More sticks, less carrots or is it the other way

I had the chance to read Daniel Pink's "Drive" over the summer, and I thought the ideas were great. I've applied them as much as I can in my classes, and if I were coaching I would be analyzing the concepts in the same way. It's just difficult to imagine how to create intrinsic motivation for others even with the quality of the book.


Now, "Carrots and Sticks - Unlock the Power of Incentives to Get Things Done" by Ian Ayres has just been released, and my interest is peeked again. The reviews suggest that this is book two of the sequence in that it explains how to setup incentives. Maybe it will help further my skills in creating intrinsic motivation.

Nicely, this fits with my pushup routine. As I'm working to a lighter weight class (back to middleweight instead of light heavyweight), I've thought about using sticks/carrots along the lines of: stickk.com. In the end, I'll probably make a deal with Lexi.

Peter

100 pushups, Canada Fitness, and my 1998 fifty pushup adventure

I remember back in 1997 or 1998 when I decided that I would get in shape. I had stopped playing basketball for about 3 years and hadn't found my next sport (Ultimate) yet. The undergrad days were impacting my health, so I came up with a few simple strategies.

The above picture was taken and the badges were designed by The Canadian Design Resource.

Ever since the days of Canada fitness (see picture above for the excellence badges), I've been challenged by push ups. I, probably, cheated back in the day of Canada fitness to get up to the excellence range. Regardless, I made the goal of being able to do 50 consecutive pushups.

The plan was relatively simple. Before I showered each morning, I would do as many pushups as I could. There's nothing like doing pushups in a basement, in the middle of January, in "cold" Ottawa, but after about 5 months, I got into the 50 push up range. This helped me in the following summer as I worked landscaping between my Bachelors and Masters degrees.

Once again I've decided to hit a push up goal. This time it's 100 consecutive push ups, but I won't be using my own strategy. Instead, I'm using some other bloggers plan: Onehundredpushups. In this program, I'm up to week 3 and I finished the 1st workout of the third week. I still remember how long it took to get to 50 pushups was, so I'm surprised that this plan intends to get you there in roughly 6 weeks. The sets definitely make more sense than just max out exercise. I'll keep you posted.

Peter

Tae Kwon Do - Yellow Belt

It, finally, happened this week. I received my yellow belt in TKD.

The best joke with such a belt (based on Important Things with Demetri Martin's sketches) is along the lines of...

[Situation lends itself to convincing another group]
"Don't worry guys, we'll get we want. I have a yellow belt."

- OR -

[In front of students in class, joke threaten that you'll kick out unruly behaviour]
"Seriously folks, I'll kick you out of class if I have to. I have a yellow belt."

In both situations and similar opportunities, you need to say this seriously to pull off the joke. Unfortunately, my graduation to yellow belt has diminished the joke since it was much funnier when using "white belt".

Peter

10,000 hours and small town life for Superstars

I grew up in a small town, and I always felt it was a disadvantage in sports compared to the competition one can find in big cities. Well, it turns out that I was partially wrong. This article in Wired discusses how the superstars in North American sports come from smaller urban centers.

Of course, they probably classify a town of 4000 as small and probably too small. Second, my choice of sport, basketball, is a horrible choice for small town Canada.

For those of you hoping your little ones will be superstars, I think the key message is let them explore a range of activities. Even better, let them find their own way and encourage them all along.

Peter

My Prediction of 2010 College Football using Academic Rankings - No Bets Here

If you take the US news College Rankings and apply it to College football, how would your school finish?

