Sunday Run

Had been far too long since my last workout. Yesterday I did:

0.5 mile warmup jog + stretching

2 mile run

3 * 50 m hill sprints at 5' incline

0.5 mile warm down

Chest felt tight and legs felt tight. I will be doing plenty of fitness this week to get myself back into it before Open Winter League next weekend with Kapow!

Wednesday Gym

Upper body/core workout today. Again didn't have as long as I'd have liked in the gym and usually wouldn't do two days back to back, and usually would do track tonight, but since I had Monday off and have Thursday and Friday off as well this week I thought I'd use the gym when I could and move my track to another day.

Warm up:
5 minute run + stretching + foam rolling

Main part:
3 * 10 pull ups
3 * 10 press ups (toes balanced on 55cm swiss ball)
3 * 10 sit ups with 12kg kettle bell on chest
3 * 10 bench press (60kg)
3 * 10 hanging leg raises (captains chair, piked legs)

Stretching and foam rolling to warm down


Have an interview tomorrow morning and then a phone interview tomorrow afternoon but since I should be done by about 3 and will be in Basingstoke, I'll hit the track tomorrow afternoon (in the sunlight for once!)

Tuesday Gym

Leg session today

Warmup:
5 minute run + stretching + foam rolling

Main part:
3 * 10 Full range of motion calf raises (6kg medicine ball *increase*)
3 * 10 1 legged squats (on each leg, 40kg)
3 * 10 split squats (on each leg, 50kg *increase*)
3 * 10 lateral lunges (30kg)
3 * 10 leg press (machine, 41kg)
3 * 10 leg curl (machine, 41kg)

Warmdown:
2 minutes rowing machine (resistance 10) + stretching + foam rolling

Friday Gym

Short session today unfortunately. Legs session today to combine with be my upper body/core session and Yoga this week.

Warmup:
5 minute run + stretching + foam rolling

Main:
3 * 5 squats (90kg)
3 * 10 split squats (40kg *increase in weight, less reps*)
3 * 10 lunges (30kg)
3 * 10 lateral lunges (30kg)

2 minutes rowing machine (resistance level 10)

Stretching and foam rolling to warm down

Thursday Yoga

Went to Yoga again yesterday.

Did the same exercises with the martial arts belts working on hamstrings/calf and added a bit in that stretched hip flexors and another that worked on quads. We then used the belts in a different exercise to focussing on arm and chest muscles.

Good session again.

Gym today, then weekend off and wind down before Christmas break. I will go to the gym next week on Tuesday and Wednesday and will go to the track at some point next week as well, but after that I won't be going to the gym for a couple of weeks. I will keep active and blog what I'm doing, but it's going to be a bit of a break before the build up to the 2013 season.

Tuesday Gym

Skunks Xmas Indoor tournament last weekend, whilst fun, did leave me with a pretty nasty blister on my foot. It's one of the ones that means I walk funny and strain some muscles down the side of my leg from walking funny, so today's gym session was upper body/core focussed. Also, couldn't be too long as my work is being externally audited today...

Warm up:


1 * 15 internal shoulder rotations (9kg) on each arm
1 * 15 external shoulder rotations (9kg) on each arm
Foam rolling + stretching

Main part:

5 * (5 pull ups + 5 Hanging knee raises)
3 * 10 push ups with toes balanced on 55cm swiss ball
3 * 10 sit ups with 12kg kettle bell on chest
3 * 10 bench press (62.5 kg *increase*)

Warm down:

Foam rolling

Can't make track tomorrow as it's my company's xmas meal. The track isn't open to the public on Thursdays and I'm unsure if I can make it on Friday, so may not do any track this week.

Skunks Xmas tournament!

Great fun weekend just gone! I know it was indoors and I complain, but I can get into more than the partying at a tournament like Skunks Xmas when there's good competition there. I was playing for Team Champagne, made up of players from my University team, mostly established to have a laugh, but also play at a high quality. We usually only go to tournaments hosted in Southampton (for old times sake) to have a laugh and catch up!

Friday night was when it started, with a standard trip to the Hobbit and Jesters, staple drinking establishments from my time at Southampton University.

Saturday saw the group games, there were 20 teams which meant 4 pools of 5 teams. We knew if we topped our group we could leave early and finish no lower than top 8.
Our first game was against a team from Bournemouth, I think they were the Uni team, and as far as I could tell they weren't exclusively first team players. There was a pretty big mismatch in the skill levels between our two teams, slightly balanced out by Team Champagne's collective hangover, but we got the easy win to start the weekend.
Our second game was against "Southern Tekkers", a junior team made of college kids (16-17 years old). As they were pretty young and not hungover, we found it difficult keeping up with their youthful collective speed as a team. I don't know how long they have been playing, but it was obvious they had been taught well as they were good at decision making and had safe hands, but they couldn't keep up with our teams height or experience. We got our second win.
Our third game was against "Probably...", a Southampton based team with a huge wealth of ultimate experience. They came out strong and we came out flat and before we knew it we were down 5-1 with 10 minutes left. We knew we had to start getting blocks and stop giving away the disc cheaply and we did. Converting goal after goal we went ahead 6-5 with just over a minute left. Unfortunately we couldn't shut them down another time and they managed to draw level. 6-6 with under a minute left, and we couldn't get the buzzer beater to get the last second win. This meant that both Champagne and Probably were on 2 wins and a draw after 3 games. Fortunately, we were holding a 7 point better goal differential than them after the three games.
Our fourth game was against "Huck my life" another team made of ex/current Southampton Uni Skunks, like many of the teams at the tournament. We again started slow, but managed to create a lead at 4-3. After then we switched it on to take the game by a comfortable margin and take the goal differential for our team up to +26 after 4 games. Probably were on +13 after 3 games which meant that if they wanted to win the group, they would need to win their final game against "Southern Tekkers" by a score of 14-0 or 15-1 as there was a 15 point score cap. Southern Tekkers played a good game, and kept it close, only losing by a couple of points in the end which meant that Champagne avoided an end of the day crossover and got to leave early.
Being the rockstars we all are, we used this time to have a 2 hour nap to recharge our batteries for the Saturday night party. What was even better, was that before we left, we also learnt that the Tournament Directors had put back the morning games so that everyone could have a lie-in! Bonus!
Saturday night: Jesters again... Standard!

Sunday started with a quarter final for Champagne against "Dixie Wrecked", a Portsmouth/Southampton based team. We knew it would be tough, but somehow our team wasn't too hungover after two nights out in a row and started the day by playing our best game all weekend (up to that point) and taking the game.

Our Semi final was against "JizzMonkeys", who again are partly Southampton based but also mixed with players from Bristol. Again, a talented team fell to a Champagne team refusing to let their hedonistic ways catch up with them. The monkeys were unfortunately short on subs which meant that when we started pulling away they couldn't draw it back. We made some big plays in the air to maintain our lead and booked our place in the final over the monkeys who were runners up in last years Skunks Xmas tournament.

We then lounged around watching Manchester United v Manchester City for a couple of hours before meeting "Dyn-O-Mite" in the final. Dyn-O-Mite are based around the Southampton Uni Skunks first team from the last few years, in what has been the most successful run of results for the Skunks in a long time, with constant Division 1 National qualifications and top 4 finishes. They are well drilled and athletic and their average height is probably about 6 foot 3. We had some tall players on our team, but they definitely had the advantage.
We started playing strong but not too smart and went down a couple of points. We were giving them the disc and not getting it back, and they were too talented to give it up themselves. We got our heads in after a block and put in our first score. The thirty minute game (pretty long for indoors) meant that we could keep enough pressure on them and a 3 point lead wasn't as tough to overcome as it would usually be indoors. They tried to slow us down by playing a bit of zone, but we found the holes fairly easily enough and I don't think they got any blocks on us playing zone. Everyone on Champagne stepped up and when it came down to the last minute, Dyn-O-Mite were only up by a point. They threw away with 30 seconds left and put all but 1 of their players on the endzone line. We put our three tallest players in the end zone, which allowed our two handlers to work around the one chase. And with the clock down to 3 seconds another buzzer beater was put into the corner of the endzone to our tallest player. Unfortunately the combination of a small space to  put the disc and strong pressure from the defender stopped our attempt to send it to Overtime and Sudden Death, but we all knew that we had played a good game against tough opposition.

In the end, we played some high quality ultimate in a tournament we enter each year for a laugh with mates before Xmas, and everyone left on a high, wishing only that the weekend had lasted a bit longer.

Friday Gym

Good session today! Felt good coming out the basement, got back to my desk and the sun is shining over London Town! Only 4 hours left of work and tonight is gonna be a fun start to a great weekend! All is good!

Warmup:

5 minute run + stretching + foam rolling

Main session:

3 * 10 pull ups (left them until the end this week, made them harder!)
3 * 10 push ups w/ toes balanced on 55cm swiss ball
3 * 10 sit ups (15kg kettle bell on chest *increase*)
3 * 10 bench press (55kg *increase from last week*)
3 * 5 squats (90kg *increase back to max*)
3 * 10 lunges (40kg *increase*)
3 * 10 lateral lunges (40kg *increase*)

Warm down:

2 minutes on the cross trainer + stretching + foam rolling

Thursday Yoga

Second week in a row that the session started with a good hamstring/calf stretch. Again it was tough and I could really feel it working in an area where I really need to improve my flexibility and suppleness.

Also included in today's session was the "Half Moon" pose (info here) which was also pretty tough but felt good.

I think the Yoga instructor is starting to push the group now that newer people aren't showing up (there was a recent intake of new graduates and there were a couple of weeks where some new people showed up), which I'm all for!

