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A Right to Download Books

2010-12-09T14:17:00.001-05:00

While I doubt that this post signals the onset of a period of regular updating, I found myself today with a thought that I felt was a little too deep to simply post as a g-chat status or link to from my facebook page (don’t get me started on the generally idiocy of facebook questions before anyone suggests it). Then again, considering all of six people will actually read these thoughts (and I’m probably overshooting that number by four or so), perhaps the medium doesn’t really matter. And that thought is actually a perfect segue for my musings.

Is torrenting a book (downloading it illegally) morally wrong if one owns the book in another format?

Two interesting posts brought this to my attention; one from a literary blog decrying torrenting as morally bankrupt and the other examining it as a symptom of the commodification of literature. Both of these were linked from one of my favorite websites: ReadandFindOut.com.

My own thoughts on the issue are somewhat muddled. I’ve considered torrenting books before, but I also understand why moralists argue that downloading books without paying for them is theft. At the same time, if one already owns the novel, is it theft to simply regain access to something you’ve already paid for?

What this boils down to is whether the purchasing of a novel grants one an access right to the underlying metaphysical object, the text, or to the physical implementation of it, the book you actually purchased. I concede that it would be nonsensical to argue that purchasing the e-book version of a novel gave you the right to steal an actual, physical hardcover. But this can be explained due to the fact that physical hardcover books cost something to create. An electronic copy of a text costs almost nothing (that almost is actually pretty important, but I am going to ignore for it for the moment) and thus, assuming you’ve purchased right to access the text, you’ve taken (almost) nothing from the author.

Under copyright law, making a copy of the text for backup purposes is almost certainly fair use and it’s possible that it’s fair use even if the copy is to allow you better access (although in that case, the fourth factor of fair use analysis, how the use affects potential markets, which is generally considered to be the most influential of the four factors, may way against fair use if there is significant evidence that people are likely to purchase both the e-reader version and the physical version). While law might recognize a difference between actually making the copy and downloading an identical copy, I do not see a particularly strong philosophical difference between them. Although it is true that a person who makes the copy and then disseminates it is violating copyright, someone who makes software or hardware that allows one to perform this act probably isn’t violating the law (unless one reads the DMCA incredibly strictly). We can draw this distinction out until the actual cost to the book owner is so negligible as to be even with the cost of downloading the book, thus rendering the distinction moot.

Although it may be legal (and this is an assumption), the question still remains whether it is moral (I don’t hold to the belief that either legality or morality are subsets of one another). Considering that a book owner has already paid for the right to access the work, there is a countervailing moral interest in preventing people from being charged twice for the same item. We don’t require consumers to pay every time they play a particular piece of music (for that matter, am I pirating music by listening to it online? what if that online access is so ubiquitous - such as youtube - that for all intents and purposes I own the song?), nor do we think that people are thieves when they copy their own music from a CD onto a computer or on to a mix tape. Change of format is usually not seen as thievery as it takes something one possesses and changes it into something else possessed by that person.

What this ramble has been trying to reach is the idea that ownership is a peculiar thing, more often defined by legal rather than moral terms. I own a book, but what that ownership implies vis a vis the text of that book is not simple, it’s incredibly complex, partly due to legal issues and partly due to moral issues. If I choose to back up my books in an electronic format, I don’t feel that I’ve committed a crime. And if I were to choose to obtain those backups via torrents, arguing that I am the same as a person who never purchased the book seems suspect. I am not implying that people who do this are white knights, only that they are not necessarily black hats.

Hiatus

2009-09-03T19:46:00.004-04:00

Sorry there haven't been a ton of (or any) updates. Having a pair of disappointing tournaments, being injured and working a lot this summer wasn't fertile ground for regular updating. Just started physical therapy again (after re-injuring myself), so hopefully this might pick up once I'm healthy-er.

If you're from a law firm, hi.

Ultimaxx(x)

2009-03-09T16:19:00.003-04:00

There won't be any pictures from this tournament. If someone was stupid enough to have their hands outside their pockets, I'm not sure I want to remember the weekend.

This would be the last tournament before Spring Break and, judging by the number of nagging injuries plaguing the team, it had the potential to be a big flop. We secured a #1 seed in our original pool with a big-time final round match-up against NC State. Of course, someone dropped the day before and the seeding changed abruptly. We found ourselves a #2 seed (seriously, I can't explain the seeding for this tournament) with our big game against Pittsburgh, the tournament's top seed.

Regardless, we were excited for the weekend. A couple of games that would allow us to open our rotation up (something that had proved difficult in Vegas) and a couple of games that would let us figure out where we stood in the Section/Region was exactly what we needed going in to our break.

Of course, the weather didn't cooperate. I drove up Friday night with about half the team to find Greenville being drenched with rain. Woke up to find that the rain hadn't stopped (wouldn't really stop until Monday and then it snowed). At least it wasn't windy. Oh wait, it would become VERY windy VERY soon.

We get to the fields and discover some problems. Although ECU had been told they'd have the field site no matter what, we weren't allowed to play. Of course, back-up fields hadn't been secured, but we managed to find some community rec fields that we could squat on. Rounds were pushed back about 45 minutes and shortened slightly, but we started with expectations of playing the weekend.

Saturday

UNC-Greensboro, 12-4

Our first game was against UNC-Greensboro. Although their coach was kind of fiery, they seemed to be generally nice guys. Berendes didn't want us to give up any points to them, but we couldn't muster the level of intensity necessary for that level of domination. Our all-star line couldn't get the D on the first point, giving them their first and only lead. After that, we punched the disc in and started a nice D run. We gave up another point later, but took half 7-2.

After half, we managed to score our O point. Unfortunately, we gave up the D and then saw our O-line get broken. This threatened to make B-des go catatonic. After the O-line punched it in, the D-line got on the field and never left. Can't remember any great highlights outside of a nice poach layout D by Hagan.

After the game, we got a bye, during which we retreated to our cars. While we were safely ensconced in the heat, the rain picked up, the wind started to howl and the temperature dropped.

Rutgers, 7-4

Rutgers had just finished slapping UNC-G down, so we needed to start with some fire. We scored going downwind and then broke them going upwind to take the quick lead. Unfortunately, our zone D on their ensuing upwind point got broken after a through-the-cup throw went just under Trahey's arm and the popper who caught it put up a pretty nice huck that got over the top of B-des and ended up resulting in an upwind score. Our O-line couldn't punch the upwind in and we ended up falling back on serve. This continued for a couple points until we managed to get another upwinder and this time converted the other direction to score downwind for half and the end of the game.

The weather was a big factor in this game and it included a couple of 10-15 minute points. I think if we had continued to play to full score, we would have won 13-6ish, but time cap got called and the score ended up being closer. Moral of the story: we've got to bring it hard form the get-go or we're going to end up in long games against not-so-good teams.

Pittsburgh, 10-6

This was the game we actually cared about. By this time, both teams were frozen from top to bottom and I can't say that either of us were excited to play. Even so, we managed to bring a good deal of intensity to this game. The first point, with us going downwind, was a marathon. Both teams got within 10-15 yards of the endzone multiple times, but we eventually managed to score to prevent the break. Pittsburgh came back and scored almost immediately. I didn't really notice because I had point-blocked a huck in the first point and after I'd gotten off the field I realized my hand was screaming in pain. I'd eventually get back in, but I can't say that I remember much of what happened in the intervening points. I know we scored to maintain serve and then scored upwind on a gorgeous Trahey step-thru backhand huck that hit Berendes in stride.

After breaking upwind, we converted downwind and took a strong 4-1 lead. Pitt roared back with a nice break through our zone that lead to a two-person fast break and a score. 4-2. We managed to get the next three points with a lot of fight and some fortuitous grabs. The only one I remember was a nice IO flick break from Will Kane to me for a score.

After half, Pitt put the disc in to stop the bleeding and we traded to 9-5. At that point, Pitt managed to score upwind for their first break. I'd like to note that they scored this break with three or four straight up-line handler cuts. When we stopped these cuts, they didn't break us. 9-6. We replied with an all-star line and Trahey put up a big backhand that B-des and a whole pack of Pitt players missed and went straight to Tommy who was waiting for the second effort. Game.

Overall, Pitt played a very physical, very fundamental style of ultimate. I'd love to play them in better weather.

Kenyon, 9-5

We were happy to get our win over Pitt, but quite unhappy to play another game. Our opponents didn't seem interested in playing, so we all secretly hoped that they would forfeit and we'd get the free win. 'Twas not to be. They ended up playing and we ended up playing flat.

We almost gave up a break on the first point, but managed to save ourselves with tight goal-line defense. Their zone was heavily trapping us going upwind and we even had problems with it going downwind. Half ended with us on serve and a total of 0 breaks from each side.

After half, we got our shit together and ran off three straight breaks before allowing them to score upwind and continue the game (we'd agreed to play to 9, rather than 13, due to our later start). We put in a solid O-line and worked the disc up until Trahey hit Nick with a nice backhand for the winner.

The only highlights of this game were Guenther's everpresent hammers, which he threw constantly with a high completion rate. Tommy, in particular, caught tons of these for huge chunks of yardage. I got to play a couple O-line points, which made a nice change of pace, but most of us just wanted to get back to the hotels and shower.

We finished 4-0 in our pool and earned a bye for the bracket on Sunday. This meant we could sleep in until 9:30. When we woke up and looked outside to more rain, more wind and colder temps, it wasn't suprising that B-des got a call that the tournament was cancelled. It would have been nice to play our first round match against UNC, but no one (particularly my quite ill self) really wanted to play in the slop.

On spring break now, visiting Rachel in Princeton. A week or two off my feet is already making my shins feel better and I'm pretty psyched for Easterns at the end of March.

Vegas Photos

2009-03-03T00:23:00.007-05:00

Brimstone O-Line

Here are some photos from Vegas, courtesy of Knute.

Write-up from Ultimaxx will probably be up later this week. In one word, rainy.

Washington:

Ultivillage put out a five-minute summary of this game here. Thankfully, the film has been edited to make us look a lot better than I remember playing that game. Also, I had no idea my lame side-spike was filmed.

Guenther! Guenther! Yee-haw!

B-des Going Up

Geoff Trying for the Second Effort

Virginia:

Alex Getting Open

Guenther, Again.

Illinois

Yours Truly, Getting Vision Blocked

Schwartz Hucking With Abandon

Trahey on the Mark and Sick as a Dog

Turned Out to Be One of the Prettiest Throws I've Ever Seen

Guenther, Yet Again.

