Hokey Pokey

Posted by Bill

Our June award winners:
"MOB" - Todd

"SOTG" - Hollan

A good game of 6’s yesterday! 1 new player, another back out for her 2nd game, Hollan back behind the camera and the June awards presentation…good day for the Buzzards.

First, welcome to Brian, who worried on the way out that this group might be too young for him. I told him we had some players in their 40’s but he seemed skeptical when I asked if he had played before and he realized the answer he was giving me was more years than a couple of the players that play with us have on this earth…okay to be fair Brian, they’re summer hires, students, it’s okay they’ll be back in classes in the fall.

Of course, speaking of back in classes, Carolyn, thanks for coming back out and since you’re only over at GMU, you’ll be welcome to come back and play with us anytime even after you go back to school. Try not to schedule anything in the 11-1pm block, I’m sure your advisor will understand you have a good reason.

As for the rest of you motley crew…nice game yesterday. Great to have you all back out there. Welcome back KellyG, Phil, & Bob from everywhere you’ve all been…nice goatee there Bob. Did you notice it slowed you down some yesterday or was that just from taking a week and a half off?

Today’s rule refresher is on “Traveling”. We rarely call this but we should start just so we’re making people aware of the rule because if you ever play in a league or tournament, they will call this on you. (The roman numeral hyperlinks take you to the corresponding spot on the UPA’s website.

A. Traveling: The thrower must establish a pivot at the appropriate spot on the field and keep all or part of the pivot in contact with that spot until the throw is released. Failure to do so is a travel and results in a stoppage of play and a check.

1. In addition, each of the following is a travel:
a. A player catches the disc and either speeds up, changes direction or does not stop as quickly as possible before establishing a pivot (XV.B).
b. A player receives a pass while running or jumping, and releases a pass after the third ground contact and before establishing a pivot (XV.C).
c. Purposeful bobbling (including tipping, delaying, guiding, brushing, or the like) to oneself in order to advance the disc in any direction from where it initially was contacted (XV.A).
d. The thrower fails to touch the disc to the ground when required (XIII.B).

Enjoy some pictures…if you don’t see them all here, check the Flickr site for all the extras.








Carolyn looking to throw with her new skills learned under Kevin's tutelage.

Kevin chases down Brian after a catch.

Hey Bob, you gotta open your eyes if you're going to grab this from Todd.

Frank & Matt working their short game.

The Buzzards doing the Hokey Pokey...this is great. I love how the disc looks implanted.

First of July!

posted by Bill

July is here! And really, even though it started to seem warmer than the weather.com announcement that it was about 76 degrees at game time, it was still pretty nice for the beginning of July. And we had a great turnout yesterday also! Welcome out for the first time to Denise, a co-worker of Kevin’s. It was great to have you, please come back and join us anytime. It was also nice to meet Kay…Eric, she knows your tall and bald right? : )

Welcome back out Bridgette…watch out, if you come out twice within a week, this sport has been known to become addictive. You see it even draws out those who are injured and have no business being on the field…one, was smart enough to just come take pictures, thanks Thunder, sorry the battery crapped out on you after only 7 shots, and Hollan, who actually thought he was well enough to play…and by all accounts looked fine through the whole game except for a couple of drops (heck some of us do that when we’re completely healthy and he did catch at least one score as well)….but then it came…

“Hey, 3 more points” yells somebody on gold and then they proceed to score a quick one. Then as green is coming back down the field to try and tie it up at 1, Hollan was going full speed toward the sideline to try and break up a pass headed for Tom. Okay, I want to be fair here…for those of you who’ve played with Tom for a while, you’re thinking you know how this winds up. Well, I just want to say, Tom did not really have anything to do with this and it was just a play of two guys going after the disc and one crumbling to the ground in agony. “Boom Boom” needs a new nickname because his game, I’ve noticed over the last few months, has been remarkably free of contact…well, at least when Frank hasn’t been marking him.

That wasn’t the only problem on gold yesterday as they had trouble clicking from the start. When I first separated the teams and then kind of threw Eric the last gold pinnie, not sure which team to stick him on I felt sure I had shifted the balance of power that way…with Eric and Kevin handling and Hollan, Phil, and Dennis running…and they had substitutes as Denise used Bridgette’s late arrival as a good excuse to take a breather. But for some reason that combination didn’t work for them.

