Club Sectionals Day 2

Today we played Bowdoin, BC, Stonehill, then Godiva. We ran one cross-field sprint for every turnover that we had. We needed to learn that every time we turned the disc, the other team was going to capitalize on our mistakes and score. We started playing Bowdoin, where we ran 10 sprints in the first half because we were being careless with the disc. Our second half was better and we ended up with 3 sprints. Among the first three games and the first half of the Godiva game, we ran 49 cross-field sprints. :(

The Godiva game was one of the most fun games I've played in. It was especially refreshing to play a competitive team after playing 3 college teams before that. I mean, I almost always have fun playing organized ultimate, but I felt like playing the college teams at club sectionals was especially stressful because if we didn't play perfectly - win every point without a turnover, we were failures. I guess that's the point that Jin is trying to drill into us. =P

We had some trouble in the first half of the game where cutters and handlers were cutting each other off in the ho-stack. It was frustrating because the cutters were making good cuts and were getting open, but they were cutting each other off. Other than that I only remember specific points of the Godiva game so here goes:

• Daphne skyed three Godiva girls all taller than her. It was AMAZING. She jumped and suddenly she was a foot taller than everyone around her and she came down with the disc. And then right after that she threw it away close to our endzone and everyone groaned. :( But it was still an amazing catch :)
  
• I think our dump cuts improved throughout the game but they still need to get a lot better. Better dump cuts = more opportunities for the swing to go off = score on the break side!
• Doris layout D-ed Jess Blanton
  
• I almost got a D on her as well but really I just fouled her by slapping her hand on accident. =P Agh, why can't I be faster...
  
• Jenny ALMOST laid out in the endzone for a huck from someone. It felt like I was watching in slow motion: she got a fingertip on the disc as she was going down but her 5'10"-ness just couldn't get any taller to actually catch the disc.
• Our marks got a lot better throughout the game. In the beginning they were breaking us a lot on the arounds but some marking adjustment really helped us with sealing the arounds and preventing breakside goals.
• Nell's pulls are amazing! - they go so far so consistently. I'm envious.

Reflections: When I'm on the field, I have this tendency to be the primary dump for the entire point and get the disc back on a dish after every throw and just be a disc hog. I think I like either touching the disc every other pass or not getting the disc at all. It's just so much easier getting the disc back after every pass because of momentum and flow. Otherwise, you have to initiate a dump cut, which takes much more energy (man, I'm so lazy...).

More reflections: Jin was also commenting that once a turnover happens, it snowballs into more and more turnovers in any given point. I guess that makes some sense because once a team turns the disc, they're fighting much harder to get it back, and so on.

We got to watch a few points of sMITe's games on Sunday. They looked really good! There were 10 players including Shuangy who was also playing for sMITe. All the cutters from last year were making really nicely-timed, sharp cuts and catching discs. There was nice flow. Shuangy, Becky, Ethan, Heather and Daisy (first-year grad who went to UPenn for ugrad) were handling. I'm really excited for Becky and Ethan as handlers this year. I think last year we trained the cutters too well on dishing because they rarely looked upfield. That will change this year.