training.

I cancelled frisbee practice today. I needed a mental health day after 5 hours of grading on memorial day. I also squeezed in a 1.5 hour bike ride, and a 35 minute run, and a quick circuit of single leg squats, chinups, dips (jogging from station to station, 3x).

Came home, slept, ate, and did a 30 minute workout. 10 minute warmup up to the college, 4x2min hard effort stair sets (stairs that run from the bottom of campus to the top, got my heart rate up to about 185, which is pretty high. By my age, guestimate, time, i think my heart rate max is about 193. So, that was a decent set.

felt really good. like i could have done at least a couple more: I'd do as many as 10 of these on a bike, but the higher impact of running was taken into account. And it was, again, a long day.

mining the rsd archives.

the initial wsj thread

scroll down to 14 to read the article.

questions for discussion. where do we go from here. how do we improve our image. what is the future of ultimate. but more significantly, go read RSD, and search wsj, and find the sweet posts. reply with links.

adfsadf

I haven't gotten much response from my question:

right outcome or 'consensus.' you decide. it's actually a significant personality point question, and I think it may be telling about the nature of different focuses ultimate frisbee players have. me, I'm a 'right outcome guy.' I try to balance this with self officiating, but for me, AS MUCH AS I AM ABLE, I prefer a right outcome.

if I see my coached players make a bad call, I just won't let them stand by it. if their ignorance is such that they make a bad call, that's unacceptable to me, as it's cheating. i, as much as possible, try to direct my thoughts on bad calls by the opposing team to the other coach, and not interfere with the game.

is this right? I think it comes to my question. i sincerely have a problem with teams going with the 'let them work it out approach' as I wonder, what is the virtue of someone who is in the wrong winning by 'consensus.'

I do, conceptually, appreciate the viewpoint that consensus and agreement is a positive outcome of a selfoficciated sport: but, and a significant caveat, if all parties are

1) objective
2) understanding of the rules

nuff about that.

Friday, I took off, slept 1.5 hours after school, went to bed tired, woke up tired, but got dragged out for a bike ride. Rode about 35 miles, recouped, then ran (tired and slow) 4 miles, and did a quick strength sesh. (14 chinups, 20 pushups, 23 100 pound squats (full parallel: it matters).

Cooked up some jambalaya, caught the end of the celts game, watched 300.

Photo.

Team picture (A and B) from state.




thurs.

uh, wednesday, i went for a VERY slow 1.25 hour mtbike ride, a very hard 4.25mile run (about 7minute pace). then lifted weights.

today, played a mini tournament with the kids. so, 5 games to 3, the last against the 'stacked team' was 15 minutes long with lots of running.

next week we go back to practice seriously getting ready for district (the local tournament)... my joke with the kids, is, we peak for state, then we ramp back for districts. we'll have tryouts after that. i like everyone loose for tryouts.

then i had league night tonight. we won, running away, but it was chippy. i'm probably to blame: but here's where i got bent.

disc goes up, our deep deep (athlete, but novice player), holds his ground, and gets the sky. on the way down, or perhaps as both, basically stationary players go up, there is some minor contact. the offensive player calls foul. i don't yell, 'send it back', but i do turn to the captain and say, 'really, what do you think?' he says, 'hey just let them sort it out.' that shit just kills me, but what do you think?

what is a correct outcome:

let them sort it out?
or, is it correct to make the right call?
is it a 'no contact sport?'

i know where i stand, but i'm looking for feedback from the conflict resolution crowd.

I think we won 11-4, and i got a comeback block on game point. i was prety high on that, even if it was a mediocre block in the grand scheme of things.

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.