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