Again, as I am apt to do, I stuck Todd with 3 old slow guys (myself, Tom & Rodney, another guy with two bum heels (MattP) and then Leroy who has been running like crazy but let’s just say has had some communication breakdown between the legs, eyes, & hands prior to today. Well, who knew, I found a couple runs in me today, two layouts that actually did not pan out into anything except a mouth full of clover and a heaving chest, Tom finding his mid to long range throwing skills, Rodney and Matt always showing bursts of speed when you least expect it and Leroy mastering the “tip drill” score…two in a row, in fact from Todd and over Eric. Matt followed those up by catching a “machete” headed for the ground and green actually looked like we knew what we were doing despite our lock down D on a long stall count.

All in all, a great day of disc. It’s a pleasure playing with all of you…always the highlight of my day at work.

It’s not too late to get me your votes for June’s “Most Outstanding Buzzard” (MOB) and “Spirit of the Game” (SOTG) award winner. I need to get the SOTG disc that Bryan won last month out of my cube where he left it when he departed…by the way, we didn’t really give him a proper farewell which seems to happen a lot around here…sorry. Bryan, you’ll be sorely missed my friend. Fair winds!

By the way...in regards to the following pictures...the camera battery died after only 7 shots but why do 4 of them have Todd in them? Can you say "man crush" Thunder?

Todd looking for the next throw as he catches it with Tom cutting.

Rodney getting ready to pull.

Todd elevating...of course everybody looks like they're going high with Rodney in the picture.

Eric...nice patriotic bacground there.

Phil looks to pass as Todd comes up to mark.

Watch it all the way in Phil.

Todd releasing from the clover.

MOB & SOTG Awards

posted by Bill

I may have forgotten to mention...to the wide audience our May award winners:

MOB (Most Outstading Buzzard) - Bob
SOTG (Spirit of the Game) - Bryan

Bryan was presented his award by a small contingent of the EXCOM (me, Todd & Phil) in his cube in the presence of an ungodly number of cadets wandering around.

Bob was presented his award standing naked in the locker room. We decided to forgo the photo op for that one.

And voting is open for June. Please email me with your nominations.

Surviving the oven...

Submitted by Bill

There is supposed to be a break in the weather today! After about 4 days of 100+ degrees heat indexes it’s going to be a relative “arctic” low 80’s today. The scorching weather had chased many away from the Ultimate field though I will give a big shout out to a few who actually rogered up for games the past two days….Tim, MattP, Bob & Eli. Thanks guys for being willing to go out in that “Africa-hot” weather to throw the disc around.

A few of us retreated to the volleyball courts the past two days. Todd was already a semi-regular out there but Bob, MattP & I took our questionable skills to the sand pit and actually held our own. They stuck all 3 of us on the same team on Monday and we actually won a couple of the games. And, truth be told, after about the 2nd game, when we were dripping sweat from every pore and taking a much needed water break, we confided in each other that we were glad we weren’t running on the Ultimate field. It’s not even officially summer yet after all but this weather has been crazy hot!

Today though, assuming I can shed a retirement ceremony early enough, I’m looking forward to getting back out in the cleats and run around chasing the disc. Wanted to say a fond farewell to CAPTKel as he was checking out early this week to transfer. Losing another great handler, fair winds!

I also will have the Most Outstanding Buzzard (“MOB”) and Spirit of the Game (SOTG) awards to present today so let’s get a great turnout for those out on the field today.

Pull!

Laws of Physics...lab demonstrations.

Submitted by Bill

v = 0m/s was never so evident as yesterday as the 4-man green team was humbled to the point of wondering whether we should ever come back out again. The dead Sir Isaac Newton could not have played much worse. I badly needed an unbalanced force to act upon my object (re:arse and everything connected to it) at rest.

Okay, first things first. I did put 3 very good players on the short team yesterday. Bryan, Eric & Bob are a formidable trio regardless of who they were playing. The fact that they were playing team Stonehenge yesterday though made them look like the Ultimate National Champions and their Frisbee catching dogs.