Knute and B-des Patrolling the Skies...Too Bad the Disc Got Caught by an Illinois Receiver Out of Frame

Wisconsin:

Tommy D-ing Up the Hodags

Valentine's Day with Rachel

2009-02-17T10:39:00.006-05:00

V-Day Dinner

Unfortunately, this post is not going to contain photos from Vegas, but those should be coming soon.

Rachel made the trip down to Durham for V-Day. Instead of going out for dinner, we stayed in and cooked for ourselves. Since the meal turned out fantastic, I figured I'd throw some pictures up on the blog for the masses to salivate over.

Rachel has requested that the previous paragraph be edited to read as follows:

Rachel made the trip down to Durham for V-Day, and IT WAS AWESOME. Instead of going out for dinner on Saturday, we stayed in and cooked for ourselves BECAUSE WE ARE AWESOME. Since the meal turned out fantastic, I figured I'd throw some pictures up on the blog for the masses to salivate over.

I'm George. Yay!

Filet, Onions and Potatoes

Asparagus and Filet

Nectarines, Plums and Peaches with Cream

Recipes used:
Bacon-wrapped Filet Mignon
Rosemary Potatoes
Garlic Roasted Asparagus with Balsamic Reduction
Fruit and Mascarpone Cream

No Troubles in Vegas

2009-02-10T17:20:00.002-05:00

This was my first year attending Trouble in Vegas and I was super psyched to see all of my Alaska friends who play for big name schools. I don't regret going to Princeton, but I do regret not having played for a team that traveled to the more prestigious tournaments. Coming into TiV, Duke had finally started earning some respect and we were seeded #24, which earned us one of the last spots in the elite bracket.

Thursday was spent traveling. Pretty glad I'm no longer a captain as I wouldn't have wanted to coordinate a team of 22 guys and our coach on a cross-country flight involving rental cars, hotels (two of them...more on this later) and a tourney schedule that was straight up made up on the fly. After arriving and checking in (to the hotel and the tournament), I went to bed pretty excited for the next day's games.

The schedule had us playing three pool games spread over two days along with four random crossover games against teams not in your pool spread over all three days. One team from each pool advances to the championship bracket based off their overall record (not just their pool record). We were seeded last in our pool, so there was nowhere to go but up.

Friday

Kansas, 10-7

First game of the tournament was against the Horrorzontals of Kansas. They were in our pool and were only a year removed from being a nationals team, so we expected a bit of fight.

However, they weren't ready to go. They'd just finished a universe point loss to Florida and looked very sloppy. We broke on the first point. After getting the turn and throwing it away on the goal line, they put the disc in to tie the game at 1-1 (should have been 2-0). What should have been quickly became reality, though, as we ran off five straight points to take a 6-1 lead. Kansas finally puts one in and we score to take half 7-2.

After half, we receive the disc and work it to the goal line before B-des puts up a scoober that Tommy drops. Kansas scores the disc and the O-line gets broken twice more. Suddenly, the game is 7-5 and tight. I catch the goal on a great upline throw from Borg to stop the bleeding. We trade points to 9-6 and then a huge argument breaks out. Kansas player makes a great catch and tries to toe himself in, but he lands on the line. He claims to be in, but Trahey argues that he has best perspective. After a 10 minute argument, Kansas eventually taps the disc in on the line and punches it in for the goal, but it's too little too late as the cap sounds during the next point and our O-line manages to score after a lot of turns to take the game 10-7.

I played pretty well catching a goal and throwing three or four. Had a sweet poach D early in the first half that led to a floaty IO flick that Knute tore down. B-des also had a sweet tear down on a floaty throw by yours truly.

Washington, 6-10

Washington had just finished winning a universe point game over Iowa on the field next to us. Unfortunately for us, the adjacent field happened to be perpendicular to the one we'd just played on and the wind, which had been crossfield in the Kansas game, was now upwind-downwind and had increased to constant gale force levels.

The game started great for us as we worked it upwind on offense and put in our first score. We then capitolized on it and scored the downwind break to go up 2-0. However, Washington ran off three straight points to take the lead. After getting another set of breaks (up and downwind), they ended up taking half 7-4.

Out of half, we put a score in, but couldn't stop them from scoring with the wind. We scored upwind again, but didn't convert the downwind break and our O-line got broken on the final point of the game.

Ultivillage was there to film this game, but after playing it I can't say that there was much I want to watch again. Tommy had a sick grab (pretty standard for him) as well as a Callahan on a floaty throw, but I can't think of any other plays that were highlight-worthy.

Virginia, 8-4

After a bye where I got to catch up with Chris, Bill and Kalgin, we got to play Virginia (who had won the ACC championships two weeks earlier). Virginia had pulled the big upset of the tournament earlier that day by beating Wisconsin 10-8 (turned out to be less of a big deal as Washington would beat them and they would finish the weekend with four or five losses). We were on the same field where we'd lost to Washington and the game looked like it was going to be very similar in terms of strategy.

The difference in this game was that we played hard on both sides of the disc.
The O-line did a great job this game and didn't give up an upwind break. The D-line managed to score upwind twice, both times filled with some great plays. Trahey made an absolutely disgusting grab to score the first of the two breaks when he pulled down a floaty throw from Knute that was meant for me. After taking half 7-4, we scored the first point upwind on an upline flick from me to Peter (twice, first one got called back on an "up/down" call) to finish the game and secure the win.

Afterwards, we watched Florida beat Wisconsin 7-6 in a call-fest. Brodie Smith is a fantastic athlete, but their entire team seems designed to stroke his ego (Berendes coined the term "Florida Brodie Fellatio" to describe their team strategy). In order to beat them, you need to be able beat their four-man cup and you need to stop their deep 50-50s. We'll see if it happens.

Saturday

We show up at the fields to zero wind and consistently inconsisent rain. The temperature was a little lower than it had been on Friday, but it was still decent.

Florida, 5-11

Florida had a boner check before the game even started, but it didn't help them much as our all-star line punched in a break on the first point. We held our lead until 3-2 when Florida scored the point and then got the break back to take the lead 3-4. At that point, Florida went on a 1-7 run until the cap sounded. Berendes made a nice sky to score the point and end the suffering.

Florida didn't play any of the zone we'd seen the day before (either because it wasn't windy or because they didn't think it was necessary) and for the first couple points our offense looked very crisp against their man defense. We thought they might change defenses, but they stuck to man and ended up trouncing us. On offense, they put up lots of hucks and 50-50s and probably pulled down about that percentage. To set up their hucks they used a lot of quick handler passes and low break backhands. When we were able to shut those down, they would simply jack it and hope they came down with it. Unfortunately, we didn't score on their turns when they made them and it cost us.

Ethan made some great plays on offense, including two sick grabs, one for the score. Schwartz and Peter made great cuts all game and were consistently open. Guenther had a sick layout D on an upline cut. Vivek played way above his height when guarding a 6'4" dude and D'ing him up twice.

Coming in, we knew they had a reputation for calls and unforunately, it was deserved. There were a handful of borderline foul calls, but what was worse was the way they approached the discussions. Will threw a great upline backhand to Max called back on a travel. When he called out his marker for not possibly seeing his foot, the guy simply replied "Travel" and stopped talking to him.

Oh yeah...the cheating. Trahey made an upline cut and literally had his jersey grabbed and yanked backward. Schwartz had an unmarked huck stopped by a trailing defender locking arms with him. The worst occurred when Borg watched a pull land out of bounds and Windham, the Florida coach, started yelling loudly that it was in. He was forty yards away and Borg was standing over the disc. When Borg placed the disc down to demonstrate where it landed, the dude claimed it was a turnover. Finally, when Borg proceeded to pace off the brick, the entire Florida sideline got in his way and tried to prevent him from pacing it off. Add in calling a phantom call while we were in goal line defense and I felt completely legit with not shaking his hand at the end of the game.

If it sounds like I didn't like this game, that's because I really didn't.

Claremont, 12-10

We followed up the Florida game with a game against the much nicer Claremont Braineaters. Our offense continued their trend of getting broken about as often as they scored. Thankfully, our defense stepped up in a big way this game. The O-line ended a nice D-line run giving up a break to go in to half on serve 6-7.

After half, we stopped fucking around and scored the O point. Unfortunately, they scored and got the break again to take the lead 7-9. Our D-line finally turned it on we ran off four straight to take the lead 11-9. However, we couldn't hold the Braineaters from scoring before the cap went on, which forced us to score in order to win the game. After a couple misfires, we managed to punch it in and win the game.

I had a nice poach D and a run-through that got called back on a foul. Sadly, the game ended with a little controversy when I called a foul on a backhand break to Berendes. My mark had moved over to block the backhand, but I don't believe he was stationary. Had it happened prior to the last point, no one would've cared, but it cast a little shadow on our victory.

Iowa, 11-4

After a bye where the weather turned sour again (it had cleared up briefly during the Claremont game) and none of us really wanted to get out of the cars. Iowa seemed to have the same mindset, particularly since their tournament wasn't going as well as their shocking upset victory at Warm Up. It was wet, shitty and the field was a mud pit and yet, we came out PUMPED.

Starting on defense, we scored three straight breaks. Iowa was a pretty big team, but somehow they could't connect on their deep throws and definitely couldn't get open on their unders. They finally score to stop the run (on a point where we had a chance to continue breaking) and then manage to break the O-line. After we scored and got the defense back on the field, the game was over. Our defense was the best I'd ever seen it (except for a brief stretch in a game coming up soon) and we took half with three more breaks. Iowa put in a couple, but mostly we rolled.

It was really muddy and wet, so miscues happened, but lady luck seemed to be on our side. Or to quote Napoleon, "fortune...favors the bold." I had to layout to catch a hammer from Berendes that ended up being released sixty feet straight up. I had my own problems when I shanked a high release backhand huck to Jeff that ended up going forty yards downfield AND about forty feet up in the air. Nick saved my ass by catching the rebound. Berendes managed to overthrow a lasered flick to one of Trahey's rare deep cuts only to be saved when Alex elevated like whoa and tore the disc out of the sky. Schwartz also went airborne to try and save a hammer from Tommy and managed to get taken out in the process. After the foul was contested, the same play got repeated and Schwartz showed off by nailing the grab.

Our D had nothing to do with luck, however. Nick had a picture perfect full extension layout that was just short of a block. Knute went ho and got the full extension bid after having one of his Ds called back. Hagan had a couple sick Ds including a great poach block (I had one, too) that he knocked down on the goal line. Should've been a Callahan. All in all, lots of plays with our feet and the end result was a rout.