Friday means Gym day (will have to work hard to make up for missing the Gym on Tuesday when I had to work through lunch), and then this weekend I'll be having a little fun at the Southampton University Ultimate Club annual December tournament: Skunks Xmas! It's more for the party's than the ultimate, and it is Indoors, but should be a laugh!

Wednesday night track

(All running done with my 1lb wrist weights)

Warmup:
800m and stretching

Main routine:

2 * 25m sprint -> walk back -> 50m sprint -> walk back -> 75m sprint -> jog back -> 100m sprint

5 minutes rest

I did this 3 times

Warm down:
400m and stretching

Been working on that thing I teased earlier in the week! Excited!

Recent developments

The last few days have been pretty intense for me. I found out on Friday morning that Pichler wanted me to be a talent evaluator at the Ka-Pow! Combine (officially named the trials weekend) because I was guaranteed a roster spot for next season. I'd been psyching myself up all week and whilst I was looking forward more to running around, rather than standing around, there is no confidence boost quite like that of knowing someone with that much experience and talent has confidence in you.

Saturday was a day of skills tests. There were four people evaluating the participants.
Pichler was looking at offensive receiving/upfield play which included huck receiving in the first major drill and cutting/throwing a continuation break in the second major drill.
I was looking at defense which included defending hucks, and then a combination of forcing and man marking/attempting to stop the continuation break in the second drill.
Pringle was looking at throwing, which included throwing hucks and then breaking a mark on the second major drill.
Dave Tyler was the last talent scout, and was running the athletic ability tests which included a straight line speed test, a short distance cutting/turning speed test, a middle distance cutting/turning speed test and some tests for plyometric ability.

After the drills, only 20 ish minutes remained of our day and so we set up some pitches and just played games. The scouts were just keeping an eye on people without taking notes.

After the day, we had about 3/4 sheets each filled with numbers which Pichler gathered into a spreadsheet.

The Sunday was games based after the drills based Saturday and Pichler, DT and I were the captains of the triallists, who were split into three teams. Each of us had one of the zones we had used last season and, after a brief recap of them, the three teams separated to be taught them, run through them to get the idea of positioning and then play games to three points where the defense always set up their zone to run down with. The idea behind this was to attempt to gain an insight into how quickly players would grasp some zones which are beyond the conventional set played by most teams, both playing in them and against them. Each team had to adapt their play to the zones being played by the other teams, which they may have never seen before and the results were very positive.

After that, two pitches were set up and players were encouraged to switch pitches and shirts in order for them to get experience playing with lots of different people and to give the three captains a chance to get to see everyone.

After that, the scouts headed to get a coffee, and thus begun a very long discussion on the past two days.
There were very interesting points raised by the different captains and I was surprised at how many differing opinions there were of some players. After a couple of hours, a couple of hot drinks and plenty of tough evaluation we had trimmed down the triallists to definite selections, players we wanted to invite to re-trial and definite cuts.
There were some very tough calls due to the high standard. During this week the conversations have continued off the back of the spreadsheet filled with stats and some people have moved between the three distinctions. Emails will be sent soon and then the hard work continues.

Another exciting development for my ultimate career, which I will only tease here, there may be multiple ways in the future to read my ramblings on the internet regarding Ultimate.

Friday Gym

Last fitness session before my chance to prove myself all over again and show that I deserve to be on the Ka-Pow! roster again for the 2013 season.
Looking forward to this weekend so so so so much, despite the fact that it's going to be bitterly cold.

Gym:

Warmup:
5 minutes jog + stretching + foam rolling

Main part of session:
3 * 10 pull ups
3 * 10 press ups with toes balancing on 55cm swiss ball
3 * 10 sit ups with 10kg medicine ball on chest
3 * 10 lunges (30kg)
3 * 10 lateral lunges (30kg)
3 * 10 bench press (50kg)
3 * 5 squats (85kg *increase from last week, but not my maximum*)

Stretching and foam rolling to warm down

Also, have done 3 miles cycling every day this week

Thursday Yoga

Today's yoga was surprisingly tough.
We started with some hamstring/calf exercises and I'm particularly inflexible in that area.
Using a martial arts uniform style belt, lying on our backs we would extend our leg straight and lift it off the ground, with the other leg bent with the sole of the foot on the floor. The belt would be wrapped around the foot and would be held in both hands to pull the foot forward and keep the leg straight. From there we would open out the bent leg resting it on the outside of the foot, and then open out the straightened leg to the other with the belt, meaning it was both a hamstring/calf stretch as well as a hip stretch. Moving back to the center, we would then move both the bent and straight leg to the same side and twist the back, providing a back stretch.
This was the most intense hamstring stretch I've probably ever felt and because it was such a prolonged time, it felt soooooo good.

The rest was pretty intense, working the abs/core and legs as well.
Good session! Definitely the one I've felt working the most!

Wednesday night track

Warmup:
400m and stretching

Main part:

2 lots of:

60m sprint + 40m jog + walk back 100m
70m sprint + 30m jog + walk back 100m
70m sprint + 30m jog + walk back 100m
60m sprint + 40m jog + walk back 100m
100m in 10m sprint shuttles

5 minute rest

Warm down:
400m and stretching

Wanted to do a good session, but considering it's the pre-preseason and I have a weekend of trials this weekend I didn't want to go too hard.

Last season, I think I did too little the weeks before tournaments. This week I'm doing a full set (Tuesday: Gym, Wednesday: Track, Thursday: Yoga, Friday: Gym) as I will be fully rested before both Saturday and Sunday (don't have to make a long drive to the tournament straight after work on Friday.

I think last season, taking really relaxed weeks before tournaments didn't do me any good. It didn't hurt, but I think I could have done with doing more the week before.

REALLY excited about trials this weekend. It will be a good chance for me to prove how much I want to make Ka-Pow again for the second season and how much I want Ka-Pow to accomplish this season.

Saturday will be on 4g turf and then Sunday will be on Balham Common. Will do a rundown of both days at the end of the weekend with my thoughts on the standard of players and the drills and games played in both days of trials.

Tuesday Gym

Warmup:
1 * 15 internal shoulder rotations (9kg) on each arm
1 * 15 external shoulder rotations (9kg) on each arm
2 * 15 Glute Bridge
1 * 15 PGM on each leg
1 * 12 Press up and holds (4 seconds)
2 * 60 seconds single leg balance (*increase*)
Foam Rolling

Main Routine
4 * 15 Single leg squats (32.5 kg)
4 * 15 Split Squat (32.5 kg)
4 * 15 Single Arm Bench Press (7.5kg/arm)
4 * 15 Seated narrow row (50kg *increase*)
4 * 15 Lateral Pull downs (45 kg *increase*)
3 * 15 Full range of motion Calf raises (5kg)
2 * 15 Swiss Ball Hamstring curls (55cm swiss ball)
2 * 12 Hanging knee raises
2 * 12 Straight leg ab curls

foam rolling + stretching to warm down

Friday gym

Warmup:
3 minute ruin and stretching and foam rolling

Main session:
3*10 pull ups
3*10 push ups (55cm Swiss ball)
3*10 sit ups (10kg medicine ball on chest)
3*10 lunges (30kg)
3*10 lateral lunges (30kg)
3*5 squats (80kg)
3*10 bench press (50kg)

Foam rolling to warm down

Also have done 3 miles cycling every day this week so far

Wednesday Track

Warmup:
400m jog
stretching
2 * 100m sprint then 20m backward shuffles, 20m backwards jog, 20m sidesteps, 20m high knees, 20m butt kicks

Main Exercise:

10m sprint -> turn -> 10m sprint -> 10 touch the ground + 2 footed high jumps
30 seconds rest
20m sprint -> turn -> 20m sprint -> 10 touch the ground + 2 footed high jumps
1 minute rest
30m sprint -> turn -> 10m sprint -> 20m sprint -> turn -> 40m sprint -> 10 touch the ground + 2 footed high jumps
2 minute rest

repeat all three sets but add in 10 sit ups after the jumps
then repeat all three sets again adding in 10 press ups to the sit ups and jumps
then

20m sprint -> turn -> 10m sprint -> 20m sprint -> turn -> 10m sprint -> 20m sprint -> turn -> 40m sprint -> 10 jumps + 10 sit ups + 10 press ups

2 minute rest

Then 400m jog warm down.

Tuesday Gym

Warmup:
1 * 15 internal shoulder rotations (9kg) on each arm
1 * 15 external shoulder rotations (9kg) on each arm
2 * 15 Glute Bridge
1 * 15 PGM on each leg
1 * 12 Press up and holds (4 seconds *increase*)
2 * 45 seconds single leg balance
Foam Rolling

Main Routine
4 * 15 Single leg squats (32.5 kg *increase*)
4 * 15 Lat lunge (32.5 kg *increase*)
4 * 15 Split Squat (30kg)
4 * 15 Single Arm Bench Press (7.5kg/arm)
4 * 15 Seated narrow row (46kg)
4 * 15 Lateral Pull downs (39kg)
3 * 15 Full range of motion Calf raises (5kg)
2 * 15 Swiss Ball Hamstring curls (55cm swiss ball)
2 * 12 Hanging knee raises
2 * 12 Straight leg ab curls

2 minute jog + foam rolling + stretching to warm down

London Mixed Winter League 1

Headed up to London yesterday morning far too early... and the pitches were frozen. Could have had another hour in bed...
Thundering Herd sent 3 triallist teams with an attempt of equal splits across the three and captains attempting to evaluate talent to help with team selection. I was put on the second team of three which meant our first game was against Bear Cavalry, the team that last year completed the double-double (winning tour and nationals for the second year in a row) by winning every tour event.

