11/19

PT - Last session

5 minute elliptical w/high resistance
Hamstring rollout
Banded single-leg stability -
  Off-leg motion to front, side, back - 3x10 both legs
SLDL reach downs (good depth) -
  Left leg 3x10
Bosu ball up and overs -
  4x30s AMRAP
Treadmill -
  Brisk walk 2 min
  Fast run 60 s
  Brisk walk 1 min
  Fast run 60 s
  Brisk walk 1 min
  Fast run 60 s
  Brisk walk 1 min
  Fast run 60 s
Calf stretch -
  2 legged - 3x30s

ARC

11/17

Rock climbing with Q and concussed Abby! He is much better than I am aside from me just not going recently. Still feel it in my forearms 2 days later.

Hamstring stretch -
  3x30s each leg
Clam stretch w/resistance band -
  3x10 each leg
Resisted leg lifts -
  2x10 supine
  2x10 left side
  2x10 prone
Monster walks w/resistance band -
  3x10 each way
Diagonal walks w/resistance band & ball (on toes) -
  3x10 each way
Deadlifts -
  5x135 - Grip strength gave out
Squats -
  5x5x95 - Good depth

ARC

11/14

PT - I am so excited that I got to run today. It felt really good. Gonna try squatting and deadlifting this weekend.

5 minute elliptical
Hamstring rollout
Agility Ladder w/resistance band (at 100%)-
  2 feet in forward 2x2
  2 feet in sideways 2x2
  2 in 2 out forward 2x2
  2 in 2 out sideways 2x2
Treadmill -
  Brisk walk 2 min
  Medium jog 30 s
  Brisk walk 1 min
  Quick run 30 s
  Brisk walk 1 min
  Fast run 30 s
  Brisk walk 1 min
  Fast run 30 s
SLDL reach downs -
  Left leg 2x10
Bosu ball up and overs -
  4x30s AMRAP
Bosu ball hop-ups -
  Left leg 2x10
Single-leg squat against wall -
  2x10 each leg
Foam rolling -
  Glute 1x30s each leg
  IT band 1x30s each leg

ARC

Mixed Regionals

This past weekend I coached NUGGET (Northwestern Ultimate's Gratuitous Gender Equity Team) at mixed regionals. It was a blast. I was a bit anxious going in for a number of reasons including the weather and never having coached women before. My biggest concern was overstepping my bounds with the people that I didn't know well.

I needn't have been worried. It was a lot of fun and I think that I did a good job not overstepping any bounds. Thanks KB for the prevailing coaching theory. I think the only difference in my coaching came strictly from not knowing most of the women on the team well. One player that I had only interacted with at a couple practices even asked me specifically for feedback which was a great feeling. It seems as though I did a good job instilling trust and building a rapport even in such a short amount of time.

Sgnoles started out calling lines and I called the ones immediately after she came off the field. But after maybe a game or so, she mostly let me do the line calling which I hope allowed her to play better and focus on her game (should be the role of a coach imo). This was the first time I've ever called lines unevenly. At MLC or Centex last year, it was just an even rotation. It is much much harder to call tight lines. Everyone did play in every game, but there were for sure a few people who played just 1 or 2 points in the semis and finals. I hope I did a good enough job and that no one is upset, but at the same time I think I am fine taking some heat for that if I missed the mark a bit.
I really enjoyed getting to know some of the Gungho players better and am excited to see them develop and play this year.

ARC

11/12

PT -

6 minute elliptical
Hamstring rollout
Horizontal leg press w/resistance -
  Two-legged 3x10
  Single leg 3x10 both legs
Horizontal hops -
  Two-legged 3x10
  Single leg 3x10 both legs
Horizontal side leg press w/resistance -
  Single leg 3x10 both legs
Hamstring extensions -
  Single leg 2x15 both legs
Agility Ladder (at 100%)-
  2 feet in forward 2x2
  2 feet in sideways 2x2
  2 in 2 out forward 2x2
  2 in 2 out sideways 2x2
Trampoline throws (all left leg) -
  Single leg balance forward 3x10
  Single leg balance left facing 3x10
  Single leg balance right facing 3x10
Monster walks (green mini band + ball hold) -
  3x15 both legs
Diagonal walks on toes (green mini band + ball hold) -
  3x15 both legs
Calf stretch -
  2 legged - 3x30s
Hamstring stretch w/band
  3x30s hold both legs

