A Summer Sans Ultimate

 While I played year around for so many years, summer was always ultimate season.  Facebook is now reminding me of posts of opening games from seasons past.  I don't regret my decision to retire from the sport, but I regret having to do so.  I just can't cut without pulling one tendon or muscle or another.  Alas, my quest for another summer pastime has thus far not borne fruit.  Instead, I took the occasion of the start of summer ultimate season to ask ChatGPT to write a series of poems.

A Haiku

Throws soar in the air,
Retirement claims the disc's flight,
Memories take flight.

A Limerick 

There once was a frisbee champ,
Whose throws were a marvelous stamp.
With retirement in sight,
They bid their game goodnight,
Leaving foes in a permanent cramp!

An Ode to the End of Steve's Ultimate

Oh, Ultimate Frisbee, beloved game,
A chapter now comes to a close, how time does wane.
With joyous bounds, I soared and leapt,
Through fields and skies, my spirit kept.

From early mornings 'til twilight's gleam,
I chased the disc, in the realm of a dream.
With teammates, united in pure elation,
We forged a bond, a shared dedication.

On hallowed grounds, where friendships bloomed,
We wove a tapestry, where passion consumed.
Sweat-soaked jerseys, worn with pride,
Together we laughed, together we cried.

Each throw and catch, a symphony in the air,
A graceful dance, a moment rare.
The disc, an extension of my soul,
In its flight, I found myself whole.

Through every layout, in the dirt and grass,
I felt alive, as time did pass.
The camaraderie, a treasured gift,
In victory and defeat, our spirits lift.

But now, the time has come to step away,
To bid farewell to the ultimate fray.
The body, weary from battles fought,
It's time to pass the torch, a lesson taught.

Yet, the memories remain, etched deep within,
The victories, the losses, the competitive din.
The friendships forged, forever strong,
As I retire, a bittersweet song.

Oh, Ultimate Frisbee, you've shaped my soul,
Instilling lessons, making me whole.
I carry your spirit, within my heart,
As I embark on a brand-new start.

So, thank you, dear sport, for all you've bestowed,
For the highs and lows, and the love that flowed.
As I hang up my cleats, I'll always treasure,
The moments we shared, beyond measure.

Farewell, Ultimate Frisbee, with gratitude I part,
A journey cherished, forever in my heart.
Though I retire from the field's embrace,
Your spirit, forever, I shall embrace.

Alas More Ultimate Is No Longer A Thing as my Achilles Heel is ... my Achilles Heel

hard to see
the pointy spring
at the bottom

I went out not with a bang but a whimper.  The grandmaster summer league ended up being less of a league and more of a weekly pickup game.  Sometimes, we got 6 on 6 or 7 on 7 with subs, but mostly we played smaller games of 4 on 4.  My achilles barked all summer long, but I managed to stay on the field (the trip/covid/trip interruption helped prolong my season).  My knee brace stabbed me today as a spring had broken loose--a hint?  A metaphor?  Yeah, it is time.  I was able to go out mostly on my terms.  I spent today throwing some passes I never threw before--blind behind the back, backhand upside down, etc and proved decisively that my previous restraint was so right for so long.

Professional Ultimate: Damn, They Are Good

Elliot and anticipated a fun game,
woman behind us?  Not so much    

Last night, a friend and I went to see the semi-final game of the Canadian part of the American Ultimate Disk League playoffs.  The pandemic has meant that the three Canadian teams played each other all summer long--no trips across the border.

I have been to a few games, and I have been watching lots of clips of professional ultimate via the AULD's instagram account, so I knew what to expect.  Most of the rules are the same, with the exceptions of having referees, violations or fouls producing changes in yards on the field or possession, and double-teaming.  Only that last one really would be a major change, as one can only be single-teamed in all other levels of ultimate.  To be surrounded by two adversaries cutting off almost all throwing lanes would be a challenge to any ultimate player.  I imagine they have to practice this.  The opponents--the Toronto Rush--set up sideline plays on purpose to double-team a thrower.  It did put much pressure, but the turnovers the Ottawa Outlaws committed were mostly their own mistakes.

And, yes, that is a hint--the good guys lost 24-22, and that score is a bit deceptive as they were behind by four points for most of the game.  For the entire first half, the Rush didn't turnover the disk, which made it impossible to catch up after a few Outlaw turnovers.  The Outlaws mostly turned it over with bad throwing decisions plus a couple of contested catches that, well, weren't caught.  

As the highlights on instagram indicated, there are plenty of layouts on defense with some very successful bids.  There were probably not as many long throws (hucks) as expected.  There were more scoobers (backhand upside down throws) than in any game I have ever played in.  Speed still kills, as TO had one or two guys who consistently could go deep and get not just open but wide open.  

 The referreeing had some interesting impacts.  On one play, the referees blew the whistle while the disk was in the air, and it would have been a score, except the throwing team, the Rush, had called timeout apparently.  So, they negated their own score.  Plus what was incidental contact was often called, leading to the offense getting the disk on the endzone line, akin to a football receiver getting pass interference.  The picture to the right is a foul that was not so incidental as the Outlaw player tripped and then tripped up the Rush offensive player while the disk was just about to reach them.

