further adventures of the albino rhino

little enough to report.
breakfast, a single pancake and cup o' coffee,
then 7.5 miles in 56... like 7:30's???
now some internet, then, back to headquarters to eat 2 more pancakes, and a pb and j smoothie.

frozen apple juice
frozen bannanas
frozen strawberries
cheerios
2 cups of adams hippy peanut butter*

blend.

mmm.

I've got a little runners knee (patellofemoral / chondromalacia / wussy-itis) so I may or may not bike today...

I'd like to finish off killer angels (by Shaara), and I might play a little more tiger woods 2005 on my xbox. But frankly, the game is too easy. They should have made it harder.

I should probably write a few lesson plans...

The obvious excitement that Jim and Alex have for the game right now, in contrast to the mundane nature of Idris' (and my own) blogs, confirm that I have in no way shaken (shook?) the ultimate bug at the tender age of 35.

I got to get to perth.

*Just kidding, more like 2 tablespoons.

update

I've been out and about for a few days at a running camp, and I'm still number 42 on your program, but... Alex and Jim have been listing their track workouts... so i thought I'd join in on the bandwagon...

Monday 15 miles biking.
Tuesday 5 mile run to camp (gear was boated in)
Wednesday 3 mile hike to base of mountain, 5 miles (and 2000 feet) up, run/walk down, 3 mile jog back to camp.
Thursday 13 mile run
Friday 5 mile bike
Saturday 15 mile mt. bike ride.
sunday 15 mile mt. bike ride

I'm going to go play frisbee in a while.... lots of aches and pains after the week, but hopefully i'll be able to run hard for an hour or so.

Also, today, eggs, pancakes, coffee. mmm good.

Recent reads:

Running with the Buffalo, a year in the season of CU's outstanding cross country program. They run, a lot. And fast. These guys are running in the 30 minute 10 k range, which is fast. Their mileage is insane (to me), in the 80-100 mile range per week. Typical 'season in the life of' tale with it's share of ups and downs.

It raises the question, is there a 'curse of the sports writer in the locker room'? Are there any chronicled seasons that end with everyone alive healthy, and standing at the top of the podium?


Read Black Dahlia last week, by James Ellroy (L.A. Confidential). Read L.A. Confidential instead.

Currently reading The Killer Angels by Shaara, fictionalized novel dealing w/ Gettysburg. So far, so good.

The weeks of 3500 pages per week are drawing to a close. Kids back in school in 3 weeks, I'm in the office in 2...

C'est la vie.

The big summer wrap up is coming up, but here are my predictions for 2005-2006 school year and summer vacation.

80 plus days skiing. Here's to skiing where they don't keep the rocks, and avoiding broken bones.
3.50/gallon gas next summer. I hope I'm wrong.
A couple Weeks at Bandon lake learning to windsurf. I hope I'm right.
Return to tournament play, i.e., travelling a little to play in some more competitive gigs...

That is all.

hmm.

foot MAY be feeling better. Played a little low key frisbee this AM (dutch drill and mini)... playing some more, w/ a little more effort tonight. try and work on my syllabi... beyond that...
screw it. i'm going home to make some pancakes.

5 pm update. Read The Price of Loyalty today. It's good. Hardly the anti-Bush polemic it was made out to be, but hardly flattering. Probably fairly accurate description of modern media politiscs.

recent reads... updated

UPDATED
Read The Librarian, also by Beinhart. Like Wag the Dog, a politically themed mystery. 'Summer Reading.' Read The Godfather, by Puzo. No major departures from the movie, but a good read.

I've been reading a ton lately -- with school coming up, i'm not sure i'll have, uh, any time to read anything but curriculum related materials (i have to read a LOT of stuff to find something to have the kids read, plus I end up reading a lot of outside stuff just to bolster my own depth of knowledge. hmm. Do you bolster a depth?)