ARC

11/7

PT -

6 minute elliptical
Hamstring rollout
Single-leg raises w/ankle weights (2 lb) -
  Side - 3x10 both legs
  Prone - 3x10 both legs
TRX band squat -
  3x10
TRX band single-leg squat -
  3x10 both legs
Monster walks (green mini band + ball hold) -
  3x15 both legs
Diagonal walks (green mini band + ball hold) -
  3x15 both legs
Calf raises -
  2 legged - 30x
Calf stretch -
  2 legged - 3x30s
Single-leg step up to Bosu Ball w/hold at top -
  3x10 left leg
Single-leg side step up to Bosu Ball w/hold at top -
  3x10 left leg
Hamstring stretch w/band
  3x30s hold both legs

ARC

11/5

PT -

6 minute slow and low resistance bike
Hamstring rollout
Quad stretch w/band
  3x30s hold both legs
Hamstring stretch w/band
  2x30s hold both legs
Banded clam stretch -
  3x10 both legs
Raised single-leg heel lower -
  3x10 left leg
Single-leg step up w/hold at top -
  3x10 left leg
Single-leg side step up w/hold at top -
  3x10 left leg
Banded single-leg stability -
  Off-leg motion to front, side, back - 3x10 both legs
Calf raises -
  2 legged - 30x
Calf stretch -
  2 legged - 3x30s
Single-leg squat -
  3x10 left leg
Leg press (higher resistance) -
  2 legged - 30x
  Single-leg - 30x both legs

Thoughts on NUT this past weekend.
Oline was essentially untouchable. 2 breaks over 4 games. No team or line could consistently move the disc against us upwind or downwind even when we gave them chances. Minnesota generated some pressure on a point or two, but on the whole, other teams generated very little pressure.
Dline pressure was leaps and bounds better than at this time last year. Generated more turns. Still struggled to move the disc upwind.
Happy with the improvement from everyone one the weekend as well.

ARC

Random thoughts

Some things seem constant
Yet change in an instant

-------------------------------------------------------------------

I have an idea that I want to execute.
I want to play mixed next summer with friends, but a lot of people are committed to their clubs and others just won't play. The idea seems to have died before it really got off the ground. Alas.

A telling contrast of thoughts from last year to this year. Also yikes re: 'I will be better' -> I was much worse.
I don't think I want to play Machine again (if I could even make it after such an atrocious season this year), and I for sure can't justify, to myself, playing a lower level men's team. At the same time, I think I will be unhappy not playing at all, so I'm left with a bit of a dilemma. I also think not playing at all next summer would be something of a barrier to ever playing elite ultimate again. I don't know how I feel about that.

I do think I would enjoy spending the summer traveling to visit family even if I will miss ultimate. The good news is I have a lot of time to make this decision. And in the meantime I get to spend time coaching which I'm very excited about.

This is the first fall that I've been around NUT (1 out of 8) that I've thought we had young players on curve in terms of development. What I mean by this is that I have always felt like the majority of our players were about a year behind when compared to elite teams' players. Aka our juniors are comparable to their sophomores, etc (I think I'm Exhibit A here). So I am hopeful for this season based on the player development I see. It seems like we finally have more than 2-4 players who care about getting good at Ultimate rather than getting good at College Ultimate.

MLC is this weekend and I'm pumped to be back on the sideline for a team that I really care about. I feel more emotionally invested in NUT still than any other team I've ever been a part of. It's actually not even close. I think I've touched on this a bit before in terms of buying into club teams (it's harder because everyone has their own separate life), but I've felt that more and more this year with Machine. I would cheer when we scored, but I was faking it for the sake of the team energy battle. With NUT, I am actively excited when we score. I can't feel the same way about another team because the time spent and bonds made will never approach that of NUT.

