Poll Thursday - Great Lakes Open Regionals

Last week, the point of the poll was to emphasize Mackey's point. Winning is really not that important and we even for a team like Ring of Fire, who are a top team and reasonably well known, nobody has a good idea (with exception of the team itself and some statistic historians) how much they win or lose. The same would be true if I picked a different team such as Sockeye, Fury, Jam, Riot, DoG, and so on...

This week, if I had time I'd set up polls for all the Regionals, but I don't. So, I'll focus on the Region I'm most interested in the Open Great Lakes Region. Pick who you think will qualify. Multi picks allowed (poll right).

PJ

Improving Your Move Repertoire - Repeat and Expand

This is a topic I've been meaning to delve into for some time now. The idea of "moves" is that in game situations like breaking the mark, cutting to get open, and running a dump cut we have an internal set of moves that we use to succeed. Today I'll look into what to do with your moves, but first an example.


For example, when I cut for a Berkeley (reset from the sideline) against less experienced defenders, I cut up the line until they look away, reverse the cut back with an exaggerated step (maybe an arm shoots out), and then reverse again continueing up the line for an easy lead pass. I've mastered this move and use it regularly in a certain level of game. Defenders can get completely beaten by this move and end up running multiple steps in the opposite direction I'm cutting.

That's a great move to have, but that move only works a few times until the defender adapts. Then I have to adapt and use another move, and so on, and so on. Hopefully, over a game I'll get different defenders so that I don't have to adapt too much, but as teams get better and people learn your moves and play better defense you need to find more.

Note, the move I describes sounds very rigid, but incorporated in a move is options based on reading the situation and working with your teammate. For example, the above described Berkeley cut is only executed based on a more preliminary setup (I'll discuss this in another article).

The three groups of moves that I allude to at the start of this article are related to a start drill I like to run at practice - Lotto. The problem with teams that I've helped coach is this drill becomes repetitive and the players become bored and go through the motions instead of taking advantage of the practice.

However, the approach you should take to make the drills interesting is to run through your moves similar to classic dribbling drills in basketball or the start of Martial arts sessions (where artists go through standard punches and kicks to perfect each skill). Some suggestions for looking at drills you find boring include:

• Use drill repetitions (i.e. one through three) to practice your classic moves, and use later repetitions (four and five) for new experimental moves.
• Use the X repetitions where each repetition builds on the last to set up your defender. For example, on repetition one of three man throw a flick. On repetition two throw a flick again. On repetition three know that the defender will, likely, over play the flick and use that to set up a nice backhand.
• Drill with the same defender or top quality players so you can't get away with your classic moves.
• Try using a move over and over to perfect it questioning how has the defender adapted, and what does that adaption open up in new opportunities.
  

First, you need to identify and establish basic moves (hopefully, your coaches and experienced teammates can help). Next, you need to practice and refine the moves you have learning when to adapt, and finally, you need to creatively, depending on the read, transition between moves. The larger and better your repertoire of moves, the better you'll be on the field.

PJ

More Mainstream Media Reporting on Video Game Sports Benefit

Another article (here) has jumped on to what I've been pushing for some time now - video games for athletic training. The article is not a full blown promotion for gaming as training. The article describes examples of gaming, but more a focus on how technology has impacted sports and the idea of virtual training. They completely bypass the idea of spacial awareness, which I believe is the biggest benefit for team based athletes.


Also, in the article they make a brief reference to the Wii. Likely, you've been discussing and wondering how the Wii could impact an Ultimate video game. One of the ideas I had was manufacturing a disc in which you could insert one of the joysticks/remotes. Then I wonder if the throwing motions could be captured in a game. Maybe with a Wii fit board you could somehow play a game. I imagine it would be a first-person based sports game similar to EA's latest range of first-person campaings (if you haven't tried one like Fifa'09 then give it a shot. It's a new take on the sports game, and I've taken Andy Johnson and Fulham much further then there real counterparts [though Fulham is having an amazing season]).

I doubt we will see a mainstream Ultimate game in the near or far future. Once again our sport is too small and the game appeal is not worth the game development costs. This is good since you have to go out and run around instead of playing video games simulating your sport in the isolation of your own home. Keep video games for those downtimes, and use them for improving hand-eye coordination and spacial awareness.

PJ

Link Friday - College UPAs, Good Food/Bad Food, and a Chair

My links this week are:

• Torontula (UofToronto) team went to Sectionals last weekend and failed once again to crack Regionals. I scanned the scores today, and saw that 5 Canadian teams have made Regionals (University of Ottawa-Women, Carleton [from Ottawa], UBC [open and women], and Victoria). Also, Miami University Ohio made it into Regionals after what appears to be a major breakthrough on Sunday. This weekend we'll see who emerges from some regions while the last of the Sectionals finish up.
• This article made an interesting point that healthy food on a fast food menu tends to make you eat worse?
• These chairs (video below) introduced and designed by Niels Diffrient seem really cool.
  