Next up... we shall see... Since I'm teaching religions of the World, I need to bone up on my comparative religion. And some religious related issues in history (crusades, arab-israeli wars, modern... wait a sec. I'm noticing a geographic consistency)...

i read Wag the Dog (Formerly American Hero) by Beinhart yesterday. Pretty good, even if you've seen the movie. The two are significantly different in their plots. I'd not read any of his stuff, but it's good entertaining summer reading.

I also read Reefer Madness, by that one guy, what's his name, he wrote Fast Food Nation. Interesting look at the black market economy in the US (marijuana, illegal immigrants, pornography) in a series of case studies. Fascinating, a little meandering.

Reread the Hitchhikers guide trilogy (quintology?) over the weekend. I liked it. I'd actually not read Mostly Harmless.

state of the luke.

I'm going to make a departure from count-baiting, at least as long as he is in a potentially litigious mood.

foot still gimpy. so freakin hot
I woke up at 5:30, so i actually had breakfast before morning frisbee. there is nothing more inspiring than seeing some 8th grade going into hs students w/ a month of experience stabbing hammers and winging blades... and gleefully arguing the line calls in hotbox... great young athletes and runners... one of these kids is one of those, juggle on the unicycle, and runs like a 2:15 800... 5 nuthin, hundred and nuthin... literally.

we are winning states this year. in frisbee, i mean.

45 minute run yesterday, more frisbee this evening... man it's hot. tarzan himself couldn't stand this kind of heat. but at least its a dry heat...

cheerios for breakfast, i'm going to have a mid morning burrito now... from the super burrito... mmmm....

looking forward to school, doing a lot of lesson planning right now.

recently read: freakonomics, a rebel economicistisitist blah blah. pretty good.
harry potter and the magic thing. I liked that one.
the long emergency. kuntzhauer. something. actually, that's been a few weeks. but it's still checked out. hmm.
Ghost Soldiers, which is being made into a movie called the Great Raid...
Tom Clancy's stupid Something or another and The Something Sanction or Covenant or Identity or Conspiracy by Ludlum. Hey I admit I read 'em, but I don't have to be proud of the junk...
Just finished a history of Stalingrad (Battle of) called 199 Days.

I need to start concentrating on School stuff... American government, US History, Modern World History... that kind of thing...

that is all.

le tour de... freedom

This message goes out to Frenchman and blogonaut Alex 'le compte' de Frondeville (which means 'Frondeville' in english).

Do you hate us for our way of life? Or for our legacy of superior cycling?

It must be one or the other.

The French are quite indignant over Lance's dominance... you'd think, given the state of things since Napoleon, that another mark in the 'L' column would be, well, just no big deal.

What gets me are the absurd, desperate attempts to besmirch this great man, with ludicrous allegations of drug use.

Lance has repeatedly stated, "I have never tested positive for drug use."
There. Clear as day.
Never. Tested. Positive.

Come on, what more do you want?!!

To demonstrate my solidarity, I would like, at this time to state unambiguously, that I have NEVER TESTED POSITIVE FOR PERFORMANCE ENHANCING DRUGS.

Couldn't be more clear. That's why I'm making this bold statement at this time. I want my legacy to be unblemished by the taint of wrongdoings. As opposed to the wrongdoings of taint... which I don't want to get into.

pancakes.

One night this winter I had a dream. I dreamt I had pancakes. And that morning, you know what? Yes, that's right, I had pancakes. Yes, dreams can come true. I like to share that one with my students before a race.

Over and over again.

Woke up yesterday w/ a new owwy. Pain on the inside of my ankle. It's either because my bike shoes aren't stiff enough to handle a 25 mile mountain bike ride... or because I spent a lot of time in flip flops. Hmm. Technically, it's not the shoe's fault it's my foot's fault. But I'm going to buy some better bike shoes.

Went for a 4.5 mile run with HS xc team this am, soaked my legs in the river. Took a nap.

Hit count way up. This gives meaning to my life.

Spent 3 hours today working on my online course dealing with Teaching AP Government (US). Pretty excited about teaching that... it will be a lot of work.

