My play at Tom's Tourney in Bruges

I had a great time at Tom's Tourney. I didn't always make the right pass or cut but I felt I did myself proud.
I don't want to go into too much detail, at the risk of giving away strategies, so I will just highlight what I think went well and what I think still needs improvement in terms of me fitting in with the Ka-pow systems.
Firstly, I should state that when I was playing 95% of the time it would be an Offense point. I was only put on for D when the D line was tiring through being on the field for a larger percentage of the time than the O line.
However, when I did play D line I didn't get scored on (as far as I can remember) and I got a couple of run through blocks and one (almost) layout block (mentioned yesterday). No point blocks but I am not too concerned about that. One thing in terms of defense that I noticed from the weekend is that I should probably be getting on the force quicker.
In terms of offense, like I said, I don't want to reveal our systems so I will keep this vague.
At the start of the weekend, I was feeling quite comfortable with the overall theme of our offensive system out of all structures, and felt I could adapt to play in most of the roles quite easily, apart from 1. I didn't play in the role that I felt uncomfortable with at all on the first day and only played a few points of it later in the tournament, but I'm glad I did. I definitely feel that I could play this role now, even though I believe there are players who would be more competent at it than I am.
In terms of what went well, my team mates were very complimentary of my grabs on offense. I admit that I did get one grab for a score (described yesterday) that is up there with some of the best offensive plays I've ever made, but the rest I felt were pretty standard for my abilities, so I guess I'm looking forward to showcasing these skills in the future... everyone loves a compliment or two!
I didn't put up too many big hucks, but generally I didn't need to. When I did though, there were a couple of occasions when it wasn't connected because it wasn't the best option. I know I can get this, and I think it's just a case of learning abilities of teammates better and learning the timings of the systems better.
In terms of cutting, I LOVE LOVE LOVE the cutting patterns of the downfield roles in our offense and really think I have it almost nailed now. I didn't really run the handler cutting patterns too much and so I'm a little less confident with them, but I know them and could run them in play, so I look forward to getting them nailed down in practice.
Overall, pretty happy with my play at Bruges, and looking forward to really getting myself ingrained in the offense systems and roles, and busting my arse if I'm put on defense lines as well.

Last week and Ka-Pow at Bruges

So, being away in Bruges from Friday morning to Monday night means I haven't blogged in a while so here's a recap.
Thursday I didn't do anything, stupid rain.
Friday, I was on a coach from 8 a.m until 1:45 p.m and then walked 6 miles whilst exploring Bruges.
For anyone that doesn't know, Ka-Pow were at Bruges in Belgium for the annual (and 20th edition of) Tom's Tourney. It was a fantastically run tournament with great food and questionable weather! Ka-pow had a great showing and below is a short recap of the games. I will post about my thoughts on my performance tomorrow.
Saturday games:
Uprising (Poland) (Finished: 18th/20) Win 12-6. Strong win, score wise in Ka-Pow's first international game, but we needed this easier game to get our heads into our offensive systems.

Flow (Belgium) (Finished: 13th/20) Win 11-10. Sudden death win. Don't remember that much about this game, apart from it being tight.

Ultimate Vibration Old Stars (France) (Finished 2nd/20) Lose 10-5. I think this game deserved to be a lot closer. We came into the Saturday show game with nothing to lose. It rained a lot and they didn't play a whole lot better than us, so I don't remember why they won by as much as 5, but they were a strong opponent.

Sunday Games:
Orange (Dutch National Team) (Finished: 6th/20) Lose 9-5. Started out slow and sloppy and went down 4-0 going on to lose by 4 points. A big disappointment because this knocked us out of top 8 against a team we really should have challenged at least. This put us into the Power pools with 9th being the highest we could finish.

Catchup (Austria) (Finished: 14th/20) Win 10-9. Another close game, though this wasn't sudden death. Tom's Tourney rules means there is no cap so when time was called with us up 10-8, we had won even though Catchup went on to score the final point. This was a game of huge Ka-Pow plays. I had what was possibly one of the best scoring layout grabs I've ever made, Elias had a massive layout grab for a score off a huge huck from his brother which unfortunately left him injured, Pringle had an incredible layout D to stop a score and Dave Tyler had one of those incredible grabs in the middle of the field that he is known for. Strong game for us.