Sunday

We'd gone 2-1 each day to compile an overall record of 4-2. Unfortunately, Florida was 5-1 (their only loss to Carleton) so we had no chance of making the championship bracket. Even so, there was a palpable energy on the sideline. We'd already outperformed most people's expectations and we hadn't found our ceiling yet. Plus, we had a rematch with a team we'd crushed at CCC.

Illinois, 13-12

This team was better than the one we'd played at CCC. But, we were better than we were at CCC. Unfortunately for both teams, that improvement wasn't always evident on the field. The game started off fine with the D-line putting in a break and the O-lines trading to 3-2. Then the O-line got broken twice to make it 3-4. After we punched it in, the D-line got back to work and got two straight breaks to take the lead again 6-4.

Unfortunately, the O-line managed to get broken twice and Illinois ran off three straight to take half 6-7. After half, we had a small run that got us the lead 8-7, but then we self-destructed and gave up four straight points to their defense. This left us trailing 11-8 with eight minutes until hard cap came on.

And somehow, we began to play fucking inspired. Schwartz got the O-line off the field with a sick point block on an Illinois huck and then a nasty toe drag on the back line on an OI flick from Borg. This put the D on the field and we didn't leave until we had the lead 12-11. I guarded #12 on Illinois who called a throwing foul EVERY TIME he threw the disc (even when I didn't touch him). I may have yelled at him during the point, a lot...repeatedly. Thankfully, I managed to D the shit out of him on a dump cut at 11-11 and force the turn. Hagan got a layout, Cameron got two (w00t!) and suddenly, we're in the lead and the cap still hasn't come on.

The D-line finally gives up a score to tie the game at 12-12. Hard cap is on so the next point is universe. We put in our all-star line and worked the field. I catch the final goal from B-des on an OI flick that Hagan also could have grabbed. Duke wins.

This was a great game for our morale considering we dug ourselves a hole and managed to climb back out of it with an emphatic defensive stand. The game ended with a 5-1 run. If the key to success is learning to win close games, this was a huge step for us and we did it on the play of our entire roster, not just our studs.

Wisconsin, 5-15

Of course, because Florida was in our pool, we were excluded from the championship bracket and instead were shunted into a four-team mini-bracket for an undisclosed final placing. Our first game was against Wisconsin, last year's national champions. They'd been having a rough weekend with lots of close (and some not so close) losses, but we did not take advantage of any supposed weakness.

During the bye between this game and the Illinois game, the wind had picked up significantly and to make matters worse, we again were playing on a field that was upwind-downwind. It was also the muddiest field we played on all weekend. Add in the fact that many of our best players were hurting from the long weekend and this game did not feature our best play.

Those are all excuses, but the fact is that we just didn't execute in this game. Wisconsin managed to score upwind five times and we got zero upwind breaks even though we managed to get the disc within 10 yards of the upwind endzone four times! I managed to barely underthrow a wide-open Charlie who missed the bid. Berendes's throw to a fully horizontal Knute doinked off his fingers. Etc. Etc. Wisco's four man cup was particularly effective against us in the weather as we were forced to go over the top and the weather made that particularly difficult.

Even so, there were a couple highlights. Early in the game, Berendes skied Foster on a Trahey huck to set up one of the aforementioned scoring opportunities. I threw a forty yard downfield hammer to B-des that he snatched out of Pat's hands. Most impressively, Jeff G got a SICK layout D on an incut to set up one of our final scores. Unfortunately, Wisconsin made way more highlight reel type catches and they took the game convincingly.

While waiting to find out if we had another game, Nick's parents provided us all with tacos. Unfortunately, I only got one of them (stupid Peter...) as I volunteered to find out if we had another game. Thirty minutes later (and twenty minutes into the final round) we were switched from a rematch against Claremont to play Whitman, who was just as late getting to our field as we were.

Whitman, 6-3

Whitman had made a name for themselves the previous year at TiV. Unfortunately, they didn't look to be having the same level of success this year. The wind was still wreaking havoc with throws, but at least on our new field it was crossfield.

To say that both teams looked unexcited to play would be an understatement, but we both took the field and made a couple of plays. Whitman relies A LOT on quick handler passes (particularly the high release backhand break) and due to the wind they couldn't corral all of them. They also liked to huck a lot for a team that wasn't particularly tall.

We scored the first point on offense and then scored a break before they put a goal in. We scored again and got another break to grab a 4-1 lead. At this point, hell points began. The next two points, both Whitman scores, took approximately thirty minutes and left everyone on the field exhausted. When Whitman finally put the break in, it was time for the all-star line to go out and make sure that the game didn't end up a loss.

After a couple turns, we punched it in and hard cap goes on to guarantee us the win. We agree to play the last point anyway and a mostly rookie line consisting of Jeff G, Charlie, Cameron, Nick, Wade, Venters and Trahey punch it in and give us the double-up. Only real highlights of the game were Trahey huge OI backhand hucks that he was putting both ways to Berendes and Knute for scores. Also, Nick played some great ultimate including shutting down Whitman's stud, Jeremy Norden, for a series.

After basking in our 6-3 record and warming down/stretching out, most of us headed over to watch the finals between Colorado and Florida. Colorado had taken a universe point win over Carleton and it had either effected them physically or mentally as they went down 8-3 at half. They managed to make a comeback in the second half, but lost a capped game 13-11 even though cap had gone on at 12-6 and Mamabird scored the last point. The Florida win was made slightly palatable by the fact that Schwartz and Tommy, who had disappeared immediately after our Whitman game, reappeared mid-finals with a truckload of In-N-Out burgers for the whole team to enjoy.

Overall:
6-3

I thought this weekend was a statement from our team. We played at a relatively consistent level all weekend and only lost games to both of last year's national finalists and an upstart Washington team, all three losses coming in terrible weather games. Our defense is significantly improved over the fall and ACCs, but our offense (and particularly our O-line defense) needs work. The weekend left us with a lot to work on and a great base to improve upon. Ignoring the hate on RSD (although we do appreciate the motivation), I feel good about where we are and very excited for the rest of the season.

The rest of the trip was a nice coda. A number of us went out Sunday night and I technically lost money playing blackjack (big winner was Vivek with his roulette magic). On the way home, we had a long layover in Denver where I won at Egyptian Rat Screw and enjoyed some great airport burritos and TCBY frozen yogurt. Glad to be home, but memories of the weekend are sticking with me. Good job Brimstone.

ACC Ultimate Championships

2009-01-30T10:20:00.012-05:00

BRIM-STONE!

First tourney of the year is over and the results are encouraging if not totally satisfying. The tournament coincided nicely with a visit from Rachel, who spent the last week in Durham with me. She was a good sport and came out on Saturday to root for us, but she made the right move and stayed away on Sunday, which was frigidly cold.

Hopefully the weather starts warming up soon. Even if it doesn't, Vegas in a week is keeping all of our spirits up. Coming into the weekend, it was definitely on my mind that if we didn't perform it could seriously hurt our seeding at Vegas. Whether that happens or not now is up to the TDs, but I believe that we gave a decent showing.

The real feature of this weekend was the modified rules set, which included more active observers and a yellow/red card system. My experience with the system was generally positive, although I got a sweet layout D called back by an out-of-position observer. In fact, I would say that the observers ruled against us more often than not, but I'm not sure we were in the wrong (maybe I can only remember a couple of particularly important reversals in our two UNC games that I disagreed with). Still, it was nice to have a third party to whom calls could be referred. The time limits kept the game moving. Finally, I only saw one card handed out (yellow, for complaining about a travel non-call), so I can't really comment on that part of the system.

On to the games.

Saturday

Florida State, 10-12

First game was against our pool's bottom seed. And we choked. Or at least stumbled, going down 4-7 at half. We picked it up a bit in the second half to tie it at 10s, but then proceeded to lose our composure and give up the D point and then get broken to lose. Florida State had a couple good players and moved the disc quickly, which prevented our defense from clamping down. Their captain (#15) and their midget handler (#2) probably touched 80+% of their throws and they were able to capitalize on some dumb mistakes to win the game.

This would end up being relatively uneventful as they would proceed to upset every other team except UNC to take 2nd in the pool. Still, I wasn't particularly impressed by their play. I felt that we dug ourselves into a hole and simply couldn't get back out. A couple miscues by the offense led to unforced turnovers and on defense we didn't have the intensity we expected and need in order to compete.

Georgia Tech, 13-11

Tech apparently had a great regionals last year and they played like a good team that hasn't yet found itself in the new season. I don't know how many players they lost to graduation, but they didn't look as polished as I might have expected. Their offense relied almost entirely on quick handler movement and throws to the break side. We gave them a break early, took it back a couple points later and essentially traded to 11-11.

At 11-11, we broke to take the lead and then broke again to win the game. Tommy had one of the sickest grabs I've ever seen in this game where he seemed to hang in the air for about 10 seconds before ripping the disc down. Supposedly, it's on film. I'm interested in checking out the video that UNC is supposedly making of the tournament, if only for this grab.

This game featured an interesting result with the new rules. I made a foul call on a huck from Trahey that was immediately contested. I didn't want to go to the observer because I thought the contact was just on the border of a foul and I expected to get overruled. Was pretty surprised when the Tech player didn't ask him to intervene. Ended up scoring the point anyway to force game point.

Footage of the game from the GT perspective can be found here. Note that Tommy's sick grab is missing.

UNC, 8-13

This was the showcase game and we had an audience of maybe 200 people watching, which was definitely a new and awesome experience. UNC is a good team that has a lot of talent top to bottom. Unfortunately, we played terribly in the first half and went down 2-6 before fighting back to lose half 4-7. In the second half, we fought back to 8-9, but then gave up 4 points to lose 8-13.

I feel like I played well this game, considering I scored 3-4 times and had a great trailing layout D (overruled by the observer). Unfortunately, Trahey's hucks seemed to be off and we made a couple silly mistakes that led to relatively easy scores by the home team. Lucas Darden made a nasty grab over Berendes to win the game, which kind of summarized how the game went for us. Even so, was fun to play in front of the big crowds.

Lots of great pictures of this game can be found here. Courtesy of Alan Hoyle.

Sunday

Yours truly, looking dumb.

Still looking dumb.

After having gone 1-2 on the first day, we needed to win in order to make the championship bracket and we were scheduled to play Maryland, the 3 seed. Crazy stuff had happened in the pool on Saturday and FSU was undefeated, Maryland had romped on UNC, but managed to lose to everyone else. All that mattered for us was that it was win or go home.