ACC Standings
ATLANTIC	Academic Rating
1 Wake Forest	25
2 Boston College	31
3 Maryland	56
4 Clemson	64
5 Florida State	104
6 North Carolina State	111
COASTAL	Academic Rating
1 Duke	9
2 Virginia	25
3 North Carolina	30
4 Georgia Tech	35
5 Miami (FL)	47
6 Virginia Tech	69
Big 12 Standings
NORTH	Academic Rating
1 Colorado	86
2 Iowa State	94
3 Missouri	94
4 Kansas	104
5 Nebraska	104
6 Kansas State	132
SOUTH	Academic Rating
1 Texas	45
2 Texas A&M	63
3 Baylor	79
4 Oklahoma	111
5 Oklahoma State	132
6 Texas Tech	159
Big East Standings
TEAM	Academic Rating
1 Syracuse	55
2 Pittsburgh	64
3 Rutgers	64
4 Connecticut	69
5 Cincinnati	156
6 Louisville	176
7 West Virginia	176
8 South Florida	183
Big Ten Standings
TEAM	Academic Rating
1 Northwestern	12
2 Michigan	29
3 Wisconsin	45
4 Penn State	47
5 Illinois	47
6 Ohio State	56
7 Purdue	56
8 Minnesota	64
9 Iowa	72
10 Indiana	75
11 Michigan State	79
Mid-American Standings
EAST	Academic Rating
1 Miami (OH)	79
2 Buffalo	120
3 Ohio	124
4 Temple	132
5 Bowling Green	170
6 Kent State	183
7 Akron	Tier 2
WEST	Academic Rating
1 Ball State	179
2 Western Michigan	179
3 Central Michigan	Tier 2
4 Eastern Michigan	Tier 2
5 Northern Illinois	Tier 2
6 Toledo	Tier 2
Mountain West Standings
TEAM	Academic Rating
1 Brigham Young	75
2 TCU	99
3 Colorado State	124
4 Utah	129
5 Wyoming	153
6 San Diego State	183
7 New Mexico	Tier 2
8 UNLV	Tier 2
9 Air Force
Pacific-10 Standings
TEAM	Academic Rating
1 Stanford	5
2 California	22
3 USC	23
4 UCLA	25
5 Washington	41
6 Oregon	111
7 Washington State	111
8 Arizona	120
9 Oregon State	139
10 Arizona State	143
SEC Standings
EAST	Academic Rating
1 Vanderbilt	17
2 Florida	53
3 Georgia	56
4 Tennessee	104
5 South Carolina	111
6 Kentucky	129
WEST	Academic Rating
1 Alabama	79
2 Auburn	85
3 LSU	124
4 Arkansas	132
5 Mississippi	143
6 Mississippi State	151

Miami University wins the MAC.

No more ultimate...just Cultimate

Well, I'm branching out, and that means not much Ultimate discussion. The Cultimate Opinion is going to include writing (if at all) about other things...

PJ

Christmas Savings for Ultimate Players

Don't think that I'm back in Ulti blogland, and thanks for all the emails to egg me on to get back into writing here.

This post is a quick Christmas gift for all Ultimate players, and the name of this game is "Bing" (though only for shopping). This morning I was running through my reading as usual and I hit this article about shopping online and getting cash back for purchases. If you're not familiar with "cash back", the basic premise is that you get a certain percentage of what you spend credited back to you. It's the same as a sale, but the middle man is giving you the cash back instead of the front man.

Anyway, I signed up to see how good the deals were on Bing's cash back. The good news for Ultimate players is that "Eastbay" offers 25% cash back. There's lots of other stores, but a nice deal on cleats is worth it.

Hope everyone is doing well, and I enjoyed watching the UPA run this year. I'll, likely, be at College finals this year if it's in Columbus, and I might come out of the woodwork for some coverage then.

Happy holidays
PJ

Hiatus continues

New job + new town = hiatus continued.

Approximate time for hiatus = unknown.

PJ

Link Friday - Boston Showcase and Pogue

Here's my links:

• There's a facebook group to help you find who and where the Boston inivite pre-showcase games are: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=113659044026&ref=nf#/event.php?eid=113659044026
• Pogue reviews technology, and last weeks post gave me some insight on how to get more blogging and writing done.
• [Blog post of the week] Soon I'll get to see my DTB jersey, but until then these pictures from F1215833808 will have to do.

PJ

Irregular posting on my travels

While I move in and out of posting, don't forget to make your own Ultimate card over the coming months.If you're used to the Tue, Wed, Thur, Fri Cultimate posts, then things are going to be messed up for a little while. Basically:

• Move from London, U.K. to North America
• Two days in Toronto
  
• Week in my hometown
• Las Vegas for a conference
• Boston to Montreal on a bus
• Montreal for a day and then to Ottawa for a few days
• Ottawa to Toronto for a day
  
• Toronto to Ultimate camp for a week
• Up to Sudbury for a few days to visit my sister
• Back to Toronto for a weekend
  
• Toronto to Oxford, Ohio for 10+ years
  

Depending on connectivity and how I feel, expect sporadic posting.

