Wisdom and Bagels

Its been a while since I blogged. Spilling water on one's computer (a second time) tends to be a detriment to internet access. As myself and my fellow gobies work hard through the summer, it becomes pretty evident how much i miss the company of our Pittsburgh Bretheren, Mark and Andy. Last weekend at no surf, with pittsburgh teams oozing all over the fields like a bunch of big sooty pimples, I wished that I could be skying pretty eyed, or bulge-enhanced chumps.

No Surf was an excellent tournament in which i got to participate against some high quality competition. It was definitely a learning experience for myself. Also the bagels were excellent.

I've been having to go to a lot of "summer on the cuyahoga events", and the last one I attended was a talk at shaker country club hosted by none other than the cavaliers GM danny ferry. The dan man imparted some sage wisdom about the cavs, and cleveland sports in general. He said:

"We're not cursed, we just weren't good enough to win"

Being the proud and mighty gobies that we are. We often tend to think that we "should've won that game" or failed to beat a team when "we're better than them". I think in times like these we need to remember the Dan Man's words. Once we become an excellent team, there won't be frustrating losses. We'll just be better.


-Kevin

Player Profile: Michael MacDonald

Name: Michael MacDonald
Nicknames: Mac, Macwell, Mac Daddy, Mac Attack, Granville (On the Block)
Age:20
Height: 5'11
Major: Engineering Physics <---I hear this is difficult
Special Move: God Mode

Case's Resident LeBron, Mac is the veteran captain of the Gobies. Sporting multiple hairstyles and multiple throws, Mac is a threat to "go off" at any moment. His God Mode ability is often activated during frustrating games against lesser opponents, and does not shut off until victory is attained. Mac has a crippling weakness for protien shakes, chocolate covered raisins, and skying people. He enjoys physics, and bro-ing out at the ford frisbee fortress, where he is always the first to offer a high-five.

-Kevin

Summer '09: Mixing it up

Gobies,

It is wonderful to see the strong numbers that continue to make it out to Cleveland club practices and local summer leagues and to hear about those of you outside of the area making waves for the Gobies in your local areas. As we all are catching the Ultimate bug that leads to such dedication it is important to remember how much time still stands between today and Sectionals '10. Once school starts we expect you all to remain dedicated and show the new rookies what Ultimate is all about as you also dedicate time to school. It is important not to get burned out before the school year starts because, assuming we all put in the time we are putting in now, we have A LOT to be excited about this year.

So please, when you're not on the field and looking for a way to stay in shape consider some enjoyable alternatives. I've been playing basketball 3 times a week which helps keep me in shape and keeps me jumping. I love me some pickup Ultimate just as much as the next guy but consider hosting some full court pickup basketball or soccer or whatever else you can think of to keep you in shape. Bored by tossing? Go play a round of frisbee golf with your Ultimate disc and work on those hucks and making accurate throws. And - maybe most importantly - if you begin to feel injured or burned out from playing Ultimate please sit a day or two out. This is the time to do it.

All that being said, stick to your goals (or make some goals) of coming out to club practice and working out and doing whatever else you planned on doing over the summer to be ready for next year. We haven't even played our first club tourney yet but I'm already excited about our first tourney as Gobies in the Fall because I see the drive in so many players that I know will take us to a higher level of play this year.

Enjoy your summer.

Ed

On the Road again

So this past Saturday the Pittsburgh Summer League officially started. As Mark mentioned before, he and I got on the same team along with two of our friends from high school. Our team turned out to be pretty good, and it seemed like the majority of people were younger than 21. This means we had lots of fresh legs (we also had like 30 people show up) but a slight lack of experience. It seemed like everyone had the fundamental skills down they just needed some game experience, for instance who to pick up on D, making sure to clear out, keeping the force.

For me, this weekend was a bit of a kick in the butt. There were many things I could have done better but also some good things that encouraged me. Right away I noticed that I was less in shape than I hoped. I got tired faster than usual and on one occasion it made me give up a point. I guess my workouts of pushups, situps, and Wii fit isn't enough. There was one time I could have layed out for a D but chumped out, and one time when I should have layed out but more like stumbled-out. That was a little embarassing, I missed the catch and bruised my shin. I had 3 hucks throughout the day, one which was caught, one was a diving (missed) catch, and one anyone over 5 feet would have caught. So overall I was pretty happy with that aspect, one of my goals for this summer league was to work on my hucks (and handling in general).

Some of the best plays I made were when there was synergy between me and Mark. It seemed like when one of us had the disc the other would know exactly where and when to cut. We probably had 4-5 upfield/break throws this way. Other than that I had a few good throws/cuts/heads up plays that made me feel good about my overall playing.

As far as our actual games, we ending up beating both teams we played. The first game we went up 14-5 but somehow let them come back 14-13 before finishing it. Woops. The next game was a hard fought battle, we stopped them on their game point and took the next three points to win by two.

Overall this weekend was a lot of fun and a good reminder to me that I need to be working out (running/jump-roping) and working on my thows more outside of games/practices.

I hope the rest of your summers have been filled with flying discs.

-Andy

Kevin's Week 2 Summer League Recap

Minus two of our top players, week 2 saw team pink nearly dethroned from their seat of dominance. We played a hard-fought game against an energetic ice team which featured standout gobies Evan Frasz and Jason Williams. Those two were like trying to mark a barber shop. There were cuts everywhere, they dished them out at a frequent rate, and when it was finished, they made me look bad. Though we went up 5-1 on them, they fought back and injected some emotion and intensity thats normally unseen in a Cleveland summer league game. Though I made quite a few mental mistakes, victory was ours in the end. I think everyone on both teams had a great time. It was pretty awesome to see something casual turn into something spirited and intense. We were all gasping for air at the end of each point, and the celebrations after each score were like something out of the college series.

