Bad Habit Ultimate

Express-Guy Quotes

2008-07-29T08:47:00.001-07:00

We've got this interesting character that passes out the Express newspaper every morning at the Brookland-CUA Metro stop... He's got a lot to say so I'll share a few here:

"Welcome to the World!"
"It's Monday all day!"
"Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Role Model!"
"Free your mind and your body will follow!"

I'm sure there are more that I'm missing, but for now we'll just start with what I can remember. Maybe I'll make Express-Guy quotes part of my sidebar...

Let the Dance Party Begin!

2008-07-24T23:07:00.001-07:00

I'm sitting here at 2am working on a 20-pager for my Budgeting and Metrics class.... Well, I'm trying to stay focused, but tomorrow we head to Wildwood, NJ for my 2nd Wildwood Beach Ultimate Tournament. Last year we sported mustaches and variations on the stache. What to expect for this year? Let's just say I hope you like plaid. Look for Donk-a-Phant Dance Party to make some noise this weekend.

O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A

2008-07-22T22:50:00.000-07:00

Back in OK last weekend for a friend's wedding... It was great! A little hot, but it was a good time overall. Megan and I arrived late Friday night and planned to crash at a friend from college's house all weekend. We took some time to get caught up on things, concerning medical school and Shiner, before hitting the sack Friday night.

Saturday was originally planned to be a relaxing day where we could hang out with the bride-to-be and my girlfriend could meet a few friends from the Bible Belt, but it didn't exactly end up that way... After having a relaxing cookout with a little swimming, a few good burgers, and testing my hand at extermination, the kids arrived. Some of the relatives had come into town and brought triplets with them! As I'm hanging out in the pool, one of these little rascals jumps on my back... We get around to taking turns tossing them across the pool; assuming at some point they'll get tired of us and find something else to do, but that was not the case. About 2 hours of tossing kids, running for my life, and scraping up my feet on the bottom of the pool I have found the secret to birth control. Place any adult who thinks they want to be a parent into a pool, unleash the triplets, and goodbye sweet dreams of toddlers and baby formula. I think I would feel safer in MMA...

Sunday was much more relaxing... Megan and I visited the OU campus and I got a chance to see all the improvements they're making to my alma mater, while Megan got a chance to see how impressive a state university can be. There are big things going on in Oklahoma. We made a quick run by the music studio (where I spent most of my time) and I was surprised to find I still knew someone on campus! After chatting for a while we were running a little late for the wedding and took off back to the car to get out to the lakeside chapel. The wedding was fairly quick and quiet, but it was a beautiful setting and the chapel was super-cool; with huge glass windows running from the floor to the ceiling looking out into a nice nature setting. It was great to see the parents and newly married couple before heading back into Norman for a visit to campus corner. We hit a local favorite, The Library (mainly a favorite so I could tell people I was going to "The Library"), and had a few drinks with new and old friends before deciding we would try and catch a late showing of The Dark Knight. Unlucky there, but the night was still a success.

Monday morning was our chance, so Megan and I headed to Bricktown early to see The Dark Knight (it was pretty impressive) before moving on to Coach's Restaurant in the outfield of the RedHawks ballpark for lunch. The sirloin steak, fried okra, and beer-batter fries were great! We even managed to catch a bit of the game that was going on before high-tailing out of there to catch our plane back to D.C.

All-in-all a great weekend.

TIL #2: Sweet Tea!

2008-07-14T11:36:00.000-07:00

From Granzin's BBQ in New Braunfels, TX to the Extra Sweet Tradewinds variety, I can hardly hold myself back when it comes to putting down sweet tea. Now that it's summer time there is nothing I wouldn't do for an ice-cold glass of that sweet southern beverage. I believe Cravin' Melon said it best, "Cause on the 8th day, God made sweet tea."

I was somewhat surprised when I arrived at my first D.C. restaurant 2 years ago. I asked for sweet tea and was given an odd look by the waiter. "Well, there's sugar on the table," he said. I ordered a Coke.

It is absolutely not possible for a cup of "tea" to even remotely come close to the flavor of sweet tea by adding sugar packets afterwards; not even 6-10 packets of sugar can change that flavor enough to make it appealing (Believe me, I've tried.). Anyway, I suppose I should just list some of my favorites...

