First, I want to say congrats to the DoG crew, especially Marshall. I remember him saying after Nats in 04 that that was probably his best chance for a championship. Well, that isn't the case and I am glad that the team will have the chance to represent the country in Vancouver.
Second, this post isn't really about the seedings. It is about the simple fact that if teams play lots of games, especially inter-regional games...the data is better, the seedings are better, and the quality of Nats is better as the initial pools are better balanced.
So, again, thanks to the Mixed teams that put in the effort to travel during the season and organize events like Boston, ECC, and Labor Day. I think this season pretty clearly speaks that it is positive when teams play under one moniker and take the good with the bad. One of the primary reasons for the initiative to increase inter-regional games was to improve data for seeding Nats, so how did we do?
In subjecting the seedings to a predictive point of view, this was by far the most successful year since I became NXD in 03. 3 of 4 semifinalists were correct. 7 of 8 quarterfinalists were correct. 9 of the top 10. 3 of the bottom 5 were also correct.
Biggest changes:
Poodle Club +5(possible answer: pick-up team...everyone doesn't show up until Nats)
Bashing Pinatas +5
Barrio +4 (no data to seed)
ICE -3
Mischief -3
Bad Larry -5
This is much better when compares to years like 05, where we had the 12th seed in the finals, 11th seed in Semis, etc.
The seedings were, generally, as good as RRI in terms of predicting outcomes. The RRI, if I recall (I didn't save a copy of the matrix before the event), had Rival too high, Amp too low, etc, but was pretty good.
So, get out there, play the games, travel to tournaments, keep your name, and take the good with the bad. Your team will be better off and the sport will benefit from your efforts.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Evaluating the Seedings
Monday, October 15, 2007
More Deep Thoughts
-I received a call from one of my captains yesterday as I was headed back from NYC. I guess my girls won Purple Valley. I think this might be the first time the Whips have won a tournament. My understanding is that they lost to Williams on Sat, but beat Tufts in the final.
-With the light diminishing quickly in the afternoons, we are starting to have some practices in which we don't scrimmage. I do like that as it provides a reminder that actually playing is something not to be taken for granted.
-Finished seeding Nats. It was pretty consuming as there are some points with a glaring lack of data. The captains were great to work with and, thanks to Boston Invite, Labor Day, CHC, and ECC, we did have much better data than in previous years.
-Heady times for Boston sports...really a wicked pissah time to get provincial.
-We are getting great proposals in for the UCPC 08. Reminder that proposals are due by Nov 9. www.buda.org/ucpc
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Deep Thoughts
-Interesting to drive directly from working the BC-Bowling Green game to Regionals. Obviously very different atmospheres. The BC game atmosphere was a bit mundane as the game was a blow out. Regionals, with everyone fighting to keep their seasons alive, was very exciting.
-One of my girls qualified for Mixed Nats with Bashing Pinatas. I think she might be the first Whiptail to do so while still a student.
-The end of the Open final has been written about in detail. Not much to say there other than it is rare to see someone very clearly take the game over and exert their will to that extent.
-It was nice to see the celebrations when teams earn their spot to Sarasota. For the established teams, earning a spot might be an afterthought, but I found it one of the most rewarding feelings.
-Brute really took it to Godiva in the Women's final. Pretty solid on both sides of the disc. They had 1 point scored on them on Sat...
-The Mixed Div does all that work to develop inter-Regional results and then we get three or 4 teams with little or no results plus no Moe, Deliverance, Puppet, Pleasuretown. I am especially curious about how Central Regionals played out as Moe was having a great season up until that point.
-Working on Zone D with the girls this week.
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
What's Going On
Seems like I have hit the ground running after a very fun and relaxing summer.
Worked the Wake Forest-BC game on Sat. I continue to find the way that the coaches speak to the players interesting. As I mentioned a year ago, the coaches are jumping from the small details("keep your elbows in on those blocks") to the big picture ("make them beat us with the pass"). The pre-game warm-up routines are highly scripted, but I thought it was interesting that there is little to no warm-up when they return from the locker room for the 3rd qtr. I am working the NC State game this upcoming Sat. Tom O'Brien's reception should be interesting.
Practice with the Whiptails begins today. We are having returning players practice this week, and then we will open things up for the new players next week. The focus this fall will be very much on offensive fundamentals. We will probably hammer away at a few basic principles. I am very curious about the number and experience of our new players. I am hope we can keep building on last year's trend of lots of motivated players.
I am helping with scheduling, etc for CHC. I am not going to be able to make the trip this year due to working the NC State game. I am going to be missing a bunch of tournaments this fall due to other commitments. I think CHC looks to be great, so I am bummed I am missing it.
Sectionals starts this weekend. In general, it seems like teams negotiated the Team Registration Deadline and emerged relatively unscathed. I hope the Coordinators find this is an improvement over past years.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
The Games Within the Game
I went for a little trot today on the beach. Maybe my little paunch that I have developed protruded a bit too much out of my wetsuit. The wetsuit is necessary in the 55 degree water down here at the Cape. Anyway, I was on my little trot when I ran into Bill Stewart and his son Robin. Former Metal guys. Friends from way back. Are these two the only father and son duo playing at the elite club level?
