Boston Showcase 2006
www.theultimateshowcase.com
So, it sounds like this event was a success. Just not on a personal level. Yes, my team lost. Now don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of developing the game, and I thought this was a great opportunity to showcase ultimate, and it sounds like the clinics ahead of time were pretty popular. They were hoping for a minimum of 200 people overall, and ended with over 300. So in that respect, the event was a success. But I hate losing. It doesn't matter who I'm playing, with what team, whether we are even supposed to have a prayer or not. Doesn't matter. I HATE losing. My ultra-competitive nature is probably the only thing that enables me to still play 'elite' ultimate despite what some would consider to be physical liabilities.
To make the game in time, I had to leave a 5 year birthday party for the son of some friends of ours. They had engaged a local magician who is supposed to be really great, and Christian is in a huge magic phase, so I was really excited to see 1) the magician, and 2) how my son (and daughter) reacted. Unfortunately, I had to leave JUST as the routine started. For the infinitesimal few of you out there with kids, you understand, and for the majority of you who don't, you'll understand someday.
Now, for the details.
The actual field itself was great. An artificial turf stadium in South Boston, at the same field site (if not the stadium) where the Cuervo Championships were played in 92-93. The expected rain held off, while a stadium type wind (a minor version of 2002 Worlds Finals in Hawaii) provided unanticipated floating throws and turnovers. The teams were introduced by the announcer a player at a time, with each announced player jogging onto the field amid applause. Then instead of flipping the disc they had us 'lag' like in pool with myself and Alex Bowman from the opposing team throwing from one endzone at the same time to see who could get closest to the other endzone without crossing the line. Well, we both crossed, but mine was closer, so we blew off doing it again and we chose to pull.
The game started off great with a quick stuff and score off of a bad dump by Kelvin (our team was Cambridge and the other team was Boston) for a 1-0 lead. After trading for a few points, we finally gave the early break back, and then a couple more for good measure. After some more trading we pulled at 6-8 for half and played zone (not our first) with myself at middle middle. We got them trapped on the sideline and then I had a solid block on a throw through the middle from Kelvin. Picked up the disc, and then a quick 5 yard pass to Jeff "Dick" Brown for a score. Jeff was quick to point out to me later during the night that of the 4 or so breaks that we got the entire game, he scored 3 of them. However, the scored the next point to take half 9-7.
After a half-time show including a long distance accuracy contest throwing a frisbee through a football goal post that Paul V. won going away (I shanked my throw BIG time, much to the delight of the crowd) we started the second half receiving. Well, 3 quick points later, we were now down 12-7. After some more trading, we gave up some more points, then finally got a few back and got energized before we finally gave up the ghost 17-13. I almost got a second D on a second pass off the pull from Jasper Hoitsma who was trying to throw around me as I was running down. I reached out and got a solid mack on the rim, but he had thrown it hard enough that the receiver was still able to catch up to it in time. Not that it was the difference between winning and losing, but still frustrating.
Observations:
* 'All-star' teams are tough. We had a mix of DoG and Metal plus one last-minute Slow White pickup to replace Rob Barrett who never showed. The Slow White player (Teddy Brower-Jarus?) ended up getting the team MVP award. While it was cool to play with some local Boston players I only play against (Because of the family I don't really have the time to go to pickup tournaments anymore), our team was incredibly flat. It was tough to get the team hyped up for the game since there was no real emotional trigger, other than not wanting to lose. Granted, that is ALL I ever need, but apparently it didn't suffice for much of the rest of my squad. Even the MLU had a true geographic basis that allowed for some bragging rights. It was difficult to find something to rally around.
* The teams were somewhat arbitrarily put together. We ended up being a lot more handler heavy than the other team. This was a problem at times when we were trying to get some upfield cuts, but it ended up hurting us less than expected. What really hurt us were just lame turnovers. We would be moving it fine, then somebody would throw something that just wasn't really necessary (long curving forehand to the far side of the endzone that fell short) because everyone was wide open. Granted, me getting point-blocked on the sideline on a limp high release backhand didn't help, but everyone contributed.
* They would like to have 4 teams play a round robin series next year. Assuming that DoG/Metal still exist, they should at least try to avoid intermingling the teams. It would provide for greater cohesion among the players (and playing styles) and definitely provide a little more spice for the competition. And maybe spice some outlier players to fill out the squads.
* As usual for an event like this (or just general pickup/fun ultimate), the handler lines from both Metal and DoG provided the majority of the players. Has anyone else ever noticed this? It seems like whenever there is pickup or goaltimate to be played, the offense and/or handlers (from the D) are always the ones to come out. I don't know if it is because the D is off being miserable and grouchy somewhere, or working on their mid-season game face, but it is definitely a staple of Boston pickup.
* 'Super-star thrower' Nathan Wicks scored 3 goals, all of them coincidentally when he was guarded by Jeff 'Dick' Brown which I guess means Jeff was even on the day...
* Wicks and Seigs competing in fantasy points. Seigs up 6-5 on game point Boston with Cambridge pulling. Seigs turfs a forehand which engenders a long discussion after the game about whether ALL points are doubled on game point, including negatives. After later consulting of Fantasy rules, it was deemed that it was worth -2. Wicks has already emailed me wondering when I was going to blog, so I guess I'll pump him up with a 2nd mention.