PJ

Link Friday - HS ultimate map, jetlag battles, and flash addiction

Here's the links:

• [New Blog] Disc Thoughts - Only one post so far, so we'll see how long Tim can keep up the posts.
• [Blog post of the week] - The state of HS Ultimate in the US by PlayUltimate. I really appreciated the map, and this information is very informative to tell us where the seen is at in the US.
• If you're flying around for Ultimate and worried about jetlag, well here's some research on telling you what to do to help alleviate the pain. I couldn't find the software, but I'm guessing it might be on the way.
• Desktop Tower Defense has a new version and you can play online. I love and hate this game at the same time. It's like a drug addiction.

PJ

Poll Thursday - In for the cards?

So last weeks poll was about different types of posts on blogs and what people would like more. The top six types are:

• Player Analysis - 57%
• Tricks of my trade - 55%
• Trenches Tournament/Season Coverage - 50%
• Tournament recap - 49%
  
• Team Prediction - 42%
• I Spot the Emergence of a trend - 38%

I'm sure that's useful information to all of us writers out there.

This week the poll is simple. Will you be submitting a card for the Ultimate card set I proposed yesterday (poll right). This will help give me a feel for what type of response is out there.

PJ

The Ultimate Card Experiment - Get your own

In my article, I want trading cards or an action figure, I pitched the idea of Ultimate cards. Well, I still want a card, and even though a year has passed, no company has taken the torch. My solution - the virtual Ultimate card set. In other words, this year I will make a virtual Ultimate card set for the Ultimate community. This is your chance to have your own Ultimate card in the 2009 card set.So, how am I/we going to do this? Basically, until September you will have a chance to make or pass on information for your own card (based on the templates I've built for 2009). Then, once I've made the official set for 2009, I will email out the digital set to each person who contributed to the set. If the set consists of only 10 cards, then so be it, but at least you and I will have our own cards.
What do you need to do? Note that you can not use pictures that you don't have rights for (or logos) since these will be broadly distributed, and potentially printed in the fall. Ask the photographers and artists for permission to use (or use your own pictures and write your team name in the logo spot).

Here are your options for making your player, team, and tournament cards:

1. Email me for the Visio file that has the base structure of card defined. Add your pictures, text, and logo, and send back the file to me (jamieson dot peter at gmail dot com), and I'll add it to the set.
   
2. Send me (jamieson dot peter at gmail dot com) your picture and text for the cards, and I'll make the card for you. This option depends on my time, so if I get too many, then I might not get all the cards made until 2010.

I think this should be lots of fun. If it goes well I'll make separate college sets and club sets for next year. Also, consider printing out your own card, cutting it out, mounting it on some card stock, and trading your signed homemade card with other people. I'll have a few on hand, so if you see me come talk and trade.

"No way, I'll keep my Jamieson. That Gretzky rookies isn't worth it"

PJ

Better than Nicotine patches?

While cleaning out my room for my upcoming move I found some Lifewave samples. At worlds last year, I had a talk with one of the reps and he was pushing these Lifewave patches.


So what did I get?

• Energy enhancer
• Icewave
• Silent nights

In other words, I got a number of patches that are supposed to stimulate acupuncture points for various results.

What is my opinion on these? To be honest, I haven't tried any of the patches and I'm highly skeptical. In my limited research, I've browsed through the corporations research papers, and background checked the actual researchers. The skepticism continues.

I doubt I'll do a proper study of this option. I'm not looking for a magic bullet. Is there any opinions out there? Also, were they at Worlds with the theory that the grassroot nature of Ultimate might go for this idea more than other sports?

PJ

Link Friday - Boston Ultimate over Friday Baseball, Livescribe, and Blender on BlockTV

My favourite links this week:

• [My FavBlog post of the week] Exploring and Testing your Workout Structure
• Before the start of Boston Invite there will be showcase games for both women and open. Goat will be playing Ironside at these fields (Tufts University) starting at 8pm. The women (I don't know who's playing: Brute Squad vs Godiva?) start at 6pm. Hat tip Taylor.
• The pen of the future (actually available in present)...Could be the future for drawing up and demoing plays.
• Finally, Blockstack did Blender...Love the Mr. Twister Hoodie Chris and the GT backup dancers...
  
  

PJ

Poll Thursday - I want that one

Last week, we all made our guesses on what we thought the PPV market size was for Ultimate. The results are pretty distributed with the spikes sitting in the middle of the options (interesting). Anyway, the guess is between 1000 and 5000. Based on a collective jelly bean counting intelligence, I wonder how close we are?