Game 1: Herd 2 Lose to Bear Cav (6-2)
We took the first point by playing some pretty good vert stack offense. They then started to pull away. With games shortened the score didn't have time to get too run up, but the talent level on Bear Cav was a step above ours. On top of this, with the bear cavalry team essentially being an alumni team, they've all played together for years and years, whereas I had only met some of our players that morning.
Having said all that, we kept getting turns on defense, and employed some tactical defensive changes in order to stop their first look on offense. I got four blocks in one point against my receiver going deep, most of which I set up because I knew the handlers were looking for the shot and I knew I could take my guy in the air. Unfortunately, the bears were also pretty good on defense and kept turning us back, and eventually took the point on a huck when my guy was under. A good performance to start the day though.

Game 2: Herd 2 lose to Scarecrew (11-3)
This game was pretty shambolic. After such a good performance against the bears defensively, we were a little far from our men at times and scarecrew got lucky on a couple of throws that, had we been tight, would have been blocks. On offense, we carried on making the mistakes from the previous games that had kept us on the back foot. Based on the performance, scarecrew were worthy winners, but based on the individual matchups it should not have been that big a points gap.

This performance meant that we bottomed our group of three and went into a round robin with the other two teams that bottomed their group.

Game 3: Herd 2 win vs Shiny Happy Meeple (?-?)
This team was pretty talented on both the men and women front so it was pretty surprising to see them in the bottom bracket. It was a hard fought game and their short give and go strategy was pretty effective. Luckily we kept managing to put the points in and took the game, but it was still pretty tough.

Game 4: Herd 2 lose vs Herd 3 (7-6)
Everyone in this game knew that this was a chance to impress the selection committee. I started a bit iffy but got a shoulder height point saving layout catch block (possibly one of the best defensive plays I've made in a while) and another layout block when it had got to sudden death.
We started the game down and let them score deep too easily. But we kept grinding and after starting starting the game 3-1 down, took the half 6-5. The other team scored and made it sudden death in the shortened game. I streaked deep and there was a throw that was just a little too far for me. The other herd team got the disc moving and I got my second layout block. Unfortunately, we made another offensive mistake and allowed them to take the win.

It's hard playing days like this. It's obviously beneficial from a talent evaluation point of view, but it's tough to play with players who are quite obviously a step beneath me. I see no more than half of our team making the first team for herd.

This day also proved an interesting look at the possible outlook for the mixed season this year.
Notable observations include:
- The creation of Mappa Tassi (sp?) an allstar mixed team with players from clapham, fire and Ka-pow on the guys side and iceni and other great female players on the womens side. They could definitely challenge Bear Cavalry's recent dominance (I don't know whether they met at all during the day), but probably won't be going to Euros as their players probably will be prioritising their open and women's teams.
- Bristol looked strong early on and went undefeated in their group. Their women will be a strong asset coming off their first (I think) trip to Euros.
- Herd seem to be losing their Iceni contingent of women this year, which will be a disappointing and big loss for us as a club. We look to have other talented players coming through but this may be a huge blow with some going to Mappa Tassi and another going to Goats of Destiny (also looking strong this year).

I also played with Ultimate gloves from Lookfly this weekend. I've been looking for a good pair of gloves for ultimate since that one awful rainy, cold training with Kapow when I couldn't catch anything and couldn't dry my hands on my jersey because that was soaking as well. The conditions didn't necessitate gloves (no rain, wasn't too cold) but I decided to trial them in fair weather to get a feel for them before I trial them in bad weather. They were certainly sticky on catches, but I don't think there were any situations when they enabled me to make a catch that otherwise I wouldn't have made. They were fairly warm, but as I already mentioned it wasn't a truly cold day. The only other area I would mention is throwing. I don't think it hindered any of my throws at all. I threw away, but I think that may be a case of not throwing enough at the moment, which will hopefully get better once the trials and trainings start getting more frequent.
Overall, in fair weather, they didn't seem to make any noticeable difference (apart from the warmth) one way or the other. But, like I mentioned before, fair weather isn't what I bought them for so I will reserve final judgement until I've played with them in bad weather.
There were more people wearing ultimate specific gloves this weekend then I've seen before, and I can't help but feel that they may be due a sudden boost in popularity. I remember when I was a student and no-one would be seen dead wearing sports compression tights, and now they are a regular sight in rain and shine. It also helps when SkydMagazine are running very positive product reviews (lookfly, gaia and friction) on them.

Friday Gym

5 minute run + stretching + foam rolling to warm up

3 * 10 pull ups
3 * 10 push ups with toes on 55cm swiss ball
3 * 10 sit ups with 10kg medicine ball on chest
3 * 10 lunges (30kg)
1 * 10 chest press (41kg)
3 * 10 chest press (50kg) (rack wasn't free so couldn't do squats or bench press)
3 * 10 hanging leg raises (piked legs)
3 * 10 lat pull downs (50kg *increase*)

warm down

Yoga today

Went to Yoga after missing it for 3 weeks due to Staff conference, illness and then leave.

Was good to get back to it, apparently they had been concentrating on hips for the past three weeks and were doing it again this week, which may have explained why I found it a little more difficult than usual.

Some good new poses this week. Overall a pretty good session and made my muscles feel a little looser than they had been after yesterday's track session.

Wednesday night track

Cold night, but a good session last night.
Easy-ish session to get back into if after 3 weeks, focussing on cutting (accelerating out of a turn), top speed and decreasing recovery time. I was also wearing my wrist weights (1 lb each arm) to increase the work in my upper body.

Started with a 400m warm up with stretching.

Main exercise:

On the 110m straight, starting at the 100m start mark facing the 110m start mark.
Sprint 10m -> turn -> sprint 20m -> turn -> sprint 10m -> turn -> sprint 100m
Rest 3 minutes

After the 4th set I reduced the rest to 2 minutes then after another 2 sets I reduced the rest to 1 minute 30 and did one more set. So it was:

Exercise - Rest (3 mins) - Exercise - Rest (3 mins) - Exercise - Rest (3 mins) - Exercise - Rest (2 mins) - Exercise - Rest (2 mins) - Exercise - Rest (1 min 30s) - Exercise

I only did this once through then rested for 5 minutes followed by a warm down.

Next week I will make it tougher. Going to continue to wear my wrist weights as well.

Tuesday Gym

Gym at lunch today

Warmup
1 * 15 internal shoulder rotations (9kg) on each arm
1 * 15 external shoulder rotations (9kg) on each arm
2 * 15 Glute Bridge
1 * 15 PGM on each leg
1 * 12 Press up and holds (3 seconds)
2 * 45 seconds single leg balance
Foam Rolling

Main Routine
4 * 15 Single leg squats (30kg)
4 * 15 Lat lunge (30kg)
4 * 15 Split Squat (30kg)
4 * 15 Single Arm Bench Press (7.5kg/arm)
4 * 15 Seated narrow row (46kg *increase*)
3 * 15 Full range of motion Calf raises (5kg)
2 * 15 Swiss Ball Hamstring curls (55cm swiss ball)
2 * 12 Hanging knee raises
2 * 12 Straight leg ab curls

Foam rolling to warm down

Accidentally missed the Lat pulldowns... oops. Will make up for it with some on Friday with my other routine.

Sunday Run and the coming week

Didn't want to go the whole weekend without doing anything, as I've not been doing so much this last two weeks.
Went for a 2.2 mile run. Didn't time it as my watch ran out of batteries, but Anna said she thought I was gone for around 15 minutes. EDIT: Forgot to mention that I was wearing my wrist weights for my run. Gonna get back into wearing them and will try them at track for the first time this week I think.

Onto a new week.
3 miles cycling per day
Monday: Maybe indoors
Tuesday: Gym (GB Routine)
Wednesday: Track
Thursday: Yoga
Friday: Gym (Classic routine)
Saturday: Off
Sunday: Mixed Winter League

Friday Gym + GB Open Beach Selection

Unfortunately I didn't get selected for the GB Open Beach team going to the European Beach Championships in Spain next year.
I wish them the best of luck and it looks like it should be a good team, but I'd be lying if I said I was really disappointed.
Firstly, it looks expensive. I would have been happy to pay for the Championships themselves, but they will be using Paganello as the final trial. So they're expecting people who aren't even guaranteed to make the team in the end, to get to Italy and participate in (what is in my experience) a hugely expensive tournament. Not only that, I appreciate that their Strength and Conditioning program is made by a professional coach, but apparently the £10 I paid was only a downpayment and it would be £75 total (forget that). Plus kit.
Secondly, beach ultimate is essentially a bit of fun for me. In my opinion, the big tournament this year is European Club Championships, not the European Beach Championships and I'd much rather be putting in the time for Ka-Pow!

I hope this doesn't come across as bitterness, I honestly was happy with getting through the paper application process and went into the trials to put in a good showing of my abilities with the aim to make the team (which unfortunately was slightly hampered by my illness the week beforehand). The captains gave me some acceptable reasons why I wasn't selected, one of which I had noticed myself at the weekend, and they did have a talented group of players to choose from. I'm disappointed with not getting selected, but as stated above, I am still looking forward to putting in the time to be a good player for Ka-Pow! with the aim on qualifying for European clubs this year and World clubs next year.

