As per usual, let me apologize for my writing hiatus. Since my last entry I've purchased a new home, captained a burgeoning club mens team, joined the FC Ultimate board of directors, and worked through the fall season of my 6th year as the coach of the Colorado State Men's Ultimate team. I've had several ideas as to what I wanted this first post of 2014 to be about (hopefully this translates to more entries soon!), but as a huge winter storm hit Colorado last night I think mother nature has decided for me.
I first thought about the subject matter for this entry when I saw this map linked from the USA Ultimate Facebook page:
Membership Statistics
It's an interesting picture of the density of competitive ultimate players. Obviously, the high population west and east coast hubs make up a huge concentration of players but what jumped out to me most notably was the "island" that is the 1500+ members that live in Colorado.
While it's a blessing to live and play in a state with a large concentration of players, it still presents a unique competitive challenge for college teams in the area: travel distance.
My freshmen year of college (2003) this was just our spring tournament schedule(the team has always driven to every tournament we attend):
Masochist - Colorado Springs, CO - 2 hours (one way, Sunday ended up being cancelled because of 6 inches of snow Saturday night)
Mardi Gras - Baton Rouge, LA - 19 hours (one way)
Southerns/High Tide - Statesboro/Tybee Island, GA - 29 hours (one way)
Fools Fest - Lawrence, KA - 8.5 hours (one way)
Sectionals - Golden, CO - 1.25 hours (one way)
Regionals - Santa Barbara, CA - 19 hours (one way)
The moral of the story: to be a competitive college team in Colorado you must travel, and you must travel far. When the college restructuring moved Colorado State from the Southwest region to the Southcentral, travel times went down for us slightly. Instead of 18 hours to San Diego or Santa Barbara we'd go 14 hours to St. Louis or 15 hours to Austin. Now our tournament totals have tapered off since my first year, we travel less than in the past and set up more local scrimmages, but the raw travel numbers from that first year are still pretty daunting.
Now I know there are other college teams that deal with similar situations or worse (sorry Montana teams), but the simple fact is, to play the sport we love competitively, it's a very large time travel commitment on top of all the other (physical) commitments there are.
So what does mother nature have to do with any of this? Well, not only does Colorado State get to drive hundreds of hours every season we also deal with wonderful Colorado weather. Our IM fields on campus close from November 1st until the end of the end of March. We are very lucky to have an awesome sports club staff who negotiates with our athletics department for time on the outdoor and indoor turf fields that our football program use for this down-time, but our late fall and early spring practices are oftentimes completely limited to track workouts.
All these factors came together in a brutal reminder when the team traveled to the Santa Barbara Invite this past weekend. After the debacle of weather delays and cancellations from our spring tournament schedule in the mid west last season, the team leadership decided we'd forgo regular season games versus regional competition, swallow the longer travel times and travel to tournaments with somewhat guaranteed good weather.
So, this past weekend (January 25th and 26th, the first weekend after our semester started) we rolled into Santa Barbara with a small squad of 17/29 of the players on our roster (travelling during the first week of school proved difficult for a number of our players). I had hoped some veteran experience would mitigate some of the rustiness since we hadn't played "real" Ultimate since MLC back in November, but with our 5th year captain tearing his MCL skiing over break, and losing one of our other main handlers to a bad ankle sprain, the team was woefully thin at the handler position.
This video of our game against Arizona Sunburn (awesome editing by the way Sunburn, thank you!) sums our problems pretty effectively, sloppy play from the handler spots and inexperience on rotations and swings:
Colorado State vs Arizona SBI 2014
In addition, many of the California teams are from schools on the quarter system, so they'd had several weeks of practice leading up to the tournament whereas we had only one practice in 2 inches of snow the Wednesday before the tournament. (The point of this is not to provide a myriad of excuses for our poor performance. When we scheduled the tournament at the beginning of the fall, we knew the difficult situation we'd be putting ourselves in.)
We got steamrolled, simple and true. We finished 17th out of 18 teams with both our wins coming against a spirited, but very small UC Irvine squad. As we did our team wrap-up after our last game Sunday I strove to drive this key point home point home: a lot of sloppiness and team mistakes we made over the weekend were correctable (drops, throwaways etc), and that the experience our young players got from playing against solid west coast teams would be hugely beneficial for the rest of the season.
We got back to town just ahead of a big storm front Monday and Wednesday night's practice was cancelled due to 2+ inches of snow still caked on the field. Thursday, a new storm rolled in and we moved our practice time two hours earlier to try and beat it.
This is where this whole rambling piece comes to fruition; as the snow began to fall harder and harder during our Thursday practice, the intensity level picked up. Partly due to the soft landing surface the snow provided and partly due to just being fired up from getting our butts kicked at the tournament five days prior, the amount of bids and defensive intensity went through the roof. As it got colder and the snow got deeper the team just kept working harder (the more you run, the warmer you stay). We wrapped practice up with a series of sprints and as I watched the team running through the falling snow I could help but marvel at how incredible the whole scene was: 20+ young men, soaked from the snow, running their hearts out through what would turn into a full-blown blizzard in an hours time.
As much of a bummer as it was not to do better at the Invite, that practice, with that energy, and the way the scene played-out as the snow fell was a perfect reminder as to what makes Ultimate such a wondrous sport. Practices like that make all the 19 hour van rides 100% worth it. I can't imagine a better place to call my Ultimate home than Colorado and everything that comes with it.
Sunday, February 2, 2014
Sunday, April 28, 2013
A Top 8 South Central Regionals Perspective (non-ozark/texas style)
A Top 8 South Central Regionals Perspective (non-ozark/texas style)
No disrespect to any players/alumni from the Ozark and Texas sections, but ever since the regional redistribution that moved the Colorado teams from the Southwest to the South-central, much of the chatter and banter has been, for the most part, originating from the east side of the Colorado/Kansas border.
I’ve coached the Colorado State men’s team for the past five years (playing five years on the team previous to that), and given my unique (maybe rare is a better word) perspective from the Rocky Mountain conference and our team’s regionals experience this year, I’m going to throw out some semblance of a write-up for Saturday of South-Central regionals.
First off, I’m going to steer clear of any real mention of CU here. They’re a strong team every year. Insert XXXXX player here who currently plays nex-gen, bravo etc. They’re fantastic at churning out great players; much respect in that regards to Catt (years past), Jim and Brent (years current) and their core of veterans that continue to churn out an elite-level team from year to year for the past decade plus.
