Knowing your teammates
After further reflection on this weekends events at the White Mountain Open, I wanted to talk a little about some of the things that I noticed. While I understand why we have to do tournaments like this, bringing tryouts and throwing them into the fire, seeing what they like, what they don't, what kind of confidence they have in their cuts, throws, defense and general field presence, it also highlights an important part of the game, which is communication, familiarity with your teammates, and expectations (cutting, etc.).
I was trying to compare between the two DoG teams this weekend. While the results weren't that different (it was just a function of when each team met Twisted Metal), as Jim said, I suspect that we would have lost had we played the other team. What I immediately noticed when watching their games was the play of the handlers. They happened to have two DoG handlers (that had also played together on Dork House) whereas for much of the tournament, we had one (me), and Tom Matthews showed up on Sunday, but I can basically count on one hand the number of times we have been on the field together (he plays on the defense). The other teams offense looked much more fluid than ours, and I attribute most of that to the handler play.
I can't count the number of times that I would get a dump, turn to continue the swing up the break mark side only to find the entire stack staring at me, whereas the other DoG team almost always had somebody cutting to continue the flow up the break mark side. Not so coincidentally, our squad had more handler tryouts, and the other squad had more receiver tryouts.
When our offense ran well, it looked great. However, it was usually too stop and go. Second cutting was largely non-existent. This resulted in me having to get the disc far more than I would have liked.
Similar to what Jim is asking over in his blog as to whether there is a way to fast-track acquiring good decision-making skills, is there a way to fast-track acquiring good communication/expectations with new teammates? It's the little things like knowing when the person who is cutting is going to bail out of his cut, knowing their preferred cutting lanes, the cutter knowing your available throws, etc. Obviously I have that with Jim after 15 years, but how do I get that with others?
I was trying to compare between the two DoG teams this weekend. While the results weren't that different (it was just a function of when each team met Twisted Metal), as Jim said, I suspect that we would have lost had we played the other team. What I immediately noticed when watching their games was the play of the handlers. They happened to have two DoG handlers (that had also played together on Dork House) whereas for much of the tournament, we had one (me), and Tom Matthews showed up on Sunday, but I can basically count on one hand the number of times we have been on the field together (he plays on the defense). The other teams offense looked much more fluid than ours, and I attribute most of that to the handler play.
I can't count the number of times that I would get a dump, turn to continue the swing up the break mark side only to find the entire stack staring at me, whereas the other DoG team almost always had somebody cutting to continue the flow up the break mark side. Not so coincidentally, our squad had more handler tryouts, and the other squad had more receiver tryouts.
When our offense ran well, it looked great. However, it was usually too stop and go. Second cutting was largely non-existent. This resulted in me having to get the disc far more than I would have liked.
Similar to what Jim is asking over in his blog as to whether there is a way to fast-track acquiring good decision-making skills, is there a way to fast-track acquiring good communication/expectations with new teammates? It's the little things like knowing when the person who is cutting is going to bail out of his cut, knowing their preferred cutting lanes, the cutter knowing your available throws, etc. Obviously I have that with Jim after 15 years, but how do I get that with others?
posted by Alex de Frondeville at 8:15 AM
2 Comments:
That's 17 years. But even then, it is more of a one-way street, as we both know what you're going to do when you have the disc, but neither of us knows what I'm going to do when I have it.
Gentlemen -- all right, I'm posting...
The T-Party, whether leading Earth to semis of World's or winning corporate or winning Hingham or "Corporate-leaguing it" for '94 semis of Nationals, was extremely enjoyable because you two would continuously throw or move to the most mind-numbingly obvious place you should throw or move to.
That doesn't seem like much of a compliment -- until you play with most other ultimate players (including open-nationalists).
It was oh-so enjoyable playing with my two best friends, who also happened to seem somewhat aware of the mind-numbingly obvious (especially since we know how rare that is). ;-)
And I bow in your direction....
--Dennis
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