Thanks

What an unreal experiences. It's pretty crazy to think back to my freshman year. And, although I wasn't the best HS ultimate player, I had experience, but was cut from the A-team. I worked my way through the ranks of the B-team and finally got to play at Nationals. The hard work paid off.

I don't really know what to say after the fact. I'm not going to recap because it would just take way too long. There's a lot of guys I could thank, so I'm going to try that:

Wes - coach last year and gave me some good words/advice before this weekend
Rob and Banyas - giving me a chance to play a high level tournament last summer (CUT), which paved the way for a big confidence boost heading into the fall
Weasel, Josh and Vatz - coaching this past year and giving me the opportunity to find my role on this team
Nick - coached me on Impulse, then got to coach with him last summer. In my opinion, he's the smartest ultimate person I know and gets a lot of respect from me.
My teammates (brothers) - for getting to play with them, learn with them, have fun with them and win with them
Brody - sticking with the team, following the team, giving advice at nationals and taking great pictures
TallE - right there after every point at nationals, handing out water on the line
Henry - helping with financial costs and giving the biggest support for Pitt ultimate I've ever seen
The other alumni
The B team

I know I'm probably missing some people. And I'll update that list if/when I think of more.

It was just a great experience and fun to earn a spot not only on the team, but - for the most part - a starter as well.

Now there's a lot for me to think about. I graduated, but I'm having a hard time finding a job. An internship I thought I would get went to the other guy because he had a master's degree and I only had a bachelor's. Times are tough and the possibility of grad school looks more appealing each day.

But for now, I just need to unwind, rest and recover. I'm pretty beat.

Nationals schedule

UPA released the seedings and schedule for Nationals. We land a No. 10 spot. That's pretty much where I expected us to be. Had we not lost to Cornell in Regionals, I'd assume we'd be higher, but we couldn't be placed higher than whatever seed Cornell got (they ended up at No. 8).

But let this be said: I think this is the best possible pool we could've landed in. Colorado is the top team in our pool, followed by Wisconsin, then us, Michigan and then Texas State. We've beaten three of the four teams in our pool already this season. We know that we can beat these guys. It'll just come down to execution and mental focus. I also think playing Michigan and Texas State is a good way to start the competition on Thursday, before we take on Wisconsin and then Colorado on Friday.

Edit: I somehow missed that the No. 3 seed from the pool still makes the pre-quarters of the championship bracket. We don't need to finish higher, but we can and should.

Alright, that's about as much speculation as I'm going to do. There's still time to get some work done.

Pitt vs. Texas State to open Nationals.

Wow. I can't believe after four years, I'll finally be playing at Nationals. That feels good to say. It'll be even better to play.

The men's schedule is here.
The women's schedule is here. Danger lands a No. 12 seed and will be the third seed from the top bracket.

Regionals recaps

So this past weekend I got to do something I've never done before. I've been playing ultimate since my junior year of high school. I've played college ultimate for the past three years, but this past weekend was something special. After three years on the B-team, and captaining last year, I finally made my way to the A-team and got to play at Regionals.

I don't this often say things like this — well, OK, sometimes — but I played pretty damn well. I'm not sure how to describe it, but for me, there is something that clicks in my head whenever the competition picks up. I turn my game, my focus and my play way up. I love the bigger (note: not biggest) stage. I can't help that I love the attention that not only I'm getting, but that the team gets. It gets me super fired up and ready to win.

And after this weekend, I now get my shot at the biggest stage in college ultimate: Nationals. Damn, I'm so ready for this.

I'm going to post a lot more this final month, mostly because it'll keep me motivated and focused.

For now, Regionals recaps. It's the best that I can remember because like I said after Stanford or some tournament, it's hard to recap whenever you play a lot. The points and games at times can seem jumbled together. But here goes:

Saturday

PREQUARTERFINALS: NYU (Pitt wins 15-5): ESPN was all over this game, as it marked the first time Clay and his former team would do battle this season. But in all seriousness, it was never a really close game and we pretty much took over from the start. I played a good game, here, skying some dude for a goal line catch. I also had — the team will tell you at least — probably my first layout grab, for a score at that, all spring. Not sure why it happened but there's a little joke that goes something like "Jay? Yeah. He can't layout." Whatever. Pitt wins pre-quarters or whatever you want to call it. Next.

