Logo Battle - Stage 2 - Round 2

Reminder vote once in each grouping. Pick your favourite logo.

The next in the round are:

Group 1

Furious George - Open

Clapham - Open

Group 2

LCN Soldiers

Wicked - Women

PJ

Logo Battle - Stage 2 - Round 1

Hey Folks,

So the end of stage 1 has the following winners:

• Boneyard with 51% of the vote
• Umass Zoodisc with 40% of the vote
• Mauvaises Herbs with disqualifications to the two other logos in a clear case of multiple revotes on the scale of 100-150 votes

The seedings were randomly decided for the next round, and I'll release the spread sheet after this stage is complete just to keep some anticipation.

As described earlier, these are head-to-head battles. Vote only once for your favourite logo in each grouping.

Group 1

Boneyard - Masters

Texas - College Open

Group 2

Georgia - College Open

Fury - Womens

PJ

The Digital Era of the Captain's Meeting

Hey Folks,

As a coach or a captain let's talk about the captain's meeting. I'll admit to you guys, I don't think I've been to more than one captain's meeting in all of 2006. The topic of this blog is, I don't want to go to another captain's meeting.

Here's what happens at most of these meetings.

Pictured Above: WUCC pool play. Sub Zero player makes a throw on what appear to be beautiful sidelines. Courtesy of James McKenzie.

"Is everyone here? Is everyone here?"
Then we go through roll call. "Anyone here from Quadriceps," and so on.
There's always a few captains who aren't there (the smart ones).
Next, the TD tells the captains what's up.
"So, 10th edition rules, foot blocks are in, bricks are marked on the field, ..." and some other details about the tournament. Then the TD tells you to pick up your goodies bag, and that's it.

Then steps in the internet in 1990. E-mail has been around since 1965. Why can't all captain's meetings be dismissed and tournament directions run through electronic channels. All you need is a spot to pick up a schedule and your bag of goodies.

My only other request is to have details about the next day of a tourney posted electronically sooner than later (or at the field as soon as possible). The Saturday night captains meeting, with details about the next day, would actually be useful. Good time to collect scores and figure out details for the next day.

I understand organizing these events is difficult, but there are lots of tools to help TDs these days, and I know we have the people to implement anything that is needed. Many tournaments are organized spectacularly. I'm just trying push the envelope and get more sleep.

PJ

Back to Plato

One of the most fascinating questions with an ultimate team is how should it be run, and by run I mean what is the team structure. One aspect of the team structure is what type of governing system will your team employ to run things.

It's not a trivial choice on how you run a team, and before I go into looking at some of the pros and cons of each system, I'll tell you how I like to run a team. One person in charge, hopefully me, and a group of two or more advisers. I, personally, don't like sharing decisions with other people, and in a small unit like an ultimate team, I think one is enough. I, however, like to keep doors open to advisers, and in turn, they keep doors open to team members. I, also, like to delegate tasks where a delegated task is up to the people, but I will keep tabs on progress.

Pictured Above: My roommate, Peyton Leung, at WUCC. Picture courtesy of James McKenzie.

Let's look at some different governing choices with respect to an ultimate team:

• Shared power between two
• Advantages
• Share responsibility
• Always have someone to share the brunt for losses
• Disadvantages
• Need to always run decisions between someone
  
• Disagreements are hard to come to conclusion
• Shared power between multiples
• Advantages
• Share responsibility
• No clear blame point
• More ideas
• Disadvantages
• Hard to come to conclusion
• Hard to organize time to discuss things
• Long discussions so everyone can have there say
• Too many voices in situations like huddle
• Team democracy
• Advantages
• People tend to feel involved with direction of team
• Shared responsibility
• Disadvantages
• Take long time to make decisions
• Too many voices
  
• One leader
• Advantages
• Clear voice
• Decisions made fast
• Disadvantages
• Blame point
• Lots of work by one person
• Can be hard to accept decisions

The final deciding factor, as important as each system is, is who the people are (my title reference to philosopher kings). If you don't have good people in any of these positions, then it really doesn't matter how you organize your leadership.

With the introduction of coaches things get a little trickier. In most sports, the coach and manager are the top dogs, but many ultimate teams still haven't fully converted to the coach. In most cases, we still have captain/coaches. It's another wrinkle to think about.

PJ

Logo Battle - Setup for Stage 2

Hey Folks,

Stage 1 of the logo battle is about to finish, and it's been great so far with discussion and lots of voting.

In round 9:

• Wisconsin Open wins with 67%
• Wicked wins with 49%
• Wisconsin Women wins with 49%

Round 10 will finish on Tuesday next week.

So, for the next stage of the contest I've decided on the format after a few discussions with some people.

