was the team strategy of teams. For one, handler movement is a lot more fluid. There are many more give and goes, and lots of teams actually run essentially 2 handlers in the middle of the field. If a dump is needed, the handler has all day to cut and get open for his guy - and almost everyone else clears. I tend to like that because running 2 handlers forces the handlers to keep moving the disc and not let it get stagnant. Also, handlers seem to be a lot more in tune with their cutters. To jumpstart an offense, many times they will essentially iso one cutter until he gets the disc in the middle of the field, and as soon as he looks up he has 3 looks - open side under, break side under, deep huck. Lastly a handler can bail them out. Essentially, what I am saying is, the disc needs to be moved quicker, and this can be accelerated by active handler movement and solid cutting.

So, these are things to look into for the future. Last year I started running some handler practices. Maybe next year I can try and do a similar thing.

Until then,

Q

GL Regionals 2009 - A Step Towards the Future

This comes to you on the eve of the Great Lakes Regional Tournament for 2009. I wish I was going there as a participant, but as you all know, I, along with the team, am not.

But, I am going to Regionals this year. As a spectator and cheerleader for the Women's team on their quest to Nationals. They've already created quite a stir in the world of college ultimate, but it won't mean too much without attaining that Ultimate goal (see what I did there?) of making and winning Nationals. I'm really excited for them, excited for CWRU to be put on the map, and proud to represent them. I hope to spend as much time as I can watching them but...

I'm also going to Regionals this year as an Observer. This is going to be my first experience as an Observer for the UPA, and I'm really looking forward to it. I hope to gain a lot of experience, and hopefully Observe some key games.

Why am I observing - it's another step towards Regionals.

I think Observing will open the game to me in ways I havent been able to experience before. I think it will give me a new perspective, and approach to a lot of things. I'm hoping I garner a newfound respect for Spirit of the Game, and appreciation for Observers. Moreover, I'll be able to watch some high quality Ultimate, technique, and strategy - all stuff that can be used to make me and the team better as next year approaches.

A little over a week ago I posted talking about goal setting and its importance. After having time to think, I have come up with my own intimately personal goals. Like I said, this summer is about improving the individual, the season is about improving the team. So here it is, my goals for this summer (and perhaps beyond), and a little explanation.

1) Get in good enough shape to play every single point of a tournament and be effective. This will include a running/sprinting regimine, and weight lifting, as well as some specialized training. The Snertz workout has come to mind.

2) Dominate Summer League - no reason not to.

3) The big one - collectively work towards becoming an All-Region Player next year, or at least get respectable nomination. Some of you may not know what that is. Basically, its an All-Star team for the Region. This is actually a pretty hard task, especially considering that I am not the best player on the team currently. The point is, I want to step up - for the team and for myself. Most of you reading this are thinking, wow Q, that'l never happen. That's great. I want there to be haterz out there - it'l fuel me more - I already know how many exist out there. You can think of me as the Gilbert Arenas of the Ultimate world (at least GL Region).

Observing this weekend is the first step towards that.

Good luck CWRU Lady Gobies.

- Q