Monday, December 29, 2008

Suggested Improvements To AFDA's Rotational Policy- or, how everything is better with UNO

This is one of Max's ideas:

The AFDA rotational policy is good, but it could be fleshed out and improved upon if it was played with UNO rules.

Skip - self explanatory, could mean an end to the 'Nationals? Nah, it's in Perth...' years.
Reverse - remember that time you just wish Mixed Nats could be in Brisbane again?
Draw 2 - the region must field two competive Nationals-standard teams at in a single division at Regionals before they can host Nationals. Could put regions other than East in a spot of trouble (that's a blatant lie, and I retract my previous statement)
Wild - the party?

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Has It Really Been Two Weeks?

Gosh!

My excuse: Melbourne Hat, staying in Melbourne a week afterwards and Christmas have really caught up with me.

Alex, on the other hand, is now a successful investment banker, whose super is making positive returns in a time of economic crisis - all that is keeping him busy.

So anyway, wishing you all a very merry SIFultimate silly season.

Stay tuned for many belated '08 In Review' updates.

Love,

SIF

Monday, December 8, 2008

Interrupting Set Plays

There are two times in my playing time where I've worked out, as a defender, a set play.

Once was the Youth Nationals final in 07. Any word called out starting with 'J' meant an up the line dump cut, usually to score. The other time was at league, where the line call was set so the person I was guarding downfield was only ever trying to cut openside then breakside, never deep.

This is one of the easiest times in ultimate there ever is to get a D. And it's not because knowing what they want to do you can shut it down completely- the opposite in fact. Once you've figured out a set play and it is called, your defence is in the unique position of knowing exactly what the offence is going to do for the next disc movement or two. 

For the first example (the up the line dump cut) you could bait the up-the-line through body positioning, but be prepared to sprint at a dime up the line because you know that's what they are looking for. If all goes according to plan, the thrower is left on a high stall count with his dump taken away from him. If it was a dump cut to score, you now have a defender right in the cutting lane taking away most of the openside options.

In the second example (recognising the line-call/the pattern your mark is cutting at) some things I experimented with: 
  • guarding the openside cut completely but leaving the breakside cut relatively open - this caused a turnover because the person with the disc was a weaker thrower who cannot consistently break the mark but attempted it anyway because that was the set play.
  • guarding the cutter openside and poaching in the lane - disrupted a fair amount of flow.
  • sticking with the cutter openside, positioning myself behind him by a few inches so he still has to run at 100% and could not slow down onto the disc. For the defence, this is a good situation: a thrower who would not normally throw to a semi-guarded cutter has a much greater chance of throwing to him now, even if he's guarded well, just because that's what the line call was. Doing this I caused two turns.
There is a lot of known unknowns in the game for a defender. Recognising a set play is one of the few times that you will know beyond a reasonable doubt what the offence is going to do and, rather than defend against exactly that possibility and return to the world of unknown factors (where is my person cutting, where does the thrower want to throw) I think it could be helpful to instead insert yourself into their set play as the dude who gets the D because somehow, miraculously? he knew what the offence wanted and denied it.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

1 scientifically proven way to instantly improve your ultimate ability

Its skins.

They are scientifically proven to increase blood flow by exactly 23.4% (with at 70% confidence level) proven in the Skins Lab located in USA. They also improve speed and responsivness of muscles by exactly 14.3%.

With stats like these I don't know why everyone hasn't bought a pair.

Oh wait now I remember. They also have a large chance of making you look like a knob.

I dont know how this happened but when I see people with skins I think ok he's either really good, or really bad. There is no middle ground with skins, you either deserve them or you don't. You have to earn the right to wear skins.

Whats that? You think your 5 year old playing club kanga cricket (not even rep) needs skins? Good call. I know he will reap many benefits as soon as he learns to run in a straight line. (not to mention needing a new pair every year or so)

I remember going to table tennis try out school. There was a guy with a $150 paddle. He beat me 11-8. I had a paddle no foam or the soft grip so its easier to spin that you buy in packs of 4 for $10. A friend of mine (a sporting prodigy so thats a bit unfair) beat him every single time they played with a paddle that did have foam (once) but was now peeling on one side and missing half a handle. I remember thinking, no way is that guy anywhere near good enough to respect the difference between a $20 paddle (a lot better than a $2 one) and one that is $150.

I forgot. I remember why you buy skins now. 100+SPF.

Shit. I'd better get a pair asap. brb.

Friday, December 5, 2008

Pigeon Holing

At various stages in our playing time, we are labelled and sorted and put into little boxes that determine pretty much where we stay. Tiger is a defensive handler, Alex is an offensive receiver.

Confusingly: what box you are put in can vary from team to team. I played mixed nats this year purely as a cutter, which was a pretty confusing departure from the norm for me.

Is this practice of pigeon holing beneficial? For a beginner joining a team for their first Nationals season, it can simplify their role and make what is expected of them much less daunting. What about when a player reaches this awkward ambiguous plateau that is 'intermediate', or even 'advanced'?

It is really only at the elite level where a player in the handler box would be useless trying to fit in the receiver box. And really, what's the point of working on just your strengths? Work your weaknesses, as well- if there's one thing a team will never run out of need for, it's versatile players who can fill more than one box on the field.

Quoting Verbatim

Something that Ken Shepherd, who is my captain in 'elite' div1 league this season, said tonight:

'The most important skill in any sport, right up to the international level, is self-motivation. There is nothing - nobody - here tonight stopping you from playing at the highest level you are capable of.'

I can't think of many people this advice doesn't benefit.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Finding yourself.

In my down time (straight lines jogging after christmas!) I haven't really been able to do much except watch and throw and unfortunely I haven't been able to throw properly. The main down is that I can't pivot or use my left leg a lot meaning its harder to use my whole body to make the throws.

However, I have decided that I want to be significantly fitter and better at throwing by the time I do make a return to ultimate, which has left me a lot of time trying to find what throws I need to improve and what I want to focus on to get better.

In reality, this has just ended up being a lot of frustrated throwing sessions in the park with various different people. One thing which has been a good thing but also a bad thing for me when I was throwing was that I feel comfortable throwing forehands/backhands etc from any height, angle or point of release, which is good becuase it allows me a lot of flexibility and with the exception of hucks, I feel like I'm pretty confident I can almost any spot I want with any throw I want, fast or slow etc.

Recently I have been trying to get flat hard forehand hucks (mine are too high and loopy but I am happy with their speed and point of release low and wide), decent flat hard forehand throws (again too wide and loopy, I want more speed on a shorter throw) and low wide backhand hucks since I can only huck backhand comfortably from pretty close to my body, which is sort of useless when there is a mark.

When I started to really focus on one throw at a time I realised something. The people I used to think were no good becuase they only had 3 throws, one forehand, one backhand and one hammer, the sorts of people when you see them fake a low forehand you know if you just hold your hand at about their hip/waist on the forehand side they cannot throw a forehand even if they are faking that low one, have all the throws that I wanted. They have their bread and butter throws, they couldnt do some shoulder height outside in backhand, or throw a perfect blade over the wall into the receivers welcoming hands, but if they get that open forehand tehy can make that same perfect throw every single time. The point was they had the throw, the one throw they do better than me is the one throw I need the most.

This left me wondering, trying to find my own style of throw that I was really comfortable with, throwing with different people trying all sorts of different things, I still haven't found anything that just clicked. I'd throw with Mark, who since getting back from Europe has really improved his flat/inside out forehands, I look at it looks like he steps out but has his body over the disc when he throws, give it a try, that feels ok, so I keep throwing like that for a few days. I end up going to the Queenscliff manly beach pick up, throwing with Matt Oswald who does some little squat forehand balanced over his centre of gravity, thats working for him, so I try that too. That feels okay too, but its not right. Along comes Waz Shephard, he does a few pretty looking forehands, throwing from bit more of an upright stance elbow relatively close to the body, and what do you know thats not too bad either. What worked best? I don't know and I'm still looking for a throw that I'm really comfortable with. I'm still struggling.

Its weird, I saw that ultimate frisbee dvd (the one that comes with the frisbee ultimate disc) and then thats how I learned to forehand, there was no feedback, no real instructional guide or the guidance of a coach, even worse I became the one to teach most of my friends how to forehand without being able to throw all that well myself (but hey, nsb produced a few solid players that year).

It was a lot different to the way I learned how to shoot in waterpolo. In the first season we were given a book full of waterpolo and team sport wisdom (i made a couple of posts from the book on here) and in it was a sumamry of how to make a solid top shot, in front of the goals from say 5-7m away. It had 6 photos and a clear description of why each step was crucial I still remember it now, use your eggbeater to stay level in the water, ball behind you, left leg facing the goals hips facing 90 degrees away, leaning forwards using your legs and other arm to form a tripod in the water bend at the hips, kick hard, get up out of the water, twist from your core, to your shoulder, elbow and finally powerful wrist flick. Each photo was precise and perfect, offering the perfect guidance for you to know when you had the right throw. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yA4uQxGlU-I&feature=related - Slo-mo mikasa ad showing most of the things I just said (except underwater))

So this affected the way I trained. I remember just throwing over and over again at a goal till finally it just clicked. There was a lot of ways to throw, I'd scored a lot of goals and a lot of things had worked, but when I knew what I was truly aiming for and what it was the moment the ball flicked out of my hand I knew I had found my throwing technique. The improvment was amzing, I remember the moment it clicked, trying to do bounce shots (shots that bounce off the water) in a pool. One particular throw I got up high, twisted my body, yanked my arm forwards and suddenly it just happened I added that bit of wrist snap I'd been missing and I could finally pull off that shot. Was it perfect? Not even close, but I knew I'd done it right.

