Scattered thoughts from this weekend

Cohesiveness, fresh legs, O and D lines, and disc efficiency on a D point.

I played on a pick up team of sorts this weekend at SCINNY in Cincinnati. There were a handful of Hustle guys, some Dayton guys, and a few other pick ups from the area. We blew through our first day games and it seemed rather clear we were the most talented group at the tournament. However we ended up losing in the semi finals. Besides the fact that we were there to have fun and it was not a tournament that we were extremely intense for, I was musing over reasons for our loss. There were a few reasons I could discern and then these thoughts led me to think about some related ideas.

When you plug in players from all different colleges, clubs, etc. you are going to experience differing styles. No matter how skilled a group of guys are, a cohesive strategy and experience together makes a world of difference. This is why the importance of practicing together cannot be overstated and why Miami saw late season struggles after people stopped showing up to practice.

There was a degree of exhaustion towards the end because we played with only a 2-4 subs the whole weekend. I think this was a minor factor in our loss, but it is something important to look at. Being able to have enough players that can consistently rotate into a team's offense and defense is indispensible. Once you are tired you make poorer decisions, do not cut efficiently, get beat easily, and try to take risky shortcuts that only harm the team. Having enough skilled players will be essential for Miami in the upcoming season. There was a very tight rotation at Regionals this past year because there were not enough guys able to contribute at the level we needed them to. The group of players that saw the field the most in Rantoul were obviously much more exhausted than they should have been. It is not as if we didn't want to put everyone in to effectively use players; it was simply not having enough players with the skill sets that we needed for this tournament. It is this example that should make everyone want to work that much harder. If you do acquire the skills needed, the team can work more efficiently and you can see the field in big games.

O and D lines are always an interesting topic but I want to focus my thoughts on a specific area. (By the way, as an extention of the previous paragraph, we do not have the depth right now to be able to effectively run this type of system...but if everyone improves to a certain level, then we could start to entertain the notion). Some guys who haven't played in the system seem to think that they wouldn't be able to find a rhythm. They are used to playing 3 or 4 points in a row and only playing one, possibly two points in a row, wouldn't allow them to play at their best. I think the cool thing about O/D lines is the focus. You can focus on one area of the game and get prepared to do a specific job on the field. Rather than worrying about if you have the right personnel, what will happen on a turn, positions, etc. you have that mostly mapped out before you get on the field. Going into the tournament you know what type of role you should be preparing for, so when you step out there on a D point you can focus on making the D and getting the break.

Following from that, breaks on defense are crucial. When you are busting you ass all point to force that turnover, it is important that you don't squander the opportunity when you get it. We are used to playing teams where you can expect them to turn it over multiple times in a point, so it is doesn't seem as relevant. But it is even more relevant for Miami. When the disc gets turned over, being tired from defending is no excuse to get sloppy on offense. Taking care of the disc after a D is essential to winning games of all types. Turnovers are the one of the biggest problems in Miami's game, and once that problem gets reduced, the defensive break will become one of the most important concepts.

I was also thinking about risk/reward stuff, but I've already dumped enough stuff into this post.

Nothing I said here was groundbreaking or new. However, I'm not sure that most guys on this team think about things like this when approaching ultimate or the team. So hopefully you can look at what has been said and start to process these ideas into a vision for yourself as player and for the team.

Funny aside from the weekend...Me, Future, Snaps, and Gator nicknamed all of the players on the Cincinnati youth ultimate team. Names included: WILSON, Spork, Condo, Chugie (cross between Chuck and Doogie), Hil-dog, and Pants (named after the greatest player at college nationals this year).