Granzin's Sweet Tea
Tradewinds Extra Sweet Tea
Arizona Extra Sweet Green Tea
McDonald's $1.00-Menu Sweet Tea

Here are the lyrics to the song in case anyone wondered:

Cravin' Melon
Sweet Tea

If you find me sleepin' in the shade dear
Will you promise to bring me all your sweetness
All my plans are hangin' in the palms dear
All my thoughts are lost in Pawley's interest
Rock me gently the waves are softly rollin'
Salty breezes blowin' through the screen dear
Pour me some of your old fashioned magic
I can hear you whispering in my ear
Chorus:
Don't try to offer me anything
What it comes right down to baby
Don't tempt me; I'm where I wanna be
Cause on the eighth day, God made sweet tea
Certain things in life I like to savor
Watchin' clouds and waitin' on the rain
If you ever question my behavior
Just a taste will make you feel the same now
Chorus:
We've known each other goin' on thirty years
Seen a lot of joy; we've seen a lot of tears
Still I wouldn't change a single thing that I did
Cause we're here, yea.....
Chorus 2X:

Friday, July 11 Workout

2008-07-11T13:41:00.001-07:00

Jog
Backwards Run
Relaxed Skipping
High Knees
Butt-Kicks
Shuffle
Carioca
Straight Leg Kicks
Walk and pull knees to chest

Ladder Drills
1 foot in each box
2 feet in each box
"Icky" shuffle
Shuffle (2 down/1 back)
Ali Shuffle (The boxing Ali)
Up-and-backs (2 feet in each box)

Running
2x400 (75-80 secs)
90 secs rest and 200m jog
Repeat 3x

5 Medicine ball Xplodes (Squat down, grab ball and explode into a jump while throwing ball backwards over your head)
20 Med Ball Sit-up w/throws
20 push-ups

Do all three in succession; then repeat.
Fun stuff. Need to make a move towards getting in shape. Gotta start somewhere.

Mission to M-A-R-S: Lunar Orbit

2008-07-11T08:04:00.000-07:00

Friday was a monumental day for Cold Cocked. My first MARS resulted in a 1-6 record; 0-4 of which was the part that I showed up for. We found our only win in the first game on Friday, so 2-1 was a huge swing for us.

Our first Saturday opponent turned out to be D.C.-based She's Inflatable.

Fun Fact: I actually contacted Inflatable's captain early on this Summer to see if they had any open spots for MARS. It's not that I didn't want to play Cold Cocked; it's that I didn't think there was a Cold Cocked this year... Needless to say, Megan and I were turned down due to an "excess" of men. When I received the invite from Evie I was pumped to get a shot at redemption with CC, and was actually glad I wasn't able to suit up for Inflatables.

Even more Fun Fact: Inflatable's captains contacted Megan and I about a week before MARS to offer us roster spots. Whoopsies!

Anyway, back to the game... We were pretty well acquainted with most of the players on this team: a mix of BRDM, WireTap, Eastern Motors, and a few random out-of-state pick-ups, and we were (I was) hell-bent on crushing this team. I should mention that "hell-bent" doesn't necessarily mean I'd be getting excited to play defense, but I would do my best should the opportunity present itself. For the most part this game was back and forth, but Inflatables went on a bit of a run before half and were sitting at 7-6 looking to take half after a 4-point run. I actually did play defense this point (after we turned over the disc...), and managed a 'd' on an ill-advised throw to a horizontal cut that led to a 7-7 game. We picked up another 'd' and punched it in to stop the bleeding and take half at 8-7. At some point after half I watched the longest-ever point in Ultimate. For a number of reasons (drops, swill, aggressive offensive puts, defense) neither team could get it done on 'o' and after a long timeout Inflatables was able to put the disc in the endzone. Generally this is a big victory for a team, but we had plenty of fresh legs salivating on the sidelines ready to punish the fresh Inflatable 'd'. It wasn't as hard as we expected... Their defense came down with a double-team on me and left Broaddus (who had already done his fair share of punishing this game) wide open jogging deep. A floaty pass around the tag teaming Rez and Cole put Matt just out of the endzone and he finished to another streaking receiver for an easy score. We ran away with the game a little here. Some other highlights: Megan's sky 'd's on Inflatables monster-woman, Bill looking like he could sky a tree, Sandra and Becky's tight person-to-person defense, Harkins slowing down Los, and Billy calmly working the breaks on offense. (at this point I probably don't need to mention Broaddus anymore... just assume that he did ridiculous things.)

I'm at work, so I'll have to add to this later...

Mission To M-A-R-S: Part 1

2008-07-07T18:04:00.001-07:00

For the second year in a row the old and slightly older joined forces to take on all comers at MARS under the moniker of "Cold Cocked". MARS is a huge 3-day co-ed Ultimate tournament complete with camping, 2 parties (karaoke and an a cappella concert), 44 teams, 18 fields, and a portion of your tourney fee is generally sent towards sponsoring a keg (last year there were 40 consumed!) for one of the two parties. We had a balanced team of 8 women and 11 men; all with chips on their shoulders after a 1-6 showing in last years tournament.

