Made the trek to New Brunswick for pickup today. Turnout was 14 with the Rutgers kids out of town for Atlantis. Former/current/possible Pike players in attendance: Myself, Jamie, Dono, Walt, B.Lo, Raphael and Vlad.
It was beautiful weather for early March though the mud was very difficult for planting/jumping and the wind steadily increased in strength as the day went on.
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There has been some discussion of retaining the services of a trainer for the team in 07 (which I think is a fantastic idea). This made me wonder about how many teams are already doing this. We have all, by this point, heard of Bryan Doo and DoG and I imagine that a number of college teams are allowed to use the trainers at their schools. The value of expertise in physical preparation for ultimate seems clear to me. In particular in light of the combination of endurance and explosion needed to perform in the current tournament competition paradigm.
The cost for services like this are, at this point, unknown to me, but I cannot imagine that a team working toward Nationals would not be willing to invest the money in order to be better prepared for the particular rigors of the sport.
Right now, the model for training is often one of "Hey, which guy trains a lot? Let's make him run it." Often this player is more than willing to do so in addition to being rather capable. That being said, he rarely has the qualifications or experience of a professional. Likely he has found something that works for him but may not be applicable for everyone else on the team.
If it hasn't happened already, I expect that in the next 3-5 years a decisive majority of teams will employ their own trainers. Of course, if it has happened already, well, it's just another sign of me being behind the times.
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Workout Total:
2.5 Hours of Pickup
Saturday, March 3
NJ Pickup
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2 comments:
Dust., surprised you don't play prospect park. About 60 showed on Saturday, three simultaneous games, some good players, some so-so, all played hard. Pony, Brooklyn, Puppet, they all represented.
Well, Josh was just telling me the same thing about this past weekend. The Prospect Park game, for me, has always been hit or miss. Sometimes it is competitive enough for me, sometimes it isn't. It always upsets me when pickup guys won't go through the trouble of bringing a white and dark shirt per person and making it easy.
The other thing to keep in mind that ever since I paid $175 to have my car stolen (That's probably a story for another time), getting to New Brunswick and getting to Prospect Park take nearly identical amounts of time. The difference is that more of my Pike teammates play at NB than Prospect. Unless someone (Mafia Vinny, for example) gives me the heads up that there will be some friends/players there... well... I opt for the Pike guys and potential recruits.
Also, I know what I'm getting there: Enough competitive players that it doesn't degenerate AND I get to play with my brother.
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