After my run, I settled into the spot where my family was boogie boarding, etc. I was there for a bit when I noticed, from afar, Bill, Robin, and a few friends playing a game of honey pot. First, it was nice to see real throws on the beach, and second, Ultimate players are just so quirkily restless. They are always up to something. Their game reminded me of an idea I heard about of documenting The Games Within The Game...other wise known as Alleviating Boredom. Here is the start of a list(by no means comprehensive....I never play any of these). By all means jump in.
1) Ro-Sham-Bo
2) Milk
3) Honey Pot
4) Goaltimate(?)
5) Hot Box
6) Frisbee, Banana, Water Bottle, Shoe, Goldfish
7) Bear Ninja Cowboy
8) Miniature Tanks
Monday, June 04, 2007
Mixed-Masters Easterns/Other stuff
I drove up to Devens on Friday afternoon to see how preparations were going for Mixed/Masters Easterns. Last year, we had the main grid(fields 1-12) done by about 3pm. This year, I drove up and Barbara and her crew had the whole thing finished. Lined, coned, water stands, portopotties, field signs....all ready to go. She did a remarkable job is handling the basic logistics of the tournament, including the bulk of the registration. Geoff, Tracey, and Shiellah also did a tremendous amount of work, and the teams seemed to appreciate all the effort that the staff put in. Really, those guys did a lot of work.
I was unable to stay around that much this year as I was performing in a music group in nearby Arlington. I did get to see a few games and it was good to socialize a bit.
Saturday seemed, in general, to be a day to get things ramped up as there were lots of drops and throwaways. The focus seemed to be turned on for Sunday as the intensity and level of play really jumped.
I stopped by to check out the Masters a bit. Good to see the old Dog guys out there. I am sure Al will write about how he did and Jim will write about how the team did, so I won't go into much detail.
Other news:
What is it with the assumption that caps affect timeouts? When did that get started? Why is that treated like the default now?
I have been moderating the Credibility topic over at the UPA stratgeic planning blog. I came upon this article here. I am not sure I really agree with all of it. In the end, what we think matters little. The almighty dollar is really what defines whether an activity is "legit" or not....in my opinion.
All-region awards came and went again. Another year in which my girls got shut out. Part of me thinks there is not a better sign of our depth and team-orientation than this(only one other school in the country finished third or higher at Regionals without an All-Region Player). That, of course, is positive George. Dark Side George wonders if this popularity contest really serves any useful purpose.
Monday, May 21, 2007
Traveling Well
Nope...this isn't about taking advantage of SOTG.
Club season is beginning to kick into high gear and teams are starting to travel all over the place to tournaments. Many times, it seems to me, the "home" team, or at least a team in the very near vicinity, wins tournaments. Obviously, there are no frothing crowds to create a home field advantage, but perhaps we don't travel that well as teams. Certainly, there isn't any kind of structure or the type of amenities that even a professional minor league team demands, so I do think that traveling does test a team in terms of its ability to create a sense of structure(off the field). It also tests the team goals and the individuals responsibility to take care of the things they can control. In a sense, most teams rely of their specific level of athleticism to get them through, but there might be ways to increase a teams performance by paying attention to the details of traveling.
So, what are some things that a team can do to travel well? I don't suspect that many folks will want to reveal their company secrets, but I am curious as to both the positive and negative experience that folks have had.
Here are some things I have noticed have worked well for me:
-Having a set time to get to the fields in the morning. I think it is important that there are some kind of consequence for being late.
-A defined and set routine for warming up.
-Getting enough sleep.
-Having good directions to the fields.
-Clear process and outcome goals for the event.
As an individual, I had a pretty OCD routine for the morning of tournaments:
-cleated up and warming up 45 minutes before the first pull
-arrive at the fields 1 hour prior to the first game
-breakfast(plenty of water, 2 egg and cheese sandwiches, small coffee) 2 hours prior to the first pull(varied a bit depending on driving time to the fields)
-wake up, long hot shower and stretching 2.5-3 hours prior to the first game.
So, if games started at 9am, I was up at 6-6:30. This was hard when I had arrived the night before and if there had been time zone changes.
I think teams can place a bit of time and energy into planning and thinking about how they travel as a team. I will be looking at this a bit s the summer progresses.
Monday, March 26, 2007
Spring
Definitely feels like spring here in New England. We are looking at a nice string of 50 degree plus days. Even an old guy like me thinks, when driving by a lonely, brown patch of grass, "Hey.....nice field".
-Lots of RSD posts these days announcing club tryouts. Is it me or does it seem like there are more than usual? In my little world, I attribute it to the fact that it is a Worlds qualifying year. I look forward to the Worlds year in the four year cycle. There is a little more at stake for the Fall Series.
