When I was standing next to Tom Brennan at NUFL last year, he mentioned being a selector for 2008 Aurora Australis (a team who, judging by what I've seen of Fury at UPA Nationals '07, should at the very least win a medal or something is very very wrong with the world). I asked him what he was looking for as criteria for selection, and he turned to me and said 'Gosh... I don't know... people who are good?'
It made me laugh, but offhand jokes on the matter aside, being part of a selection process makes me wonder what selectors are looking for in their Ultimate team. I have practically no experience or knowledge when it comes to senior teams (Dingo's, Mundi's) so I'll stick with Thunder for the while.
Selection for Thunder - for any junior team - interests me a lot because the way I see it, it's much more a gamble. Here in Australia our junior Ultimate, while being highly developed in parts - Cupcake's epic performances at NUFL's, Phil and Ellie's ability to be a massive threat be it handling or receiving on offence and defence - still lacks the solid player base that selections for a proper Open's or Women's team might have. Not everybody has the disc skills. Not everybody has the fitness. What the selectors for a junior's team have to look for, apart from everything else, is potential, and I like that. I think it's risky.
An example: For Boston in 06, Thunder took Stephen "Cleetus" Johnson on as their token tall man. Missing out on his spot, though, was Seb Barr, who some say was much better at Ultimate during selections, though shorter. Cleetus went on to have a huge impact on the Boston team, pulling down massive hucks and getting big D, and they placed just outside of a medal finish, for 4th. That, as far as my (extremely limited) inside knowledge goes, is a case of selectors choosing height over athleticism and skill. That story, by the way, has a happy ending: Seb Barr today was selected for the Aussie Mixed team at Vancouver, the Barramundi's, beating several other Boston players for the spot through hard work and commitment to the game. Way to get back up from being down. Big props.
I held a party at my house once, and friends got to talking about who would make Thunder from my group, and how we all made the squad: Tom Cashman (hilarious guy, excellent long distance runner, tall, beats me at frisbee just by standing in the endzone even after all the training I've put in) used the soccer analogy of selection, saying that the guy making the team isn't the team player making the perfect assist pass, it's the guy who tries to dribble the ball solo into the goal, irrespective of the fact that soccer is a team sport. And as a spectator of Ultimate, that really is what impresses: the chest-high layout block in the endzone, the Callahan, the point block, the massive hucks. But Ultimate is a team sport, and surely that can't be all selectors look for.
Then again, the things I value pretty much at the top end of a skillbase are hard to see from just watching. Shutting down your man on defence aka 'hitting the D spot'. That's impressive, and probably one of the hardest things to do in any game with a half-decent offence. It's also pretty hard to spot because absolutely nothing of interest happens around you. People tend to follow the disc, and if you're shutting down your man so badly that they aren't getting the disc, generally people don't notice, unless they're on your sideline. Where a good defender lays out to get the block on his man on a sweet in cut, the excellent defender stops that cut from happening in the first place. Far less exciting, but a very valuable thing nonetheless.
Another thing I like is playing smart, or field sense. This is probably a little bit more noticeable. Being extremely unathletic, I have a tendency to hate on what I call 'dumb athletes'. And I should know, I've marked plenty of them. They're the sort of people who get open, then slow down to get to the disc, or don't notice their defender (usually me) is mismatched to their skill and they don't capitalise or make themselves a threat to the defence. Playing smart is probably much more noticeable in a zone situation. Recognise - if their wing is poaching on your third handler, play the space left in the middle of the field. Things like that really impress me, and are the sort of things I try to do.
My first introduction to 'playing smart' came from my hat captain at the second day of the Ultimate Stampede. Chris someone. He had a Deathstar shirt. Newcastle, I think. Definitely Newcastle. He taught me the importance of dumping and getting the disc off the sideline. Playing smart. What's the point of being much faster or taller or fitter than your opposition if you haven't got the brains to exploit it? Speaking of points, I don't really think this post has one. I hope I make the Worlds team. Will I be gutted if I don't? Yes. For the rest of my life?
Maybe. Maybe not.
T.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
'Crazy' Frank and the New Games Report
Simmo's most excellent blog (ballaratultimate DOT blogspot DOT com) has inspired me, somewhat, to write a little bit about the New Games Report of Frank Huguenard and what I think about it.
To summarise the situation for those not familiar: Frank is pretty much the maverick genius of Ultimate. Frank is ambidextrous. Frank once owned a fusion Italian/Indian restaurant that made Indian pizza. Frank doesn't like the UPA. Not many people in the wider Ultimate community like Frank. Frank is combative when it comes to his thoughts on the game. Why?
It's not just the UPA's rigid conservatism that irks Frank the most. His research - this New Games report - basically states that Ultimate is a 'New Game', or in other words, that it was created and developed, along with a bunch of other counterculture games in a social movement in the 1970's, with an almost aggressively anti-competitive, egalitarian mindset.