The crowd was quite lively.  We were near a group of young women who knew the players quite well, it seems.  Kind of like sitting next to the wives/girlfriends section of a baseball game.  The age range of the crowd was quite good from kids to teens to younger adults to old grandmasters like ourselves.  Some even brought big faces of some of the players as you can almost see here.  The announcer was pretty good and amusing, although he never used the word "huck" to describe a long pass.  Instead, he said "bomb" which is not the way ultimate players refer to such plays.  Maybe too easy for the kids to hear something else instead of huck?

Unlike all other sports, I can imagine myself playing.  I was never good enough as these guys, but in the old days, I used to occasionally play with and against folks who ended up on the Montreal professional team.  As I watch, I can see what throws I would want to make (fewer upside ones) and hopefully make good choices.  But I would never get open as all of these guys could shut me down, and, of course, I would be a tremendous liability on defense.  The game is similar enough to what I am used to.  The big difference, besides the athleticism, is that they do much of the time (but surprisingly not all the time) get spaced out really well so that the cutting lanes are open and that their are almost always good cuts.  

It was a great way to spend an evening, watching what this sport I have loved for so long is becoming even as I start to have serious doubts about how much longer I can keep playing.  This summer of injuries was most frustrating.  The question for the winter is whether I can make it through most or all of the season without needing serious physical therapy.  If I can't, that will be the end of my ultimate career.   If I can, I will keep playing.  To be continued.

 

 

 

Quarantine Report, Week 68: Compartmentalizing The Disasters

 Man, even as we get towards the downslope of the pandemic in North America, the hits keep on coming.  The brutal heat out west sparked a fire thunderstorm, something that I did not know could happen.  No rain, just lightning sparking fire.  It wiped out a town that had just set the Canadian record for high temperature.  And climate change is only going to get worse--with droughts out west, a real water crisis is emerging, there will be more fires, and people are dying just due to the heat.  At the same time, the bill has come due for GOP domination of court selection.  This week's decision to further gut the Voting Rights Act will let stand all kinds of shenanigans by the GOP to suppress the vote AND change who decides elections--Republican legislators, not voters.  Yet, the Dems still can't get their act together--Sinema and Manchin (along with Feinstein and some others) are entirely too willing to let this happen.  It drives me crazy that the crisis alarm is blaring, and these politicians are letting this all happen.  Of course, even if they were to pass a new Voting Rights Act, Alito and pals are likely to gut it.  Up here, in Canada, it was a very sad Canada Day, as what Canadians should have known has become obvious to all--that the Residential Schools were concentration camps for Indigenous kids, complete with disease-ridden housing and abusive guards priests.

And yet more death.  Mat McCubbins was a prof at UCSD when I was there.  I didn't take any classes from him as I was avoiding all American Politics stuff.  Too bad as the approach he helped to develop and promote--principal-agency theory--has become one that I have been leaning on quite a bit the past decade or so.  Mat was a powerful force in the department.  He helped shape it, and he definitely made a huge impact on his students.  I remember him doing a great deal of pitching to get his students jobs.  My only real experience with him was the football games we played a couple of years around the Super Bowl--grad students versus Mat and his bigger, more physical friends.  But I got a lot through osmosis at the time as his students gave me much feedback on my work, and I learned from what Mat had to say at job talks and the like.  He moved from UCSD, but he made a lasting impression.  My condolence to his family and to his students.

The Canadian civ-mil story got messier.  The Acting Chief of Defence Staff announced he was going to keep the head of the navy on despite the latter's poor judgment in playing golf with the disgraced and currently being investigated former CDS.  The A/CDS, General Eyre, explained that we can't fire everyone and that we need to have some proportionality.  I see the challenge here--that there needs to be consequences but also there needs to be an environment where people who make mistakes can learn and improve.  Zero tolerance, no discretion is a dumb, cowardly way to go that often causes much more harm.  When asked, both Deputy Minister Freeland and Prime Minister Trudeau criticized the decision as if Eyre was off on his own, making shit up.  I can guarantee that Eyre consulted widely including with the Minister of National Defence.  So, if Freeland and Trudeau have a problem with this, they should talk to MND Sajjan.  Sajjan hasn't said he was consulted but that he stands by Eyre.  Which is pretty weak.  He should make clear he owns this decision, but perhaps Sajjan still does not understand what his job entails.

So, how do we manage to get through this?  Focusing on the positive, I guess.  Thinking about the things one can control.  Taking some solace in the silly stuff.  The best news on the home front is that on Thursday Mrs. Spew and I will be "fully vaxxed" meaning that we had two doses (AZ and Moderna) and two weeks.  Which will then mean arranging long-deferred dentistry, a haircut, movies for me (my wife will wait on that a bit longer), and more outings including some patio dining.  The number of new cases in Ottawa has been in the single digits this week.  So, I look forward to some drinks with friends soon.

