hmmm... barbecue...
The weekend had ups and downs in Austin. It was hot, we folded in some games, and yet fought through bad ultimate in other games to keep it close.
This early season has been quite the experience for me as a captain. I'm learning more about what I need to work on to be a great captain, but I'm not there yet. I'm learning more and more about my teammates, which is awesome, but now it is time to start putting some things together instead of just getting experiences together.
It will be quite the interesting season, and the reminders of seeing Goat, Bravo and Doublewide's varying styles of ultimate, it left me with a lot of thinking to do about what Pike's style will be this season and in the future. So many different paths to success to consider and reconsider. Once we figure out which blocks we have, we'll determine what kind of castle to build.
Nothing is set yet, but I'm starting to fill in the blanks with this team, and I'm loving what I'm seeing.
Thursday, May 8
Austin
Friday, May 2
got my metrocard...
from my colombian coworker who got it from some mexican tourists...
and my ultimate bag with sleeping bag/pad (so it is a little large).
I must be going to Live Logic.
Have plane tickets, rental car info and directions to relevant places.
Have a small team, but that's great for the guys looking for experience. Both in new roles and with new teammates and all of that. Opportunities to play against Nationals-levels teams are worth it for players trying to expand their club games or just learn what the club game really is. Everyone knows Bravo, Goat and DW bring it, and I think we may have had a tight one with Grit last year taboot. Should be a blast.
Hope we rise to our team and individual challenges this weekend!
Sunday, June 3
Day Two
Wow, sleep is not in any way overrated.
Without the obscene amount of sleep last night or the Endurox right after the Bravo loss yesterday, there is no way that I'd be walking today. Fortunately, we have a ton of time until the game starts at 11:45. If only there were some establishment in the area that would serve up a fatty, greasy breakfast to complete my recuperation...
Dennys it is!
Ate the classic Moons over my Hammy sans American processed cheese-like food with some coffee. Got the fields a little later than we wanted to, but missed nothing and were pretty well warmed up for the start of this one.
Game 6 vs Black Angus:
I don't remember this game being close at all, but I don't remember the final score either. In fact, I can't remember anything at all about this game, now that I think about it. We won and I yelled "Angus!" at least twice. Seemed like the right thing to do at the time.
After this, we watched DWY play DWX after a horribly long injury time out. If the one that didn't win had won by 1 or 2 points, we would have been in the finals. Or, we could have chosen to nut up the day before and play like men to keep our destiny in our own hands... In any case, DWY won the right to face Bravo in the finals. This, while it would seem to be a mismatch on paper, went in favor of DWY who won 13-9.
I have nothing to say about that game because we headed to the airport to get drunk and play Blokus. After hearing enough about it, I got to try my hand at this game (the triangular version) for a round. I like it and I think I'm going to have to buy a copy. I almost pulled out the win, but Jamie had to be and ass and blokus me to let TC win. Jerkface.
Our flight, once again, was delayed by about an hour and a half which gave much time for beer consumption. Always makes the flight more fun. on the flight back, Jamie, Dono and I discussed a bunch of strategy stuff. Perfectly confusing conversation for everyone around us, I would imagine.
Got back pretty late that night due to the vagaries of the Airtrain and NJ Transit schedules. We ended up getting a ride from the airport from a friend who happened to be in the area. That shortened the trip by about an hour. Sweet. Not home early, but in time to get some solid shut-eye before work the next day. Summer league starts tomorrow!
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Workout Total:
1.5 hours of ultimate
Saturday, June 2
LiveLogic, Day One
"What the hell is that noise?"
"That's my 'sport' ring. It came with the phone."
And that's how we started our morning on Day one of Livelogic. Brought to coherence by my stupid phone's irritating (but very 'active') alarm at ~7:15am. We were pressed for time already. This is no good. We're supposed to be at the fields at 8am to warmup for the 9am game against... well... someone from Texas, I'm sure. Aha! Grit! Not grits, but Grit.