Thursday started typically; I know I wasn't alone when I mentally began the weekend about 24 hours too early, but I just couldn't wait to get out of work and get on the road towards Pittsburgh. I finally bolted from my desk around 1pm and worked to get organized so we could head up. Megan and I took our time getting out, not for any good reason (I think it's just my nature to be late/slow/unconcerned), and got hung up in traffic a bit, but we arrived to the fields by 9:30 and worked on setting up our monstrosity of a tent. We thought we had prime camping grounds when we set up near the pavilion and showcase fields, but we were quick to learn otherwise. We did however find a pair of unprepared campers to take up space in the palace with us.

Around 1am Friday morning we began to realize our mistake as the neighbors continued partying and the decibel level rose steadily until 3am before finally dying around 4:30 or so. An early morning was not expected, but after trying unsuccessfully to sleep through golf cart shenanigans we were welcomed with a beautiful view of the fog lifting off the mountains surrounding the fields in Irwin, PA.

Our fellow members of Cold Cocked drifted in around the 10am start time and we prepared to face our first competitor, Axis (of C'Ville). We managed to hold on through half with some solid defense and good disc movement on offense, but this experienced mixed club team proved to be too much and went on a late run that put a comeback out of reach. Axis went on to lose to the eventual champions in the "A" bracket semis on Sunday! There were a few clutch throws by Billy, Evie had a beautiful layout in the back of the endzone that was called back due to indecision about her being inbounds, and I made myself available deep for 2 scores from Billy and Bill in the game. We lost this one 15-9.

Our second game pitted us against a former member of Cold Cocked who was playing for Super Fast Sexy Pants this year. They dressed well; in polos and plaid shorts, but our game seemed more polished. Quick strikes deep from Elliot to myself, beautiful swings by John-O, unrelenting cutting and a stellar layout grab by Broaddus, Ian's "look what I found" hammer grab for a score, and constant defensive pressure we come to expect from Scrap kept our lead safe as we coasted to a 15-11 (?) finish.

We were still missing Nichols at this point, and what better time to show up then during our bye? As we broke into our first rounds of beer we reminisced briefly on the follies of last year's tournament (the highlight of which was John O's huge "old-man" backhand that was promptly foot-blocked by the mark) and were excited again with the promise of a full 3 days of layout D's, Schtick, Canadian's, full-field flicks, shotguns, Patron, and camaraderie that would bring us to smile months removed from this little oasis in Pennsylvania. As our next round approached we eased back on the heckling, Schtick, and alcohol consumption to focus on The Pop 'n' Loch Ness Monster.

As we looked over at the large mass of young collegiate-aged players gathering to take the field against us, we probably all snickered a bit at how easy this game was going to be. Like taking candy from a baby, probably. Little did we know the 3-0 lead we were about to jump out to was not leading towards an end that we expected. Our three point lead turned to 2, then 1, and suddenly we were down 3 points surveying our teammates to find the problem, a solution, someone to pick us up and put us back on top of this game... Billy answered huge during halftime. I can't remember exactly, but I believe we were down 8-4 (or 5) by half. "Settle down, I don't see us losing this game, draw that line in the sand let's move forward and not look back; let's win this half." (That's paraphrased of course...and is missing that Canadian accent that makes it all the more persuasive) We didn't look back, well at least not after Pop 'n' Loch had made it 12-6. We may have considered briefly that we had waited a bit too long to begin our comeback, but we were playing for pride at this point and 15-6 was not the way to end this game. It was our turn to baffle, to surprise, and to amaze ourselves as we slowly pulled back in at 12-12. Clutch defense by Sandra, Harkins and Broaddus broke their men down with their cuts, Bri stuck tight and put the pressure on with her layout bid on d, and Billy found Claudia deep for an easy score as we swapped roles with the Pop 'n' Loch and found our first lead of the half at 14-13. Not a team to let these opportunities slip, we quickly picked up a 'd' and walked the disc in for the score. I have to be honest, the last 2-3 points of this game were a bit of blur, so I can't quite remember who it was that found the disc in their hand for the game winner, but I do remember rushing the field and being pretty excited about starting out 2-1 after last year's edition of MARS.

Next days to come soon... I just finished putting the numbers together for a Budgeting and Metrics project due tomorrow, so I was ready to get back to Ultimate. Every time I write about Ultimate I find myself wanting to mention every little defensive bid, routine swing, break throw, sliding grab, or sky, but sometimes it's just too much to put on paper. Just know I remember all of them, and I'm excited right along with all of Cold Cocked to have been a part of last weekend! I'll try to be sure everyone gets a nod here once I get to the next two days of the tourney....

