Other than the news about Gaia (from Steven), my links this week are from the past:
Illinois State, Monster, and Sub Zero move into the next round. The UPA championship division is complete, so we'll just have to finish off the other divisions (and the Open division is likely in it's last round this week).
This week:
College Division
RPI
MIT
Michigan
Open Division
Stockholm Syndromes
SD United
Disco Inferno
PJ
Apparently, we care about breathing. Some interesting comments were added to yesterday's post, and today, after recovering from a little food poisoning, I was back on the treadmill. I decided to focus on some breathing exercises, and I thought I would give you a little personal experimentation perspective.
At present, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I run for about 30 minutes at a certain rate increasing the elevation .5% per five minutes (if I'm feeling strong). Today I ran at 11.3 km/h plugged into the treadmill's television watching some show called "the class" (I think). There were a few really funny moments in the sitcom, which resulted in me laughing out loud on the treadmill, and these moments made interesting challenges for breathing and running.
Back to the breathing... My plan was to work on breathing for parts of the run and see how easy it was. I was looking to use the 2 step inhale, 2 step hold, and 4 step exhale. Well, actually, I started with the 2 step inhale, 2 step hold, and 2 step exhale. That was a disaster since I couldn't seem to get enough air in my lungs to hold the rhythm for more than 30 seconds. Once I established the first rhythm with an aggressive 4 step exhale, I found I could keep the rhythm going for about 2 minutes. I suspect this aggressive exhaling sounded funny to other people in the gym. I didn't look, but I'm sure some people were concerned that I may be dying every five minutes or so.
I did about 4 of these breathing exercises over the thirty minute run, and during them felt awkward in breathing, but strong in running. It reminded me of my days on a swim team where you would freestyle swim for so many strokes without taking a breath. In the cool down, I did one more breathing exercise and found it significantly easier. My guess is that the less stress during the cool down meant my body wasn't in such high demand for oxygen and adapted easily to the breathing rhythm.
The other thing I paid attention to for the run was what seemed to be my natural breathing pattern. I'm not sure if there's a Heisenberg effect (where once you try to observe then what you're trying to observe changes), but I found I breath at roughly a 2 step inhale and 2 step exhale. There's no holding stage in my breathing. Also, I tend to breath through my mouth, and some of the literature is suggesting breath through your nose for calming effects.
Something to work on to make those 30 minute runs a little more interesting. Though the sitcoms in the morning on the treadmill are quite good, and if I can't get one that gets that specific channel then I get to watch cricket. It all makes the run a little less mind numbing.
PJ
This week might be a little light. I was sick yesterday, and I'm pretty busy on getting ready to head back home for Holidays.
Yesterday on the treadmill, I was running at a fair pace, and at one point I started to wonder how I should be breathing. I've read and heard about the importance of breathing, and what better time to practice it while on a repetitive treadmill run. I tried a few methods such as mouth and nose, mouth in then nose out, nose in mouth out, etc. In other words, I had no clue what was best.
I'm even worse in the gym when it comes to core exercises, pull ups, and push ups. For these exercises I'm holding my breath for much of the contractions.
Like in all these matters, the web has a range of resources on the topic:
My links this week are my first set of my favourite posts this year + a cool video:
Note, there's still time to enter your teams logo (except in the UPA Champ division unless I get 3 next week).
Moving on from last week are: Falmouth University, Downtown Brown, and Guillermo Y Compania.
This weeks entries (polls right):
College Division
Dickinson College
Illinois State
University of Guelph
Open Division
Monster (Fall Series)
Mephisto
Madcow
UPA Champs Division - last round due to limited submissions
Subzero
Seattle Riot
Mischief
PJ
It's one of those days when two posts have to go out, and you will all find it hard to believe, but finally, it has been proven that warmups are important. Check out the article here.
Pictured Above: A warmup plan used in the study.A few posts back I showed an article on Great Britain's cycling psychiatrist. I suggested that our sport probably doesn't need psychiatrists in its present state. This week I thought I would punch myself where it hurts, and as the question - do we need coaches in this sport?
Pictured Above: Cito Gaston and the brain trust.In my continued attempt to connect some of the techniques in chess strategy and tactics to ultimate, I've evolved the model to the next step. This time, we'll use the chess board and the players on the board to evaluate the merits and flaws of different zones. This seems reasonable based on chess being a warlike simulation.
Figure 1: Shows a 3-3-1 zone.
Figure 2: a 1-3-2-1 zone.
Figure 3: 3-3-1 in a arrow formationLinks this week:
Just a reminder to get your logo entries in before the end of the first round of polls. All entries accepted.
The logos moving on from last week are: Caltech, DoJo, and El Diablo
This week the entries are (polls right):
College Division
Falmouth University
Concordia University
Central Michigan University
General Division
Fieldston Ultimate
Down Town Brown
Black Angus
UPA Champ Division
Guillermo Y Compania
Goat
AMP
PJ
I'm pushing the limits of taking external ideas and applying them to Ultimate. As of recent, I was just reviewing some chess tactics. Why? You got me, but it got me thinking.
So, what made up connection have I made with Ultimate and Chess? Well, it all comes down to a major part of chess tactics - the double threat. In chess, the concept of the double threat ocurres when you've made a move such that your opponent must choose between one threat or the other.
