Wellesley Scrimmage

We played Wellesley this afternoon on the nice new turf inside the track. It was a gorgeous day - low 50s, little wind, not a cloud in the sky. And we got to play on a full-size field on super nice turf. :)

It took us a few points to get our heads in the game. Our defense was struggling - we were still chasing like chickens. We had worked on backpedaling and staying on the open side right before the scrimmage started, but we still weren't able to do it during the game.

Wellesley set up zone on us a few points and we dealt with it pretty well. Amy and I would handle, Ethan and Heather wings, Lydia/Sluts/Mangpo popping, Agnes deep. They had one person man the other handler but Heather and the poppers did a good job of finding the holes to get the disc through the cup. We tend to get a little too excited to have the disc so we just have to be more patient, look for your options.

We also worked on having cutters look upfield for a continue cut instead of looking immediately to the dish, which worked out pretty well. Many times we had 2-3 continue cuts before a dump. In terms of offense, we still have to learn where the open lane is, depending on where the stack is. We had a lot of people cutting on the wrong side of the disc, which is fine if we're being forced backhand because I can usually get the flick break off but in general, we should be cutting on the right side.

Things that I remember about myself: I went up the line on a couple dump cuts and one time I smashed into a defender coming in towards the disc. I hate it when they do that because they KNOW that I can't see them and they just run straight for the disc anyway. And it's bound to happen at least once a game for me. It didn't hurt too much but I got the wind completely knocked out of me and had to sit a point out. Another time the dump ( don't remember who threw it) was a little too far so I laid out for it and got it! (and I get chocolate from Shuangy!) One other time I was marking someone on their endzone and I got a point block.

Things I have to work on: scan, no tunnel vision for deep looks, dump cut early when our disc is trapped on the sideline, communicating to the third handler when its trapped.

Things that sMITe did well: zone O - positioning and flow; vertical stack - cutting and getting open (we're open a lot); catching improved a lot from the Harvard scimmage; looking upfield for a continue cut

Things that sMITe needs to work on: defense - staying on the open side (we always got scored on on the open side, never the break side), backpedaling, recognizing when you're poached and exploiting it

Notable things from individual players:

• Amy - solid handling/throws/decisions, making up for some of the crap I threw in zone O, gettins some nice Ds.
• Mangpo - great cutting and getting open reliably, and having a cute friend cheer us on
• Lydia - great cutting and catching as well
• Ethan - nice communication in zone O as a wing, calling for the swing
• Agnes - heads up on defense, way to keep playing even though your knees were oozing (battle wounds!)
• Veena - way to be tall and go deep, you contribute to my tunnel vision, good bailout cuts
• Heather - great throws to continue cuts, nice cutting in general, esp deep looks
• Sluts - way to keep running, defense improved a lot from last week, aggressive cutting

I wish I had some pictures because it was so beautiful out but I'll just have to wait until the boy is available to take pictures. Maybe sectionals...

I'm hungry.

Introducing Sluts!

(I don't know how I don't have any pictures of Sluts, but I don't and I've resorted to stalking people on facebook to get pictures of them. And this one seemed appropriate for Sluts.)

Name: Alisha

Nicknames: Sluts (I've had many nicknames throughout my life, but none of them ever stick)

Hometown: San Diego, CA

Year: 1st year grad

Course(s): Mechanical engineering

Height: Shorter than Karen, apparently (5'3")

Favorite position(s): cutter

Personal strength (ultimate-related or not): I'm loud and I enjoy hard work (the first one is ultimate-related, I suppose, the second one is more general)

Personal goal (ultimate-related or not): To be on Jeopardy

Favorite ultimate memory: Alisha doesn't have a favorite ultimate memory yet, but she does have a favorite ultimate quotation (source will remain anonymous): 'smite vests!!!!! no, smite underwear!!!!! we can wear it over tights... and it can say "smite" on the butt, and then we can go around SITTING ON PEOPLE'

Interests besides ultimate: snowboarding, running, being outside, cooking graphics and websites (very amateur)

Anything else we should know about you: I pretty much plan my days around meals and food

Earlier this season we had an Anisha and an Alisha on the team and it was getting really confusing on the field. And one particular day in the fall, when Jin was having a hard time with names, she says, "We should just called you Sweats!", refering to Alisha who was wearing a headband. And everyone around her heard "Sluts" so we were all like, "OMG Jin, what did you say??" But the name Sluts stuck (Sluts herself made sure that it did) and that's how Sluts got her name. :)

Sluts joined the team during the middle to end of fall season. Meri told me about her one afternoon, saying, "She's thinking of joining ultimate or cycling but I think I'm winning." And I guess Meri did win because Sluts is playing ultimate now!

Sluts is awesome because she knows the concept of a team and makes it a priority to come to practice and be dedicated to the team. I guess now that I think about it, it doesn't hurt that we made her the disc bag captain and now she has to bring the disc bag to practice. :)

In my mind she's one of the most improved players on sMITe this year. In general, people esp rookies don't put enough spin on their throws, but Sluts' throws have lots of spin and power. (It's because she has amazing grip strength) She can also hammer and she's patient with the disc.

Sluts has one of the best work ethics on the team. She ran on the track team (mostly long distance, I believe) and has incredible endurance. She's dedicated to personal fitness and strength training and puts her mind to every task at hand. She's amazing already, and this girl is gonna go far.

Sectionals: April 18-19

We finally have our sectionals date: April 18-19 in Burlington, MA. I was really hoping that it would be the week before because 1) Clare is going to be out of town for sectionals now and 2) (less important but still important) CPW is April 18-19 (we really need to sell all those discs).

