My week with Scam Pt. 1

Up in albany for a week. What better to do then to practice with the members of SCAM?
For those of you that haven't read Doobers' blog yet, Squeege is coaching SCAM for this semester. For those of you that don't know who Squeege is, he's probably the best Ultimate player to come out of the Albany area in a while. He currently plays for Bohdi (sp?) Open team out of Boston who placed 11th at Nationals.
ANYWAY, on to practice:
Monday:
Practice was perfectly fit for the conditions, soft ground and windy, so we had a full layout practice. Multiple drills all centered around bidding. Very nice way to start off the week (although I feel it today). Finished a full practice day with 1/2 mile worth of indian sprints. Gotta love conditioning.
Tuesday:
Finally showed up early enough to warm-up. I really like the dynamic workout as opposed to regular stretching. It didn't seem as much of a time eater as sitting in a circle talking about feelings.
For starters today we ran a Ho-stack drill. For this drill there were two cutters on opposite sidelines and two handlers in a central position. The cutters would start their cuts roughly 30-40 yards away for big gainers, and then the handler that made the pass would receive a dump, swing and have the other handler throw the next gainer. Continue until we reach the endzone. Switch off handlers and cutters and go back down the field.
Next up was throwing: Pairing off each partner would have to complete 25 flicks and 25 backhands. If there was a drop the group would yell out drop and each other team would have to do either 5 push-ups or 5 crunches, the team to drop the disc did 5 of each. You alternate crunches and push-ups each time a drop is called.
Next up was a cutting/conditioning drill: Pair up and stand 10 yards apart and the next group to you would also be 10 yards apart from you, creating a long chain of partners. One side of the line would move to be in the middle of the people across from them forming a zig-zag line all the way down the field. Go. The person at the front of the line starts cutting around every person, when they get to the end the stay there and continue the chain. Once the first person gets to the person next to the second person, the second person goes. IT'S A RACE DON'T GET CAUGHT.
I can only assume this is confusing, as it is confusing for me to read it and I was there. We'll be doing this drill at practice once spring break is over though :)
Now that everyone is dead we repeated the throwing drill. But this time 50 of each throw. This sucked as it seemed people's throws became worse and worse as the day progressed, every 3 or so throws someone would yell out "drop". (Note: No drops from me, sonny, or pete)
We finished of the days practice with running Ho-stack offense for almost an hour it seemed like. If the Offense turned the disc it would be reset at the closest endzone and run again. Squeege emphasized in-cuts for this, telling the handlers to not huck. This went pretty well, the handlers started getting their weave down towards the end, deciding very quickly who was the primary dump and getting their communication down. Main thing for the cutters is not to double-cut, or make the same cut as someone else, this takes away both of your cuts and takes away at a minimum 3 seconds off the stall count.
Post practice Huddle:
Squeege went over what went well and what needs work. Telling the people that are "supposedly the best players" to start acting like it and push the rest of the team to play at a higher level. People dicking off does nothing but slow the practice down, and no team is that good where it doesn't matter if they lose practice time.

Good day all around, talked to Brown about where and how to set up lay-out Ds. Talked to Ercan about where and how to set up handler Ds against a Ho. Goofed a bit with Sonny and Squeege during throwing drills. People that matter there might actually know my name soon :-D
Tough crowd to break into.

Tomorrow is supposed to be 60 and sunny again. Another day, another practice.
Can't stop. Won't stop.

Views from indoor

I really gotta hit that blog faster then 2AM. Doober already says everything that needs to be said regarding our game today. RECAP THOUGH!!!
*Warning* Long post, separated by team, different sections are bolded

Huckindor -
Stigglez - Getting up, skying mad fools.

Ben - needs a bit more control on the hucks but is looking great in the air. Much more aggression in the air from his normal passive self.

Brad - push passes? Really? We need to teach this boy how to dump it. Really bad. He's almost worse then me freshman year... (ouch)

Hufflepuff -
Tom - Running shit in the air, getting up and over anyone that gets in his way, and is going to on all passes. With those lanky arms he's gonna be a beast. He's definitely stepping up in his role of head of house.

Andy - I don't think I've seen that boy drop a pass that hit anywhere near him A-MA-ZING

Youseff - He's gonna be good, I know it's been said multiple times but he'll do good for us, just a bit more rounding of the edges is needed

Satanclaw -
A-Pinn - so many hyphens, It was pretty apparent to see today that Satanclaw did worse without A-Pinn filling out their lines. Going from their normal 1st place sitting to 3rd place just behind Creeperin today who walked away with 1 win.