We (Colorado State) went into the tournament as an 11 seed, which from our perspective was a (very) slight under-seed. Our spring tournament schedule was plagued with weather cancellations and delays. Free State Classic was completely shut down. Huck finn was delayed and then played out in pretty ridiculous conditions (thank you Wash U for getting us games we needed) making the results hardly indicative of the relative strengths of many of the teams involved. With the crazy weather all over the midwest this year, I felt like the bid allocations and USAU rankings were particularly inaccurate given that so many teams were scrambling just to get their 10 sanctioned games played.
With the double-elimination bracket at regionals, there was no room for a slow start for any team and with that knowledge our team arrived at the (drenched) fields at 7:30 for a good, lengthy warmup. The fields seemed to have good drainage but even so, the men’s division ended up being delayed, with games getting pushed back to noon and the final round of the day finishing right as the sun went down at 8:00pm (extra props have to go out to Calvin Lin and the rest of the staff of the tournament, rotating teams through fields, keeping people informed, and dealing with the whole crappy weather situation).
Our first game was against Kansas, the “home,” team who had finished 2nd out of the Ozark conference. They started the game strong, breaking the mark at will, with 5th year (? I think) senior Brett Hidaka wrecking our marks with quick release backhands and a dominating throw and go. A defensive adjustment on our part all but eliminated their break-mark game and after starting the game giving up three breaks to their aggressive defense and quick-strike offense we ended up taking the game 14-11. Hidaka deserves an all-region nod no question, the heart and soul of a very quality team.
For our second game, we took a hike through a grove of trees to meet up with a Texas A&M squad who had beaten Baylor in their first round 15-11. Both team’s offensive lines dominated the game with the defensive breaks for either team being few and far between. For A&M, Matt Bennett (? fairly sure) absolutely ran their offense with every other throw going through him. We threw 4+ different defensive looks at them and he was able to break every single one with a combination of low breaks, scoobers and blades. Their downfield seemed to run mostly through Dalton Smith who did a very good job of taking the under when given and streaking deep when the occasion arose. Both players seem well deserving of all-region nods. Additionally, it was a pleasure to play against a team who kept a good, positive attitude throughout the the entire game with compliments going both ways on big bids and plays. A&M ended up taking the game 15-13.
That loss dropped us down into the backdoor bracket where we were matched up against a Texas State team who had just eliminated Texas-B from contention with a 15-13 victory. We went up two breaks early, then protected that lead, getting three more breaks in the second half and taking the game 15-10. Texas State seemed to be a very athletic (young?) team, but were plagued by a lack of intensity and a tendency to huck regardless of whether the look was good or not.
With that win, we gathered up our gear and took another long hike to the far side of the complex for a game against Mizzou, who has just beaten Wash-U on universe point. We started 15 minutes late (it was a long walk for both teams), and the first half was back and forth with their offense scoring easily with good disc movement and bump-huck looks. Our offense all but matched them in the first half but had to work for every point against effective poach defense and hard-man intensity. In the second half the fatigue of the day caught up with us and a slew of throwaways and drops combined with Mizzou’s strong D-line offense let them run away with the game for a 15-8 victory. I know next to nothing about Mizzou’s notable players, but their biggest impact guy against us was a lefty handler with a very quick release forehand huck, who got around our force-middle 3+ times for around-break scores.
In a shameless own-team plug, props have to go out for Stephen “Stacey” Gross, and freshmen Luke “Fitz” Doyle. Stacey tore his ACL back in November, busted his ass on rehab and got cleared to play the Monday before regionals. Despite being at about 70%, Stacey consistently drew the other team’s best defender and completely opened up our offense with his hucks and over the top throws. Fitz was a force on offense, bringing in the majority of our offensive goals and spent significant time covering the other teams top downfield threats on D (Dalton, Hidaka etc).
Good luck to all the teams still in contention as of Sunday morning and thanks again to the hard work of the tournament organizers overcoming the crappy weather.
TK
Colorado State Coach
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Deep Cutting
Hello avid-readers. As always, my apologies for the huge gaps between entries. I don't have any good excuses, it's just hard for me to actually sit down and complete work on some of them for some reason. However, with the college season starting up in a couple weeks and the Ultimate fire that comes with a new batch of young guys under my tutelage, I really hope to update my blog much more often.
I'll make a deal with you folks. If I can get up to 50+ followers after this entry, I'll do at least one more entry for August and no less than three for September... give me that motivation! Anyways, on to the actual ultimate details:
I'm going to break this down into two(ish) parts. The first will be rather straightforward: getting deep separation. The second section will be significantly more in depth and that will be on deep spacing.
Before I get into any of that though let me make it clear that these are some general deep cutting principles. The best throwers and the best cutters can and do break a lot of these. Some people are exceptionally good at reading the disc. Some throwers can put the disc out at some crazy angles or have no fear of the sideline or fear of the loopy O-I flight path. However, I believe that even the best throwers and cutters have a solid foundation of the principles outlined here.
Deep Separation
Getting deep separation is a simple thing. You can go about it in two ways. You can treat it like a handler or underneath cut where your attempting to turn your defenders hips and then making a move to the opposite direction. In this instance, you want to get your defender fully committed to the underneath then turn on a point and head deep.
Doing this is an especially effective way to cut because many defenders will commit extra-hard to the underneath for the glory of the lay-out block, leaving themselves completely out of position to cover the deep afterwards.
The second way to cut deep, and bear in mind this is quite simplistic, simply run deep. Deep cuts have one special quality that other cuts do not have: you (should) have significant vertical field space to utilize straight-line speed. So for you annoying people that have great speed, if you're faster than your defender then the more straight line distance you run, the more separation you'll get. However, you do not have infinite space to continue to build that separation, so this is where deep spacing becomes important.
Deep Spacing - Vertical
While making a deep cut you have to keep two types of spacing in mind, vertical spacing and horizontal spacing. Vertical spacing is important because you want to make sure you're not going to run out of field length or have to slow your cut down to wait for the disc, which will allow your defender to catch up.
To give yourself enough vertical space to make a good deep cut your deep cut needs to originate from fairly shallow, (vertically close to the disc) depending on how fast you can cover the vertical space on the field. If your cut starts too deep then your thrower will not have the vertical space to put the disc out where you can run it down at full speed.
Think of it this way: the best hucker on your team just got an up-the-line handler cut and has power position. You want to BEGIN your deep move, be it streaking straight deep from your setup position (you speedy guys) or planting on your under cut and turning deep, right as that handler catches the line throw. The disc is in their hands, they have that 1-2 second window where the forward momentum of the cut they made is transferred into their throwing motion and they can put the disc out as far as possible.