Quote of the tourney for me (About taking pictures of Ultimate...): "Well there's zero-sum coolness in the world, so if you want to get more you've got to take it from somebody else."
-Elliott Turley

TIL (Things I Like) #1: Big Cups

2008-06-27T16:11:00.000-07:00

I've been spending of bit of time reading through the entries on "Things White People Like" and I figured it was about time for me to start my own. This list may end up being a little telling about what my bad habits are...

Reese's Big Cups
Nope, no longer just any old peanut butter cup. I need 210 calories (105 from fat) of peanut butter and chocolate goodness. Reese's first found a way to get me to trade in my double-pack of cups for a slightly larger, much better proportioned offering. Then, after a few months of treating myself to a single Big Cup I ran across the Big Cup King Size and quickly became of fan of doubling my peanut butter sensation.

The only thing that bothers me is the slight inconsistency with the peanut butter at times. Sometimes the peanut butter can be really oily and moist (thumbs up!!!), but then sometimes I'm left with a dry, crumbly mass of it (big thumbs down...). Of course there is no way to possibly know without buying one, so you might as well buy two just in case!

M-A-R-S

2008-06-27T06:06:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick shot of the HUGE tent that Megan and I will be sharing at MARS next weekend. Of course, I did offer space up to anyone else who is interested. It's glaringly obvious that I'm playing with a team full of old people... Who wants to stay in a hotel?!?

We were a little worried about getting in late and not knowing how to set the thing up, so we spent about an hour and a half last Sunday setting up the tent in the front yard. The thing is great! If it doesn't rain, we'll be able to keep the rain fly off, and there are 4 huge mesh windows on the top of the tent that would look out into the sky. Not to mention "bay windows", a portable tent light (with velcro to attach to the inside of the tent), two rooms, and cup holders (a little overboard maybe?). Pretty cool. Pretty much a big, soft house.

Your Job is Your Credit

2008-06-24T12:33:00.000-07:00

Ok, the revamped newsletter for May should finally be up in a few days, but there is some other news to talk about.

I agreed to play some late-summer Ulty with a group of club players who didn't make the cut on a few of the local teams. It's nice because I don't really have to make a huge commitment to practice, and I get to play in all the tourneys that really matter (Sectionals, maybe Regionals) against a high level of competition. This new team is called Eastern Motors, so hopefully we'll get some cool jerseys...

Vid Editing

2008-06-19T12:59:00.000-07:00

So I got my Mac yesterday. It is so ridiculously sick. I wasn't able to fiddle with it too much since I had a summer league game and a presentation due today, but I didn't need much time to edit the video I pulled from the Ulty game. I think we only took 12 minutes of footage or so, but it typically would take me 15-20 minutes to check out the footage and mark which clips have highlights, before I even edit them(with my slo-motion PC) before making a short vid. Here's the vid I made in like 10 minutes (there weren't too many highlights... it was sort of a beat-down):

I can't wait to really get in deep with all these new apps this weekend. It's pretty sweet getting to explore a new operating system!

Friday - Linear Speed Day

2008-06-17T12:22:00.000-07:00

Linear Speed Day

Jog
Backward Run
Shuffle
Carioca
Forward/Backward Skip
Hip Rotations
Arm Circles
½ Speed Build Up

Long Arm Swings
Straight Leg Kicks
Straight Leg Skips
Straight Leg Stride
High Knees
Lateral Lunges x8
Leg Swings x16
¾ Speed Build Up

Overhead Lunges x10
Power Skip
Mountain Climbers x20
Lateral Knee Raises
ACL Turns
Scorpion Squats x16
Foot Fire/High Knees/Sprint Transition
Maximum Build Up

Single Leg Bounds
In-Line Lunge x6
Lying Abb/Abduction Leg Raise x10
Squat and Rotate x16
Maximum Build Up

Workout

5x10yds Full Recovery
5x15yds Full Recovery
5x20yds 30sec. rest
4x40yds 90sec. rest
2x50yds 2min. rest
2x60yds 3min. rest
4x100yd. Form Strides

Stretch

Making the Switch!

2008-06-12T14:18:00.000-07:00

I'm moving to a Mac! It's a little scary, but I feel like I've done my research and I'm getting a great computer. This one is getting a little old and I really want to move on to something with a little more power and some cool applications. The goal is to transfer the newsletter-writing to the Mac so I won't do it at work anymore and I want to start doing my own editing of the video that we're taking at tournaments. Metz is currently doing a great job with that, but I want a little experience doing it and I'm hoping to move to an HD camera at some point.

Exciting stuff. Sorry to say goodbye to old faithful, but I'm ready for something shiny and new. (Great justification, right?)

