Internship started

Hey everybody, so this week I started my internship at USA Ultimate. Check out my first article for them!

This past weekend forty college teams gathered in Madison, WI, to compete for the title of College Champions. This tournament lasted three days and in the end, only two teams came away with the coveted title.

The women’s champion was Oregon State, Divas, who took down defending champions UCSB Burning Skirts in a final game of 15-8. In the open’s division, Carleton’s CUT held a tight game against Florida. But in the end, Florida came out victorious with a 15-2 win.

Recap: This year’s college champions are Oregon State and Florida. Congratulations to you and your teams as well as all of the forty teams that competed this weekend. If you would like more details on the finals or any of the games this past weekend, check out USA Ultimate, including some amazing video's from the games.

 Photo from: http://www.usaultimate.org/photos/2010-college-championships--day-1-round-1/

UPA turned USA Ultimate

                                        Photo by http://www.flyingpig.nl/ezine/amsterdam_news_13/Ultimate_Frisbee.php

After 30 years, the Ultimate Players Association (UPA) is going for a bold new look and name. Yesterday, the headquarters announced that they would rebrand as USA Ultimate. According to the press release from the new site, the new brand would be the cornerstone for future growth. They feel that the new identity would, “communicates the role of the organization, aligning it with most other U.S. Olympic and Pan American sport governing bodies.


The group wants to reassure people that the focus of the company has not changed it still promotes the core mission components and will continue to provide the highest level of customer service to its members.
According to the video from CEO Tom Crawford the main reason for the renaming of the company was because of the confusion that was being created. The company has a magazine and sponsors teams that are called USA Ultimate where as the company remained being called UPA.

Ultimate was recently named the fastest growing sport according to Sporting Goods Manufacturer Association, and it has a rich history of being a player-driven game. So the company has decided to redesign the Web site in hopes of drawing in more people. According to the e-mail the company sent out to all current members after the release the new site has a photo gallery, videos, a calendar, polls and message boards. All of these are working toward building an interactive environment with all of their members.

Recap: The UPA has changed their name to USA Ultimate. The change has been made to build an interactive environment with all of the members. They also hope that the new site will help raise the profile of National Governing Body for the sport of Ultimate.

Stacked Season

With final exams drawing near and summer creeping up on the student’s of Ohio University, the students of Stacked, the women’s ultimate team, wrap up another great season. Stacked is one of OU’s club sports 36 teams. The goals of club sports is to allow students to “participate in a wide variety of athletic events while gaining friendships and developing valuable leadership skills.”


According for Campus Grotto, studies have shown that joining sports teams in colleges can help students. Some examples are playing helps reduce stress, helps make new friends, exercise and helps build confidence. To do this, Stacked has set up practice four days a week, Monday-Thursday afternoons. The team also ditches the OU campus a couple weekends every quarter to put their skills to the test and playing in tournaments all over the region.

Fall

Ultimate is a year round sport, so the women got to fast start at the beginning of fall quarter. Recruiting was an important goal for the team. All teams have to have seven on the field at all times at the tournament, and having large amounts of numbers at a practice is a good thing. The team’s president, Mollie Vorel stated, “this season we gained several new freshmen that were very beneficial to our team. They have added to our dynamics and have picked up the game so quickly.” The addition of six freshmen and one sophomore really did add to the team’s dynamics.

Sarah Maj was one of those freshmen, “I have always enjoyed playing sports and being competitive. However, sometimes competition can lead to poor sportsmanship and this is something I never enjoyed. Ultimate is really competitive, yet light-hearted and fun.” Maj and the rest of the team got their first taste of the competition at Club Sectionals in Versailles, OH. The competition continued at North Coast in Cleveland, OH, and Denison Extravaganza Ultimate Tournament in Granville, OH. All of those tournaments had a rewarding finish to them, with the team placing second at each tournament. Stacked also co-hosted the annual OU Halloween tournament. This one-day tournament is hosted in Athens, and teams are encouraged to dress up in costumes for the games. The results of the team’s performance were not found at the time of the story.



Winter

During the winter break, the team captains encouraged the team to use the six weeks of breaks to work on endurance. When the team got back to campus, endurance was on everybody’s minds. Due to weather, the team was forced to find other places to practice, getting only one day outside. Running and throwing were the focus on the team during the winter season.