Also, ultimate!  With Ontario moving to stage 2, we can now return to the fields.  I may have overextended myself by signing up for three leagues--playing three games a week--but I was not sure whether any of the three were going to work out.  The Sunday late morning league will be a small affair with two dozen or so players, all "Master" or "Grandmaster".  To be qualified for the former, men have to be over 33 and women over 30 and for the latter, men over 40 and women over 37 (the idea is not that women age faster than men but they tend to be fewer of them, I am guessing).  Yes, there is such a thing as Great Grandmaster--for guys over 50 and women over 47--but we had a hard enough time getting 26 people together this summer with the lower age cutoff.  I know more of the older players so that makes it more fun.  Many are still quite fast, but not quite as many rabbits.  And generally a high skill level.  The two other leagues are open, so I will be playing against men and women of all ages.  My wife is wondering if I will make it through the summer with my hamstrings and achilles still attached.  We shall see, but it will be a short summer session as we are starting late.  Expect more frisbee talk and pics in the weeks ahead.

The other bit of good news was that it was a good writing week. One co-author finished off our revisions of a paper, so that is now in the hands of the reviewers.  I met with Dave and Phil for the big project, and we figured out our July division of labor.  This meant me revising our paper with the two of them working on the first two chapters of the book.  I made a lot of progress swapping out the case studies that had been in the paper and putting in two others.  The advantage of having 15 or so case studies with most nearly or fully written up is that is not hard to plug and play.  The aim is to get the article out this month and to have a draft of the book by the end of the summer.  Alas, summer is now about half over (for those of us who stop teaching in early April).

Time to write a promotion to full letter, so enjoy your weekend.  May the Fourth be fire-free.

 

Ultimate Ranking

Last night, I had a pretty great night of ultimate--my throws were almost all working, my team was moving the disk great on offense and playing excellent defense, and I have had a few defensive plays including one layout (dive) to block a pass to the guy I covered.  I have always been much better on offense than defense and much more so as I have gotten older and slower (I have never been fast, but can be quick).  Last night also reminded me of the Principle of Conservation of Greatness, which refers to the situation of making a great play (great defensive effort or excellent catch) and then throwing the disk away.  Because I did, indeed, throw the disk away after the layout D. 

It got me thinking about the plays that mean the most to me, both in general and the specific ones over the years.  So, I thought I would rank the potential plays by how much joy they give me and then the specific ones.

1. The Greatest.  This is when one jumps out of bounds, catches the disk, and then before landing throws it back to a teammate in bounds.  I have never done it, have seen it successfully executed in person maybe once or twice in my thirty five years or so of playing.  It can be seen on highlight films (this video has some plays that are inbounds jump/catch/throw/land but those are not the Greatest)
2. The Callahan.  This is when a team is backed up near or in their own endzone and then a defender intercepts the pass in the endzone for a score.  Back in the old days, it didn't count as a score, and it definitely didn't have a name.  I have done this a few times, but not recently.  It is very cool when it happens.
3. Laying out successfully on defense to block a pass.  I love to lay out, as I am much better throwing myself horizontally than moving vertically (jumping).  It started out catching the trash--the tipped disks from the competition of taller, jumpier people.  I manage to do this once or twice a season.
4. Laying out successful to catch a pass.  This happens far more often--often once or twice a game.  My favorites are when I am running down a pass in front of me, but I have end up laying out to catch a disk thrown behind me (see below!).  I dive often enough, but I only have one video of such an effort.  
5. Outskying someone.  Rare for me, but it has happened where I outjump someone to catch or block a disk. 
6. Catching the trailing end of a disk as it flies by me.  In the aforementioned video, it is not just special for laying out but for snagging it from behind.  
7. Throwing a particularly snazzy throw for a score.  This usually means one that bends one way (inside out) or another (outside in).  My throws (and seeing the field) have been the best part of my game since close to the beginning.  I have been one of the handlers (the folks who are the point guards/quarterbacks) on my teams since my junior year at Oberlin.  So, I tend to be in a position to make a good throw pretty often, with a nice inside out or arcing pass at least a couple of times a game.  
8. Scoring.  I tend to be the one throwing to the person in the endzone, but I do occasionally score, and it always is chock full of joy.  
9. Being a good decoy--cutting to take my defender out of the play so that someone else can score.

I am sure there are other plays that bring me joy, but these are the ones that come to mind.