The 30 logos moving into stage 2 (3 to add on Tuesday) are:

1. Sub Zero
2. BAT
3. BEAT
4. Chad Larson Experience
5. Clapham
6. Condors
7. Double Wide
8. Furious George
9. Fury
10. Georgia
11. Goat
12. Johny Bravo
13. LCN Soldiers
14. Lily
15. Metal
16. Monster
17. Violet Femmes
18. Queens
19. Rhino
20. Riot
21. Rival
22. Slow White and the Seven Dwarfs
23. Texas
24. Truck Stop
25. Wisconsin Open
26. Wisconsin Women
27. Wicked
28. Round 10 - Group 1 winner
29. Round 10 - Group 2 winner
30. Round 10 - Group 3 winner
    

We will add 2 wild cards to the mix to make a total of 32 teams. Each poll will be head-to-head competition over 5 stages (32-16-8-4-2). Each Tuesday and Thursday I'll have 2 polls per day.
To pick the pairings I'll use a random number generator (C program running on Linux) seeded with the time of day. The pairings will be done in front of witnesses tomorrow during the Canada vs. Russia Junior Hockey Gold Medal game.

From discussions, I've been convinced that voting for your own team is not that big of a deal. So the rules for the next stage are don't vote more than once in a poll.

Finally, the 2 wild cards will be chosen randomly from the second place finishers.

PJ

Logo Battle - Round 10 cont.

Forgot the last three:

Group 3

Spirit on Lemon - Poland

University of Pittsburgh - College - Open

Mauvaises Herbes - Artist: Jean-François Mauger - Québec City - Mixed

Hopefully, I haven't missed any submitted logos, but I got quite a few, and during my travels may have lost them.

PJ

Logo Battle - Round 10

Hey Folks,

After a nice holidays, it's time to get back into the logo battle.

In round 8 the winners are:

• Truck Stop with 46% of the vote.
• Texas with 51% of the vote.
• Rival with 44% of the vote.

Today round 10 starts, and this is the final round of the stage 1.

Group 1

Boneyard - Durham, NC - Masters

Appalachian State - College

Disciples of Love - Toronto, ON - Mixed

Group 2

Disco Inferno - College - Women

Western Washington University - College - Open

Umass Zoodisc - College

Happy New Year,
PJ

Logo Battle - Round 9

Hey Folks,

First off, a reminder that you should only vote once and not for teams you play on. There's nothing I can really do to monitor this, and in a sport like ours I'm hoping for some spirit of the game. Anyway, round 7 has:

• Slow White and the Seven Dwarfs taking 40% of the vote in a highly commented grouping
• Rhino with 71% of the vote in a sweep
• Riot with 49% of the vote

Round 9 has the following groups. Vote once! Don't vote in a grouping that has a team you play on!

Group 1

Wisconsin - College, Open

Zen Asylum - Toronto, ON - Mixed

Virginia Commonwealth University - Biscuit Villians - Richmond, VA - College, Open

Group 2

Williams College - Purple Cows - Artist: Young Hahn - College, Women

Wicked - Women
Tufts - Medford, MA - College, Open

Group 3

Valdosta State - Artist: Brice Zimmerman - College, Open

Wisconsin - College, Women

UCLA - College, Women

PJ

Ultimate Christmas Wish List - Part II the Philisophical Version

As practical as many of the gifts in the previous Christmas post were, let's take a step back and get more philosophical. I'll let a good friend of mine, Norman Farb, take the keyboard in his reply (essay like) to my question:

"What an Ultimate Player Wants for Christmas

There’s a lot of things an ultimate player could wish for at Christmas time, beyond the usual consumer goods like shiny new discs or the wicking-est swag. When you’ve reached the point when you no longer think that new compression shorts, gloves or visors are going to be the difference-maker to ultimate supremacy, what do you wish for?

Do you wish for skills? Crazy IO flicks that bust zones wide open? Jaw-dropping speed? Fearless 7 foot layout leaps that strike fear into hearts of defenders and offensive stars alike? Sounds good, but no man (or woman) is an island; no matter how good you are, a great team will bring a lone star shooting down to earth.

So then, do you wish for strategic prowess? Perfect field vision? Knowledge of every zone and how to beat it? Charismatic leadership powers to draw the most elite players into your fold? Surely with such a powerful squad, victory is inevitable; and at the end of the day, winning is what makes an ultimate player happy, right? Sure, right up until the day you wake up for a game and wonder why you’re playing.

But if winning isn’t what makes an Ulti player happy, then what should they wish for? I’ve played games where we’ve won and I’ve left the field feeling like crap, and I’ve lost games where I’ve had a blast. The difference lay in what I was playing for.

