updoc.

I wrote a post the other night about states. IN retrospect, I was a bit peckish (look it up, I was also hungry, in addition to being surly. To summarize: the winners deserved to win, we got what we deserved, I'm proud of my students for playing their best, and comporting themselves in a great manner. I feel that HS teams SHOULD be coached, and that supervision should occur as a few players on a few different teams were allowed by their coaches to act with bad sportsmanship, and the occasional bad call, but I bench my kids for the same. It is a failure of the game when players don't hold themselves to sportsmanship.

This is a different argument than Toad, etc.'s desire for Refs. I'd ref a HS game I wasn't coaching, but I think that sportsmanship: how you comport yourself in a game during a discussion is important, whether it's in a winning or losing situation. I think it's OK to react to bad behavior, but as kids, I want them to see the value of maintaining their cool, but sometimes, it's OK to disagree. It's very complicated, and kids need direction.

Sunday I played a few points of ultimate; I think I was mildly heat exhausted.
Monday I split my survivors into two roughly equal teams (they both won; i had very few 'jv' players there).
Today, we did a lightish practice, but it was so windy all we could do was dutch (pretty cool had a new player out there who was all about the no look behind the back passes and working hard... I'm all about ambition, If he keeps coming out, we'll talk about strategery later)... did a scrimmage after.

Then a 1.5 hour pickup scrimmage. I did some goodstuff, some bad stuff, but i tried. Just frustrating to play in a mediocre game. But workout wise, a good day.

state, league night

lessee, friday, i think i rested. i coached the track team, but they were running late season sprints, and it was at the local juco, where they were having alt-ed day. so i picked up a neck massage, and called it good. Saturday, I skated 40k, and biked for 1.5 hours (about 25 miles), so a sweet 50m day. but wasted. i took sunday off. monday, biked for about an hour. tuesday, ran drills with the kids for 2 hours (including 30 minutes of JV (plus me) vs. Varsity, jv gets a point for every Varsity turnover, game to 3. I think we won 4-2 (so, it was a 2-2 tie). Wednesday, 30 minute run, 1 hour bike, 30 minutes weights. Today, throw around session, finalize rides to state, figure out (I know it's crazy) how many kids were going to state. The final numbers are based on girls. We have 14 girls going, not enough for 3 teams (it's 4-3) for 2 days in 85 degree heat (I know that sounds sissy, but we're going from 40-60 degree temps for 3 months to this. I can't do it responsibly: I'll limit numbers to the varsity team, but I just can't afford to have 4 girls play for 2 days. Then I biked to league play. The plan was to bike to the game (30 minutes) drop off the game bag, bike for 30 more minutes. But I flatted, and my spare was bad. Luckilly, a buddy of mine (parent of kids i coach) lived less than a mile away on this sweet, weird, runway that's kind of down town. If it sounds like a weird setup, it is, but i got a patch kit from him, (oh, and he's invented all sorts of weird things like a pen that writes like a spirograph, and a ball that turns into a frisbee. and a former rescue Parajumper. crazy guy). But my tube wouldn't take air (ANOTHER HOLE. CRAZY BUT IT HAPPENS). So rick gives me a ride to the fields, warm up, and we play. 4-1, 4-3, then 10-3. Weird. I threw some golf discs today, I don't know if it matters, but I was overthrowing everyone. but weirdly, the pulls were the best i've pulled in a while. After an embarrasing line drive to the goal line, it was 5 straight coffin corners that led immediately to goals. But tons of long overthrows. shanks and errors. weird. But several 'ds' and played every point until 10-3. I was embarrassed to see my team go with the 'all upside down point' when receiving 10-4. I feel that sort of shit dishonors the game, and mocks the other team. Respect, for me, is respecting the game, and playing to win cleanly, and fairly.