Back to Frisbee. I still dont know how to throw a forehand or a backhand.

There is no uniformly accepted way to throw. We know all the things we need spin, speed, angle of release but everyone does it differently. Sometimes I feel like I have it, but then I try it again, see somethign else and wonder if thats even the right way to do it. It might have been the perfect technique for me 2 years ago throwing in the park with my friends, but I won't ever know.


I am still looking for my perfect throw.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Eye of the Beholder/Stealing from Women

Watching more experienced players can be extremely beneficial if you know what you're doing - often at league when there is a complete beginner on the team I will tell them that they should watch this or that player to see what they can aspire to be one day, even though this might not be the best advice to give an inexperienced player. A beginner might look at Owen and say 'wow, he is wearing a lot of zinc', whereas a player who has some sense of the game might come up with different conclusions - 'he's shutting that guy down completely', say, or 'the agility in his footwork definitely helps him when he is cutting, I should emulate this'.

Anyway. Watching others is a good avenue to explore if you want to improve, and so I wanted to decry the benefits of one particularly underrated resource in Australian Ultimate - elite female players. Why is it so much better to watch an elite female handler over an elite male one? Simply, I see the top shelf of women's ultimate having less of an emphasis on brute athleticism (speed, height) and a definite edge in terms of technique. Playing against the Firetails three or four times this year convinced me, if you want to watch a game and pick up some higher-order skills, check out Hussey's backhand, Sarah Wentworth's cutting or Lisa McGinnigle's aggressive mark. Dude's ultimate is just guys hucking to guys skying guys anyway. Yawn.

Friday, November 28, 2008

Leaving Small Ponds

This is an ego post, written quickly at the behest of a friend. Sorry.

For almost a year now, the only exceptional aspect to my ultimate career - the thing that made me stand out most - was the fact I was a junior, and eligible to compete in junior events (Youth Nationals, Junior Worlds). So, I've done all that, had my Worlds campaign where I matched up better than I had expected against most but still pretty middle-of-the-road-y, but my time in the junior's spotlight has passed.

Intermediate Male Syndrome, or IMS, is a disorder that I would say effects 20-30% of male ultimate players. It occurs when the big leaps and bounds forward in terms of playing ability (both fitness and skills) become less and less frequent and progress is plateau'd. Where once small efforts - the occasional run, doing a set of one hundred throws once a week - made a big difference, now even large exertions result in minimal noticeable gain. Obviously, there is a high temptation to, once this plateau is reached, basically just say 'fuck it' and be content with being average: IMS comes into the picture where players who have reached this wall have disproportionally large egos and misconceptions about their ability.

Why is this an issue for me? I'm leaving the small pond, and now the choice is mine as to whether I bust my nut and improve, or putter about on my present course.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Sometimes I Wish I Had An iPhone

Or at least a smartphone with internet connectivity so I could update this blog on the fly.

I have had at least 4 good ideas for posts on the bus travelling places or out at parties discussing ultimate, but they escape me at present.

Oh well. I've been injured; expect regularish updates once I start Opens season training/speculation.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Friskee I miss you so...

At 12 weeks post surgery if I have been doing my rehabilitation properly I am able to start running in straight lines (circles is too much). I've been doing one legged squats, lunges, some weird bridge thing on my back with waist off the ground and just holding that on one leg, wall sits, some hamstring stuff and plenty of stretching. Unfortunately I was meant to do that 4-5 times a week but I think I've only been up to 3. This could mean its a while till I start running again.

I also went on my first cardio session since Fakulti pre-nationals last training session at Rozelle with crippling hill sprints. I was just doing laps around a grass field on a bike at a pretty hard level. Afterwards, my legs hurt, chest was burning, felt a little sick and head hurt (not enough water I guess), in short it sucked, but it was nice to know that its at least an option for me now.

Tuesday night was Friskee, our 17 man roster cut down to having only 3 players on our team who are on the roster actaully arriving at the start of the game. Myself and Nobles sister Cat picked up for the first few poitns till we had enough to play savage with only 1 pick up. Played 3 points, had two pulls (thanks max!) and 1 assist from a stupid throw to hammer in the endzone. Admittedly I thought they would have no bid since they were all facing the wrong way and off balance, but that said it was still a fairly bladey forehand into a crowd of people. Hammer managed to catch that one uncontested.

Fun game was against special sauce, tiger turned up had a bung knee. I could empathise a little. Pottsy turned up, his blade count was at least 2. Interestingly I did learn places where blades actually aren't a bad choice in that they're easy to throw and fly quickly in a way that hammers and scoobers dont. Also saw him doing weird chicken wing pulls.
Interesting.

Friskee will also be welcoming Mark and Loren who are back from their adventures overseas! Hooray!

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Self Improvment

I think someone who thinks about their game, what they liked, what they didn't like and discusses it with their friends and thinks about it is someone who will obviously bring a strong mental game to the field. It's pretty annoying for me to see the dumb athletes, people I see with amazing skills and speed, but they like like lost space cadets, clogging the lane, making dumb throwing choices ruining set plays.

So with that in mind, I know Tiger and I used to have a lot of bitch/discussion sessions about how we as individuals and as a team played as we had those long drives back from ELS hall back to the beaches.

However, this post is less about Frisbee and more about me being pissed off at losing 10% of my miniscule online bankroll and getting stacked 3x in 20 minutes. (Stacked means to lose your entire chipstack). No I'm not upset about losing the $5 or whatever it worked out to be, but in the same way you didn't lose money after you lost League, it still can feel pretty shitty to get mopped on the floor by a team you know you should have been beating. I am a winning Online player, which is good since I play poker and don't lose money, but variance still hits me and here's 2 hands that affected me a lot when I played, the second one I got annoyed at and made me play poorly for a few hands. But here is my discussion of these hands.

The hero (me) is a1214.

***** Hand History for Game 7517978927 *****
$5 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Friday, November 07, 07:51:25 ET 2008
Table Table 126376 (Real Money)
Seat 8 is the button
Total number of players : 10

a1214 posts small blind [$0.02 USD].
kentuha777 posts big blind [$0.04 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to a1214 [ 9d 9s ]
Maler81888 calls [$0.04 USD]
yeaah11 raises [$0.24 USD]
DaObnoxious1 folds
Fless555 folds
andry00 folds
DaObnoxious1: :)) looooooooool
a1214 calls [$0.22 USD]
kentuha777 folds
Maler81888 calls [$0.20 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Ks, 6h, 9c ]
a1214 checks
Maler81888 checks
yeaah11 checks
** Dealing Turn ** [ Qc ]
a1214 bets [$0.36 USD]
Maler81888 calls [$0.36 USD]
yeaah11 raises [$2.17 USD]
a1214 is all-In [$1.36 USD]
Maler81888 folds
** Dealing River ** [ 9h ]
yeaah11 shows [ Th, Jh ]a straight Nine to King.
a1214 shows [ 9d, 9s ]four of a kind, Nines.
yeaah11 wins $0.45 USD from the side pot 1 with a straight, Nine to King.
a1214 wins $4.34 USD from the main pot with four of a kind, Nines.


First thoughts about this hand were making me laugh for that terrible bad beat on the guy on the river who played, but beyond that there is a little more behind the hand. (I have removed the stack sizes from both hands since I was showing to a friend but in all cases I was short stacked around $2 when the rest of other players were $2-$7. The guys I got in tangles with were typically $3.

The first raise from yeah11 I took personally as a blind steal, but I hadn't played many hands from him but I didn't know what sort of range of hands he was playing, so I guessed that he was strong. So if he was strong, why did I call with 9's? Pocket pairs gain their value from hitting well disguised sets in the flop. When calling a preflop raise with pocket pairs (even as low as 2) a lot of the time you will be an underdog HOWEVER the value comes from implied odds. You will hit a set (3 of a kind where you hold a pocket pair as opposed to trips where you have only 1 of the card with the pair on the board) or quads about 11% of the time. Clearly if I am calling 16 cents into a pot of like 34 cents I'm only getting around 2.1:1 on my money which is a bad call, BUT the implied odds of me taking his entire stack are what matters. How do you calculate implied odds? Simply I made a call of 16 cents, with the intention of winning his entire stack if I hit. Simple way to check if the persons stack is 15x the amount you are calling, in the long run you will make money from this play. (You will lose 9/10 times but the 1 you do will you will win 15x your investment which is a netgain of 5x your call)

On the flop, I was out of position so I had to act first. I was pretty sure the 9 giving me a set put me way ahead, and he did raise preflop so I was hoping he would continuation bet on the flop or hit the king and raise. There very few straight possibilities, no straight chances and I was going to bet against he didn't have a set over my set (trip kings against my trip 9s) so I checked. Maybe I should have raised but unless he was an idiot he wouldn't have called a raise with a gutshot straight.

Turn card comes a queen giving him the gutshot straight and best hand. I raise the pot, I'm happy with this raise, one person calls, and my villian raises all in. I snap called. In retrospect I should have thought maybe one little bit longer about what he could have, another set? two pair? straight? But I didn't. So this call turns out was a bad one if I put him on a straight. Why? Well I had to call $1.36 to win a pot of $2.98 which is only 1:2:2 on my money and since I was only about a 20% favourite to win (board could pair = 9 outs + the other 9 = 10 outs = 20% to win aprox) I would have needed to be getting 5:1 on money to make this a good call.