After giving up the first 8 points of yesterday’s match (at least…it could have been more), the Pet Rocks finally scored. And so then our goal was to go score for score with them for a while which I think we managed to do for 3 or 4 scores each. So then we got really ambitious and decided to try and score 2 in a row. This was the team with the extra player mind you!

At one point Thunder got the disc and pivoted to throw and found Conrad 5 yards in front to the right with Bob all over him and then Phil & I both behind him asking for the disc. “I think the object is actually to move forward guys”, Scott reminded us.

Is it just me or is marking Eric like being at the table in a World Series of Poker tournament? Those shades of his make reading his eyes a bit difficult. So, I’ve resorted to just heavily cheating on his awesome flick side and try to make him throw the forehand which he tends to do over my head. Putting Swinny with two capable handlers seems almost criminal. I’ve got to stop handicapping my teams with my lack of run…or I could start running I guess. Of course the one good spring I did have yesterday resulted in Phil sailing the throw way over my head and out of bounds. Not that I deserved a good pass anyway after dropping one right to my hands earlier and letting frustration settle in, subsequently spiking the dropped pass and warping the disc. My apologizes to the other participating Buzzards on a really crappy show of “SOTG”.

I’m looking at the responses for today’s game and already plotting whose team I can sabotage today. The good news is that we already have 10, which means at least 4 throwing options when you get the disc and hopefully one or two of those will make it downfield a bit. I promise to exert a little more effort and perhaps become the “object in motion”.

I have the first nominations for MOB and SOTG for May, thanks for the interest.

Today is probably the last game of the week what with the 4-hour early libo tomorrow. Hope you all have a great Memorial Day weekend. Get out and throw a disc around somewhere this weekend, take some pictures of Buzzards at play and submit them for publication on this irreverent rant.

Move!

Missing the bus

Submitted by Bill

Well, by the time Swinny got out there and asked “What color should I put on?” it was already painfully evident that he needed to come to our side. The “school bus yellow” team was in desperate need of the extra man as we were, indeed, getting schooled.

So then, I’m thinking, “I’ve got Phil, Swinny & the extra person...this should absolutely swing the balance of power our way”. Unfortunately, Ultimate Karma had already set in apparently and with Phil mocking the SOTG score sheet, Jorge, Frank, Swinny & I were left to suffer the wrath of the disc gods, not to mention just some pretty good play on the other side of the field by Todd, Hollan, Rodney, & Wings (making his return after being gone a couple weeks).

Despite all the rain the evening before and earlier that morning, the field was in surprisingly good shape with hardly any standing water…well except for that one mud bog that MattP stepped in when pivoting for a throw. It distracted him so much that I came about a half second from getting a 10 count on him.

I found myself a half second or half foot shy in several other instances as well…going up for a jump disc against Todd, following Rodney across and enzone cut and watching his arms extend further than I’ve ever seen them before to catch a score, tossing my “machete” to Phil for a potential score gone bad, and whirling around on the final point of the game some 13 times before watching the disc land in Hollan’s hands for the final score.

At the suggestion of another faithful Buzzard, there has been some talk of offering up a couple monthly awards; most Outstanding Buzzard, and of course “Spirit of the Game” winner. The prizes are yet to be determined but we’ll start with May honorees. Please email me with your selections towards the end of next week. The “SOTG” award is self explanatory if you read the description on the upa.org website.

As far as criteria for the “MOB” award…I’m open for suggestions but it should, I suspect, be someone who has come out “regularly” (a majority of the games called), and who has demonstrated some Ultimate prowess, throwing efficiency, catching (layouts are a plus), and the underappreciated good defense. Perhaps when you nominate somebody you could just give me a couple bullets as to why you are.

Since we rarely keep score in any kind of official capacity and because my team pairing can be unfairly prohibitive to individual success at times, that should not necessarily be a factor in your nominations. Obviously, the MOB is going to make his/her teammates better but they still may not come out on top all the time. Also, to keep this as a morale booster (as if playing Ultimate everyday wasn’t enough), maybe we could stipulate that a player can not win the award more than once a quarter? I’m open for ideas. Shoot me an email if you have some thoughts.

Going to be a beautiful day for a game today…sunny, mid 60’s, don’t miss the chance to come out before the long weekend.