It's quite a read, pretty much all of it in Crazy Frank's Crazy Rhetoric - a language rather like English, but more fanatical - but there was one part of it that I want to share, straight from the horse's mouth:
But is Ultimate a sport, or is it a New Game? Nobody is denying the strong roots of Ultimate in counterculture, and the perception by the greater majority that Ultimate is two bearded men in Tree of Life jumpers throwing around frisbees with their dogs in a park does little to help. Frank's says his report proves beyond a reasonable doubt that 'cross-pollination occurred' between New Games and Ultimate. And I'm not going to argue with him: similarities do abound between the founding philosophies of the New Games and the concept of Spirit of the Game.
But his report takes this rather tenuous link between the base axioms of one movement (the New Games' freedom from competition/egalitarian ways) and the adjudication apparatus of another (Ultimate's Spirit) and stretches it too far. They share superficial similarities but they are not one and the same, which renders the rest of his 'proofs' as baseless assumptions.
More on this later, as I'm rather tired. Sorry for going all tangential, this post doesn't express how much I admire Frank for continually trying to express his views in a way that, for someone with the nickname 'Crazy', is moderate at best.
T.
To summarise the situation for those not familiar: Frank is pretty much the maverick genius of Ultimate. Frank is ambidextrous. Frank once owned a fusion Italian/Indian restaurant that made Indian pizza. Frank doesn't like the UPA. Not many people in the wider Ultimate community like Frank. Frank is combative when it comes to his thoughts on the game. Why?
It's not just the UPA's rigid conservatism that irks Frank the most. His research - this New Games report - basically states that Ultimate is a 'New Game', or in other words, that it was created and developed, along with a bunch of other counterculture games in a social movement in the 1970's, with an almost aggressively anti-competitive, egalitarian mindset.
It's quite a read, pretty much all of it in Crazy Frank's Crazy Rhetoric - a language rather like English, but more fanatical - but there was one part of it that I want to share, straight from the horse's mouth:
You can't have it both ways. Either you have a game that is fun and fair for all or you have a sport that is designed for excellence at the highest levels.I think it most accurately sums up Frank's position on Ultimate, and why it will never take the world by storm. But it makes a false assumption: while few Ultimate players (and a surprising amount of casual pick up players who have mucked around with it once or twice, or even people who've seen it played like my grandmother) will dispute that the game is fun, it is, at the end of the day, a sport based on athletic ability which, by the simple convention of having a system of points scored, means that there will inevitably be a loser, and there will inevitably be a winner.
But is Ultimate a sport, or is it a New Game? Nobody is denying the strong roots of Ultimate in counterculture, and the perception by the greater majority that Ultimate is two bearded men in Tree of Life jumpers throwing around frisbees with their dogs in a park does little to help. Frank's says his report proves beyond a reasonable doubt that 'cross-pollination occurred' between New Games and Ultimate. And I'm not going to argue with him: similarities do abound between the founding philosophies of the New Games and the concept of Spirit of the Game.
But his report takes this rather tenuous link between the base axioms of one movement (the New Games' freedom from competition/egalitarian ways) and the adjudication apparatus of another (Ultimate's Spirit) and stretches it too far. They share superficial similarities but they are not one and the same, which renders the rest of his 'proofs' as baseless assumptions.
More on this later, as I'm rather tired. Sorry for going all tangential, this post doesn't express how much I admire Frank for continually trying to express his views in a way that, for someone with the nickname 'Crazy', is moderate at best.
T.
Reading Players and my experiences
Poker is a fun game to play. I mean, I'm terrible at it, and do not often win money, but I really enjoy playing it.
I remember seeing some youtube video about "Poker teaching life skills." I thought hey thats funny, but sadly true, a perfect poker player would make a good salesman, assuming they weren't completely addicted to gambling and sports betting (a reality for pro poker players), they know when to apply pressure to get more money out of a situation, they know when they are beat, they know when the person is disgusted or in love with the price. Useful isnt it?
Whats this got to do with frisbee?
Well for starters, after playing poker a lot of the game is playing off the player, laying down bottom pair against an all in raise doesn't take a lot of skill, but to be able to fold a full house to a higher full house takes some skill.
One thing since playing poker, is that I watch people a lot more, and try to understand what they're thinking when they're playing, from the way they sit, fidget, look and talk.
It works in frisbee too. I mean I know good players can anticipate cuts, but I've never properly been able to do this so the first time I did was a really good experience.
One of my happy memories from the Youth Training camp marking a player near the endzone. He faked one way, and then ran the other, I didn't bite on the first fake, and on the run, I didn't follow him but just run straight to the spot I knew he wanted. I didn't think about it this time, and I stopped the cut as he stood there with no where to go.