Mitch - His breaks are looking better and better each day. He gets so far out that it doesn't even seem like that there is a mark around him.

Matt C - Damn he's old. Still getting open on his unders aiding Satanclaw in what they do best, and offering another handler for them.

E-Herbst - Catching the disc and running super hard. His cuts are often the same for each time the disc is put into the same position. Variety with his running ability and how hard he works will pay off big time.

Creeperin -
Doober - Bidding like a fool, I love to see the extra effort put in, and not wasted effort on discs that are way out of reach.

Me - Backhand to sprints are off. Targeting needs to get better. I'm pleasantly pleased with my flicks right now, but I gotsta use the backhands more often and not just rely on breaking the mark. Got footblocked today. Fuck...

Dropsies were at an all time high today on Creeperin. We gotta figure out how to score :(

Newbies -
Christian - Didn't see much of his playing today, but I know that his flow didn't fit all too well with Satanclaw, we'll see where he gets placed.

Kevin (K-Dawg) - He's throwing out the bids, good to see from a new player. Backhands are alright at threading the needle, but I don't think he has a flick currently.


The team is looking better each day that I see us play. Each practice new players are stepping up and taking the lead. I'm pretty sure three different teams have placed first during indoor practices. Creeperin will get ours soon.

In general for the team to work on:
Focus on O - losing focus will just lead to dropped passes and miscommunication

Focus on D - People are looking at the disc instead of watching their man. People are getting juked out and scores are bound to occur off of that.

Go to/dumping on "early" stall counts - Basic things that we go over each semester in bulk. Stall 5 games are a lot different with stalling then stall 10. obvs. Just stupid things that cause more turns.

Chalk talks will come when we get outdoors. I'm excited for them, anyone else?

Pushing on

"Each of us is currently as good at Magic (or anything else in the world) as we are. We
are not better than we already are.
As obvious as this might sound, people spend so much time and emotional effort trying to
prove to themselves that they are already 'good enough.' "

Patrick Chapin "Next level Magic"

Gotta strive to get better. Takes work, and doesn't come easy. Let's go Gunx.
We need to push each other to get better, without you I'm not able to be anywhere I want to be.
Still trying to find my fire. Where the fuck did it go?

Can't stop. Won't Stop.

Day 1

Late last night a member of the CHUMS, Trenton, was caught up in a military chemical experiment and was eventually turned into a Zombie. Such a shame what they do to that boy, but now he feeds, and has already fed on, most importantly, my boy Ben. We'll see how long the rest of Capen Hall lasts, I can only imagine that they will fall soon. This is such a crap, Bouton and Capen had each others backs last semester when the Zombie Virus attacked campus, but we shall persevere no matter what happens.
Gotta stay safe, already had to kill a couple zombies today, including Ben.
Practice was out on the turf today, mad windy. Throws were mediocre all around, but we had some ladies play well so all is good.
To all that read this, please stay safe. We must depend on each other.
Can't stop. Won't stop.

They're here!

Gotta love everyone being back.
Throwing today made me realize how much work i need. Gotta refigure out flick, finally figure out backhand, relearn hucks, relearn how to place hammers, and so much more :(

New semester. New thoughts.

This semester is going to be a changing one.
For me.
For the team.
For anyone that I can positively impact.

I've been reading Next Level Magic by Patrick "The Innovator" Chapin. Good shit in there. Much of it applies to real life scenarios. The main thing I have gotten out of it thus far is thinking about what I am attempting to accomplish. It's not until you actually know what you are trying to do that you will be able to work towards that goal.
So what's my goal for this semester? Making an impact at sectionals. Not just me, but Gunx as a whole. What am I going to do to reach that goal? Make myself as good as I possibly can. But what do I mean by that? That's pretty open ended of me. Meh... I know what I'm going to do, please join in if you wanna.

To do:
No smoking
No drinking
No relationships (girlfriend-wise)
Be able to complete the Cooper Test (2 miles 12 minutes)
Full field throws (gotta have that option available)
Smarter throws (complete contradiction to the last goal?)

I'm not sure what a reasonable goal is for my vertical leap, 40 time, or Snertz time. Anyone have an opinion?

We will do work this year. I promise everyone that I will do everything I can.
Just remember this: Can't stop. Won't stop.

Seriously?

Practice today consisted of:
8 freshman,
3 returners, +1 45 minutes later
4 cripples,
and me.
Four of said freshman still needed heavy work on their throws so they couldn't drill.
multiple people had to leave before we even finished go to.
This is crap.