Sprint Camp

2008-06-11T20:55:00.001-07:00

This Friday marks the first of many (*crossing my fingers*) sessions that are devoted to team agility, speed, and overall explosiveness. I know I mention constantly that I say but never do, and I really think this is a great chance to turn it around (Assuming I get the workout schedule from my bro in the next few days!).

Other than that I've just recently been wondering what the disconnect is between desire and the motivation to follow through with those desires... I mean, really. I spend a good 3 hours a day just thinking about Ultimate and how I can make myself and the team better, but I probably don't spend 3 hours a week actually working towards that goal. It's one of those if-I-had-a-nickel things. I mean, if my body was made physically better each time I just thought about Ultimate I would be pretty sick. So why can't we act on our thoughts? It's so damn hard to do for one. And, how do you get to that mental state where you're driving 100% on every rep without someone pushing you every step of the way? I tend to need a partner when it comes to anything physical like this. I'm actually more than willing to push others to the limit, and I feel that I do try to do that often.

The reason I set up this little "speed camp" was to give us a chance to build some team unity over the summer and to motivate myself to improve through the motivation of others. I'm really pretty excited to see what my brother has in store for us; Medicine balls, agility ladders, and a host of plyometric drills are sure to make me burn on Friday. The best part is the number of emails I've received from the guys who can't be there... Everyone wants to know what we're doing to get better this summer and that's pretty damn exciting. I can't wait for the Fall!

Ultimate Fitness

2008-05-28T13:04:00.001-07:00

Here's something I think about a lot, but haven't really acted on in the past 9-12 months... Fitness. Well, fitness specific to Ultimate.

Everytime I get into any conversation about fitness with an Ultimate player in these parts, they like to talk about their 5-mile runs and all this pish-posh endurance exercise. It's all well and good, but we aren't exactly trying to play a game at 60-70% max speed are we?

Here's what I feel about Ultimate-specific fitness: It involves explosive movements that rely on the ability to recover quickly so as to repeat these explosive movements as many times as possible in an hour and a half.

Sprinting to a disc, blowing past an opponent for a 'd', and getting vertical for a disc are not endurance-related movements. Work your sprints with increasing lowered recovery time, manage your plyometric exercises so you are working at maximum effort for every rep, and workout for the sport you play. If you can't run 5 miles it doesn't mean you can't be a good Ultimate player. I'd take the guy that can play every other point 100% over the marathoner that can survive a full game at 65% any day.

I suppose this fitness blurb ties in a bit to the situation you play in. If you are someone who the team needs on the field for 75-80% of the points then it's going to be hard to stay "explosive" through the season, but if you've got a deep team and you can sub in and out freely, there is no reason for you to workout at that 60-75% level. Practice to where you want to play.

The only way to play at 100% is to practice at 100%. Next step: stop talking and start doing....

22-12

2008-05-27T09:36:00.000-07:00

The college Ultimate season is officially over and Bad Habit has finished the Spring with a record of 22-12! HUGE improvement from 4-13 of a year ago!

We are losing one weapon from this year's team, but I'm sure we will grow stronger next Fall with the addition of our incoming freshmen. If we get anything like a Peter or a Lemon we will consider ourselves extremely lucky!

D-III Nationals was a mixed experience for me. I had a great weekend overall: There was a lot of spirited play, great competition, my deep throws were pretty much on all weekend, we played a great game against Carleton-GOP (who ended in 3rd place), Dave did a great job calling lines and keeping everyone fresh, some guys who sometimes get overlooked really proved that they could come in a fill big roles when needed (Sonic and John are two that come to mind), and there were some huge plays by the rest of the Catholic team.

There were also some frustrating moments: Losing universe point to Stonehill (we definitely should've beaten these guys), I had a few points where I just made big mental mistakes and I think I dropped more discs (3-4?) than I've dropped in any other tourney this year, and I didn't want to be 15th place. We had two shots at breaking seed (we were 15 coming in), but we didn't take advantage against Stonehill or Vassar.

I'm very happy with our season and I can't thank the guys enough for their hardwork. Of course this means we're going to have to work harder next year, but it's nice to have such a successful season to help us grow and draw inspiration from.

Thinking Ahead

2008-05-20T12:58:00.000-07:00

As D-III Nationals gets closer I'm starting to look past it for some reason. I guess I do this a lot.... Maybe it helps my tourney anxiety or something. Oh well.

What I'm thinking is that there are going to be some guys we will miss a ton next year. It's been a great two years getting to play with Heureux and Buatti, and I know the team is really going to miss their skills next year. It is actually funny saying this since there are only two players who won't return for the 08-09 season, but they are two that make a huge impact on the game when they are around. Buatti is a special case since he really didn't attend too many tournaments or practices over the last two years, but he managed to show up and impress on occasion, and I'm so happy he did.

