Animal IQ Test

Posted by Bill

It’s been said that "Cats are smarter than dogs. You can't get eight cats to pull a sled through snow." I’m not sure where that puts Buzzards in the animal IQ chain as we got 12 to come out and play Ultimate yesterday (six who were repeat offenders from Tuesday) on a field that, in many places, still hadn’t been trod on and where the snow was probably still in the 12-18” depth range.

Wanted to give a “welcome back” to Nate who was one of the repeat offenders. He’s had fun diving (in most cases needlessly) for discs the past two days and has upped the number of Buzzards we consider “speedy” by about 25%.

There’s a strange thing about this snow. Even normally adept handlers have been heard the last two days swearing at themselves and asking why they cannot complete a pass. There haven’t been a whole lot of opportunities to lead anybody since not too many people have run under a disc. Todd may have been one of the exceptions yesterday as I was able to keep one up in the air long enough for him to run under it for a score.

Brad, after getting the full court press of peer pressure to play on Tuesday, decided not to reply yesterday but show up anyway and play. Anybody else noticed recently that he’s seemed to healed from whatever had been keeping him from running. I’m starting not to like it when I have to mark him. Still, you need to be careful when he’s marking you. Ask Brook who took a full body shot from Brad hurling himself at him. “Oh hey Brook, welcome back yourself!”

I was glad to see Frank out yesterday with long pants and socks after playing in neither back on our first snow game in December. Of course he’s headed out to Monterey soon on a Buzzard Sabbatical. Yesterday the temps there were in the 70’s and it was sunny. We hate you Frank!

The rest of the Buzzards besides Todd, Brad and Nate who have doubled up on the snow games this week have been Sean, Kevin, Eric and yours truly. And three of us are RSVPd for today’s game as well.

The rest of the snow Buzzards who have been out this week are Steave, Brian, Frank, Brook, Bob, Tom and Conrad. And today we’re expecting even some others who haven’t played in the snow yet…Erick and Dan G. Rumor has it there will be a camera out today also so stay tuned for some photographic evidence that Buzzards are perhaps no smarter than cats or dogs but certainly more hearty...Iditarod schmitarod.

BUZZARDS DEFEAT PPC COMPLEXIFICATIONIZERS, 15-7, and Advance to the Round of Eight

Show up on time and put it up deep. That pretty much defined the Buzzards' key to early success (taking half at 8-3) in their first ever playoff win against PPC Complexificationizers, a company team of consultants who consult on the things that their company does, which is consulting (we think they may be ninjas).

The game started promptly at 6:30, possibly a first in Ultimate history, and PPC took advantage of a careless turnover at our own end zone to draw first blood. But the Buzzards (Todd, Reagan, Paul, Leroy, Kevin, Kelly, Karl, Jeff, Brook, Bridgette and Bill) stepped up, taking the game to 2-2, and then on a 6-1 run to half.

A big Buzzard “Welcome Back” to Devon Clark, Leroy Posey’s evil twin brother. Together, the twins scored probably 70% of the Buzzard Points on deep throws to the end zone. You can tell which one is evil because of the evil one always has facial hair (“I’ve got sensitive skin!”) and the good one reads the Washington Post.

Some more Complexificationizers showed up by halftime (including someone to make the twins work for the disk in the end zone), and the Buzzards gave up three quick points getting adjusted to PPC's zone defense. At 8-6, the Buzzards decided it was time to get serious, and eight points later it was 15-7 and “Good game, blue”. The second half was classic Buzzard flow, with nice popper cuts from Paul, Bridgette, Reagan, and Kelly, and relaxed, high-percentage handling from Todd, Karl, Jeff, Bill and Kevin.

Plays of the game (tonight on “the Ocho”):
Bill “maybe if I lay out it’ll fix my back” Putnam, for digging the disk like the volleyball powerhouse he is.
Kelly “Garot is French for 'Handler', boys” Garot, for not being afraid to put up the deep stuff.
Paul “Popper” St. Pierre, for making the cup look over their shoulders and cry one big teardrop, like at the end of that Prince video.
And Bridgette “strip me again and I will gut you like a fish” Barchek, for showing Jack that Mom is NOT to be messed with.

A rules clarification: Contact which affects your ability to make a play on the disk is a foul. In short: shoving on the way up is a foul and should be called, shoving on the way down is poor Spirit and should be avoided. On a receiving foul, if the foul is contested, the disk goes back to the thrower. If uncontested, the disk goes to the fouled player.

From the 11th Edition rules :
XVI.H.3.b.(1). If a player contacts an opponent while the disc is in the air and thereby interferes with that opponent’s attempt to make a play on the disc, that player has committed a receiving foul. Some amount of incidental contact before, during, or immediately after the attempt often is unavoidable and is not a foul.

but...

XVI.H.2. Contact resulting from adjacent opposing players simultaneously vying for the same unoccupied position, is not in itself a foul.

see also...

XVI.H.3.b.(1) The Principle of Verticality: All players have the right to enter the air space immediately above their torso to make a play on a thrown disc. If non-incidental contact occurs in the airspace immediately above a player before the outcome of the play is determined (e.g., before possession is gained or an incomplete pass is effected), it is a foul on the player entering the vertical space of the other player.

And, of course, pushing an airborne player out of the end zone is a no-no.