Found a new breakfast that I like. It's a smoothie... but with cheerios blended in. Nice higher level of bulk, and should keep that cholesterol down. For sweetness, use honey nut. I like a 50/50 mix.

I think I might go home and make some pancakes. Ice the foot. Got a beach tournament this weekend. My first ever.

Remember, the lesson of pancakes.
Dreams can come true... and...
They seem like they're going to be awesome, but as soon as you have one bite too many, you feel like you're eating sponge.

blogs

The Blogosphere report...

Jim has a list of drills he likes. It includes Seegerball, which sounds like rugby cum schtick. (note when we play schtick, getting tagged on the opponents side has a consequence, involving a sprint)
Idris is talking about shoes, and bashing guys he cut. We miss the Mike O'Dowd bashing.
Alex is talking about why good teams don't go to bad tournaments. A corollary (or obverse, or converse or something) is that, it's really hard to go to good tournaments without a team. Remember the glory years of everyother year club worlds... ah, good ol' summercamp. This will be a topic of it's own.
Dix (who I don't really know, in the sense that i don't remember him camped out over a keg a la the others referenced) started strong w/ some great stories. I think he stopped blogging in 1989, or March, or as soon as Jim gave him a link... It appears he's been removed from Jim's page.
Marshall Goff has a good page, and his own domain. But he seems to have a variety of interests other than frisbee. This is incomprehensible to me.
The Atlanta people have a blog on a variety of frisbee questions. It appears to be printed on parchment paper, so it is classy. They are killing me on hit counts, so they must be doing something right. They did link to the Atlanta message board, which is big.

state of the luke

todays entry are random musings... just got done w/ a 2.5 hour ride, and i'm all endorphined up...

since i'm not playing any serious ultimate these days (the very occasional tourney) but lots of 'swilltimate' here are some observations of swilltimate.

i find it personally very difficult to try in swilltimate. that said, each of the 5 or 6 times i'm playing each week in local pickup/coaching/ whatever, I'll try once or twice... I usually attribute this to niggling little ache or pain... but i've noticed that I niggle and ache a lot more when there is nothing on the line... why?

the hs kids are more fun to play with. their not really that much worse than more experienced players, and their attitude is a lot more refreshing. it's truly fun for them, they have no 'baggage' so fun pickup can actually be fun pickup.

as opposed to 'grown up' swilltimate which often involves 'the guy who keeps running backwards 20 yds to pickup the disc' and thinks he's the greatest handler in the game.

we'll call him 'alex'.

that said, I like throwing the frisbee; so I'll keep playing ______timate, in whatever form it takes.

I'm still on the verge of picking up my very on copy of jim parinella's book, just as I'm on the verge of paying that library fine. But I especially want to know how it addresses 'percentage based offense.'

I.e., I know Jim is a big fan of stats and percentages... I wonder how deep the stats go? For me, the best offense (strategy, and instantaneous decision) is the one that has the best percentage of leading to a goal...

the obvious one, is that if your team completes only 70% of their throws, but you've got one guy who has a decent long huck (call it a 50% throw), it's obviously better to huck it the length of the field.

Now there is a sliding scale too, if there is a decent 70% break mark swing, and a 50% long shot, which should you do? If you turn the swing over, the opponent has wonderful field position, and at least a brief personnel advantage...

another source of irritation is the big dump. I love a good reset, wherever it goes too, but there is some large percentage of players/ teams that lose 10 yards with every dump, w/ no perceptible gain in field position (laterally). Why don't you turn the dump into a very short gainer? Or at least a minimal loss. The classic case of this was the Spokane national Championships. The Stanford Women's zone O was the BIG dump to someone in the middle of the field and 15 yards deep, then on to the far side. By mid game, UCSD was just running straight accross the field to mark the far handler.

There are some obvious problems with this.
And unlike many bad decisions in sport, there is an object lesson here, if outcome counts.