If your cut started too deep, then you're going to run out of field length and either the disc is going to go out the back of the end-zone or you're going to have to stop and wait for the disc, which also gives your defender the opportunity to make up ground.
There are so many factors that go into deciding what's "too deep." It depends on where you started, what offense you're running, where other cutters are, and how far down the field your team already is, but the basic idea is, if you can't run the disc out full speed, then your cut originated too deep (or the throw was bad, but for all intents and purposes here we'll assume quality throws).
Deep Spacing - Horizontal
Horizontal spacing is actually, in my opinion, more important than vertical spacing. It might seem a little odd but an EASY deep throw, read and catch is always in large part due to good horizontal spacing.
A deep cut should originate from the far side of the field as the thrower. This doesn't mean that deep cuts can only come the opposite side of the field as the thrower, it simply means there should be adequate horizontal space for an easy space throw.
If the thrower is going to make a breakmark huck, then the cut in this instance, should be originating from the away side of the field (mirror the cutter to the opposite side). Everything else is the same idea, there's plenty of space for an easy read and catch. Things get a little hazy on horizontal spacing here, because a thrower may see a cut originating from the away side, and therefore throw a break-mark huck, but the idea remains the same, there should be adequate horizontal space to allow for the easy throw and read.
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Don't Vertical Stacks Go Against Your Spacing Principles?
But Katfish, what about center stack? Isn't the disc in it's best position centered, in front of the stack? Are you telling me you're not supposed to huck from there? And that last guy in the stack, often the one cut in an offense, isn't he too deep vertically to make a good deep cut?!
As far as vertical spacing goes for a center stack, I've always taught my guys and been taught that rarely should a deep cut originate from the back of the stack. If a cutter wants to go deep from that position, they should give themselves a hard underneath first, so as to maintain their vertical spacing.
Center stack is also slightly different from my above horizontal illustration in that the "looping" backhand throw to the force side is not quite so looping; there is a reasonable amount of space to the force or breakside. Ideally, I'd like my cut to originate from farther to the force or break side, to give me even more space for that flat throw, but when the cut starts directly in the middle of the field there is generally enough space for a pretty easy throw and catch. The throw does have to have a slight curve to it, but not so difficult that it's going to make it significantly low percentage. This also applies to cuts from a horizontal (split, spread, H), that originate directly in line with the thrower.
Horizontal deep spacing is on the reasons you will never see me trap a center stack team on the sideline. When they're trapped every single one of their cutters has adequate horizontal space to make an easy deep cut, whereas if they're forced back towards their stack the only easy, space huck is a breakmark throw.
Again let me reiterate, that these are not end all be all, do this or you suck principles, this are the basics of deep cutting and deep spacing. Some throwers are incredible at bending perfect throws at crazy angles. Some cutters will come down with discs regardless of whether or not it easy read. Sometimes the flat, space huck isn't the best throw because they've got a Beau on their team that can overtake even your best deeps given enough space. However, these are good general principles, that will make for high-percentage hucks.
As always I appreciate and look forward to comments from my readers, even if you disagree.
Deep Spacing - Vertical
While making a deep cut you have to keep two types of spacing in mind, vertical spacing and horizontal spacing. Vertical spacing is important because you want to make sure you're not going to run out of field length or have to slow your cut down to wait for the disc, which will allow your defender to catch up.
To give yourself enough vertical space to make a good deep cut your deep cut needs to originate from fairly shallow, (vertically close to the disc) depending on how fast you can cover the vertical space on the field. If your cut starts too deep then your thrower will not have the vertical space to put the disc out where you can run it down at full speed.
Think of it this way: the best hucker on your team just got an up-the-line handler cut and has power position. You want to BEGIN your deep move, be it streaking straight deep from your setup position (you speedy guys) or planting on your under cut and turning deep, right as that handler catches the line throw. The disc is in their hands, they have that 1-2 second window where the forward momentum of the cut they made is transferred into their throwing motion and they can put the disc out as far as possible.
If your cut started too deep, then you're going to run out of field length and either the disc is going to go out the back of the end-zone or you're going to have to stop and wait for the disc, which also gives your defender the opportunity to make up ground.
There are so many factors that go into deciding what's "too deep." It depends on where you started, what offense you're running, where other cutters are, and how far down the field your team already is, but the basic idea is, if you can't run the disc out full speed, then your cut originated too deep (or the throw was bad, but for all intents and purposes here we'll assume quality throws).
Deep Spacing - Horizontal
Horizontal spacing is actually, in my opinion, more important than vertical spacing. It might seem a little odd but an EASY deep throw, read and catch is always in large part due to good horizontal spacing.
A deep cut should originate from the far side of the field as the thrower. This doesn't mean that deep cuts can only come the opposite side of the field as the thrower, it simply means there should be adequate horizontal space for an easy space throw.
GOOD HORIZONTAL SPACING
In this illustration, the thrower (circle X) is being forced away. Assuming a force-side huck, then the deep cut (X) should originate from the break side of the field. It doesn't necessarily mean the deep cut has to originate all the way from the sideline, but with the cut coming from the breakside, both the thrower and the cutter are given adequate space to make a good flat throw, and an easy run-down respectively.
For the cutter, they know where the disc is coming from and don't have to waste a lot of time trying to find the disc for a good read; it's coming in over their left shoulder and they know it, which leaves them in the best position to come down with the throw, especially considering most defenders will begin with their back to the disc. It is natural for the disc's flight path in this scenario to simply meet the deep cutter at a singular point. Difficult reads originate when the cut and and the throw are following the same path.
If I'm the thrower here, I know I can make a simple flat throw, no oustide-in or inside-out is needed, which is both the easiest throw, and the easiest disc to catch.
If the thrower is going to make a breakmark huck, then the cut in this instance, should be originating from the away side of the field (mirror the cutter to the opposite side). Everything else is the same idea, there's plenty of space for an easy read and catch. Things get a little hazy on horizontal spacing here, because a thrower may see a cut originating from the away side, and therefore throw a break-mark huck, but the idea remains the same, there should be adequate horizontal space to allow for the easy throw and read.
BAD HORIZONTAL SPACING
In this case the deep cut originated too close to in front of the thrower, who again is being forced away. The thrower is left with three options:
1) A huge, looping, force-side backhand (assuming they're right-handed) around the left shoulder of the cutter. This isn't the easiest throw in the world for starters. Additionally, the cutter will have to change the vector of their cut at some point to make the catch unless the throw is an absolutely ridiculous blade.