In terms of specific moments, here are my favorite plays of my entire ultimate career:

1. I will always remember the, um, penultimate point in Columbus, OH against Ohio State. They were always a better team (they had a far bigger pool of people from which to get players).  We were close to the endzone, and I was cutting to one side of the endzone.  Gabe Brownstein decided to throw a hammer--an upside down pass--that had only recently become known to those playing in Ohio.  It was an awful pass.  I had to stop and dive backwards, catching the disk at the end of my fullest extension.  My team mobbed me, stunned by the play.  And, yes, we went on to win, the one time we beat OSU in my four years at Oberlin.
2. Leaving Montreal.  My teammates and opponents threw me a surprise extra game to send me off.  It was incredibly moving and heaps of fun.  In my ultimate journey, my time in Montreal will always be the most special.  General Admission and Ultimate Angels stand out as my favorite teams of my career, along with the various Obie teams (we changed names almost as often as we changed our shirts).  I have been in Ottawa for nearly eight years, and I still have not come close to feeling as connected to folks in the ultimate scene as I did in Montreal, even though I missed half of the talk (my French ain't great).  I do really enjoy the Grandmaster
   
   Winter League, and I am starting to know the folks in it, and they are starting to know me (which means I get more chances to score as they know to expect me to stay back and handle). 
3. The first time I threw to my kid for a score in a real game.  She subbed for one of my summer league teams in Montreal, sometime around 14 or 15.  I found her open in the endzone and threw it to her, and I was a proud papa when she caught it.
4. My first curvy throw for a score. I remember playing in tournament as a college student and throwing a long bendy pass to our captain, Thomas von Heune (I may be spelling his name wrong), for a score.
5.  Drinking from the cup!  I have been on the winning side of a few tourneys (mostly the end of summer league tournaments), but this one, with the Montreal Grandmasters (over 40 years old), was mighty special.  And taught me an important lesson: my team is not going to win a tournament if I am one of the best players.  Hurts the ego, but there it is. 
6. Mooing for the disk!  Fall league in Montreal all tended to have a costume game around Halloween, and I would dress up as a cow (thanks to a Lubbock team trip to a Fort Collins tourney).  And in, I think, my last Halloween game in Montreal, I had to lay out for a long pass and I moo-ed while I caught it.  Yep, I said mooooooo as I dove to catch the disk.  
7. My first tournament in Texas--a windy day--and our inexperienced Lubbock team was getting crushed in each game.  I remember being elated when I finally connected a scoring pass to one of our women.  She was surprised when I hugged her and picked her up, but I was just thrilled to finally get a point.
8. Throwing a clever, somewhat risky pass to beat a zone defense in Los Alamos in 2000.  Why?  Because one of the opponents, a captain named Chris, complimented me on the pass.  The very best part of ultimate (besides being a sport that I play very well) is the spirit of the game--that competitors (except perhaps at the highest levels) have much respect and camaraderie for/with each other.  A good example was getting amusingly heckled by one of my opponents who joked that my great D didn't count since I threw the disk away.  It was all in good spirit, and this game has heaps and heaps of good spirit.
9. The time another team got upset when two older dudes played with a group of 14-15 year olds (including my kid) to school the C/D (the meh) bracket.  

There are other memories, but these are the one that stick out the most.  My memory tends to be lousy, so I am hoping that I remember some key Ottawa moments that I will be having in the latter days of my career.

Thinking About Frisbee Theology

I saw this pic (thanks Jade):

and it got me thinking about how quickly one might find sects developing around different beliefs. So here are some questions that might lead to splitters and all that:

• What kind of dog?  I would assume that the mainstream Frisbee-ite would image the Dog to be a border collie, but I could see groups taking different stances on what kind of dog will eventually receive the earth-frisbee--Muttites, Goldens, Labbers, etc.
• What kind of throw?  Sure, the mainstream frisbee-ites will probably this that God make a casual backhand throw, but Flickers are those who believe God threw a forehand strike... which means, of course, we have less time as backhands are tend to be more float-y than a forehand.  Of course, this raises all kinds of theological questions as God could have thrown the earth inside out or outside in, producing different kinds of curves, which might make it harder for the Dog to catch the disk.  
• Do some religions think much about whether the frisbee ends up on a roof or on the other side of a fence?
• Is there, dare I ask, a defense seeking to block the throw?  This presents a completely different view of the God-Disk-Dog, um, dogma because one might worry about there being opposing forces that seek to prevent the successful completion of earth-frisbee's journey.  Those who root for the defenders might be akin to Satanists, rooting for the opposing team.
• What kind of player is God after all?  Is he an old school pot-smoking hippie who never drilled, doesn't bother to stretch, and mostly hucks the disk long?  Or is she more like the 21st century handler, who is comfortable making short and long throws in all directions?

I do believe the disk has a spirit that unites those who value it.  Beyond that, the theology needs much work. 

Ultimate Survey

A facebook friend had a status today of an old ultimate team questionnaire.  As I recover from Sunday's game (soreness takes longer and longer to go away), I thought I would post my answers because, hey, it is my blog.

• # of tournaments:  If one combines league-ending tourneys with travel-competition, something around 50. 
• ACL surgery: no.  Worst ultimate injury is nasty sprained ankle.  Worst frisbee injury is concussion after running into a tree while tossing the disk during orientation when I was an RC (RA in other places) at Oberlin.
• Ultimate Idol: Probably Jean-Levy Champagne.  So tall, so quick, great skills and athleticism and owner of at least one of the professional ultimate teams. 
• Kids: 1.  Glad she played ultimate in her teen years and first few years of college.  Understandable that other interests took over, alas.
• Favourite throw: Inside out flick and outside in flick.  I love throwing the disk with curves.  Least favourite throw to throw or receive--hammer.  Wildly over-used--people forget what a backhand can do. 
• Ultimate goal: "Keep playing until I'm dead."  This is what my FB friend said, and I wouldn't change it.  It used to be: play until I reach 40.  Then 50.  Now?  60. 
• Favourite post-ultimate snack: Chocolate milk if I am alone, beer if with my team.
• O or D?: O     No question about that although laying out to block a pass is the thing that gets me most energized, most excited.  But I am so much better on Offense than Defense, and it has always been thus.

Should there be any other questions on this ultimate questionnaire? Hmmm.

• Favorite team:  General Admission although I loved learning and playing with the Obie teams (whose names kept on changing)
• Favorite form of ultimate: I kind of miss five on five on the width of a field with sub on the fly, but that might be conflating form with team (GA).  
• Silliest form of ultimate played: hex-ultimate--2 on 2 on 2 with two disks on an hexagonal field.  Three teams, two disks, first to score gets the point, with nice collective action problems built into the game.
• Favorite frisbee memory: laying out backwards to catch Gabe's crappy hammer in the endzone to break the tie and put Oberlin ahead of Ohio State back in 1983 or 1984.
• Favorite frisbee video?  This one: 

Sesame Street Ultimate

I saw this on twitter

Happy birthday to me friend @BigBird! Remember dat one time we played Frisbee and me ate it… yeah me sorry about dat. Me won’t eat any games on your birthday! #HappyBirthdayBigBird pic.twitter.com/nSZQDBi3NH

— Cookie Monster (@MeCookieMonster) March 20, 2018

and I could not help but consider who I would want on my Sesame Street ultimate frisbee team (just SS, not the entire muppet community).

First, I wouldn't want Cookie Monster on my team.  Not only does he eat the frisbees, but he is so easy to distract: "hey, do I see a cookie on the sideline" and suddenly you are playing 6 against 7.  On the other hand, Big Bird might be slow, but, as we can see in the clip, he can throw and I'd love to be throwing the long high pass to him as he outskies the competition. 

My second teammate would be Aloysius Snyffleupagus.  Why?  Because he is always open on offense and always in the way on defense.  The other team just does not believe in his abilities, so Snuffy is really the number one draft pick for this team.  He is really mellow, helping to maintain the proper spirit of the game.

Third is Fred the Wonder Horse.  Not only is he fast, but he is among the most sensible muppets, which makes him a good handler--he knows what he can do and he knows what his teammates can do.

Fourth, of course, is Grover.  A good ultimate team needs enthusiasm and optimism.  And Grover's lankiness suggests an ability to stretch around the mark, layout for the disk, and go up for the high tosses.

Fifth, Rosita, as she is both smart and good spirited and, despite efforts to stop her, she can still fly.





Sixth, Telly, whose obsession with triangles pays off on offense via how he cuts in the horizontal stack and on in defense in spacing the zone.  





Seven, Zoe, who is deceptively strong and feisty.  She reminds me of a number of my teammates of the years--folk who are willing to layout for the score but throw perhaps too many hammers.




I could go on, but this is a strong starting seven.  No, no Count as he too is easily distracted.  Once someone starts counting stall, he would join in and then his focus is gone. 

Flatball: An Ultimate Doc

Last night, I watched Flatball on Netflix  Tis a documentary about the history of ultimate, narrated by Alec Baldwin. Overall, it was pretty terrific.  It didn't cover everything, and was a bit too obsessed about New York, New York, but explained the sport without dumbing it down.  It focused perhaps the central concern--what is the spirit of the game--without trivializing it, and, most of all, it showed the passion and joyfullness inherent in the game.  It also showed the athleticism and beauty of the sport pretty well.

The central debate in the movie and in reality has been: the Spirit of the Game.  This centers mostly but not entirely on the fact that ultimate was conceived and largely remains self-refereed.  There are observers for some (most?) of the competitive tourneys, and referees in the professional league.  This move towards having non-players make calls was controversial because the Spirit of the Game, the hippie concept at the start of the sport, remains key--that players should compete but value integrity more than self.  The idea is that players call the fouls honestly, including on themselves, that one players honorably. Over time, competition has been intense enough that rules have changed so that people can't call fouls on themselves to slow the other team.  One of the problems with the doc is that it seemed to buy, at least a bit, the New York, New York sense of the Spirit--compete as hard as you can no matter what.  This is imply wrong.  The Spirit is something more than that--it is about respecting the opponent, not deliberately violating the rules, and so forth.