ARC

10/31

I started PT last Wednesday for my hamstring tear. It is eye opening how fast muscles can deteriorate when you do nothing for a month. My legs are tired for a few hours after what I would've considered just a long warm-up before my injury.

Today's activity

6 minute slow and low resistance bike
Massage
Hamstring stretch w/band
  4x30s hold both legs
Single-leg raises w/ankle weights (1 lb) -
  Supine - 3x10 both legs
  Side - 3x10 both legs
  Prone - 3x10 both legs
Leg press (low resistance) -
  2 legged - 30x
  Single-leg - 30x both legs
Monster walks (green mini band) -
  2x15 both legs
Diagonal walks (green mini band) -
  2x15 both legs
Single-leg step up w/hold at top -
  3x10 left leg
Single-leg stability -
  Off-leg motion to front, side, back - 3x10 both legs
Calf raises -
  2 legged - 30x
Calf stretch -
  2 legged - 3x30s

I hope to be able to get back to some slow-pace jogging soon. I'm getting very lethargic and antsy with just sitting at home and doing PT exercises. Also I need to start training for that marathon that Tony and I are trying to run next October - esp if we want to go sub 3:30.

ARC

Nationals

Life can be mundane
But moments can alter that
Can turn it surreal

-----------------------------

Going into Nationals, I felt confident about making the bracket. I knew we could compete with these teams. It's odd to me that I felt this way, given that I didn't think this would be the year we would reach Nationals in the first place going into Regionals.
I had a very similar conversation with many people leading up to the weekend.
Them: "How are you feeling about your pool?"
Me: "I like our pool. I watched film on all the teams and while CUT doesn't seem beatable, the other games seem very winnable. We can beat Stanford and Auburn for sure, and we can compete with UMass."
...

Friday:
Watching Stanford vs Auburn game - They still both looked very beatable. I was feeling good. Discussed Stanford matchups and gameplan with Kevin and Yiding a lot.
First game is here.
D2 baby. Holy cow. The ability to run two distinct D lines throughout this entire tournament was enormous. Not only did D2 do their job in the sense of making it tough for opposing O-lines by slowing the game down, but they got breaks too! Talk about filling roles well.
Our gameplan was spot on. We didn't execute the plan very well in the first half (forcing everyone out besides their one tall dude), but once we executed the plan, their O-line struggled mightily.

CUT game is upon us. Coming directly off 15-10 win over Stanford, we start out with a few trades, but our O-line has to work harder than theirs and gets a few lucky breaks. Ultimately our disregard for disc possession and their overall defensive pressure cause some breaks. Our O-line plays great defense on the whole, but we just gave them too many opportunities. They were huge babies. Yes, Jeff had one bad bid, but they got mad about two others that were entirely fine and Raul got a TMF for a bid where he hardly touched the guy. This was a theme throughout the weekend, way too many TMFs for 'dangerous plays' that weren't actually dangerous - see Nhi Nguyen's bid in front of Verzuh. Their low spirit rating of us was obviously an anomaly as we finished 4th overall in spirit scores and they finished near the bottom. Suck it Carleton.

Discussion with Kevin and Yiding about resting/not crossing over against UMass. The Auburn game was 'Win and In' (assuming they didn't beat CUT - a safe bet), but beating UMass and losing to Auburn would likely result in a 3-way tie in which case point diff could potentially bite us in the butt. Given that UMass had beaten Auburn so thoroughly, the idea of going to point diff wasn't great in my mind. A fear of mine as a coach is being the cause of a loss - having the team play great, but ultimately lose because of something I/We did, such as not knowing the cap times or something like that.

Saturday:
UMass game was as winnable as I thought, even while running open lines, and UMass running tight lines/even crossing over a few times. We've traded for a while and we just gave up the first break of the game. O-line holds and we have a chance to get it back going downwind. We send D2 out. We've made them complete about 100 or so passes *Edit 52 passes but it seemed like more*, and pushed them back from 10 yards out to 50 at least. We are going to win this point. The sidelines are going absolutely insane and then we blow a coverage in the bedlam. No telling what may have happened had BenG *Edit BenR* been able to hear the sideline to drop back, but my feeling is that would've changed the complexion of the late game for sure. They finish us off in the next two points.