Maryland, 13-6

I don't know what was different about Sunday (except for the freezing weather and lack of sun), but we began to play like a real team. Maryland looked a little flustered at times, but we managed to play tight defense against a fairly athletic Maryland team and our offense only had to play like six points, getting broken only once when we were already ahead by four.

I got to line up against Freddy Tsai, Eagle and Reuben, which was fun. I felt like I was in bizarro land because every other game we've played (with the exception of the Princeton CUFF game) has B-des assigning matchups based off intimate knowledge of the other team, but I knew enough of the guys on Maryland that I got the job for the first couple points.

Our transition zone looked pretty solid in this game, which gave us a lot more confidence in running it against VaTech and UNC later in the day. My hucks were on point as well. In particular, I put up a break backhand to Berendes who skied pretty much the entire Maryland team to put in the score.

I talked to a couple of the Maryland guys later. Eagle had been in Italy and apparently hung out with Mutton. Sounds like he's having a pretty sweet time in Espana. Maryland sounded pretty confident about their position in the Metro East. I think Pitt is the front-runner, but Maryland and Delaware are probably 1-2 for the second bid.

Virginia Tech, 13-9

Don't know how they upset eventual tourney winner Virginia, but VaTech managed to go 3-1 in the other pool including a come-from-behind victory against Clemson. They played a 50-50 offense that relied on hucks. We broke the first point and took a small lead, then gave it back and went to half on serve. After half, we began to shut down their hucking game and our transition zone began to fluster their mid-cutters. Went on a nice run and ended the game on defense (two in a row!).

This was one of those games where the outcome seemed pre-determined. This was unfortunate in the first half where we weren't working as hard as we needed to and was great in the second half when VaTech started to fold and couldn't muster the same intensity we began to display.

UNC, 11-13

Both the pool play 3 seeds had upset the 2 seeds, restoring seeding to the bracket and setting up rematches of the 1-2 from pool play on either side of the bracket. We got a second shot at UNC and it was a great game that was probably a better showcase of the sport than our Saturday game.

Where Saturday's game was sloppy with a handful of long, turn-filled points, this game was crisp and quick. Lots of hucks, some sweet skies. Great bids (particularly by Hagan who had an absolutely filthy layout on a UNC deep shot where he was trailing his defender by at least five feet.

Tommy went off in this game, tearing down six goals in the game. Also, had a nasty toe-drag on a low huck from yours truly. Unfortunately, we managed to stumble at 11s, giving up the D point and then turning it on a bladed huck from Schwartz to Berendes. After the turnover, UNC gets the disc on the goal line and calls a time out.

I set up on the dump, Guenther on the mark and B-des covering Lucas iso-ed in the endzone. Guenther point-blocks the throw and B-des lays out for the tip and the disc is still caught for the goal. Fishsticks.

Felt pretty decent in this game. I've been playing a lot of handler for the D-line and I'm beginning to feel a lot more comfortable with my I-O flick break and my backhand around break. Got called out by the head observer on RSD (#19! Woot Woot!) as an example of someone who moves IMMEDIATELY after I throw. Made me happy considering I've worked on that aspect of my game a lot in the last year. If I can get my marked hucks down cleaner, I feel that I can make a real difference as a D-line handler. If not, I can always run my ass off cutting downfield.

Overall:
3-3, T-3rd

Decent weekend that serves as a good start to the spring season. We leave for Vegas on Thursday (Super Woot! Woot!) where I'll get to see C-K, Bill, Kalgin, Ian, Tim and a ton of others. My shins were pretty sore after playing on the hard turf and I was sick after the cold weekend, but I should be locked and loaded for next weekend.

Pictures by Doug Wilson.

Getting back home...or the story of how much Seattle sucked this holiday season ('cept for Julia and Sledding)

2008-12-27T02:35:00.001-05:00

After I finished exams, I went out with my classmates and got ready for my early-morning train Saturday morning.

Caught the AmTrak up from Durham to Washington DC. Whole trip takes about 7 hours and is only mitigated by the fact that there is a power outlet next to your seat. The only other ray of sunshine was the 10 year old black kid that sat next to me in Richmond and talked to me non-stop until I got off. Seriously, sweet kid who told ridiculous stories while traveling alone and on a massive sugar high. After I explained how calories work, I think I also blew his mind. After a quick teriyaki dinner at Union Station and a short cab ride, I collapsed in my hotel room and watched Gonzaga lose to UConn on a ridiculously clutch shot.

(Would've gone out with some friends but Petums was in PA for some reason and my law school buddy from the area was apparently in Atlantic City.)

Caught a super early shuttle the next morning and hopped on my flight at Reagan National. Was delayed an hour after we pulled back from the jetway because our de-icing machine broke (seriously...omen). As we're landing, I'm super afraid I'm going to miss my flight, particularly when we land and it's a blizzard AND we are stuck 20 minutes trying to get the jetway to pull up to the plane.

Of course, when I get off and realize that my flight isn't even listed on the board I should've clued in and realized I was not getting out. My flight was delayed three times and cancelled, but I got to hang out with some guys I hadn't seen since high school.

After my flight was cancelled, I called up my cousin who had just moved into the area to work for Microsoft. She saved my ass by picking me up and giving me a place to crash. Of course, this awesomeness was tempered by the fact that the airlines couldn't get me home until Dec. 24.

That night Julia and I go out and drink with a friend of hers from Bucknell, Matt, and his two Seattle friends, Alex and Keith. Alex went to Duke undergrad so we had tons to talk about. He's also doing TFA in LA, so we chatted about poor children, too.

After drinking at a local pub called The Attic (baller, highly recommended), we head over to "the hill" to see another of Matt's high school friends. When we get there we're told that we're going sledding. We head over about three blocks to find an entire street blocked off by about 200 very drunk individuals sledding downhill on ANYTHING that will slide (seen: sleds, skis, snowboard, trash can lids, rubbermaid laundry hampers, kiddy pools, street signs, cardboard, garbage bags...). Although my knees and elbows are still bruised, was a ton of fun until the cops showed up at 1:45ish and kicked us off the streets. (Also, a very Asian man got pissed when a bunch of us tried to help him with his stalled car.)

We get home and pass out, only to wake up to my phone and my mother telling me that I've got a seat on an 11:45 flight to Juneau. Run to the airport and skip the RIDICULOUS line (seriously, half mile long probably, filled the entire lower floor of the SeaTac airport) to check a bag as I'd left my bag at the airport the night before. Get on the flight, which is slightly delayed and spend an entertaining time with a ferry master who lives in Juneau.

When I get to Juneau I realize that my flight doesn't leave there for another 7 hours. I order a pizza from a local favorite and watch the Packers get a good lead before leaving for security (later find out that they choked it away). By the time I get inside the terminal again, I find out the plane is delayed again. As it keeps getting delayed, I realize I DO NOT WANT TO BE STUCK IN JUNEAU. When we finally get on the plane, they march us all back off because the attendants can't count! By the time we get back on, we're late and we arrive in Anchorage at midnight, almost three hours after we were supposed to arrive.

Overall, I spent 61 hours in transit in order to get home.

I don't even want to think about the return trip...

1.5L

2008-12-19T17:49:00.002-05:00

So I'm done with my first semester of law school. Hasn't really sunk in yet, but so far it's been a pretty fun time. My classmates are all good people and Brimstone took all of my free time and made it awesome. Can't really ask for more.

Kudos to all of you guys; making my job a lot easier.

WaWaWaluigi...

2008-12-11T01:01:00.002-05:00

I've listened to this song 50+ times today and I still think it's hilarious and awesome. There's also a smash bros love song on YouTube using the same melody, but lacking the musical talent. Then again, his octave drop on "Ganondorf" is kind of funny in its own way.

This second video was my study music for the last two days. For those unfamiliar with the song, it's "Coca-Cola" by Jesse Lacey of Brand New. For some reason, I can't get it out of my head.

In real world news, first law school exam is over. Two more to go.

In ultimate news, I've started winter lifting and am also doing some rock climbing on the side.

CUFF...ugh

2008-12-01T22:33:00.007-05:00

Two weeks late. I would blame this on me falling disastrously ill immediately following the tournament, but I honestly just didn't want to write about it that much.

Left Durham on Friday to make the five-plus hour drive North to Maryland. The tournament would be at the same fields as Roll Call the previous year, but unlike Princeton's visit there, we had no surplus of members who made their home in the DC-metropolitan area. Then again, Comfort Suites is disgustingly nice for a frisbee team.

Highlight of the drive: Stopping for almost an hour at a weird rest stop in VA, complete with Wendy's, weird quarter gambling machine, crazy knit hats (purchased by Tommy) and a low-rent iTrip that never was made to successfully work.

Second highlight: Driving through Richmond at 8 and listening to the Hot 5 at 8 (back in my day it was the top 8 at 8, standards have really gone down...). First two songs were both political remixes. The best was the remix of Pop Champagne entitled Barack Campaign which goes: "We voted for a change and now we made it, no disrespect to McCain and Palin, we rocked the vote now we celebratin', President Barack and VP Biden...we pop champagne for Barack campaign". Unfortunately, the remainder of the songs were women lamenting about their men. Odds that Joe Biden thought he'd be mentioned in a hip-hop song, VERY LOW.

Saturday:

Rolled up to the fields to discover that it was kind of windy. The fields were set up different than Roll Call and we ended up pretty much upwind-downwind for our first game against Maryland alumni. Princeton was two fields away and I got to say hi to the kids that made the trip (I'm looking at Tomi and Matt Cheng...). As we got ready to start, the Alums had already started drinking. I did enjoy their "Eagle Sucks" hats.

Maryland Alums, 10-9

We broke twice to start the game and then gave them back, but got the last break to take half up one, 7-6. After half we got two breaks to go up 9-6, then gave back three straight to tie at 9s, double game point. We worked it down after a turnover and put it in to win.

The guys were fun and would have been a better team (probably better than us) had they a) not all been at least two drinks in and b) not been out of frisbee for 2-4 years. Cuneo threw sick shit as per normal. Hempstead also played baller. I missed a sick layout D at shoulder height, only to realize that my man had caught the disc even though I trucked him.

