2 new, a weave and SOTG refresher

Posted by Bill

We had a good game on Monday with 6 on 5. I’d like to give a warm welcome to a couple new players, Bob & Carolyn, it was great to have you both out there. I love this game because players of all experience levels can step right in and have fun. Bob came out and I joked that he should have come with a warning label…usually when I see somebody with his…uh…”career maturity”, humble height and being follicle-challenged…I assume they are going to be in a physical condition more like…well…me. But Bob had obviously played before and forgot to tell me that he could actually run. By the way, we have another "older running Bob" so one of you guys is abosolutely going to need a nickname.

He, Tood, & Frank ran a flawless 3-man weave play at one point in the game that Todd remarked about later “We should have just quit right then after we scored, it wasn’t going to get any better”.

And Carolyn, admittedly a new player to Ultimate made an outstanding one hand grab off a pass from Todd for a score. I checked with her before the game “Has anybody explained any of the rules to you?”

“Well, I remember some from high school P.E. class” she replied.

“Perfect!” I told her, “You’re already at our level”

Kelly G was back after her early summer hiatus and looked like it was a little challenge to get her wind back completely. Hollan was also back…trying to talk himself into being back in playing shape after his injury…and then took another ugly fall that was trying to argue the opposite.

Speaking of ugly falls…er…layouts…Todd was particularly impressed by my instinctual turn and dive for a pass from Eli that wound up being 10-15 yards short and just made me look silly.

Tim and I hooked up on a couple nice scores on Monday but I wish I could have also hit him on about 6 more that I just totally missed the throws on. Saved my best throw for last though after getting a nice entry pass from Hollan that Frank just barely missed, I looked up field and started yelling “Go, go, go” to Rodney, who was already on his way to the end zone as I cut one loose sailing over his head. He ran it down and made a great layout catch as Todd pulled up claiming he had heard “Foul, foul, foul” and assume it had been so after Frank and I had made a little contact.

*** Official vanity paragraph *** uh for those of you who have been caught gawking at pictures of yourself and reading heroic captions to your co-workers about your exploits from the blog, this paragraph is officially dedicated to you today… "and there were others, not previously mentioned, on the field today” :)

A reminder from the Ultimate Players Association website page on the Spirit of the Game –
Spirit of the Game sets Ultimate apart from other competitive team sports.

For over 30 years, Ultimate has flourished, reaching a highly competitive level, without the use of referees. In Ultimate, the honor system works. Sure, human nature rears its ugly head from time to time - just as in any sport, just as in life. Yet, one of the many beauties of Ultimate is how, even amid the most difficult of situations, utmost graciousness is allowed to meet that challenge head on. Through this balance, Ultimate players are free to demonstrate the most honorable and the most joyous sides of human nature in sport.

Looking forward to having some of the regulars back on the field soon….Phil, Bob…today? Thunder is due out next week according to the NASA systems countdown.

Again, the chance of precipitation is less than half today for game so let’s head out…pull!

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.

New player, new energy, new rule clarification

submited by Bill

Well, the team distribution went a little better today, especially given the intangible of a new player. Welcome out Dennis! Nice throwing & catching…and you run too? Careful, you might come to like this sport. *** Buzzard Disclaimer *** May cause unusual addictive behaviors like coming in on leave to play during lunch, rescheduling meetings to end by 11 or not start until after 1300, and purchasing inordinate amounts of CG logo clothes in the Exchange when you’ve forgotten your workout gear.

Todd, presumably inspired that people on his team were actually moving today and playing some semblance of defense had some interesting spurts of running, layouts and semi layouts. You shouldn’t have to actually layout on a pass in the flat when you’re by yourself but when I’m throwing, you never know.

Of course, not all my throws were as suspect. I did manage to land two hammers for scores. The first to Tom on a jump ball type of play…by the way, speaking of jump balls and Tom…c’mon you can all admit it, the first mental image you get is of somebody getting laid out on the ground right? Well, I counted no less than 4 plays today that Boom Boom made on defense, going up and not hitting anybody (at least not with foul quality contact). Nice D…you looking for a new nickname?

The real contact came on another play. The first time on these Ultimate fields where I’ve actually been sincerely afraid. I had gone up in the air for a throw from Dennis and then felt my body starting to get horizontal to the ground on the way down. With no idea what was landing first, I fell right on my back but amazingly seemed to disperse the contact enough through the rest of the body and survived. To be fair, we hadn’t really explained the strategy of not making your teammate jump for the disc when Shadow is closing in.

The green team actually played the way it should have with a man advantage early on in the game with a couple 3-0 scoring runs. Tom’s aforementioned D, Dennis enjoying the advantage of new guy expectations, and Todd, Eli & I actually being able to handle the disc for 3 or 4 passes without a turnover.