2) The flat space throw to the force-side directly over the head of the cutter. This is an easy throw, but a difficult read. With the disc coming in directly over the cutter's head they must spent significantly more time finding the disc and getting into position for a good read and catch. I've seen so many throws like this that are potentially great catches out in space, but the cutter has to spend that extra time finding the disc and it ends up just out of reach.
3) The inside-out backhand or around forehand break. This throw will come in over the right shoulder of the cutter. This is the ideal throw, as there is adequate space for them to make an easy read, but it is the hardest throw in the game. If your mark is letting of breakmark hucks to significant space you're either dealing with an extraordinary thrower or a bad mark. The difference here on a breakmark huck versus my top illustration breakmark discussion, is that if we mirrored the cut on the top illustration to originate from the significant away (break) side, then there is much more horizontal space so the thrower only has to make a slight break huck (inside-out right-handed backhand in that case).
Don't Vertical Stacks Go Against Your Spacing Principles?
But Katfish, what about center stack? Isn't the disc in it's best position centered, in front of the stack? Are you telling me you're not supposed to huck from there? And that last guy in the stack, often the one cut in an offense, isn't he too deep vertically to make a good deep cut?!
As far as vertical spacing goes for a center stack, I've always taught my guys and been taught that rarely should a deep cut originate from the back of the stack. If a cutter wants to go deep from that position, they should give themselves a hard underneath first, so as to maintain their vertical spacing.
Center stack is also slightly different from my above horizontal illustration in that the "looping" backhand throw to the force side is not quite so looping; there is a reasonable amount of space to the force or breakside. Ideally, I'd like my cut to originate from farther to the force or break side, to give me even more space for that flat throw, but when the cut starts directly in the middle of the field there is generally enough space for a pretty easy throw and catch. The throw does have to have a slight curve to it, but not so difficult that it's going to make it significantly low percentage. This also applies to cuts from a horizontal (split, spread, H), that originate directly in line with the thrower.
Horizontal deep spacing is on the reasons you will never see me trap a center stack team on the sideline. When they're trapped every single one of their cutters has adequate horizontal space to make an easy deep cut, whereas if they're forced back towards their stack the only easy, space huck is a breakmark throw.
Again let me reiterate, that these are not end all be all, do this or you suck principles, this are the basics of deep cutting and deep spacing. Some throwers are incredible at bending perfect throws at crazy angles. Some cutters will come down with discs regardless of whether or not it easy read. Sometimes the flat, space huck isn't the best throw because they've got a Beau on their team that can overtake even your best deeps given enough space. However, these are good general principles, that will make for high-percentage hucks.
As always I appreciate and look forward to comments from my readers, even if you disagree.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Handler Cutting
The Basics
There is a principle I want to start with here that transcends the position on the field that you're making your cut (downfield, handler, whatever). This is probably the most important cutting principle anyone can learn: take what the defense is giving you. If my defender playing off me 5 yards to contain the line cut, I'm not going to cut up line. If my defender is backing me by 10 yards because of my 40 inch vertical, I'm not going to go deep (initially). It's a fairly simple concept, but I see so many young players learn one method of cutting (5 hard steps out and under) and make that cut no matter how the defense is set up. If they're going to play off of you as a defender, then take the open cut, it's simple.
Anyway, back to handler cuts. The first thing you need to learn when making a handler cut is how to position yourself properly. This varies slightly depending on the offense you run. But there are a few things that are fairly universal.
Give yourself a good amount of horizontal space away from the disc. However, don't be so far away (20+ yards) that your cut is going to take 2-3+ seconds to develop, when the person with the disc is ready to reset, you should be in a good position as soon as they turn or very soon thereafter (depending on whether your team runs a timing system, or is more based on eye contact). I also like to set up 3-4 yards backfield from the disc so as to have more room to drive my defender up the line.
Exactly what you do with a cut varies based on where your defender is positioned and your own athletic skill-set, but in general your first priority should be to force your defender up the line. If you beat them up line, sweet, you gained yards and got power position (your body is moving in the direction you want to throw, down field). If your defender covers that look, then once they've turned their hips and committed to your line cut, you should cut back for the behind reset. Again, how you get the defender to turn their hips is up to your own abilities. Some people throw a shimmy in there, some people are just naturally quick, some people use their size to make it difficult for the defender to get around them.
One good rule of thumb however is to avoid "dancing." Meaning that you're making 3-4 jukes to get your defender to turn. This takes too long as a handler cut, and if your defender's covered the first 3 or 4 then they probably can cover 5 and 6 or the stall count has gotten too high. Also, remember to be dynamic. I've seen some very quick guys go up against a quicker defender, and struggle to get open with moves that normally work. If one thing isn't working against a particular defender, have other options. Figure out what works for you, but remember, a good handler cut should get you separation in a fairly short timeframe.
Sideline Resets
For the majority of your cuts when the disc is on the sideline one of two things is going to happen. 1) You beat your man up the line. 2) You get the disc backfield for the reset. Up the line is pretty straight forward, you're in a great spot for a huck or break throw and should follow up accordingly.
One thing that people should be mindful of is running somewhat parallel to the sideline when you make your line cut. If you take too hard of angle towards the sideline then your thrower does not have the room to make an easy space throw, rather, they are forced to put the disc in the one specific spot where you as the cutter are going to meet the sideline. The problem here is that you can't catch the disc out of bounds, while your defender can keep going 100% straight through and get the D.
However, the thrower must also be careful of putting the disc too far up the line in the space you've created, because eventually you will run into down field defenders and poaches.
Moving to back field resets, one extremely bad habit that a lot of players (especially myself as I've played less competitively in the last two years) have when making a backfield dump cut is getting the reset almost directly behind the person with the disc. When the disc is sidelined, this is not a good thing. You haven't put yourself into position for a good swing, you haven't advanced the disc towards the center of the field (which for most offenses is a benefit). Mostly what you've done is lost yards.
There is a principle I want to start with here that transcends the position on the field that you're making your cut (downfield, handler, whatever). This is probably the most important cutting principle anyone can learn: take what the defense is giving you. If my defender playing off me 5 yards to contain the line cut, I'm not going to cut up line. If my defender is backing me by 10 yards because of my 40 inch vertical, I'm not going to go deep (initially). It's a fairly simple concept, but I see so many young players learn one method of cutting (5 hard steps out and under) and make that cut no matter how the defense is set up. If they're going to play off of you as a defender, then take the open cut, it's simple.
Anyway, back to handler cuts. The first thing you need to learn when making a handler cut is how to position yourself properly. This varies slightly depending on the offense you run. But there are a few things that are fairly universal.