Anyway, on to today's gym session. I put the different exercises from the GB beach routine into one as I had a longer time in the gym today. I think from now on, I will do that for one routine and go back to my old routine for my second session.
Today's session:

Warmup
5 minute run
1 * 15 internal shoulder rotations (9kg) on each arm
1 * 15 external shoulder rotations (9kg) on each arm
2 * 15 Glute Bridge
1 * 15 PGM on each leg
1 * 12 Press up and holds (3 seconds)
2 * 30 seconds single leg balance
Foam Rolling

Main Routine
4 * 15 Single leg squats (30kg *increase*)
4 * 15 Lat lunge (30kg *increase*)
4 * 15 Split Squat (30kg)
4 * 15 Single Arm Bench Press (7.5kg/arm)
4 * 15 Seated narrow row (41kg *increase*)
4 * 15 Lateral Pulldown (32kg)
3 * 15 Full range of motion Calf raises (5kg)
2 * 15 Swiss Ball Hamstring curls (55cm swiss ball)
2 * 12 Hanging knee raises
2 * 12 Straight leg ab curls

Foam rolling to warm down

May do some fitness this weekend, but will be back into fitness properly from next week.
Next weekend is Mixed winter league with the Herd. It's part of the trial process and it will be interesting to see what happens with the mixed scene this year with rumours of new teams being formed, and without the GB teams the top level talent might play the mixed tour again this year. I believe that Nationals will still be Open/Womens and Mixed on the same weekend again so they will mostly go to their open clubs for that (to qualify for European clubs), but the tour season could be more competitive than the last two years.

The week now finished...

I was ill for the entire week, and didn't hardly leave the flat.
Unfortunately, this meant I didn't do any fitness during the week.

Even more unfortunately, this weekend was GB Open Beach trials, started with a fitness test in the cold and not great field conditions.

The fitness test was made up of two parts. First was a test of change of direction speed and the second was called the death drill:

6 cones set up 5m apart, start at cone 1 and the idea is 30 seconds to shuttle between the cones (1st cone, back, 2nd cone, back, 3rd cone, back, etc) then 35 seconds rest done 6 times.
They would measure your finishing position at the end of each 30 seconds of running.

The death drill sucked...
I felt so bad after it had finished, my chest which had been feeling crap all week was on fire.
I took a little time to myself though and was able to complete the session.
It was mostly controlled games (7 on 7, 5 on 5 with 5 pulls each, 5 on 5), as well as learning the first set of offensive plays and a couple of drills.

Today, we turned up and it had been raining overnight and the fields, which weren't great yesterday to start with and then we churned them up more, were waterlogged and pretty awful.
We did one break mark drill, then 5 pull games, then a break, then regular games.

The session wasn't as bad as it could have been considering the conditions, but everyone was pretty wet and cold by the end of it.

Will ease myself back in this week as yesterday's fitness test didn't do wonders for my recovery from illness.

Friday Gym

Headed down to the gym over lunch again today to do the second session of the GB Open Beach weights fitness program. It's pretty similar to the first session but a few exercises have changed between the two. I upped the weights on most of the exercises today:

Warm up:

1 * 15 internal shoulder rotations (9kg *increase*) on each arm
1 * 15 external shoulder rotations (9kg *increase*) on each arm
2 * 15 Glute bridges
1 * 15 PGM on each leg
1 * 12 Press up and hold (3s hold when down)
1 * 30s single leg balance on each leg

Main workout:
4 * 15 Single leg squats (25kg *increase*) with 10 body weight squats in between
4 * 15 Split squats (body weight whilst I work out the range of motion) (instead of Lat Lunges from session 1)
4 * 15 Lat pull down (32kg) (instead of Single Arm Dumbell Bench Press from session 1)
4 * 15 Seated Narrow Row (41kg *increase*)
3 * 15 calf raise (Full range of motion) (2.5kg dumbells in each hand *increase*)
2 * 15 Swiss Ball Hamstring curls
2 * 12 straight leg ab curls (instead of Hanging Knee raises from session 1)


Foam rolling and stretching to warm down

Interestingly, I found the Full range of motion calf raises with the added weight to be the hardest. The dumbells weren't heavy in my hands but they affected my balance a lot whilst doing that exercise.

Again, I found the GB session worked mostly the same muscles as my routine, but I liked that it has more variation and works more muscles on top of those worked in mine. Some of the exercises from mine I still prefer, I just didn't have to add them on to the end of my workout today as my lunch break wasn't long enough.

Got a good weekend to look forward to now:
Herd AGM and end of season social on Saturday and NFL in London Fan Rally in Trafalgar Square on Saturday and watching the New England Patriots take on the St Louis Rams at Wembley Stadium on Sunday!

Wednesday night Track

400m warmup then stretch

was feeling a bit stiff in my legs so I didn't do too long a session

On the straight

4 * 10m sprint-turn-10m sprint-turn-50m sprint-50m jog-turn-10m sprint-turn-10m sprint-turn-50m sprint-50m jog (1 minute rest in between each)

2 * 100m sprint-walk back-100m sprint-jog back-100m sprint-run back-100m sprint

400m warm down and stretch

Won't be doing any fitness tomorrow as I will be leaving early/getting home late because I will be at my company's annual conference.

Then gym Friday.

Thundering Herd's AGM and end of season social is this weekend. (2 weekends in a row with ultimate end of season social)

Monday Night Indoors and Tuesday Gym

Headed to indoors again last night.
The warm up was good and then we did drills, ten pull games focusing on zone defense and then regular games.
Since I won't be playing club indoors with Disconduct I'm using the training sessions to get game (-like) practice and to work on the fundementals of the transferrable skills for outdoors (the real sport). So my focus last night was on a strong mark on the disc, putting in a strong aerial presence when the disc went up and throwing good choices and good discs. In the first drill we were running a handler weave pattern that I used to make good turns/cuts and throw the continuation pass before the cutter had completed his turn, a skill which is part of the Ka-Pow offense.
Went up for a big grab in one of the last points and had my legs taken from under me. Got the grab and didn't call the foul as could throw the assist from lying on the floor but did go off with a dead leg afterwards.
Still had a dead leg all of today, but did go to the gym today over lunch.

Did the GB Open Beach weights session for the first time today. It's a good set of exercises. I don't claim to be an expert but there were a couple of things that surprised me and I thought I might have done differently:

- The warmup featured no cardio (running/cycling/whatever) at all, which I found to be a bit strange. Instead it focussed on warming up arms and upper body, core and specific leg muscles and joints.
- The first part of the program features a prescribed session of cardio to do each week. It seems like it's going to take ages and be easy. I understand that they want everyone to start at the same base level, but considering everyone on the list has just come off a full season of Ultimate and training, I would have expected them to be content with the base level of fitness of all participants. My theory behind starting track (and sprints) early was that if I started with easy sprints and built them up then I would be training at full speed (and increasing my top speed) early and it would become easier. Training at less than 100% isn't conducive to the movements found in ultimate, which is why I didn't feel like I was gaining anything from Herd's prescribed weekly 3 mile run in their pre-season training regimen. Admittedly, it does ramp up the speed pretty well after a while, but I'd prefer to be doing sprints than running at 70% for a prescribed amount of time, even with the season months away.
- I haven't seen the 3rd or 4th part of the program yet, but program 2 on first look seems pretty similar to program 1. I liked the program I did, and most of the exercises in my program have similar exercises feature on the GB program, but I don't like them as much. Will be working in my exercises when I have time and ramping up the weights on the GB exercises quickly. The loads on each exercise weren't prescribed in the regimen so there was a bit of experimentation with good starting points and I started slow for the first session as I still had a dead leg from last night and didn't want to go in too hard with exercises I had only seen on a video (most I haven't done before).

Having said that, there was plenty I enjoyed about the GB regime. It's more varied than my program and is very prescribed, and it's obvious a lot of thought and research has gone into it. I also thought that some of the exercises worked some areas of my body that, whilst they haven't been ignored, they've never been focussed on, so it's probably good to get in some work on them. I also liked the higher number of sets and reps on some of the exercises.

I don't know how private the workouts are supposed to be, so this is just between you and me, internet...
Here's the GB workout it did:

Warmup:
1 * 15 internal shoulder rotations (7kg) on each arm
1 * 15 external shoulder rotations (7kg) on each arm
2 * 15 Glute bridges
1 * 15 PGM
1 * 12 Press up and hold (3s hold when down)
1 * 30s single leg balance on each leg

Main workout:
4 * 15 Single leg squats (20kg) with 10 body weight squats in between
4 * 15 Lat Lunges (25kg)
4 * 15 Single Arm Dumbell Bench Press (7.5kg / arm) (I prefer barbell bench press, but like doing more sets and reps)
4 * 15 Seated Narrow Row (36kg)
3 * 15 calf raise (Full range of motion)
2 * 15 Swiss Ball Hamstring curls
2 * 12 Hanging Knee raises (I prefer pull ups and prefer doing more sets and lower reps)

I then added in double leg squats as I had time after I finished.

4 * 15 double leg squats (50kg) (I like the higher number of reps and sets)

I then warmed down with a 2 minute jog and some foam rolling.

I will continue the weights sessions prescribed by GB, and mix in exercises from my own program, trying to do all the exercises from both regimes during the week.
I will also continue my 3 miles a day cycling for cardio (which is how I get to/from work anyway) and Yoga and track. Will work in the GB cardio routines into the track work and will count the cycling for the other cardio session. Then everything else is for extra fun.

Ka-Pow! End of Season social!

Headed into London (then out of London to Maggers' house) for the Ka-Pow! end of season social.
Started with some Micro Machines on his Mega Drive, which, as it turns out, I'm pretty good at.
Then when everyone had turned up, we moved on to the End of Season awards.

The Awards (inspired by our trip to Belgium for Tom's Tourney) were personalised bottles of Leffe:

Most Valuable Player was won by Dave Tyler, and his award was graciously accepted by Pichler as DT wasn't there.
Most Improved Player was won by Timmy
Most Spirited Player was won by Si Dathan
Ryu of the year (or Most Dedicated Player) was won by Maggers for his sustained attendance despite being unable to play for most of the year through injury.
The Smatt's Blog Media Campaign of the Year Award went to this blog. It was nice of Pichler to get me a beer for this. He mentioned that people have spoken to him about it at tournaments, which means they must read it... who knew!

