Thursday, March 20, 2014

All of the Ultimates!

Confusion is Key

"The best way to get better at ultimate is to simply play more ultimate."  -Tim "Replica Jersey" Hopp
"The key to building strength and power is muscle confusion." - Tony Horton, P90X
Two simple yet effective ideologies I agree with, but each only partially.

Googled "Tony Horton Ultimate Disc"...close enough.
There is no doubt that improving in the game of ultimate, much like many other sports, takes hours of on-field, ultimate specific practice. Additionally, on-field time, in my opinion, is the only way to improve the mental aspect of on-field ultimate awareness and anticipation. Sure, there are countless books you can read and brain exercises you can do, but the uniqueness of play (and more importantly the recognition of this uniqueness) on an ultimate field cannot be truly replicated in these ways. It can be aided by translating the lessons, but not fully develop the ultimate understand. Pun intended.
However, I would contend that the best way to improve on an already advanced ultimate skill repertoire is through ultimate specific training rather than simply on-field reps. The one-step directional changes while cutting, the constant lunges performed while stepping out on a throw, and the need for immediate pace changes at every position on the field are all  fitness challenges unique to ultimate when all combined into the playing of one sport.
Secondly, continually using new and atrophied muscle groups when lifting will build all-around fitness and strength. It's science. Personally though, I don't believe this to be the entire story of ultimate fitness. Or any general fitness for that matter, either. "New and atrophied" muscle groups are the key terms, here. Constantly changing workout regimens when already well into training for a specific goal might not be the best way to achieve success. Muscle confusion is merely a tool - one of many - that can be used to become more physically fit.
The best way to construct my argument as to why muscle confusion should be considered only a partial fitness tool is best illustrated by example:

In previous posts, I have mentioned training for the upcoming Horsetooth Half Marathon on April 13th. It's going to be brutal. The first 4 miles or so will quite literally be straight up, at an average of a 7% grade. It will be a unique test of distance running and distance climbing resolve. In order to be prepared for this real-life stair stepper, I am constantly looking for obstacles to hop over, climb upon, and jump onto to change the effort I'm asking of my leg muscles. All of this builds the new muscle fiber nerve connections needed to really attack the uphills. I have been training for over a month. Asking my leg muscles to not only be prepared for distance running, but also for short, random bursts could spell disaster in the way of an injury if I had done so from day one. Instead, I built on a base of muscle memory.
For the first 2-3 weeks or so, all I would do is run...nay, jog ever-increasing distances, but never the full 13.2 miles (another training mantra I subscribe to quite religiously that helps me personally, everyone is different). It took setting up a consistent training partner just to get my ass out the door for the first couple weeks. Now I can simply strap the shoes on and run pretty fair distances because I purposely trained my muscles to do so. Without the muscle memory of going from sitting on the couch to immediately out running gained in those first few runs, I would still struggle with motivation. Since tracking my runs using the Nike+ app, my average distance has increase by approx. 1/2 mile and I'm feeling better and better cardiovascularly each time.
It is my firm belief that if I had not first started with a solid base of muscle memory, I wouldn't continue to feel better and better with each successive run. Only after a solid muscle memory base is muscle confusion an effective fitness strategy. It is also my firm belief that had I tried to begin immediately with muscle confusion, by running different ways (sprints/shuttles/hills) rather than further/different distances, I would not feel as good as I do about my fitness currently. This would ultimately lead to less motivation to run, and certainly less motivation to run further and faster if my "new and previously atrophied muscles" were in pain from the get-go. Basically, both the mental and physical aspect of my training was set properly by starting with muscle memory, rather than confusion.

Therefore, in true Coit and ultimate fashion I will be taking the two parts of each quotation I like and combining them into one core training concept: Ultimate Confusion!
"The only way to get better at ultimate is through confusion." - Coit
For me, the most effective springtime, gear-up-for-tryouts-and-the-season training regimen involves...ultimate, duh. I'm not just talking about spring leagues, either, however they are certainly part of it. For the upcoming spring season, my ultimate training plan includes as many different kinds of ultimate as possible. Lifting, and of course distance running, will also supplement my spring training; this year more than ever. But it is the three different types of ultimate that will take most of my training time in the coming months: indoor, outdoor, and weekly mini-game tourneys.