QUARTERFINALS: Carleton University (Pitt wins 15-5): Much of the same as the first game. Carleton was fresh off a really long universe point game against Georgetown, so they were tired. They have some 7 foot guy on their team but they didn't utilize him very well and we were able to shut him down. Game was easy and the biggest threat came whenever we were up 14-4 or something like that and that 7 foot dude starts something with Isaac and/or Plunkett. Next thing I know Bob goes running over and by the time I turn around (the fight happened on the sideline and I was walking to the line to start the point) Bob's in a headlock. Honestly, I don't know all the details and it seems pretty stupid after the fact, but it was kinda crazy at the time. Things settle down and we trade points and Pitt wins quarterfinals. Next.

SEMIFINALS: Penn (Pitt wins 15-5): As was the case with NYU and Carleton, nothing special going on this game. Penn just finished a long universe point game against Delaware and didn't get any rest in between games. We controlled the game and Penn was never a threat. I eventually rolled my ankle pretty bad late in the game. It swelled up and I was done for the day. Fortunately for me, this was our last game. Finals in the AM. Pitt takes semifinals. Next.

Sunday

FINALS: Cornell (Pitt loses 15-11): So here it was. The game everybody on the team wanted. Call it a rematch. Call it another game. Call it a revenge game. Whatever you want to call it, there we were matched up against Cornell in the finals. For the first time in Pitt's history, a lot of guys felt we were the group to finally get over that hump and take down Cornell, and in the process, take the Metro East Region. Everybody was geared up for this game. It might have had something do with watching ESPN's 30 for 30 The U the night before. As for me, ankle was good to go. I was feeling good and the team was pumped. Regardless, the game started out poorly for us. The O wasn't clicking and D couldn't get enough breaks to turn the game around. That was tough. I think we went down 3-0 and never really got and closer in the first half as we headed to the break trailing 8-5. The second half we were able to claw our way back, getting really close at 11-9 or 11-10, but failing to capitalize after getting the turnovers. Cornell eventually hits the gas and we fall 15-11. Cornell takes finals and the Region. Damn.

The hardest part about this loss is how close we were multiple times to getting over the hump and winning that game. There were so many times when we we would force some crap throw/huck/dump at stall 9/10 and the wind would take the disc flying into the air and some taller Cornell guy would come down with it. We didn't get any breaks and that was so frustrating for me, personally. I had a hard time believing that we played such good D for 10 seconds, only to have crap like that get caught and hurt us.

Personally, I played pretty well. I shutdown my guy most of the game and rarely got beat. Nothing flashy, but that's not my game. I was just more concerned that our team couldn't pull out the win. The W is more important than anything I do.

After the game, a lot of the guys just walked around or laid down. Headbands and hats over their eyes and faces. It was a really tough, emotional loss. We all thought we would win this game. Expectations were very high and we didn't deliver. But if you don't think will get us motivated for nationals, you're crazy. This team has rebounded from losses throughout the season. We'll be ready.

BACKDOOR FINALS: George Washington (Pitt wins 15-11): Pissed after our loss to Cornell, we're fired up to just take a nice little dump on GW and head to Nationals for the sixth consecutive year. And we did come out hard and the game was never in danger, but it was closer because we were still bummed and thinking about the last game. Don't get me wrong, GW was a good team. Otherwise, they wouldn't be there. But we were still thinking back to finals. We might not admit that, but that's the fact. We won this game because we were the better team, but we really should've beat GW by a lot more. Whatever. We're going to Nationals. Nice.

History: Take 2

For the first time in 4 years of playing college ultimate, I'll be PLAYING at Nationals.

History

For the first time in 4 years of playing college ultimate, I'll be PLAYING at Regionals. Pretty excited. More on sectionals later.

The Stanford Invite: Followup

I've always enjoyed playing defense. I like it because it's like getting to play two points in one. Your main objective is to essentially destroy an offense and the rub it their face by scoring on them. It's a great feeling to know that you're (the defense) the reason why a team is losing, why they can't win and why they won't come back. You control the game and the tempo. It's how we're running things on the team right now and it's so important.