Give yourself a good amount of horizontal space away from the disc. However, don't be so far away (20+ yards) that your cut is going to take 2-3+ seconds to develop, when the person with the disc is ready to reset, you should be in a good position as soon as they turn or very soon thereafter (depending on whether your team runs a timing system, or is more based on eye contact). I also like to set up 3-4 yards backfield from the disc so as to have more room to drive my defender up the line.
Exactly what you do with a cut varies based on where your defender is positioned and your own athletic skill-set, but in general your first priority should be to force your defender up the line. If you beat them up line, sweet, you gained yards and got power position (your body is moving in the direction you want to throw, down field). If your defender covers that look, then once they've turned their hips and committed to your line cut, you should cut back for the behind reset. Again, how you get the defender to turn their hips is up to your own abilities. Some people throw a shimmy in there, some people are just naturally quick, some people use their size to make it difficult for the defender to get around them.
One good rule of thumb however is to avoid "dancing." Meaning that you're making 3-4 jukes to get your defender to turn. This takes too long as a handler cut, and if your defender's covered the first 3 or 4 then they probably can cover 5 and 6 or the stall count has gotten too high. Also, remember to be dynamic. I've seen some very quick guys go up against a quicker defender, and struggle to get open with moves that normally work. If one thing isn't working against a particular defender, have other options. Figure out what works for you, but remember, a good handler cut should get you separation in a fairly short timeframe.
Sideline Resets
For the majority of your cuts when the disc is on the sideline one of two things is going to happen. 1) You beat your man up the line. 2) You get the disc backfield for the reset. Up the line is pretty straight forward, you're in a great spot for a huck or break throw and should follow up accordingly.
One thing that people should be mindful of is running somewhat parallel to the sideline when you make your line cut. If you take too hard of angle towards the sideline then your thrower does not have the room to make an easy space throw, rather, they are forced to put the disc in the one specific spot where you as the cutter are going to meet the sideline. The problem here is that you can't catch the disc out of bounds, while your defender can keep going 100% straight through and get the D.
However, the thrower must also be careful of putting the disc too far up the line in the space you've created, because eventually you will run into down field defenders and poaches.
Moving to back field resets, one extremely bad habit that a lot of players (especially myself as I've played less competitively in the last two years) have when making a backfield dump cut is getting the reset almost directly behind the person with the disc. When the disc is sidelined, this is not a good thing. You haven't put yourself into position for a good swing, you haven't advanced the disc towards the center of the field (which for most offenses is a benefit). Mostly what you've done is lost yards.
A good backfield handler cut should always put you in the position to make a swing or at the very least have gained space off the sideline. In the above illustration you've driven your defender up the line, turned their hips, but you took a bad angle and went straight to the disc. Your throwing "power" position in my above example is pointing towards the sideline and away from the downfield, about the only place on the field there is absolute nobody to throw to.
In this picture you still haven't taken the best angle up the line but you're at least gaining some horizontal space away from the disc in addition to getting the reset. You also have a slightly better option to continue your swing across the field.
In this picture you still haven't taken the best angle up the line but you're at least gaining some horizontal space away from the disc in addition to getting the reset. You also have a slightly better option to continue your swing across the field.
This is the ideal way to get a back field reset for a couple reasons. First of all, the cut is practically un-coverable. If your defender stops the line cut then they are in no position to stop a swing cut back across the field. Additionally they are on the completely 100% wrong side of the your body to stop a continuation swing and your throwing power position is facing the entire break-side of the field. If you can successfully execute this cut you will get a continue swing off, or at the very least will have the disc significantly closer to the middle of the field.
The one thing to be careful of with the above "best" cut that I've described, is the throw is significantly more challenging a dump throw than a simple behind-reset. The reason that a lot of players go for the straight behind reset (as shown in my "NO" illustration) is that it's probably the easiest throw for the person with the disc to make. However, I believe it reasonable that any competitive team expect all their players to be able to make this longer, space throw.
Midfield Resets
When the disc is the middle of the field resets are quite simple as you are not terribly concerned with horizontal positioning, but rather you mostly just want to reset the stall count while maintaining relative position to where the disc started.
I'll go over the three different cuts I generally use when the disc is already centered, and the strengths of each.
The above reset is straight forward. I'm going to go behind the thrower, either slightly break or open side. It doesn't matter if I start on the force or break side. One of the absolute best spots to set up here is straight behind the disc, as one step to either side and a space throw will get you separation and a reset with a good open or break-side power position look. Yes you will be losing yards, but you've kept the disc centered and you should have an easy continue look.
This is the cut I make when I've started on the FORCE or OPEN side of the disc. Meaning the marker is forcing the thrower towards my side of the field. In this case my defender is playing me hard as the line throw is a slight break-mark throw. I push them hard up the line, slightly past the thrower then cut back horizontally across the field. In this case I'll be gaining yards and will have open-side power-position for a down-field throw.
This final cut is when I start my positioning on the BREAK side of the field. This is very similar to a sideline handler reset. I'm going to drive my defender hard up the line. If they don't cover it I'll take the line. I gained yards and got power position, awesome. If it's covered then once the defender has turned their hips I'll turn back and angle away from the thrower so as to get the disc out in break-space for a wide-open break continue look once I get the reset.
In summation I think you can equate solid handler cutting to three fundamental principles:
1) Utilize the space you have on the field.
2) Take what the defense is giving you.
3) Don't be content just to reset the stall count, think about where your continuation throw, once the disc is reset, can go.
As always I welcome comments and I apologize for my less than stellar illustrations, I hope they are somewhat clear.
-TK
In summation I think you can equate solid handler cutting to three fundamental principles:
1) Utilize the space you have on the field.
2) Take what the defense is giving you.
3) Don't be content just to reset the stall count, think about where your continuation throw, once the disc is reset, can go.
As always I welcome comments and I apologize for my less than stellar illustrations, I hope they are somewhat clear.
-TK
Friday, March 9, 2012
Katfish is Not Dead
Hey Avid Readers,
Just to let you all know, while the accuracy of my completions may not have been entirely accurate (off by ~4 months) I do still plan on continuing my offensive fundamentals series, and I do apologize for my hiatus from entries again (college season + work are taking their time toll).
I hope to have my next real entry out on throwing sometime next week.
Believe!
-TK
Just to let you all know, while the accuracy of my completions may not have been entirely accurate (off by ~4 months) I do still plan on continuing my offensive fundamentals series, and I do apologize for my hiatus from entries again (college season + work are taking their time toll).
I hope to have my next real entry out on throwing sometime next week.