Luckily, the team was able to test their strength in three tournaments throughout the quarter. The first one had the team traveling up to Ann Arbor, MI, to compete in the Michigan Women’s Indoor Tournament. The team also traveled down to Cincinnati, OH, to battle with several teams and Mother Nature in Artic Vogue. Due to several inches of snow, the two-day tournament got turned into a one-day, but the team pushed through the cold and snow. The outcome was worth it, a victory and the ability to call themselves Artic Vogue Champions.

Photo by Susann Krake

The winter quarter ended in sunny Statesboro, GA, where Stacked competed in College Southerns.

Spring

Spring quarter brought about several speed bumps for the team, including injuries and weather. The team began the season by traveling up to Columbus to play a two-game scrimmage against OSU’s Fever. Fever and Stacked are two of the three strongest teams in the East Plains Section. The scrimmage was to help the team gage how they would play in the College Sectionals.

The following weekend, the strong team of 20 headed up to Granville, OH, to compete in the East Plains sectionals. Stacked went up against the thirteen other teams in the section in the two-day tournament. The final outcome had Stacked losing only two games, both to Fever, and ending in third. This gave the team a bid to Great Lakes Regionals.

Photo by Sarah Soled

Heading off to Regionals was easier said than done, with Mother Nature stepping in again. This time unfortunately, the team could push through. After two rounds of play, the tournament was cancelled due to weather conditions.

The team is only losing one senior this year, Sarah Soled, who has played on Stacked for all four year. President Vorel stated, “it’s so sad that we’ll be losing our one senior next year, but I know that great things are in store for our team next season. We’ve had a year to really cover the fundamentals, and I believe that we have all the tools to be successful. Being cheated out of Regionals this year due to the rain, we all work that much harder to prove ourselves, playing the sport that we love, next year.”

And that is just what Stacked will do, play on. So looking towards next year, Stacked is working on saying goodbye to their senior and staying in shape for next year.


View Stacked Season in a larger map

Spring League has arrived

Congratulations to Ohio University’s men team that placed fifth at this year’s Great Lake Regional’s.

With the end of the road for both the men and women’s team’s here at Ohio University comes the start of spring league! The league commissioner Eric Converse gave me a short definition of the league in an e-mail, “basically, Spring League is played with four teams of 5-2 (5 boys, 2 girls) and anyone is welcome to join. It is a fun way to end the year and you are welcome to bring your friends (both as possible recruits and just for fun). There will be six regular season games (so you play everyone twice) and then two playoff games.” The results of last night’s draft was made public this morning.
Mark/Anne                      Mikey/ Fortin                    
N/A                            Fiendish Dr. Wu                                                                                                     

Adam Wagner                Adam Cellar                                         
Alex Doksa                    Adam Krause                                      
Brady Espey                  Connor Haley                                   
Forrest                           Dan Ball                                                
Grant Thompson            Joey Phelps                                    
Harry                             Lucas Neumeyer                               
Josh Kleymeyer             Luke Eastman                          
Kent Butler                    Rob Tedford                                    
Mike Dariano                Ryan Tedford                           
Pete F                         THE Nick Wetzel                          
Robert Olson               Corey (In Town)                                                
Emily Carus                 Brenna McAuley                              
Lori Gromen               Courtney Speziale                        
Jane Kopy                  Sarah Maj                                 
Nat Kruse                  Stephany Herman                                   
Sarah Soled               Susi Karakke                                            
                                                                                        

Bruce/Mollie                Mitch/ MH
N/A                            SwaggerBlacked

Andy Ball                   Andrew Baumgartner
Chris Page                 Brandon Thompson
Danny Olson              Dan Silla
Fed Up                      Eric Converse
Kevin Hanzel             Greg Martin
Kyle Hone                 Griffin Haywood
Max Prottengeier       Jeff Cronin
Ryan Wade               Matt Downie
Schuyler Redding      Mike Ford
Toby Cromer           Todd Grace
                                Eric Muhlberger
Amanda Liles           Abbey Geib
Jessica Kardos        Meg Mealy
Kerri McReynolds   Kim Silla
McKenzie                Marissa Evans
Meredith                  Mary Lambert
Rachel Thomas        Sarabeth Morofsky

The games are being held every Monday and Thursday at 4:30 at Stimson. Trades are open until Friday May 21, and free agents are allowed. If you are interested feel free to contact the commissioner.