UPenn, 7-9

Apparently, Duke lost to these guys last year badly. This year started better with us going up two breaks early 3-1. Then we gave them back and got broken again. We trailed at half 7-5. The wind really picked up from about halftime of the Maryland Alums game to this game and it was solid upwind-downwind. We traded the rest of the way, although we had a couple of chances to convert, in particular at least two turns within five yards of the upwind endzone. Just unacceptable offense.

Spent a good portion of my D points playing on Aman Nalavade, who played for Pike this year. Real fast kid who I would love to play under more normal conditions. Missed a layout D on him to save the game. I knew he'd stutter-step the cut to the cone (it's the Pike endzone cut), but I thought I could bait it a little. We'd get a rematch against this team, but this loss was still really unsatisfying.

Maryland X, 8-5

By far the strangest game of the tournament. Game opened up with the weather starting to get even worse. Wind got gusty and a little bit of rain started falling. Our play got much worse for some reason including some poor decisions by the O-line (this was kind of a theme, but I can't say the D-line strategy was any better) and Maryland went up 5-1. We scored and got the turn and then...the heavens opened. Seriously, sideways rain, hail and lightning.

Horns start sounding for all of us to get the fuck out of dodge. Teams on the far field apparently didn't hear, so while most of us were huddling freezing in the pavillion some teams kept playing and a couple Maryland kids went streaking. When the weather finally broke (about twenty minutes later), we were given the okay to restart.

And lo and behold the weather was clear. A little bit of mist, but absolutely NO WIND. So we restarted the game and either Maryland forgot how to play in normal weather or we're just that badass. Either way we scored six straight to win the game. Guarded Freddy Tsai (ME FoTY last year) who is quick. Scored on him to win the game. Another guy I would like to play again in better weather/situations.

The crossover game was cancelled so we finished 2-1 and second in our pool. The schedule would've had us play GW Alums, but Reuben hooked me up and rearranged the schedule for Duke to play Princeton on Sunday.

That evening we made a really inept caravan into the city to watch Quantum of Solace. I saw Jackie Bello, who was in DC for a funeral (weird coincidence). After a big dinner in the food court (yey enchiladas), we hit up the theatre which was comically overpriced and left the team with mixed feelings. I enjoyed it. When we returned, ice baths ensued for Berendes and Hagan. I pussed out after about five minutes. Ah well.

Sunday:

Weather got a lot colder. Seriously, barely above freezing. Add in 15 mph winds going crossfield and the weather was worse than Saturday, where it had been shitty.

Princeton, 11-6

Playing the old team was weird. Really weird. I knew everyone on the team and so match-ups were kind of fun. Berendes on Petums was entertaining, although Berendes left the game thinking my old team thought he was a dick. Overall, the game was pretty calm and uneventful. I got skyed by Brain and point-blocked by Michael Gibbs. Also scored the game winner (I think).

Old team looked much-improved from last year, although they could really use the old seniors. Isaiah and Bergman in particular really stepped up. Also, Isaiah's "Which Nut?" skills have improved tremendously. He totally tooled me in our impromptu game. Just you wait for better weather and my new secret twist.

Queens-Kingston, 11-13

I've never liked the Canadians and this game got a little heated with calls. Also demonstrated how terrible the weather was in relation to the quality of the ultimate. We got a couple breaks early and then gave a lot of them back as they threw a very aggressive zone. They took half 8-4.

After half, we decided to respond with a zone of our own, which worked to run off six straight to take the lead 10-8. They started to break our zone and scored twice to tie. We scored and then they replied to tie at 11s, game to 13. We then threw a Callahan and dropped an easy pass, which lead to an easy score, for them to take the game.

They ended up winning the tournament, but I think we would have the upper hand on a less windy day. They had some decent handlers and some decent cutters, but I was unimpressed with any one of their players in both areas. We got a good number of turns playing tight defense on their handlers and I think that would be just as doable in better weather.

UPenn, 13-8

Some of their players weren't suited up for the game and we were all freezing. We took the lead with five or six straight points and then both teams started playing a lot of their rookies. I only played two points in the second half, both guarding Aman again, in which both of us managed to do...nothing. Seriously, I want a rematch with better weather.

After the game, both GW and our team were frozen to the core, so we hit up the cars and got going. Stopped after an hour to eat some strip mall food (low-rent Chinese...yum!) and then booked it home. I went to sleep expecting to wake up ready to die and I did. Ended up sleeping for 36 of the next 48 hours and skipped two days of school. Decent tournament (ended up tied for 5th), but the weather was so awful I'm not sure we learned much other than how to play zone in shitty weather.

I'm done for the fall now, although I should be bringing reports in January (ACC tournament), February (Vegas, hopefully) and beyond. Also, some stuff regarding C1 might be discussed and I may or may not die from law school exams.

Pictures may be posted if anyone was stupid enough to have their hands exposed to the elements for that long.

Classic City Classic...which was classic.

2008-11-11T19:26:00.006-05:00

This was the only picture taken of us all weekend. And we aren't even playing, but Knute gets the limelight in the background. Go here if you want to see a ludicrous number of pictures of Emory.

Rolled out of Durham around 6, got into the hotel around 11:30. Considering we were getting up at 6, this was not ideal. The fact that we then got lost (stupid tourney directions labeling Thomas Dr as East Campus Dr, which it is CLEARLY NOT) made for a less than ideal warm-up. The fact that it was about 49 degrees made it more of a cold-up. After Wade almost stepped on my iPod, I was a little worried. Wonder how the day turned out...

Illinois, 11-6

First game of the day against a nationals quarterfinalist and a C1 team. We were a little intimidated, but came out fired up. They didn't. We took half 6-3 on great O line play and solid, intense defense. O line was never broken and I scored a Callahan on a floated dump/swing. Tommy scored a couple goals and threw a blady flick that Ethan laid out for to score and end the game. (1-0 vs. C1)

North Carolina, 8-10

They had just finished earning a double game point win over Texas and we had just tooled Illinois. Both teams came out intense, but a little sloppy. The wind had picked up somewhat (by the third round it would be pretty squarely upwind-downwind) and we dropped an easy pass to give up a break on the first point. UNC made a run to take half 4-6. We made a run back to get it to 8-9, cap goes on and the game is first to ten. Unfortunately, they make a nice grab in the endzone to end the game. (1-1 vs. C1)

Texas, 11-9

Texas is a fun team and Guenther knows every one of their players. Callahan front-runner Stephen Presley seemed real chill and made some baller plays. Even with their star-studded line-up, we managed to get a couple of breaks on them early and late in the game. They evened it up mid-game and closed to 10-9 late, but we managed to punch it in after a couple turnovers. Hagan and I took turns covering Presley and he did a great job (me, I didn't get ludicrously tooled). Berendes made a crazy layout grab to score the gamewinner (disc was point-blocked and D'ed prior to his catch). (2-1 vs. C1)

Virginia, 4-10

We had played them two weeks earlier at Wolfpack and had given them a lead early and then fought back to lose a tight game. This time we gave them a lead early...and lost the game pretty badly. We opened up the rotation after falling at half 3-6 and the game ended at cap with the good guys scoring. They played a very quick offense, moving the disc within the first couple counts as often as possible. First game of the day we had significant problems scoring with the O line.

Ole Miss, 11-5

Two byes later (weird schedule due to field availability), we play our last game against the pool's bottom seed. Considering we came in as the fifth seed, we should have taken them more seriously, but we played lackluster throughout the first couple points. When they broke to take the lead 2-3, we all got pissed and started a 9-2 run to win the game. They had a couple decent players, but our depth was too much for them to handle.

Sunday

Emory, 15-8

Number 7 on Emory is a dick. Lots of travel calls, lots of talk, lots of yelling and lots of turnovers. Unfortunately, I got into it with him. So did Trahey. So did Guenther. Besides him, their team was pretty chill. Sam, their stud, seemed particularly cool and he kept a pretty good attitude considering Berendes had a sick layout D on him in the endzone. A lot of great rookie play sealed the deal for us. Also led to the best quote of the weekend: Emory in their halftime huddle shouts "Second Half, Our Half!" and both Guenther and Trahey simultaneously deadpan "Nope" causing the entire line to double over laughing.

Ohio State, 13-15

Probably the only game of the weekend that I am angry about. They had just finished tooling UNCW 15-6 and we were warned they would be chippy with calls. Didn't really turn out to be true, with two exceptions.

We came out forcing them under and managed to control their hucks for most of the game. Traded the first points and then I threw a big upwind flick for a break...that gets called back on a travel. Not on the throw though, apparently I took too many steps to stop. We work it up and turn it on the goal line. They score, break, break to go up 4-1. We break back later in the half to tie it at 5s. At 6-6, they score and then break to take half 8-6.

After half, we come out pissed and run off four straight to lead 10-8. As we keep trading, Trahey makes a sick D in the upwind endzone that gets called a foul because the guy he was guarding ran into him and fell over. They end up scoring. They eventually get the break with the wind to pull it to 13-12. They score going downwind even after I point-block them on the goal line. 13-13. O-line gets broken 13-14. We get the disc going upwind and manage to turn it over on a reset. I have the disc trapped on the sideline and decide to pressure the mark to throw upfield. Gets to stall 9 and he uncorks a 60 degree blade that gets caught in the endzone. Game over. Fiddlesticks. Sadly, the two calls that stand out end up being the margin of victory. We played pretty well against yet another C1 team and I was honestly not impressed. Had my best statistical game of the weekend with 3 goals, 2 assists and a D (0 turns). (2-2 vs C1)

Davidson, 11-8

After another bye where we watched Wisconsin and North Carolina try to out-call each other (also saw three UNC players carted off the field), we had a trap game against Davidson, who had lost to Georgia. Went up 5-1 on great defense from the rookies and then gave it right back on poor zone play against a four man cup and a 15 mile an hour headwind. Took half 6-5 (we agreed to play a shortened game to 11).

In the second half, we played better against the zone and scored a break or two to win by three. Sadly, my play did not correlate with the team's as I got point-blocked twice in one point. Need to work on my fakes or at least get my low backhand-to-high backhand-to-flick fake more fluid. Screw it, next time I'm throwing hammers.

Random addition: There was a long drawn out argument in this game that I feel should be mentioned. Going upwind, I catch the disc on an in-cut, turn and throw an upwind flick huck as I get bumped by my mark. I call "foul". The disc floats and ends up getting caught by Wade pretty much on the goal line. Wade spikes the disc, which prompts a big argument as Davidson claims he wasn't in, while we argue that his spike obviously indicates he thought he was. Me, I'm forty yards from the play arguing with my man if my foul allows Wade to keep the disc based off "one-throw continuation", which it is quickly pointed out would completely contradict the point of continuation. I back down, only to see my man get into a shouting match with Gunther on the sideline coming from the other argument. Looking back, was kind of hilarious, though it did lead to a great debate about the value of compromise (seriously, that word was used at least 10 times in the ensuing discussion).