Believe!
-TK
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Comprehensive Offense Fundamentals - Faking
This is the first part in a series I'm writing about general offensive fundamentals. I'm going to tackle this in several parts and my goal is to release a new section every couple days. Additionally, I'll try and add examples from different offensive stacks but the focus will mainly be from a center stack perspective as that's what I'm currently coaching.
Faking
Now before we get into that crazy advanced offensive stuff, (you know, throwing and cutting), let's take a step back and talk about faking. There are many different schools of thought regarding fakes. But I will offer up some principles and fundamentals I've found over the years to be most effective.
1) You have the disc, you have the advantage. Remember that as the thrower you always have the advantage over the marker. Even a mediocre thrower can beat a solid mark. This is similar to the principle that that offensive cutter will always have the advantage over their defender. It's simple, you know what you're going to do and the defense does not.
2) Faking should be a natural process. The best fakes are exactly the same as a throw of the same type. The motion of the hips, shoulders and wrist are all the same; the one difference being that you're not releasing your grip on the disc. If there is no change from your actual throwing motion to a fake, then there is no way for the marker to recognize when you're faking versus when you're actually going to throw, which forces them to respect each fake as a potential throw. To practice this stand in front of a mirror and work on your pivots and fakes. Did it look realistic to you? Did it look like a throw?
3) More is not better. Most of the best throwers you see will rarely fake, if at all. If you're spending the whole stall count frantically faking, then you might be messing up the timing when you actually need to make a throw. When you do fake, it should be to set up a throw you already are planning on making, don't fake for the sake of faking. Remember that the window you have to complete a throw to a cutter, be it deep, underneath or break-side is not large, you can't waste time throwing too many fakes.
4) Faking on the same side as you plan on throwing to is a waste of time. Don't fake a forehand if you want to throw a forehand. Don't fake a backhand if you want to throw a backhand. People have a tendency to fake at the same release point as their strongest throws, so if you fake a forehand to throw a forehand you're drawing the mark to the point where you're going to actually release the disc. Even if you're not faking from the same release point, you're still going to be drawing the marker more to the side (forehand or backhand) you want to release the disc from.
5) Set up a your throw with a fake to the opposite side. Example: I'm being forced forehand and recognize a break look developing downfield. My best option for getting that break throw off against a good marker will be to fake either the inside-forehand or around backhand, then quickly bring the disc around to the other side for the around backhand or inside-forehand respectively.
An added note here, you should spend extra time working on the switch from a backhand grip to a forehand grip. Many players find it natural to switch from the forehand to backhand grip (as it flows more easily into a throw), but the backhand to forehand grip switch is just as important.
Let me wrap this faking section up by saying a couple things. Not every thrower fakes. I believe it was Idris Nolan who claimed that the best throwers don't bother pivoting.. For some throwers varied release points, wingspan or a quick release are all they need to be effective. For me personally, I very rarely pivot, despite being a smaller guy, because I have an extremely quick release. However, for a new player, the best thing you can do to gain confidence with the disc is to set up your throws with a solid fake to the opposite side first to draw your mark away from where you want to release the disc. The key here is faking with PURPOSE!
As always I welcome any comments, questions or points of contention. The plan for tomorrow is to finish up a section on general throwing fundamentals.
-TK
Faking
Now before we get into that crazy advanced offensive stuff, (you know, throwing and cutting), let's take a step back and talk about faking. There are many different schools of thought regarding fakes. But I will offer up some principles and fundamentals I've found over the years to be most effective.
1) You have the disc, you have the advantage. Remember that as the thrower you always have the advantage over the marker. Even a mediocre thrower can beat a solid mark. This is similar to the principle that that offensive cutter will always have the advantage over their defender. It's simple, you know what you're going to do and the defense does not.
2) Faking should be a natural process. The best fakes are exactly the same as a throw of the same type. The motion of the hips, shoulders and wrist are all the same; the one difference being that you're not releasing your grip on the disc. If there is no change from your actual throwing motion to a fake, then there is no way for the marker to recognize when you're faking versus when you're actually going to throw, which forces them to respect each fake as a potential throw. To practice this stand in front of a mirror and work on your pivots and fakes. Did it look realistic to you? Did it look like a throw?
3) More is not better. Most of the best throwers you see will rarely fake, if at all. If you're spending the whole stall count frantically faking, then you might be messing up the timing when you actually need to make a throw. When you do fake, it should be to set up a throw you already are planning on making, don't fake for the sake of faking. Remember that the window you have to complete a throw to a cutter, be it deep, underneath or break-side is not large, you can't waste time throwing too many fakes.
4) Faking on the same side as you plan on throwing to is a waste of time. Don't fake a forehand if you want to throw a forehand. Don't fake a backhand if you want to throw a backhand. People have a tendency to fake at the same release point as their strongest throws, so if you fake a forehand to throw a forehand you're drawing the mark to the point where you're going to actually release the disc. Even if you're not faking from the same release point, you're still going to be drawing the marker more to the side (forehand or backhand) you want to release the disc from.
5) Set up a your throw with a fake to the opposite side. Example: I'm being forced forehand and recognize a break look developing downfield. My best option for getting that break throw off against a good marker will be to fake either the inside-forehand or around backhand, then quickly bring the disc around to the other side for the around backhand or inside-forehand respectively.
An added note here, you should spend extra time working on the switch from a backhand grip to a forehand grip. Many players find it natural to switch from the forehand to backhand grip (as it flows more easily into a throw), but the backhand to forehand grip switch is just as important.
Let me wrap this faking section up by saying a couple things. Not every thrower fakes. I believe it was Idris Nolan who claimed that the best throwers don't bother pivoting.. For some throwers varied release points, wingspan or a quick release are all they need to be effective. For me personally, I very rarely pivot, despite being a smaller guy, because I have an extremely quick release. However, for a new player, the best thing you can do to gain confidence with the disc is to set up your throws with a solid fake to the opposite side first to draw your mark away from where you want to release the disc. The key here is faking with PURPOSE!
As always I welcome any comments, questions or points of contention. The plan for tomorrow is to finish up a section on general throwing fundamentals.
-TK
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Preparing for Your First College Tourney
First, let me apologize for my ~4 month blog entry hiatus. As it turns out, it's difficult to continue to write about something when you're not actively doing it, and this summer was the first year in my Ultimate career that I elected not to play some form of Club, and while I was sad to be to looking at results online rather than playing in the tournaments myself, it gave my body a chance to recover from some nagging injuries and for me to get some other life stuff in order.
