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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.