The team thrives on the defense. This isn't to say anything against our offense because they're the 7 most skilled and best ultimate players on the our team, but our defense is what fuels Pitt ultimate. We want nothing more than to start a game on D and absolutely crush any hope our opponent has by getting the first break. It gets the D pumped up and the O as well so they can come on the field and score if need be. If we get a few breaks early, it takes the pressure off our O (and our D, really). Defense is such a huge momentum shift, a game changer.

This was shown in our games at Stanford. When we won, especially against teams like CUT and Wisco, our defense was energized and fired up. And our losses, like Cal, our defense wasn't.

For me, I played pretty much every D point last weekend, save one here and there because we wanted some height on the field for a zone. It was exhausting, but I thought I was playing well. But then I started looking back on the tournament and I realized that I had like one layout D. That got to me because, and Henry Thorne has told me since I was in high school, I thought I was more of a playmaker on D. But I didn't do any of that last weekend. I was no Eddie, who had just some unreal layout Ds, or Colin, who had some great skies.

But I started thinking some more and I realized that, despite playing nearly every D point, I didn't have any showtime Ds because that's not my style anymore. I don't know when it happened, but I can remember starting to change my approach on D during Wilmington 8s. I started guarding more handlers. I started learning more of how a handler works, the thrown and run, and began working on stopping that. This tournament was the first one that really felt like my workouts and strength and conditioning paid off (I'm working out about 5 days a week, including practice). I think that helped me on D, guarding handlers and going step for step with them. I also really worked on my marking and felt like I was very prepared at knowing when to kill a dump throw or force a turnover.

I got beat up line only once or twice, including for a goal against Colorado in semifinals that really pissed me off, but I played fairly strong and consistent throughout the tournament. I might not make the highlight reel, but if I can shut down my handler, cause a turnover or a bad huck, I'll take that any day.

Centex in 7.

Queen City Tune Up 2010

So that happened. Tough weekend. Still trying to piece together how we could've finished 9th. 9th. Let that sink in. We were seeded 1st. We finished 9th. Jeeze.

Eddie put together a few thoughts on how we struggled:

1.) We are younger than I expected.
2.) Our roster losses have been more impactful than I expected.
3.) Our defense is soft.
4.) Our mental game is soft.
5.) Our offense is soft.

I'd agree with this, it's just unfortunate that we didn't realize this until this weekend. Even then, not until the Delaware game on Sunday.

And I think all of this comes down one central reason for our problems this weekend.

The last thing to happen to us as a team was a little thing called Wilmington 8s. It was our premier tournament of the fall season and we won it. We beat everybody there. We went 8-0. We beat Florida. We beat Cornell - twice. Whether we said so aloud or not, we thought we were the best. We were the team to beat.

QCTU? Where's the competition? We've got that.

And you know what? We were probably right about that. We were among the top teams. We didn't say anything on RSD, but that didn't stop people and other teams hyping us up. We might not have said anything, but we read it. We knew it was out there. We saw the Coaches and Captains 25 poll and saw the first place votes. We saw us in the top 5, the top 3.

We saw people hate on us because we were good, not because of how we play. Jealousy hit other teams and overconfidence hit the Pitt team.

In all of that, we traveled to North Carolina expecting to win it all. And not that a team should never expect to win it because you want that winning mentality. We never really took a team seriously. We were excited, we were pumped and we were ready to roll over teams. But we never thought any of them would give us a challenge.

And whenever a team did that...we didn't know what to do. We weren't mentally prepared as Eddie put it. We weren't mentally tough as Josh has said.

Look at the Michigan State game. We didn't know what was happening. We tried to make a big play every time to get us back into the game, instead of working hard, grinding and scoring the Pitt way.

It sucks that we are where we are right now, but we put ourselves in this position. We became a team over the weekend, even in losing, and we'll work as a team. We'll put this behind us and look to the future.

Eyes on the prize, one tournament at a time. Getting ready for Stanford.

Remembering why we're here

Last night, after a pretty intense practice that saw quite a few guys fail to finish the last sets of our 300-yard suicides (to the 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 and back each time) for one reason or another (I'm not getting into that), Josh brought the team together and told us one thing:

Don't forget why we're doing what we're doing.

It's important that we don't get so caught up in working hard, getting stuck in a routine, that we forgot what we decided our team goal was a few months back. It doesn't even need to be said because anybody who's anybody reading this knows what we want this season.