Arin, on the other hand, is a beast on defense and will leave behind some very tough shoes to fill. His height, field sense, ability to come down with any throw that comes his way, and his intensity are all things that have carried us through tough situations this year. He is a constant play-maker. There are a few who would try to fill his shoes, but none will truly make that same impact.

So I guess this post is a little sad; maybe reminiscing a bit with under currents of "we are only really missing 1 player from our successful 07-08 squad"... Definitely things to look forward to. Can't wait to share the field with you one more time!

Advice I don't follow

2008-05-19T20:45:00.000-07:00

I've been really thinking a lot lately about adopting some form of a diet to help get myself into shape this summer. As I continue to struggle with this, I'm trying to write a bit to maybe help convince myself that it's easier than it seems. Sweets are by far my biggest vice... I probably enjoy 2-3 20 ouncers of Mountain Dew, at least 1 type of candy bar (or Reese's Big Cup in the 2-pack...my personal fav!), some ridiculously large lunch that generally ends with a stomach ache, and I'm currently polishing off an OU cup (big 32oz cup from football games back in my UG) filled with chocolate milk...

So, once I finish this chocolate milk I think I may take a little good advice. I read recently that liquid calories are the ones that hurt the most. You drink without concern and generally don't get full. Drinks tend to be the most empty calories you consume in any given day. Beer, soda, chocolate milk, Gatorade... you name it, it's probably got tons of carbs and sugar.

New plan: eliminate soda and cut back on beer for starters (only mentioning the beer since I've been to a slew of receptions recently. Hell, the beer was free, what do you expect?).

Oh, and D-III Nats preliminary pools are up. Final pools will be posted Wednesday at some point!

April Newsletter

2008-05-08T06:45:00.000-07:00

April 2008

Success!

2008-05-05T09:40:00.000-07:00

It was a long weekend that I am still feeling the effects of, but I'd say it was a success.

I suppose I'll start with Friday...
I got out of work around 5pm and wasted an hour or so in front of tv before I really got to work on my party prep. Three different Safeways and a Giant later my fridge was filled with all sorts of goodies for Sunday's cookout. I had sent a feeler out earlier to see if I could find someone to see Iron Man with and Dave came through around the 2nd quarter of the Wizards game. I was planning on meeting up in time to watch the end of the game, but somewhere around 6 minutes to go Dave deemed that unnecessary (poor, poor Wizards...), so we headed out to Chipotle to get some dinner before the movie started. Iron Man = best action movie I've seen this year. If there's one movie you're going to see this year, Iron Man would probably be a decent candidate (although Run, Fat Boy, Run was pretty hilarious...).

Saturday
We had scheduled a little round robin with GMU, VCU, and GW-B for Saturday, but late Friday night I was told that VCU was going to drop out. We only had 8 guys for the day, so I scrambled to get a message to Eli, VCU's captain, asking him to bring whatever guys he had to the fields. I don't think he got my message, but Eli and three other VCU guys showed up to pick up with us. We played a great game against George Mason that included some great grabs by Lemon and some stifling defense by Andrew (one of the VCU dudes), Stills, and Lemon. GW-B left a little to be desired on the defensive end, but we still played a tight game until the Hippos went on a run late and scored a Callahan to win the game. Definitely an exciting finish for them. I think there was confidence built across our team, and it was great to get to play alongside the Biscuit Villian's as well!

After the game I wound down a bit at home before heading out to meet up with Megan and her roomies for a little (in my case, a lot) Mexican food, margaritas, and a quick game of Jenga. Dion, one of her roommate's friends from Zimbabwe, was in town and he was absolutely hilarious. One of my favorites: "Pelosi is so liberal. She wants to legalize abortion up to age 8!" Turns out he knew a lot about American politics as well...

Sunday
Long day ahead! I got up early since I was a little worried about the temperature of my keg... A trip to Home Depot and 4 bags of ice eased my nerves, and I was ready for the Alumni Game. We somehow managed to get time on the nice turf football field here on campus, so we set up early and tried to get everyone organized. Alumni games are interesting because it's been so long since everyone's seen each other and we all just want to hang out and chat. The game seemed to be the last thing on our mind until a few of the guys who had to leave early began working on motivating everyone.