Things to think about for next time:
The Zone offense is all about smooth flow. The Buzzards did an excellent job of not forcing bad passes, but the dump-swing-repeat could flow a little faster. Remember, the mission is to run the cup ragged so that they are out of position when you want to go deep. The middle handler’s primary look is a quick continuation to the swing. He’s got about ¾ of a second before the cup gets there. If the middle handler dallies, then the swings are going to start looking for arcing passes across the width of the field. This is low-percentage play and exactly what the cup wants. Keep is simple and keep it moving.

On man defense, if your man is playing deep, cover him deep. But if he is playing middle or short, don’t be afraid to get between him and the disc. If they put up a deep throw, our own deep cover will be there to back you up. Don’t be afraid to commit up close, cut off the passing lanes and get the layout D.

Be proud of your performance, Buzzards. You played tough D against a team with good throws. You played smart O, and forced them to play your game. And you advanced to the round of 8.

Our next game is Wednesday, August 5th at the Polo Fields #1B. Our opponent is either "Air it Out" or Wesleyan. Game at 6:30, cookout at 5:45. See you there!

BUZZARDS DON'T FLY IN THUNDERSTORMS

As Vince Lombardi said, "We didn't lose the game; we just ran out of time." Of course, as the 11th edition rules say “The team with the most goals at the end of the game is the winner.” So there you have it as the Buzzard Point Ultimate Club (2-1) receives its first Corporate League defeat at the hands of Multiple Scoregasm (a group of alums from Takoma Park Middle, Whitman and Mongomery Blair High Schools in Maryland) 10 to 9 in a game called at about 8 pm due to lightning.

To be honest, I’m having a hard time putting this one in the “L” column, as every circumstance seemed to line up against the Buzzards to create the loss. A tiny field created by a local club team’s need to practice in the middle of WAFC Corporate League games (I’m not a good sharer), a half-hour late start (I’m not patient, especially for late starts where we then run out of time), and a game called due to weather (I’m allergic to lightning) all combined to cut short a game that already had two lead changes and the Buzzards on a three-point run.

Kudos to opponents M.S. for running a patient zone offense. On the plus side, the Buzzards stuck with it and forced the opponents to crawl up the field in a dump, swing, [repeat] fashion. Nice job sticking with the defense Buzzards: no breakdowns on the Buzzards side, but certainly no mistakes by M.S., either. And at least a whole lot of us got to see it as we brought fifteen (!) Buzzards to the game (Todd, Reagan, Paul, Matt, Mariam, Leroy, Kevin, Kelly, Karl, Jeana, Jason, Brook, Brad, Bob, Annette).

A big Buzzards welcome to Mariam d’Eustachio, playing her first game of Ultimate in the 21st century. She says “Everyone on the team is really nice & helpful.” I say “It really is a great group, [they’re all so nice that if you had to pick someone (ha-ha), I would say that] I’m pretty much the biggest jerk on the team.” She says “Yeah, you are."

Things to do different for next time:
(1) Recognize we brought a LOT more players, and start running for the sake of running earlier in the game. We didn’t really realize this until halftime, and we started to see the benefits shortly thereafter.
(2) We spend a lot of lunch-time putting up big bombs to hyper-athletic end-zone cuts. We’ve tried to get away from this because we need to develop other skills, but lets not forget what we’re good at.
(3) Fix the grill. Cripes, what a piece of junk. You’d think that something I paid nearly twenty dollars for back in 2002 would stand up a little better. Thanks to Mariam, Annette and Kevin’s Mom for improvising hot dog skewers and feeding the Buzzards.

In my Great Big Book of Frisbee Strategy, things (1) + (2) = HORIZONTAL STACK! Give it a look here (http://www.ultimatehandbook.com/blog/strategy/horizontal/) . A good horizontal stack opens up the field for our athleticism and also our ability to run the length of the field on deep cuts, then bring in fresh legs.

Our next games are MONDAY, JULY 6th in Anacostia vs. ERG and FRIDAY, JULY 10th at the Polo Fields vs. Peace Corps/ Agency for International Development. Directions at www.wafc.org/page/fields. Sign up at www.rostermanager.com.

Dinner party planning

After Monday’s monster 2-game day I was surprised to get somewhat tepid response to yesterday’s invite and in fact had to send out a 2nd email asking for players to which Tom kindly replied “I hate to see you beg, I’m in” and allowed me to go ahead and call the game around 0930.

Like Monday though, the replies were not quite indicative of the number of players that came out. All I can say about this group is I’m glad I don’t plan dinner for them. “Hmmmm, let’s see I’ve got 8 coming out, this should be enough steaks…crap, there are 14 of us? Somebody go get another cow or get that guy that does the loaves and fishes party trick!”

Fortunately we didn’t need more food, just more pinnies as Brook came out on the field with two new players and then another wandered out about 20 minutes later. Together with Brad & Scott who were surprise attendees for the day’s disc event, Matt who passed up lunch at Cantina Maria, and MikeC, we quickly fleshed out to 8 on 8.

So, by the way, an official Buzzard welcome to Karl, Mark, & Matt who all joined us for the first time yesterday. Great to have all of you out there. And no matter what Brook tells you, it’s much easier for me to plan when I know who’s coming out but don’t ever let that stop you from coming if you haven’t told me.

The humidity is here. Temperatures aren’t in the 90’s yet but with all the thunderstorm warning this week, the humidity is high meaning heavy air, heavy shirts, and heavier gym bags on the way home in the afternoons. Please remember to hydrate early and often as we move into summer.