What happened last night set off quite a few talks from players on the team (there's a BBoard post based off what Josh said and Eddie talked a little about it as well).

Josh wants us to be the best conditioned team this year at nationals, that's a goal that's been said time over time with the A-team. And while I'm sure they've tried their hardest at accomplishing that goal, this team is different.

Josh knows it. Geoff knows it. We all know it.

Which is why we also need to be the most mentally tough team. We can't afford to take our mind off what we want because we need to be focused to get there. Whether it's practice, track workouts, scrimmages or tournaments, we all need to be mentally tough enough to handle any situation that we're given.

This is turning into a rambling, but I just wanted to say what I thought and get this out there because it's true. Gotta stay focused.

And part of that mental toughness will come with working hard at and away from practice, as evidence by Geoff's frustration and short talk with the guys who were on the sidelines of the sprints. We're working our asses off to get well-conditioned, which will pay even bigger dividends whenever we remember that. That's part of being mentally tough.

Gearing up for the spring season

Three weeks from now I want to be in a van — maybe even myself driving it — back from North Carolina with a tournament win. It would this team's second of the season and second in a row after winning Wilmington 8s back in November.

That tournament? Queen City.

And there's absolutely no reason why this won't happen. The teams, pools or schedule haven't been announced but that doesn't matter. It's just Team 1, Team 2, Team 3, etc. I think this is the mentality for the team right now. The last tournament we played, we won - and we beat some great teams to do it.

We haven't slowed down since then, either. A lot of guys, especially the younger and newer players have been putting in some ridiculous hours at the track and gym working on getting stronger for the season. It's showed, too, because a lot of these guys are starting to breakout as good players on this team.

Eddie has a good post on his blog about a few of the players. And I agree with what he's said. It's great to watch guys just come to their own on this team. Everybody is really starting to figure out there role. All of this and we've only had a few practices that've allowed us to use a full field for scrimmages.

For me, the last few weeks have been all about pushing others to work hard. I'm doing that through pushing myself to work harder. Two guys on the team came up to me after winter break and said the only thing that got them to go on runs or head to the gym was seeing what I posted on the "Hard Work" thread on our BBoard. I know that there are more people working out than are posting on that thread - and they're not posting for different reasons - but I think a post on that thread does a lot more good than harm, especially if your workouts are detailed enough that others can work off it.

Over the last few weeks, too, I've really started to find a great workout group. Ari, Eddie and I are lucky enough to be within relatively the same weight lifting group and we all have the same free time for about 3 days a week. That's a huge plus because Eddie is probably the hardest working guy on this team. And Ari's helping me and himself get right up there with him.

Eddie's great when it comes to lifting. Ari's come up with some great plyometric workouts and both Ari and I have been pacing track workouts. It's a good situation we've got going on right now - for all three of us - and I can't wait to get on the field and show it.

After we come back from QCTU with our first tournament win of the spring season, we'll head to Stanford for what's becoming known as a big revenge tournament. That's all I've got to say about that for now. I'll let Pitt's hard work and on-field performance do the talking.

I hate holiday hours

Trees gym closed at 3 p.m. today. It was the only one open on campus today. I had a work meeting that went past 2 p.m. Because of that, I won't get to lift today. Not cool. Not cool at all.

The Spring Season and Drinking

I've seen guys puke at Saturday and Sunday morning practices because they drank the night before.

I've seen guys look like they're dying at Saturday and Sunday morning practices because they drank the night before

And I've seen a fair share of out of shape people - not necessarily on our team - because they do a lot of drinking.

Since my personal goal for this season is to be in the best shape I can be, I've decided to significantly reduce my drinking. It's actually been on a decline over the past few months. I ended the fall semester with a bang, but the spring semester is going to be even more controlled. I think a lot of it will have to do because of weekend practices, but a lot will also have to do with my own self-control to stay in shape and just not really feel even slightly hungover the next morning.

Now, that's not to say I won't go out and have a drink or two at a party or at the bar, but late night and excessive drinking are really going to be limited.

I've saved three days for longer nights of heavier drinking:
1. The beer pong tournament
2. St. Patty's day
3. My birthday

Working Hard

A month later and I see that Eddie stumbled upon my blog. The good news: somebody's reading. The bad news: I'm updating very infrequently and didn't even see the comment until just recently.

