College Nationals Twitter Administration

Hey Folks,

David Hunt has asked me to pass on this message:

" I was hoping everyone posting nationals updates on Twitter could agree on a hashtag for their updates. I say we go with #upanats so that tracking down everyones updates is a bit easier. I'm also thinking of getting a page up on BananaCut to aggregate all the info but that depends on if I have time to throw it together or not.

The RSD post is here: http://groups.google.com/group/rec.sport.disc/browse_thread/thread/fffb6dd5994e0f59/"

PJ

College Nationals - Fantasy, Scores,Twitter, and more

Maybe there's one more practice, but most teams by now have set there nationals fate in motion. Here's a few items to keep yourself interested in the action:

• Rodney has set up a fantasy bracket system for both the Womens and the Open. I don't expect to fare well in this bracket, but I always enjoy a good fantasy round.
• Score reporter has both the Open and Womens brackets up. These will be updated relatively fast.
• For those of you who will be roaming and not by a computer, I've collected a fair number of twitter resources that will be reporting on happenings during the tournament.
• I'm guessing Spin Ultimate will be covering the tournament with write-ups. Now that's some good thinking.
  
• Finally, the main site for the tournament is here.

Good luck to all,

PJ

Tournament Lesson 1 - Missuldisc and the good times

Haven't done one of these in a while. Based on injuries, trying to make a career, and lack of commitment, I've been off the tournament circuit for a while. Fortunately, I joined Flump on a trip to Italy for Manny's (front in the picture below) stagdoo. The tournament, Missuldisc; the weekend, awesome.

Pictured Above: Flump in our glorious pink and orange. Manny is in the front and the mountains are in the back.

This was my first time playing Ultimate surrounded by the Alps and just off a beautiful lake. In other words, it's hard to beat a location like that for an Ultimate tournament. Our hosts (Frasba Dal Lac) and the teams we played were great. The food was amazing with beer to match. In all, I would rate this as a great party tournament with some decent Ultimate. Being a small tournament, if you get a chance to go, take it.

The hosts went beyond just running a tournament. Frasba Dal Lac also ran a clinic for young local kids on the Saturday. Now that's good community thinking to help guarantee the venue for years to come. They worked for about six hours playing with the kids and teaching the basics of the game while hosting thr tournament and playing games.

So what's the tournament lesson? It's one of those nostalgic comments you get from your elders, and something I'm slowly appreciating as my playing time reduces. Take time to enjoy Ultimate for what it is, because the great people and the times are hard to find elsewhere [queue violin music ;].

PJ

Link Friday - Canadian Ulti Politics, Calahan, and Stoics

My favourite links are:

• This post discusses a recent comment in the world of CUPA and Canada's world team. There's some good discussion for those of you who care about the upcoming World's event.
• With Callahan voting coming up the campaigns begin. RSD has various campaign posts (too many to fairly list so I took a by-date sample). Even The Huddle has gotten into the thick of it. Unfortunately, as a media outlet they made specific picks without a full review of the entire field, which would have had more value to me even though I'm not voting.
• I've always dabbled in philosophy, meaning thought about some of the big questions philosophers try to answer using their more rigorous methods. I'd never read into Stoicism until this article fell in my lap. Just like a hypochondriac, I think I might be a Stoic.
• Oh, and one more: http://www.wolframalpha.com/index.html ... for some of us this is a huge step forward on the web.
  

PJ

College Nationals Twitter Resource

No poll Thursday...

Instead of your regularly scheduled post, I thought I might offer this blog to collect twitterers details for those of you kind enough to help us stay in touch at UPA College Nationals. Feel free to post your details in the comments or email me (jamieson dot peter at gmail dot com) and I'll bump you into the main post and link to this post on the right sidebar.

For those of you who don't have accounts on twitter, you'll need to get one if you want even more up-to-date info than score reporter.