Some decent play at times yesterday. Leroy made a few nice defensive plays, MikeC had some really good cuts and grabs, Brad also made a really nice catch yesterday and since I give him good natured grief so often on the pitch I thought I’d note a good play for a change (especially since he caught it with me playing pretty tight D on him), and the trio of “newbies” all showed flashes of Ultimate prowess.

We had a short discussion on a rule clarification for those of you who were not there, or have already forgotten what we talked about. On any pull into the end zone, the thrower must play the disc from where it lands. We should not be walking pulls out to the front line of the end zone. You may still bring a turnover into the end zone to the front goal line but not a pull.

By the way, for those of you who haven’t been following one of our Buzzard alumni, Hollan, on Facebook, the poor guy has had to resort to playing “Cornhole” now that Ultimate isn’t in his daily regimen any more. And who knows what Swinny and Phil are up to. Swinny told me he’d just been on a run or a bike or something the last time I talked to him but from the sounds of Phil & Erica’s blog, it sounds like they’re just eating and drinking their way across country. Dude you’re going to need some Ultimate. You should stop back by through D.C. before you head to NY for good and get in a week of disc.

For the rest of you Buzzards…June has been a bonanza so far. Keep it up. And don’t forget, Thursday, we’re taking a little disc sabbatical to send Matt off with a game of Flag Football instead.

Punt!

Looking for some blogosphere "Drain-O"

Is “Bloggers’ Block” a clog, an impasse, a jam? Maybe, since it’s the Buzzards blog, it’s a force? Yea, I kind of like that. I’ve been forced from my usual scrivener self in search for interesting things to write about the Buzzards daily escapades. And it’s not that we aren’t interesting.

We had a very interesting conversation on the way back in Monday about the moral position of forgiving or at least turning the other cheek (or nostril) to those who had become addicted to nicotine prior to the federally mandated warning labels. It started with Phil’s not so convincing Ben Stiller imitation out on the field “uhhh huhhh huhhh, I think I got the Black Lung” and moved to the holiday visits to parents becoming older and still holding on to habits that make them “cough up a lung” which by the way has a real medical description “upper GI hemorrhage”. I know because this is what my dad died of after 50 years of smoking Pall Mall non filters. In one of those strange coincidences of conversation and life…today would have been my dad’s 68th birthday. By the way Pop’s was known to throw a few Frisbees in his lifetime and could do it with cigarette in hand or mouth.

The post-Turkey day on the pitch was a windy one. Depending on your source, gusts were somewhere between 16 and 30 mph. My own internal anemometer did some quick calculations (│v│=√u2 + v2 w2) and I gauged it to be around the 23-24 mph range…or just short of wind ribbon conditions. Nonetheless, with temperatures hovering in the mid 40’s making the wind chill somewhere in the 33-34 range, and sudden gusts that turned Mark’s 5 yard dump pass to me go 20 yards behind him made for some challenging play. So thanks to everybody else who came out.

I can’t remember much of the game due to my recent unexplained knack for making contact with everybody. I think I’m still shaking off some mild concussion symptoms from yesterday when while I was marking Jason, I followed his throwing hand a bit too closely and wound up catching the follow through forearm across my left eye socket. “Is it supposed to be ringing out here?”

The 8 turned into 11 or 12 on Monday. I can’t quite remember. Phil & Thunder both showed up after not replying and JQ was out on the field doing calisthenics when we got out there. “Who’s that I asked Todd as we were crossing the street?”

“Well, it’s not Scott or he’d be sitting under the tree asking us what took us so long.”

“Yea” I agreed “I kind of thought it was Brook but he wouldn’t be running…must be JQ”.

Others of you with a chance to hit an early week trifecta of games besides those already mentioned above…Dennis, Mark, & Bob. Jeana stood us up again yesterday with some crazy excuse about a job, boss & meeting. Bridgette came out yesterday and provide much of my entertainment. On one trip down the field, I realized I was the last yellow pinnie back and that she, in her green, was getting ready to run by me. “Better try to catch her off guard” I thought and reached out and grabbed her sweatshirt. I spun her around, she fell down, and caught the disc in the end zone. Nice D Bill….walk back up the field loser.

Others who have wandered out already this week…Paul, Kevin, George, Fred, Matt, and Brad. And a big Buzzards Welcome to MarkW who joined us for the first time yesterday. You can tell him from the other Mark…well let’s just say there are some verticality differences.

Looking forward to a good game today…no contact…maybe even some running.

Rodney Reunion Tour

“So with Rodney playing today, do we have to let him win?” was the question I got asked yesterday morning in preparation for the BPUC reunion game we had planned for him as he was going to be back in the building and hoped to play.

“No way” I said “Let’s just treat him like we always do…like our little sister”. I mean we didn’t want to make him feel unwelcome. I did notice though that JQ was making Rodney look deceptively fast early in the game zipping two passes into end zone corners where the defense wasn’t actually that badly beaten. Ah, handlers…sometimes they make you look good.

There seemed to be a variety of defenses being played yesterday. My team, overwhelmingly outvoted me and wanted to play zone to begin with. So Brad and Brian headed forward to play the cup with mid-play tutoring going on (which, oddly enough, seems to impact the effectiveness of the defense actually being played…not in a good way). Phil, Dennis & I roamed the middle and Bob played deep safety (he likes that position too much and jumps at the chance he gets to play it).