We've got Ian now to join in our car with Malcolm, Heng-Scheng, Jamie and yours truly. What a car of idiots. We need to stop at a grocery store, but can't find one because we were naively expecting to find one on the way to the fields. This, of course, is after Ian has tossed my carefully printed directions out in favor of his GPS. Into this crazy contraption he looks for grocery stores or something and we end up at a cut-rate place of some sort. The fruit guy assured Jamie that the cherries were fantastic.
I purchased grapes, nuts, jerky and water. The rest? I don't know what those fools bought. ecept for Heng-Scheng. He bought Jeff Foxworthy Beef Jerky. Excellent choice. Back to the fields! commence the back-seat driving!
We get there before anything major has happened, but we miss out on time to throw in favor of applying sunscreen. Bad omen. I really like getting to know the air (so to speak) at fields before I play my games there. Lots of blades in warmups helps me get a feel for what the day will be like. Jog, active warmups, dynanics, quick drill, gametime.
The team for the weekend was: Dono, Trey, Brandon, Malcolm, Ian, Heng-Scheng, Jamie, Vlad, Raphael, Schmucker, TC, Tim Johnson, Spanish, Jon Fink and I. Depend on how the roles break down this year, that leaves us with 2-3 O players and 13-12 D players. Can you say "broken pull play?" The other thing that sticks out about this group is that there are only three players who have been with the team for over 1 season. Trey has been with us since 01 or 02 (I don't know which) and Dono and I have been with the team since 03 (the last time he got a D on me was that first practice back in 03) The rest of the list contains 3 tryouts and 9 players whose first season was 06. Big changes from way back when... Wait a second... I'm sounding old. Fuck that.
Game One vs Grit from Dallas:
This team loves to throw deep. We adjusted slowly, when at all. I think we got out to a couple point lead at some point, and I know that they were ahead for a point or two. Eventually, we rallied the troops and pulled out a 13-12 victory. This is exactly the sort of game that you do not want to start a 5-game day with. 25 points? If we had played with a little less risk on O and actually recognized/adjusted to their strengths/weaknesses on D, we would have played closer to 20-22 point range. We just had some unbelievable turnovers and many of their completions had a surprisingly high degree of difficulty.
Game Two vs Doublewide X:
The first thing that I remember from this game was being down at half 6-7. That's bad. After losing to halves of Boston, this was frustrating. I also remember this game containing the first of many impressive Ds by Spanish in his continuing campaign to make Pike 07 from a powerhouse like Lehigh. Offense intended, Mullen/Felt/Gimp et al. I got in at 8-8 launched a slightly floaty flick huck to TC to put us up 9-8 and then converted the D on a backhand huck to someone really open. 10-8, us. I know I got back into this game at some point, when we closed it out 13-11. This was a good mental victory for us, as we were down going into half and worked hard to get the win from behind. There's a slight here against D player-mentality if you look hard enough. DWY was very athletic and it seemed like they had a ton of college-aged kids with them. We also heard rumor that this was their first tournament of the season save for some goofball affair earlier in March. Not too shabby-- y'all are looking good for 07.
Game Three vs Turbodog:
During the game before this, I glanced to the sideline and was sure I saw Dan Sage (ex-Pike) standing there. I had this same feeling a couple of weeks ago at some other tournament too. The rumor was then confirmed by Dono and Trey. It was, in fact, Dan Sage. Apparently, everyone on Turbodog was convinced that he never actually played for Pike. Not sure why, exactly, but that's what they said. Anyway, they had fewer people than us due to both traveling and injuries from earlier in the day. Not sure that this one was every really in question with a 13-5 victory. nice to get a break after this one.
Game Four vs DeeDubEx:
Met a short guy named Max early in this game. He fouled me a couple of times. Seemed like a good guy regardless. I hope the calls that got a little testy in this game didn't rub Double the wrong way. The call game a two-lane street and both teams agreed to travel it. They came out much stronger than we did and took a pretty good lead into half, if I remember properly. We waited until later in the game and made a decent, but ultimately useless, run to lose 12-13. I had two travels called on me in this one. The first I had no argument for as that is a particular throw that I sometimes travel on. I asked the player if he was sure and he said yes. No argument from me-- I just wanted him to replay it in his mind before he brought the completed huck back. The second was a couple of throws later when I launched another huck to Trey. This was a backhand caught off of a swing pass to the backhand side. The travel was called for a very clear reason: In continuation, I established a pivot with my right foot to get the huck off.