Small consolation: at least Grad Gala isn't the same weekend as sectionals. The last two years it was the same weekend as regionals.

Practice

Practice was really fun tonight. We had the indoor track all to ourselves for a full 2 hours! That never happens! Unfortunately we had low numbers because people were busy this tonight doing random things. We ended up having 4s for the scrimmage but it was still fun.

We worked on new plays for endzone (shhh its a secret - kinda). Lydia took a pretty nasty spill on the indoor track and scraped up 3 of her 4 limbs :( Erin says, "Ouch that's going to burn when you take a shower..." and Lydia goes, "Who needs showers..." =P

So during the Harvard scrim, I got footblocked TWICE in the same point. So I tried doing it in practice today and I got a foot on Trisha's throw but the pass was still completed. I can't decide whether foot blocks are too dangerous - I don't want to kick someone's hand and I kinda felt off-balance -, or if I should work on them more.

So I'm using Meri's desk this week because she's in Norway and I don't have an office on campus, and I just saw a mouse running behind her desk. Maybe I can catch it and put it in a little cage and then Meri can have a pet when she comes back.

Also, I just read a really depressing article in the Tech: http://tech.mit.edu/V129/N11/shu.html

And no, Gary is not my brother.

Introducing Kelly! and Scrimmage against Harvard

(pic stolen from Kelly's facebook because she always wears that shirt to practice and this picture is kinda ridiculous... hope you don't mind =P)

Name: Kelly R.

Nicknames: naryllek, Kel

Hometown: Reston, VA

Year: 2012

Course: 2

Height: 5'5"

Favorite position(s): being in the (vertical) stack

Personal strength: Capacity to eat food

Personal goal: To become fluent in Chinese

Favorite ultimate memory: Playing in DC's summer league with my sister :)

Interests besides ultimate: Running bridge loops, Solar Electric Vehicle Team, reading, good food, learning how to play guitar

Before school started this year, our original Kelly (the non-rookie one), told me, "I played ultimate with this girl named Kelly this summer and she's really good so we should recruit her. But she's also interested in crew so we have to make sure she joins ultimate." Haha and now here she is. :)

One of the things that stood out to me about Kelly was her mark; she knows the force and puts pressure on her thrower. Kelly is fast and makes nice sharp decisive cuts and catches. So even though she says that her favorite position is being in the vertical stack, I'm sure it doesn't mean literally in the stack, but more like making cuts from the stack... :) Kelly's also patient with the disc and doesn't force throws. More on Kelly's awesomeness in the scrimmage against Harvard...

It was gorgeous this weekend in Boston. Both Saturday and Sunday the temperature was in the high-50s. We were supposed to scrimmage Harvard on Sunday afternoon on their bubble turf, but they called to tell me that the bubble people screwed up their bubble time so we were going to play outside instead. Yay!

It was a decently windy afternoon but it was so beautiful outside that I didn't have much to complain about. Smite brought about 13 girls and we played on Harvard's nice outdoor turf. We saw a lot of great things and a lot of crappy things during the scrimmage, so I'll just focus on three of each, starting with the positive things:

1. Throwing in wind - I thought that for the first time we've played outdoors in the wind since November or something, we did a pretty good job of being patient with the disc, throwing to people who are open.

2. Zone O - Harvard set up a zone on us a few times when we were going upwind but we dealt with it pretty well. Heather, Amy, and Ethan did a great job of handling the disc and throwing it through the cup. Kelly, Emily and Mangpo had great positioning in the holes of the cup and made some amazing grabs. Kelly, especially, was really good about catching things through the cup and then dumping it back to the handler. I don't think we ever scored a point on zone O but we worked it up a good chunk of the field.

3. Ho-Stack - People were good about cutting in their lanes and mirroring their buddy.

Things to work on:

1. Man defense - our D was pretty atrocious this weekend. We were on the wrong side of our girl, we didn't know the force so we were forcing the wrong way, our marks kept getting broken, and we chased like chickens chasing worms. We need to be more disciplined about being on the open side of our person, dictating her in or out, and backpedaling.

2. Catching and reading - I think our cuts were good and people were open but there were a lot of drops and misreads. We should have a drill with high through-put catching.

3. Transitioning - Transitioning after a turn from zone O to man D. Don't get down on yourself - it's a new possession, pick yourself up and play defense!

Final score 2-15.

Introducing Mangpo!

Name: Phitchaya

Nicknames: Mangpo

Hometown: Thailand

Year: 2012

Course(s): 6

Height: 158 cm = 5'2"

Favorite position(s): popper

Personal goal (ultimate-related or not): create new invention for the world

Favorite ultimate memory: got hit by frisbee on my face

Interests besides ultimate: painting & singing


I still remember the day in July where I got my first e-mail from Mangpo:

Hello MIT Ultimate team,

I'm Mangpo, MIT class of 2012's student. I'm really interested in joining Ultimate Frisbee team. What do I need to do to join team?

Thank you,
Mangpo

And after that, then she's been one of the most consistent faces on sMITe :)

She didn't write any "personal strengths" in her survey, but she's got a lot. She's a fast learner, she cuts well, runs through discs, and is committed to the team. And Mangpo has some amazing hands... lately she's been catching everything in practice. And I remember during one of the fall tournaments it was rainy and windy (probably Coffee Cup) I was handling in zone and Mangpo was a popper and she would catch all my hammers and other random crap I was throwing through the cup. All in all, Mangpo is pretty awesome and I'm really excited that she's on the team this year.