EDIT: Almost forgot... for services to Ka-Pow! ultimate, Pichler was awarded a hoody with his idol Ryu emblazoned on the back!

"Ryu lives only for the fight and seeks opponents stronger than himself. He fights using the art of Ansatsuken as taught to him by his master, Gouken.

Ever working to improve on the techniques learned from his master, Ryu is the hardest training Street Fighter of all."

A message that all Ka-Pow! players strive to live by!

After that we headed to Clapham for a bit of Inferno's action!

I also got a sneaky peek at the list of trialists for next year. Should be great competition at the trials and a great second year for Ka-Pow!

All the small things...

Over the two and a half year's I've been out of University, I've developed some habits which I think help my fitness despite my job involving 9 to 5 sitting at a desk.

Getting up from my desk at least once an hour, usually more to keep myself moving
Keeping myself well hydrated all day by always having a cup of water on my desk in front of me
Stretching any areas of my body which feel stiff or strained whilst sat at my desk
Walking up the stairs in the office instead of taking the lift, and taking the stairs 2 at a time
Excluding the 50 minute train journey I have to take every day, I avoid public transport when I can, and cycle and walk to and from the train station as much as possible. When forced to take public transport, I will take the tube station stairs two at a time rather than use lifts and escalators.
I never eat junk food for lunch any more
I have my psych up playlist on repeat at work the day before a tournament and for the hours before practices

If anyone has any daily bits that they like to do which are small things but make a difference, share!

Friday Gym

Wanted to put in a good session today, but the squat rack was in use for the entire time I was at the gym... Substituted some other stuff instead and was still a good session.

5 minute run + stretching + foam rolling to warm up

3 * 10 press ups with toes balanced on 55cm swiss ball
3 * 10 sit ups with 10kg medicine ball on chest
3 * 10 lunges (30kg)
3 * 10 lateral lunges (30kg)
3 * 10 pull ups
3 * 5 hanging leg raises (tucking knees) + 5 hanging leg raises (legs straight/pike)
2 mins 30s rowing machine highest resistance

Warm down

Ka-Pow! end of season social tomorrow! Gonna be epic!

Thursday Yoga

Good yoga session today. For once I was one of the most flexible during some of the poses. We worked the groin area quite a lot which I have quite a bit of flexibility in. But then some of the other poses were focussing on hamstrings which I have pretty bad flexibility in. Still it's all good for me and I can feeling it working during the sessions and on a week to week basis. Haven't felt as much overall benefit as the gym and track but I wonder if it's just because it's kind of working with the other fitness I'm doing.
Will head to the gym tomorrow and may do my rescheduled track session during the day on Saturday before heading to the Ka-Pow end of season social, agm and classic video games tournament.

Rumour is, if you beat Pichler best two out of three in Street Fighter then you gain his special power of being a longer human being than everyone else.

Was going to go to track tonight...

Got back to the train station and it was raining. Got disappointed thinking I would have to go to track in the rain for the fourth time in a row, then saw this:

Convinced me that it was ok to postpone my track session by a bit.

Tuesday Gym

5 minute run + stretching + foam rolling to warm up

3 * 10 pull ups
3 * 10 press ups with feet balancing on 55cm swiss ball
3 * 10 sit ups with 10kg weight
3 * 10 lunges (35kg)
3 * 10 bench press (60kg)

Warm down and stretching

Nice bit of leftover frittata for post gym lunch with plenty of protein!

Caption competition

This handsome picture of yours truly:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=373491072727127&set=a.136101956466041.34262.134600843282819&type=1&ref=nf

was recently featured in a caption competition on the Everything Ultimate Page, run by Ultimate's biggest celebrity, Brodie Smith.
The page is "Liked" by over 15,000 people and the picture has been liked 54 times and 186 captions have been entered.
Plus all those people got a look at the sweet Kapow Ultimate kit! Lucky them!

Friday Gym

5 minute run + stretching + foam rolling to warm up

3 * 10 pull ups
3 * 10 push ups with toes on 55cm swiss ball
3 * 10 sit ups with 10kg weight on chest
3 * 10 lunges (35kg)
3 * 10 bench press (60kg)
3 * 5 squat (90kg)

warm down

Thursday Yoga

Good yoga today, plenty of good stretches, but it was very similar to last week.
Strange thing happened during 'final relaxation' phase though. Kind of "woke up" and was instantly aware of things going on the room like people breathing heavily (someone snoring) and someones stomach rumbling. I've never noticed this kind of thing happening before and it's strange to think that I actually could be doing something close to meditation. Either that or I am just having a cheeky nap.

Anyway, good yoga. Missed track yesterday but will be hitting the gym tomorrow.

Tuesday Gym

5 minute run + stretching + foam rolling to warm up

3 * 10 pull ups
3 * 10 sit ups w/ 10kg weight on chest
3 * 10 push ups with toes on 10kg medicine ball (thought this would be harder than the swiss ball as the surface area was about 5 times smaller, but the density actually made it easier as it was more stable, will switch back to the swiss ball next week)
3 * 10 bench press (60kg)
3 * 5 squats (90kg)
3 * 10 lunges (35kg *increase*)

foam rolling to warm down

Not going to track tomorrow as I'm driving to a course for work that's two hours away and therefore will be late back.
Yoga on Thursday and gym Friday.
3 miles cycling yesterday, 2 miles today, 0 miles tomorrow and hopefully 3 miles Thursday and Friday if the weather's ok.

Monday night Indoors

Went down to an indoors training session last night.
Started out with throwing and a warmup.
Did a handler weave drill to get people moving then a coat hanger cut drill to get people throwing hammers and blade then just played games for an hour and a half.
It was good fun getting back into playing and throwing and catching. I had a few nice points and was generally playing pretty well.
The standard was pretty good and there were a good number of people there so I think I'll go back every week I can make it.
I've always found indoors harder to play in a good way. I usually rely being a handler or just skying a whole bunch of people. I like to play as a continuation cutter but indoors doesn't really lend itself to that role with not much space.
I played hard and layed out once for a grab so next week I'll have to dig out my knee pads from the bottom of my frisbee kit trunk, and generally enjoyed it (for indoors).

Friday Gym

5 minute run + stretching + foam rolling to warm up

3 * 10 press ups with toes on 55cm swiss ball
3 * 10 sit ups with 10kg weight on chest
3 * 10 pull ups
3 * 10 lunges (30kg *increase*)
3 * 10 bench press (60kg)
3 * 5 squats (90kg)

Warm down and stretch

Checked me weight after my workout:
13 stone 1 lb
which is the heaviest I can ever remember weighing (I'm hoping it's because I'm building muscle!) and means I'm squatting more than my body weight!
Nothing planned this weekend, may do something Sunday if I'm not too hungover, but next organised fitness is indoor practice on Monday! Looking forward to some "actual" ultimate... ok it's just indoors...

Thursday Yoga

Good session today. Really felt it in my abs and legs and arms. Starting to get to the stage where I don't have to think about moving into and between the various poses and can focus on the muscles I'm supposed to be working meaning that it's an even better workout and I can feel the benefits better and that happened today.
Really feel like it's doing something good for toning muscles rather than building them which is what I am aiming to do in the gym and that's why I keep going. Also, I can feel it working my tendons and joints, especially in my hamstrings where I've always been pretty tight.
It's a nice, no impact compliment for my other training and it's cheap with the gym membership in my offices which is also nice. Legs weren't sore at all from track last night which was nice and means I'm getting back into that!
Will finish today's cycling this afternoon and the gym tomorrow with cycling.
No exercise this weekend, but will be going to an Indoor ultimate session on Monday with Surrey based team Disconduct. I think it's mostly Guildford Ultimate players and they only compete as Disconduct at indoor tournaments. I know indoors is pretty high impact and not great training for outdoors, but I really think it will be beneficial for me to get back into throwing, catching, cutting, skying discy action!

Wednesday Track

Been lucky with weather with cycling, 3 miles on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Though that weather luck ran out last night when we headed to track and as we left the flat it started raining.

Good session though, being joined by Tom was good as some healthy machismo meant that we were both pushing each other to go faster/not slow down. We did:

400m jog to warm up

1 * 1600m fartlek (50m sprint - 50m jog) - 6minutes 32 seconds on a wet track! Good time.
5 minutes to recover
4 * 50m sprint - 50m jog with no break
1 minute rest
100m sprint - 1 minute rest * 4

400m warm down

Yoga (and 3 miles cycling) today then Gym (and 3 miles cycling) tomorrow!

Tuesday Gym

5 minute run + stretching + foam rolling to warmup

3 * 10 pull ups
3 * 10 sit ups (10kg barbell weight on chest)
3 * 10 Dumbell push up and row (info here)
3 * 10 lunges (25kg)

warm down and stretching

Didn't have much time today for the gym at lunch but did a difficult session, really got my upper body feeling it.
Track tomorrow, yoga Thursday and then gym again Friday.