To attempt a clearer description: I was being forced flick. I completed a backhand dump and ran the give-go to the other side of the field. The thrower led me beautifully and I caught this disc running to my left, perpendicular to the sideline. I knew that I was going to huck, based on where Trey was when I dumped it-- he was going to take it to the house. As such, I purposely caught the disc in motion and hucked from the wrong pivot foot. Specifically, caught the disc just as my right foot left the ground, stepped with my left, started the throwing motion and completed the throwing motion with my right foot planted instead of my left. When you complete this sequence, you, essentially, pull the disc instead of huck it. It is entirely legal and always starts an argument. On the other hand, you cannot stop (unless you jump stop, which is a whole other conversation) and then throw, you need to throw in motion. This also helps get around the mark as he tries to slide and stay with you and seal or get further separation from the mark as he stays to stop the flick break.
A small, civil discussion ensued as I explained this to my defender, and he recanted the travel. Pointless argument, as it turned out, because Trey was tackled by the turf monster on the way to the disc and it was an TO. Shoot. First one on the weekend.
This was a good game, but s shitty game all at once. We worked hard late, but why not do that from the beginning? We made some strides on O and D in this game as we worked on defending the aggressive DW ho-stack. I was happy we got to play this one.
Game Five vs Johnny Bravo.
Well, uh, we got stomped. Our sideline and on-field players lacked the desire or the energy to put forth effort in this one. No matter how frustrating those other games were on a "too many needless points" level, this one was more so. I felt like our team was throwing in the towel and bitching about playing the fifth straight game in the (admittedly disgusting) heat instead of rallying everything we had left to challenge Bravo in this game. Sure, we would have fared better in this one if we had played it in, say, the second round, but that's no comfort when you let the other team dictate on both O and D. I tried just about everything in this one to get my team up, but it wasn't going to happen. What a waste of time this game was for both teams. At least I got to run JD around until we both wanted to crawl off the field.
After the game, we stretched and went to Barton Springs and then directly to the Green Mesquite BBQ. Someone had chicken-fried chicken. Wow. I had the Jambalaya, which was excellent. Then we tried to get back to the hotel, but we got cut off by the Austin Pride Parade. You'd imagine that an event planner or a cop or someone would have the foresight to block the roads off before you end in an alley at the parade itself. Not the case. So, after sitting for ~20 minutes, Malcolm had the bright idea to get all of the cars behind us to go the wrong way on a one-way street in order to escape. It worked like a charm.
Back to the hotel, shower, pass out.
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Workout Total:
8 hours of ultimate
Friday, June 1
A Trip to Travel Hell
Getting to our Super 8 in Austin was a terrible experience.
It was a summer Friday at work (meaning Margaritas at 2pm and leaving an hour or two early), so things started off well. I returned home to do some last minute packing and iPod loading. Considering that I live in Jersey, I figured now would be a good time to start watching The Sopranos since the series finale is coming up.
Oh, before I forget, what the hell was up with LeBron last night? You can't score 29/30 points in the fourth quarter and overtime in the NBA. Let alone in the Conference Fucking Finals. One of two things needed to happen: Double Bron as/before he caught the ball or Knock him the hell out. I suspect that the former may be easier than the latter. If you think that Rick Mahorn would let one guy get a layups or dunks at that point in the game without being slammed to the ground, you're crazy. Too bad Antonio McD wasted a hard foul on Anderson Varejao early in the game. That former star can definitely play the enforcer role. Seriously, this game was ridiculous. Completely Ridiculous. I can't imagine being good enough to singlehandedly overcome a strong opponent while having Mike Brown as a coach. End NBA interlude.
Continuing the iPod load, I finally constructed my summer go-to playlist for 07. The list includes over 1250 songs from a variety of artists/genres and should serve me well for the majority of the summer. A list (Artist/# of Songs/Album):
I think this one will work well. Thus far, it has definitely been more than the sum of its parts. The iPod is fantastic. Massive playlists with loose themes are like having your own radio station. And my radio station always kicks ass.