In games when you’ve got something to prove, like you’re better than the opposition (or your teammates for that matter), or that the training was worth it, or that whatever else isn’t perfect in your life is balanced out by a good display on the field, well then that’s a recipe for disaster. Failure ceases to become an option because you’ve got ego at stake. A loss means a personal failure, and that kind of thing leads to anger or despondency. Even a victory is rarely conclusive- how often do you know really know you’ve done well enough?

On the other hand, there are games where you just don’t care, where you’re playing to push yourself, stretch your legs, have some fun along the way. There are games when you don’t think outside the point you’re playing, you just play the point. Those points, I find, always work out, even the times you get scored on. It seems like one way to happiness in ultimate is to just stop caring; the trick is letting go when you’ve sunk so much caring into it. We can be our own jailers when our ego runs our play rather than inquiring as to what we can really do. When we are motivated by expectations of greatness instead of curiosity therein, it is hard to be satisfied and even harder to be pleasantly surprised.

So then, what does an Ultimate player wish for at Christmas? Maybe humility; a willingness to realize we and those around us will never be that perfect player, and in the space of that knowledge a willingness to see what happens anyway."

Thanks Norm,
PJ

Logo Battle - Round 8

Round 6 saw:

• Queens with 43%
• Violet Femmes with 51%
• LCN Soldiers 40%

To the next round:

Group 1

Thong - Australia - Open

Torontula - College, Open and Women
Truck Stop - Washington, DC - Open

Group 2

Texas - College, Open

Stanford - College, Women

Sublime - Australia - Mixed

Group 3

Stanford - College, Open

Rival
Ruby Cruz - Toronto, Ontario - Artist: Hilary Leung - Women

PJ

Ultimate Bangkok Style

Hey Folks,

I've been in Bangkok for the last little while, and this Sunday I had the opportunity to play some ultimate with the locals. The Soidawgz run pickup a few times a week, and I thought I would join them. Not expecting any high quality ultimate I searched for the fields and, finally, found where they hold pickup. It's actually in the army base on a soccer field. People were throwing discs which suggested I was in the right spot.

Pictured Above: A blurry version of one of two pickup games in Bangkok. Great people and ultimate.

Any time you travel the world I suggest checking if there is some pickup ultimate in the area. Send a quick e-mail to the contacts, and when you find the field just introduce yourself and start playing. It is amazing how cool ultimate players are throughout the world.

The Soidawgz are no exception. I met a few people and after cleating up I was on the field throwing around. After an insufficient warm-up, the darks and lights separated into seven and a game began.

With my experience in Toronto pickup and other pickup games in Europe. I was quite pleased with the level of ultimate. The majority of people had a backhand and flick, and they were looking for dumps at high stalls. This quality was probably the case since this pickup was for a club team that goes to tournaments instead of general pickup like many other places I've been.

Some of the stronger players were quite good. I had the fortune of being covered by a 6'6"" giant called Dan (could have been taller) who I found out later played with Ring of Fire in Raleigh, NC. There were some strong players from Seattle and San Francisco, and there was also some visiting players from Washington. That along with some strong throwing, fast locals made for two competitive games.

I held my own other than a disastrous drop off the pull, but I blame the heat and my concern for the sideline. Overall, it was a great experience, and if you're ever in Bangkok, I suggest you come out and play.

The most interesting part of the experience was stopping play to stand for the King's anthem. Even the little kids playing soccer on a nearby field stood to attention.

PJ

Ultimate Road Trip

Every tournament I've been to is usually great for one reason. No, it's not the ultimate, the parties, visiting other cities, or even winning. Sure, each of those is great, but what I love about the ultimate weekend is the trip.

As you travel to the tournament city, you're usually going to find yourself in a car with two or three others. During the next one to ten hours, depending on the distance you travel, you will go through a process of meeting or familiarizing yourself more than you could possibly imagine.

Think about a general day in your life. How many times do you spend more than an hour with a person without distraction. Sure, maybe this happens with your children or significant other, and these are intimate relationships. Well, the ultimate trip has a similar affect. Let's call it intimacy by force.

But like all social situations there are rules/gudie lines. Here are some rules I've come up with:

• On the way back at least one person needs to stay awake with the driver.
• Try and involve everyone in the car.
• Keep the music at a reasonable level so conversation flows.
• Talk about ultimate. It's a guaranteed topic that people are interested in.
• If someone in the car isn't an ultimate player, then make sure you talk about other stuff.
• Lulls in the conversation are okay.
• Try not to make the driver laugh too hard, it can be dangerous.
• Stay away from risky topics, and avoid language that people won't accept. In other words, stay within the boundaries.

I've met some of the greatest people on car rides, and an added benefit is it will make your team much tighter. For this reason, it is a good idea to mix up who goes with who on a trip to make your team tighter. This can be useful to bridge across team cliques, like new an old team members or even women and men on a co-ed team.

PJ