EUCF 2012 and bids for xeucf2013

The European Ultimate Club Championships took place this weekend in Frankfurt, Germany. It was the aim of Ka-Pow! Ultimate, in our first season, to qualify for this tournament, and unfortunately we fell short. Still, it was good to watch it being streamed live and was an entertaining final between Clapham Ultimate and Chevron Action Flash.
The great thing about having UK teams finishing 1st and 2nd (as well as good results for the other three teams who qualified) is that it points to the UK (the west region) as the strongest european region, guaranteeing that UK teams will be competitive and that the UK scene should continue to improve. This is also backed by Team GB's recent success at the World championships.
This should also mean that in future, the UK might get more bids to the European club championships. The bids for this year's championships were decided on regional tournaments with the regions containing the following countries and being allocated the following numbers of bids:

West (UK): 5
South (Ireland - France - Switzerland - Italy - Spain - Portugal - Israel): 6 (took the bid from the North team that did not attend)
Central (Denmark - Germany - Holland - Belgium - Luxembourg): 6
East (Poland - Czech Rep - Austria - Slovakia - Slovenia - Croatia - Belarus - Ukraine - Hungary): 4
North (Norway - Sweden - Finland - Russia - Latvia - Estonia - Lithuania): 3 (Had 4 bids but one qualified team didn't attend)

Now I'm not sure I deciphered the algorithm to allocating bids for next year completely correct (here) but as far as I can tell the bid allocation for next year should be:
West: 6
South: 5
Central: 5
East: 4
North: 4

which would accurately represent the strength of the regions according to average finishing position (lower is better):
West (1st, 2nd, 6th, 11th, 13th): 6.6
Central (3rd, 5th, 8th, 14th, 18th, 19th): 11.2
South (4th, 9th, 12th, 17th, 22nd, 24th): 14.7
East (7th, 15th, 20th, 21st): 15.8
North (10th, 16th, 23rd): 16.3

Interestingly, the north didn't send it's 3rd highest qualifier (of 4), however, this team would have had to finish 15th (with all teams below this point assumed to just finish 1 place lower) for the North region to finish above the East.

Saturday Flag Football

I headed to the playing fields local to me to try my hand at flag american football on Saturday. Felt weird going to a practice with cleats but no disc.
Got there a bit early and sat around waiting for a little while.
When the others started turning up it immediately felt like an ultimate practice.
People were late, the whole team didn't turn up but the atmosphere was friendly and it was an enjoyable practice.
We started with some throwing and catching, just like ultimate, a short warmup (not long enough for me) and then running routes. I watch a lot of NFL and play a lot of Madden so I knew the routes but it was interesting to learn some stuff that I didn't know before, like putting the inside foot on the line of scrimmage. I started catching a few and dropping a few and it felt pretty difficult catching the ball, until I was leant a pair of wide receiver gloves. They are INCREDIBLE! I caught almost every ball thrown my way for the rest of the session. I am going to find a pair for ultimate if only to see how good they can be.
After running routes we played bulldog with the flag belts on. Pretty fun and a good drill for learning the basics of tackling (pulling the flags) on defense.
After that we did a drill/practice game with 4 defenders, 2 receivers and a quarterback to practice the basics of zone defense and some more route running on offense. The qb changed between a couple of guys as there were a few new guys including myself and some of the other players never played qb for their team but the defenders and receivers switched around after every drive.
Then we moved on to 3 defenders, 3 receivers to practice man defense in another practice game.
All in all I really enjoyed it. I will definitely be going to all the practices I can get to and if it's possible with timings I will try and play both flag football and ultimate next season (though I will focus on ultimate).
I think I impressed as well. I got 2 Interceptions in the practices, one in the zone defense scrimmage, one in the man defense scrimmage and was close to another couple. I also caught 2 touchdowns and was close to another.
I think I impressed as with my experience with ultimate and all it's transferrable skills I felt really confident (as soon as I had the gloves on and was catching the ball). I think they were quite eager to get me back and were asking about the ultimate season and trying to work out whether it overlapped with their season at all.
They went to the playoffs last year so it seems like they'd be at a pretty good level and this practice was without their #1 qb so it will probably get better from here.

I really felt it on Sunday though, I already said I thought the warmup wasn't long enough and I haven't played any ultimate in a couple of weeks so Sunday I felt pretty stiff in my groin and my arms. I'm wondering if my arms were stiff because a football is that much heavier to throw and catch and also uses a different range of motion on throws. Just goes to show how much actual practice and running cuts does for fitness as opposed to just gym/track etc.

Back to fitness this week.

Friday Gym

5 minute run to warmup + stretching + foam rolling
3 * 10 pull ups (palms forward)
3 * 10 pull ups (palms towards body)
3 * 10 press ups with toes balancing on a 55cm swiss ball
3 * 10 sit ups with 7.5kg weight on chest (*increase*)
3 * 10 bench press (60kg)
3 * 5 squats (90kg *increase*)

Warm down.

Found it quite hard today, but that's probably because I started with 60 pull ups and increased the difficulty in everything but the bench press.
Still looking forward to flag football tomorrow, but I'm getting pretty jealous of everyone currently in Frankfurt competing at the European Ultimate Club Finals.

Thursday Yoga

Hoping rain keeps off this afternoon, been really lucky with avoiding rain whilst cycling this week. If it does then it'll be 3 miles cycling today + yoga.

Yoga was good today, putting a few variations of transitions between poses and felt it working my core, arms and legs.

Felt refreshed after the "relaxation" phase at the end as well (which was nice since I've been pretty tired this week).

Wednesday Track

3 miles cycling the last three days and track this evening.

Routine:

400m warm up and stretching

1600m fartlek: 50m sprint + 50m jog. 6 minutes 43s

1600m fartlek:
First two (400m) laps = 100m sprint (curve) +50m jog (straight) + 50m sprint (straight) + 100m jog (curve) + 50m sprint (straight) + 50m jog (straight)
Second two (400m) laps = 50m sprint (curve) + 50m jog (curve) + 100m sprint (straight) + 50m jog (curve) + 50m sprint (curve) +100m jog (straight)
6 minutes 30s

Stretching to warm down.

Tomorrow will do yoga, and gym again on Friday.
Saturday is my first flag football session. I'm a big NFL fan so I'm really looking forward to it.
The session looks like this:

·         Warm up

·         Introductions / overview on flag football for anyone new

·         Routes

·         Defensive drills

·         Fitness (just a bit)

·         Controlled Scrimmage / Game

Hoping that the fact that the cuts are really transferrable from ultimate to american football and that I've been keeping up fitness should mean that I get a lot out of the session (and hopefully I won't drop too many balls).

Tuesday Gym

Tuesday gym routine:

5 minute run + stretching + foam rolling to warm up
3 * 10 pull ups (palms away from body)
3 * 10 pull ups (palms towards body)
3 * 10 sit ups (5kg weight on chest)
3 * 10 press ups with toes on a 65cm swiss ball
3 * 10 bench press (60kg)
3 * 5 squats (85kg *increase*)
3 * 10 captain's chair hanging leg raises (bent legs)

Stretching to warm down

#getwet (Sunday track)

Just got back from track in the rain. Wasn't fun, but was worth it and felt good after it was finished.

400m warmup and stretch

1600m fartlek: 50m sprint - 50m jog 7min 3sec w (the w is for a wet track, like on top gear)

10 * 100m change of pace/quick start/agility/recovery routine:
                 20m sprint - 20m jog - 30m sprint - 20m jog - 10m walk
30 seconds recovery then do it again.

400m warm down.

Didn't want to stay out too long, and did a lot else this week so didn't want to do too much.

Friday Gym

Since I focussed on core/upper body yesterday, did my regular gym routine Tuesday and will be working on legs primarily at track this weekend, I decided to focus on arms/upper body today.

5 mins run and stretching/foam rolling to warm up
3 * 10 bicep curls (10kg each arm)
3 * 10 shoulder press (50kg)
3 * 10 chest press (50kg)
3 * 10 tricep extensions (16kg each arm)
warm down

Another Friday with a shorter gym session.

Thursday Yoga + Gym

Yesterday's fitness:
3 miles cycling
+
Yoga at lunch: good session with plenty of leg strengthening work, arm strengthening work and core work rather than a lot of stretching.
+
Gym in the evening, added a bit more core work in the evening:
5 minutes run plus stretching and foam rolling to warm up
3 * 10 press ups with toes on a 65cm swiss ball
3 * 10 sit ups with a 5kg barbell weight on my chest
3 * 30s plank
3 * 10 Captain's chair hanging leg raises (bent legs) (info)
3 * 10 pull ups
foam rolling to warm down

Will hit the gym again today at lunch(3rd time this week).

Next season's preparation has begun!

UNO 2010 Final

I quite enjoy filming and editing ultimate on the rare occasion that I'm not playing.
Gonna try and do some more editing and release some clips here while I'm not training as hard as during the regular season.
Below is the final of University Outdoor Nationals from 2010 between Portsmouth University's Sublime and Edinburgh University's Ro-Sham-Bo which features a few players from this year's GB Open squad.
(Note I did miss the first couple of points and had to change after I filmed the first few points with the sun in front of me)

Sublime would go on to win!

We interrupt your programmed fitness...

So, was going to do track tonight, but have postponed it until Sunday so Anna can join me.
Change of plan for this week:
Today:
3 miles cycling

0.75 miles run
Hill exercises (5m at about 30 degrees slope):
5 x Knee tuck jumps up
5 x Skater steps up
5 x one footed jumps up (per leg)
1 x 5m jog to base of hill, jog up hill
2 x 5m jog to base of hill, run up hill (80% of full speed)
3 x 5m jog to base of hill, sprint up hill (100% of full speed)
2 x 5m jog to base of hill, run up hill (80% of full speed)
1 x 5m jog to base of hill, jog up hill
all with 0s rest between sets

0.75 warm down jog

The rest of the week looks like this:

Thursday: Yoga lunchtime and Gym evening + 3 miles cycling
Friday: Gym lunchtime  + 3 miles cycling
Saturday: Throwing a disc around with Anna
Sunday: Track with Anna

Tuesday Gym

5 minute run and stretch to warm up

3 * 10 pull ups

3 * 10 press ups

3 * 20 sit ups

3 * 10 bench press (52.5kg)

3 * 10 bench press (60kg)

3 * 5 squats (82.5kg)

3 * 10 lunges (25kg)

Stretching to warm down

(3 miles cycling today and yesterday as well)

Track tomorrow, yoga thursday and gym friday. Weekend off then the same next week with flag football on Saturday!