I should have folded that. Either way, I rivered a 9 and beat him down. My bad. Analysis? I was happy until the turn in how I played. However the chances of someone having a straight over a set everytime that happens means I would be ahead in most situations, just unlucky here.

The following is what I said to my other possibly more serious other poker playing friend(min buy in buying into a table for less than the table maximum to reduce risk, but it also means you have the potential to win less):

I GUESS THATS WHY YOU NEVER MIN BUY IN LOLOLOL RIVERED HIM

3 hands later I had to send him this message:

LOL OWNED :( LOST ALL THE MONEY I AHD ANYWAY:(

Dealt to a1214 [ As Ac ]
a1214 raises [$0.12 USD]
kentuha777 folds
Maler81888 calls [$0.12 USD]
pserg777 folds
DaObnoxious1 calls [$0.12 USD]
Fless555 calls [$0.12 USD]
andry00 folds
shirl1989 folds
** Dealing Flop ** [ 3s, 4c, 6h ]
a1214 bets [$0.39 USD]
Maler81888 folds
DaObnoxious1 calls [$0.39 USD]
Fless555 folds
** Dealing Turn ** [ 2s ]
a1214 bets [$1.26 USD]
DaObnoxious1 is all-In [$2.71 USD]
a1214 calls [$1.45 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ Js ]
a1214 shows [ As, Ac ]a pair of Aces.
DaObnoxious1 shows [ 5h, Ad ]a straight Two to Six.
DaObnoxious1 wins $6.41 USD from the main pot with a straight, Two to Six.

Hero is me a1214 and villian is DaObnoxious1.
This wasn't so bad. I got a little unlucky here, but bad play exposed me to this bad luck that I shouldn't have done. Looks like I had aces in early position, my first raise of 12cents is only 2 big blinds, I should have raised at least 16 cents. Ace's is a great hand heads up, but loses a lot of its value against multiple people. Using pokerstove (a hand analysis program) I can see that against a5o and 2 random hadns aces is only a 65% to win.

On the flop I bet 3/4 of the pot. I'm happy with this raise, it makes 2 people fold and I get one caller. Knowing his hand now, from his behalf that was a bad call hes getting like 2.2:1 on his money on an open straight which is about 24% to win by the river, 16%ish on the next card, meaning he needed 4:1 at least on his money to make that a good call in the long run assuming I wouldn't bet on the turn. HOWEVER to his credit, he was getting amazing implied odds. His chance to hit is only 4:1 but if he does hit he will probably get a lot of money (in thise case my entire stack). I bet out on the turn, and he went all in. I looked at the board thought I was safe then he went all in. This is probably where I made my mistake and shoudl have folded. I remember reading an article that basically said never go broke with 1 pair.

I went broke with one pair.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

New age coaching? Be THE better player

I was reading an article on self confidence and the author had an interesting little coaching tale.

He spoke about people needing to be comfortable with themselves and their abilities, but people often cant tap those abilities or importantly don't realise what they're capable of doing, and hence never gain the confidence of being able to or even attempting to reach their potential.

He recalled a story, he was in his college basketball team, he wasn't the best player in the team, in retrospect he thinks that although he thought he was the worst on the team, in reality he was not. But that would change.

One day, the coach tried a new idea what sounded like one of what Piers called in 2007 at the juniors camp an 'experimental' phase. They were having a practice game and the coach said to them "Each of you I am going to assign you another player on the team and you have to play the way you think that they would play," Naturally the game was chaos.

The main character of the story however was assinged to play like the best player in the team. With that task on board he thought, hey fuck it I'm not that good but this is just a practice so I don't care.

Needless to say he shredded that game and the coach told him later, if all he had to do was to tell him to pretend hes the best player on the team, that he will do that every single game. What changed? His skills certainly didn't improve over that session, but his confidence in his own game and HOW he used what he had, had changed.

....

So how does this link back to team dynamics and ideas? I think it was an interesting concept telling your team to play like others on the team. First of all you need to have played a lot with those people and be pretty familiar with their playing styles. So you would need to be a very tight knit team. Secondly, it is also in a way a team building exercise and an individual

So the first thing I imagined, hey what happened if I got asked to play like someone on my team. Phil White maybe? Well for starters I'd have to be an awesome precision point hucker, extremely fit with a sick read on that disc and ball crushing ups, as well as being ruggedly handsome. But then I started to think more about HOW the person plays rather than what skills they have. More about the choices they make, the people they throw to, the times they cut, the times they jump, break, throw, cut and even lead others. I think this was the coach's aim, to get people to really think about their team mates and how they can form stronger as a team.

So obviously you aren't going to be able to copy somones raw physical ability, but thers other things you could really emulate. Can this be applied to improving peoples weaknesses?

No names mentioned but there is two players on friskee, if I was to act like them, I imagine in this exercise a lot of people would become caracitures of eachother to really emphasise their gripes (or appreciation) of certain players.

Two people come to mind that I think could benefit from this.

Player one: "Oh look a perfectly good huck, I have the throw to get within 30cm of my runner. My runner has a huge lead, and on top of that can sky the other guy if it comes down to it. I'd better not take this throw."
Player two: "Oh man looks someones trying to cut deep I KNOW this is a good throw. Breakforce huck? that could be hard FUCK IT. HUUUUUUCK BABY"
"..."
"sorry guys, my bad."

I reckon both players could definetly benefit from this experience.

But could teams actaully benefit from a mess around game like this?
Maybe. But it'd be hard.

Friday, October 24, 2008

08 in Review: Mixed Nationals

Mixed nationals was a blast.

The first thing that struck me was how much had changed in a year. This year, for better or for worse, heralded the demise of the 'party team'. While there were social teams who did not intend to win (Hills) and teams who partied all night (D-Rex, YOUUU) there was a genuine sense of competition, even in the play-offs for 17th, 19th and 23rd. Is this a good thing? Maybe. In future it's going to be harder and harder for inexperienced players (especially men) who get into ultimate in the lead up to uni games (second semester, after the open/womens nationals season) to continue their passion at mixed nationals. Or, translated into terms relative to my life, the me from one year ago (or any other archetypal 'no-skills-except-enthusiasm' player) would not have been able to find a spot on a team that qualified.

Club loyalty was a big thing, too. Yes, Booty were missing and spread variously through Victorian, South Australian and Queensland teams, but I predict them back next year anyway. LOG!, Lounge Lizards, Hills, MUCUS, FAF, sCAPEgoats, Spider-Pig, Pie Wagon and Special Sauce and Flycathers all returned (or got knocked out at Regionals). I am even informed that Vintage was pretty much a resurrection of 2005's Point of Entry (which I'd know nothing about because I was studying for my year 10 school certificate and didn't even play ultimate then) and are planning on playing World Clubs in 2010. Moreso, UQ Lovers and RuBi were extensions of pre-existing mixed clubs (formed, in this case, from university). Even more swellegant, the way their development is going, Kaboom looks to be the Fakulti of mixed ultimate, bringing three (count them! three!) clubs to mixed nats. Howdy doody. Mixed ultimate isn't quite at the standard of club ultimate, but it's sure getting there.

I would like to know what happened with the trial runs of commentaries from last year. Did we decide that they were not popular enough? I thoroughly enjoyed that service, and I think it would have been useful, both for the people not in Brisbane and even for some of the people that were: on FAF's first day of the tournament all of our games were on the same field, right next to frisbee central. However, the stretched-out satellite arrangement of the fields means that I didn't find out how some other teams had gone until after the final on the third day.

The party was excellent. A lot of people complained about being denied entry or being kicked out but common sense should generally prevail in this situation: have you ever been to a club, anywhere, for any party, that allows severely incapacitated drunks to get in and stay in? Just because it's a frisbee party doesn't mean that it's not a licenced venue. The venue was pretty accessible, played a good selection of music, the alcohol wasn't too expensive, the party theme was broad enough to be enjoyable and there was a lot of space to sit down and talk relatively quietly. I'm going to chalk it down as a big plus - I could get drunk, hit on women, talk to guys and crank that like Soul-ja boy all night and really what more does one need?

Final Standings:
1. Vintage
2. FAF
3. Kaboom 1
4. Spider Pig

What is there to say? The final was pretty uninteresting, and I felt bad for the crowd who were watching. FAF were pretty shagged, so were Vintage. Gak was rooted but still outperforming FAF's defensive attempts to lure him into making any massive mistakes. Kaboom were such an impressive team the whole weekend long, with Keah and Holmes clocking in outstanding performances in both games we played them in. So did Ash, and Maddog. Chumpy was solid and as much as I love Tom Watson, he needs to reel in some of his options which resulted in advantageous turnovers to the opposition. A slightly depleted Spider-Pig managed to play well up until the point where it mattered - their semi and play-off, as far as I have been able to gather, was an exercise in not living up to your potential as a team.

5. Smurf
6. Sugoi
7. Tribe of Miniature Horses
8. YOUUUU

I ended up watching a lot of Smurf's play (games against Vintage, I think against Flycatchers? Possibly New Zealand and then against YOUUU) and the addition of Pottsy to the male line-up of Alec, Brett Middleton and Joel Pillar clearly helped. Their girls were a key part of their offence, which I really liked. Erin Wallis is quite a nice person although I think she thinks I'm a dickhead. Sugoi! What a surprise. Show's what Owen's firing up can do. Tribe performed outstandingly for a team with nobody over 6", special shout out to David Knight who always plays very well but nobody seems to notice. YOUUU. The big challenge for them was always going to be what would happen when they lost a game, which they did and judging by the results couldn't get back from. Much more infighting, frayed nerves and injuries than I expected.

