gandy goose.
a team of mostly bend players (russ and port zinner, aaron talbot, luke smith, doug voderberg, doug geygan, and 3 high school players (nate benson, acacia baldner, and scott dostert (ok, scott is my green 30 year old housemate), vi ho, hillary, anne, cathy O from portland, rob and alice from hood river, bob from eugene, tara and andy from corn valley....

jees, i hope i didn't forget anyone...

oh yeah... darth himself... switzer...

25 mph winds on saturday, good play by a couple of portland coed teams, and we squeaked out... 15-3, 15-9, 15-7....

sunday, faced 'eugene jedi' in the a pool quarters.... they got 4. I think. i was imbibing the free cofee and bagels. our pool was apparently tough.... also, the calm winds let the long game work... and it didn't hurt that our pickup team was actually figuring out everyone's name.

ok, just adhd luke. it really takes me that long to learn names.

semis. good times. no. yes. shit. 8 days later, i can't remember who we played. we won by a few.

now it was like 4 pm. the 'no cap rule' would come into effect.

finals.

1-0 us. 1-1. 2-1 us. 3-1 us. 4-1 us. 4-2. 5-2.

a wall of hail approaced from the east. this is unusual, because usually the weather comes from the west. preparing to pull, we noticed that hair was standing on end. only a few complained when we ran for the cars. later, i learned, that people were being shocked by their umbrellas. this did not stop utah dan from smashing a beer on his fore head, and drinking it.

eventually we returned, hair still on end. 'purple vein', a trigger/donner... ashlandy talented bunch, worked it down wind for the zone score.... we answered....

and we (both teams) called the game. when everyone's hair stands like mine.... well... not so good...

some fantasy stats....

talbot... 2 assists, 2 goals...
andy... goal, assist.
anne, assist
smith (ME!, self aggrandizement time), 2 assists, 2 blocks
hillary, goal...
i'm missing a goal and an assist...
mark of vein was on....

Week of HS practice:
5 days, 3-5, focus on vertical stack, the 'arch' endzone (thanks DoG!), zone.

Saturday
30 mph winds, 34 degress, snowrainsleet, and summit is undefeated in green/white split against churchill mostly freshies, and mt. view.... the arch is money.

thoughts: new players have a VERY difficult time in the wind. at the same time, young players have a hard time recognizing when it's not windy... i.e., when a brief calm comes, know that your old throws are good again.

but this clearly does not apply to experienced players.

with 8 inches of snow on the ground, mondays bike ride to work was miserable.

beyond miserable.

go put your head in a portapottie. pull it out. punch yourself in the neck.

repeat.

monday, practice cancelled for snow on ground.

Tuesday: 65 degrees and sunny. A little moist spots on ground. Crazy.

Focus was 'back to basics.'

Interesting thoughts. Only 16 kids out today. and 2 BRAND new ones. they struggled, but again, learned the basics....

here are my current thoughts on basics:

flick: grip, 'the gun'. hold it up. throw a blade. repeat. now at waist. usual mistake? a modified 'backhand grip.' answer. before throwing the flick, if you need to, hold it like a blade.

both: get low. lower. no, lower. you are a new thrower. even if you are not, you are not as goood as you think. trust me. get lower. bend your legs. lower. no, dont lean over your front legs. spread your stance, and drop evenly. balance is key. good job.

marking drill: teach it 2 ways.
1) chicken. no arms. easy for new throwers to complete. teaches footwork to markers
2) standard. encourage low stance. commit to throw. extend. ignore the mark.

'goto drills'

i do two.
1) trident: a handler cut. cut to one side, flare to other.
2) gladiator: standard goto, but i require a 2 or 3 step fake deep before the end cut....

philosophy:
kids wanted to practice: i.e. scrimmage. i said, if we have no turnovers in drills, we'll scrimmage.

responses:
average: oh no.
winner, jake hermeling, div 1 college pick at wide receiver, 'OK, we can do this!'

unfortuanately, jake won't be around much this summer for my summer league team.

but it's illustrative: and i will add it as a mantra. 'give me a "KILL" has been less than sucessful.
'OK WE CAN DO THIS' may be sucessful. You simply CAN NOT exceeed your goals on a regular basis. if your goal is perfection, you may not reach it. fine. but for one drill... 30 passes... you MIGHT... along the way... you may have to make exeptions for yourself (i dove, i missed it)... if you can make exeptions for others..if you can accept that a young person may make an error in the goal for perfection, that's actually OK. it's different. first time playing you make mistakes.... but if you make an effort to get everything, do it all right, you can within yourself work towards perfection...

bottom line... you should do everything to the best of your abillity... every time... and at the same time, you should forgive failure, at least, you should not let the failure of others lower you...

joke time... do you know the one about the brown pants? reply and i'll answer.

the end