Auburn game arrives. Most intense game I've ever been involved with. Kevin had to calm me down at half as I was anxious, but I still feel like my points/adjustments at half were correct and important. I think our gameplan from the start was good, but our D-line struggled to string together passes after the turn, though they earned plenty of chances. I stand firmly by my earlier decision not to cross over or run tight lines in UMass game as we (Kyle esp) were very tired late into this game as we crossed over a ton in the second half to convert some of these chances we were getting. This marked the 3rd game out of 4 where Kyle was the best player on the field (yes this includes the UMass game), and holy cow was he good. He made every throw. Ed was saying he had 8 assists, 2 hockey assists, and two others that could have been goals (Dicky's that was called out incorrectly and Jay's that he doinked/got fouled on). This includes the game winner which was a beauty to the back corner to a wide open Jeff. Of course he made the throw. We don't have much time now until pre-quarters. We're walking to the new field and Kyle's lower body seizes up. Welp there goes much hope at quarters.

We made it to the bracket baby. I knew we could make it coming in, and we've proved it. Our matchups on D for Brown aren't bad, but we were for sure more tired than they were. Their all-star freshman makes Josh (who I would put up against anyone in the country on D) look silly on the first D point. He was in the right position, as per usual, but Randolph just plucked the disc from right over his head. We didn't do a great job at pushing Hecht downfield and his throws were quite good. Minus Kyle, our O-line now asked Jeff to make all the difficult throws and he did an admirable job. Max played out of his mind, coming down with everything and making some top notch throws as well. Jay straight-armed a number of bums (classic Jayj), but the O-line had to work hard for their goals, while Brown's O-line went mostly unchallenged by our tired legs. The game doesn't feel as though it was ever in doubt for them, but it wasn't a blowout either. We fall 15-11. What a season.

Being a part of the NUT team that finally made it to the college ultimate promised land is awesome. I'm very thankful and proud of the team's growth and performance, not because of the results, but because of their improvement which led to the results. Last year, the team peaked at Warm-up and then steadily played worse and worse. This year after watching the QCTU footage of the UMass game leading up to Nationals, I could see how much better we had gotten and how much better we were playing which is how I knew that UMass game was winnable (we lost 11-4 or something at QCTU).

ARC

College Programs

Consider me wildly confused. 

College programs like Florida (just lost in Finals of Men's Centex) make no sense to me. Perhaps a conversation with Jason is on the horizon, but I have two main questions. 

1. How do they go through entire tournaments playing 10-12 people?

2. Why the hell do players not included in that 10-12 stick around?

Florida is known for this, and has been as long as I've known about frisbee (8 years). We encountered another team that did this: they ran 9-12 deep max against us on Saturday morning. I watched another game of theirs during our bye and the story was the same. Mind-boggling to me. 

So first off, how do these players play so many points and not just drop off the deep end in terms of effectiveness? Do they condition that much harder than us? 

Kyle played the most points for us this weekend, and I would consider him very well conditioned, but he played maybe half as much as the guys on Texas State and Florida. 

Secondly, why the hell do players pay for flights to go to these tournaments to play single digit amounts of points over a whole weekend? How do these programs convince players to stay around and committed? 

Our mentality for a long time now has been to create a culture of positivity, inclusion, and investment. We invest in our entire roster to build depth for the current year as well as skill for the future. Is this simply not needed? Could we have even better results if we just let 2 to 3 players do everything every point, and when they leave another player will just pop into being to take the torch?

Brodie -> Bobby Ley -> Billy O'Brien (I think that's his name).

Chicago is similar in that sense too. Dean, Eugene -> Josh, Pardo -> Pardo, Percy -> Wets, Jeff, Judah

The prevailing thought is that our team culture would suffer with this plan, but I'm sure the people on Florida are all good friends just like the players on NUT. So what are we gaining? 

It's also very possible that these teams are the exception, and most teams that try this fail. But then I guess I want to know why Florida succeeds in this way that very few other teams even attempt.