In school, I told my seniors I was giving a test on 'senior skip day'. The rich, entititled kids were apoplectic with rage that i would dare make them accountable. I said, skip the class, you take a different test. And it will be harder. Come in in the morning, take the easy test. Come to class and take the test. I don't care. I actually test prep before every test and READ THE QUESTIONS to the students: All year, 3 kids have taken advantage of this. So, I'm not impressed, but despite my anger at their awful, white bread, juvenile behavior, i tried to use reason. They were having none of it. I was mildly pissed, and yes, it's punitive, but the bottom line is that It is inherently discriminatory to reward kids whose parents will lie to make an excuse, where other parents allow kids to do what they want.

How will the kids do?
Well, first of all, my coaching strategy is to let them do the playing. No screaming, no marionetting from the sideline. Alex Fergeson, not Bobby Knight. I will make sure they don't get 'cheated' on any kind of egregious bad calls... but, I'll make adjustments.

The Varsity team could play great. They looked fluid and brilliant Monday at scrimmage: ladder cuts, dumps and swings, opportunistic long throws. If they play like that, we could maybe make the semis for the first time ever in the 10 team pool. But it's high school, and if heads hang on defense, or if the couple throwers fall in love with their throws... then...

Well, we'll see. I'm taking 40 kids camping. Luckily, parents are going. But, we'll see how it goes. My policy, is that if any kid breaks a rule, the tournament is over for all kids. I'm blessed in that everyone of my kids is generally respectful. But I'll stick to it.

thursday.

as usual, tired, from the weekend, ramping it up.
Monday, Varsity vs. JV, as Mt. View Played bend. A disappointing showing by varsity, with too many turnovers. I put my psycho freshman on my main handler, and told him to harrass at the mark, and get crazy. It was hilarious, and successful.
tuesday: Light turnout, kids worked on my beloved 'stanford handler weave'... with mixed results. i'm really high on the drill as a cutting drill, it's designed to reinforce the value of dump, swing, give go and LOOKING OFF THE CUT STRAIGHT UPFIELD. It also looks really cool, and there is a lot to be said for a cool looking warmup drill to get you feeling good.

most importantly, it's totally relevant to ultimate. this drill has affected the cuts I make at frisbee, as i refresh my own love of the game, and it's a great set up for handlers, and how to clear and reset the stack.

thursday: all zone, all day. I tend to wait really late in the year before introducing zone. my goal is to teach the kids to be good frisbee players. I find that if i introduce the zone early, the lack of disc skills makes the zone TOO effective as the turnovers are too easy to generate.

personal: monday: rest day. very hard to do. it was beautiful, but rest was due.
tuesday: city pickup, and i tried hard.
wednesday: a 1/2 personal day, so i took care of my banking and etc., then after a 30 minute run with the track team after school, skated 20km, then tele'd a bunch, then lifted weights. whew. big day.
thursday: coached (played a little) then went to the city league clinic, took them through a basic handler cut, a continue cut, and an away cut (3 different drills) then did a cycling flow drill with a handler cut to an out and in cut to an away cut. then scrimmaged for 1.5 hours.

I was tired and flat: 3 days per week of ulti, plus the running, skiing, weights is hard. Hard to get fired up to dive at everything, but I made an effort to play some defense, until the 3rd or 4th turnover each point.

weekend.

Thursday, lightly attended practice (as threre was a big school charity function that night). drills, playing. then I helped coach the local league deal. sparsely attended, but productive.
Friday, ran 6 miles, lifted, swam 20 minutes.
Saturday: Skated 1 hour, biked 50 minutes.
Today: Toured for 2.5 hours, (probably 1.5 hours of climbing), biked for 1 hour, played ultimate for 2 hours.

Ultimate was frustrating: My mindset at these pickup games is, don't make calls, and my biggest pet peeve, is, if you don't know if the opponent is in or out, just call it in! So right off the bat, the calls are coming from the other side (i'm not so one sided as to think that there is only one way to look at the universe, i'm just saying, Further adding to my low blood sugar ire: as more skilled players showed up, they all stayed dark. We should have gotten killed in the Game to 7, instead, down 4-3, went to 5-4, then 5's, 6-5, 6's, then we scored on a give go, a down the line pass, and a hammer.