  

PJ

Poll Thursday - Spirit and the Caring to Win

It's been a while since I've posted. I was on an extended trip from conference to family to friends. I'm back in London for two weeks before I, finally, get off on an Ultimate trip.

In terms of my last poll, we looked at what is the most important aspect of a gear order. The results show that the jersey quality is the most important factor. This makes sense, and thinking back, all my jerseys from Gaia, VC, Patagonia, Lookfly, and FiveUltimate are good jerseys regardless of minor delays and problems.

This weeks poll is related to this article by Mackey. The article takes a look into spirit and one of Mackey's main premisess of spirit is "Nobody cares who wins". I definitely fit in that category, but I'm sure some out there are ready to argue this point to the death.

Well, the poll this week is slightly related based on the following question: What do you think is the winning record of Ring of Fire since 1998 (poll right). The answers are in terms of winning percentage.

PJ

VCs Latest Jersey Material

I'm in Toronto for a few days (Picton for Easter) and Lexi collected the VC order for the logo winner. These Friars jerseys are pretty simple desgin. Black material and white screens for the logo and some writing on the back. I'll take some pictures in a few days once I'm back in London with my camera.

The jerseys are made with VC's new dry fit material. I've always liked their material in the past, but this new material is evven better (so far). It's similar to the Patagonia basic material. It's survived one night of partying and still feels great. That's a good sign for a jersey.

The real test will be the wash and an analysis of how the material keeps body odor. My red eye flight back to London should be a good test of the material, and I'll do a wash once I arrive back in the UK. I'll report my findings with pictures of the jersey in a week or so.

PJ

Poll Thursday - LATE - What's key with jersey companies

I was in transit on my way to California last night, but here's the poll.

Last week we looked at order success with companies. Obviously, this is not a perfect way to look at this, but one thing to draw is that Patagonia seems pretty good on delivering. I wonder if this a factor of company size, the simplicity of their designs, or something else.

This week I'm interested inn what you think matters most to get your business when ordering jerseys (poll right).

PJ

MiniWorlds - does anyone care?

I saw (via The Huddle) the UK's Worlds team for the upcoming worlds. I don't even know what the official name of the upcoming tournament is, and I'm not even interested in doing the research, so I'll call it MiniWorlds. I, actually, don't even consider the tournament to have any meaning at all, and my only interest is based on a few friends who will be playing on the teams. And yet there seems to be a little bit of excitement on how the teams are picked and so on. Maybe because this is the one case where Ultimate federations (US, Canada) pick a best of team instead of letting the top club team represent. Still, I'm more interested in the US college season and UK coed tour.

So, is there a way to add some interest to MiniWorlds. You have 6 nations competing against each other at a major sporting tournament. There should be some value there. Six Nations Rugby is a popular tournament because you can watch the entire head-to-head tournament and keep track of the competition over a 2 month period.

My suggestion is making it a multitournament head-to-head series that ends at MiniWorlds. If it was possible, I think having maybe two tournaments ahead of time that are filmed would add significant interest. Then we would have some drama based on previous head to head competition, and probably, the most important part, is we would learn the players.

In general, being able to identify players is probably the biggest problem with generating interest in viewing our sport (even for our own playing population). A faceless game without villains and good guys is harder to watch than one where you cheer your favourites and jeer the villians. I've talked about some of this before, and our sport lacks stories.

MiniWorlds is headed for RSD blips, a few arguments over Canada vs. USA, and maybe a DVD of a bunch of people running with the occasional exceptional play by "what's her name" thrown by "that guy". Edge of your seat stuff that I might just forget to catch.

PJ

Engineering in Ultimate

One of the classic debates that can start up in a pub or on the Ultimate road trip is what is a sport. It gets interesting once you get into machines as part of the competition. For example, in the last Olympics, the UK's dominance in indoor cycling was partly due to their technologically advanced suits and bikes, which have been locked away until the next Olympics. Obviously, the athletes are still an integral part, and I'm sure if I strapped on the suit and got on those bikes I would still be passed by most cyclists other than my fiancee.


What about cars? This weekend the F1 series started back up. this weeks winner was a Brit who had been sitting at the bottom of the tables until all of a sudden the engineering team came up with a top notch car. Engineering wins the day, but is it a sport?

For Ultimate, the two major engineered devices are our cleats and the disc (the cones, braces, and clothing also to some degree). The disc is common, for the most part, and the cleats a loved discussion by many a player. Is the toe cleat useful? How important is lightness? How comfortable are they? I'm sure the cleat has some impact on performance, but I'm not going to get into those details.