Twitterers at College Nationals:

• http://twitter.com/upa_college09_w - Michelle Ng (UPA Women's Division writer)
• http://twitter.com/upa_college09_o - Chris Spittal (UPA Open Division writer)
• http://twitter.com/stanfordblood - Stanford Open and Women
  
• http://twitter.com/blultimate - UCLA Women
• http://twitter.com/cumamabird - Colorado University Open
• http://twitter.com/jbaumer42 - UCSD (+ others)
• http://twitter.com/jephb - UPenn (+ others)
• http://twitter.com/thebknation - Iowa State Women
  
• http://twitter.com/pittultimate - Pitt
• http://twitter.com/Ultiplayer29 - Wisconsin
• http://twitter.com/talpostal - General
• http://twitter.com/jojahultimate- Georgia
• http://twitter.com/BJ_Owens - General
• http://twitter.com/IllinoisUltimat - Illinois Open and Women
• http://twitter.com/fjrhox - USC women

Possible others courtesy of Paul:

• http://twitter.com/rppp - Michigan
• http://twitter.com/TheBKNation - Iowa State
  
• http://twitter.com/cutrules - Carleton
  
• http://twitter.com/bcultimate - Boston College
  
• http://twitter.com/doomultimate - Syracuse
  
• http://twitter.com/hodaglove - Wisconsin
  
• http://twitter.com/USF_Ultimate - University of South Florida
  
• http://twitter.com/UNLVUltimate - UNLV
  
• http://twitter.com/JojahUltimate - Georgia
  
• http://twitter.com/lutherultimate - Luther
  
• http://twitter.com/auultimate - Anderson
  

PJ

The Legatum Prosperity Index ... What?

First off, the Legatum Prosperity Index is a measurement on a number of human factors in a nations population. Why am I talking about this?


Clue one is based on last Thursday. I had the fortune of heading to Italy on a car trip for a tournament in Italy. More on that in a post later. The car trip to the tournament started in London, UK and went through all sorts of countries on the way to the Italian Alps. Our team and had a great time both at the tournament and on the road trip (along these lines).

Clue number two happened today while I was watching a Frontline documentary on China and youth in China. The documentary struck me with two key things. The first, is not related to the post, where one of the women described herself as a human machine (another reason for me to push my research in social directions). The second was about a man who had found religion and finally felt complete.

This second point made me wonder if Ultimate and being part of the community can replace a need for religion. That's a bold statement, but just remember this is a thought experiment.

As I looked into the broad topic of religion I found a narrower concept that we could look at on the relationship between religion and happiness. The Legatum Prosperity Index was the link here and shown the correlation. So, instead, I thought an interesting question or research problem would be a similar Legatum Prosperity Index between sporting communities.

Since we're all biased here, I'll shoot out that Ultimate players will win the happiest section. These past few days I've been at the peak of happy, but over all the years of Ultimate it's been amazing. Thanks all...

PJ

Link Friday - Genius, Ultimate Facebook, Ultimate Camp, and Housing Inflation

The web is alive with Ultimate happenings:

• [New Blog] Caught this blog (Movin' On Up) hitting on my blog ;) Good feed on Atlantic happenings.
• Along the lines of Gladwell's Outliers: This article tells you how to get good at Ultimate and possibly become a Genius.
• Facebook for Ultimate. Interviewed by Lexi, this new Ultimate endeavor, Ultispace, may be the next big thing in an Ultimate Social network. I'm wondering if Frisbee Finder, Score Reporter, and these guys should sync up.
• Next Level Ultimate camp is advertising for those of you high schoolers in the Wisconsin area.
• This video really captures an interesting point on our lifestyle inflation

  
  

PJ

Poll Thursday - David vs. Goliath

Last weeks poll was on who would move on from the Great Lakes Open Region. Funny how the order is significant on the poll result, and the actual result was Illinois first and Michigan second. Ohio State almost took out Michigan in what must have been an exciting game.

This week, there's a well written article by Malcolm Gladwell on weaker opponents beating stronger opponents (tip blog criticism and Taylor for the article). My poll question is: do you think there is some preconceived rule that we assume is correct and play by in high-level Ultimate that weaker teams can rethink and exploit (poll right).

PJ

In the faith of Twitter - Barca beats Chelsea

Based on my last post, I'm trying to make blog-twitter with only a 140 character message. That goal will fail due to a few pints, and my opinions on the walk home. This entire post is based on "no excuse" Ultimate and play for the sake of the game.

On my walk home, about 30 minutes, I went into Chelsea country, and heard the drunken cry of...
but what about that foul, but what about that penalty, but what about ...

Cheeky ;)

Oh the excuses, for a game that was won based on two, in the flow of the game, goals. That and a first leg miracle 0-0 draw. And yet, when your teams loses it becomes personal. Ultimate tends to sit in a different world. We submit to the concept that sometimes the opponent is just better on a given day (even if that day is 365 days a year). There's no shame on winning or losing. If anything, that's what I would like to see in Ultimate in the future. If not, we can make another new sport ;)

PJ

Twitter and Ultimate - Any other good uses?