But, they had more throwers, and should have dismantled us. They had 5 guys who could all throw, plus 2 subs. We had a slightly stingier approach: and in the end it was enough.

I just don't like ticky picks and tight line calls and violation calls at league play. But I mean, that's just me. And I was exhausted. Probably the longest training day of the year.

For the week, 6 hours of cardio, 4.5 hours of ultimate, 2.5 hours of strength/core.

This week, Varsity v. JV in the scrimmage. If it gets out of hand, I may bring in a returning player (brother on the team) and / or play a little, and make it a zone practice day. Might ride tomorrow, but I'm thinking of running a 5km trail race tuesday. Probably not worth doing if I don't take a rest day tomorrow.

Pretty light week.
Scrimmages:
Summit Varsity: 15-4 (now 2-0) over Mt. View (Pretty good team, skills, they need some tourneys).
Summit JV 7-9.

Varsity is shaping up, It was windy, and they handled it pretty well, throws and decisions shaping up. Focus was on playing sharp, and overcoming our habit of watching throws as thrower and team. Slows flow.

JV: Not dissappointing, as they are shaping up: a little frustrating. I have decided to minimize my during game coaching, especially in match play local games, be more like sir Alex, and less like Bobby K. There was a little more involvement from the other sideline (making calls (OUT) on a variety of throws. I explained my position to my teams, all the calls that they didn't make (in calls, line calls, foul calls), and said, my intention in not babysitting you is that you learn from the consequences. For example, one of my players clearly caught it in, (but a little tight, catch with foot down, step (in) third step out). I stepped back from the line, just pointing in, the other members of the team were all in the far sideline sort of yelling IN IN, but the kid trusted someone. Yes, a call for refs, but coaches aren't refs. The lesson to the kids was, spread the sidelines, and just point if it's honestly in or out, but let the kid only use that as a guideline, especially if no PLAYER (of the 14) is in any position to be making calls on an unlined fields. Also, one of my kids made a call, but play sort of continued: he, and the team now knows to just stand there hold your hand up, make a call, and as team mates, to stand there, stop, and echo the call. Learning. Teaching moments. The other team ran a zone, and there was lots of double teaming: between points, I explained the double team rule, but also said, I CAN"T CALL THAT FROM THE SIDELINE. Lesson learned. There was also the usual, occasional mystery point discrepancy. I said, you have to keep up with that yourselves.

Honestly, in a game, at 'state', i'll advocate more actively, but I want them to learn the rules. read the rules. stick up for themselves.

Tuesday, in truly shitty conditions (38, snow, 30mph wind), we did 2 new drills, and the 2 basic drills, but with the focus on never looking at your throw. Some improvements were made. I intended to do some other drills, related to cup, 10' rule, and mark breaking, but we ran out of time since i wanted to do a little dutch for a workout.

Wednesday, oh wait, that's a track day. Coached in cold, cold weather, kids did fine. A girl turned in a 2:18 800 (1:06 split, no one to run with. beat the pack by 20 seconds. A skier, 1st 1500 of the season, went 10 seconds off a PR, it was cold.

Personal: Monday, I was tired. So I just lifted. Solid, decent weights.
Tuesday: Practiced pretty hard. Meant to do some additonal cardio. Call it 1.5 hours.
Today: After coaching, I ran 3 x 1000's. here's the history.
9/29/2005 3:42, 3:49, 3:49, 3:49, 3:34.
10/3/2005 3:41, 3:38, 3:38, 3:40, 3:30
9/20/2006 3:37, 3:25, 3:21, 3:20, 3:16, 3:16
9/19/2007 3:45, 3:35, 3:30, 3:25, 3:30. Plus 2km warmup, 1.5 km cooldown
9/26 3:40 3:35 3:30 3:25 3:30 3:40

4/30/2008 3;30 3:30 3:30 (only 3, but i was tired, cold. ran them in heavy sweats. short recovery (2-2:30). Actually a very good workout, but the feet, muscles, started hurting, so that was plenty. Actually a very good workout. It'd be nice to hit some of those faster times this fall (3:15), but, if I could do 3:30 x 5 with short recovery, I could legitimately start looking at a sub 18 5km, which would be a great goal. (I need to run an average of 3:35 to go 17:55. So I can get faster (and it is VERY early) or stronger (shorter recovery) or both. Not going to be easy.... but.... but I was pretty happy with the effort, and the consistency of the workout.