Eating right to play GREAT

As Sectionals stated drawing near for the Ohio University women’s team, our senior standout Sarah Soled took it upon herself to gather the team together and talk about one of the most important things any athlete should know….Nutrition! Ok, I know it’s nothing like laying out for a disc or throwing a sweet-ass huck up field, buy nutrition is the thing that makes all of that possible. Sarah’s main statement to us was “why bust your ass winter quarter condition if you only are going to provide crummy fuel for your body? You can’t expect to perform your best unless you put in (to your mouth) the best.”

"Eating right is really important when you play Ultimate. Because it is so physically demanding, you must eat healthy foods that have enough carbs to keep you going,” Evan Conrad, a player on UC Cinister said. Eats carbs, or carbohydrates are important, they are the primary fuel used in sprints and they are the quickest way for a person to fuel.

But athletes need more than just carbohydrates in their bodies, they also need protein. According to the Sports Medicine section of About.com, athletes need protein to repair and rebuild the muscle that exercising brakes down. The amount of protein an athlete needs is dependent upon intensity, duration of exercise and the degree of training. It is recommended that endurance athletes take in about 1.2-1.4 grams per kilogram of body weight per day.

Another important part of an Ultimate player’s diet is fluids! According to Colorado State University, “athletes should start any event hydrated and replace as much lost fluids as possible.” Even when the weather is less than perfect, snowy, cloudy, rainy, make sure you are drinking fluids on the sideline.

Recap: Nutrition is important to any Ultimate player, the objective is to provide you with foods and fluids to sustain hard training promote rapid recovery and promote adequate hydration. As Sarah told our team, it’s all about food quality, not quantity. So after that next practice or tournament, make the smart choice when you reach into that refrigerator.

Tournament Director speaks out over postponement

After yesterday’s post it was brought to my attention by a fellow OU team mate, Josh Kleymeyer, that the Tournament Director (TD) made a statement about the postponement the Great Lakes Regionals.


On the site he states, “Today was not a fun situation. It turns out I was lied to Friday morning by the field director. Just 40 minutes into round one today the “field specialist” or whatever his title is decided that we needed to shut down ASAP. I could only convince him to let us play one additional round beyond the one that was currently happening. Had I known that an inch of water and no rain for hours would get the fields shut down, the tourney certainly would have been postponed before the weekend.”

With this knowledge, Josh stated that, “it wasn’t really the UPA that messed up, it was the owner of the fields who made the call to shut us down. It was just a shitty [sic] situation and having teams on semesters and quarters doesn’t make things easier.”

After further searching the site, I found that the TD had made another post last night stating that the tournament will be moved to South Bend, IN. No word on wither this will change OU women’s plan to not attend.

A Bust at Great Lake College Regionals

Late last week, all women’s captains involved with the 2010 Great Lakes College Women’s Regionals received an e-mail from the UPA stating that the board was taking the pending weather into consideration when it came to the May 1 start day of Regionals. Bloomington was expected to get heavy thunderstorms all weekend. But on Friday morning, all captains received an e-mail that Regionals was on! So teams traveled up to six hours on Friday night to get ready for the tournament, where the top two teams receive a bid to nationals.


The sixteen teams got up early to head to Karst Farm Park for the first round. The sky was gray and gloomy, but no sight of rain. The soccer fields were muddy and after running drills, teams could tell they were in for a long day. The first round went off without a hitch, the soft, muddy ground was begging for the girls to layout. After the first round, the women’s captains were informed that they would be done for the day after the second round due to ground conditions. The men’s teams were moved down to the women’s fields to finish their second round.

By the end of the second round, the UPA decided to postpone Regionals to May 8 and 9. The teams were told that they had to pack up and head home. This statement frustrated a lot of teams both women’s and men’s teams.

I talked to Katie Liming, who is a freshman on Infamous, Michigan State women's team. She gave me the following statement, “Michigan State Ultimate is very frustrated with the postponement of Regionals. We understand that the tournament officials could not have predicted the rain's timing, but we feel that there should have been a better plan. Driving down and back from East Lansing to Bloomington for one game cost our team a lot of time and money. If the tournament is held in Bloomington next weekend, we will not be attending. We've heard that it might be moved to South Bend; if this happens, we will most likely field a team. However, it will be difficult because this is MSU's graduation weekend.”