What's my point? Hell if I know... Most of what follows is derivative. I just want to write it in my own words.
A good offense, to start, should,
1) have some simple plan. go towards the goal, don't lose yardage, don't freak out, don't hold onto it. Unless you are Frank, then it's go backwards, be a martyr, every concept that someone not named tex winters came up with is dumb.
1a)gain as much yardage as possible with every pass
2) apply risk/return thought to risk passes... i.e., risky passes for a dump are kind of stupid. a risky huck, or a zone busting hammer that leads to a fast break... perhaps a good idea...
3) Develop a progression of throws for your players to support your strategery. Jim talked about this, I think... And structure drills for this (this is mostly for newer teams, I think... but maybe for all)... I.e., if your progression after a swing is, look huck, then reset it with as little loss as possible, then look huck again (maybe not the most sophisticated offense, but I suspect it's won many a league title)... then set up a drill w/ a thrower marker, a cutter/defender pair in the deep, and a cutter / defender to get it on the high count... I GUESS you could hit the deep guy coming under if the huck is not there, but people always drop that one any way... (just kidding)
4) remind the team that the good players get to do whatever they want, their creativity (foolishness) is what keeps the dumb repetetive stuff open and workable...
5) I think there is a lot to be said for doing a circuit of drills. see Jim's blog... for list of good drills. But do the ones you like, if you like one of the one's he doesn't. Running a practice as a 'camp' with a mini game, a trap game, etc... and move through them can kill time, get touches, etc.
6) deconstruct, personally, with a team mate, or as a team how well you did this. this is where you can use stats... and maybe create stats for what you are trying to do. like 'dumb, difficult break mark dumps' vs. 'risky, panicky hucks'
Hopefully your plan is a little better than that, it's just an example.
7) I'll come back to this one day and edit it into some actual plan for making an offense.

losers perspective

a new post...

well... jim and alex are posting like mad men.

but I have some thoughts.

recently, I played 2 tournaments, and was sucessful, as an individual. not, as the title indicates, as a team.

and here is what I think.

Based on the philosophy of jim, I

1) took what was there
In a tie game w/ portland, my mark turned his head twice. The first time, I suddenly realized an advantage. I'd like to think that if I were 'on my game' I would have immediately struck... but I recognized an advantage... and the 2nd time... I caught a goal.

Lesson... You can be 'first step fast' if you wait for your defender to look aside.
Lesson... if mom had raised me faster... dammit mom.

2) moved them
I would wait for the play to set up. This is a problem if you are away from the disc. Sometimes your 'handlers' are helpfully closing off all lanes. To make it happen... move around. Vertically. So I would go upfield, by a step, jab, feint, etc. All the while... seeing the disc. And often, the opponent would look askance, and at the same time the space would be there. Big gainer.

Some times, the space and timing was there, but the thrower was not...

don't panic. move to another spot.
go eat faster food.

3) do what you have to do.
sometimes, it comes down to a catch... a diving continuation.
make the play.

It seems that a key to winning the game is to make 'jordanesque' plays ... and no, jordan, i'm not talking about you... unless that was your role...

just don't have to make them often.
unless you are jordan...

of course, in addition to being a supremely gifted athlete, he also had a sweet jumper that made defenders have to come out on him... leading to posters.


so can it be argued that the less often you have to make plays, the more you win.

pointless ramble over.

here's the rsd post for potlatch.

in what is likely to ruin Idris' day, here is the content from rsd repotlatch...

just so I can have a copy for editing later...

day 1) roadtrip to redmond. a caravan of three cars, one w/ a baby. a gazillion stops are made. arrive in redmond, jump out of car, as will and joanne pull in literally behind them. off to seattle.

day 2) discover that we have a 2 game bye. very happy. most of the team gets the memo, but not blaine. but we TELL him we're at the fields... and entertain ourselves when he calls by yelling out in the back ground... throw me that frisbee... etc. Pretend that the kid is there by yelling 'bwah WAH wah blah wah wah' in the background. If you know kid, you can imagine that it would be very possible to convince someone that that was kid yelling in the background. Arrive at fields, learn that blaine DID in fact believe that kid was in washington, and at fields. And had been telling every member of the team he could find that kid's here.
Success.