The discs, on the other hand, are made by companies and we try to keep them roughly the same. When talking to the guys at Daredevil, I was wondering why is it so hard to copy the more popular Discraft. The reason was along the lines of how the plastic recipe, the cooling, and the mold are all guarded secrets that would be hard to replicate (and expensive).

For the sake of some imagination today, what if Ultimate was crossed with F1? Instead of one disc, each team was allowed to bring a disc that met some set of specification rules. On alternating points, the discs would switch (or maybe halves), and the opposing team would get 20 minutes with your disc to learn it's nuances. Imagine now, your team plays with a disc that is weighted so that flicks roll over faster (how you do that is for the engineers), and your strategy limits hucks because of the roll. Sounds interesting, but is it a sport?

PJ

Link Friday - Fitness, Time Management, and

The links this week are:

• [Featured Blog] The winners of the UPA Logo division: Guillermo Y Compania.
• The other blog, which I think I should remind people about is UltiTraining. When I first advertised there wasn't much yet, but we've seen a steady pace of useful articles, such as my favourite so far - SMR.
• If you're into time management, this post breaks down some key points. Personally, I have to learn to leave my email alone.

PJ

Poll Thursday - Jersey company and messed up an order

I really blew last weeks Poll Thursday. I didn't get the post out until yesterday. Anyway, the results are suspicious in the end, but Spin Ultimate gets the publicity with some repeated clicks in the poll (1500% increase visits from Atlanta yesterday). Not a big deal since I have no problem advertising for the Ultimate community. When, however, will I get that exclusive advertising deal?

Until that day, we continue with a topic that I've heard from a range of people, "_____ messed up our jersey order". Now, before I pose the poll questions, we should all understand that filling a jersey order from groups like ourselves is difficult. From the Jersey companies side, we the customers are sketchy on filling out forms correctly, responding in a fast manner, and flip-flopping on decisions...among other factors. Still, the order success is probably the number one factor on teams swapping companies.

So, there are two polls this week. The top poll is for a successful filling of an order (with minor problems) for each jersey company you've used, and the bottom poll is for unsuccessful orders. The definition of successful and unsuccessful is left to you the customer (Polls right).

PJ

What is the dream college Ultimate program?

Yesterday, I gave some preliminary thoughts on my Ultimate playing future on the field. Some great discussion has kept me thinking about my playing options. On the other side of the coin is coaching Ultimate. In this aspect, being at a University is a great opportunity to help work with a program and move into a coaching role.


So first, the University I'll be taking a position at (if everything continues as planned) is Miami University (Oxford, Ohio) in the Computer Engineering department. That being said, tenure track positions demand time, and the goal of tenure will be my first priority.

The Ultimate team at Miami University has their web presence here. So, from my perspective, they appear to be a strong team with a stable program in place. That's both good and bad. Good in that they're successful and keen, but bad in that it's quite possible they're not looking for high-level management. I haven't contacted anyone from the team for a number of reasons given the current time and other details I need to work out.

My dream, however, is to help Miami Ohio build a college program into a dream program in the region. With the resources in the area, it's easy to imagine building a program that includes some of these ideas:

• Includes an A and B team ... the real goal being A through C.
• Includes a summer camp for employment and finances.
• Is recognized team on campus.
• A scholarship of some sort for team members (maybe as a housing allowance).
• Academic success for the team.
• A club team or associated club system in the area to promote year round development.
• Regional high school involvement for recruiting and improvement.

At first, however, I'll start slow and see if the team is interested. Then from there, hopefully, we can build the dream college Ultimate program.

Any other ideas what would make a great college program based on existing models or your imagination?

Beyond the local University team, my other goals are to impact the region. I would like to help strengthen the Great Lakes Region in college and the Central Region in clubs. How to do that? Well, I'll have to make friends and discuss first. Then maybe some sort of plan will emerge.

PJ

Is it time to hang the cleats up?

So, I've accepted an offer to be an assistant professor at a University in the US. I won't tell you which one yet. It's in the Midwest, in a small town, and the University team makes regionals in the Great Lakes region.


The questions, among basic logistics of moving and preparing for a new job, are what to do with my Ultimate playing career. I'll be about 1 hour from a regional quality club coed team and 2 hours from any regional quality club open team. I will, likely, try to help out with the local University team, and hopefully, move into a coaching position as time goes on. Still, my playing days seem numbered unless I'm willing to drive +2 hours to practice.

At the age of 32, there's other sporting options I've been considering. Hockey is played in this town, and the sport is much gentler on the body. The golf courses (both disc and club) have been calling my name. Mixed martial arts also is high on my list of to dos.

The major sacrifice I would be making, is no more team building as a player (note that the hockey would likely be in pick up form or house league), and a separation from the Ultimate community (which I would still be a member of, but as a coach, which in my opinion is a big difference). These are the elements that addicted me to Ultimate, and the parts I would find hardest to leave.