Taking Down the Crown

Ok, so mark indoor down as akin to the first few run examples above when I still needed a training partner to get my ass in gear. 
There are some Inceptors that have been #chasingindoorhat for months now over the winter offseason. Myself is not included in these special few. Instead, my indoor season began and ended with the Rocky Mountain Indoor Championships, put on by Trent. With a team graced by the talents of 2013 Callahan winner Claire Chastain, Molly Brown captain Lauren Boyle, Sweet Action captain LP, Sara "I still run circles around these younger lady-clowns" Major, Shannon "Better than previous Inceptors with my same last name" Waugh (Sorry, MW, couldn't resist), and of course a smattering of Inception players including captain Cal, the Chew Monster, The Saint and The Priest, Harry the Highflyer, and more, there was little doubt that we would sweep through the tournament with relative ease. There was a small window of time where the dream could have been dashed. The final saw the score 7-7 late in the game before a few crucial D's from the lay-D's (get it?) sealed it up. Final score: 17-10.
Going 6-0 through the tournament and coming out on the other side with a crown meant team..."pink" I guess was our name...qualified for Indoor Nationals in Trenton, NJ on April 12-13. Does anyone else get the feeling that Nationals are being held in Trenton because the city has the TD's name within it? I do. Unfortunately, $300-400 plane tickets means we will not be attending the event except for maybe Hopp, who don't give no fucks and is ready to slay some teams in the Garden State. The aforementioned Horsetooth Half is that Sunday, so I'm out as well. Congrats and thanks to everyone who played, anyway!

Oh Captain, My Captain! 

That's right, Kier and Natasha at MHU - along with the entire Twaffle crew - have screwed up again and let me captain the Monday Spring Team-based A League Twafflers. How quickly the ultimate gods giveth, and also taketh away! After an easy-going, undefeated run through the indoor regionals, I - and Twaffle - found ourselves on the wrong end of the results in the first week of the Spring season this past Monday night. The opponents, 8 Ball, were a fiery lot and forced turns from the very first point. Twaffle went into the mirror half down, 6-8. After a late rally from Twaffle that saw House do his best Coit impression and take down a layout Callahan, the game was tied at 8's. Unfortunately, mistakes got the best of us and a very solid 8 Ball team took advantage, besting their (once again) pink opponents in the end 10-8.
Not to worry, we have them right where we want them. Not only was Twaffle missing the likes of Nugget, Regular Joel, Brad "He did WAT!?" Cochi, and others, but we seemingly learned a valuable lesson: going undefeated in pool play is overrated. Since the last team to upset the almighty Twafflers - initially losing to us in a game mirroring the one from last night (including a layout Cally) - decided to bow out and not defend their title, the responsibility of taking down the pink players fell to the new up-and-comers 8 Ball. Smartly, rather than let history repeat itself and ultimately doom Twaffle in the final, the pinkies allowed the first game of the season to slip into the L column. This means we will exact our revenge in the same way Hot Cocoa did...when it counts for all the marbles.

Place Your Bets!

The third and final form of ultimate fittingly combines a combination of the first two. As I said, typical.
Also beginning this week is the 4v4, multi-team, mini-game, men's (but really Open) league put on by Kapoor. At the time of this publishing, the first week is complete and Teams 4 and 5 sit atop at 3-0. The remainder of the 8 teams all sit at 1-2. The entire league schedule can be found here. You'll notice that while there are 8 3-person teams, there are only two games going at a time. This is because the two 3-person teams combine to form one 6-person team, joining a different team each round (RD 1: Teams 1&2 v. Teams 3&4, RD 2: Teams 2&4 v. 1&3, etc). 4v4 on the field at any given time, typical ultimate subbing rules after each point.
Got it?
Good, because now that the format is set in your brain I'd like to propose some lots of side betting. I'll take any reasonable bet on any given result at any time. Next team to score, weekly records, overall winners, anything. The #1 betting media will be alcoholic drinks (or Arnold Palmers for the high schoolers), but buds, bucks, and general debauchery are all accepted forms of payment.

Here's my first wager:
I'm willing to bet that Team "Nice Sex Stache, Gee", aka Team 2, does NOT go 1-2 again in week 2 and instead gets back to a winning record at 2-1.
Price: First round at the bar afterwards.

Today is the first day of Spring. Spring training for ultimate, however, started many moons ago and will continue nearly until the first official day of Summer. With so much ultimate to train for ultimate, Inception should hopefully be nearly ready to play some ultimate by then. For now, we'll continue to train in ways that resemble ultimate.

BOUGH.