Looking forward to the flag football and really into the NFL season this year, even if my fantasy teams aren't doing too well.

Friday Gym

Short lunch break today so did a short upper body gym routine.

5 minute run to warm up + stretching
3 * 5 Lateral pull downs (52kg)
3 * 10 shoulder press (50kg)
3 * 10 chest press (45kg)
3 * 10 Bench press (52.5kg)
3 * 10 bicep curls (21kg per arm)

I'm ok with this shorter session as I found out I will have a chance to do some fitness this weekend. Heading to Anna's parents house so will be either a run or a mix of cross trainer and rowing machine with press ups and sit ups like last time.

Yoga again

Headed down to the office basement today for yoga. Missed the last few weeks but glad to go back.
Was run by the original instructor again which was good. Was a good routine today and really felt the stretches and muscles working in the various poses.
Like usual, I almost fell asleep at the end in the deep relaxation part. It does it's job at relaxing me a little too much I'd say. Always feel a bit dozy going back to work, which isn't helped when I eat my lunch straight after which definitely just makes me want to have a nap.

Also, 3 miles cycling again today.

I think I'll make it four days in a row with some fitness to start my offseason training regime off this week by going to the gym (or I might try Spinning for the first time... anyone done that before?)

Nice evening for the track last night!

Getting back on track

3 miles cycling today plus a track session:

Wanted two get back into track with a gradual start. Good session to start considering I hadn't done track in a long while. Combination of fartlek for endurance, sprint starts for agility, jumps for plyometrics and press ups and sit ups for core. Will probably adapt this theme week to week and ramp it up gradually.

400m warmup then stretching
1600m Fartlek (50m sprint - 50m jog) 6 min 43s
10 * 10m sprints (focussing on quick start off the line)
5 * 5 two footed jumps (forward) focussing on distance
5 * 5 two footed jumps (stationary) focussing on height
5 * 10 one footed jumps (forward) focussing on distance (5 on each leg)
3 * 10 press ups
3 * 10 sit ups
200m warm down

Hello fitness my old friend...

It's been far too long...
Last week:
Mon-Fri: 3 miles cycling per day and nothing more. Couldn't make Basketball and didn't have anything on at the weekend.
This week:
Monday: 3 miles cycling
Tuesday: Gym! (+3 miles cycling)

Session:
6 minute run to warmup + Stretching
3 * 10 pull ups
3 * 10 push ups
3 * 10 sit ups
1 * 10 bench press (45kg)
3 * 10 bench press (50kg)
1 * 5 squats (60kg)
3 * 5 squats (70kg)
1 * 30 lunges (25kg)
3 minutes rowing + 30 seconds rowing sprint + 1 minute 30 rowing
Foam rolling

With taking the two weeks off the gym before Nationals (one because of back pain/stiffness, one to rest before nationals) and taking the last two weeks off to rest it was a month ago today since I last stepped inside the gym.
Will take it easy to get back into it doing my standard routine with a slow progression, but over the winter Pichler will be sending out a fitness program so I'm looking forward to varying up my sessions and focussing on different things.
May also hit the track tomorrow for the first time in a while.
Looking to run track a bit more this offseason (taking advantage of the free track in Basingstoke) and continue it further into the season next year!

Team Photo from Rawhyde Revolver 2012

Rawhyde revolver 2012 w/ Amazingstoke

This weekend I played in the annual Rawhyde revolver tournament as a fun way to end the frisbee season.
I went with a team called "Amazingstoke" based loosely on living in/living near/having lived in at one time Basingstoke.
It was a mixed team and it was a very good standard with a mixture of mostly A-tour men and top level women's tour players. Even though it was an open tournament we got all the way to the final, beating last year's tournament winners in the group stages to take the #1 seed.
Didn't really have a difficult game until the semi final against Southampton skunks (my old uni team) who had a mix of 1st team and 2nd team players. We traded until about 4-4 when we started to pull away for a comfortable victory.
The final was against team BUTTSEX...i mean SUBTEXT. They were ironman with one girl and the rest of their players at an A-Tour standard. We played them hard and were down at half by 8-6. We tried to come back but couldn't get any breaks back and they went on to win the game 11-9 (i think).

We ended up finishing above Scarecrew who play mixed tour together and a load of open teams so everyone was happy with 2nd, especially considering a lot of the team hadn't played with most of the other players before.

I had plenty of fun this weekend and I think everyone else on the team was keen to enter this team into other tournaments like Club Mixed Indoor Nationals in the new year.

This Week

Never has a 4 day week felt so long. I'm definitely on an end of frisbee season come down and looking forward to the Rawhyde Revolver fun tournament this weekend.
Tuesday-Friday: 3 miles cycling per day.
Also, went to my first Basketball session last night.

Turned up at 8:15 p.m. to my first basketball session in about 8 years (probably). Wasn't sure what to expect, except that I would probably suck.
I really enjoyed the session even though I did suck.
Started with a drill aiming to move the ball between three players in a weave moving up the court trying to take on two defenders guarding the hoop, and if you took the shot you would be the one defender on the basket on the other side of the court against the two players who had just been defenders.
Did another weave/defense/shooting drill and a shooting drill before moving on to games.
I've never played basketball outside of P.E classes at school so I don't know any plays really and didn't get much of the ball whilst on offense, but my aim was just to hussle back on defense and get some rebounds if I could.
I had a lot of fun, but felt pretty inferior to the other players.
Might look up the Basingstoke Flag American football team next! Need something to do this offseason!

UKUNationals write up

So it seems that Sunday night drinking and dancing until 2 a.m isn’t helpful with recovery after a weekend tournament, even with the bank holiday on Monday.

Here’s my nationals recap:

Game 1 vs Cambridge CUlt (15-9 Kapow Win)
We came out playing well, but our defense was struggling to contain two of their returning quicker handlers, who had not been playing when we beat them 15-5 at Tour 3. We got a break in the first half and a few more in the second half and were in control most of the way.

Game 2 vs Chevron Action Flash (15-11 Kapow loss)

We knew that we had a shot in this game. We started on offense and held. They held their offense and we traded all the way up to half. We went into the second half leading 8-7. They took their offense point and each offense held up until 10-10 when Chevron got the first and second break of the game to go up 12-10. Chevron never looked back and with momentum their defense went on to get another two breaks, finishing the game 15-11. We knew that they weren’t going to give anything away, and despite getting blocks we couldn’t figure out how to get our defense line into the endzone. A brilliant game with plenty of exciting plays and lots of people watching on the sidelines this would be the best Kapow would play all weekend.

Game 3 vs East Midlands Open (15-12 Kapow loss)

Coming in straight off an emotional and hard fought game against chevvy, we had no time to warmup or run drills before this game. We started well, going 4-2 up and then they started getting breaks. We never recovered and could do little to stop their offense, only getting one break back when they were 14-11 up. A disappointing loss to a quality opposition (EMO would later go on to qualify for Europeans, taking the 5^th spot over Fusion), meant that to get to Euros we would have to win all of our games on Sunday.

Game 4 vs Tooting Tigers (15-12 Kapow loss)

We turned up on Sunday morning, and only ever had the lead for a single point in this game. Tigers played a very quick running style of offense, looking to break marks and set off running straight away after throwing the disc. We played man and they would beat us with breaks. Our zone was slightly more effective, forcing them to throw hammers, blades and other discs over the top, which turned some of the time and we had a great run of three points in a row, but Tigers kept their resolve and punched in their O points and took the opportunities to get breaks that sadly, most of the time, were due to our errors. This one stung as it meant we were out of contention for Europeans and could only finish as high as 9^th.

Game 5 vs Man Up (15-10 Kapow win)

Out of contention for Euros, we decided to loosen up with our line calling and allow anyone to play on either line. At the start of this game it seemed like this wasn’t doing that much good as we were down at the half 8-5. There hasn’t been a half of a match in a long time that I’ve felt more frustrated at. I personally was playing pretty badly, was still frustrated from the three losses before this game and we all knew that this was a team that we should be beating. Then, suddenly we had a big play (I think it was one of Timmy’s) and we were a group of mates having a laugh again. We started playing well and the smiles returned. We put in 5 in a row to start the second half, going up 10-8 and never let them back in.

Game 6 vs DED (15-9 Kapow win)

DED have been a bit of a rival of ours this season. Both new teams, in the 6 UK tournaments we attended this year, we have played them 5 times and going in to Nationals the record was 2 wins each which meant that we were up for this win. We switched back to line calling and we wanted to play hard. Both teams had been going into Nationals with the aim to qualify for Euros, and as such, both will be disappointed with finishing 9^th/10^th but we still wanted this win and we played this game better than them to take it. Our shots were coming off and our zones were pressuring their offense. Our quick start offense was leaving them on the back foot constantly. I had been switched to the D line for this game to provide a deep threat with the note that I might be put back onto the O-line if needed. It wasn’t. We lead this game from start to finish and finished the season with a good victory.

We didn’t qualify for Europeans, and we were all disappointed.

My predictions were off (mostly), with Brighton and EMO putting in very strong showings and taking 4^th and 5^th respectively and two Euros spots, and DED, us and Cambridge falling down the rankings.

Still, there is always next season. I am going to be a little relaxed with fitness for a week or two, but will be in the gym, putting in the work for next season over the winter months.

This week, I will be heading to a basketball practice at the gym near our flat. I was inspired by the Olympics to try something new and I always enjoyed playing basketball at school. I see it as cross training for ultimate as there are a lot of transferrable skills in both. I will also be going to a tournament in Winchester this weekend with some friends from (mostly) Southampton Uni which should be good fun and relaxed.

Will keep doing write-ups of anything I feel like as I’ve enjoyed keeping this blog. I get ripped at every tournament I go to because of it, but who cares, I do it to keep track of things and because I enjoy it!

UKUNationals Predictions

I have already predicted the top 5 spots in my UKUNationals Preview, so here's my shot at predicting the rest of the Open teams (6-16):

6. DED
7. Brighton
8. Tooting
9. EMO
10. Wessex
11. Cambridge
12. Devon
13. Man Up
14. Burro
15. Vision
16. Cardiff

Now my thoughts for the Women's Division:

1. Iceni
2. Bristol
3. Leeds
4. Brighton
5. SYC
6. Punt

And lastly Mixed:

1. Bear Cavalry
2. Thundering Herd
3. BAF
4. Bristol
5. Ltd Release
6. MXU
7. The Brown
8. ABH

I'll just say that for these rankings I'm not going by Tour finishes or nationals finishes from last year or anything, it's just my gut on this one.

UKUNationals 2012 Preview

A pretty interesting preview of the division overall has been written by "The Secret Frizzer" here.
It puts us finishing in fourth behind Clapham, Fire and Chevron.
Here's my take:

Game 1 vs Cambridge

We've played Cambridge once this season. It started with me scoring a callaghan on the first point and finished with a 15-6 victory and entry into the top 8 of UKUTour3 . This game was a real statement game for us, our defense put big pressure on and our offense only had one turnover the entire game. This game will be a great way to start nationals. Cambridge will be gunning for revenge, and, after taking the 7 ranking based on the 3 tour events, will see our 7th seed going in as where they deserve to be. The weather prediction (according to the BBC) is for rain and wind, which will mimic our tour 3 victory over cambridge. Cambridge finished second in their region to a restrengthened EMO meaning EMO goes in ranked 6th and Cambridge go in ranked 10th. This game ultimately doesn't doom the loser to the bottom 8, but will mean that the loser will be battling against higher ranked teams most of the weekend to get into the Top 8 and stay there. I see Ka-pow coming out strong in our first trip to Nationals as a squad under our resolve to take a European qualification spot and our confidence at beating Clapham in the scrimmage last weekend.

Game 2 (assuming a Ka-Pow win) v Chevron

Essentially, this could be our quarter final. Chevron have been the runner up at Nationals and at the Tour for the last two years and will be gunning to finally break Clapham's 11 year streak. Two years ago, Clapham dominated Chevron in the final 15:5, and last year Chevron took Clapham to 15:12. After beating Clapham in the UKUTour2 final this year, Chevron will see this as a huge chance to dethrone Clapham (as they must do every year). Ka-Pow would LOVE LOVE LOVE to take some scalps and if we play our game I can see us pushing Chevron into a close game, and there shouldn't be any reason why we can't take it.
Chevron took the 2nd place at Tour this year as well, even though they were missing some stars to GB and it certainly seemed like at Tour 3 the GB stars propelled the teams that they returned to (Ka-Pow included).
The winner of this game is guaranteed a shot at the final, again the loser can finish as high as third due to the nationals tournament structure, but can also drop out of the top 8 altogether. Conventional thinking would give this game to Chevron meaning Ka-Pow would finish the Saturday with a game against either EMO, Wessex or Fire.

I really hesitate to predict any further because I really think Ka-Pow have a genuine chance against Chevron.

Our aim is to qualify for Europeans. I really see us taking a spot but every game will be a battle. We need to have our offense firing liking it was at UKUTour3 and our defense converting breaks like it was at UKUTour3 and in our friendly game against Clapham.

The games to watch this weekend according to "The Secret Frizzer" are:

Tooting v Fusion in the first round: I agree, this will be a hard fought contest in which I see Fusion winning in their attempt to climb the rankings and set up a second round game where they will be gunning to knock Clapham off the top spot.

EMO v Wessex in the first round: Despite the result at Tour2 which saw Wessex beat EMO and eventually finish in the Top 12, EMO have got GB Open players back and come in off winning their Regionals over Cambridge and Wessex coming in over qualifying in the third spot from theirs. I see EMO winning in a close one.

DED v Brighton in the second round (quarterfinal): I see this being closer than contests over the Tour season with Brighton having several veterans returning. I'm not sure I can be confident calling this game but if I had to I'd go with DED after their very strong season, but it'll definitely be a close one.

My games to watch:

Ka-Pow vs Chevron (reasons discussed above)
All games on Sunday. There are bound to be a few upsets along the way and we may see some strange finishing positions. Northern regionals was surprising enough.

My predictions for the European qualification spots (Conservative):

1. Clapham
2. Chevron
3. Kapow!
4. Fire
5. Fusion (People seem to have forgotten that Fusion have been to Semi's and European's before)

My predictions (Aspirational):

1. Clapham/Kapow!
2. Clapham/Kapow!
3. Chevron
4. Fire
5. Fusion


The only thing left to say, but good luck to all teams this weekend and I'm sure the UK will represent well whoever goes to Europeans in each of the Elite and Challenger divisions.

Thursday Yoga

Went to Yoga again. It was being run by the instructor who I'm not as big a fan of.
It seems to me like she's rushing through certain positions in order to get a large variety in. Some were new and good poses providing a good stretch, and she included some plank and squats as well which will be good for strengthening but I still don't think she's as good an instructor as the other.

Tuesday Training + This week

3 miles cycling on Monday
4.5 miles cycling on Tuesday and went to Ka-Pow evening training.
Didn't do any fitness yesterday as I had the day off for my birthday
and will be doing 2 miles cycling and Yoga today.

Lots of throwing whilst everyone was turning up.
Then started off the training with the Ka-Pow super secret team multi-disc concentration drill (Patent Pending) which I can't really talk about... Shhhhhh!
Did a warm up and started with some 3 v 4.
The idea behind this is that the Offense has 4 players and the defense has 3. It is aiming to teach D players to be reactionary and it is good for zone awareness. On the offense the idea is to break marks and move the disc to players through a zone quickly. The pitch is short and thin but the endzones stretch infinitely out so it's harder to cover all the players with a man down than if they were all cramped into a mini size pitch. If the defense gets a block within the pitch then they get a chance to score which means they need to move the disc quickly after a turn and cut well and break marks.
We then ran the end zone patterns for quite a long time as it still needs a little fine tuning before the weekend, but if we can get these right this weekend then it should be a great boost for us.
Then ran a drill that focussed on breaking a straight up mark, forcing, hucking, and cutting. Warmed down to finish.
Really looking forward to this weekend.

Tournament preview coming tomorrow.

Saturday Training

Turned up on Saturday to blazing sunshine (the hottest day of the year so far) and started to train. We had a good turnout which was really useful the weekend before nationals. We started with some throwing and a cone demo of the new zone (our third different zone) which we will be using next weekend. We then walked it through to show people how the movement of the various positions would look and what to do if the offence tried to break it in different ways. After this we ran a full warm up and went into an a new offensive structure.Without giving anything away this was an interesting adaptation to one of our structures using a similar principle and similar roles, and it was based around the idea of getting the disc moving quickly after a D. We then went into a game to 8 using the new zone and offense that we had just learned.
Either side of our lunch break we did some practice on the sideline and end zone offence which we have been focussing on heavily. We know that to be successful at Nationals we will have to have these fundamentals working for us.

After working on our end zone offense after lunch we went into another game to 8. This would be our warm up for a pre-nationals friendy game against Clapham Ultimate.
Clapham had started showing up at around 1 and had been playing some 3 v 3 when they found that the ultimate pitches were occupied by us, SYC (London women's team) and a sunday league football match.
We had a few people leave during the day so at the start of the Clapham game we had 13 or 14 players and Clapham had 11/12. We knew neither team was at full strength but knew this would be a great test of, firstly our new zone and offensive structure, and secondly our readiness to face the top opposition in the UK next week at nationals.
First point in the game and our defense steps up and gets a block and converts it to go up 1-0 for the first break of the game.
Up until half both teams' offense held apart from one more break for us and one break for Clapham, so Kapow would go into half time leading 8-7 (the same half time scoreline from regionals).
We would go on to convert our offense to start the second half and held the 2 point lead for a while, until 13-11. The game had been predetermined to be first to 15 points and clapham, like at regionals, would not go down quietly taking two breaks and and offensive score to our one offensive score to tie it at 14-14 with Kapow on defense going into sudden death.
Already this was a better position than at regionals when we had lost by two points. We had a chance to take this game and, with it, a huge boost of confidence going into nationals next weekend.
We were tired, they were tired, we pulled and chased down the pull aiming to play man defense and earn a block.
I don't remember the turnover by Clapham but it happened and all of a sudden our quick turn offense was starting to move the disc down the field.
A huck went up (a pretty bad one) and there were 3 Clapham players and one Kapow player underneath it with one Kapow player behind the pile to back it up. Mentally I prepared myself for more defense to grind the win but we came down with it to take the win.

Throughout this season, Kapow has built an identity. We have the flashiest kit on tour, and we have developed an offensive gameplan that is different to the vast majority of what is in the UK at the moment. We have zone defenses that we have learned (read: stolen) from watching top European clubs and top national teams. We have brought together players from all over the top of the UK Tour, from a lot of different clubs who have come together, put in the hard work and progressed as a team under this awesome new brand that has been created this year.

Kapow is already a success story after our undefeated Tour 3 and I have no doubt that trials next year will be super competitive and it won't before Kapow becomes a well known entity in European and maybe World Ultimate club championships.

But the real test comes next weekend. It's time to step up and grind out a bid to Europeans like we know we can, we know we want and we know we deserve.