9. Pie Wagon
10. Newcastle WD
11. Black Sheep
12. Flycatchers

Pie Wagon and WD eked out a Newcastle Ninal, which was good of them. Strong performances from Pie Wagon's imports, as well as the Lavis brothers (both of them) on WD. Rhys Clenton is rough around the edges but should be a massive asset to Thunder '10, whereas the lack of any solid handlers on the Flycatchers line (I'm sure Sean Lace tried, but he is still a massive gay) definitely would have hurt them throughout the tourney as winds picked up and junk defenses got rolled out. Black Sheep played pretty one-dimensional offence, but if it ain't broke don't fix it and clearly they didn't fix it. Er, or something.

13. Hills
14. Kaboom 2
15. Scapegoats
16. Mind the Gap

I'm running out of things to say because I hardly saw any of these teams after day one but Hills pulled out a strong run for a social touring team, Kaboom 2 fit neatly where I expected and Mind the Gap were really hurting throughout the tournament (first, no Nield factor on day one, then no team on day 3). Calan Spielman seems to be the hottest thing to come out of Sydney Uni thus far in 08, and sCAPEgoats benefited from having him on the team.

17. RuBi
18. UQ
19. D-Rex
20. Hand of God

RuBi lost half of their go-to's on offence for the 3rd day, but still had some legs to beat UQ in a very windy, scrappy game. D-Rex went well for a team that partied as hard as they did. I know absolutely nothing about Hand of God, but well done to you sirs and madams.

21. Lounge Lizards OR LOG!
22. Lounge Lizards OR LOG!
23. Gong
24. Kaboom 3

There was only so much Nans and that other dude (American? Tall? You know who I'm talking about) could do for Gong. Not a bad team at all, but a fitting result given the rise in standard between 07-08. Kaboom 3, spirit winners, ensuring that Canberra gets a showing in nearly every bracket and well done to them, whereas I didn't even know Lounge Lizards were at this tournament. LOG! were missing Buttons, Mike Baker and Ash Martens, and this is where that gets you.

That's about it. More of these '08 in Review' to come.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Managing Your Downtime

People get injured in this sport. You play long enough, you play hard enough, you are bound to experience a major injury at some point.

Denial and anger tend to be two big stumbling points - get over these, and we get into the productive things that you can do when you're out of the game.

Become a coach: sounds simple, and that's because it is. Spend the time you would be playing ultimate teaching others how to play the game. I am not sure what the situation is in other states (though I would love to know, if the AFDA admin folk have any idea please give me a yell) but there is definitely a shortage of instructors and a high demand for coaches in high schools and universities in NSW.

Read a book: I recommend Ben Elton's Stark.

Analyse the game: paid for a tournament that you won't be able to play at due to injury? If you're anything like the average ultimate player, I'm going to bet that you have learnt most of your skills through playing and training. While you're out, why not go to Regionals or Nationals - pick a team or a player that have something you'd like to bring to your game and take down notes.

Volunteer at a tournament: everyone loves volunteers and tournaments couldn't take place without them. I am sure your local TD would have no objections to your helping out.

Focus: if you're anything like me then you probably let ultimate get in the way of other commitments, like family, non-frisbee friends, cleanliness of house and finances. Use your downtime to apply yourself to anything you've been missing out on.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Extreme Parenting

I read and saw a few things that compelled me to write them down. I have begun my rehab bike riding and I was just doing repetitive laps around the park. I saw a father (I assumed) with two kids probably about 8 and 10. The father was making them run sprints between some cones, I imagine for soccer or thugby.

It reminded me of another time I was in a park, it was Tunks Park in Cammeray, down near the water they have an exercise eqiupment park with bars for chinups, raised things to do situps on and so on. There was a crazy dad there with 3 kids probably 10,8 and 7 or so and he was sending them through a full on work out routine, all of his kids did more chinups than I could do at that time. The other thing was they were clearly not enjoying it at all. The dad was full on into it with the whole yelling motivation at his kids despite the pained looks and tears in their eyes.

The last little story is a friend of mine, as a child he was whipped into sports and is one of those extremely talented nuts that can pick up a sport and become an expert at it in no time at all. He was in year 6 when he peaked his career being 5th in his age group on the National Tennis scene. In year 7 the testerone of puberty kicked in and his rebellious nature came out, told his mum to piss off and gave up tennis despite his amazing talent.

Since then I saw him absolutely tear so many opponents to pieces, he was beating the zone reps in table tennis, players who felt they need $100+ bats to improve their play, he was beating them with an old one he'd found at home with the rubber on one side missing and the foam coming off on the other. He became a qaurter back playing grid iron, had a few runs playing rugby, beat down his state level opponents who were training 4 times a week tennis opponents at our Crawford shield. the next year bored of tennis came down and represented our waterpolo team being part of our second victory in waterpolo in 17 years against Melbourne, and in his last year bored of those sports played squash but lost his temper against their Victorian state reps and smashed up a racquet that belonged to the PE teacher. To top it all off he was always in kings playing 8 court handball at school...

Interestingly he was one of the least motivated sportsmen I'd ever played with he was remarkably talented but completely unmotivated. He had amazing potential but as soon as there was serious commitment to the sport (beyond turning up to competitions and winning) he was so put off the sport that he would drop it immedietly.

The other is a child success story.

In year 8 I started playing waterpolo for school, the last open team called themselves "The bogan patrol" and had bright disgusting pink speedos with their team name to go with it. They were some of the most talented players our school had seen for quite some time winning the Crawford Shield waterpolo for the first time from Melbourne in 15 years, getting to regionals in state knockout and coming second in the zone competition. We were a bunch of kids looking to get out of the summer heat. Tyler Martin started that year in year 7, and with some amazing leadership and skills from him and our extraordinary coaches brought us to once again reclaim the waterpolo win from Melbourne, win the zone comp and getting Kinkumbered by a bunch of bogans at regionals in the state knockout.

He was extremely talented a great team player, extremely patient with all of us, and although he was small in year 7 when other teams would triple mark him and laugh us while they tried to score on us using headers (extremely hard in a pool), he filled out as he got older. And eventually represented the Australia in its under 19 opens waterpolo team. He currently players nationals league as well.

Both these guys were childs sportsmen but there was a huge difference in their training and motivation. Both would surely owe a large amount of this to their parents. Both the success and their failures. With many frisbee parents now having kids, I wonder if any of them will force their kids into playing and training, or if this will ever happen. Or are people going to be nice and let their kids play whatever sports they want?

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Sugery Adventures: 1 month on

I was just sifting through my physio papers and realised I haven't been at 100% since the end of March this year when I rolled my ankle. I had to just strap it up and play on it at the juniors camp and through nationals was just a lot of tape.

So it's been a while since I've really been able to play sport properly.

Though 1 month on things are looking good. The first 2 weeks after the surgery were pretty rough, especially when I had to get back to uni.

Now though walking is no longer such a painful challenge, I can now dress myself without pain or difficulty, I can bend my knee back to about 100 degrees, do squats, ride at the no resistance level and my hamstring is now strong enough to lift my leg.

The funniest part of it was probably being on peak hour buses and having an old woman get up for me. It was probably the nicest thing someone did for me that day. It was also funny becuase last time I was on crutches the people on buses were assholes pushing and shoving when I clearly have an issue walking without crutches.

I'm now doing squats down about 3/4 of the way to 90 degrees, wallsits that are pretty far from 90 degrees, 1 legged sqauts barely down at all, as well as hamstring and calf stretching.

One of the hardest exercises that I got was that I had to lie on my stomach and lift my leg up bending at the knee using my hamstring like I was doing a quad stretch.

It surprised me and scared me the first time I was asked to do this I was too weak to be able to lift the whole way (more than about 15cm off the ground) i had to use my other leg to help it up.

its a lot stronger now though.

the other weird one was i have to do quad contractions that is I just sit down with my legs out straight and try to tighten my quad. It was a huge psychological barrier, the muscle was there, not very developed but still there and it took about a day of just sitting there trying to make it happen. It was a very strange sensation feeling so disconnected from my quad that I could not contract it at will.

I was again surprised at the number of people who have torn ACL's one of the SUUFA exchange kiddys Jimmy is about 4 months post op and was reliving many of the experiences through our conversations (and telling me what joys I had ahead) and recently spoke to Elsey who I found out also tore his a few years ago.

So the Physio bills are stacking up, I need to get into a gym and an exercise bike soon but being too lazy. Better take better care of myself...

In the mean time I have been occupying myself with Treasurer work from Suufa, went down to melb on a short holiday and watched the last 2 days of unigames saw Suufa's final defeat to Flinders, which was a shame since it was only the second game I'd seen them watch. It was a little painful being on the sidelines I think Simon Hyatt (my travel buddy and Suufa secretary) and I were the only Suufa supporters... and Brett's mum. What I saw was a defense that could not shut down Joel and Alex who liberally threw over and through the Suufa wall, a couple of very good overloading on the deep defender with Joel on the disc, splitting the deep while the wings were biting in too close down the sides offering no help on the huck. Apparantly the Suufa offense was nothign that it'd been all tournament but from what I saw they were struggling not being able to throw through or over the wall and a dropped energy by the end of the game. I was later reminded of this with the 40-0 victory of Manly over Melbourne storm that even professional athletes can get hit by the nerves and of course how amazingly important a teams morale can be.