I did experience New York, New York despite never playing at the highest levels.  In the summer between college and grad school, I played in the NY summer league.  I joined late, so I got placed with a team of 14-15 year olds from Bronx Science or whatever.  So, we were a bad team--I had the most experience, which was not really that much.  NY, NY split up and played on several teams, and I remember one game, where one NY, NY segment was so incredibly obnoxious.  I have played heaps of ultimate over my lifetime, and that one game will always stand out as the most unpleasant.  Because they really had no conception of the Spirit of the Game--they rubbed our inferiority in our faces in a summer league game.  I kind of hated that they told the history of ultimate through the experiences of one of the least spirited, least typical ultimate players and teams, but I am sure it was partly guided by which footage they had.  And it was a compelling story, even if it was the wrong story.

UPDATE:  A friend informed me that the director of the doc was a NYNY player, so now it all makes sense.

Other than that, watching the doc was a thrill--to see the teams I had heard of--the legends--such as Windy City, the Condors, Flying Circus.  To see that I was very much part of the boom.  Ultimate  started in 1968 in NJ and started becoming an inter-college club sport in the mid-70s.  It started at Oberlin in 1976 (so I went back for the 30th anniversary of ultimate there in 2006---twas a great weekend).  It was still a fairly marginal sport until the mid-80s.  At that time, it did start appearing randomly on ESPN, in a Howard Cosell piece, in Sports Illustrated, and the first world tourneys.

It was great to see the evolution that continued throughout the 90s with teams around the world becoming more competitive with the US teams.  I didn't know that Team Canada beat the US men's team a couple of years in a row around 2010-11. It was great to see some folks use ultimate to bring Israelis of all kinds together with Palestinians--that was very, very moving and very much in the Spirit of the Game.


My big quibbles:

• No mixed (co-ed) ultimate.  Absolutely no discussion, footage or anything, and I think this is one thing that makes ultimate damn near unique.  I would hazard a guess and suggest that most of the city leagues that exist have most of their ultimate in this form, which means much of the ultimate out there is mixed. There are competitive teams all the way up to world competitions.  Are there any other sports where men and women play together?  Seems like much ultimate coverage ignores this key form of it.  Really a lost opportunity.  Also minimal coverage of the women's game--first about 53 minutes into the doc, but nice coverage of the post 3/11 tsunami competition in Japan with Japan upsetting the American team.
• Also, didn't spend any time on the development of city leagues.  Again, where is ultimate being played these days?  Yes, there are world competitions, but just as soccer is now a thing in the US thanks to youth sports, ultimate is more of a thing thanks to big city leagues.  Would have been nice to know how many schools in US, Canada and elsewhere have teams at the junior high and high school levels.  It is now a component in many gym classes.
• Oh, Alec, I never stopped wearing bandanas.  I just have many more of them than I used to, and now it is not just for the sweat but also for, alas, sunburn prevention.

Professional Ultimate? Yes, Please

I went to my second professional ultimate game last night (first time reported here).  It was the final game of the season for the Ottawa Outlaws, and was at a far more convenient location.  So, I felt compelled to see how my favorite sport is doing.   From the crowds I saw, it is doing pretty well.  Nice mix of ages--lots of kids and teens, some old frisbee vets.

 The Ottawa Outlaws were in green, and NY Empire were in white.  I overheard folks taking about how there were multiple professional leagues, but one collapsed. This led to the merger of the NY folks, so they have a heap of talent.  They had two guys were dominated the skies--making many good defense plays and out-skying (out-jumping) the Ottawa players who had no such mutants playing for them.

 It was a great day for it--not much wind--just enough to make it interesting, and, thankfully no rain.  The play was very impressive in terms of athleticism--lots of layouts, impressive throws (one 3/4 of the field hammer--upside down for a score).  Like last time, turnovers kill.  The Outlaws were sloppy early on, so NY could get a four point lead.  They mostly traded points the rest of the way.

 NY Empire played zone defense a few times, which explains why so many white uniforms are near one green guy with the disk.

 One of the big differences is not so much between professional and amateur but between men's and mixed (co-ed): the men's game involves far more hucking.  That is, far more long throws and somewhat less working up the field with shorter passes.

Once again, half time involved letting the kids on the field for some throwing.







This is what it looks like:

I look forward to seeing the game and the league evolve further next year.  The championships are in Montreal at the end of August, by the way.

Ultimate as My Religion

On the way home from the second of two end of the season bbq's, I had an epiphany while talking to Mrs. Spew.  That in most of the places we have lived, the ultimate frisbee community has been our primary non-work community.  It has been the group of people that we know, that we hang out with, that makes us feel a part of the larger city. 

Lewd Pelvic Gyrations (Wednesdays)

In Lubbock, this was particularly important since it was very much the case that for nearly everyone else, the primary community was one's church.  In Montreal, we lived in a mostly older neighborhood so we didn't develop many connections.  We sent our kid to private school so our daughter and her school did not help us develop connections either.  But ultimate produced friendships across the city and across linguistic lines.  Sure, at parties, I would often be confused when people would bounce back and forth between English and French, but they still made me and mine feel most welcome.  In Ottawa, we have had a bit less need of this community because we knew people here already, and it has been pretty easy to develop contacts and friends through the government and those interested in the government.  Yet still ultimate still has served us well.  Since I play on two different teams (I played on three in Montreal, but I am older now, cannot play more than two nights a week), ultimate in Ottawa has given me two sets of folks to hang with.