Bandwagon, wearing yellow jerseys and cycling shorts (for the most part) goes 3-0 on day one. We watched the 2nd half of USA vs. Candada after chilling out for an hour after our last game. It was a good game. The weather had been misty, so a bunch of us went back into the city for sleeping.

Annecdote of day: Apparently, someone from SanDiego got so drunk that they couldn't find their tent. Also, they couldn't keep the contents of their stomach where they belong... so, at 5:00 a.m. the rough equivalent of a small bear was alternately vomiting near, on, and in a variety of other people's tents. Then, the guy would claw his way into a tent, and pass out. Leading to people yelling, "GET OUT! GET THE FUCK OUT! THIS IS NOT FUNNY, ASSHOLE! GET OUT" Apparently this went on for some time.

This type of thing is why I generally prefer to lame out, and return to the city.

Day 3) In a dramatic contrast from day 2 (which was day 1 of play), we found out that we had to play at 9, not 9:30 against the Brownish/Padaeiaish team. It ended up being 9:30 any way. And it was not against them. We had them in round 5. Highlights, down 7-5 vs. some team, we went on a 10-2 run.

We then played booty rumpin snoopy w/ Hector and Kyle, and Misha, and SRV and a few other players I didn't know as well... Nip and tuck until 10-10, and then we won 15-10.

The Bus ride to the Party. Apparently, 85% of the Bus thinks I'm an asshole. 10% thought I was a good guy. 3% undecided. 2% margin of error. I know this because I took a vote. I'd like to point out the high degree of voter participation/ candidate recognition.

We had to serve food for the tournament, which involved breaking in line, since we were late getting there. I'd like to think that those who voted 'asshole' were perhaps chagrinned when it came time to have the server decide how much salmon to dish out.

Then at some point someone pulled the fire alarm. Since I work in a school, I have a pretty good idea of what a modern annunciator sounds like, in contrast to the old 'school bell' type alarms. I can only hope that idiots who pull said alarms are legitimately ignorant of the pain of a ginormous shrieking decibel count... aside from the tremendous inconvenience of what it takes to turn the things off (like firefighters, and shit).

There seemed to be some people still partying at the fields. I was pretty wiped out, so I went to sleep. However, my sleeping bag was this thin, THIN sleeping bag liner, so I spent several fitful hours freezing my ass off/ alternating w/ massive muscle cramps.

Day 4) Sunday dawns. Ate a large breakfast. Played Humbolt early. Turned out to be a little easier than I thought it would be: they can put together some good games. I think the 3 day tournament hurts things. I pulled up lame w/ some kind of groin cramp. I'm thinking now that it was actually that I dislocated my pubic symphisis. Yes, this is real. We won the first game, though, and then lost to Sleveless in Seattle (like a So-cal-ish) team by 3.

Left in the middle of the semis, w/ USA down 11-10 to vagabonds, Canada crushing Sleveless. Stayed awake long enough to choke down 2 whoppers, and a jr. whopper, and some onion rings, and then slept for the next 250 miles.

Day 5) Technically trip over, but woke up at 8 to go get the highschool XC kids started playing frisbee, so I got few throws in. Walked home went to sleep for 4 hours.

Hip cracked, so I think the groin pull is cured.
40 seconds to my library time ends.

the end.


nothing original to add...

groin is healing nicely, coreworkout and 5 mile run this morning. found 10 bucks on the ground. muscle spasm in leg, unrelated. might be time to put veggies on the menu...

maybe an easy road ride today...

or just read a book...

haven't eaten. I think I'm going to go convert that cash into mexican food from the super burrito.

potlatch... 1

nice luck tonight. my ride turned into a caravan... which means, a stop anytime anyone in 3 cars has too pee. a 5 hour drive turned into a 7 hour drive. but...

the nice thing was, as my ride to seattle dropped me off... my seattle connection literally pulled into the pancake house parking lot in redmond... right behind them.

well there were a few cell phone calls involved. but the nice thing was, my ride from bend was 1 mile from their hotel, and my ride into town was coming off a sucessful thrift venture that netted appropriate lance armstrong style bike jerseys for our team...

bandwagon 05. we are lance.

although, we probably should be ullrich.

upcoming content

Stories deserving of being told.

Doing nothing. All day long, and all day strong. How I eat, sleep, sleep, and eat, and turn a 24 hour day into the blink of an eye.

My favorite foods. Eggs. Beans. MacandCheese. Mix and Match.

Preferred Content Stories: For subscribers only.

Never Been Convicted!!!

The time I saved a prominent blogger from, at the very least, having a fake mustache drawn on his face. And at worst, some kind of hoffa-esque fate.

Probably, the really interesting stuff will have to wait another year.

when I get my tenure.

In other news, recently read,
The Long Emergency dealing w/ oil issues... Yesterday I read Book One of the Tripods series, The White Mountains, took a good hour or so, but I like escapist fiction...

More to follow.

photo album of BUCL League championships

I might provide the dry play by play of the one game 4 day tournament tommorrow... but for now, here are some photos...

general stats
11-3, 11-8, 11-9, 13-9. Played 63/75 points, which is a whole lot for me. Frankly I don't like it, I can't keep running anywhere near what constitutes fast at that point... butwhatever...

The pictures: right now they are on a website. soon i'll put them on flickr or something (i'm open to suggestions for that type of scrapbook utillity).

We were 9-1 going into the tournament. Missing a lot of my team for various reasons (family, wedding, flakiness), the TD let me pick up 3 high school players (only one of whom had been to a tournament, the others brand new). The team also had 2 just graduated dudes who had played for a year. So our ages ranged were like, 16, 16, 17, 17, 18, 18, 25, 30, 30, 32, 35, 36. In the finals, we played a team w/ approx 75 years of exp between their top 4 players...

Our plan, bring the game down to our level. And win it in the end. And we did, before a very hostile crowd... winning for the 2nd time in 2 years...

Love that trophy.

anyway, my photo essay, photos curtesy of Bill Benson, father of Ben Benson, BUCL Rookie of Year.

Here I am, just having thought about letting someone else pull.
"Mom, MOM! Could you put the food over THERE"
"Brett, karate chop, NOW"
flick, FORCE FLICK, hey, where did my guy go...
dance party usa
i think this is going to be a swing pass. or maybe just a poopy face.
hamma, hamma, hamma, hamma
one of our hs kids, applying the force forehand. hasn't learned to cheat yet.
it's a trick brian, they are on the other teammmm.....
I literally picked this guy because his name was mike TEAM. Good call.
Fine. We'll play with 6.
Gooder! More Honester! Harder! Marker!
Franchise player / athletic trainer and his bizarre contract requests...
Annie holding the mark...
Maura using hypno-glasses.

sweeps week?

according to Jim, it's sweeps week. And I'm looking for ways to drive hit count. Jim is killing me, but my daily counts have surpassed Alex, probably do to his visit to the way south. Jim's use of the 'read more' has driven up readership, but that exceeds my current levels of energy (or desire or ability to wade through html and figure out how to do it)...

i'd considered linking to some internet gambling or some other adult entertainment... but only the 'classy' stuff. Like the classy beautiful ladies of baccarat. Is that URL taken.

I'm training like a madman, and I feel like my calves are about to pop... a nap is clearly in order.

And my hour of library time is about to go off...