The green team seemed to be playing some bastardized version of pentagon and 1 or what I like to call 5 guys playing man and the 6th letting Brian run loose. After we found Brian for the 3rd or 4th open pass early in the game, I heard Todd shouting “Who in the world has Brian?” I’m not completely sure but when I saw JQ racing back and forth across the field as safety a la Bob, I figured he was the one who’d been cheating on the man defense.

I had a particularly tough time throwing yesterday due to the new defense being played on me. Scott was marking me with the “bump pivot” D. That’s when I’m trying to get him out of my shirt and I pivot around and he keeps bumping me. It’s legality clearly in question…I could picture Phil if he’d had to endure it, constantly rotating the disc around in front of his stomach to try and cry for more room…but the effectiveness of it could not be disputed. My handling sucked yesterday. Aside from a couple that I decided to just throw out of bounds and let come back in (and one of those got caught up in the tree), I was pretty much useless.

Several players deferred playing yesterday and said they’d be playing today. If that was your idea of fair weather Ultimate playing I might point out that you didn’t check your weather forecasts very well. Yesterday was almost perfect playing conditions with temperatures in the 50’s and almost no wind. Today will barely reach into the 50’s and there is 100% chance of rain. Oh, we’ll still play but for Alec & Jeana…I’ll be looking for you two.

And while I’m throwing people under the bus…er…uh…I mean…missing players who haven’t been out this week…that we usually see out there is…Jason, Paul, Brook? Are you guys here this week? We got George back out yesterday so I’ve taken him off the MIA list. Rachel, are you coming back out? How ‘bout some other former players who have really gone into the Witness Protection Program…MattD, Jorge, Bo, Eric B, Denise, Roz? Hey, don’t think I don’t know who’s on this list. Come on back out folks!

You know I sometimes mention the conversation on the way out or back from the pitch or in the locker room…they’re generally my most interesting of the day. Last week there was talk of loofahs, waxing, and quality whites (wine, not linens) that would have made you think you were at the spa and not the guy’s locker room. Yesterday, Kevin and I were comparing our driving lives that shared commonalities like 3-generation pickups, routes (29 & 95 respectively), some Va. State Trooper observations, and High School Musical 3 (okay we don’t share that but we talked about it). You don’t get this kind of renaissance intellectual and emotional stimulus in many other circles.

So, I’m thinking…what this White House transition team really needs is a lunchtime Ultimate game coordinator to keep everybody motivated and physically fit and…you know…informed.

Our cup over runneth...

“Okay, shake your head up and down if what I just said made any sense, and side to side if you thought I was speaking gibberish” Kevin clarified after the words cup, left mid, hammer block, force wind, and other quasi-official Ultimate speak left this somewhat dazed look on his teammates faces?

“Can’t we just cover somebody?” Tim asked. And to his point…if you spend all morning in a meeting with a bunch of other O4s, being asked to think at lunch time on the pitch may be akin to any Republicans that were up late Tuesday night somehow hoping California wouldn’t go blue. Yea, that’s not happening.

Well, to even be in the position to practice the zone yesterday was a surprise because when I called the game I had just barely gotten the 8th response and I thought for sure we were headed for a 4 on 4 or 4 on 5 game yesterday. But then I was able to solicit a few latecomers, Alec & Brook, on our new “Office Communicator” (really the most functional aspect I’ve found for the application yet), Thunder changed his mind, somebody finally found Phil hiding under his desk and Mike wandered out and then Brian even showed up on his bicycle. So our 8 turned into 15 and the 3 mile and hour winds cranked up to about 15 probably and made for some interesting passing…uh…er…dropping perhaps.

Early in the game was ugly as everybody, it seems, dropped pass after pass. Or the handlers just threw them into the ground or 15 feet over somebody’s head depending on how the wind was blowing at that particular instant.

But, teams were running from stacks (well, when Brian didn’t think I was talking about IHOP), and we were playing some zone and actually forcing to one side or another and at times we looked like Ultimate teams. Not a lot of long pass connections yesterday though.

Another overcast rain threatening game today. Life’s good, let’s play.

Welcome to Autumn

- posted by Bill

This run of 14+ games is starting to spoil me. When was the last time we got stood up by two players and didn’t miss them? Okay, well when I say “didn’t miss” I meant, we still had plenty to play, not that we didn’t want you guys there…

Listen Todd, I know it was your first day back after about a month of leave but in case you need a small reminder I found the perfect bumper sticker for you…

We had another great game on the first day of Autumn which ironically seemed much warmer and more humid then our last days of summer last week.

Want to welcome out Tim2 (look you already get a nickname since we have an established Tim), and welcome back to George and to Kelly who made a surprise visit and who obviously is in the spirit of the above bumper sticker, giving up the job search for Ultimate today.

We had some nice collisions today. Brook and I had a rude intersection after I had tapped a high pass into the air and that tried to recalibrate the landing. Rodney took out Scott on a slide tackle in the end zone and Brian clobbered Bob on one pass along the sideline (though apparently not hard enough as Bob caught it anyway).

In fact, with that grab and another one in which Bob outran Phil half way up the field and all the way across the end zone for a score took some credibility away from the “old stiff and sore” routine that Bob would like for you to believe. Jason found the words the more common belief among his fellow Buzzards, “Bob’s full of it! I’m not buying that bum ankle story anymore. He’s outrunning everybody.”

Will and Mark also joined us but somebody forgot to explain another Ultimate rule to them…if you’re going to be late, you don’t get to stretch. Again, it’s nice to have so many people playing right now that you can start without everybody that RSVPs.