I've also been playing a lot more poker since I can't do anything else, had a savage session of 5/10c blinds with friends from $5 buy in up to $22 in 4 hours of solid and down $17 in the last 30 minutes getting unlucky not becuase I got bad hands, but I got really good hands I couldnt let go of. I've also made a return to competitive gaming after 3 and a half years, playing COD4 with a 15-5 victory with c[_] over Ministry of Gaming.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Fresh Bwudd

What happens when Pottsy passes away in a freak gasoline fight incident? What do we do when Simon Farrow loses all will to organise after Naremburn Council removes the lights entirely from Naremburn park without telling him?

Where do we go for volunteers?

Get 'em early, get 'em young: universities are huge resources. Surely someone on the AFDA has a list of all the little yet nonvital things they want to do but haven't been able to due to lack of volunteer resources - 'update the AFDA front page', 'hold more beach tournaments in summer', 'buy milk'. Coming back from AUGs I was almost sickened by how much passion and drive there was for the sport from people all over Australia: these are future accountants, computer programmers, advertising agents, engineers and alcoholics. Why not put them to work?

The best part is, it's a two-way street: the AFDA wants things done for free, and starving uni students are looking for anything to beef up their resume or talk about in job interviews.

With some exceptions (Max and Ewan's appointment to magazine editors is the big one) I don't really see the Young Turks being utilised to their fullest extent. There are three positions vacant on the NSWFDA board, even with Frank and Nikki both holding two positions. Of course there's lots to be said against putting somebody with little experience in charge of something, but it's got to be better than the current system (which in my markedly limited worldview seems to consist of overloading a small group of people who are already time-poor and doing too much for no money).

My idea: state universities co-ordinators (or development officers? or even a new position that hasn't been invented yet - heck, everyone loves a business card) liaise with university team managers/coaches/captains periodically to see if there isn't any raw talent that can be put to use on the AFDA's backlist of random menial tasks. At first the AFDA can provide free league frees as an incentive, then as the talent is drawn further into the frisbee community, a good dose of Catholic guilt will probably do the trick. It's that simple and it takes less than an hour's worth of typing all up.

Too late I recognise this all sounds too familiar: I am poaching off this entry from Simmo.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Usage

Why do we use zone defence? We use zone defence if the other team is much more athletic, has weaker throwers or if it's very windy.

These arbitrary considerations for zone neglect some things:

Part of what a zone defence accomplishes is the tiring out 3-4 of your on-field players while giving at least 3 players on the other team (the handlers) a rest for the point.

Also there is the illusion that in wind, it is far harder to break the mark than it is to throw open side (up, down or crosswind) to a guarded cutter. This is flagrantly untrue.

Playing against Monash and Flinders on days 3-5 of uni games this year made me wish for points where I could just walk the disc in playing against a zone. Over the course of a five-day tournament zone defence becomes less and less viable.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Rotten Technology

I've always thought that www.afda.com was pretty neat-o.

There's quite a lot of good info that's pretty easy to find. Especially when compared to the UPA and WFDF sites, which either confuse with labyrinthine user-unfriendlyness or lack any in-depth information.

But I'm me - a committed, relatively technological ultimate player. Half of the fun in having a website for ultimate players is making sure that the stark utter newbies are catered for.

I have some issues with the site. Finding events is not immediately obvious, and there are usually discrepancies between tournaments found through the Calendar and Register pages.

The big issue I have is that it does not look professional. It's the face of the organisation, as far as a beginner can tell - everyone ends up there at some point to register themselves, and it's pretty unashamedly outdated, even compared to the UPA.

Look at the difference between this and this. Surely we can give David Colls free league fees at Albert Park social for the rest of his days if he spends a month or so updating the national website and its regional counterparts to match what the VFDA have.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Scoober?

This throw is neglected at worst, heckled at best. I suspect this attitude has something to do with it having a silly name. It's also one of those words that look a lot sillier when you type them- like muff, or episcopal.

Regardless, here are some good reasons why the scoober is (not 'always', just 'a lot more than people give it credit for') a good option.

It is, by virtue of its throwing action, a quick release throw on the backhand side. This is useful - a quick release backhand is a much more difficult throw which not many people have consistently.

For an upside down throw, a scoober has a pretty gentle flight pattern, even in wind. Hammers are thrown with a lot of downward motion, leaving them especially vulnerable to blading or buffeting. Scoobers are thrown more at a 45° angle, are a little inclined to float up, but still are more stable.

The crowd loves the scoober.

In man offense, as a breakmark throw, the scoober can hit the deadzone directly behind the marker. No other throw can do this without first getting the mark out of position.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Surgery Adventures: Operation day till post op day 1.

..."Pay special attention to the ANAL region... FOR MEN: SCRUB the SCROTUM thoroughly" (Exact directions on Pre-Op wash instructions with capitalisations and all)

At 6:20 in the morning I woke up and looked at the clock and realised I'd set the alarm 1 hour too late and had 40 minutes to get to the hospital (which was 45 minutes away). Gave my body and in particular my 'anal region' possibly the most thorough cleansing session possibly of my entire life as per the detailed instructions given to me with the wash (the most intense cleaning session was the night before since I had to wash night and day. No food and water since midnight left my mouth pretty dry, mum freaked out and we hopped into the car and went to the hospital.

Arrived at the admissions ward, nothing exciting happened there. I saw the funny doctor from last time I was there except I think he must have been at the end of his shift very tired looking, big bags under his eyes. Was greeted happily by one of the nurses as 'the organised boy!'

Bagged all my clothes, put on some gowns, shaved my leg (and he was a she, she said hey babe take a walk on the side) and got introduced to the anasthethist. Stuck an IV into my hand, it stung a bit, told me there was going to be 2 doses one to relax me and it feels damn weird you feel cold from the inside but your skin is warm to the touch, the other to knock me out. "This one is just to relax you" and my head started spinning, my surgeon walked in with a grin on his face and a blood stained gown, "All done here you'll go in, in just a moment!" I blacked out around there.

"Do NOT make any important legal decisions within 24 hours of being under anasthetic," - Your rights and responsibilities at hospital guidebook.

Woke up a few hours later, mouth was dry, overall feeling like shit, wanted to throw up, head was spinning. In response they fed me an ice cube.

I threw up when I got to the ward and pretty much just felt like arse until midnight (it was about midday when I got there). The nurses who came and attended me were all very friendly caring and genuinely concerned (or seemed it) about my well being. I had two older women who were probably the funnier nurses who came up to me and firstly asked "How come you have lighter eyes by dark hair?" I told them how I was half asian, they commented why my sister had light hair, I said I didn't know. They asked me if I had a girlfriend and proceeded to give me relationship advice that amounted to:

"Make sure you get a girlfriend before you leave uni, becuase when you leave you will be lonely and not be able to find anyone since all the couples get married 2 years after uni so you'll have to wait till they divorce to move in. My son had a great girlfriend for 2 years, but then they broke up and he left uni and now he's lonely. Don't end up like my son. He's lonely. "
"See look at her, (Pointing at the other nurse) she didn't meet anyone at uni and now shes single!"

Room aircon was screwed up, so the room was really hot, and the guy next to me as friendly as he was when awake, sounded like he was dying or in severe pain judging by the way he snored. Around 10pm I hadn't 'passed urine,' into this small milk bottle sized and shaped container with a sloped and elongated neck which though being about 7-8 cm across my dad still joked "Ah bad luck son, still won't fit." It was too awkward to use and I couldn't go until the nurse came in and threatened "You realise if you don't pass urine for 6 hours we have to use a cathetar,"

A cathetar (I dont think thats spelt right but it is pronounced like that) is a metal rod they stick up your urethra and into your bladder to ease the process. It also hurts as you can imagine, to have a piece of metal shoved up your urethra. I was scared into peeing.

I impressed myself with a 1 litre effort of urine (the bottle had measurements) which would be the first of 3 litres 'passed' into these bottles (the last time it almost overfilled) I was pretty proud.

Morning finally came, the sickness passed and breakfast arrived. A few doctors came in, checked the bandages for bleeding (It had bled a bit the day before and was redressed) a few more doses of antibiotic into the IV and I was told I just needed an X-ray and then I could go home. This was about 7:30 and the x-ray was at 2:30. I ended up getting out at 3:30. I also got to ride a portable toilet seat and use the toilet! how exciting! and my first shower in the portable toilet seat as well. Exciting stuff.

Physio came and gave me some stuff to do taught me how to use crutches and I sat and read for a few hours.

Mum arrived and carried me home.

Physio is tomorrow, I have an exam on friday and monday, hopefully I'll be able to get to uni.

Hooray,
This is the most relieved I've felt in a long time, finally out of the hospital and back at home, and for the first time since April 4 and a bit months ago finally know where my knee is going and that I can actaully get better rather than being in a constant state of dull pain.

One question I had a lot was after reading my file (with a puzzled look)
"..."
"...So you hurt yourself playing frisbee?"

Thursday, August 28, 2008

I have a ruined Knee: Pre Admission

"Enjoy you're last few pre-op pain free days!" - Enthusiastic Doctor

Today I had to venture to uni for a 1 hour tute, then straight back home, took about 4 hours. Then I got to drive all the way to Hornsby hospital (another hour or so of travel) for pre-admission!