Ohio University Junior Courtney Speziale said, “the UPA should have considered the weather conditions as well as what the teams had to go through to get to the tournament. The teams put money and effort into getting to a competitive tournament only to be told that it was canceled after two games. The situation should have been handled better and the tournament should have been called at the first sign of doubt from either field management or UPA.”

One member from Ohio State's Leadbelly, Rick Taylor, felt indifferent about the whole thing. “Having to play the rest of the tournament this weekend doesn't really affect me because I didn't have anything planned this weekend. Obviously, it does kind of suck to have to make a 4 hour drive there and back to only play 2 games, but the tournament director really had his hands tied on this one. My understanding is that the field owner was away for the weekend, and the guy who was in charge didn't know what to do, so he just told them to shut it down to be safe.”

The fact that the UPA was taking the players safety into consideration is a reasonable consideration, but the fact that the teams took the time and money to drive down to Bloomington this past weekend to play two games has frustrated many teams. It has also brought an abrupt end to many team’s seasons, including Stacked. After a team meeting the OU team decided that the financial strain and personal injurys on the team made going to the new Regionals too much.

Recap- After the second round of Regionals, the UPA decided to postpone the rest of the tournament until this upcoming weekend. This decision has been met with mixed results, including having many teams decide to end their seasons. This was due to financial constraint and time constraints, these decisions were not made lightly. But on the bright side, according to Ohio University student Mikey Juratovac, the men's team will be taking 8 men this weekend to finish their season at the rescheduled Regionals.

Regional's for the Great Lakes Regions

This weekend, 16 of the top women’s team in the Great Lakes Region will head to Bloomington, IN, to compete in Regional’s. Check out where they’re all coming from:


View Regional Teams in a larger map

Playing against the Zone

                 
Lately, Athens’s has been having some pretty weird weather. One day it’s as nice as can be, but the next day it’s rainy and cold. The one thing has stayed constant day by day is the wind. And as all Ultimate players know, a strong wind leads to playing against a zone!

In The Huddle, author Peri Kurshan described playing against a zone as a game of chess. This is a good comparison because the point of working against a zone is to wait and be patience till the weakness of your opponent show. This requires skills with disc from not only the handler, but also everyone else on the field. One of the specific skills is a quick release. All offensive players need to be able to pass the disc along before the cup can get situated. No player should hold the disc for more than 5 seconds, the disc should be constantly moving. Even if the handlers swing the disc back and forth with short throws, they are still playing the zone effectively. These small throws make the cup run back and forth, until one of the handlers can either break the cup or get the disc to one of the poppers.

Speaking of poppers, they play an important role while playing against a zone. The most important thing for poppers to remember is always be moving! Nothing is worst than for a handler to look up the field and see no one moving. When it comes to moving, poppers have to be sure to always look for the holes in the cup as well as watching the swings done by the handlers.
Recap: Wind=Zone, but that shouldn’t scare a team offensively. Just keep your passes short, limit the amount of time the disc is being help. Those little throw will tire out the cup and help you move up field. While playing against a zone the most important thing to do is not lose your patience, even though it might appear that you’re not making any progress I promise you will.

Spirit of the game

The thing that makes Ultimate unique the game is run on the idea of spirit of the game. This means no refs, just you and the other team; the players are responsible for calling any fouls and scores. The spirit of the game is a way to show respect to the other team. Through my six years of playing I have learned that spirit of the game expands further than just on the field. Because we are talking about respect, one has to be respectful off the field. It is because of this we shake hands after every game and congratulate a player after a big play.


This past year I have found that people’s talk on the sideline can affect other people on the sideline as well as those still playing. For example, if the sideline is up and moving with the disc yelling positive feedback, the players on the field will get pumped up. This can be found on any sports teams.

On the flip side of things, people take this idea of talking to the players in a negative route. Instead of talking positive to their team, the focus solely on the other team and giving them negative feedback. While playing, we seek out people’s voices on the sideline to help us figure out where people are and who the biggest threats are. So when you get people on the sideline start talking bad about your playing you can’t help but let it affect you, which is what they want.