However, now that the college season is back, and I'm working with a team that has 16 new faces, I'm going to attempt to make more regular blog entries again.
This entry is directed at those new guys, who, for the most part, will be attending their first college tournament this upcoming weekend. This is going to be very simple and straight forward...
1) What is a tournament?
Instead of playing one game at a time in Ultimate we compete at tournaments. This means that there is a format setup previously, and the teams play out the format over a 2-4 day period, which is usually anywhere from 6-10 games over the course of the tournament.
Why do we do this?
I couldn't tell you. I assume that back before Ultimate became as popular of a collegiate sport as it is, there were a limited amount of teams, so to save on travel and whatnot a bunch of teams would get together to play a bunch of games. Also, most teams don't have the funds to travel significantly more than 2-3 times a year, so this allows for a reasonable amount of competition for less money.
Here is an example of a tournament format.
http://scores.usaultimate.org/scores/#open/tournament/9574
2) What do I need to do to prepare?
Take care of your body. Eat a lot of good food and drink a lot of water the week leading up the tournament. Even if you're not playing a lot of points, being out in the sun from 7am until 5pm takes its toll on you.
Make sure you have all your Ultimate essentials, for me these include:
Cleats
Jerseys (Green AND White)
Shorts/Athletic Pants
Cold weather gear/rain gear
LOTS of Socks
Water
Cytomax
Braces
Athletic Tape and Pre-wrap
Snack food (salty things, energy bars, pickle juice, honey etc)
Garbage bag for rain
Nail clippers (bring your own for a change Blue Chip)
Sun screen
Hat
Shade umbrella
Basically bring whatever it's going to take to keep you going for two entire days at 100% in whatever conditions we're going to face. The biggest things to watch out for are:
1) Heat stroke. Even just wearing a baseball cap goes a long way to preventing heat stroke. I need not mention regionals last year where an un-named Cincinnati mascot had to sit out our elimination game because he was puking on the sidelines from the heat.
2) Cold. We play in rain/snow, whatever. If you can't catch and throw because you were ill-prepared then you're a worthless bag of bones. Bring gloves for the sideline. Bring long sleeves of some kind. Keep your wrists covered so the circulation to your hands stays good and your fingers don't have trouble clenching and unclenching.
3) Why am I giving up my whole weekend for this?
This is a question that I can't answer for you myself. What I would tell you to do is to ask someone who has attended a tournament in the past to tell you a story; I guarantee you every single person has something compelling to tell you, both on and off the field, here's mine:
In the fall of 2003 I had come to several early Ultimate practices without much of an idea about the sport. I played a lot of disc golf and was working on moving up from amateur to pro status (ahhh young dreams), but I decided (for reasons I can't remember anymore), to attend an optional late season December tournament with the team in Tuscon, Arizona. This was a co-ed tournament with some members of the women's team and I was the only freshman that decided to go.
We rolled out in a single school van, in a group of 10 people that I didn't know, pretty much at all. I'll leave the off-the-field details of the trip for another time, but let me just say that by the time we were headed back I had 10 new best friends.
Saturday morning we warmed up and got ready to play with only four total subs. The fields, which we had scouted the day before, were mostly dirt and dead grass with some deadly rocks studded throughout.
We had 4 women and 7 guys at the start of the tournament. In the second game of Saturday one of our ladies made an awkward twist around to catch a disc and tore the ACL in both of her knees. The format being 4-3 our women played savage the rest of the weekend.
Despite our low numbers we won all our games on Saturday. Sunday morning we rolled into the quarterfinals with one of our guys lost to a strained quad. In that game on of our captains and another teammate both collided with each other on a huge D and both had to leave the game with injuries. Another teammate began cramping in the Arizona heat so badly that he couldn't stand and was lost for the rest of the day. We were now playing completely savage (our injured captain came back into the game so we wouldn't be playing with 6). Every guy and girl we had left (including me) played every point in the 2nd half of the quarters, which we won; then the first and second half of the semis, which we won.
The finals pitted us against the home team, Barrio. Barrio is an actual co-ed club team, who recently has been perennial club nationals quarter-finalist. At this point the rest of the teams were done so they lined the finals field to watch the savage college team from Fort Collins play against the home-team favorites.
The game started off intense with each team trading points almost straight up until half. As the crowd realized that we were playing savage and that we were all just college kids they slowly began to sway to our side. By halftime we had the majority of the crowd chanting our team name and throwing out heckles towards Barrio.
Keep in mind here, I'm a brand new freshmen. I've just recently learned about the force, mark, pivoting, and all that jazz. I essentially came on the trip because I'd wanted to take in some Arizona sun in December but I was having the time of my life, the energy of the crowd was just invigorating.
The only real play of note I can still remember, and probably my fondest early ultimate memory came on an offensive point for us. I cut hard underneath with the other teams best player covering me (don't ask me why he was on me, he was big, tall and fast and I wasn't big or tall, and probably not particularly fast either). One of our captains put the underneath throw up to me and (as it was described to me later) my defender got the look in his eyes where he knows he's going to get a D.
The throw was high and I jumped up and forward extending my hands out as my defender put down a huge bid over my left shoulder. I snatched the disc out of the air, and he went flying by, I didn't even notice. Markless, I threw the forehand break for the score. Immediately my semi-injured captain rushed me in the endzone, hoisted me up in his arms yelling out "That's our freshman, our FRESHMAN!" The crowd immediately reacted with a mix of cheers for me (I had no clue what was going on, oblivious to most everything), and heckles for the Barrio player. It was only later as it was put into context that I realized that it was a pretty cool play, but in all reality had I known he was right there bidding, I'd probably have dropped it, I was just too fatigued to care.
We ended up losing the finals 15-12 but the crowd loved us. The TD came over and thanked us for making the trip, and everyone on Barrio gave us props for the weekend's performance. We took home the second place prize, which I believe was a large tub of cheesy popcorn (yay ultimate).
The 15 hour drive back was an adventure in itself. The van smelled awful from 3 days of sitting in the sun with our blood, sweat and cleats. Everyone was unbelievable sore and bloodied from the crappy fields (I still have scars on my hips from laying out there). The culmination of it all was a stop for breakfast at Cracker Barrel just south of Denver. One of our guys was wandering around the gift shop portion and was walking so stiff-legged that an elderly women assumed he was mentally disabled. The conversation that they had had the rest of us dying in the van after he told us about it.
After this tournament, I was hooked and I have never in the nine years since then missed a single college tournament, nothing compares. For the rest of the off-the-field capers ask me about it in person some time and you'll get a whole other chapter to the story.