Not very special sounding, but for it me it was the first time I'd ever done something like this. I'd played enough with him to know which was a fake and which one was his real move, and when he did I knew where he wanted to go before he started moving becuase I was able to think from his perspective about it.
Not very advanced, but still a special moment for me... it should have happened sooner.
I'm going to focus on making this part of my D game.
It also means less running which I love!!
I remember seeing some youtube video about "Poker teaching life skills." I thought hey thats funny, but sadly true, a perfect poker player would make a good salesman, assuming they weren't completely addicted to gambling and sports betting (a reality for pro poker players), they know when to apply pressure to get more money out of a situation, they know when they are beat, they know when the person is disgusted or in love with the price. Useful isnt it?
Whats this got to do with frisbee?
Well for starters, after playing poker a lot of the game is playing off the player, laying down bottom pair against an all in raise doesn't take a lot of skill, but to be able to fold a full house to a higher full house takes some skill.
One thing since playing poker, is that I watch people a lot more, and try to understand what they're thinking when they're playing, from the way they sit, fidget, look and talk.
It works in frisbee too. I mean I know good players can anticipate cuts, but I've never properly been able to do this so the first time I did was a really good experience.
One of my happy memories from the Youth Training camp marking a player near the endzone. He faked one way, and then ran the other, I didn't bite on the first fake, and on the run, I didn't follow him but just run straight to the spot I knew he wanted. I didn't think about it this time, and I stopped the cut as he stood there with no where to go.
Not very special sounding, but for it me it was the first time I'd ever done something like this. I'd played enough with him to know which was a fake and which one was his real move, and when he did I knew where he wanted to go before he started moving becuase I was able to think from his perspective about it.
Not very advanced, but still a special moment for me... it should have happened sooner.
I'm going to focus on making this part of my D game.
It also means less running which I love!!
Fund raising Idea
There was some chat in the thunder 08 group about fund raising and I think I've got a good idea.
Star city casino, high stakes roulette wheel.
...
EVERYTHING ON RED 35
Star city casino, high stakes roulette wheel.
...
EVERYTHING ON RED 35
Things I have learned in the past week not playing Frisbee and Balance.
Frisbee was rained out all this week.
Thursday last week Fak training was thundered and hailed out at the same time.
Tuesday we missed out on Friskee, fields were rained out.
Went and did 120 throws in the city with Max.
Wednesday did nothing, went for my jog and did the core strength.
I'm getting better at jogging.
So really, nothing much has happened this week but I've learned so much, and been thinking... well fantasising about ultimate, after Jimmy's email about "Get off your feet," about chasing the defender down. (http://www.chasingplastic.com/archives/issue-pages/v3i2/two-steps-defensive.htm )
So a few things.
1. Never go for jogs after eating. I've done this twice now, and it makes the jog about 3x as challenging because my stomach hates me for jogging while it tries to digest my food.
2. Do pushups before situps, then your abs will hurt less.
3. Don't try to do throws or fitness with long jeans in humid weather. You will lose a lot of flexibility, and on top of that you will feel filthy.
4. Don't run away from barking dogs, it only makes them angrier.
But also I did a lot of thinking.
I think Balance and efficiency are some of the most important things in Frisbee, and unfortunately without actually having any formal training, its never something I've really seen emphasised enough. Think about it. Balance is what allows you to change direction quickly, sprint at full speed from letting go of the disc, throw without falling over, getting on the mark after a failed bid, keeping that pressure on the mark. Effeciency is saving the goal with a switch for deep, keeping you less tired on the field, and making each one of those cuts and attempted blocks sting the opponents for being lazy.
A few things that reminded me of this (apart from Parinella's amazing explanations of it all) watching the WUCC06 Dvd, there was one point that involved the Gak hucking it. What was so good about this huck? Perfect break force flow huck to an open receiver sprinting down the breakside with no pivot.
So how did this happen?
Well a little background. I hate getting broken. I hate it when one person is over enthusiastic on the mark and his entire team is punished for it. (Layout block attempt from fake, break force throw, flow down the breakside to score - 4 short/medium passes) Why is this annoying? It defeats Parinellas blessed principles of efficiency and balance. He made an inefficient act, wasted his energy in a lay out on a fake, and he completely lost his balance. The cost of this bid? A break force throw, and a free 3-4 steps before the mark can get up after the thrower has sprinted off.
So this happened to the gack, his defender makes a bid, he punishes the failed bid with a huck to score.
So what's my main argument?