Did a urine sample, that was fun.

Then a swab test. That was also fun.
"I need to get a nose swab and a groin swab,"
"...What?"
"Tilt your head back," before she nimbly jams a swab up my nose and twirls it around.
"Alright now I need a groin swab, can you lower your jeans?"

She handed me a bottle of disinfectant and instructions on how to wash myself with it before the operation.

Back in the waiting room a happy doctor comes to greet me. Telling me to step into his office with a funny look on his face. He takes me to a ward, I see a chair and a bedside table. He notes the particular lack of a second chair, and asks one of the nurses eagerly "Pass me that wheelie one!" The doctor pulls the curtain around, sits down in the chair, lowers the bedside table to where he can write on it and proudly annouces "Welcome to my office!" and later joked about the lack of resources at the hospital.

While asking me just general health questions I hear someone on the phone in the background, he was listening and looks up with a bright look on his face, "Wow, thats great, the patient we thought was going to die didn't die!" I thought he was joking, by the way he told me, but I heard a bit more and the guy was talkign about how against all expectations the patient had survived.

"So how did you injure yourself?"
"...Sport. Someone ran into my knee."
"Really which one?"
"Ultimate Frisbee,"
Again, more funny looks from him "Well I didn't think that was the sort of sport where you get injured!"

I was faced again with that one time of whether I should bother trying to explain that yes it was a real sport, yes it was taken seriously, and yes people can get injured pretty badly.

"Have you done any drugs?"
"No."
"No pot, smack, cocaine, ecstacy?"
"No."
"...Crack?"

A few minutes later we packed up his temp office and I headed out.

"Enjoy you're last few pre-op pain free days!"

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Gratuitous Faking

Something I see as one of the biggest errors affecting intermediate players is gratuitous faking.

If it was just unnecessary or inefficient, fine, but it's not - it's detrimental.

More than just requiring extra concentration (and it is much harder to look downfield, listen to the stall count AND fake endlessly - maybe not for women, but guys can't multitask) but often the commitment to a fake will cause you to be out of position to throw to a perfectly legitimate option.

Don't make the D's job any easier - fake only if you want to move your marker into a position that is more convenient for you, the thrower.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Friskee's Elite Youth Recruitment and Development Program

Wow, looking at the World's juniors results (http://www.wugc2008.com/team/301 and http://www.wugc2008.com/team/201) which are amazing, Terra have managed to beat both Canada and USA, and checking the stats I've realised aside from HOS we are probably the powerhouse of Australian elite junior recruitment, funny as that sounds.

Phil is successfully building up another promising group at Chatswood who are only 13-14 years old and will be amazing by the time they are our age, and even better when they are older, one of the Xavier got a handblock on our youth nats game against them on Tiger. Our legacy at NSB and strangely the legacy of a lot of NSB's ending up playing frisbee - many of the current Dingos are from NSB (well not that many) there is another group of Ultimate players coming through NSB now showing a lot of promise who recently came second at the NSW schools Gala Day (Chatswood came first)

Our friends at NSG who played Frisbee becuase they were friends with us have now made their own name on the Worlds Scene, Bec Villis and Clare Langford being part of the team that beat Canada and USA as well have successfully started up ultimate at NSG with Nathan and Tiger now being employed as coaches of that team.

As for Friskee, started a few years ago, captained by Phil White the current Australian Junior Captain. In the first season we had Myself, Tiger Webb, Max Halden, Angela Felhnar, David Noble, Tom Tullett, Graham Shilson-Josling, Phil White, Ellie Spark, Mark Evans and a few others I forget. Since then we've also brought to the sport Josh Jacob, Alistair See, Clare Langford and Bec Villis (headhunted - no long on Friskee) as well as Alex Allen and Alex Peters, Peters who didn't want to try out for the Junior Women and Allen who was a very strong contender along with myself, Mark Evans and Graz who were cut at the last cut for the Junior Open team. This season we gained Sarah Hammer and Calan Spielmen, but they came into the sport not through us, we also introcued Loren Viswalingam (not sure if surname spelt right) to Ultimate and shes now off in Vancouver this year as well.

Friskee has been the main source of Sydney juniors who tried out successfully for the Junior Australian ultimate teams. I think what makes us different from the other Sydney Juniors (In-Tents) is that we actually recruited new players into the sport, pretty much all of present Friskee except Phil, Alex P, Ange, Calan and Sarah H who came into the sport through themselves or other people, have come in through Friskee, or Friskee's "Recruitment Program," which was pretty much bringing frisbee's everywhere and a healthy amount of peer pressure.

However we are having slight growing pains, our staple NSL div 2 even though we've never placed better than 2nd last (this season is looking no different) due to our stacked worlds line up will not be allowed another season at div 2, and we would get torn to pieces in div 1 beuase of the number of new people we have on our squad each season. So we're going to have to either split up, or move up a division due to our size, we've also reached the point where we've had to turn down players since our roster was 16 or so people.

The future for Friskee?
Well we need to order some new shirts...

In my humble unbiased opinion,
Recruiters of the year?
Yeah. I think so.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Getting excited about Worlds!

Wow. Spoke to Tiger, lucky guy is seeing all those people we see and hear about playing Frisbee in USA and Canada and hes having a rocking good time.

Just spoke to him and he says less than an hour till they warm up for their first game at 1:30am (our time). This is the first time I've really cared about a team and given a shit about one that I'm not in (I don't really follow/care about any other sports much beyond liking to see Australia win) and damn I'm excited. I relaly hope that Thunder does well.

I also asked about their game against the YCC Seattle club and what happened. Tiger's side of the story was that it was a whole bad team effort, everyone was playing off their game and no one even had a neutral or good game. He said he felt like they could have kept up but didn't.

So all i've done is read all the gossip about worlds, all the usa blogs and australian ones.
This is going to be awesome.

Good luck Australia

Friday, July 25, 2008

Mental Game

Tiger was telling me about how he didn't feel quite ready mentally like he knew it was there just it hadn't struck him.

For all the juniors and rest of Australians (mostly Juniors) who are going to represent. I wish everyone the best of luck and good health no injuries etc...

Reminded me again of that glowing gem waterpolo handbook:


Effective Preparation for Competition
Effective preparion for competition is a matter of luck for many athletes. Maybe this, maybe that and lets hope that ti works.

For Elite Athletes however, control and consistency are the hallmarks of their preparation.

Would Keiren Perkins live in hope that allw ould come together at the appropriate moment on finals day for him to win Olympic Gold?

**Successful atheltes have well developed competition preparation SKILLS

**Skill is not something you are born with you are born with ABILITY

**Ability is transformed into skill with PRACTICE

Some atheltes are fortunate enough to have so much ability that they need only limited practice to acquire effective skills. For most athletes however, including professionals, considerable practice is neccessary before they acquire these consisten preparation skills.

Effective mental peaking is an acquired skill - acquired with preparation and evaluation.

1/ ATTITUDE
A successful athlet views competition as a challenge and a chance to reap rewards from the hard word and dedication. Their focus is not only on the outcome but the process of the contest. Winners have a balanced attitude between the competition and the realistic goals which they have set.

2/ CONSISTENT ROUTINE
Athletes need an established routine which they can utilisde automatically to have them peaking at the right time. This routine can sometimes take years to refine.

3/ READINESS - NERVES
Obviously it is important for athletes to have the adrenalin pumping, to have high energy for competition. The skill in preparation is controlling the gradual increase in arousal so they can peak at the right time.

If they peak too early they burn precious energy - if they are under aroused then they may find it too hard to compete at the right intensity. Preparation skill should include short term techniques to either pump up or calm down.

4/ SELF CONFIDENCE
A confident athlete is composed, relaxed with a high degree of certainty. They strive to reduce uncertainties or doubts as well as being completely realistic about their chances.

They should be willing to let go of worries, doubts about wether they have trained long and hard enough. They should be focused on the fact that the competition is now - the moment of truth.

5/ CONCENTRATION
Concentration literally means to focus all attention onto those factors that are most appropriate to performance.

However, the duration of concentration is limited so that it is neccessary for athletes to pace themselves before competition. Relax both physically and mentally and have the focus of attention gradually narrow as teh competition comes closer.

The most common forms of disruption to concentration are external ones, such as friends in the crowd, or internal ones such as negative thoughts. The most effective method of blocking out these disruptions is by focussing on something that will assist performance an by deep breathing or using a buzz word.

Summary:

** Effective competition skills are developed over time with planning and practice.

** Athletes should continually fine tune their organisation and concentration routine.

**They need to become skilled at fixing their attention at each appropriate moment.

**They need to develop the instinct to pace their physical and emotional build up.

**They need to be willing to accept their current standard and trust themselves.

Finally they need to achieve that fine balance of:

**Striving for a good outcome
and
**Focusing on the process.

STAY WITH THE PROCESSES UNDER PRESSURE AND TRUST THAT THE OUTCOME WILL TAKE CARE OF ITSELF

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Here's Looking At You, Kid

So, we all know how to bust a zone.

(If you don't, consider this)

An entirely different problem is working out where to put people of lesser experience when running your zone offence. This is a scenario I'd imagine quite a few teams have to deal with in the uni season (and to a lesser extent the mixed season) of Australian ultimate, as there are always new recruits who have to learn as they go, a fair amount of experienced-but-not-superstar players, and generally not that many World-class athletes who can demolish one all by themselves for the entirety of the tournament.