Flickless Neuticals (Mondays)

Yes, there are rituals involved in ultimate--from the pre-game cheer to the mid-game friendly (mostly) heckling to the post-game cheer for the other team.

Of course, religion isn't just the community that religious institutions provide/generate/support and the various rituals but also the values stuff.  And, of course, ultimate has many values that have helped shape how I see the world and what I value.  Sharing, of course, as teams with selfish players lose.  Disgust for misogyny, as not using your women on your coed team means playing four on seven, which is both uncompetitive and not fun.  Humility, as one of the most important aspects of being a good player, especially a handler (point guard/quarterback), is know one's limitations, and that is one value that I have increasingly appreciated as my abilities decline.  Trust, as one develops a team, one trusts that their teammates will anticipate the play and go to the newly open space on the field.  Yesterday's success was built on trusting our women to catch whatever we threw at them, and, geez, did we throw some lousy passes which they managed to catch.  Honesty as the game is self-referred.  Gratitude, as I am so very thankful for the fun and the friends that the sport has given me since I started playing seriously more than thirty years ago.  The spirit of the game as the central core belief that ties together the entire sport and the communities it builds.


I may have to change from religion on Facebook from Potter-ite to Ultimate Frisbeian.  Anyhow, not sure this is the key prayer of the ultimate religion, but it might be one of them:

Professional Ultimate Witnessed!

Last night was the opening game of the American Ultimate Disk League in Ottawa--the Ottawa Outlaws vs. the Montreal Royals.  They played for this first game of the season in the big football/soccer stadium in town.  They had free tickets for those who play in Ottawa's ultimate leagues so I took a colleague, David Long, who had introduced me to curling--turnabout is fair play!

So, how is professional ultimate different from regular ultimate?  In more ways than I expected:

• in normal ultimate, violations and fouls are self-called and usually lead to do-overs.  In the professional game, there are referees, and violations and fouls can lead to ten yard gains or losses or even turnovers (traveling is a turnover!).  
• the professional game consists of four quarters, twelve minutes each, with the clock stopping after every score.  This means that the game is high scoring and longer than the normal ultimate game--about 2.5 hours last night.  In normal ultimate, games are either up to 15 or 18 or 21 or they are whoever scores the most in an hour or hour and a half.  
• 
  
  There is entertainment during the halftime: kids playing ultimate.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Otherwise, the game is mostly the same.  The offensive strategies (mostly horizontal but some vertical stacks) with heaps of hucks and the defensive strategies (a bit of zone but mostly man to man with some forcing to one side going on) were basically the same.  The key, as always, is the team that turns over the disk less wins.  According to the program, the Royals did well last year despite having a high rate of turnovers, and last night the turnovers killed them.  Some bad choices, some bad throws, and some very bad choices.  Both sides showed impressive athleticism and effort, and the game was very entertaining to both me and David.  Is it more fun to watch than Curling? For me, absolutely ;)
  
  I have played with and against a few of the Montreal Royals players over the years.  This makes professional ultimate completely different from other sports, as very few ordinary folks get to be on the same field as people who end up being pro's.  Could I play with these guys now?  Alas, no.  My throws are probably almost as good as these guys (and probably my throws were close to as good as these guys a few years ago), but there is no way I would get open on a regular basis nor nor would I be able to cover any of these guys for more than a second.  
  
  For video of one point of the game, go here.  And, yes, I will probably be going to more professional ultimate games, both to support the enterprise and because it is a fun game to watch.
  
  
  
  
  
  

Ultimate Analytics

Woot!  Ultimate has made it: into the analyses of fivethirtyeight!  The biggest challenge to doing serious analyses, as the article suggests, is collecting the data.  Unlike other sports, Ultimate does not have a history or an infrastructure for collecting data.  Indeed, as the article hints, we almost always get the inferior fields, as part of ultimate simply not having that much institutional support.

My team at Texas Tech tried to collect data in the late 1990s by having a couple of the players audiotape their play-by-play, and then afterwards they would count catches and drops, defensive plays (good and bad), good and bad throws.  This did help motivate me to improve my throwing percentage--throw less low percentage passes and more high percentage passes (as my ultimate friends would suggest, I still need that kind of motivation/guilt today).  But other than that, my teams never collected any stats.  We are too busy playing and then resting and then playing again.

The article raised a few points that I want to address.  First, I was incredibly surprised that one of the teams discounted catching when putting a team together.  It seems obvious, but reliably catching the disk is the most important part of the game.  Any drop is a turnover (bad throws can still be saved by helpful teammates), and many drops are easily prevented, whereas bad throws have many causes, including but not exclusively bad timing, good defense, bad decision-making, bad communication, bad technique, etc.