But the gold team held its own nicely and in fact made comeback at a surprising time in the game (the end) for a team short a player. 10 yards and cut, 10 yards and cut. Hollan got loose several times on short slants in the end zone where Phil & Thunder hit him with scoring passes. Frank worked some nice give and goes…and not to whine but just for some rule clarification…you can’t make a forward pass while taking forward momentum steps. They call that traveling Buzzards and it’s against one of the few rules and actually is a rule, unlike the 12-count stall turnover that Lon was looking for yesterday.

A good way to practice this is when you catch it, plant your foot (just 1) and pivot on it. Once you do that, remind yourself that you can not pick that foot up until you actually let go of the disc.

Scott, these are the kinds of rules and strategy sessions we’ll need to have before we actually head to an organized game against another team that knows the rules.

Deep grass, humidity, & nets…

Submitted by Bill

Anybody else notice sweating from the ground up yesterday? That’s how I can tell the humidity is rising. It was heavy on the chest and lungs as the temps bumped up a little and the humidity went up a lot. It’s only April Buzzards…start conditioning now for summer.

Speaking of conditioning, I don’t know what to suggest for the grass conditions we played in yesterday. Very deep, it was a good thing Kash wasn’t still here, we might have lost him. Even though the humidity may have had more to do with it, the grass length was a great excuse for some slower running.

And we went out yesterday with only 7 (Bob saved us from 6 with a last second RSVP) until Conrad finally showed up so we went with a version of Ultimate we used to play quite regularly a few years ago…with goals instead of end zones. An added feature was the hockey-like crease that Todd decided to set up. This game theoretically favors the strong throwers. Of course it takes a few to get dialed in on range as I found out after sailing my 3rd shot at an open net just a little high. Wings was upset the new setup was having negative impact on his MVP season.

Out of common courtesy, we used to outlaw the tomahawk throw when playing with nets. The defender can really get lit up that way. But Thunder, wasn’t around in those days and may not have any common courtesy but regardless, he let loose a scoring tomahawk. I think it was one of only 2 or 3 scores we even had on the nets before the soccer folks came out to play. Anybody else notice they didn’t make it out Monday in the rain?

Anyway, by then we had 8 and went back to our regular game but team speed never really proved to be a factor. Not sure whether it was the grass, humidity or general unfit for play status but Phil & Bryan did not break away for as many running scores as they’ve been known to. In fact Phil may have had the best play of the day and it was defensive…a fantastic “Secret Service Layout” (thanks for the idea Scott) on a sure long pass score from Todd to Bill.

I heard Conrad complaining that his “Kungfoo Grip” just wasn’t what it used to be. Rest easy my friend hardly any of us have anything working as well as it used to.

Enjoy a day off everybody. I think the ACO picnic or football will keep us from having enough for a game today…of course I could be wrong so good luck Rodney in getting enough players.

Looks like we’ll have great weather again tomorrow though and hopefully the fields will have been mowed.

Old guys holding their own...

Sunny day, new players, 5 on 4…good day for Buzzards Ultimate.

We continue to enjoy the spring-like weather even though we’re still technically in winter. Thanks to MattP for selling Ultimate to his Flag Football corps on days they don’t play. We got some cross-over yesterday as Hollan came out and joined us. Welcome! And not to blow too much smoke up…well anyway, one of the better Ultimate debuts we’ve seen in a while (once he realized 10 seconds is a long time)…dude can run!

Speaking of runners, who was the ringer that came in at halftime? Rumor has it that was the office mate (re:boss) of Scott, Phil & Kash. Well, first off, congrats for being the best represented office on the Ultimate field and maybe in fitness activities in general. Secondly, and maybe Lon, aka “39” said it best “Why does the extra player get to go to the side with the young guys?”.

Of course, the green team, pre-qualifying for AARP yesterday, of 39, Bob, Bill, & CaptK had one of their best points against the extra-manned team by shredding their defense with short passes up the middle for an early score in the 2nd half. But the extra (and fresh) legs took their toll and gold pulled away towards the end.

We saw one of the best layouts of the season yesterday by Phil catching up to a disc that looked like it was sailing away from him for a one-handed fully extended grab. Well done!

Oh, speaking of the 10 seconds…We had one turnover yesterday on a stall count and were an "open mouth words about to come out" away from a 2nd one as the gold team decided to exercise all their time yesterday…or maybe the old guys were actually playing good D. By the way, because it doesn’t happen very often and we want to recognize the participants in that play, Bill got the stall turnover on Scott.

So Buzzards, it’s March Madness time and I’m a bit of a college basketball fan so look for my invite to a little online bracket challenge. If you did not get one it might be due to a couple reasons. I wasn’t sure about your email address (if you didn’t have a .uscg.mil address I wasn’t sure about using it ~ CaptK), you don’t actually come out and play with us so I may not really know you very well and didn’t want to bother you. If you think I’ve made an error and just plain left you out, send me an email, plead your case and I’ll reconsider my invitation list.

Going to be a great day today. We have a volunteer photographer so you have the potential (if Scott knows how to work a zoom better than Shadow) of seeing your photo up on the blog soon.