So, in an effort to keep me more motivated for the upcoming spring season, I'm going to also get motivated to post more and keep people updated.

My personal goal for this season is to be the best conditioned person on the field. I want to motivate my teammates and outwork my opponents. I want to literally leave Wisconson in a few months knowing that there wasn't anything else I could've done better because I was in the best possible shape. Yes, I will work on my throws, but I've always been just a mid-range thrower. And, yes, I will work on my game and field sense.

But when everything comes together at Nationals, I want to be the best conditioned person on the field. That's my personal goal.

This past month wasn't all that bad in terms of working out. Both the week leading up to and including Finals Week wasn't nearly as busy as others, so I was able to get in at least 3 solid workouts per week. And I even have a gym membership back home, so I was able to workout up until the day after Christmas. But now I'm back in Pittsburgh and today was the first day that a gym opened on campus (Trees for now as the rest will open on Wednesday, I believe).

As senior in my last semester of school, it looks like I will have a very nice schedule for upcoming season: 2 classes on Tuesday and Thursday, 1.5 (the half is a one-hour per week, 3-credit internship class where I just meet and discuss) and an online/Saturday class. With practices on Tuesday and Thursday (and the weekend eventually) that leaves Mondays and Fridays open and enough time to workout Wednesday.

That's good. I'd like to see my day-by-day workout go something like this:

Monday: 1-2 mile run warmup, stretching, hard lower body workout, core/abs
Tuesday: 1 mile run warmup, stretching, shorter shoulder and back workout, core/abs, practice
Wednesday: Track workout
Thursday: 1 mile run warmup, stretching, shorter arms and chest workout, core/abs, practice
Friday: 1-2 mile run warmup, stretching, hard plyo workout, core/abs
Weekend: 2-3 mile runs and stretching, practice (if we have it), rest and recovery

I like the idea of having lower body and leg workouts on Monday and Friday because if we have a tournament, I won't be working out on either of those days, but I figure I'll be getting a leg workout anyways as I play in the tournament.

Fall is here

So we're more than a month into the fall season and my senior year and it's great. It's so much fun playing with some of the guys who I started out playing with my freshman year. I'm glad to be on the A-team (for now) and I feel that I'm definitely playing my best Ultimate right now.

Practices have been tough and our scrimmages have been even harder. There's a lot of emotions riding in these practices because people know that despite having 30 or so good players on the team, some will get cut.


Up next for us is the tournament at OSU this weekend. I had hoped to be playing there, and was really looking forward to it, but I might not be able to due to unexpected family issue. I really won't know if I can make it to the tournament until almost the day of. That's how things work out sometimes, though. It'll be OK.

We still had a split-squad scrimmage on Sunday with our teams going to OSU. The game got really heated after the other team took a 5-1 and 6-2 advantage. But we bounced back and played some really good defense. We were still down at half, 8-7, and traded points until we began to break away when we needed to. We ended up winning 17-15 or 17-16. I can't remember the score, but it was still a great comeback for our team and a devastating loss for the others. That's how competitive Pitt Ultimate has been so far this summer. This is going to be a great year.

But if I can't make the OSU tournament, I'm 100&% ready to play in the Wilmington 8, which is from November 7-8. Now that will be a great tournament to play in with a lot of good competition. Take a look at the list of teams and the structure. This is going to be quite the tournament and I'll be pumped to be playing in it.

Looks like that's all for now. I couldn't make practice today because of this pretty bad cold that I'm going through, but I hope to be back on the field on Thursday.

Step 1

First A/B splits took place.

31 guys will be gunning for a spot on the A-team this season. I'd estimate that around 10 get cut between now and the end of this term, but I could be wrong.

There are 14 returning A-team players, 3 B-team players (Bob, DZ and myself) and 14 "rookies" - I put that in quotes because a lot of them have played before and are good players. I'm unsure of how many true rookies there are, but you know the team is looking to take at least one of them this year.

That's pretty much it on the Pitt Ultimate scene right now. Tryout practices will last the next couple months with cuts here and there - typically after tournaments - and so we'll go from there.

I've worked hard this summer and into this fall, so that's all I can say about that. Now I just have to prove it on the field.

Club Update

I got word about a week ago that I wasn't going to be put on the final Forge roster. And while it sucks that I didn't make the cut, it isn't unexpected. I missed three tournaments this summer. It's a shame that the three weekends I would have conflicts would be the three weekends that Forge had tournaments. That's how it goes, though, and I'll be alright.