However, now that the college season is back, and I'm working with a team that has 16 new faces, I'm going to attempt to make more regular blog entries again.
This entry is directed at those new guys, who, for the most part, will be attending their first college tournament this upcoming weekend. This is going to be very simple and straight forward...
1) What is a tournament?
Instead of playing one game at a time in Ultimate we compete at tournaments. This means that there is a format setup previously, and the teams play out the format over a 2-4 day period, which is usually anywhere from 6-10 games over the course of the tournament.
Why do we do this?
I couldn't tell you. I assume that back before Ultimate became as popular of a collegiate sport as it is, there were a limited amount of teams, so to save on travel and whatnot a bunch of teams would get together to play a bunch of games. Also, most teams don't have the funds to travel significantly more than 2-3 times a year, so this allows for a reasonable amount of competition for less money.
Here is an example of a tournament format.
http://scores.usaultimate.org/scores/#open/tournament/9574
2) What do I need to do to prepare?
Take care of your body. Eat a lot of good food and drink a lot of water the week leading up the tournament. Even if you're not playing a lot of points, being out in the sun from 7am until 5pm takes its toll on you.
Make sure you have all your Ultimate essentials, for me these include:
Cleats
Jerseys (Green AND White)
Shorts/Athletic Pants
Cold weather gear/rain gear
LOTS of Socks
Water
Cytomax
Braces
Athletic Tape and Pre-wrap
Snack food (salty things, energy bars, pickle juice, honey etc)
Garbage bag for rain
Nail clippers (bring your own for a change Blue Chip)
Sun screen
Hat
Shade umbrella
Basically bring whatever it's going to take to keep you going for two entire days at 100% in whatever conditions we're going to face. The biggest things to watch out for are:
1) Heat stroke. Even just wearing a baseball cap goes a long way to preventing heat stroke. I need not mention regionals last year where an un-named Cincinnati mascot had to sit out our elimination game because he was puking on the sidelines from the heat.
2) Cold. We play in rain/snow, whatever. If you can't catch and throw because you were ill-prepared then you're a worthless bag of bones. Bring gloves for the sideline. Bring long sleeves of some kind. Keep your wrists covered so the circulation to your hands stays good and your fingers don't have trouble clenching and unclenching.
3) Why am I giving up my whole weekend for this?
This is a question that I can't answer for you myself. What I would tell you to do is to ask someone who has attended a tournament in the past to tell you a story; I guarantee you every single person has something compelling to tell you, both on and off the field, here's mine:
In the fall of 2003 I had come to several early Ultimate practices without much of an idea about the sport. I played a lot of disc golf and was working on moving up from amateur to pro status (ahhh young dreams), but I decided (for reasons I can't remember anymore), to attend an optional late season December tournament with the team in Tuscon, Arizona. This was a co-ed tournament with some members of the women's team and I was the only freshman that decided to go.
We rolled out in a single school van, in a group of 10 people that I didn't know, pretty much at all. I'll leave the off-the-field details of the trip for another time, but let me just say that by the time we were headed back I had 10 new best friends.
Saturday morning we warmed up and got ready to play with only four total subs. The fields, which we had scouted the day before, were mostly dirt and dead grass with some deadly rocks studded throughout.
We had 4 women and 7 guys at the start of the tournament. In the second game of Saturday one of our ladies made an awkward twist around to catch a disc and tore the ACL in both of her knees. The format being 4-3 our women played savage the rest of the weekend.
Despite our low numbers we won all our games on Saturday. Sunday morning we rolled into the quarterfinals with one of our guys lost to a strained quad. In that game on of our captains and another teammate both collided with each other on a huge D and both had to leave the game with injuries. Another teammate began cramping in the Arizona heat so badly that he couldn't stand and was lost for the rest of the day. We were now playing completely savage (our injured captain came back into the game so we wouldn't be playing with 6). Every guy and girl we had left (including me) played every point in the 2nd half of the quarters, which we won; then the first and second half of the semis, which we won.
The finals pitted us against the home team, Barrio. Barrio is an actual co-ed club team, who recently has been perennial club nationals quarter-finalist. At this point the rest of the teams were done so they lined the finals field to watch the savage college team from Fort Collins play against the home-team favorites.
The game started off intense with each team trading points almost straight up until half. As the crowd realized that we were playing savage and that we were all just college kids they slowly began to sway to our side. By halftime we had the majority of the crowd chanting our team name and throwing out heckles towards Barrio.
Keep in mind here, I'm a brand new freshmen. I've just recently learned about the force, mark, pivoting, and all that jazz. I essentially came on the trip because I'd wanted to take in some Arizona sun in December but I was having the time of my life, the energy of the crowd was just invigorating.
The only real play of note I can still remember, and probably my fondest early ultimate memory came on an offensive point for us. I cut hard underneath with the other teams best player covering me (don't ask me why he was on me, he was big, tall and fast and I wasn't big or tall, and probably not particularly fast either). One of our captains put the underneath throw up to me and (as it was described to me later) my defender got the look in his eyes where he knows he's going to get a D.
The throw was high and I jumped up and forward extending my hands out as my defender put down a huge bid over my left shoulder. I snatched the disc out of the air, and he went flying by, I didn't even notice. Markless, I threw the forehand break for the score. Immediately my semi-injured captain rushed me in the endzone, hoisted me up in his arms yelling out "That's our freshman, our FRESHMAN!" The crowd immediately reacted with a mix of cheers for me (I had no clue what was going on, oblivious to most everything), and heckles for the Barrio player. It was only later as it was put into context that I realized that it was a pretty cool play, but in all reality had I known he was right there bidding, I'd probably have dropped it, I was just too fatigued to care.
We ended up losing the finals 15-12 but the crowd loved us. The TD came over and thanked us for making the trip, and everyone on Barrio gave us props for the weekend's performance. We took home the second place prize, which I believe was a large tub of cheesy popcorn (yay ultimate).
The 15 hour drive back was an adventure in itself. The van smelled awful from 3 days of sitting in the sun with our blood, sweat and cleats. Everyone was unbelievable sore and bloodied from the crappy fields (I still have scars on my hips from laying out there). The culmination of it all was a stop for breakfast at Cracker Barrel just south of Denver. One of our guys was wandering around the gift shop portion and was walking so stiff-legged that an elderly women assumed he was mentally disabled. The conversation that they had had the rest of us dying in the van after he told us about it.
After this tournament, I was hooked and I have never in the nine years since then missed a single college tournament, nothing compares. For the rest of the off-the-field capers ask me about it in person some time and you'll get a whole other chapter to the story.
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