The "double threat" very simply applies to Ultimate. One application that I taught this weekend was how the double threat can be used to attack the mids in a zone. The further extension from chess to Ultimate is one particular type of double threat, which is the fork (knight fork is shown in the picture above). A fork is when a knight, queen, or bishop is in a position to attack two of the opponents pieces. The same is true for many ultimate tactics where offensive players fork to attack a mid position deep and short (or left and right). Technically, this is more similar to the "discovered attack" in chess, but the basic concept seems to come accross better with the fork; you're attacked at two points at the same time.
The tactics of Ultimate and chess have some more similarities. I find the best use of these similarities can be used to define tactics in Ultimate so that we can all understand what's being talked about. For example, the Ultimate term, "dump and swing" used between two Ultimate players allows us to express a series of throws and handler positions in only 3 words.
Here's some terms that you might find useful from chess:
It was a little cold this weekend in London, and I didn't get a chance to go through my entire progression for teaching a zone. For the number of times I've taught zones, I still don't have a great progression on how to teach the concepts of zone in a bottom up progression of drills and concepts.
Pictured Above: A zone break in action for Limited Release playing Brighton.My favourite links this week:
Last week Army of Darkness, Blackfish, and Alpha Cobra Squadron move through to round 2.
Here's the logos this week:
College Division
Caltech Women
Arkansas
Amherst Women
General Division
AIR
DOJO
Demon
UPA Division
Fury
Double Black
El Diablo
PJ
Some snippets from an interview with an author I've always enjoyed:
"THE MAG: Based on this book, if I'm an owner, I should be the most patient one in sports, right? After all, the Beatles, as you write, played a ridiculous 1,200 gigs—a lifetime—before they became any good.
GLADWELL: It's interesting. Andy Reid has said that with the offense he runs in Philadelphia, it takes a receiver three years to be comfortable in it. A receiver! I don't think we take this into account. We create offenses of such stunning complexity in the NFL, that it's impossible to truly judge anyone in their rookie season. It's ludicrous. How can you, if you're Detroit, draft all these wide receivers and then give up on anything after a couple years, or call 'em busts, when it's far more about executing a system that takes years to master? You have to give them their work.
Or if the Lions offensive players were calc majors…
Yeah, you can't go into a math class and pronounce who the great students are after two weeks. No one can master calculus in two weeks. So we need to be consistent. If you hire a coach that has offensive schemes as complicated as calculus, then you better have the patience you'd have with those students. Let's stop and acknowledge that football is not a sport for dumb jocks. It's a highly complex cognitive activity."
What I find most interesting with this analysis is how long it takes for players to fit in a system. Ultimate, a far simpler sport, is practiced less by non-professionals. How long should we expect experienced players to become accustomed with a system?
I, also, wonder if the reason our sport is so simple is we're not willing to make long term progressions of offenses and defenses. Buzz Bullets stay together longer, and maybe this is how they come up with their defenses. I would suggest that teams continue with their short term offenses, but maybe introduce one aspect of the game that they look to make into a complicated offense. This could pay big dividends in two years time.
PJ
In the Sunday times this week, I read more coverage about the GB cycling. This time they were looking at another piece of the team that helped the athletes - the psychiatrist. Here's the article.
In terms of our sport, it's hard to imagine the need for team psychiatrists. Other than volunteers, we can barely, get team physiotherapists and tend to share with everyone at a tournament. Even though there are pressures in Ultimate, I'm not certain if they're severe enough to warrant a psychiatrist. Then again, I think back to my confidence drought in 2004 and similar confidence falls in players I've seen, and I wonder if the psychiatric route might have been a faster route to playing confidence recovery (it took me about a year).
The problem is I have no clue what psychiatry means other than watching Fraser in both Cheers and his own show. The article says, "The psychiatrist will lift the bonnet [hood], show you how the engine works, then teach you to drive. When there’s a breakdown, the psychiatrist’s pupil may be in the better position."
It seems in the cases when your mind game has gone beyond refocusing, positive thought, and visualization, is when psychiatry could be brought into your game.
The GB cycling team's success is a fascinating model of sport organization study. This is just one other piece that helped lead to their success (though I'm convinced it was the technology). A thought for your Ultimate endeavors.
PJ
A comment or two ago, Zip!, a writer of another blog suggested that we accumulate links of Ultimate gear for sale on the web. Zip! your present from me to you is such a post (plus your idea is a good one). Please forward links (or contact info) for Ultimate gear for sale from your high school, college, club team, national team, or company in either the comments or an email (jamieson dot peter at gmail dot com). I'll try to keep this list up to date.
My personal list of jerseys wants includes a Sub Zero jersey (I lost my -10 somehow), Chewbacca Defense, Downtown Brown, Goat (the new one), Bodhi, and El Diablo. That's only a small batch. Some of the logos you'll see over the coming weeks will make you want even more jerseys.
Clubs:
Things have quited down since the end of the UPA season. My favourite links this week:
And so it begins...
The logo battle starts this week. Thanks to all the artists and captains who have submitted logos (you can still submit up until the final round). I'll give more details about logos as they move into later rounds.
Last time I ran this it was relatively easy to get logos off websites. This is not as true anymore, so I'm not making too much an effort to collect logos from all the teams. This includes the big name teams who haven't responded. I'll leave that to teams and people to submit (jamieson dot peter at gmail dot com). Keep them coming in, and if you have a logo from another club that you think should be included just send it in.
Here's the logos this week (polls right):
College Division
1. Amherst Dark Army
2. Appalachian State
3. American University
General Division
1. Clapham
2. Blackfish
3. Jawbone
UPA Championship Division
1. Condors
2. Alpha Cobra Squad
3. Above and Beyond
PJ