Overall, 5-3 weekend for 11th. Finished higher than four of the twelve C1 teams in attendance and got a good win against a sectional rival. Our close game against UNC gives me some hope for the season and the amazing improvement of our rookies in the last two weeks makes me giddy. We need to work a little on our offensive flow (looked good at times, bad at others) and I need to either solidify my handling or find a replacement. Considering we were missing two of our starting O-liners, I'm pretty psyched.

Next week, CUFF and Princeton!

Pictures may be added later if any relevant ones appear on the interwebs.

Wolfpack Invite 10/25-10/26

2008-11-04T11:34:00.012-05:00

First tournament of the year with my new team. Saw a lot of good things and a lot of things that can be improved. Was kind of shocked at how few rookies I saw playing on many of the teams we played/saw. I honestly believe that of the eight teams that were playing in quarters, three or four of them were playing 10-15 man rotations with no recognizable rookies.

Saturday

Kent State: 13-7

We came out really sloppy and gave up a break on offense. KState's offense pretty much ran through Doc, a shorter player with a nasty-looking beard (could be good or bad, your choice). After turning up the pressure on defense a little (including a couple points of zone defense), we got the break back and earned one of our own to take half 7-5. Second half was much crisper and the defense continued to earn breaks leading to a final O-line score to end the game.

NC State: 11-7

We had a bye prior to this game and when we came in State had already lost to the pool's 3rd and 4th seeds, ECU and Wake Forest. They had almost pulled off a ridiculous comeback against ECU, coming back from 12-5 to lose 13-12, so they would either come out flat or really fired up. Turned out it would be flat.

We got 2 straight breaks to start. I had a decent poach layout D and a layout huck catch for a score. Kept breaking to take half 7-2. Second half saw State get a break or two back, but the outcome wasn't really in doubt. Scored two straight when cap went on at 9-7 to win.

ECU: 9-13

First part of the game saw ECU playing a little better than us. We couldn't really control them on D (maybe one turn in first four or five points, didn't convert it) and they got a break or two on D to lead at half 7-4 or 7-5. We picked it up on defense in the second half and managed to tie it up at 9s. Unfortunately, our O-line proceeded to get broken multiple times and the game ended before we really knew it.

ECU looked pretty good this early in the season, though they seemed to be playing almost exclusively returners. They ended up making the finals against UVA. #6 (Joey), who I guarded for a large portion of the game, was probably the best player I marked up against all weekend.

Wake Forest: 9-13

Terrible game on our part. Started on D and I proceeded to dink a wide-open catch in the endzone. This would be an omen. After going down 2-1 (on serve), we proceeded to give up three straight breaks to Wake's zone, which featured a very aggresive and tight cup. Once we started going over the top with hammers to downfield players, we managed to fix our O (I think we gave up two more breaks, one more in the first half and only one in the second). Unfortunately, our D never picked up. We forced lots of near stall-outs which led to blady 50-50 hucks that always seemed to go their way.

At the end of pool play, we had gone 2-2 and placed 3rd in our pool, which thankfully gave us 8th place in the seedings and a spot in quarters.

Sunday

Elon: 15-12

They had upset UNC to take the top seed. They played a very tight rotation and we decided to take advantage of it. We played straight up marks and locked down on the hucks forcing them to run a lot. They broke once or twice to take a two point lead into half.

In the second half at 10-7, we put in an all-star line with the ultimatum that if we didn't score we were all being benched. After putting the O point in, we stayed on and rolled off three straight breaks. Normal D-line grabbed another one. Ended up getting another break near the end and closed it out to win by three.

UVA: 12-15

Best game of the tournament in terms of how we played. Night train played very physical and very clean. They got a couple early breaks to take half 4-8, receiving the disc to start the half.

After half, we came out wanting to make it a game, but stumbled a bit and went down further, 10-5. Then we turned it on. Ran off a string of points to close to 10-12, traded out from there to lose 12-15. Had we turned it on earlier, played more consistently we could have given them a game. Luckily, we get to play them again at CCC this weekend, so we'll get that chance.

I played decently. Had a sweet layout D on a huck that left me with a bloody lip. First time I've ever had to invoke the Magic Johnson rule.

Overall: 3-3, 3rd place

Kind of weird to be playing with a team not clockwork, but I'm getting used to it. We were missing our two Ring players, so getting them back will definitely help. Overall, I'm cautiously optimistic about the potential for this team. Next up, CCC.

Photos courtesy of Jim Ashcraft.

The Myth of Injury Games

2008-10-16T14:34:00.001-04:00

Had a thought that was worth posting on RSD. Figured I'd repost it here so I don't forget it in an hour.

------

It seems that a lot of people from the "top 25" are complaining about the existence of injury games, meaningless games in which the outcome is essentially predetermined. The general location of these games is identified as sectionals, where a team like Wisconsin spends 4-5 games pasting teams who wouldn't win a single game if they played 100 times.

Cultimate's response has been to replace those games with a 34 game regular series which is used as a qualifier for a new national tournament, thus avoiding these so-called "injury games".

My real question though: how many injury games does Wisconsin (or a similar team really play) ?

Looking at Wisconsin's record, they played in Mardi Gras, Vegas, Stanford, Centex, Sectionals, Regionals, Nationals.

At every single one of those tournaments (excepting Sectionals), they were placed in some form of power pool or pre-selecting tournament (I'm assuming this was true of Mardi Gras as all 12 teams competing for 1st place came out of the top 3 pools). Barring one possible aberration game at each "regular season" tournament (Winona State at Mardi Gras - 7th at Regionals, Davidson at Vegas - 9th at Regionals, Whitman at SI - 7th at Regionals) and their first two games at Regionals (against teams who placed 11th and 13th), there line-up of games is already almost solely against the "top 25" (not as Conference1 would have it, but in a more general sense). Even at sectionals, Wisconsin played two decent teams (Marquette and Whitewater) who performed decently at Regionals.

My question then is if playing those 4-5 games (a number which could be minimized if a non-pool play format was adopted for sectionals) is really any impediment to those teams OR if it's any more of a danger than practicing with their own teammates. Considering the level of physicality that has become the standard among high level teams, this seems like a pretty legitimate question.

Also, Wisconsin played 43 games last season not including Nationals. Take away six "injury games" at Sectionals and two at Regionals and you have a 35 game regular season THAT THEY ALREADY PLAY.

If Wisconsin wants to come out in favor of Conference1, they shouldn't do it based off the idea of playing less "injury games", they should do it because they want free jerseys, no entry fees and a rumored travel budget.

*Wisconsin was used as the example because they are the reigning champions and they choose to attend a significant number of tournaments. A cursory glance shows Florida to have done something similar (although they attended Warm Up, a tournament which featured a less impressive roster than Mardi Gras and I imagine held some form of compensation for the team, chose not to attend Stanford), Carleton is in the same boat as Wisconsin, and Colorado's only blemish was Fool's Fest, a tournament which they have traditionally chosen to attend.

In Princeton...solidly Conference 2

2008-10-15T19:54:00.002-04:00

Visiting the girlfriend during my break. Lots of shit going down in the ultimate world regarding Conference1. Will hold my thoughts on it for the moment (would definitely like more information and want to see how top teams like Wisconsin and Carleton fall), but my knee-jerk reaction is negative. More to come, less to follow.

Brand New Day

2008-10-08T23:02:00.001-04:00

Going to start updating again, hopefully on a weekly schedule. I don't want this to be a workout blog, so I'll try and keep my posts centered on stuff people might actually care about.

Clockwork's New Face

2008-02-16T11:52:00.005-05:00

I promised I'd show off our new jerseys "soon" and that date kept getting pushed back. Finally, I've got what I believe is going to be Clockwork's new look this year. We've changed it up a bit from previous seasons, but we're definitely going to look baller on the field.

I'm incredibly excited about our new jerseys. We got this kind of sketchy e-mail from Gotham Printwear in October this year and, on a whim, I decided to get a quote for what we were looking at. I can say that their service and their prices are fantastic and if their quality matches, I think we will be working with them for a long time.

The only thing holding us up is the Patagonia jerseys (so our jerseys will finally be orange and no longer "clockwork mango"), but once they ship the whole thing should move along nicely. The current timetable should get us the jerseys by HOTI or at the latest Georgia.

Currently Reading:
Destiny by Elizabeth Haydon

On the iPod:
The Possibility and the Promise by Amber Pacific

One week in, not many left...

2008-02-11T20:36:00.000-05:00

Thought I'd throw some thoughts up now that we've finished our first week of spring practice. It's odd thinking that this could be my last year of college ultimate. I don't know exactly what I'll be doing next year, but the chances that it involves college disc and the amount of fun I have with my team is not nearly as high as I'd like.

It's interesting evaluating my team since we're essentially the same team we were last year, plus some new freshmen and with a lot more experience. I will say that after our first two practices outside, we appear to have a lot more fire than we did last year. Since we've been missing some of our defensive studs (Kulkarni, Kulkarni *in Buehler voice*), I would have expected a lot less intensity, but our new players especially have really been bringing it.

Of our older players, Mutton has been playing out of his mind. 50 yard hammers, ridiculous lay-outs, near-death experiences, etc. If he doesn't hurt himself, I think he's a legit all-region candidate. When we get Jonah back from his hammy injury, I think we're going to have a lot of play-making ability that was missing last year. This is going to compliment our growing stable of role players that gives us needed consistency.

In general, we're a better team than last year and we weren't bad last year. Huck of the Irish looks to have a great field and the eye is going to be playing on Sunday.

Pictures of our new uniforms should be up tomorrow.

Currently Reading:
Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt

On the iPod:
The Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan

Almost Heading Back Home

2008-01-23T01:07:00.001-05:00

Broke the training line on Sunday, but got it back Mon-Tue, so I'm feeling pretty good about physical health. My mental state is a little frayed after a weird week and I really need to finish up some of my thesis work. I think a week home is going to be a great rest interval for me before we start balls out in the spring.