I'll be shooting for an in season (or sooner) workout of 3:35, 3:30, 3:30, 3:25, 3:20, 3:15. With short recovery, that should get me right at 18. If I can hit that by mid summer, I'll look to shave 5 seconds off all those times.

Then weights, light squats/lunges, pull down, dip press (machine takes weight off), pushups, vert row, military press.

Tommorrow, coach, then go run a city league coaching clinic. don't know who's showing.

recap.

Took a Boys a and B team, and a girls team, and well, the only team my varsity beat was the jv team, but this is nonetheless, an improvement. Why... you ask? Well, We're going up against teams that play longer, with more experience... so, I'm Ok with it. Our V team lost at the cap to a team.. We scored the last goal to lose 10-9, and on a run. This is a far cry better than the past. As an explanation, the tournament only includes, for the girls, studly Churchill, and for the Guys, a western bound south eugene, a churchill team that's a bit off from past years, and a CV team that was short handed, but game. (We only had 10 boys per team, but I felt that it was important to split the teams).

If things go to plan, we'll play BETTER at the co-ed states in 4 weeks, and then peak at our home tournament 2 weeks later. I'd love to be better sooner, but it's not really relevant to our season. In lieu of the 75 degree weather we played in corvallis, I look forward to a week of snow. Snow, snow, and more snow. and I mean, in town, not at the mountain.

Today, I road for 2 hours, then played ultimate for 2 hours of pickup, even, trying.

state

wednesday, 45min run, weights (core, balance, 2x10 squats (140), 2x10 single leg squats, straight dead lift, bench, chin, dip, latrow), 45 min on the bike trainer.
thursday, practice (30 min warm-up drills/dynamics/sprints, 30 minutes 5v5 dutch hard). 1:15 bike ride
friday: coached track (sprints (didn't do them, gave kids times), then ran to gym (25min, core, weights (:45 min), swam 800m (20 min), ran home (25min).

tomorrow: 40 kids on a bus, single gender state. 6:00 am. 3 hour ride. we're woefully unprepared, relative to the world (which has been practicing for much longer). my girls get the shaft: one game only. churchills girls after their likely win. by a likely large margin. have agreed to clinic / scrimmage for a round. Then I told my girls they could get games playing against the other guys teams.

my varsity team could be OK. I've split the teams into V and JV, probably 12 each, maybe a couple more. I have 1 legitimate handler (in that he demands the disc, stays behind it or near it), 2 guys who want to run deep more than they handle, 2 guys who are definite lane cutters, 1 guy who just wants to play 'd' and never turn it over, 3 legitimate mids who just look to flow and continue, and 3 sort of new to the game 'a' teamers. If I had ONE guy who was a legitimate take down guy, I'd feel we were very close to the perfect balance. as it is, if I can get some plays out of the boys, and encourage protecting the disc, we'll be OK. As I look at the team, we could have a great, 'flowing' team. but how quickly they buy into possession, the better. the basic disc skills are as good as any team i've ever had.

we'll see how it goes. we've never won a game at 'this' state tournament, but if it gets us closer to state, the better. my challenge will be getting us closer to success at the co-ed states...

our offense is a very basic V-stack. I stress a short stack, mixing handler cuts, and basic swings, and continuation cuts. i focus most on moving the stack back, and too the center. i like to stretch the stack in 'their' endzone, so that we can make endzone cuts to the front of the stack.

we need to work on crossing the field, avoinding throws into the traffic, looking off passes, cutting too soon.. in otherwords, field sense.

the girls are doing pretty good, we lack the take down receiver we've had, but we have throwers now who can deliver the pill up field, and varied cutters.

i'm looking forward to it.