So:

What seems to be the temptation in the teams I've played with is to stick the inexperienced players as wing/deeps or popping, and have the experienced players as handlers. Consequently, a lot of teams of this skill mixture generally have an okay time dumping and swinging, but their middle of the field really fails to engage and so they have a harder time scoring. Here are some alternative mix-ups to this formula, assuming a mix of 3 experienced players to 4 not so experienced, and a zone defence that is not overly impenetrable.

The Risky
Have three inexperienced players handle, two experienced players popping, and the remaining one good one not so good players act as wing/deeps. If necessary, have one of the experienced poppers receive the pull and pass it to the handlers.

The Pro's:
  • The inexperienced folk get more disc time than they normally would, increasing their confidence and handling ability.
  • Once the disc gets to the experienced poppers, they will have the confidence to give-go or look for decent upfield options. Most inexperienced poppers, once they get the disc, just give it straight back. Basically, once it gets to the middle, expect the zone to be broken permanently.
The Con's:
  • It's not called 'The Risky' for nothing: three inexperienced handlers could spell death if they are caught in, say a sideline trap.
  • Much more pressure on the experienced folk (poppers) to bail out in situations like a high stall count or aforementioned trap.
The Talk Show
Place one inexperienced player as the axis handler, with the other two handlers being experienced/inexperienced respectively. Poppers and wing/deeps are made up of one good and one not-so-good player each. The idea generally is that, just as a good zone defence revolves around a lot of on-field communication, so does this zone offence! The experienced handler is there to guide the other handlers, and the popper/wing-deep pairs have one experienced player each in their to guide the other one.

The Pro's:
  • The inexperienced players are getting lots of advice as events occur, as opposed to after the point or on the sideline where recalling the situation may be difficult.
  • Equal spread of experience all the way down the field, to ensure continuation and flow.
The Con's:
  • Relies heavily on calm, measured and timely communication to newbies, which can be quite difficult in the heat of the moment. (Think 'Turn to face your dump, Sarah.', not 'SARAH DUMP DUMP DUMP!')
  • Once again, new folks handling presents a little bit of a liability. Make sure the experienced handler is prepared to work to give the inexperienced handlers safe, easy options to reset the count.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Not Happy Jan

Woken up this morning by a call from the Physio.

I tore my ACL, and need surgery.

Boo.

Monday, July 14, 2008

The Kids Aren't All Right

Youth Nationals is a very different event to Opens and Womens, and it's a very difficult to satisfy the interests of all involved.*

Junior Worlds players are the driving forces behind most of the teams, so ensuring their attendance is pretty vital. But in a Worlds year (which come twice as often for the little tykes) fitting them in the actual tournament is testy: you are competing with training camps, as well as the usual school/uni timetables. Hosting Youth Nationals at a date that does not coincide with a training camp means excessive travelling/money/effort/time, whilst hosting the event at a date that does coincide with a Worlds training camp runs the risk of the event being a complete write-off.

There is also the question of what we want out of Youth Nationals: should it be focused on development, or high-level ultimate, or both? If it's the continuation of the Sydney-Victoria (or Sydney-Sydney) hegemonic ultimate then by all means, hold the event away from a training camp somewhere in Sydney or Melbourne. In terms of development, though, there are two major complications I can see that prevent Youth Nationals from reaching its full potential as an event on the ultimate calendar:
  1. Recruitment infrastructure: currently, the majority of players are there on a friendship circle, word-of-mouth basis. At this year's event, one team was there because of the ultimate program in place at their school. That is where I see the future of youth ultimate's recruitment - high school. Especially in regards to states that do not have historically strong youth development (here's looking at you, TAS/SA/WA/QLD/NT) and weaker (or geographically less fortunate) players who have not been snapped up by club teams in their respective states. At the NSW High School Gala Day, a 'Merit Team' is selected from the best players. This team serves no function, at present. Imagine if the merit team from the SA High School Gala Day were selected to compete as a team at Youth Nationals - the words 'representing the state' add a lot of legitimacy to a sport like frisbee, and you could bet parents would be more willing to shell out the cash if this were the case.
  2. Pricing. Last year, we got a hat, a disc, two days of high-level coaching and two days of ultimate for about $80. This year, we got two days of ultimate, a hat, a disc and a party for $75. Unfortunately, swinging the tournament fee either cheaper (for development, talking $20-50 just for fields for two days) or more expensive (for discs, hats or social events) runs the risk of alienating either entire teams of prospective new players (as was the case this year, with the cost for just the tournament being prohibitive enough to ensure at least one team didn't attend) or the hardcore travellers who want the extra tidbits to show for their journey.
So that's about all I can think to say on the matter right abouts now.

*This isn't a dig at how youth nationals was run this year or last. I had an absolute blast this year, Lisi did an incredible job and was amazingly patient and deserves to be thanked with a big big hug if you see her in Vancouver. Also, the party venue was amazing- it had showers, a movie theater, a sound system and more hot pizza than the hungry youth crowd could eat.

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Day 2 Youth Nats

Well, today wasn't really as good as Day one.

First game against HOSY half our team was away getting the youth nats medals in neutral bay, we lost they played very well and we played horribly, we lost pretty badly.

Second game against Chatswood well spirited fun game they have al ot of surprisingly good up and coming kids I think Eshan was the best of the new group of CHS kids. We won that one.

Last game against Big Mac Small Fries, fun game they surprised me with how well they handled just they had no real strong receivers to back it up and we won.

Semi-finals were HOSY (1st - Undefeated through round robin) against Discgraceful (4th) and In-Tents (3rd) vs PUMSAT (Princess Unicorn Magical Sparkle Action Team) (2nd).

Hosy won their game and PUMSAT vs In-Tents was probably the worst game for us all tourney. In-Tents took 15 minutes to make the first pull, meaning it was only a 30 minute match, time cap score was 5-2 (In-tents) 6-2 game to 7, we lost i think 7-4 or 7-3. They played about as well as they did the last game, but we played a lot worse. Noble played for them that game and made some excellent throws. He has improved a lot as a handler. This game wasn't anywhere near as angry as the last game, there was some extremely bad calls during the game but everyone on PUMSAT had no heart since the start of the day. Tiger probably gave them another 10 for spirit.

The highlight was probably a catch from tom tullet managed to catch some crazy blade throw completely vertical on the trailing edge with his knuckles facing towards his body (if you can imagine the crazy position you would have to be to get a lay out catch in yoru hand with your knuckles facing down and towards your body on the trailing edge)

After a quick chat with Discgraceful there was no 3/4 play off.

HOSY vs In-tents was a great final HOSY dominated with their awesome lineup, Lewis Broad pulled some awesome forehand hucks and not so good backhand throws, Buttons and Tarrant were solid and great. Jake-as was huge. Lochies were strong stringy receivers.

Lex was absolutely amazing pulled probably the best and most beatiful d's of the entier game with some hectic layout blocks. he is going to be a huge asset for Thunder... as long as he doesn't injure himself!

I think the only bad thing about this youth nats was probably the timing.

For most of the worlds players on our team it was something none of them really cared about as much as the non-worlds players. For the worlds players it became a tourney that was just exhausting and could injure them, so they had much different expectations to the other players on the team and its pretty hard for a team to play to its potential when half of its players dont give a crap about the outcome. This was reflected by the lack of girls games where sydney was too injured.

Good tourney, good fun, well organised and the last youth nats for a lot of us.

Friday, July 11, 2008

I am a mean bastard who should not play Frisbee... on the upside though...

Day 1 of Youth Nationals...

All the worlds players were groaning in pain saying how much they weren't looking forwards to playing and how no one was taking it seriously and how bad it was going to be becuase they were all sore and not wanting to play.

First game against G-Stanes the u/17 champs pretty quick easy game. We put all our newer players on, Dan was a surprisingly good cutter, Evan was getting some sweet D's, Hingo was throwing well, our pickup Dan Clenton was throwing a bit tooo much (he stopped in the next games when he stopped stuffing around).

Our game against In-Tents as usual another game with absolutely no rivalry at all, not many foul calls but a bit of dirty play (but nothing was called) 2 things really annoyed me was their first pull of the game was so bad that they were able to hit it down, annoyed me becuase it would have gone about 5m towards their endzone if he had left it. A quick look at wfdf rules I can't find the penalty for interfereing with the pull beyond:

Interference: No player on the throwing team may touch the throw-off in the air before it is touched by a member of the receiving team.

The other one that annoyed me was there was a giant pick that left one of our players bleeding becuase he got decked, and so someone called pick on it. In-tents had managed to get a long throw off the pick and started complaining and swearing, I was pissed off, I saw Graham swearing at us I yelled out in the most ironic comment of the day "Come on show some fucking spirit!" (very angrily) before people laughed and pointed out Graham didn't know what happened. I felt bad and apologised to him at the end of the game.

They also tried to call a Dans winning score out who left a large skid mark from a slipping cleat whose mark started and finished in. Surprisingly it was Jackson who called it in. Thanks Jackson.

Lex again did some amazing layouts, Peley got some sweet D, Tiger is laying out a lot more, Calan surprsied me with some very good one handed sprint catches into fast throws and was a solid game.

Funny thing is, it was probably all a 2 way thing and I just see one side.

Last game was against Discgraceful, all our newer players and pickups played fantastically it was a very fun and a lot more spirited game we won.