Also, my hopes of playing world masters seem to be heading down the drain. Still, maybe it's time to hang up the cleats? What would you do? When is the best time to retire?

PJ

Link Friday - [lack of Ultimate] - Video game, useless fitness, and survival

My favourite links this week have little to do with Ultimate:

• The UFC Video game is coming out in May. Here's a look the fighting styles in the game.
• The top 10 useless fitness apparatuses.
• A new book on surviving the apocalypse is reviewed here.

PJ

Poll Thursday - Who's your favourite jersey company

Last week, Wisconsin edges out Stanford to be your favourite for the College Women division. I apologize for missing out on Washington, but my distance leaves me a little out of the loop, and my time shortage left out some needed research.

Anyway, this week I thought we could vote for your favourite jersey company. With the disappearing GAIA, who's your favourite (poll right)? In addition, the second poll asks what continent your from to see if there is any correlation.

PJ

Passive Barriers in Ultimate

Another morning where my daily reading hits on a topic that I think might be interesting to the community. The concept is passive barriers, and I read about it with respect to money in this article.


First, definitions for those of you who aren't interested in the article:

• Barriers: "There are dramatic differences in what we say versus what we do. Often, the reason is so simple that we can’t believe it would affect us. I call these barriers".
• Active Barriers: "Active barriers are physical things like the plastic wrap on my food, or someone telling me that it’ll never work, etc."
• Passive Barriers: " Passive barriers are things that don’t exist, so they make your job harder."

Now to Ultimate - Barriers will affect goals whether they are team goals or individual goals, so we should look into some barriers that may be troubling your goals.

Goal 1, in my case, is an individual effort to warm up properly before games and practice. This is the type of thing I promise to myself every year so that I can last longer into the season. The main barriers to this goal are waking up early after lack of sleep, and focusing on proper warm ups after byes during tournament days. Both of these barriers seem to be passive in that I don't have enough time, and I'm trading off that time for fun. I'm not sure how to deal with these barriers, but we all face it in Ultimate.

A team barrier, for example, is the tendency for the O-line to huck the disc too often and not play a small game. Barriers that cause this can include:

• Individual throwers and team opting for the easy way out via a fast score.
• Individual throwers and team over using one weapon.
• Lack of team confidence in the short game.

The same is true for the opposite where a team never hucks, but we tend to see this less.

Not sure how you solve these, but at least being aware that even though we say we're going to do something it doesn't mean we are. Action should be post evaluated and barriers identified to rectify, if that is the true goal, the situation.

PJ

Moday Economy Savers

As I come in to the lab and scan through my usual reading, there are two items of intereste to the Ultimate community. First, reported by ffindr, a GAIA closeout sale. Second, here's an article on how to make your own sports drinks.

PJ

Link Friday - Training, Bowling Green, and Art from my video game past

My sites of the week:

• [Featured Blog] A new Ultimate Training blog for those of you looking for info on training.
• [Featured Tournament] BG Huck-A-Thon. I've always enjoyed visiting Bowling Green, Ohio and this tournament has a little place in my heart.
  
• Great art from video games of the past (here and even better, here). For example:
  
  

PJ

Poll Thursday - Women's College Predictions

Last week 40% of you thought that Carleton will be the champions this year. To be honest, that was not what I expected, but in itself, this result gets me excited.

As for this week what are your prediction for top women's college team (poll right).

PJ

Ultimate Depression?

Speaking of economics, I caught a thread on RSD with a discussion on the state of Ultimate with respect to the downturn. Then today, this article discusses the NBA's financial woes.

Note: Canadian Tire money is not legal tender in Canada...though it's damn cool.

So, what will happen in the upcoming Ultimate seasons due to the current financial problems. First, I look to my friends in Ultimate, and other than a few, the majority have kept their jobs. This is good news. Companies may have frozen raises, but based on previous spending history, it seems that people will be able to afford the Ultimate trips and gear based on last year. My guess is that the status quo maintains its' spending (no growth).

The second place where Ultimate might get hurt is the upcoming graduates. This group will, likely, find it hard to find work that pays enough and has a low enough time demand to allow Ultimate spending. This means that we might see a growth slowdown for the sport. Also, parents will be able to use the economic climate to convince their children to tighten their belts. Maybe College Ultimate will see a small negative growth.

The third place where we might see change is due to fear. Even though the economic status of players might not change, general fear might cause us to look towards cheaper leisure options. This might mean that local leagues see a decline, tournaments see less bids, and the jersey industry doesn't design new jerseys and instead prints last years version for a few new players.

It would be interesting to hear what people think on this issue. So far, only GAIA has disappeared off the Ultimate map (unconfirmed). I suspect our Ultimate market will see a decline, but not on the same scale as the Worlds. I feel the sport is a reasonably wealthy group to begin with.

PJ