By the way, anybody think that if the BPUC can increase our debt to income ratio a little higher that we’d qualify for the current Federal buyout of all things private. You suppose this is what Alexander Hamilton had in mind when he established the Department of Treasury? You suppose anybody will challenge Ben Bernanke to a duel?

"What's a crop?"

Posted by Bill

Great game of 7 on 7 yesterday. The wind was blowing 15-20 mph and we really had to work on our short game but the teams were pretty well balanced and play was good.

Strong winds don’t deter some people from trying long passes. Your's truly got one to sail nicely early in the game and it wound up going off Brook’s fingertips in the end zone but encouraged by that near miss I kept hucking away, at one stretch about 4 times in a row down the field trying to hit Tim with one as he seemingly kept sneaking behind the defense. But either the wind would pick it up or I’d turn over the flick, or zip one into the defender’s arms and never found much success with that. Of course I was relieved to see I wasn’t the only one having trouble. JQ let loose with one of his golf slice shots that he likes to start out of bounds and come slicing back in to a man running deep…well it sliced back in, all the way across the field, and then all the way out on the other side…mad wind!

So he and Bob tried to stick to their short game for the most part and handled well, feeding Hollan, Tom, Erik, Jason & Fred as they found lanes to cut in.

There was some really good defense being played yesterday and even when you thought you had a throw in, sometimes the wind would hold it up long enough for the defender to get there. Phil made a great play on one nice zip throw from Bob to a cutting JQ in the corner and got his hand up to knock it down.

For the gold team, Rodney did manage to find Thunder early in the game for a nice mid length score that looked like it was headed over Scott’s head until he jumped a little, got a hand up, deflected the disc and it came down in his arms as he tumbled to the ground. And Mike at one point, after some frustrating discs off fingertips and throws in the wind, triumphantly spiked the disc after a score late in the game.

We tried to use the windy day to work on some formations and mechanics but when two of the more “experienced” players shouted back to directions of “force middle” and “shift force” ….” What’s the middle?” and “Shift what?” I realized that maybe we hadn’t practiced either of those things much or Rodney and Phil’s collective ability to pay attention was waning.

I was reminded of the scene in “Field of Dreams” with Costner’s character, Ray Kinsella and his ruthless, foreclosing brother-in-law Mark:

Mark: "Admit it, Ray. You've never liked farming."

Ray Kinsella: "That's not true."

Mark:"It is true. You don't know the first thing about farming."

Ray Kinsella: "Yes I do. I know a lot about farming. I know more than you think I know."

Mark: "Then how could you plow under your major crop?"

Ray Kinsella:"What's a crop?"

Uh….”What’s a force?”

For the sake of the discussion…in general terms the word “force” refers to the direction you are either trying to get the handler to look to throw, or the direction you are trying to make the person you are covering run to. And usually, the marker is trying to force the handler to throw to the middle as the rest of the defense forces the cutters to a respective sideline.

Then you have commands like “switch force” which you can use if the marker is forcing to sideline to get them to move their force direction for a few seconds so that the defender can catch up to a cutter that may be headed for that sideline, especially near the end zone. The basic idea is to force a team to throw a long ways across the field.

Maybe we’ll take 5-10 minutes prior to game time today and just work on a couple formations.

Thanks everybody for a great game yesterday. Weather is going to be perfect today. PULL!

Washington Area Frisbee Club

There are several new players this summer and if any of you are looking for other Ultimate outlets besides playing with the Buzzards during lunch here's a good link to check out...courtesy of Brook:

http://www.wafcstore.org/fall_rec_08.html

Incoming!

posted by Bill

It’s been a while since I’ve updated here. Took some much needed leave and it appears that not too many games were played while I was gone.

We’ve had two games this week though. Monday’s was my first in a couple weeks and it was hot and humid. Hollan and I were both returning from about a week and a half off and having similar vacation hangover effects. I think mine were a bit worse though as I wandered off the field with about 15 minutes to go, feeling dizzy and like somebody had popped me in the microwave. After pouring half a bottle of water over my head I started to cool down some and find my orientation but I didn’t go back in the game and Hollan took the opportunity to even up the teams and sat out with me as we watched the rest of the Buzzards struggle to score “last 3”. By the way, welcome out to new Buzzard, Fred. You picked a hot day for your first game and held your own, congratulations.

Yesterday’s game seemed much better weather-wise. We did have to fit ourselves geometrically between 3 softball games going on around us and in their true army fashion, made us feel a couple times like we were taking artillery fire.

Another new Buzzard, Bo, joined us yesterday. Two new players able to run in one week. This doesn’t bode well for some of us…uh…more acceleration-challenged Buzzards. Mark had his G.I. Joe Kung Fu grip working yesterday as he made several great grabs. We started out with 9 and after green scored the first 3 I flopped myself over to gold. Brook wandered out a bit tardy though and we were able to run 5 on 5 the rest of the game.

There was some nice defense being played yesterday. Todd and I each traded jump discs in the end zone, Kevin made a couple nice plays showing off some surprising vertical, and Bo reached around me on a couple of occasions to break up passes I though I had position on. Good to have Will and Dan back out with us as well.

By the way everybody, apparently Hollan has a new camera he’s planning on bringing out soon. We haven’t gotten a summer team picture yet (sorry Bryan, should have before you left) so we need one of those. And Bob, you may want to consider whether you want to be with or without goatee…we’ll give you time to grow it back if you want.