So, the plan was to get to the airport with Jamie, take off just after 8pm and touch down a little after 11pm on the same flight as Heng-Scheng and Jamie, get the rental car, get Ian, wait a little bit for Malcolm and roll into the hotel at 1am at the latest. Seems easy, right? We made reservations for a plane, a car and a hotel. I printed directions to everywhere that we needed to go (AND brought them with me). We had ample time at the airport. Instead, our flight was delayed. In fact, we didn't take off from Newark until we were supposed to land in Austin. Aw hell. I'm definitely not drinking enough water in the downtime, either. Scheduled arrival: 2:30am. Grr.
Manage to survive the plane by sleeping in fits and starts. Waking up suddenly and never really getting to sleep. Just what I wanted before the tournament. Fuck that, I'll just push that excuse out of my head. One more challenge to overcome. Turns out Malcolm was in more of a bind as his flight from JFK was even further delayed, and would be arriving at ~3:20am. I let him know that we wouldn't be waiting for him, just as he asked us not to.
Managed to get the car (sunroof!) and get going to the Super 8 (a mere 5 minutes from the fields). The roads in Austin are very easy to maneuver at that time of the morning, as we arrived without a major slip-up. As we pulled into the hotel, we were struck by the fantastic number of bikes in the lot. That's odd. I don't know that I've seen more than one ultimate player with a motorcycle. Perhaps it has something to do with The Biggest Motorcycle Rally in Texas. (FOGHAT!) By applying the principle that "Everything is bigger in Texas" we concluded that either this is also the large4st motorcycle rally anywhere or someone is lying.
Jamie seemed to be taking an inordinate amount of time to check into the hotel at 3am. Nothing good can come of this. Eventually he came out and said "They're playing Star Wars in here, you should come sit on the couch with me." As it came out later, what he really meant to say was "They're running a 'Night Audit' which means they can't check anyone in until it is over, which will be at approximately 4am. You should come inside and watch Return of the Jedi while we rot in the waiting room."
Niiiice.
It took us ~20 minutes to find a parking spot because the majority of the people staying there were bikers who each brought a truck, a trailer and a number of bikes. We eventually waited while someone walked to his car and sat in it for ~10 minutes. When I gave up and circled the lot again, he finally left his spot. Maybe it was the whole "sit ominously in the dark with two other dudes in a car with the lights off while we watch your every move" thing that made him suspicious. Maybe.
Malcolm then arrived and tried to go to the room that we had given him the number for. Oddly, it was not the room that we were in, it was the room that Tim Johnson was in. Tim was awoken by a random knock, and Malcolm was greeted by something along the lines of "Unfuckingbelievable." Malcolm them proceeded to find us and wait as well.
At ~4:30 we checked into the room and set our alarms for 7am for a 9am game so that we could hopefully eat breakfast and get to a grocery store while maximizing our sleep...
Wednesday, May 30
Back to the Leg Circuit
Finally finished the final leg circuit!
Very pleased about the end of that torture. I didn't reach my goal of 7:20, but I did improve to 7:31 from 7:42 on Monday. That being said, one Dono came in at 6:25 which is a terrifying notion. He's concerned that he did them wrong. I'm far more concerned that he did them right.
I think I'll be sufficiently recovered by this weekend for LiveLogic in Austin, TX. That being said, I don't think that I realized we would only be taking 15 guys down for this one when I planned the leg circuit to finish this week. Ah well. Should be lots of PT for everyone one way or the other. The heat doesn't worry me as much as it seems to worry everyone else.
The thing that worries me is playing Bravo in our 5th consecutive game of the day. I feel that the 5th consecutive game in a day is going to be a killer no matter the heat. Why we're facing the top-seeded team in a showcase game after 4 other games is unbeknownst to me. If we're going to succeed over the course of 5 games, we will need to conserve energy by not wasting energy on offense or defense and avoid long drawn-out/tight games/points. Not historically our strong suit. Perhaps we'll turn the corner this weekend.
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Workout Total:
7:31 Leg Circuit
10 min shoulder work
10 min wobble board
10 minute upper body explosive strength
30 min stretching