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Winter Won't Waiver...So Neither Will We

Temporary Ultimate Hiatus

Kapoor FTW.  Alex Rentzis - Ultiphotos.com
Well...sorta. Although it has been three weeks and a day since the Infinity Debacle and two weeks since Hopp Double Dipped in MHU Finals, to say Inception has taken a break entirely would be incorrect. Chewy will probably even chime in that there has been 6-10 overnight indoor tournaments since then. And he's skyed girls in every one. I believe at least The Saint, and maybe more Inceptors, played in a winter league final in Boulder. Since Boulder, CO is affectionately known as '25 square miles surrounded by reality', I'm going to have to say we're only counting results in the "real world", so the winter league win doesn't count as true offseason ultimate. Sorry, Boulderites.

Despite the numerous caveats, it's seemed like ages since Inception could be found tossing the plastic en masse. Cleats lay dormant in bedroom corners, slowly being covered by increasingly dirtier laundry. Inadvisable hammers going unthrown upwind. On the field, Inception is merely an afterthought in a dream (that metaphor worked out well!). 

Conversely, as dormant as Inception's on-field presence is, the off-field activity is abuzz. Email threads longer than Weezer's infamous sweater still stuff incoming mail boxes on the daily - nay - hourly. Arranging any type of organized sport gathering takes at least some preparation. And currently Inception is doing just that...along with typical offseason workouts, hangouts, and of course trash talking. The term "3-peat" still finds its way into any conversation longer than twelve seconds. Not going to live that one down for a while, apparently...
Here's a list of some of the things Inception is doing off-field, in the off season:

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

THE DOUBLE DIP

Inception 2013 - All smiles after making the game-to-go, but you can see the wheels already turning for an even better 2014 in each and every face.


Written by Tim Hopp
Edited by Coit 
When a club ultimate Frisbee team qualifies for worlds they attempt to “double peak” in one season – winning club worlds and USAU club championships – not any easy task for any team. Recently this has been done by Revolver, the bay area club team that has been on a tear over the past 3 years. Revolver has won 3 out of the past 4 championships with Doublewide taking the other. In 2010 Revolver bested Sockeye at the world games in Prague and came back to win their first national title in Sarasota, Florida. 
Why do I lead with this? Because I experienced the opposite on a much smaller scale – losing back to back league finals.
In my small section of the world, the biggest games I am able to get up for are the South Central Club Regionals. Inception is entering its 5th year and has not cracked Club Nationals. That is the goal every year for any competitive club team and is something that is within reach. The talent pool in the Denver / Boulder area is enough to possibly even send 2 teams to natties. 
2014 will be Inception's year. I can feel it. 
We are excited about it. One more year of experience under the belt. Mamabird kids are gaining that important sense of confidence crushing the college level. Bravo is going to worlds – surely some talent will slide Inceptions way. The offseason is for working in the gym, on the track, and on the field.
Mile High Ultimate is the best league in Denver. I can say this with complete confidence because I have played in all of the leagues. Sure DSUL has a very fun atmosphere and has been around forever but I cannot get over driving through rush hour traffic to get in 1 game. Kegs after the games help but in my estimation, not worth it. MHU makes playing league fun and easy – and the competition is decent as well. To the casual observer, league may not seem like the same level of play. Because it isn't. But in some ways playing against friends in a local league can make the games feel more powerful. I know the movements of the 13 other players on the field. I know tendencies, strengths, weaknesses, who has the killer instinct.

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Sucks to Suck

MHU's Regular Season's Best Reflect Hometown Donkeys

In case you are completely immune to suggestive language, the record breaking undefeated run for Incep-twaff(cic)le in the MHU league circuit for the past two seasons came to a less than championship end at the hands of an experienced Master's team Monday night in the 8pm Final. Injuries and untimely mistakes proved too much for the MHU Finals favorites.

Monday, February 10, 2014

So learn. Much good.

Learning from the Colorado Ultimate National Team (1/25/14) -

My last post touted the benefits of playing offseason ultimate as much as possible in order to stay sharp. Today I'd like to add-on to that post by saying that while playing ultimate in the winter is good, monotony is not. 

I really try to make sure I don't get burned out on the sport by not differentiating between offseason tournaments and regular season tournaments. Basically, I'm saying to mix it up. If you're an Open Club player, find some Mixed tourneys in the offseason to work on whatever it is you need to work on, and probably boost your self-esteem a bit in process. Don't go to ALL offseason tournaments that exactly mirror your regular season weekends. Also don't forget to capture important lessons from these seemingly meaningless tournaments to apply to the games that matter. Allow me to elaborate: