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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.