We started a little after 12:00pm and were faced with a strong wind that some thought might favor the older (more experienced?) alum. Using their experience early, the Alum won the flip and elected to start going downwind. The wind was pretty strong at this point, so I was a little concerned about having to actually work to get a lead in this game (it would've been so much easier starting the game in their place!). The game generally went as expected as we traded to 5-5. Then, we (I) lost a little focus and allowed the old guys a big break upwind. At 6-5 and up 2 breaks, things were looking pretty good for the Alum. I'm pretty sure they were salivating as they pulled downwind to us looking to extend their lead. Our secret weapon was then introduced into the game: Chilly handling. We had a zone offense that had been tested multiple times this year against Vermont, Georgetown, Towson, and Penn State, and we were ready for this. (Note: It may sound a bit serious at this point... that's because it was. The Alum are known to be much better at heckling than Bad Habit, and we were met with a barrage of heckles following that upwinder.) Long story short, Dave almost had a point-saving 'd', but when it was deflected back into the endzone, I managed to reel it in and ~40 throws later we were celebrating in their endzone. We stole another upwinder to go up something like 9-7 at half.

The second half was much of the same with a few exciting points. Mike Martini had a huge layout 'd' that was unfortunately during Frodo's time on the video camera, Arin had the same experience, but Kyle's upwind huck to Lemon to end the longest point of the game was captured by a better cameraman. There were some great plays on the Alumni side as well: Anya had a big layout/sliding grab to save a downwind point, Jimmy had some clutch foul calls (yes, and a layout that spurred an upwinder), Scrap lasered a pull that ricocheted off Jim's face, and they collectively played solid Ultimate despite not playing together for quite some time. In the end, Habit took over and finished the game 17-14, sending us all back to my place for chicken and beer!

There aren't too many things that could follow up a great game of Ultimate better than food, beer, and more heckling, so we cooked up some food, drank some beer, and heckled each other again while watching the vids from the game. Good times.

I'd just like to quickly thank the Alum for coming out and making this possible! Here's to doing it again next year!

Thanks!

2008-04-28T14:59:00.000-07:00

A D-III Nationals berth is still up in the air, but it's exciting to think that we're even on the brink. Even more exciting is that the Alumni and other members of DC's Ultimate community have taken part in sculpting the team this year. I just want to take a quick moment to thank a few people for their help this year.

Dave Alexander - Of course we have to thank Dave for all of his help teaching skills and just being a calming influence on the team. It's great to see him at tournaments in the area and he is always a source of great information for the younger and older players on this team.

The Alum - Jimmy De Martini, John Templon, Mike Karpovich, Sean Dorsy, Rachel Dudek, Tim Crowley, Dan McKenna, Matt McCafferty, and Alan Woods have all shown up at one point or another to add experience to our practices and do some one-on-one skills work when needed. Big thanks to these guys.

Matt Broaddus - A legend in the making. This guy is the focal point of many great Ultimate stories and he has added his name to another by helping Bad Habit through much of our Fall season. As inspiring to watch as it is to speak with him, players/people like this are special.

Carlos Orr - Added his name to a few of our practices and was a big help with supplying a boost of extra effort to our practices. Sometimes we tend to get lazy out there and it's nice to have a strong cutter motivating your defense.

Hopefully there isn't anyone I missed (doubt that most of these people even read this!), but if I missed you know that every minute you spent helping out the team was definitely appreciated. If anyone knows someone who may be interested in coaching the team next year, let me know.... we would appreciate the extra push that would give us at practice!

Big Red Dance Machine

2008-04-21T14:28:00.000-07:00

Went to Henlopen this weekend. It's pretty close to being the first club tourney of the summer if it isn't, so there were a lot of teams who were very excited to start sizing up their competition. I went down with Megan and hung out with Big Red Death Machine over the weekend. I'd say it was a great experience overall; a little awkward at first, but as people got to know me things got better (Of course I didn't help this by just showing up at BRDM's practice Wednesday and loitering on their sidelines...).

I'd say I need to learn to be less critical while I'm observing from the sidelines. To be honest, I don't really even remember how I played when I was first starting. It's weird; it's similar to waking up after a long night of drinking and just having black spots in your memory. I mean, I remember the first time my flick worked, the first time I realized the importance of breaking the mark, the light bulb that clicked when I was introduced to the "dump-swing", but I don't really remember the actual process of learning or the games that I played until more recently. All I know is that it's a process. Sometimes it's a long process.

I used to love to huck the disc (well, I still do), but now I do it less. How much less is not an issue, I used to do it every single time a disc touched my hands in the game. The point is that patience is a tough thing to learn, and it's even harder to learn in the midst of a game; and I should not be critical of it, just be aware of it and do my best to initiate a conversation with these players about better possible options in the future. Once I struggled with dumping the disc off, and now I do it quite often. I would say I am a much better player because of it.