So, it sounds like this event was a success. Just not on a personal level. Yes, my team lost. Now don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of developing the game, and I thought this was a great opportunity to showcase ultimate, and it sounds like the clinics ahead of time were pretty popular. They were hoping for a minimum of 200 people overall, and ended with over 300. So in that respect, the event was a success. But I hate losing. It doesn't matter who I'm playing, with what team, whether we are even supposed to have a prayer or not. Doesn't matter. I HATE losing. My ultra-competitive nature is probably the only thing that enables me to still play 'elite' ultimate despite what some would consider to be physical liabilities.
To make the game in time, I had to leave a 5 year birthday party for the son of some friends of ours. They had engaged a local magician who is supposed to be really great, and Christian is in a huge magic phase, so I was really excited to see 1) the magician, and 2) how my son (and daughter) reacted. Unfortunately, I had to leave JUST as the routine started. For the infinitesimal few of you out there with kids, you understand, and for the majority of you who don't, you'll understand someday.
Now, for the details.
The actual field itself was great. An artificial turf stadium in South Boston, at the same field site (if not the stadium) where the Cuervo Championships were played in 92-93. The expected rain held off, while a stadium type wind (a minor version of 2002 Worlds Finals in Hawaii) provided unanticipated floating throws and turnovers. The teams were introduced by the announcer a player at a time, with each announced player jogging onto the field amid applause. Then instead of flipping the disc they had us 'lag' like in pool with myself and Alex Bowman from the opposing team throwing from one endzone at the same time to see who could get closest to the other endzone without crossing the line. Well, we both crossed, but mine was closer, so we blew off doing it again and we chose to pull.
The game started off great with a quick stuff and score off of a bad dump by Kelvin (our team was Cambridge and the other team was Boston) for a 1-0 lead. After trading for a few points, we finally gave the early break back, and then a couple more for good measure. After some more trading we pulled at 6-8 for half and played zone (not our first) with myself at middle middle. We got them trapped on the sideline and then I had a solid block on a throw through the middle from Kelvin. Picked up the disc, and then a quick 5 yard pass to Jeff "Dick" Brown for a score. Jeff was quick to point out to me later during the night that of the 4 or so breaks that we got the entire game, he scored 3 of them. However, the scored the next point to take half 9-7.
After a half-time show including a long distance accuracy contest throwing a frisbee through a football goal post that Paul V. won going away (I shanked my throw BIG time, much to the delight of the crowd) we started the second half receiving. Well, 3 quick points later, we were now down 12-7. After some more trading, we gave up some more points, then finally got a few back and got energized before we finally gave up the ghost 17-13. I almost got a second D on a second pass off the pull from Jasper Hoitsma who was trying to throw around me as I was running down. I reached out and got a solid mack on the rim, but he had thrown it hard enough that the receiver was still able to catch up to it in time. Not that it was the difference between winning and losing, but still frustrating.
Observations:
* 'All-star' teams are tough. We had a mix of DoG and Metal plus one last-minute Slow White pickup to replace Rob Barrett who never showed. The Slow White player (Teddy Brower-Jarus?) ended up getting the team MVP award. While it was cool to play with some local Boston players I only play against (Because of the family I don't really have the time to go to pickup tournaments anymore), our team was incredibly flat. It was tough to get the team hyped up for the game since there was no real emotional trigger, other than not wanting to lose. Granted, that is ALL I ever need, but apparently it didn't suffice for much of the rest of my squad. Even the MLU had a true geographic basis that allowed for some bragging rights. It was difficult to find something to rally around.
* The teams were somewhat arbitrarily put together. We ended up being a lot more handler heavy than the other team. This was a problem at times when we were trying to get some upfield cuts, but it ended up hurting us less than expected. What really hurt us were just lame turnovers. We would be moving it fine, then somebody would throw something that just wasn't really necessary (long curving forehand to the far side of the endzone that fell short) because everyone was wide open. Granted, me getting point-blocked on the sideline on a limp high release backhand didn't help, but everyone contributed.
* They would like to have 4 teams play a round robin series next year. Assuming that DoG/Metal still exist, they should at least try to avoid intermingling the teams. It would provide for greater cohesion among the players (and playing styles) and definitely provide a little more spice for the competition. And maybe spice some outlier players to fill out the squads.
* As usual for an event like this (or just general pickup/fun ultimate), the handler lines from both Metal and DoG provided the majority of the players. Has anyone else ever noticed this? It seems like whenever there is pickup or goaltimate to be played, the offense and/or handlers (from the D) are always the ones to come out. I don't know if it is because the D is off being miserable and grouchy somewhere, or working on their mid-season game face, but it is definitely a staple of Boston pickup.
* 'Super-star thrower' Nathan Wicks scored 3 goals, all of them coincidentally when he was guarded by Jeff 'Dick' Brown which I guess means Jeff was even on the day...
* Wicks and Seigs competing in fantasy points. Seigs up 6-5 on game point Boston with Cambridge pulling. Seigs turfs a forehand which engenders a long discussion after the game about whether ALL points are doubled on game point, including negatives. After later consulting of Fantasy rules, it was deemed that it was worth -2. Wicks has already emailed me wondering when I was going to blog, so I guess I'll pump him up with a 2nd mention.
posted by Alex de Frondeville at 5:06 PM
1 Comments:
uh, you have to actually play to get better?
luke
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