I'm still invited to come practice with them, which is always a good thing. It will help me to keep on practicing for this fall when I make my push for the A-team.

Speaking of this upcoming fall, I've been working really hard this summer to get myself into the best shape possible. I go to the gym as often as possible (I try for at least 5 times per week) and have been throwing and learning a lot more strategy. I'm in the process of completing Air Alert III. I'm currently on week 11, so only a few more weeks to go. It'll be perfect timing for the fall season.

Because I'm not on the Forge roster now, I'm left with two options for club ultimate this year. My first option is to keep practicing with Forge and see if they take me on their team for the club series. The second option is to keep practicing with Forge and play with SwaggerU for the club series. Either way, it looks like I'll be playing with Forge whenever I can during the rest of the summer.

Looks like that's all for now on the personal level. I got back from Minnesota on Monday night after coaching Pittsburgh Impulse to a 3rd place finish at the Youth Club Championships. I know I said I'd make some posts about me coaching, but that never happened this summer. Maybe I'll get around to getting a post up recapping my summer as a coach.

That's all for now.

Gotta keep on working hard.

Can you hear that? Pittsburgh's calling.

So, here's the Forge update: I still don't know.

Basically, the captains (Ben and Rob) have made their selection of guys for the team. Right now, the roster consists of 20 guys. Because I couldn't make the two previous tryout tournaments, I was given an extended tryout. Ben and Rob never said they'd take me, but they never said they wouldn't. Basically, my performance on the field and off the field workouts are going to decide whether they take 21 guys with them or leave it at 20.

Yeah, so, it's mid-July and I'm still not sure if I've made the Pittsburgh's club team yet. That doesn't bother me, though, because it only makes me want to work harder. I want Forge to want me on their team because they know I can bring something to them. It's how I'm approaching the situation and the team itself.

Because of this, my extended tryout was essentially this past weekend at Forge practice. Despite most of the guys being slightly hungover because of a party the night before, I felt that I had my best Forge practice/tryout to date. It was the first time that I felt confident a Forge practice. Playing against the best players in Pittsburgh didn't seem to phase me and I took chance when I felt the time was right and I gave it my all on defense.

Guess what. It paid off.

I caused a few turnovers on defense and score a couple goals. I also had a nice full field huck for a score during one of the scrimmages. It was a good feeling and now it leaves me hopeful for what my next step might be in terms of club Ultimate.

As always, I'll update as soon as I know more about my stay with Forge.

P.S. I know I said I'd post an update about coaching and Impulse, but I got busy with work. It's on my to-do list (thanks, Google) and hopefully there will be one in the next day or two.

Summer update

Wow. One month, no post.

Basically, I've been really busy lately with coaching, volunteer service trips and family vacation. But just because I've been all over the place doesn't mean I haven't been working hard.

I just finished week five of Air Alert and, wow, it's turning into a good workout. I can really feel my legs getting strong - not only when I jump but whenever I run and sprint, too. This could be one of the best leg workout programs I've done. I'm a big fan of it - for now. I still have 10 more weeks to go. I start week six on Tuesday. Going to be tough.

Unfortunately because of my travels lately, I couldn't make the last two tournaments for Forge (No Surf and Boston Invite). The problem? They were additional tryout tournaments. And although I already talked about tryout tournament mentality, it was almost necessary for me to make these tournaments if I wanted a roster spot on Forge. It's a shame I couldn't make the tournaments, but the final decision still hasn't been made. Hopefully I know soon.

As for other playing options...I will either see if I can get in on playing Steel Reserve, which is Pittsburgh's second open team, or see if I can play with Swagger U, a primarily all-Pitt club team. Not sure what's going to happen, but I'll update this when I know.

I'll have a post on coaching soon and hopefully another one or two by the middle of this month. Things will start to slow back down for me after the 14th, so I can begin posting more again.

CUT Recap and the Tryout Tournament Metality

Ended up going to CUT with only 27 guys because of last minute drops. Regardless, Forge struggled throughout the tournament to gain any momentum and win games. We ended up going 0-4 on Saturday and lost our only game - against Pike - on Sunday. Needless to say, it was rough.