Be good Buzzards and keep inviting people out. We’ve gotten a lot of great new participation this transfer season.

Categories of new players...

Posted by Bill

It was nice to get some decent numbers back out on the field yesterday. We want to welcome out two new players, Leroy & Kevin and one returning player, Brook, who had been gone so long he had to get put back on the distribution list first.

Leroy reminded me of some of the other summer hires, interns and students we’ve had come play with us before… "young and can run”…Thanks for making some of us more “seasoned” players feel even older and slower. And speaking of feeling slower…playing with Dennis yesterday I found out after that amazing catch he made in the end zone where I thought he just misplayed it but found out he was really juking up the defender first before running behind him and falling down to catch it…anyway, Dennis, who most of you know has some good wheels when he’s running is doing so short one ACL…I’ve got two perfectly healthy ACLs and I don’t usually run that well.

Of course the other type of player knows you can run smarter, not harder and that would describe our other new addition, Kevin. I knew he had played before as we were marking up he was shouting out the number player he was taking, “I’ve got 6”, which most organized Ultimate players will recognize as him saying he had the 6th guy from the left . Of course most of the guys on the gold team yesterday had no idea what he was saying and asked for some sort of clarification “green shorts”, Kevin elaborated, not wanting to confuse anybody with the jumble of names he promised to remember, albeit, not with any particular faces. I knew I was going to enjoy playing with him when I heard him mention “I don’t need anybody to mark me when I don’t have the disc, I can do that myself”. Sorry, Kevin, hope I didn’t let out the secret to your elusiveness.

So Brook, how was the first game back in, uh, how many months? Feeling a little gassed? It was fairly humid yesterday until about two thirds of the way into the game when we were mercifully given some cloud cover and a breeze.

Hollan was playing some mad D yesterday…well, right up until he broke his heel. Okay, so we don’t know exactly if that’s what happened but his negative reply to the game this morning “because I’m on crutches and headed to Bethesda” didn’t sound good.

Rodney and I both seemed pleasantly surprised at the lack of contact from each other after the game yesterday but he seemed genuinely offended that I told him I’d have to use veto power on any selection of him for SOTG in June. Speaking of the Spirit…Bryan brought the SOTG trophy disc out to the field yesterday. I initially suspected he’d been through too many hazing ceremonies and thought he had to carry it around with him everywhere until it was awarded to somebody else but as it turns out, he’s winding down his last week with us before departing to the upper Midwest and wants me to keep it safe so he doesn’t forget and leave with it.

Conrad…how is it you’ll drop a disc in the wide open but when I’m marking you and am all over you and tipping the disc, you manage to come down with it?

I heard Bob mention that there were a lot of good handlers out yesterday…I’d have to agree. Whenever you’re playing with Eli, Todd, Brook, or Eric, you know if you can get yourself open that you’re likely to get a good pass at some point. Todd may have made the best one on the last point of the game yesterday…a full length huck for a score.

We managed to keep Bryan from diving for anything yesterday, hoping to preserve him for his marathon this weekend. Good luck!

Going to be another great weather day today but surprisingly only 4 people have responded so far this morning. Hollan, you’re excused, the rest of you????

Nothing to sneeze at!

posted by Bill

So I come in this morning to find out 3 Buzzards have transferred that were here at the beginning of last week, another is headed for the DL with some disc issues (pun intended but really not funny for him), and another is out today at the allergist (really, I couldn’t make this stuff up Phil). Another is on leave until the end of June and I suspect is on a honeymoon but I don’t know that for sure and since I wasn’t invited…

Fair winds to CaptK, Jason & Lon!

Anyway, so you’d think we might be a little short today on numbers right? Well, not quite. You misjudge the depth of the Buzzards roster. We had another, Brook, do his best Lazarus routine and he will be back on the field today. Hollan has also recruited one of the 6 interns in his office to come out. How do you get 6 interns in one office???!!!!! And apparently he’d already finished the projects they were hired to work on so they’re really getting paid to do nothing but he could only get one of them out on the field.

At any rate, Happy Belated Father’s Day to all you dads. If you’re not one and forgot to call yours yesterday, go ahead and call today. Trust me, he won’t mind it late. Better than not hearing from you at all.

I’ve been splashing around in my new Keens this past week. They perform fabulously in the river if anybody’s in the market for such footwear. I also think I could probably take them from the water straight to an Ultimate field if the need ever arose. They have a nice cushion to them and strap across the feet well. Plus, on those days in the fall and spring when we play on the field and it resembles a sponge, I’d be right in my element and I wouldn’t have deodorize my gym bag after particularly wet shoe days.

For you golfers out there…and I know there are several that read this…did you catch Tiger’s putt on 18 yesterday? This guy was playing injured and missed way more fairways than he hit and still was able to pull off that putt to send the U.S. Open to an 18-hole playoff today. Hard not to root for a guy named Rocco though, especially since he’s 45 (right Bob?) but man, the “Cat” came roaring back on that last hole right when it looked like he would lose his first ever major that he went into Sunday leading.

Speaking of exciting golf, I fired a 3 under on the Wii last night? Can you play this interactively with other people that own Wiis? Maybe that’s the way we can finally match up our schedules Todd? You guys need to go out and get one of these if you haven’t already.

Fore!