I'm moving on to be a so called technology-based-professor in a university setting, and for that reason I try and stay on top of new emerging technological trends, as much as possible. The reason for this is two-fold: one, the students I teach will be embracing these trends and living with them as normal parts of their lives, and two, these trends have an impact on science, research, and the world that we can't even guess.
Before, I get into things, I'd like to congratulate all of you who have migrated to feed readers for your internet reading (as I've suggested in the past). My daily reads on this blog are now 50% RSS reads and 50% browser clicks for the first time in the blogs history. RSS amalgamating tools are one tech tool that I think is great - it's the modern newspaper tuned to your likes.

But back to twitter. I'm a little nervous about the hype. Normally, when a new technology is hyped I have a vague sense of why it could be important. I've watched TED talks on twitter and sort of get the micro-based reporting element of twitter, but in general I don't really get it. My concern, is that I'm shifting into that age that says, "That music is just loud noises...why do they like it. It's nothing like the good old sounds of [favourite band here]".

Recently, I scanned this e-book (Why Bloggers Need Twitter) and I still don't see a significant impact for twitter. I guess I feel it's a mini version of a broadcast communication point - a mini-blog. Maybe I'm trying to make twitter too much. If it is a mini-blog, then the value is that it can be quick information dispersion, and that's where I'll leave it in terms of technology.

Now, given what I think twitter is, how does it impact Ultimate? So, far we've seen it as one of the best live score reporters. That, in itself, is pretty useful. If someone could add the score report with a 15 second video showing the score, then it would be really cool. I can imagine watching the early rounds of a tournament with scores and mini clips coming in at a regular pace.

Here are a few ideas of other twitter uses for Ultimate:

• From a team perspective it's a quick wat to broadcast messages about practice, but does it differ from e-mail that much?
• Ultimate blogs commenting might be more lively (along the lines of RSD) with a twitter network.
• UPA and Ultimate organizations could get out reminders in another form to their membership.

That's all I could think of. I think in our game the live score report is the killer app. Hook that up to score reporter and tournament directors around the world will have a network that has value, and we might as well make some money off it with ads.

The final question is should I sign up for twitter? I don't want to be one of those anti-facebookers castoff as social rejects (social ludites) as they miss steps forward in modern technology (right Chua ;).

PJ

The Keystone to Cutting Moves

Last week I did a broad stroke piece on your move repertoire and some ideas on how to incorporate the idea into drills. One coach in my history, Magnum, gave me a key piece of information that I believe all people should base their cutting-move repertoire on. This applies to both handler reset cuts (dump and sideline) and general cuts.

Initiate a first direction cut at full speed and continue in that direction unless your defender fully commits to defending your initial cut.

For example, when running a sideline reset as a handler, start with a cut roughly 45 degrees moving towards the sideline at full speed. After three or four steps if your defender is not committing to that cut then continue up the line, otherwise reverse the cut and retrace your steps backwards (a full speed reverse).

This is the first move you should have in your cutting-repertoire. It's a very simple idea and very effective, but it's incredibly challenging to become an expert at. The challenge is in reading the situation and developing team chemistry to understand how your move meshes with others.

Imagine this. You initiate your cut from the horizontal stack, at maximum speed, in the direction of a deep strike. Now, what is your response if ...

• ... another cutter strikes deep.
• ... your defender doesn't commit, but a poaching defender is in a good position.
• ... you reverse your cut but find that your lane has been taken.

... and the list goes on. There's an infinite number of "what ifs" that can be made up. Even reading when your defender has committed to your first cut is hard to do, and this skill alone takes practice. In all, these decisions come down to experience and taking advice from more experienced players and coaches.

Still, with one basic cutting-move your repertoire can be very effective and once you add fakes, different movements, and teamwork the repertoire quickly grows.

PJ

Link Friday - NYT, UPA board, and Elite Sport Psychology

The interesting links this week are:

• New York Times has an article on Ultimate (saw it on a friend Laurent's facebook). The article is good in terms of discussing the athleticism of the sport versus the classic stereotypes we get in these articles. Still, it's not in the sports section.
• [New Blog] For UPA followers, there's a direct blog for UPA board members to post to.
• If you're interested in sports pshycology, there's a good five part series at this blog. So far, this is the second of five posts. This one in particular is focusing on how simulation training (visualization with a plan).
• Finally, this is a funny picture I found on a random internet walk:

PJ

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