Going to a tournament, and a tryout tournament at that, with so many players can be very difficult mentally on the players. I would say that most guys, myself included, didn't hurt a lot on Saturday night and that's because of the way the lines were run. And this is in no way a knock on the way the people calling lines, but imagine trying to gain momentum and stay in the tournament mental mode if you only play 1 or 2 points in a row and then sit for 5 or 6 points. It's very hard to stay focused and play with any rhythm or chemistry. But that happens at tryout tournaments.

Which leads me to how I approached and looked at CUT (but any tryout tournament, really). For me, trying out for a team and playing a tryout tournament is broken into two categories:
1. Preparation
2. Execution

That might sound cliche and broad, but it's pretty simple. Heading into this weekend, I prepared and told myself that I wasn't going to get a lot of playing time. In the end, I probably got about as much playing time as anybody else trying out and not "already on the team" but heading into the weekend, I didn't expect that. So without know how much I was going to play, I knew that this tournament was going to take desire, dedication and perfection. I knew that every point I was on (O, and especially on D) was going to need as much desire to get that disc. That meant sprinting when cutting and clearing, laying out when I needed to on D, making sure my throws 100% and to not go beyond my limits. That's how looked at this weekend. I mentally prepared myself for limited playing time, but knew that I needed to be perfect when on the field.

And as the tournament started out, I was right about limited playing time. I played three points in our first game against Ironside (13-6 loss), and despite not touching the disc once in the game (played all D points) I never let my guy get beat in. I didn't get any D's, but my guy was looked off on any incuts. It was solid play on my part, but I (and the rest of the team) wanted the win. As the day went on, I saw more and more playing time (upwards of 9, 10 or 11 points per game). Whether that is a result of my previous play or not, I don't know (but I can hope it is). As somebody trying out, it's important to keep track of your play so you know where you can improve and what your strengths are. In the end (and after a lot more playing time, especially in later rounds of the tournament) I threw away one disc, completed two hucks, turned in a layout D and improved my cutting and and fakes. Overall, I felt I played consistent. I didn't play spectacular or have layout catches for scores, but I didn't turn the disc over and I gave it my all every time I was on the field. I executed my plan to the best of my ability and had a good tournament.

What happens next with Forge, though, is up to the captains making the team. The next round of cuts will probably be over the course of the next week or so. I'll update when I know more.

Getting Ready for CUT

My first tournament with a good club team. Gonna feel good playing this weekend.

Forge is take 33 (34?) guys to the Cazenovia Ultimate Tournament in New York.

I feel like I'm ready for it. I had some good tryouts and practice this past Sunday wasn't great, but it wasn't bad. Playing Ultimate while sick is not a fun thing to do. Really slows down reaction time, even if you try to fight it. I guess I know how Malkin felt last year in the Stanley Cup Finals when he had the flu for a month.

Anyways, my cutting, throws and defense have all gotten better since I started playing with these guys. It's amazing what playing against good players does to you. If you want to get better at Ultimate, you have to play against (with) better players. Simple as that.

After this tournament, players will be cut so the final roster is produced. A lot of guys playing in this tournament, so I have to make sure I make the most of the points I do get to play. I can't afford any errors this weekend. 100% throws. Layout D's. Patience.

I'll update Forge scores this weekend on Twitter, so follow me if you want.

Forge Update

Got word yesterday that I made the first round of cuts for Forge. Not sure of the exact roster, but my guess says it's somewhere around 28-30 guys still on the team and that the next round of cuts will put the roster to 20-22. Still a lot of work to be done, but it feels good have made such a good team.

Up next is C.U.T. in New York from June 6-7. Should be a great test of where I actually stand on this team. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a good tryout. I felt good out there and felt like I was competing with the best. Hopefully my defensive presence is something that continues to shine on this team. That's definitely one my strengths.

Other than the Forge announcement, not much is happening. I start "coaching" TRUC next week. Already 40 guys signed up and hoping to get another 15 or so over the week. Can't wait for it.

On the injury front, the groin is still an issue, especially during Saturday of the second weekend of tryouts. I think the only way to combat this issue is to make sure I ice it the night before practices/tournaments. That seemed to work last time. Anybody have any other ideas? It sucks.

That's all for now. Heading to Columbus in a couple hours to watch Pitt at College Nationals. Should be a great time.