Our schedule right now looks like:
Huck of the Irish, Mar 8-9
High Tide, Mar 18-20
College Southerns, Mar 22-23
Roll Call, Mar 29-30
Sectionals, Apr 5-6, 12-13, 19-20
Regionals @ Princeton, Apr 26-27

Our trip to Georgia for spring break hsa been an absolute mess to plan and I feel really bad for Nasty and Mutton, who've shouldered the brunt of the planning responsibilities. Hopefully it's cleared up in the next couple days, because I really want my last year of Georgia to rock.

On the positive side, orders for our new jerseys are almost done and we're going to be a stylish team this year. Images to come soon, but we're going to be one of the best-dressed teams in the nations. Now to see if we can play like one of the best teams in the nation.

Currently Reading:
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

On the iPod:
Burntpiano remixes

Tickling Makes You Smarter

2008-01-21T21:21:00.000-05:00

Abstract:
In various experiments, scientists showed that the average IQ and mental acuity levels of human test subjects increased significantly after extended bouts of physical reflex stimulation (i.e. tickling). These gains remained constant throughout the duration of the study, a period of 18 months. Scientists believe that the rapid stimulation of neurons caused by repeated reflexive reactions is the cause of this increase.

Link to full article:
Darwin, C., G.S. Hall and A Allin. "A potential link between knismesis and cognitive functions." New England Journal of Medicine Feb 3, Vol. 352, No. 5, 452-456

The Line Continues

2008-01-19T17:41:00.000-05:00

After being completely lax in my postings, I hope this signals an actual revival of my posting. It might be a little haphazard until the season gets into full swing in February, but hopefully for my two readers it will be a return to reading.

I think this is going to turn into mostly a workout blog (much like Glenn's), but it might also be a dumping ground for my random ultimate-related thoughts.

Got linked to a great article from Lean and Hungry, which I found interesting and worth trying out. The Thin Red Line

With my three unbroken days staring me in th face, I decided that I had to get off my ass and get working. Thought I'd do a very quick general fitness routine.

5-minute bike warm-up
5-minute ultimate stretches
(hip flexors, lunges, sideways lunges, etc.)
Tabata set of push-ups
Tabata set of bodyweight squats*

*I dropped out of these on set number 7 as I was feeling some pain in my right knee when I stopped below parallel. Since I was putting out 16-14 squats per interval, I felt I just pushed myself a little too hard. Next time, I'll aim for a few less squats and finish the whole thing.

Currently Reading:
The Hollow Man by Dan Simmons

On the iPod:
Soundtrack from Wicked

Pre-Thanksgiving

2007-11-18T22:57:00.000-05:00

This week was our final week of outdoor practice. Now that the fall is over, I'm hoping that we'll see a little more dedication from our returners. The team is going to be doing a lot of winter conditioning, but I get two weeks off to see my family and let my body heal. Gotta be ready come spring. In other news, work sucks and has piled up. After I finish my law school apps (soon...), finish my thesis and manage to graduate, maybe I can sleep.

Currently Reading:
Confessor by Terry Goodkind
King of the Murgos by David Eddings

On the iPod:
Eyes Open by Snow Patrol

Post Tourney

2007-11-13T20:43:00.000-05:00

Crappy tournament. A combination of injuries (including a captain on the first point of the first game), people bagging Sunday and just all-around bad play left us 1-5, though we still managed to get 10th. I played okay: decent pulls, a couple nice hucks (back and fore), lots of cutting. Played 55/57 points on Sunday (damn Matt Cheng who went 56/57), which made for a crappy Monday. I miss my team...maybe they'll be healthy sometime soon.

Currently Reading:
First Rider's Call by Kristen Britain

On the iPod:
Songs for Silent Movies by Something Corporate

Random Thoughts

2007-11-07T21:54:00.000-05:00

Tournament this weekend at Delaware. Should be a good time, though I don't think we're going to have a full-strength squad (which should be the tagline for the fall this year...). We're in an interesting pool with Penn, Delaware and Boston College; three teams I've never played while on Clockwork. Add in a match against Rutgers and it should be a good day of ultimate. I honestly don't know if we'll go 0-4 or 4-0, though the second would require a lot more luck.

Currently Reading:
Dragonflight by Anne McCaffery

On the iPod:
CK's Mix

A couple months late, a couple months in...

2007-11-05T23:40:00.000-05:00

Lots of stuff happening in my life right now, not much of it blog-worthy. Since there was little blog-worthy to begin with, I guess I just got lazy. Now that the focus of my life is off LSATs and applications and back to research and frisbee, maybe I'll post a little more often.

Currently Reading:
The Old Kingdom Trilogy by Garth Nix

On the iPod:
The Shade of Poison Trees by Dashboard Confessional

Smorgasbord

2007-06-30T12:00:00.000-04:00

Had Pike practice this morning in Philadelphia. I caught a ride with Mutton, who isn't playing due to his wrist. I kind of wish I had his excuse because I played somewhere between poor and terrible. Had a drop in the endzone, multiple throwaways, and I got skied twice by Dusty in the endzone (even though he's giving up ~5 inches to me). I played timid; I don't know if it was the heel (which still hurt) or some other factor, but I wasn't there.

After practice, scarfed down the remaining Chicken Alfredo from Zorba's brother and caught a bus to Market Faire to see Ratatouille with Rachel. I don't know how Pixar keeps putting out success after success, but it's really good. Great animation, subtle and intelligent comedy, an outstanding performance by Peter O'Toole, it's got a lot going for it. It's not as good as Brad Bird's other films; The Iron Giant and The Incredibles are both better, but it's very satisfying and it left me VERY hungry.

After the movie, we hit up Stupalooza. Besides the idiocy of Mutton playing Robo with a damaged wrist, the party was pretty awesome all-around. Rachel and I skipped out a little early and apparently missed the REAL craziness, but I think I'm okay with that. Happy 21st Stu.

Today's Workout:
Pike Practice

On the iPod:
Silent Alarm by Bloc Party

She Comes...

2007-06-29T12:00:00.000-04:00

Rachel's coming down tonight, which should be a good time. A lot of stuff is happening this weekend: Pike, Stupalooza, Ratatouille opening; hopefully we get to attend/enjoy it all. Should be a good time no matter what.

Heel still hurts, but it's feeling a little better. I need to stop using it as an excuse not to work out.

Today's Workout:
Rest Day

On the iPod:
Chroma by Cartel

Lightning-ed Out...

2007-06-28T15:00:00.000-04:00

Had draft league again tonight. The heel didn't feel great, but I figured that I should at least try since my draft team needs me more than the Illuminati do. I had bought some new insoles to replace what was left of the originals, but due to the apparent preponderance of shin splints the only insoles I could find were massively insulated and didn't fit worth a damn. It was intermittently raining at the fields and by the time the lightning rolled around (along with a lot more rain) we were up 10-4 or so and I had had enough of playing. We won due to weather and I couldn't decide whether to curse the heavens for the weather or thank the Gods for getting me off the field.

Perhaps this is just a geographic thing, but on reflection I can remember only a handful of tournaments that I've played in college in inclement weather. Ignoring wind, it seems that significantly bad weather usually gets tournaments cancelled (exceptions: Salisbury freshman year, Rutgers-Sectionals sophomore year) in the tri-state area. However, my first two tournaments in AK were held in bad weather and I've heard of a number of tournaments on the west coast that almost advertise their bad weather. I talked briefly to Meredith about this and she thought that fields were cared for more frequently (re-sodded, maintained) on the west coast. Then why the hell aren't fields on this coast cared for? Having tournaments rescheduled/moved is frustrating and problematic for teams and tournament directors. Perhaps securing better fields with better funding should be a primary concern of the UPA.

Today's Workout:
Mercer Draft League (abbreviated)

On the iPod:
The Possibility and the Promise by Amber Pacific

Ouch

2007-06-27T15:00:00.001-04:00

I didn't go to A league tonight, mainly because my heel is still throbbing. Took a long nap instead, which capped off an uneventful and boring day. When your life is work, frisbee, sleep and you cut one of them out due to physical limitation, you don't have much to talk about. Unless someone wants to hear about HDMR and its fascinating optimal polynomial functions, I'm signing off.

Today's Workout:
Rest Day

On the iPod:
Zoo by Anadivine

Sun shining through the clouds...

2007-06-26T15:00:00.000-04:00

I played a decent game of ultimate tonight, probably my best of the summer. I covered Goose, Lehigh's ex-captain, pretty much all night and felt like I contained him. I had some good grabs in the air and felt good pretty much all-around. Sadly, I bruised my heel at the end of the half and it's currently reminding me that I kept playing.

We didn't have any women, which meant we had to play a man down, but the other team allowed us to play 7 men on offense, which helped significantly. We also managed to break them while playing a man down. Eventually, we co-opted a random passerby into playing with us and besides her complete inexperience, we went on to dominate.

Hopefully the heel doesn't keep me from A league tomorrow.

Today's Workout:
MCUDL Draft league

Currently Reading:
Mists of Avalon by MZ Bradley

On the iPod:
Good Apollo I'm Burning IV: Part One by Coheed and Cambria

Team Defense vs. Individual Glory

2007-06-25T15:00:00.000-04:00

Over the last two seasons, I've seen our team improve significantly on defense. Particularly compared to my freshman year, we play significantly harder and force more turns. At the same time, we haven't reached anything near great defense. I think part of this lies in our philosophy.

We often talk about "winning" individual match-ups. In pregame talks, we tell people to "beat" their men to the disc. However, even if you are more athletic, more skilled, or more good-looking, you won't always be able to do this. Positioning, situations (particularly fast breaks), and dumb luck constantly allow comparatively slower or weaker players to get the disc. This isn't an insult to our players, it's simply the truth about a game that is heavily weighted towards the offensive team.

Great defense is not seven individual's "winning" their match-ups. There are a host of small, important details that separate seven glory-minded players from a hard-nosed defensive team. If we want to win games at big tournaments and at regionals, we need to incorporate these elements.

Thinking about our last season, our deep defense was never particularly strong. Our dump defense wasn't particularly effective and we often got beat on the open side. While we did play strong defense against weak teams (a difference from previous years), we couldn't hold that same intensity against stronger teams (GDub, Pitt).

The failure of an individual-centric defensive philosophy is its lack of trust. On defense, trust between teammates is essential because it evens the playing field between offender and defender and allows individuals an even chance to "win" their match-ups.

Simple things like holding forces (NOT reaching for the point block), utilizing the mark as a method of dump defense, and calling switches to prevent deep throws require trust and unselfishness between teammates.