I guess I'll just have a kid write a script to view my site.

daily blah-g

beauty of summer off for me: constant posting. for you: constant crap. I presume that the frequency of my posts will inversely correspond to the quality. I.e., when you have all day to go deposit a check, or spend 3 hours to go buy a single serv of yogurt... well imagine the posibillity of increased drivel...

i've decided on this bike pedal. this morning, went for a 5 mile run, and tidied up a bit. not much. This afternoon, back up to Phil's trail for a little ride...

current weather, 66 degrees, pc.

summertime -- day 1.

first moutain bike ride of '05. Hand seems to be fine, albeit a little achy... 9 mile loop, plus the 4 mile ride up... so 16 or so total. I'm thinking i'm going to head over to webcyclery and pick up my first pair of clipless pedals... so expect my next entry to be something like... so anywhere there i was, tooling around town when BLAMO, a light turned yellow, i slowed down, and was unable to clip-out. So make a long story short...

Hopefully not. I'll practice a little.

Outstanding game of mini on Friday evening... 6 kids, 4 adults, so a good opportunity to get a little sprint on... w/o getting too much sprint on... now the XC kids are demanding morning runs, alternating w/ morning ultimate, plus the normal evening clubbish stuff... i'm going to be in the best shape of my career for... sunday b-pool at regionals... yee haw.

'coaching thought.' This summer, since I have a bunch of '2 year' players, plus I'm getting some help from a couple good players w/ club experience, the new players are getting the chance to learn w/o being forced to throw lots of turnovers. They can start their careers as goal scorers and defenders, which allows them to remain confident, and contribute.

we also spend time playing short field games that give them LOTS of touch opportunities, hotbox, etc... but it seems to boost their funocity when they can catch goals, rip around the field, etc... instead of constantly being trapped on the forehand side...



recent reads...
Riley, Ace of Spies... marginally interesting history of an influence of Flemings Bond... and a bunch of kids Essays on Vietnam.

feeling peppy.

the darthside.blogspot.com is a very funny mock blog by darth vader. I recommend 'Christmas on Hoth' (the entry, not the vacation paradise). If you proclaim to not be a nerd, please forgive. If you are reading 'Luke Smith's Blog, and think you are not a nerd, perhaps a series of intensive counseling is in order.

Today, feeling peppy. The last day w/ kids of my first year as a teacher. 35 years young, w/ a bright future behind me, I'm ready for the rest of my life. At least I'm in bend.

Some thoughts. Vaguely inspired by today's events, and other blogs.

1) It's not the kids. It's the parents. Kids don't buy kids xboxes (xboxi?), allow themselves wild freedom with no responsibillity, etc, park infants in front of a tv... etc.

2) No one reads anymore. I tell them I read a book this weekend, they look at me like I'm daft.

3) Teaching is a great job. Pay sucks. Eh. I get paid in 'your mom' jokes.

4) Video has ruined their brains. I've shown a total of about 120 minutes of video over the year. But the effect is amazing. They go completely inert. Also, somewhere along the line, they were taught, if there is paper in front of me, it means shut the hell up (i.e., stupid, numbing worksheets). But if anyone is talking EVERYONE can talk. That means, that trying to hold meaningful relevant opinionated discussions with 40 15 year olds (in a group where the top 20% are in a special place) is occasionally maddening.

Rest of the day, I think I'm going to go buy a board game. Just for grins. I have delusions of creating relevant, engaging gaming simulations as learning tools. Also, time for new cleats. The Speed TD's have blown out, and I'm not sure that I can get anything like that here. Rats. I do have a pair of those Vapor soccer cleats somewhere...

The Cruel Shoes. Light. Grabby. Made to extract information...

Beyond that the summer of my content (I hope).

Mornings, 3x per week, run w/ the summit XC team... Coach frisbee a couple days/week, pick-up a couple days / week... hopefully my slowly healing hand will let me mt. bike, and maybe do some paddling...

