Best Practice Ever!

I think today's practice was my favorite by far. We worked on zone the entire time. Erika and I handled together and tried different things like give-and-go and crashing in a trap situation and crashing in general. I definitely need to practice more with Daphne and Catherine. I feel like my performance on zone O handling really depends on who the other handler is because there has to be a lot of communication and connection between us. I can't wait to play in wind.

Doris is an amazing short deep. Or maybe I'm just a bad handler. But it was frustrating to keep getting D-ed by her. You don't think she can get there but she's comes out of nowhere to block everything. Actually, sometimes I don't see her at all until she D's the disc. Let's just say I'm glad she's on our team. :)

Also, I'm glad that sMITe is practicing hammers this year. Last year we didn't practice hammers until a week before sectionals, but people know how to throw/catch hammers a lot better this year. All in all, today was a great practice for sMITe. Coach Darlene said we improved a lot today. Yay. :D

I just bought the soundtrack to Juno on iTunes. :)

Zone Week

We revisited zone last night at practice, which was lots of fun. It was great because we had so many people come. Our zone D needs a lot of work. Our cup keeps getting broken and can be a lot more communication on the field. Personally, I need to work on being a better short deep and communicating with the MM.

And we have all three captains back. Speaking of which, we like to split up all the responsibilities so that everyone is a captain:

Captain Captains: Erika, Catherine, Karen

Tournament Logistics Gurus: Brooke and Kari

Money Captain (a.k.a. Treasurer): Amy

Uniform Captain: Shan

Social Captain: Amy

Men's Outreach Coordinator Captain: Karen

Club Sports Council Liaison: Erika

Timekeeper Captain: Doris

Weather Captain: Smeri

Disc Bag Captain: Kelly

Tech Writer and Food Captains: Rosa and Natasha

Trash Bag and Baking Captains: Jenn and Anne

Art Captains (for discs, jerseys, and team apparel): Kari, Svetlana, Adele

Webmistress: Trisha and Chenxia

Fitness Captains: Jess and Jenny

Spirit Captain: Suzanne

Captain Planet: Daphne

Incidentally, NG is in Hong Kong. :(

Introducing... Meri

Name: Meredith

Year: G

Major: Mechanical Engineering

Height: 5'4"

Favorite position: Cup in zone d, mid on O

Personal strength: speed

Personal goal: making consistent throws and better decisions with them

Interests: is this supposed to be interests outside ultimate? I like modeling (the type that happens on a computer not the type that involves me being scantily dressed or building stuff) and pulling things apart for the advancement of science (i.e. mechanical testing), I also like soccer and baking.

One of the fastest teammates on sMITe, Smeri can usually be found playing "chase" in 1-3-3 and going deep whenever possible. She is also the only one who can do some of Jin's crazy ab/core exercises. And she one of the original inventors of butt-rolling (very useful in getting rid of soreness the day after tournaments).

As our weather captain, Smeri controls the weather, ensuring pristine conditions at every practice and tournament. Not only can control cloud movement to deter precipitation and direct wind in favor of sMITe, but she can also create beautiful works of nature. During Coffee Cup in the fall, she focused on her inner weather goddess and channeled all her weather-controlling abilities:

and despite constant distractions and tickling from her teammate Karen, Smeri crafted her beautiful rainbow over the Yale fields:

Smeri also recently finished her masters thesis - (congrats) - and has more time to take on eager young women on sMITe for weather-controlling apprenticeships. Only the best need apply.

Introducing... Kari

Name: Kari

Year: 2011

Course: 2a?

Height: 6'0"

Favorite Position: Uhh

Personal Strength: Being tall

Personal Goal: Throwing, in all respects

Interests: Art, politics, the environment, people, travel, food, fun

Kari skies people effortlessly.

Introducing... Jenn

Name: Jenn

Year: Freshman

Major: Undecided

Height: 5'5"

Favorite Position: Wing

Personal Strength of Yours: Catching

Personal Goal: Become a better mark

Interests: Running, baking, tea

Jenn was a part of sMITe from day one, particularly because she came to club sectionals with us. A fan of the claw catch, Jenn makes the most amazing catches and is very reliable as a wing especially on Zone O. We also determined that Jenn's not really white because she likes shrimp chips. And we all know that only Asians like shrimp chips. Then we found out that her parents move around a lot and Jenn actually lived in Japan for a few years, which explains the shrimp chips. :P

Scrimmage against Brandeis

We played 7s on the indoor track. It was kinda cramped but it worked out. Thankfully no one was injured. sMITe played aggressively and got a lot of run through Ds and it was great to play ultimate against another team. We even got to play a little zone O (YAY!) I love and hate handling in zone O. I feel like it's a lot of pressure but it's really fun too.