So, how do you deal with this? Breathe, just breathe. This might seem to be a small step, but you would be surprised how much it helps. With breathing you slowdown your body and your mind (which is working in overdrive during a game), and this helps you concentrate on what you’re doing. The most importing thing is to know that they are just trying to get to your head, so breathing will help you keep your cool. If this doesn’t work and the situation is getting to far out of hand you may want to talk to someone on the other team. This doesn’t have to be rude, just explain the situation and how you feel like this person is disrespecting the spirit of the game.

Recap: Spirit of the game is essential to the game of Ultimate. And that spirit has to extend to off the field. The most important thing to do if someone is disrespecting the spirit is to not let it get to your head. Also, you have to make sure you don’t sink down to their level. Don’t fight back; don’t start doing the same thing during other games. Spirit of the game is what makes Ultimate unique, and if we lose that, this sport will lose its integrity.

OU women's team scores high at Sectionals

This past weekend, Stacked, OU women’s Ultimate Frisbee team, competed in the East Plains Sectionals in Granville, Ohio. The women went 6-2, landing them in third place and giving them a bid to Regional’s on May 1st and 2nd. Below are some of the team’s highlights from the weekend. The photos are courtesy of Josh Kleymeyer.

The Making of a Mark

Man-to-man defense is popular with many teams. So to do this, one must throw a pretty dang good mark when their offensive person has the disc. So today I am going to give you some tips to have a fierce mark and basically dedicate where the disc will go.

The most important thing about marking is that you have to KNOW YOUR FORCE! This means you have to know which side of your player you need to stand on. With this, you will create a pie-shaped segment of the field and force the thrower to throw to only one side of the field.

To throw a good mark, bend your knees to about 90 degrees to get yourself low to the ground. Then with your arms kept them low, but also move them around to block the disc. While you’re marking, stay on your toes. This bouncing will keep you alert and also intimidate the thrower. While the thrower is throwing the fakes you should move with them, but you should shuffle (not lunge). This will help you with balance as well as help you move quicker.

Now, according to the rules, you have to be at least a disc space away from the person you’re marking. I suggest that you step off a little bit more than that. This will give you a wider reach, as well as more room to shuffle (so you don’t get tripped up in your players).

Recap: Your team is relying on you to remember the force and set a good mark. To do this stay low and always keeps moving. If you would like a visual aid, I suggest checking out this video.

PS: Good luck to Ohio University men’s and women’s Ultimate teams in Sectionals this weekend. Kick some butt!

Run your butt off!

Personally there is nothing worse than watching the girl you’re defending causally jogging into the end zone to catch a floating huck, while you’re halfway down the field with an empty tank of gas. The reason for this is lack of endurance.

One of the most important parts of Ultimate is running. In every point, you should be busting your butt up and down the field. So an important thing for all players to do off the field is to work on their endurance. This is a very slow process that takes a lot of dedication. Most of the sites that I read suggested that you start out with an easy 15-30 minute run, and then causally add distance on to your run. The Livestrong Web site made a good point of slowing building distance on your run to prevent injury. Make sure you stretch a lot before and after your runs to prevent injury. Stretching also helps prevent you from being extremely sore the next day.


There are two main workouts that one can do to help build endurance. One is running hills; running up hills exerts a lot of energy. Constantly run up hills will make running on the field will seem easier. Another popular workout is Fartleks, or interval runs. Players will alternate between fast sprints and slow jogs.


Recap: Endurance is really, really important in Ultimate. Building endurance is something that every player has to work on off the field, it does not occur in practice. So I hope you take these tips into consideration.

Why I'm Here

Through my experience in Ultimate Frisbee, I have found it to be a love it or hate it kind of game. After the first time playing, people either get hooked to the thrill or decide staying on the couch is a better fit for them.

I started playing after my brother complained that his team needed more girls due to a 5/2 regulation his league established. After the first season of playing I was constantly looking for more ways to get better, and I have found the best way to do that is to learn from others. So this blog will be used to help inform you, as the reader, of things my team does, as a whole, to get better or individual things you can work on. This blog will also be a learning experience for me because, as I stated, I’m looking for ways to get better as well. I will be looking for constant feedback, on either my post, agree or disagree, or stuff you want me to look into. The best way to get better on the field is to learn and practice, so help me help you!