Nayyir posted his workout schedule in an earlier post. I've been trying to keep to the same routine, but my summer obligations with SOTC have been frustrating. Forced socialization with geezer alumni certainly gets in the way of thrashing my quads.

-Kevin

The "other" summer league

Pittsburgh summer league starts this Saturday. The setup is different from the Cleveland summer leagues. Instead of one game every week, we have double headers on Saturdays scattered throughout the summer (6 or 7 total Saturdays I believe).

The important thing though is that Andy and I managed to get on the same team, along with two of our bros from high school. I think (and hope) that us four will have to be the big contributors of the team if we want to win. I look forward to being a potential leader of my summer league team.

Summer league is always an interesting psychological battle for me. Sure, there are great players and good players on every team, but sometimes the games don't seem very intense and competitive. It's very easy to just kick back like everyone else on the field, play lazy defense, and make poor, but exciting decisions.

There's a shit ton amount of teams (24 or something), and it's nearly impossible to gauge how good or terrible our team will be. But I mean, we have the chemistry of Andy and I that stretches back to sophomore year of high school, not to mention experience with our other two bros, Jaymes and Niko. If anything, I know it'll be a great time playing with these guys.

Some goals for myself at summer league:

1) Backhand, backhand, backhand. My backhand needs a LOT of work. I've been working on it in my free time and at club practice, but I think at summer league I can take more chances and gain confidence in breaking people. Most of my issues with backhand is due to lack of confidence.
2) Shut down defense. My man shouldn't get the disc. It's as simple as that. The hardest part is making myself play hard when others might not be playing 100%.
3) Gain complete confidence in my low release forehand. The Huddle says to work on your strengths more than your weaknesses, and I think this is my best throw. If I can have the confidence to consistently break people with a inside low release flick, that would be great.

Hoping to start off 2-0,

Matsi

Summer Dynamics

Summer is in full swing, and we're all still getting a handle on all of our unique schedules. I personally have been pretty busy with work and the Summer on the Cuyahoga Program. Mandatory programming and events have been keeping me from thrashing ultimate as much as I liked so far, so I've been itching to play more than ever. Last week i took a spur of the moment drive down to Versailles for D3 nationals, which turned out to be a lot of fun

The working world can be rough for one's planned ultimate training schedule, but Nayyir and I have been making sure to talk as much ultimate strategy as possible while running tests and preforming analyses on all sorts of helmet technology at Team Wendy LLC.

Here is a sample of a typical conversation

Kevin: Hey Nayyir, can you do the impulse analysis for the 5th impact?

Nayyir: Yeah yeah yeah i can rep that

Kevin: Aight, cool. I've been working on my low-release forehand. One day it will be as vicious as mark's

Nayyir: Yeah dawg, thats what im sayin'. Lemme rep this article about zone offense.

Kevin: Dang, thats some cool stuff. I'm going to go research sensors.

Tron (on Gchat): 01001001 00100000 01100001 01101101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01110100 01110010 01101111 01101110


Also, we've been paying more attention to health and nutrition. As ultimate players, We all have a tendency to nom whatever we please, because of our massive energy use from playing. However, in order to maximize our training, and bring our bodies to peak condition, we should try to follow proper dietary guidelines. As the son of a dietitian, i can say that the most reliable source for nutrition is located at www.nutrition.gov. However, if you find yourself wondering what you should eat, you can never go wrong with the five dollar foot long. They're cheap, delicous, nutritious, and you can even get tuscan chicken for $5 if you're Q in East Cleveland. He has a way with the black ladies.





-Kevin

D-III Nationals Recap

This weekend the Gobies traveled to Division III Nationals in Versailles, Ohio. We had a slightly disappointing turnout, having only 9 players on Saturday and 13 on Sunday. The extra help of two ladies, Kumi and Kari, and Kevin's friend Justin was much appreciated.

Our Saturday went like many of our Saturdays of this past season: we underperformed and we knew it. We lost our first two games against Rice and Vassar, and won our next two games to finish the day off at 2-2. It was apparent that we had the skill and talent to win our pool, but the offseason definitely took a toll on our team chemistry and physical conditioning.

Due to our win in the crossover game, we barely made it into the championship bracket as the last (18th) seed, and were due to play the 1 seed, Los Positas. They were definitely a solid team, but at the same time, I think our sectionals team could have beat them. Our biggest problem as a team (in my opinion at least), the inability to convert on the goal line, was shown this game. Los Positas took half at 8-2 or something similar, yet there were at least three points that we turned over on the goal line that they in turn marched down the field and scored. If we had converted those three points, suddenly it's a tie game at 5-5. It's disappointing: we work so hard at that part of our game in the spring, yet it still plagues us in game. I think if we can solve this issue for next year, we will see huge improvements in tournament results. We must be doing something wrong, we just have to figure it out.

Our first game in the 13th place bracket was against Kalamazoo (I think). We started off strong, then fell apart mid game, and then finished great with our backs to the walls, but fell short in the end to lose 13-11.

Other than the first two games of Saturday, our play was pretty solid. We definitely need to learn to play our best on Saturday and Sunday, not just Sunday, which seems to happen all too often (such as High Tide). Even so, our play was impressive considering all of the key players that were not in attendance for the weekend.

Notable performances. We finally used Kevin Vick's height to our advantage, as he skied many chumps throughout the weekend on hucks. Evan, the MVP of the weekend, came down with at least a few clutch grabs with defenders all around him. He's a fun-loving guy and jokester off the field, but he always brings intensity and heart to the field when it matters. He will be sorely missed on and off the field, as this was his last official tournament as a Gobie. He was never ashamed to show his bro-love to all. Bro, you're our bro, bro.

- Mark