June 25-29

Thursday June 25-Off
Friday June 26-12 hour drive to Boston
Saturday June 27- First day of Boston Invite. Forge was not placed in the elite bracket for this tournament, which I can understand after are season thus far. We came out against Wiretap (W 16-14) for our first game. The game was pretty even. I felt that it was obvious that our team was still gelling together. There were some great points, but there were some bad ones too. A terrible point for myself we get the turn and the disc is on the sideline. Stall is getting up there so I start to make a move and then the disc is thrown to me. The throw is high and would have been hard for me to get too. Lucky it went to the far handler. After he has the disc he then proceeds to throw the dump. This time the timing was much better. I have had a lot more playing time with this handler and had a lot better feeling when to move and such. Anyhow the throw is high and away from me again. This is were I completely screwed up. I have always been about attacking the disc anytime I can because you never know if someone else will d it, but on this point I waited a split second thinking he made the throw to the far handler cutting back since that was the throw that just happened. Ahh so then I realize it was to me and I couldn't get to it. Damn then they score. This game also featured some other mistakes on defense as a team that we worked out throughout the game. Our force middle for instance was not looking good at all, but that was just some miscommunications that we worked out. Next game up was against Death Or Glory (W 15-11). DOG came out early and took the lead like 4-1 ish. This team may be an older team but they have sick skill. I had one point matched up against an older guy that I knew I could run faster, jump high, and that I was more agile still this guy got me into the position he wanted and got a few dumps and an upline that I don't want to remember. We came back after we called a timeout and talked about what DOG wanted. Next game and final game of pool play was against Colt .45 (W 15-5). Watching this team warm up if we didn't crush this guys we would have been pissed. A lot of the guys who don't play a ton got a lot more playing time, and they all played pretty good. So we ended pool play 3-0 and then had the chance to play into the elite bracket with a cross over game. Pony went 0-3 in their bracket so we ended up playing them for a spot in the elite championship bracket for Sunday. We start playing and Pony goes up 4-1 then the storms that have been holding west of the fields all day started to get to close. The TD could see lighting and blew the horn. We waited for a good hour and then it was determined to call the games for the day and restart Sunday morning at 8 am ahhh such an early start.

Sunday June 28-Second day of Boston Invite. So we arrive at the fields later than we wanted around 7:20 am. Now lets get to the game. We came out strong and not only made up for the 4-1 score after yesterday but took half. After half we kept it up and won 13-12 after they started to come back. This step us up after a bye to play GOAT (L 10-15). That is one solid team. Their hucks were so crisp it was nuts. They also had over 30 guys there and seemed like a small army running on the field after every score. We didn't play our best but it was a good team and good experience to play a team like them. Forge was now put into the 5th place bracket and was lined up to play Sons of Liberty (L 11-15). I am pretty sure that was the scored instead of what was posted on score reporter. Either way the weekend was at an end and you could see it in our play. We were sloppy and not the great. We had a decent weekend, we got some wins under our belts. However we still have a ton of work to do. Some things I would really like to see is more enthusiasm after we score. Every team we played rushed the field after a score and were really loud of the sidelines. Also our focus sucks. Right before our final game against Sons of Liberty and even before our other games it doesn't seem like anyone is focusing on the game ahead. It is frustrating for me.

Monday June 29-Lifting and Pickup after
Bench Press (4 Sets)
Shoulder Press (4 Sets)
Seated Row (3 Sets)
Shrugs (3 Sets)
Lateral Shoulder Raises (3 Sets)
Tricep Pull Down (2 Sets)
Curls (2 Sets)
Pull Ups To Failure (1 Set)

June 20-24

Saturday June 20-First day of No Surf. I was on Forge X and we had 9 people total. Everyone was ready for lots of playing time. Played against Haymaker (L 7-13) in our first game and was sad to see no current Illinois guys on the team. Other games against Madcow (L 8-13), Grand Trunk (W 13-6), and Too Bad (W13-8). I really wanted to come out strong and have solid play throughout the Haymaker game since I was thinking about trying out with them instead of Forge. It was raining all morning and we didn't do a very long warmup. I entered the game still feeling like I was not up to full speed. The rain started to die off at the start of the game, the disc was going to be wet the entire morning. Without doing any drills before our game I also didn't feel to good with any throws. It was pretty obviously that through the first two games everyone was still getting a feel for one another. I also have found out that even people on my own team can take me out of my game mentally. I really like when people give me advise. I feel that I listen to what they are saying and even if I challenge what they are saying in the end we both end up in a better spot. However if I am getting just yelled at mid-point that I just completely lose my focus. This was a big learning step for me. This is not something that I encounter at all and I feel that now after this I can refocus myself just a little faster.