Well back to this article: (http://www.chasingplastic.com/archives/issue-pages/v3i2/two-steps-defensive.htm )
It is fantastic, I am inspired, I will run harder and I will lay out, but I think it fails to miss the crucial point to please note timing and balance with a meager few lines at the end. Its like being on the mark, we are taught "Don't try to get the handblock, thats not your responsibility just don't get broken." I think this is the same, holding the force and not getting broken goes beyond being on the mark staying on your toes, hands low, it involves getting there, and on your face on the ground is not a fantastic place to be when you're on the mark.
I mean hey we're taught to be efficient all the time, Jimmy came to watch one of our friskee games, after a particularly enthusiastic point he spoke to me at the end "Use that energy in a more productive way!"
He was right. Wait for the moment, then bust your guts.
...
The last thing I learned?
Just because you raised half a guys stack, over bet the pot in position with JQs does not neccessarily mean that he will not call with q4o and hit 2 pair on a board of q/4/8.
Thursday last week Fak training was thundered and hailed out at the same time.
Tuesday we missed out on Friskee, fields were rained out.
Went and did 120 throws in the city with Max.
Wednesday did nothing, went for my jog and did the core strength.
I'm getting better at jogging.
So really, nothing much has happened this week but I've learned so much, and been thinking... well fantasising about ultimate, after Jimmy's email about "Get off your feet," about chasing the defender down. (http://www.chasingp
So a few things.
1. Never go for jogs after eating. I've done this twice now, and it makes the jog about 3x as challenging because my stomach hates me for jogging while it tries to digest my food.
2. Do pushups before situps, then your abs will hurt less.
3. Don't try to do throws or fitness with long jeans in humid weather. You will lose a lot of flexibility, and on top of that you will feel filthy.
4. Don't run away from barking dogs, it only makes them angrier.
But also I did a lot of thinking.
I think Balance and efficiency are some of the most important things in Frisbee, and unfortunately without actually having any formal training, its never something I've really seen emphasised enough. Think about it. Balance is what allows you to change direction quickly, sprint at full speed from letting go of the disc, throw without falling over, getting on the mark after a failed bid, keeping that pressure on the mark. Effeciency is saving the goal with a switch for deep, keeping you less tired on the field, and making each one of those cuts and attempted blocks sting the opponents for being lazy.
A few things that reminded me of this (apart from Parinella's amazing explanations of it all) watching the WUCC06 Dvd, there was one point that involved the Gak hucking it. What was so good about this huck? Perfect break force flow huck to an open receiver sprinting down the breakside with no pivot.
So how did this happen?
Well a little background. I hate getting broken. I hate it when one person is over enthusiastic on the mark and his entire team is punished for it. (Layout block attempt from fake, break force throw, flow down the breakside to score - 4 short/medium passes) Why is this annoying? It defeats Parinellas blessed principles of efficiency and balance. He made an inefficient act, wasted his energy in a lay out on a fake, and he completely lost his balance. The cost of this bid? A break force throw, and a free 3-4 steps before the mark can get up after the thrower has sprinted off.
So this happened to the gack, his defender makes a bid, he punishes the failed bid with a huck to score.
So what's my main argument?
Well back to this article: (http://www.chasingp
It is fantastic, I am inspired, I will run harder and I will lay out, but I think it fails to miss the crucial point to please note timing and balance with a meager few lines at the end. Its like being on the mark, we are taught "Don't try to get the handblock, thats not your responsibility just don't get broken." I think this is the same, holding the force and not getting broken goes beyond being on the mark staying on your toes, hands low, it involves getting there, and on your face on the ground is not a fantastic place to be when you're on the mark.
I mean hey we're taught to be efficient all the time, Jimmy came to watch one of our friskee games, after a particularly enthusiastic point he spoke to me at the end "Use that energy in a more productive way!"
He was right. Wait for the moment, then bust your guts.
...
The last thing I learned?
Just because you raised half a guys stack, over bet the pot in position with JQs does not neccessarily mean that he will not call with q4o and hit 2 pair on a board of q/4/8.
I think...
I think a better team name would be "Your Mum,"
Think of the hilarity that would ensue as people read the results!
Think of the hilarity that would ensue as people read the results!
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Team Names, an Anecdote
Disputes once arose about what our junior's team name for Longest Day '06 should be.
The eventual winner was 'Huckelberry Win', which was sort of funny because I don't think we actually won any games, as old hands saw Cupcake on our team and mistook our hilarity for arrogance, then promptly schooled us.
One of the suggestions still gets me to chuckle. What could our team name have been?
'The Fuckers Who Beat You.'
One day - one day.
T.
The eventual winner was 'Huckelberry Win', which was sort of funny because I don't think we actually won any games, as old hands saw Cupcake on our team and mistook our hilarity for arrogance, then promptly schooled us.
One of the suggestions still gets me to chuckle. What could our team name have been?
'The Fuckers Who Beat You.'
One day - one day.
T.
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