Sponge Game

Many years ago, way before Lance Armstrong starting winning Tours De France and bicycle makers began stripping off every extra piece of equipment that might drag on the wind, back when Jack Nicholson & Morgan Freeman were known for their roles in “One Flew Over a Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Electric Company”, respectively, back when you could get away wearing stripes with plaid together…

Well, back then, bicycles came with fenders. You know why? So, when you rode on wet pavement, you wouldn’t have this splatter streak up the back of your pants and shirt. Well, today was a bicycle fender kind of day on the Ultimate field. Particularly for people like Travis and Phil, who actually run hard. The field was very soggy and muddy. Actually, I suspect I may even have had the splatter marks since at one point when Kelly was marking me, she remarked “Wow, you’re muddy!”

I have a couple confessions both of which you could verify with my mom. One, I like to play in the mud, and two, I have worn stripes and plaid together before, probably with patches no less.

Today was a spongy game. green started off slow and the gold team of Phil, MattP, Brook, & Kelly got off to an early lead by navigating the mud holes more efficiently and making shorter throws and less cuts. The green team of Travis, Eric, Scott & Bill couldn’t seem to find their spacing very well, I threw 3-4 right in the mud where Scott informed me none of the rest of the team was running and we basically floundered around for a while before going on a small run in the 2nd half of the game and taking advantage of Travis’ speed, Eric’s reach, and Scott’s surprisingly quick defense.

“I’m getting to where my legs aren’t killing me every day after I play”, said Scott, spoken like a true Ultimate addict…er, uh…convert.

Well, BrianT, has come out this week, now Kelly. Geez, maybe Lindsay & Bob will show back up at some point. I haven’t read any news stories about a Chevy Impala being carjacked only to find it was being used as a bedroom or of any skullers in the Williamsburg area arrested in a bar fight with the William & Mary women’s hockey team so I’m guessing those two are alive, if not altogether well.

Great weather today…72 at game time, breezy but no where need the stiff winds that were being predicted. Heck, I even decided to have the egg salad. Don’t tell my van pool.

See you tomorrow.

By the way, Todd mentioned there may have been some “odious missteps” on the Ultimate Juke Box playlist. If you have some requests, I’ll see what I can do about including them.

Play nice everybody.

Super Fat Tuesday Game Day

Was it actually humid yesterday? Seems hard to believe but in the first week of February we were all in shorts and short sleeves and actually very warm yesterday during the game. Today is supposed to be even warmer.

While the temperature was great yesterday, the play was not…well at least not for the green team who, despite being a player up for the first part of the game, was getting beaten by gold’s quickness and accurate passing. Chasing Kash, Travis & Phil around is not ever easy but when you put me, Wings & MattC on the same team…well, we aren’t the fleetest of foot perhaps. Visor & Swinny were looking for spare parts.

So, it was a good turnout. CaptK & Conrad also joined us. Brook was a no-show…though he was careful to have an email waiting for me when I got back to the cube letting me know it was the first time he’d ever responded for a game and didn’t come out…and as far as I can remember, he’s right.

I understand the game on Monday featured new or returning players. Welcome BrianT & Chris. In fact I got emails from newer or resuming players yesterday saying Monday’s game needed recovery time before they could come back out.

Today should test your throwing skills if you venture out. The wind is supposed to be near 20mph. Don’t be intimidated though…that’s why Ultimate is played with that 175 grams of plastic…it can be done. So grab a friend or co-worker and come on out today. We’ll be missing a few regulars so we need some of you other, less frequent, or better yet new players, to come join us.

Happy belated Fat Tuesday Buzzards and readers…it was a Super Tuesday as well and while I’ll probably try and refrain from making any obviously partisan political comments here from time to time I may appeal to your social conscience as a citizen. For those of you that call the metro area home, the Maryland, D.C. & Virginia primaries are next week…get to your polls.

6-pack day...

Two days in a row of Ultimate in January! Maybe we’re turning the corner. Today was not for the faint of heart. In fact a new award was established today in recognition of the honor, respect, devotion to duty, and not enough sense to stay out of the wind exhibited by that special breed of player that has kept BPUC going on its lean days. “The 6-Shooter” award is given to those knowing we were only going to have 3 on 3 and knowing that the wind would be gusting at least around 25 mph when they came out and still playing.

Brook, Kashyap, Todd, Tom, Travis & Bill ~ Well done!

The initial plan was to shorten the field some to compensate for the sparse turnout and high winds. Somehow, I missed the dimensions brief and set up my end zone even bigger than normal and several points took advantage of the deep space on the south end of the field.

It had been a while since we’d had a good mugging but that ended when the two tights wearing Buzzards got tangled up in the normal sized end zone. I sent Todd sprawling to the ground and he almost caught in anyway before I continued tumbling over his head. Maybe a slight charley horse but no cleats to the head or groin areas so we just called the foul and then they failed to convert after the penalty.

Otherwise, Todd, Tom & Travis (Triple T) worked a short passing game fairly well and got Travis loose for a few of his sprints and scores.

Bill & Brook couldn’t seem to hit Kashyap on similar sprints with Todd loping behind with his considerable wing span. Kash did flick a nice toss to the corner on one score that I was actually able to hold on to the disc and drag my feet in at the same time.

The wind created a couple interesting plays. On one score Brook and Travis were in the end zone vying for a pass when we suddenly heard Travis yell “Where is the disc?” That’s usually a good sign for the other player and it was in this case and Brook came down with the score. On a similar play later in the endless end zone both players seemed to lose the disc and it descended right on top of Brook’s bean. Unfortunately, we found out he catches better with his hands than his head.