Pata Negra (Spain) (Finished: 11th/20) Win 10-7. Don't remember too much about this game, except that it was the first time the sun came out on the weekend.

Quarter Final (9v16) against FreezBeez (Belgium) (Finished: 16th/20) Win 15-7. This game could have been closer had we not gotten an upwind score in some very strong winds. After that, we got a couple more upwinds to take it away and never looked like slowing up against the gracious hosts. We got a compliment about showing exemplary spirit in this game in the circle afterwards and it was generally a great game to finish Sunday on, especially since we managed to get to the points cap for the first time.

Sunday night fitness: Dancing until 3 a.m

Monday Games:
Semi Final (9v12) against Sun Ultimate (France) (Finished: 12th/20) Win 13-9. A fairly strong game again for Ka-Pow but with a few offensive mistakes, made up for by strong defense. We were up 13-8 when the timer went, with a disc going into our endzone. I didn't want to end another game on the opponents scoring and I peeled off my man to help with the coverage of the player the huck was aimed for, I layed out and got to the disc but it popped up into the air for a score. Was dissapointed, but a win is a win.

Final (9v10) against Cota Rica (Italy) (Finished: 9th/20) Lose 8-7. Was a shame to lose this game. Even had the disc on the upwind endzone in sudden death for the win, but the huck that got it there was called back for a travel. Played it tight the whole way and lost to quality opponents, but it could have easily gone the other way.

So we finished 10th of 20 but finished with 6 wins and only 3 losses. Half way up the table and winning spirit was a good achievement at only our 2nd tournament and our first international showing with a not full team.
Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves as well, and the systems were running well, and I came away very much looking forward to the Open season with this great bunch of LADS!!!

EUROPE!

Tomorrow I will post about my personal play at Bruges and my fitness from the rest of this week so far. Stay tuned.

Gym and my views on the AUDL

3 mile cycle on monday and tuesday, 2 mile cycle today plus gym:

5 min cycle to warm up
3 * 10 Bench press 45kg
3 * 10 squats 60kg
3 * 10 press ups
3 * 10 lunges 20kg (10kg per arm)
3 * 10 leg press 100kg
1 minute plank
30 seconds side plank on each side
10 ab crunches
2 * 20 bicep curls (10 kg per arm)
2 * 20 dumbell lateral raises (10 reps of 6kg per arm) 
2 * 20 dumbell front raises (10 reps of 6 kg per arm)
warm down


Want to build core in coming weeks so will be trying to get in some ab crunches and planks during lunch breaks/in the evenings/mornings.


On something ultimate related, getting kind of into the AUDL! Watching the tape of the Columbus Cranes vs Indianapolis Alleycats!
Good, if a bit sloppy, game! Enjoying the announcer, shame about the camera work! Will probably watch some more games in the future. Not sure I'll pick a team to support. No New york or New Jersey team this year (though the NJ expansion has already been bought for next year apparently) so may support them next year if it keeps going and gets stronger/more interesting!
So far, in my limited experience, though, I have to say, the format makes it more watchable for me! I don't want to have to order dvds from the US to watch high level ultimate and I like some of the changes to the rules.
Looking forward to keeping up with the rest of the season!

Alumni Cup

So, we started the weekend slow, gained a bit of momentum, but were never going to challenge too many teams. We avoided finishing last and had a couple of good games but only got 1 win all weekend.

We had a real mix of a team with only a few subs. Many teams were in a similar situation with subs to us, but most had put together a team with a higher number of talented players to take advantage of the weaker players on our team. We had one win against Sheffield "Phat 'eds" alumni which was well earned and we took a pleasing amount of points from Manchester "Halcyon" and Loughborough "Haze" in our group games considering they went on to be in the 3 v 4 final.

We lost a big part of our team to injury in the game against "Haze", and then went on to lose our quarter final in sudden death in a game we could have really used him for, which would have put us in the 9-12 bracket instead of the 13-16 bracket. Still, we avoided a last place finish and I had a good time and the current students definitely had a strong weekend coming off the back of their Uni Mixed Outdoor National Championship title, the Open team took 6th and the Women's team lost a hard fought final to come home with second place.

No injuries to myself, supported the uni teams when I had the chance and had fun, so it was a successful weekend. Now to start the buildup to Bruges with Ka-Pow in what should be an even more fun weekend.

It will be my first international club tournament (Paganello excluded) and so I may get nerves before the first game, but if history is anything to go by, they shouldn't stick around once I remember that I'm just doing what I do.

Highlights of the weekend: Double helixing hammer to Nick for a score in our last game, and breaking zones all weekend!

Alumni Cup/Uni Nationals this weekend

3 miles cycling yesterday. 1 mile cycling already today and will do another 2 miles if it's not still thunder and lightning-ing when I leave work.

This weekend is Uni Open and Womens Outdoor nationals with the Alumni cup alongside.
I know the Skunks open 1st team and womens team will be looking for high finishes, but I really don't know what to expect for the Alumni team.
1. We have a very small number of players. At time of writing, only 8... I expect that, like my uni days, I will end up playing almost every point.
2. I have no idea what the competition will be like.

Should be a good laugh though. 3 aims:
1. Don't get injured before Brugge next weekend.
2. Support the skunks teams whilst not playing.
3. Have fun!

Go skunks!


Current Logo                            Logo during my time at southampton

Gym

Today I only cycled 2 miles as it was raining in the morning, but did go to the gym in the evening.

5 min cycle to warm up
3 * 10 Bench press 45kg
3 * 10 squats 60kg
3 * 10 press ups
3 * 10 lunges 20kg (10kg per arm)
3 * 10 leg press 100kg
3 minute row (10 resistance level)

The week so far (Mid-week Ka-pow)

Monday: 3 miles cycling... nothing that interesting.

Tuesday: 4.5 miles cycling and Ka-pow weeknight training.

Training was good, despite only 6 people training. Started with a cutting/throwing drill. Was fine with the cutting, but the throwing was kind of difficult. A little bit of wind, combined with a specific aim for throwing. I usually aim to throw a catchable disc for the cutter to run on to. When I was taught, the idea was that the cutter should always be there if he has cut well and the disc should be catchable. The idea behind this drill was to put it a little further out in front of the cutter with a bit of angle, with the idea being to put it in a place where it is a slightly harder catch for the cutter, but to make it really hard for the defender to get anywhere near. This makes sense at the higher level where the defense is really tight and gives the cutter a better chance to get the disc out of their hands quicker, but I found it a little tough to adjust my throws, and throw the disc a bit harder and with more of a roll. Started with only away/under cuts, but then included deep cuts and a varying force as well, which made it even harder. Something I need to work on.
Second drill was based on man mark defending, concentrating on a cutter's feet in order to follow their movement and put pressure on/block a catch. This included the throwing element from the first drill as well. I felt ok at the defending, but didn't get any blocks.
Because we had quite a low completion percentage, and because the light was going, the decision was made to just move on to the physical punishments for the drops/end of the session.
First was the following drill.

5 press ups -> 30m sprint -> 5 press ups -> (in a pair)10 quick gut passes each at about a 4m distance -> 30m sprint back to start
We did this twice with no rest.

Because of drops in this drill there was another physical punishment/drill to follow. Once you got a hand block in this drill you finished that set and then were out of the punishments.

5 press ups -> 30m sprint -> 5 press ups -> (in groups of three) 3 man break mark drill until someone gets a hand block -> 5 press ups -> 30m sprint back to start

As there was 6 of us, there were 2 of the 3 man break mark drill going on, the other group had a hand block first so they repeated the steps up to the three man break mark drill and did that with Pichler, until I got the second block (after getting fingertips to 2 discs previously) and so I finished the set and was out.

The 2nd repetition was pretty much the same except it changed from the 3 man break mark drill to the 4 man break mark drill (as two people were out from getting blocks). Once someone else got one, he finished the set and then the last three in were supposed to do it again with the 3 man break mark drill until there were only 2 left, who would do further punishments. Unfortunately, one of them got cramp, so the further physical punishments were foregone and instead, the 3 players who had not gone blocks had to serenade the rest with a lovely rendition of "100 bottles of beer on the wall" whilst we were warming down.

It turned out to time a warm down pretty well, and we did get through the entire song, but we must have seemed like some kind of cult, chanting in the middle of the park.

Good training!