Wednesday, July 25, 2007

NUTC 2: Closing

More pictures from Brian Cook.

Lucky with the weather this week. Ebay and Derek in the finals tomorrow. Micah's string of making it to semi's ended. Campers didn't beat the Vegas over/under of 5...they scored 4: one by the girls, a camper throwing his SECOND career hammer for a goal, a camper ripping one from Adam Fagin, and a wild goal in which, after the campers completed a long huck off the pull, 4 counselors laid out, bodies everywhere, but the campers managed to get the goal.

The kids were very well-behaved and psyched to play this week. I even had a couple of campers ask me if I was a good player when I played. I was honestly touched. Of course this lead to the disc was made of rock, the stall count was 30 seconds, forcing had not been invented(true when I played in college), and there was only a club series...college teams played in the fall series(also true when I played in college).

The counselors were a vet crew and made life easy for me and Tiina. Lots of parity in the teams this week, which was great. Jody did a lot of teaching work and his contribution to the curriculum can't be understated.

After the camper distance competition, we had a very brief and unfinished counselor distance contest. While not an official result, Andrew and Jody said they thought I won counselor distance with my one throw....in my hiking boots. Speaking of which, I have been doing a bit of work on learning how to throw golf discs. Pretty weird. I am managing to get some of them somewhat flat.

10 comments:

gapoole said...

Hard to believe that the force had not been invented. It seems like having a stall requires a dude standing around the thrower, counting. Wouldn't the dude try to prevent throws?

gcooke said...

Glenn,

Great question. It was all straight up and 1 on 1 downfield. I actually don't remember anyone mentioning a stack either. I think we tried to create space, but it was pretty chaotic.

Also, the only teams that had zone were the top club teams...and we dreaded it as there was no "dump swing" or 2 or 3 handler sets.

It is pretty amazing to see the access to information that the young players at NUTC have access to, and, compared to when I played in College, they are so much more sophisticated.

-G

gapoole said...

Pretty amazing, too, that one of the most primitive defenses--straight up, 1v1 downfield--is still one of the most effective. I guess the idea itself, that the defense could dictate the offense's options, was really the rate-limiting step for the explosion of strategy.

gcooke said...

I have always thought that it would be interesting to develop a timeline for our strategic development.

-G

The Cruise said...

I remember being flabbergasted the first time we played Ohio U in college and they had a man stand behind the thrower to catch a short pass in case the first downfield cutter didn't get open.

Back then every team was reinventing the wheel unless you were lucky enough to have alumni come back and stick around in town.

I also remember looking people up in the phone book to call them up to come play in our tournaments.

gcooke said...

TC,

Thanks for the comments.

I can't imagine trying to organize tournaments via a phone tree.

-G

NJ State Youth Coordinator said...

The Cruise wrote: "Back then every team was reinventing the wheel unless you were lucky enough to have alumni come back and stick around in town."


Actually, many hs teams today are still in a position where they have to continually reinvent the wheel. I would venture to say that the minority of programs have the constant alumni presence to provide support/direction.

Unknown said...

The stall wasn't universally enforced when I started playing in 1983. It was intended to prevent a team from stalling out the clock by holding onto the disc indefinitely.

Tom Kennedy and Irv Kalb wrote "Ultimate: Fundamentals of the Sport" (the Ultimate History Book says this is the title, while I thought it was "Fundamentals of Ultimate") in 1982. I read it a few years ago, and noticed that it did not mention the stack or the force. There was one drawing I remember. A marker stood directly in front of the thrower and players were scattered downfield. The marker wasn't exactly playing straight up (which would mean taking away the middle of the field), but instead tried to take away everything, shuffling with the thrower's pivot.

Paul P said...

'Fundamentals of Ultimate' is Studarus' book.

gcooke said...

Hi Jim,

Thanks for those comments. That is my recollection...no force or stack. The marker tried to block everything. My memory is hazy as far as the stall goes, so thanks for that perspective.


As I have mentioned before, I stopped playing from 82-93, so it was pretty comical when I started playing pick up at Weeks Field in Newton, MA.......I started marking and all I heard was "force flick!"...I had no idea what they were talking about.

-G