I'm thankful there is no zone in this tourney becuase on today when it was windy and full of inexperienced players woudl have torn apart our team.

see how it goes!

youth nats party was fun
nathan is an alcoholic.

Tomorrow is the rest of the teams including HOSY who I'd tip to see in the finals and chatswood then semis and finals.

Go PUMSAT.

My mean funny for the day:
Nathan made a sweet bid for a disc, got absolutely decked by another player laying out into his legs, and it looked like a very painful hit, I think i said something like "HAHAH OUCH THAT LOOKED PAINFUL THATS EXACTLY HOW I GOT INJURED BUT I CAUGHT IT"








Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Friskee!

I couldnt help it, I went along to a game with Friskee and came on a few points...

It was a sad reminder of what I'd been missing out on.

Played a bit of zone handler, I was happy with my throwing and catching. It was against the bad beats and they had a pretty solid line up. (When everyone arrived... we started playign 4/2 with them only 4/1). It was probably a good experience for our less experienced players running into their zone.

Seeing some of the guys on my youth nats team come up against their first semi decent zone, I found out why they don't allow zone in youth nationals, it would completely invalidate a lot of inexperienced players despite their athleticism and disc skills.

Thanks to Bad Beats for letting us pick up about 4-5 players...

We had 2 new girls come along and play Bella and Laura, Bad Beats were very friendly and nice to them I think it was a good first experience at a competitive game of frisbee.

It was also Mark Evans last game with Friskee before he goes away to Europe and England, he did a couple of very nice catches, his pulling was pretty solid but his hucking wasnt too good that game. It was also the first game I had a chance to play on the same field as Brett Matzuka, hes a very fun guy to play with, has lots and lots of crafty handler moves and very friendly. Unfortunately the points we did play were sort of short... probably because I could play close to zero d due to my knee still and not running at all.

Came away with a few assists I was overall happy with my hucking, bad choices at the time (he wasn't really that open) on a few of them but they still came off. Equally there were some very good choices and good throws that became dropped pancake catches... I also tried to huck a backhand as a fast break throw off a turn, a mark come on at the last moment and i didn't follow through properly and threw a huge inside out backhand blade, funny thing was the 3 offensive guys becuase 2 misread it managed to completely box out Tim Gee to give mark a relatively easy catch. I guess thats totally buzz bullets style hucking blades to make position matter more compared to height!

Simon Talbot also made a guest star appearance since hes here for ECC's, was fun having a bit of a chat with him, and he had some very nice faking happening when he went on for a guest star point with 100% completion and points scored when on the field.

I also had my first taste of an assassination zone since our first season of friskee (no one has used it against us for a while) and this time it was me that was assassinated. When I realised I tried to stay behind the disc, and then started running around sort of directionless just tryign to keep my man away from the action.

Brendon the fantastic cool and all around nice guy Frisbee player came and had a chat to me about it saying why I was assassinated (passing to girls) and what I should have done, which was basically just keep moving and try and pop to stay useful and mess aroudn with their zone.

I really like it when people teach me very important stuff like that!

At the end of the game had a chat with Brett and Alex Allen about the future of ourselves in frisbee with a very positive outlook!


Thanks to bad beats for a very fun game with plenty of pick ups, pretty good spirit i think.

Damn.
I forgot the score.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Catching the disc on the leading edge.

Was at the park throwing with Nathan and Hingo today.

I noticed a lot of Hingo's catch's he was dropping were deflecting off his hand and ending up 3-4metres away.

I thought about it, and realised it was because he was catching on the trailing edge rather than the leading edge.

I tried to explain it, but it didnt make sense so I stood a few metres away from him asked him to throw the disc to me, and put out my hand to just stop the disc. Once on the trailing edge, it would spin off my hand and land a few metres away, and once on the leading edge, straight into the ground.

It made sense after that with the nice little demonstration. So then I made him swap roles he had to mac the disc to let it spin away from him and also stop it so it would fall straight down.

A good way to teach the concept of leading and trailing edge catches I thought!

VICTORY FOR SEMFEL WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

WOOOOOOOOO

Its 2:05 am, Thursday 19th of June and I'm happy.
I just played 6 hours straight of online poker.
Played over 400 hands....
Outlasted a field of 2700 players to come first.

Had an EXTREMELY lucky start - some idiots quadrupled me up in a single hand.
My lowest point was about 8 big blinds, with my top being 4 500 000 chips (from a starting stack of 1500)
Played a very good middle game, adapting to my opponents (weather they're idiots or not, tight/loose etc)
I had awesome patience. (6 hours of it)
I played sort of badly after a big hand when it got to Heads up, the last hand was probably a bit too much of a loose play, but I did go in with an advantage and won.
I never went to any show down an underdog (i was very happy with this)
And funnily my biggest pay offs weren't aces (which i got 3x over the night, but never won moer than 3bb off anyone since bb and sb folded to small raise...

I played position very well.
Played a solid tight aggressive game.

So what did i win after 6 hours of grinding?
$15!
... could have worked for an hour to get that.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Warm Fuzzy Memories - The Bum Shower at Nationals

Just remembered this nice little one...

The second day of Nationals was the really wet and really muddy one. It was raining all day, puddles were huge, mud was knee deep, layouts were awesome and everyone fell over getting stuck in the mud as they tried to turn around too quickly.

The end of the day though wasn't so fun still cold and wet, showers packed full to the brim mud dirt and grass somehow managing to get into everything...

I remember walking into one block seeing a long queue and leaving as Tiger told me enthusiastically "Hey come check out the bum shower!"

What it turned out to be was a punch of guys washing their clothes in a big puddle on some concrete behind the block from runoff from one of the rooves, as they all cramped up shivering underneath the runoff trying to get a good shower as everyone undressed and got closer together...

Pretty gay.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Focus, Now

A problem I have not just in spades but in buckets and other, more ergonomic and practical containers, is losing focus, and disengaging from games I am playing. This is a problem- often it will not be the more athletic or the more skilled team who prevails, but simply the team who wants it more. Being engaged - being focused - is a large part of this.

Unfortunately, there isn't much of an on/off switch to competitiveness in the human psyche, so I thought I'd share a sort of drill that helps me out when I am trying to switch on.

Get two discs between two people, one person each with one disc. Stand a short distance apart, and throw the discs between one another. Aim chiefly not to drop any discs, and to keep your throws on target. Done properly, at no time should any one player have both discs.

I find that this exercise demands nearly complete concentration. Which is good, if focus is what you are lacking. The best part is, it can be done quickly on the sideline for a few minutes until you feel in the zone.

Okay, Now You're Just Being Selfish

Back in my first job at Pizza Hut, folding up the pizza boxes was an art form. In total, there were eleven individual folds to make for the flat piece of perforated cardboard to become a rigid box, and one of my managers was amazingly skilled at folding. In the time it took me (and I was in no way slower than the average- if anything I was slightly above it) to do one stack of boxes, he could have filled the entire store. Watching him fold boxes was almost magical - he was so good at it, yet at the same time I questioned the ultimate purpose of being so very, very good at something so very, very trivial.

There is a special facial expression that accompanies this mixed emotion of awe/pity, and it's the same expression I see on people's faces when I tell them that I am going to represent Australia in frisbee.

So, where we are at the moment, in Oz: ultimate is a competitive amateur sport. I'm a paragon of unathleticism, and yet I manage to make it to events like Nationals to play alongside or against people are truly world-standard.

And recently a sense of selfish irony has hit me: despite all the efforts I make trying to get people to get into frisbee (at uni or for league) I really don't want the overall standard of play to rise much higher. I don't want ultimate to be an Olympic sport, or be recognised as legitimate by all the normal folks out there.

It's not just a fear of how chumped I will get by actual legitimate athletes who play the game, it's more a fear of how the game itself will change to accommodate its growing professionalisation: it's so fundamentally reassuring to turn up to day one of Nationals and see hundreds of people in the carpark who are there because they want to be there, because they love the game. The moment people start playing for the paycheck, I'm going to play dischoops.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

The Luckiest Unlucky Streak of My Life.

I have missed an opportunity to play NUFL 1 and 2 becuase of my ruined knee which would have been am amazing chance to improve to my game and get some awesome frisbee experience. I missed out on ECC tryouts which would have been awesome fun, and I have missed out on that team.

I have lost a lot of my fitness, I was the fittest I'd ever been coming back from Junior's training camp asnd Kai's crazy fakulti fitness and worst bit was I wanted to run more than ever on day 4 of nationals, the first time I've wanted to run on the last day of a tournament...

Im not sure I'm going to be ok to properly try out for Usyd's unigames team or train with our new youth nat's team.

On the other hand, I have played a bit less poker recently but have had the luckiest stream of cards over my past 100 hands that I cannot believe (100 hands is very very short term and is no where near enough to let your variance even out in terms of having shitty hands and getting your share of good hands.

In the past 100 hands, I have flopped quads two times, along with several flushes, full houses (with junky hands) and a happy variety of top two pairs and triples. The quads though is unbelievable.

In the past night, which would have only have been about 45 hands over 3 hours I was dealt pocket queens, pocket 10's pocket 2's (flopped quads - unfortunately had folded preflop becuase of too much action in front) and pocket aces, as well as flopping a full house off big blind and a flush.

Really its the quads that blew my mind, the rest can happen often enough but the quads is crazy.

So I guess despite the bad luck of getting ripped up in frisbee losing all my fitness and missing out on some awesome games... other things get lucky.