-On the home front, my girls are returning from Spring Break. They had a successful jaunt at Southerns two weeks ago. I think the highlight was a big comeback win against Georgia. Nice stuff. They also played at Ultimax this past weekend. I would post the link, but the tournament is not listed on the SRT. We will have a lot of stuff to work on before Yale Cup and Sectionals. One big thing will be our ability to concentrate for a whole tournament. I try to talk as little as possible during practice, but even when I do spout just a bit.....some of my girls immediately start to wander mentally. We have distinct and robust ability to tune out as a sideline and take little advantage of this opportunity to help each other. This seems to me like both a culture and a focus problem...so we will work on that.
-Registration is going well for Mixed/Masters Easterns. Geoff is doing a great job in keeping the teams list updated. We are working on many details, so this should be a great event. We have also been receiving inquiries about the Boston Invitational. Geoff (TD) and me(Comp Director) will be serving in our same capacities as MME. We will be getting the BI website up soon and registration info will be available shortly.
-I have said before...but I have to say it again. In my opinion, the "conventional wisdom"(Interesting description of this Galbraith term in "Freakonomics". The term was not intended, originally, as a compliment...basically Galbraith was saying that we associate truth with convenience.) that high scoring offensive games are the most exciting to watch is a bunch of crap. I don't care what the TV ratings "prove" as we are in sad shape if TV Ratings are the "truth" (you can have the revenue). I think one would have to be brain dead not to find Purdue's defensive tenacity against Florida or Memphis' athletic D to be the most fun to watch so far in the March Madness. One just had to flip over to any Pro Basketball game to see the contrast...a bunch of guys standing around when on D.
Monday, March 12, 2007
Tommy Proulx/ Spring Tournaments
This past fall, the Boston area Ultimate community experienced a big change when Regionals was run at Devens without the presence of the, up to then, ubiquitous Tommy Proulx. Since 1998, Tommy had been at the center of the relationship between BUDA and Devens, and he developed a template for the way tournaments should be run at that venue. Teams playing in a Proulx run tournament knew that they would experience a quality event with lined fields, games that ran on time, etc. He also went the extra mile and concerned himself with details that most people wouldn't even notice. Last summer at the Boston Invite, in what would be one of his last tournaments, he brought TV's and a satellite dish so that Clapham could watch the World Cup Qtrs during their bye. While this kind of work made Tommy visible, it is just the beginning of the kind of dedication and commitment that Tommy showed to our sport over the years.
Tommy's big coming out party was the 2001 UPA College Nationals in Boston. Tommy's ideas have a lasting influence. The model of holding the finals in a local stadium (separate from the pool play venue) was Tommy's idea and has become a necessary component of a venue's bid for that event. Tommy always was an idea person, though. When he presented me the concept of a "Mixed Easterns" tournament to be held on the traditional Boston Invite weekend (BUDA had secured a permit for an extra weekend in the summer due to the positive relationship between Tommy and Devens), I was deeply concerned about not only the viability of Mixed Easterns but also how players would respond to the Boston Invite date being changed. As usual, both events have become more robust since the change.
Tommy has been remarkably dedicated to Youth Ultimate over the years. He coached the Andover team. He organized the NE YCC teams. He organized BUDA's High School League, and was TD for last summer's Youth World tournament.
Tommy also served as a UPA Board member for a number of years. He was treasurer for the organization and helped push through big youth and league initiatives. Tommy's work as a league organizer has served as a model for other organizations and he was a presenter for the UPA League Conferences.
He continued to play through the years, even though he was hampered by an ACL tear a few years ago. So, this past spring, Tommy began to make plans from stepping down from the sport, which he did this past fall. Clearly, this was the right thing to do, as the commitment to his growing family was becoming more important and the demands the sport was placing on him were too great. Frankly, I was a bit surprised by the extent to which he went "cold turkey", but I guess I can only look to my retirement to see how a clean break can be the best way to approach such a change.
It is difficult to understand and recognize the contributions of someone like Tommy Proulx. Clearly, all the attention goes to the rock stars on the field, which is to be expected and, to a certain extent, their success would occur regardless of whether the fields were lined. However, Tommy's contribution was much greater than just a TD. His promotion of the sport from Youth players on up laid a positive foundation for the sport to develop faster and in a much more public way.
So, how do we recover from the loss of Tommy's leadership and contribution? Well, while there are big shoes to fill in some areas, a template was laid for how to run a quality event at Devens and Club Regionals this past fall was run without a hitch. Just as any other year, earnest planning for events such as Mixed/Masters Easterns(June 2-3) and the Boston Invite(June 23-24) is in the works and information about bids will be released shortly.
With energy and commitment, the shoes of someone like Tommy can be filled. The legacy of great organizers is, many times, good ideas and a structure in which people can be replaced when it is time for them to move on. It is easy to sit on the couch and bitch about "What I think should be done....." It is quite another thing to take the personal and financial risk to actually put ideas into action. The Tommy's of the world give us clear examples of what can be accomplished. While their actions are many times behind the scenes, we need to recognize folks like Tommy for giving us specific examples of how we can grow and improve the sport.