On another interesting play, I used my ultra-intimidating stall count to send Tom to the ground as he tried to pivot for position. Might have been the best defense I played all game…or maybe even the only defense though I think I got my hands on a couple other passes. Hard to hide with only 6 players.

I know we’re competing with Flag Football tomorrow but with a forecast of mid-40’s and sunny, let’s see if we can end January with a trifecta of game days.

"...all sorts of Frank's parts..."

…that was the explanation from one of the Buzzards as to why he wasn’t able to catch a particular pass in the end zone today. Apparently there was just a “little” contact. And that was what much of the rest of the game was like as well. Just a lot of incidental (or not so) contact here and there. I’m not sure whether that’s attributed to the soggy field or the return to play after a couple weeks off.

Never the less, the weather was fantastic, we had 5 on 5, and weren’t in the cube so life was good.

Mandolin & Boom Boom took one for the team and took 3 hour lunches so that we could have the big game and they could also meet their subsequent dodgeball commitment. Matt D, did you recruit any new Ultimate players while you were over there or was it just a poor excuse not to be throwing discs today?

By the way, I got positive hits on APBs put out on Mallard & Bob. Between rants about Baton Rouge and wishing he was a non-rate again I culled from my conversation with Lindsay that he’d been traveling some and his current employer wasn’t exactly being sympathetic to his Ultimate schedule. Bob is awaiting signature on a contract so he can get paid to be back in the building. Hopefully we’ll see those two members of the “Ensure” team soon.

Elliot appeared out of nowhere yesterday and it was good to have him back on the field. My addiction to the long throw was fed by a dubious team matchup yesterday that had Frank aka “Endzone” always deep whenever I turned with the disc as well as Brook and Todd who kept tempting me enough with long runs that I just kept giving in…

The gold team had the runners yesterday with Travis & Mandolin but it didn’t translate into a lot of deep hucks for points. Two points of observation here; even if you have two guys that out run everybody else on the field, somebody has to be able to make that throw and if Kash is throwing long, he can’t always be running long. Worked out for good math for the green team if we could have only stopped turning it over on our first and second passes.

Some other observations…if we want to start playing like an actual organized team at some point (clearly hypothetical at this juncture)…Boom Boom, you only have one pivot foot and as soon as you lift that 2nd foot you have traveled, never mind lifting the first one again and then the second one again.

Phil, you could probably have called a couple fouls on me yesterday when I was marking you. Given time for reflection I don’t think I gave you proper “disc space” one diameter of the disc away. However if this is solely caused by movement of the thrower, then it is not considered a marking foul.

Wings – In answer to your question a while back, I think it is generally accepted that the marker should be within 3 meters (that’s 9 feet for you non-Canadians or roughly two Mandolin lengths if he was laid out in front of you) before a Stall count can begin. Of course, if you’re playing with a 1-player advantage I think anybody should be able to initiate the count from anywhere.

As far as offensive formations go…the spread offense may work well in college football but until we get to start playing a Big Ten defense in Ultimate we might consider packing in our formations a bit from the start of play in a vertical line rather than horizontally across the field or just cluster scattered all over the field with Endzone 60 yards away taking away one receiver all together.

Today’s Forecast: Around 50 degrees, light breeze at 5 mph…perfect. Game on!

Blown Assignment

Unbelievable game on Tuesday. We went out to secure the field with a nice response of 10 players and were met by an Army NCO informing us the field would be off limits today due to helo ops. All this despite Lindsay’s charming overtures to dissuade him. He suggested we go play down on an alleged field next to the water.

After changing fields 37 times we landed down on the far SW lot of McNair. We actually played with one of the older discs in our collection because we were concerned we might throw one in the water. By the time we started we actually had 11 (seems like we can’t play without an odd number of late).

Now for those of you who have played Ultimate through a full calendar year you know that there are many weather elements that can make this game challenging. It started to get cold a couple weeks ago and we realized that frozen hands and discs aren’t always a good combination, wet fields and rain can sometimes be an adjustment though after playing on the cement field all summer that has generally been a welcome condition. And for those of you who haven’t played in the snow yet….well, just wait.

But the most challenging condition of all for Ultimate players is the wind. Tuesday we had 30 mile and hour winds gusting over on the point where we were playing and it made for at times comical attempts at pass completions (even for the Buzzards normally comical). “Low, flat, short” was the mantra some of the more knowledgeable of our players were repeating right before Brook or Matt C would flip the nose up or I would try to throw another long one.

“Sixth time is a charm, right?”

Heck, one time Wings thought he had the wind pattern down and threw a long to me. Our initial worry was that we’d finally struck a car parked along the field but that was quickly dismissed and we were more concerned that it might hit an unsuspecting football player on the field next to us.

We actually managed to score several times and other than not being able to work up a sweat because the wind was drying us off as fast as we could perspire…

Anyway, kudos to all of you who braved the windiest of days that we’ve played in this season. Please see the award list on the sidebar as you have survived and thrived in the 25 mph + day that scares off the amateurs. I think we had 3 decent dings today also, 2 ankles and a hand.

By the way, I miss one day of work and my inbox explodes with emails Subject “Ultimate” but having to do with extra rooms in garages disguised as Impalas, fat arses, whining that 8 really is not enough, and suggesting that Mallard may be the next marketing strategy for birth control pills. How ‘bout we just play a little disc?

Game on!