On defense, it doesn't matter how many blocks you get or how many in-cuts you cover. If the other team scores, you failed. Period. We need to approach defense with a chip on our shoulders. We need to be just as happy when a teammate gets a block as when we do. GDub once described their team strategy as blue-collar defense. We play too much white-collar defense, relying on ourselves over our teammates. We need to be smash-mouth, hard-nosed defenders, but we also need to be a team. I think the only thing holding us back is desire, a willingness to be part of a team.

I'm fucking excited for next season, are you?

Today's Workout:
Shoulder Rehab
Pike Core Workout

Currently Reading:
Mists of Avalon by MZ Bradley (on hiatus)
Stone of Tears by Terry Goodkind

On the iPod:
Greatest Hits by Bob Dylan

Boston, Day Two

2007-06-24T15:00:00.000-04:00

Day two of the sideline adventure. Pike had three games against Truck Stop (who had lost to GOAT the previous day to finish 2nd in their pool), Zebra Muscles and the Van Buren Boys (apparently the men from CLX, a pretty iconic mixed team; their women also played under the name "Small Rackages").

Again, no recaps. Suitable ones can be found at Dusty's blog (Boston, Day Two) and scores can be seen on the UPA score reporter (Boston Invitational).

The team had the same problems as Saturday; too many turnovers, miscommunications, sluggish early play and the complete and utter inability to score on D. Hilarious that moving from college to club reveals the same problems in the same areas. At times we looked strong and at times we looked incompetent, hopefully it's just early season play.

I got to play one point on defense, which was definitely the most stressful two minutes of my weekend. My man didn't touch the disc, but we got scored on without forcing a turn. Made me have some thoughts about defense (will discuss further on Monday).

At the end of the tourney, caught a ride back with Dono and his wife. We were joined by Dan Yi and Emily (Wicked), which turned the once-spacious backseat into a rather cramped experience. One car ride later and there are now funny pictures of me asleep along with the knowledge that my iPod nano and Dono's 10k song monster have ~10 songs in common (either I have obscure musical taste or he does, I'm going with me...). Good weekend.

Today's Workout:
Boston Invitational, Day Two

On the iPod:
Dizzy Up the Girl by Goo Goo Dolls (the only common songs...)

Boston, Day One

2007-06-23T15:00:00.000-04:00

The first day of Boston was a lot of fun. Pike played four games against Medicine Men, PoNY (with ex-Pike and Princeton alumnus Bailey Russell), Boston and New Noise. The sideline wasn't as fun as playing, but it was a nice experience being a "partial" observer while being part of the team.

I'm not going to recap each game individually. Decent recaps can be found on Dusty's blog (Boston Invitational, Day One) and scores can be seen on the UPA score reporter (Boston Invitational).

I think most of the team feels that Pike underperformed at the tournament. From my perspective, I saw a lot of chemistry and mental problems relative to other teams. PoNY, in particular, looked to have a lot of trust between their players and this definitely proved crucial to their upset of Boston and going 3-0 in the pool. Particularly on defense, we had numerous turnovers on dumps/swings/poor deep throws, all of which rely on trust/chemistry between teammates.

While the O line had similar problems early in the tournament, they seemed to mesh moreso than the D as the tournament progressed. I would say they were also more effective integrating newer players (Mutton, Perry, Art), which is probably due to their tighter rotation. The team brought 20-some D players, but seemed to be playing all of them equally or half in a tight rotation. I think this hurt any chemistry that was developing.

A large portion of the team went to Applebee's for dinner. Results: Foss may be one of the funniest guys I know, my ID appears to work even though it LOUDLY states "Under 21" and is expired and Perry needs to keep a tighter watch on his french fries. After watching some "Deadliest Catch" and explaining that I didn't know anyone on the show, the bed was pretty sweet.

Today's Workout:
Boston Invitational

On the iPod:
Magnificient City Instrumentals by Rjd2

Off to Boston

2007-06-22T15:00:00.000-04:00

Nothing special to report, today. I'm catching a ride up to Boston with Dono and his wife, should be a fun ride/trip. I've supposedly got a bed both nights, which feels weird, but thriftiness appears to be the watch-word.

Yesterday's Workout:
Shoulder Rehab
Pike Core Workout

Today's Workout:
Rest Day

On the iPod:
Black Lines to Battlefields by Acceptance

O and D?

2007-06-21T21:21:00.000-04:00

Since I’ve been on Clockwork, we have never divided the team into concrete offensive and defensive lines/teams. At the same time, a number of elite teams in the area (and in the country) readily use this system. The question that remains is: do the advantages of such a division outweigh the disadvantages for OUR team?

As I see it, the advantages to separate O and D lines are:
-develops cohesion/chemistry quicker by focusing on smaller groups
-allows individuals to focus strongly on specific elements of the game
-helps hide individuals who have a specific weakness
-helps divide playing time more efficiently (works to prevent over/under-playing)

The disadvantages are:
-limits the play of “stud” players
-requires a large(r) team of players to draw from
-makes “all-star” lines less effective as they will have less practice together
-limits the effectiveness of players as they will be hurt on opposite side of the disc

Thinking about our team for next year, I think that many of the disadvantages listed can be strongly minimized. Our roster doesn’t utilize (at least not last year) a single “stud” player, but operates as a replaceable system. We are going to have 16+ players to draw from next year, so our roster appears to be large enough to support separate sides. Compared to how we ran lines this year, our “all-star” line saw play about as rarely as it would under O/D lines and assuming it drew fairly evenly between the two groups, chemistry would still exist. The final point is only a disadvantage if practice isn’t tailored to counteract this occurrence. O lines must play defense and D lines must score off turnovers, so neither can neglect the alternate side.

I think that such a division would allow us to train/groom players more quickly as they will be trained for specific roles rather than trying to make everyone a jack-of-all-trades. Furthermore, the problems we’ve had in the past with calling even lines would be somewhat alleviated.

As I see it, we could divide the team as follows:
O: Petums, Taint, Ding-Bang, Jonah, Nasty, Mik, Brain, Sam, Gibbs
D: Mutton, Jabe, Potter, Me, John-O, Kulkarni, Tomi, Hugh

Whether this is an optimal split could be debated, but I think that having set practice teams with set goals would definitely help us develop earlier in the season.

Yesterday’s Workout:
Rest Day

On the iPod:
Punk Goes Acoustic Vol. 2

Tournaments and Competition

2007-06-20T15:41:00.000-04:00

Was reading a random post about the best tournaments in the world (the ultimate version of "50 places to go before you die..."), and it started me thinking about the tournaments I'd attended as a college player and on my own. There is an obvious difference between the two categories, but thinking about those differences put me on a different thought path.

Of the few tournaments I've attended outside of Clockwork, the focus has primarily centered on having fun as a team, enjoying the party, heckling/spirit/etc. Yet, tournaments with that emphasis exist in the college game (and I've attended a handful) along with developmental tournaments and the aforementioned serious tourneys. The question that became apparent was: how does a team approach these tournaments and should they attend them?

At least in the fall, I definitely think "fun" and "developing" tournaments are useful and somewhat necessary to build team chemistry and camaraderie, but I question there usefulness in the spring. Looking back at the season just-finished, we attended 3 serious and 1 "fun" tourney in the spring (outside of the Series). At least at the first two serious tournaments, I felt that we still needed significant work on fundamental skills and that the "fun" tournament, while enjoyable, taught the team very little.

If we want to do better next year, I feel that we need to be finished with "developing" by the time the Spring season arrives and we need to focus hard on serious tournaments. As much as I enjoy Georgia, I don't feel that it helps the on-field team any. Dartmouth and Cornell both took their spring break in Charleston, SC this year and practiced/scrimmaged (against one another, GTech, good teams...), which appears better for the team than High Tide was (even though it was a fantastic time otherwise). I would rather replace High Tide with practice and relaxation and playing a serious tournament on the other side of Spring Break.

I would also like to play other, less-geographically centered tournaments, but that will be discussed in a later post.

Yesterday's Workout:
Pike Leg Workout

Currently Reading:
The Mists of Avalon by MZ Bradley

On the iPod:
Santi by The Academy Is...

Harry Potter (almost)

2007-06-19T19:49:00.000-04:00

Failed to keep my book-a-day pace going, got mired down in the second Harry Potter (or just didn't finish it, "mired" seems the wrong word for light fare). No groundbreaking thoughts to report (at least none fully developed, had random ideas about set plays in Swedish and how to teach dumps and marks, later posts). There will be a long(er) post later with my thoughts about Harry Potter in advance of the 7th book being released.

Yesterday's Workout:
4 mile run with sprints
Shoulder Re-hab
Pike Core Workout

On the iPod:
Armed to the Teeth by Abandoned Pools

Slow Day

2007-06-18T20:38:00.000-04:00

I woke up pretty early and simply couldn't muster the inertia to accomplish much. Read a good bit, ended up working out for awhile, but honestly didn't do anything of significance. This whole summer has been a bit "slow," at least in the sense that I feel less drive to work than I should.

Yesterday's Workout:
Rest Day

Currently Reading:
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by JK Rowling

On the iPod:
The Broadcast Debut

Father's Day

2007-06-17T21:22:00.000-04:00

Called my dad today. Sadly, he was in the midst of a mechanical problem with our boat, so I didn't get to have a particularly long or substantive conversation with him. For someone who I spent so much of my childhood (at least in perception) clashing with, it's astounding to realize how much we have in common. I know I already said it on the phone, but in case he ever reads this:

I love you, dad.

Yesterday's Workout:
Pike Practice (6+ hours)
Pike Core Workout

Currently Reading:
Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind

On the iPod:
The Turn

Another cog in the machine...

2007-06-17T00:47:00.000-04:00

Pike today. And that was pretty much it.

Even though the practices last for a long time (6+ hours today), I find that I learn far more at each practice than I did all season this year. Paraphrasing Mutton, "it's nice to be the soldier in the army and not the general." Since I was probably a colonel in the Clockwork army, I guess my experience shouldn't be as drastic, but it's still kind of shocking.

In random other news, I found Mission Impossible: III to be a pretty good movie, much better than the no-substance II.

Yesterday's Workout:
Pike Down-Ladder (Mile warmup, 200, 175, 150, 125, 100, 80, 60, 40, cooldown)

Currently Reading:
The Watchmen by Alan Moore

On the iPod:
A Day at the Fair

Ab initio mundi

2007-06-15T14:01:00.000-04:00

Let there be light.

Yesterday's Workout:
Shoulder Rehab
Pike Core Workout

Currently Reading:
The Uplift War by David Brin

On the iPod:
So Impossible EP by Dashboard Confessional