A couple seminars (literacy, and teaching AP Government)... beyond that...

slept til' 7:30. cup of coffee and a slice of toast. went for run. big breakfast, smoothie, more coffee. napped a bit.
then I puttered about the house/paddled/ rode a bit/ slept/read/ went to library.
playing a little frisbee this evening.

repeat.

state of new instruction

thesis, antithesis, synthesis. led to the rise and fall of communism. but whatever the way self reflection works, the past few weeks have led to a lot of thinking about stuff...

a new crop of summer kids are coming out, and so i get to apply a whole new bag of tricks. this year i'm exclusively using a cross between crazy franks z-boys iconoclasticity, and bobby knight chair throwing.

just kidding. i've definitely found a lot more value in the bloggery('paranelloh', idris (who's output seems to have dropped off dramatically since purchasing a 55" TV), and goff. Alex kind of blew up w/ a weeklong tirade about coed... then drifted into maudlin musings about the wonder years and lambada...) than R.S.D. (ex: coedSter@gmail...i get in shape for frisbee by doing 20 deep kneebends really fast, then running 4 by 1 mile sprints. i also have a ripped meniscus that limits my range of motion to 30 degrees, and causes excruciating pain when... well, all the time... should I play more than the 6 days a week I play at work? (I'll throw in some links to R.S.D. posts that actually say stuff like this. very humorous)).

from reading the blogs, and given the opportunity to start w/ fresh produce, i've added some new thoughts. the hammer is not a vertical flick, but teaching blades right away (good suggestion idris) does improve flick (the concept of follow through comes more naturally on the blade); having them throw under my arm to learn extension also provides more meaning, and skips a step... these have helped a couple kids make rapid strides... it is more difficult for me to initially teach extended flicks.

also, teaching them to throw blades right away has the advantage of making the hotbox games MUCH more competetive

on how to cut, or clear, or mark...
general: if you are teaching one new player, have them cover an experienced player. if they are a fundamental athlete (which mainly means kinetic learning style), and they chase, are marked by, mark, etc... good players, they will learn good habits. then in conversation, especially while watching a point or two, you may get the opportunity to observe a good player, and relate it to things that the new player has done (much more valuable to say, do you see that, that cut i made when you covered me, see how it works, the timing... less valuable to say, see that, don't do that). I believe surgery has the maxim, see one, do one, teach one... in sports its maybe see one, do one, see one, do one... or something like that...

specific: marking... w/ new players, i usually mix up a no arm marking drill w/ an 'armed' marking drill. seems to work. but the players who got better fastest are the ones I marked, so they got used to a 'style' that is more effective by mimicry, rather than creating their style in an adhoc manner.

cutting: again. if you want your newest player to learn how to cut, put them on your best player. if you have the inclination, do it at a tournament (fast tracking). for REALLY new players, having the brand new kid cover the other brand new kid only serves to create unusual portions of space. or lack there of.

clearing. take the time to say, hey sparky (try that one Jim, instead of dude, or new guy), give me an honest effort on 'd', and I'm going to try to 1) keep you far from the disc, 2) keep you from ever seeing (with their eyes) the disc, and 3) create tons of space for my team mates 4) punish you severely if you leave me, or look away from me. Then make an effort to do it, honestly. Then deconstruct (preferably w/ video) soon after...

the challenges. fast tracking still requires field time. W/o any other considerations, or any real effort to develop specialized coaching plans for each kid, the kids that came to practice the most made the most improvement, relative to themselves (i don't know how to quantify that)...

that's all for now.

league night 7-0

Team ASAP defeats Orange Colored Shirts 13-5 to push our record to 7 and 0, alone atop the leader board. 1 word. Strategery. I was concerned that we would let the game slip away, and I urged the team to greatness when it was 5-2. It turned out it was actually 6-1.

Warm-up. Them: Drills, chalk talk. Us, people kindof threw and ran. I set up the 4 fields, and marked them with paint so that we wouldn't have to pace them off again. They are perfect, of course.

The day: Mid -60's. Sunny. Steady wind of 20+ mph (est). Strategery: We won the flip, took wind. one pass downwind, turnover. Several turnovers later, we score. 1-0. They receive, turf a swing pass, one pass later, 2-0, up a break. Strategery.

We will be losing 4 good players for the tournament. It may or may not matter.