Sunday June 21-Second day of No Surf. We were placed into a 16 team championship bracket. Start off against Rumspringa (W 14-13). While the score in the end was really close we owned the game. The first half was something around 8-3 8-4. After half they start to play a very old zone. At times playing almost man on the handlers and other times playing a true zone. We had a lot of turns off bad decisions. We had to straight points with hammer turns. Our next game was against Spolier (W 15-7). Even with just playing with 9 guys for the whole weekend we were a ton fresher than them. They just couldn't run with us at all. Now to semis. The other forge team was eliminated in quarters and lucky for them Madcow let us play with our whole squad for our game. Finally I could play a little harder with not worrying about the next point. On pulls I was the first one down putting pressure on early. Overall a better game for me than most of the others. I was very close to getting a lay out d but came up a little short. It was pretty evident that all of us were not used to playing with each other. Coming into the last game as 2 separate teams that played with each other all weekend was rough. Just a lot of stupid little things. I am glad we didn't resort back to calling lines based on which team you played for the weekend. I don't think that would have help us at all later. The first half Madcow destroyed us. Again I think this comes with starting to play as one team. The second half they may have been up a break or two but other than that a much stronger half for us. Now I am really looking forward to Boston Invite. I have been wondering how much playing time I would receive when we have a full team but I have been very happy with it. I am not one that wants to play multiple points in a row. I merely want to dominate a point and then take one off then get right back to it.

Monday June 22-Pickup Ultimate
Tuesday June 23-Pickup Soccer
Wednesday June 24-Pickup Ultimate

Boston in 2 days

Well so the one thing I really wanted to work on, my marking, didn't happen. Even though I kept telling myself to not be so close on the io throws it is exactly what I did and got beat on it twice in our final game against madcow. Enough for now sleep is more important.

June 16-19

Tuesday June 16-Pickup soccer, then street soccer.
Wednesday June 17-Pickup ultimate
Thursday June 18-Family dinner
Friday June 19- Other family dinner

This weekend- No Surf and forge has decided to make 2 teams for the weekend. I am on X with 8 other people should turn out to be a long weekend. I weighed myself Wednesday and the official weigh was 149. Which is lighter than I was for most of the college season. Must be doing something right this summer so far, but I can do lots more.

June 6-15

Saturday June 6-Cazenovia Ultimate Tournament
Sunday June 7-Cazenovia Ultimate Tournament/ Street Soccer Tournament
Monday June 8-
Tuesday June 9-45 minutes of throwing/shoulder rehab
Wednesday June 10-Montour Pickup
Thursday June 11-shoulder rehab
Friday June 12-
Saturday June 13-Summer League 2 games lost both
Sunday June 14-
Monday June 15-Montour Pickup

A few things I want to do
-lower body lifting
-second pitt team practice, if allowed
-men's high level pickup downtown
-sprint workouts

Marking

Well to start off maybe I should explain why I started this. Well I felt like I should post anything I come across that I feel is helpful along with what I am up to as well with ultimate (training, practice etc). It is the off season for college ultimate but now is the time to prepare. Illinois won the region last year, we all know how great a feeling it was. We didn't do so well at Nationals. The experience was great, but we didn't play like we could have. That is fueling me for next year. I want to do whatever it takes to make sure we can get back to that stage and do better. Making nationals is no longer enough.

Here is something I found on Carleton's blog about marking. It was really close to what one of my past coach's first taught me but I completely forgot about. My bad Darren.

"I got some great marking advice this tournament, which we shared with the team but at nationals it’s hard to implement fundamental changes like marking technique. Think of a circle on the ground around the thrower, this is how most people mark - their feet somewhere on the circle. When you take away the inside your feet are following this curved line, and then to take away the backhand you shuffle around on the same circular arc. STOP THIS

Take that distance you travel on the arc of the circle from hard inside to around and stretch it flat, it’s long, you are covering a lot of ground if you’re moving on the mark, so to be more effective make this line shorter.

Instead of marking on an arc, mark on this straight line – like when you draw frisbee on a whiteboard the marker is always denoted by a line with force, this is good. This means that when you are taking away the inside you are not right up in people’s shit. You are at the end of the line and actually further away from the thrower than you think. As a thrower, it is much harder to throw an inside with the mark back further.

I break inside by throwing through the mark; it’s easy to throw under a hand – around a leg etc. When the mark is back there is suddenly this wall of mark that is intimidating and cannot really be broken inside

Continue on this line to stop the around. Instead of curving stay on the line, again you are back from the thrower more than you would expect but this stops the around for yardage gain. I’m not talking about a no dump mark just a normal mark.

So you really only have to move on this straight line – the shortest distance between two points. With good footwork this is a great generic mark and stifles non-huckers. I’ve now incorporated this into my mark but I change it throughout the course of the count. If I see the thrower looking past 10-15 yarders I adjust and If I feel they are committed to the dump I adjust."

We all have been told at one point that we when we set up on a mark be about 45 degree angle from the thrower if he is facing straight forward. The problem starts when the thrower begins to fake. I know I tend to get closer and closer and start to move in a circle around them just as what I stole from Carleton says. This is not good. The other problem I know I face is not getting my feet moving. I tend to lean a little to much when I really just need to shuffle more with my feet. Good footwork is really what leads to a good active mark.

So I really have 2 major goals for this summer. One is get better endurance/loss some pounds. This could be huge for me. Even a small loss could allow me to run so much fast, jump so much higher etc. The other is improve my mark. I have been having people watch me and make sure my feet are moving, so I am not just leaning. Now, I will also be trying to keep my footwork like Carleton described above.