This weeks poll is based on yesterdays post. Basically, what would you like to see more of on the Ultimate blogosphere (poll right and note you can select multiple choices)?

By the way, this poll will in no way affect how I do what I do (especially badly constructed sentences).

PJ

Ultimate Articles - What types are out there?

This old article in the Times takes a look at the styles of columns. Ultimate blog discussion is similar column based, so I thought I would look at the four listed instances they classify and compare them against what I do. Then afterwards I list the other types of Ultimate blog posts.

The four categories for columns are:

1. “Am I Alone In Thinking” - This is for the Ultimate piece where someone points out an opinion that they feel nobody else has (but likely do). For example, I might put my "Miniworlds - does anyone care" into this category.
2. “Lessons of History Column” - This is historical comparison showing the similarities between the past and now. I, personally, don't think I do too many of these styles of posts. Maybe I should do more?
   
3. “I Spot the Emergence of a Big New Trend” - This is where you look at some trend and maybe apply it to something else. I do this kind of post all the time. My most recent would be on Twitter.
4. “Tricks of my Trade" - Thoughts into how we do different aspects of our game whether coaching or individual. This is another category of post that I tend to do. The last set was on "Move Repertoires". This is probably many peoples favourite since it passes on thoughts on how to, and we can apply it to get better.
   

The other categories for Ultimate blogs that I can think of are:

• The tournament recap
• The workout/practice recap
• The how's our team doing
  
• The direct links to useful information
• The poll
• The picture set
  
• The debated issue from my angle
• The team and player predictions and analysis

Am I missing any? What would make our "grassroot" based coverage better and what do we all want more of?

PJ

When did I become a Masters player?

The shock set in last week. I've always assumed that 2010 would be my first Masters year as I turned 34 that year. Well, apparently 33 was the magic number.


So, does depression set in. Is it all over? The opposite if anything. It's like a new lease on Ultimate life or atleast defensive life. My last run on a defensive squad was in 2007 on Grand Trunk, and I, personally, love playing defense (mainly on handlers though), but as my years increased and the young guys stayed the same age, it was challenging to play defense at the top levels.

Now, I have the hope that I can have another two or three years having an impact on defense (or offense if I'm needed). The only trick now is finding who to play with. As I've mentioned, I'm off to Oxford, Ohio. Not exactly known for top quality Masters Ultimate. In the UPA central region, the strength is in Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and Chicago (not to forget Twin Cities, MN as noted in the comments). So, I might have to look towards those cities for some UPA action. That's not my only option (says the free mercenary ;). I've already passed up to play at Canadian Nationals 2009 due to work commitments, but it is an option in 2010 and beyond, with the possibility of a run at Worlds.

But then, what I also like to dream about is helping put an Ohio team into UPA Championships. Not that a team like Madcow hasn't come close. For me, that's a goal to shoot for, and to be honest, I've learned in London that as much as I like competing, unless I'm building towards something with a bunch of people, I'd rather not just play. I need to help build to really enjoy the game.

Still, my options are open, and nobody can complain about that. Still, last week was a real shock.

PJ

Link Friday - Ready, Set, Go

My favourite links this week are all about the new club season in full action:

• Cazenovia is happening this weekend (the likes of Goat, Ironside, and PoNY) as well as Cal States (Jam, Sockeye, and Revolver). Two bloggers (1-Canadian Ultimate and 2-F1215833808) are looking at the scenes respectively. Any twitterers?
  
• Texas shootout (Johny Bravo and DoubleWide) for $4000 is on this weekend. Man did I love going to Austin, Texas.
• There's a tonne of tournaments that are all interesting: Mixed Easterns, UPA Grand Masters, etc.

PJ

Poll Thrusday - Market Size for PPV

Last week we had a poll on paying for PPV Ultimate and what tournaments you would consider watching. The results show that 71% of you would pay - great. Unfortunately, that's 47 voters and at $10 a pop over 4 tournaments, the best we could assume is about $1600.

Steven over at Canadian Ultimate had a post discussing his view on the topic. In the following discussion the issue seems to be market size. So, the poll this week is what do you think the market size is for Ultimate. Note, I have no stats on this, so you'll have to make an educated guess (poll right).

Stats that I found and might help:

• There are roughly 22,000 members in the UPA with 70,000 former members (cite).
• Canadian league size: Ottawa 5000 members (cite), Vancouver 4500+, Toronto 4500+, Winnipeg 3000+, and Montreal 2400 (cite)
  

PJ