(Be warned: this is way more detail than you want. But I'm trying to catalog some of today's scrimmage so I can think about things to work on).
Played a double header plus OT set of Ultimate games this morning, starting at 7 AM (and 93 degrees) and ending a little after 11 (and roughly 105), which my team won 10-13, 13-11, 3-2. Another free lunch for Nyet, even though there is no such thing. That's 3-0 for me in this up-and-coming adventure series, and I'll definitely take it.
In this game, Dark: Nyet, Garret, Russ, Ebay, Volo, Jeremy, Craig (had to leave early), Pat (ditto), Keith, and Tom "Mr. Wobblesworth*"
* - Tom is new(ish) and still has an occasionally wobbly forehand. So this nickname is a bit of an insult, but still it is in the grand scheme of Ultimate nicknames an excellent one. Once he gets rid of his forehand wobble - and he will - he's just going to be known as Tom Wobblesworth, it's not going to make any sense, and this just continues to make me laugh for perhaps unjustifiable reasons.
White: BP, Justin D, Dixon, Brent (left early-ish), Cory, Jose, Josiah, Cisco, and Paul (and Craig, actually, for the first half of the first game).
So what started as 10 on 9 dwindled to 8 on 8 by the end of the contest. One-sub frisbee in 100+ degree conditions = super.
Highlights: a guy named Garret came to play, a former Carleton guy and general Ultimate badass. He's been taking some time off to run some semi-pro triathlons (!!), and even though he was "out of Ultimate shape," he guarded Justin D all day long. EGADS! Good to have another elite player in the Phoenix Ultimate scene; hope he can help make some noise with Sprawl. He was on my team today and played a big part in pushing us (just barely - you'll note the point diff was dead even) over the top.
Clearly, Justin D showed up for the first time in a while, and dude continues to be incredibly fast. A definite force on the field, not just for his own one on one defense / offense, but you have to account for his killer range in considerations of hucks. I got burned on that today, unfortunately. Aside from all of that, good to just have him around; he's a good guy who is mired in his new vocation of Architecture School, and they are keeping him tres busy. One of the lowlights - he was guarding me late in the second game (what a waste of his D, ha), and was so close to me that when I threw a head/shoulders fake, the back of my head hit the front of his orbital / eyeball. Ouch - for both of us, but "Trigger" took the worst of it. He was okay in the end, but if he gets some serious Dali-ism going on in his architecture projects for the rest of the week, now you know why. Additional lowlight, for me anyways - I ended up one on one on J in the middle of the field, and Bryan just chucked a forehand to him when he wasn't even cutting. J beat me to the disc by 20 yards. That's worse than headbutt ouch. What can I do; guy is hella fast, up there with the quickest I've seen on the field. A good Sprawl asset.
BP played for the other side and made a ton of key Ds. Impressive dude, though he did turf a couple of hucks in the OT session - uncaptainesque, in both the Sprawl and Morgan fashions. Still, he's a tremendous pain to cover / be covered by; I got the better of him a little towards the end of the day, but damn if he didn't close and layout and make me say yowsers. Out loud. I said it.
Speaking of, I had a bounceback day - not as good as I would have liked, but hucks were a lot more on. I had two overthrows of Jeremy which I refuse to take responsibility for; both were imminently catchable. I had one too-high one to EBay (in the OT session - I, too, was uncaptainesque) that BP D'ed; I had a big flick that slipped out of my hand and got eaten up by Paul/Justin, and I had a big high toss (intentional) to Pat that he misread (boo). Other than those, though, times were good - three completed hucks to Jeremy, one to Volo, one to Russ, one to Ebay. So if I credit myself the missed shots to Jeremy (and I should) and give a half-credit for Pat's, that's a 8.5 for 11, a lot better than Tuesday but still not good enough - gotta get those long bombs crisp and out there in front for people.
The only other badness I had on the throwing side was missing EBay on swing passes - we talked about it, and I'm just expecting him to come back behind parallel to the disc (so his next throw has an advantage on his trailing mark), but he sort of stopped cutting / more came at me. Two miscommunications for two turnovers, and both of them I put the throw exactly where I wanted. Ugh. But fixable.
Got my deep (cutting) game on a little bit - Dixon in particular was marking me hard in (and giving me some trouble - he is also very quick on dump cuts and the like, and it's tricky to get open on him), so I tried to use his overaggression to get some open shots deep. And I did - beat him for big hucks from Keith, Ebay, and Garret, the middle one a layout and all for scores. Huzzah! Also took BP deep a couple of times, notably twice in the OT session (though the first he put a crazy bid on and actually tipped, and the second was the result of a late switch call). The not so good - went deep on Paul, huck went up and hung. I successfully baited him into jumping too early, but then when I tried to scramble for the disc, my legs just gave out - I think I got out of balance, but it made me feel a lot like a stumbling fool. Oh, well.
On the D side, I've already mentioned that Justin made my top speed D defense look like standing still. That was embarrassing. And I had a pretty tough time covering the like of the other speedsters (BP, Dixon) - I feel like I have no chance on thos guys sometimes. Ugh. I have noticed that I keep poaching off to prevent easy scores (i.e., Cisco cutting hard up the line) only to give up easy scores in other places (BP gets the disc in the middle of the field with no mark and JD in a one on one in the endzone). So I either gotta develop some faith in my teammates or choose more wisely. Did have a handblock on the goalline on Dixon's wraparound backhand, but also gave up an easy breakmark flick for a score to Jose with my tired legs. Yeah, I got noticeably tired for the first time in a while today, but that was probably due to playing more or less savage (I didn't really take a sub for the last 20-or-so points of the day) in 100+ weather, so all of this running was probably more good for me than anything else. Still, all of this said, I spent more time chasing guys around the field today than I would like, and I gotta get my D-legs back under me. Always a tough balance of getting in shape / not injuring myself, but needs to be done.
Oh, injuring myself - besides the headbutt, Craig fouled one of my backhand hucks by accidentally chopping my arm above the elbow. This pretty much decelerated my humerus instantly but left my forearm going 100 mph or whatever. I probably hyperextended it slightly, so it's sore though not really hurt - still, not the most pleasant way to get fouled, and I might take tomorrow off to rest it up. This happened in the first half of the first game, so no worries, everything's in its place, just a little more bruised than before.
And that's the account of a hard day in the sun! We enjoyed our free pizza at Keith's house afterwards; good times chillin gin the backyard and pool. Poor Joanne is still in limbo as to her knee injury - her doc said meniscal tear; the MRI-tech said ACL tear. I am pretty sure MRI techs are not supposed to say such things to patients, and am hoping this is a case of the physical exam beating the technology. I mean, drawer tests are conclusive, right*? Anyways, more good thoughts Joanne's way, as ACL surgery plus taking care of a little one would be un-good. In the meantime, hope everyone has a good weekend. Stay inside. Watch some baseball! Cubs win today and a double header tomorrow - I can just feel this turning around**!
* - No, actually. But my case was weird - I had walked on an ACL-less leg for over a month before I had a drawer test, so my hamstrings had compensated by reacting violently to anterior tugs on the tibia. In Joanne's case, she was examined two or three days after it happened (plus she does not have mega-hammies like the Nyet). So unless she also has something weird going on, like she never had a left ACL in the first place (or she injured it long ago), it seems unlikely that a completely torn ACL would not cause a positive drawer test. That's what I'm hoping, anyways.
** - No, actually.
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