As far as fitness goes I am not the most fit player on the field. I would say that I can hold my own, but I am probably never going to be the most athletic out there. However, I do try to increase my level of fitness when my body allows. There are some players that have become comfortable with their personal fitness and they make no visible efforts to change that. This is where I am most critical. I never have understood how anybody can expect to compete at a Nationals or Regionals level living on throws alone. Nobody can compete on throws alone due to the nature of this game. It is ignorant to argue that truth. No offensive player can hide from the defensive side of the disc if they turn it over and no good defender can get by without any offensive skills. That's sort of the hard truth about Ultimate. You can play league play for years without addressing your physical fitness, but 1 point against a Nationals caliber team will leave you sucking for air if you're not prepared. Basically: Prepare for where you want to be, not for where you are.

Another note: WireTap looked good. They should've beat MedMen, and they played Pike in some close games. Cuts haven't really been finalized yet, but they look to be a little stronger than HOV this year. I really hope that works out for them. I really like the two leaders in Jack Kuecker and Matt Babin and I'm sorry that I'm probably going to be really fickle when it comes to Ultimate this summer. I'm just not ready to suffer through another season of injuries. In a few weeks I start my time off in full force!

Anyway, this was basically a bunch of jibberish, but sometimes I just feel like just tossing thoughts on paper. I'm really wishing both of these teams a lot of luck this summer and I hope to be there for some of their big victories. Good luck!

P.S. The title came from some conversation I overheard this weekend. "Wonder what BRDM stands for..."

Sect. Abbr.

2008-04-18T11:20:00.000-07:00

Not really... but kinda.

Saturday:
Johns Hopkins - Pete throws Callahan to start the game, J-Hops go up early, Habit takes them down late. 13-8.

Salisbury - B - Likes to bid, but that means their throws aren't going where they want them to. We look to goose egg them. Billy has HUGE bid out of bounds, Alan and Stills get sky'd by B-teamers; Jared gets scored on by a girl. Habit wins 13-2.

Georgetown - Beat them at Shippensburg Fall Classic, dominated them at Roll Call (12-3), but this is a completely different team at Sectionals (read: 10 guys we've never seen who can all throw, run, jump, and catch well). They come out with intensity, we fall WAY behind (10-7 at one point), we finish with intensity. 12-10 Habit.

Maryland - We are now playing on a full-size field. It's like playing on a little league ball park and then jumping over to a major league diamond. We run for a bit, get some d's, take a lot of subs (who score the only point of the game), and go down 13-1. Plenty of time to watch the dogfight that is GW v. Delaware.

Sunday:
Salisbury - Decent Ultimate team led by one huge douchebag. I'll post the discussion over a travel call on here at some point. (I really need to do better with my posting of vids/pictures!) Catholic plays mediocre offense and poor defense. Buzz wins 13-8.

American - Game was close all the way, but never felt like it. Habit took a lot of subs and played fairly tight offensively. Not a great defensive effort, but took away the victory once we decided we were ready to. Habit wins 13-11.

George Washington - Tight first half with GW taking it 7-5. A few small victories for Habit including winning the first point of the game and trading points for a small bit in the first half. Stills had a beautiful layout score and Lemon had a circus-like catch to clean up on Jared's throw/John's misread. Habit loses the second half and the game 13-7.

Towson - Essentially a rookie game against Pandamonium. Great jerseys from 5Ultimate, but Towson is spelled "Townson" on the back. Yet another mistake by 5Ultimate. Our rooks win the battle, but we accept a tie for 5th place.

Going to Henlopen this weekend to see one of the first club tourney's of the summer. I'll get a chance to see some WireTap and Big Red Death Machine and hopefully I'll have some video highlights at some point. If it wasn't for school, work, Ultimate, and a significant other, I would be much quicker on the draw with this stuff!

Day 2

2008-04-15T07:59:00.000-07:00

Of PTD, or Post Tourney Depression... I think I heard someone on R.S.D. call it that. Basically it's their way of giving a name to that feeling of having to go back to the grind and, at the same time, reliving every bad throw, cut, decision, and any other of various mental and physical let downs during the weekend. I don't feel like I held back a whole lot this weekend and my body has been reminding me of that constantly. I'm thinking my PTD is really fueled by the delayed onset muscle soreness.... It's really a bitch.

The good news is that Bad Habit finished 5th in the Section; leaps and bounds above whatever double-digit place we came in last year (I don't actually know since we didn't have enough of a team to go back for the make-up date). We also played a great game against a tough GW team Sunday and had a big win against a strong Georgetown team on Saturday. Overall a very satisfying weekend. I should have some recap post up soon...

March Newsletter

2008-04-14T14:12:00.000-07:00

March 2008

Look for a Sectionals write-up to follow.