We have to work on our defense. I think a lot of sMITe still doesn't know which way to force. It was really really frustrating because most of the time we were getting beat was because the mark was forcing the wrong direction. Maybe saying "step left" or "step right" is too confusing for MIT students. I think in the future we should just say "step away" or "step home".

Smeri had some nice grabs in the endzone. Speaking of, our endzone looks pretty good. People are initiating cuts and clearing hard. It'd be good to see more dump swing... I guess that's where I need to step up :P Also, Stephanie made some really amazing catches. She came to practice for the first time on Wed and she's picking things up really fast. During the scrimmage she always seemed to be in the right place and would catch almost everything.

Everyone seems to be asking about spring tournaments so here's a tentative schedule:
- Southerns (Mar 22-23) - first weekend of spring break
- Easterns (Mar 29-30) - second weekend of spring break
- Yale Cup
- Sectionals (April 19-20)
- Regionals (May 3-4)

Daphne also mentioned something about UMass but I guess we'll see when the time gets closer. I can't wait to start playing outside. I can't believe it's 8 degrees right now. :(

Introducing... Brooke

Name: Brooke

Year: 2010

Major: Environmental Engineering (1E)

Height: 5'6"

Favorite Position: Popper

Personal Strength: Picking up an early end zone drill

Personal Goal: Turn my hands into magnets

Interests: Youth activism in any shape or size, public service, biking and building (www.bikeandbuild.org), sewing, drinking chai and milk, puddykins [thanks Brooke...]

So our first tournament in the fall was Wellesley Ultimate Tournament, and we met up at the student center at 7:00am. Everyone showed up by 7:15 or so except for our dear Brooke. We tried calling her cell phone and her room phone for another 15 minutes, but alas, no response. So we left her a message and then drove off without her. Three games later, around 1pm, Brooke shows up at the Wellesley fields... Apparently she was so tired that she turned off her cell phone and then put her dorm phone outside her room, all while she was sleeping.

Introducing sMITe 07-08

I started this blog because first, I was super excited after the first practice last week and I needed some kind of outlet for my excitment, and second, I figure it's a good way for sMITe alums to stay connected to the team and know what's going on. So the goal is to introduce a team member every few days, in addition to my "practice was so awesome!" posts. (I just realized that's how both my previous posts started off.) Let me know if you have any suggestions or comments.

Can you smell the rocks?

Practice tonight was awesome. We focused on offense and did a couple of dump/swing/continue and give-and-go drills. Smeri, Trish, and I have to practice not leading each other so much for the give-and-go. And I have to learn not to fall when I'm going up the line and hucking. The scrimmage at the end of practice looked really good too (we played 5s). People were taking initiative and making cuts, both in and away, and there was really good flow. The sprinting in the middle of the scrimmage was a good idea; I guess it simulates tougher games or games late in the day.

After practice:
Doris: Can you smell it???
Karen: What?
Doris: Boulder!... The mountains, the fresh air...
Karen: ... and rocks?

On another note, the men's team - mainly MattyB - have dubbed me "Puddykins."

Hey you all,

Don't forget tomorrow afternoon's practice outside on the turf, 2-5pm. We should make the most of it, because it's supposed to snow like whoa tomorrow night and it might be awhile before we can practice outside again. Also, we'll be scrimmaging with the girls for the last 45 minutes of practice. Just one word of warning; stay out of Ng's way during the game tomorrow. He'll be trying to earn Karen's affection with his ultimate ability, and it's best to just let him have the disc when he starts playing for his puddykins.

Matty B.

I think as long as NG doesn't call me Puddykins, I'm fine.

First Practice of 2008...

...was so awesome! It was truly a great day for ultimate. We had reserved the indoor track but since it was so warm outside (almost 50 degrees) we convinced the men's team to share the astroturf and we had practice outside! In January! :) We had about 13 people come out and we had a great time and got into the swing of things. The scrimmage looked really good. Even Jin and Darlene said that they were impressed. We had decent flow, both in and away cuts, dump and swing, sharp and narrow cuts, and people were heads up. It was great. :)

"This practice was so good. I can't wait to get back in shape and play ultimate again." -Kari (freshman)