The article has the coaches asserting that catching is easy to learn.  Really?  I have played on many teams over my decades of ultimate, and some players are always reliable while others remain frustratingly inconsistent in catching relatively straightforward passes.  When people ask me who should be one of the two or three handlers (be the point guard/quarterback) on the team for a given point, I tend to question the choice if it is someone who is not super-reliable.  Handlers are usually known for their throwing and their judgment (well, mostly their throwing).  However, just catching the disk super-reliably is a huge part of the job since there are so many short passes and so many dumps/swings (more on that in a second) and not just long passes (hucks).  Dropped disks by handlers are almost always deadly since the handler is usually the closest to one's own endzone.  Imagine throwing an interception in football near one's own goal line.  Basically, the same thing as a drop by a handler much of the time.  To be fair, I have not been on a heavily coached team, so maybe drills and training make a big difference in catching.*

* I probably have some bias in this since I can only humbly admit that I am very reliable catcher (as long as I don't have to jump).

The more important thing about the analytics is what little data there is emphasizes the lateral part of the game.  In ultimate, the offense can move the disk forwards, backwards or sideways by passing it from teammate to teammate, and each pass must occur within 10 seconds after the prior one was received (as long as a defender is close by and is calling the stall count).  A vital but underrated part of the game is moving the disk backwards and then sideways--dumping and swinging (they call it bailing in Ontario!).  Teams that can do that can re-set the stall count whenever they want so they are not pressured into making a low percentage pass.  Moreover, this article suggests that being on the sideline is associated with less success.  I always push my teams to move the disk back to the middle where the offense is more dangerous (supported by the data!).

I am forcing flick, taking away the guy's backhand throws

More disks die in the front right corner of the endzone--defenses tend to force the offense to focus on one side of the field by marking the thrower in a way to make passes to the other side more difficult.  Due mostly to habit, teams tend to get good at forcing forehand--making the throwers throw a flick or forehand pass and not the more familiar pass that kids learn early--which we call the backhand.  Over time this may not make much sense as nearly everyone develops a forehand throw that is nearly as good or often much better than the
backhand (people forget how to throw a backhand if they are forced forehand in games much of their careers).  Anyhow, the point is that the disk often gets thrown to a spot on the field that is in front of the endzone but near the sideline and then teams just try to jam it in the corner when the higher percentage play is to move it back to the middle and have more options.

So, yes, we could use more data and more analyses.  Nice to see the sport get the 538 treatment!  Alas, it will be some time until I play again--no winter league for me (I was too slow to register for the scarce spots).   Thinking of the good plays in the past and forgetting the bad plays is bad for analytics, but not a bad way to think about the sport until I get on the field again.

End of Season: Definitively Middling

Not a score, I think, as the defender seems to be in the way

Today was the end of the season playoffs, and we were consistently inconsistent.  Our first game was much like many of our losses and ties--lots of carelessness with the disk, few cuts to get open, much frustration.  Our second game was much like most of our wins--we played smart, moved the disk backwards and sideways to get off of the sideline and re-set the stall count.  So, we finished in the middle of our division, and our division is in the middle of our league. 

Twas a very fun season.  I missed a bunch of games due to travel and injury (my hammie is fine!).  My teams could have played better, but we could have played worse.  Both teams (Mondays and Wednesday) had the right spirit, and led to much beer. 

Swinging the disk sideways is almost always the right choice.

I was glad to end it on a good game for the team and myself: I had more layouts in this one game that in any game this season, I outskied another guy (I had four or five inches on him), and my throws were mostly on.  And best of all, one of my layouts was on defense, always delightful.  And, no, I didn't then immediately throw it away, so I was able to avoid the perils of the Conservation of Greatness (a very good play is usually followed by a bad play due to adrenalin, etc).

I have no pictures of me and my diving, as my videographer is getting schooled and playing ultimate.

I have signed up for fall ultimate so I will be sticking with it for a while longer.  Indeed, I am already looking forward to next summer's ultimate with this team and my other one.  No, I didn't think I would still be playing at this age, but as long as I can get open and as long as I can huck it, I will keep playing.

Olympic Ultimate

Since the International Olympic Commission/Committee/Combine/Conspiracy announced that Ultimate Frisbee is Olympic-worth, if not actually on the Olympic schedule in the near future, there has been much discussion that I have avoided until now.  The NYT has a Room for Debate today, featuring four sets of arguments about Olympic Ultimate.  Some have good points, and some not so much.

The four stances are:

• Jody Avirgnan argues that Ultimate should only be made an olympic sport if its essential spirit is kept intact--self-reffed with observers mediating disputes.  Yes, a thousand times yes.  I don't see why this is a problem since each sport seems to come with its own rules for adjudicating things.  If the skating stuff can be judged according to the international skating federation rules, then why not Ultimate with self-reffed plus observers?
• Dave Zirin argues that the Games would be bad for Ultimate, given its corruption, and given the need to secure the various facilities.  Of all the games, I am not sure that adding a bunch of fields is going to stretch the Olympics facilities budgets or security budget.  Just play on the soccer fields when the Olympic soccer games are not being played.  Ultimate is used to being on second-hand fields, so this would be keeping in the tradition of the sport.
• Zara Cadoux argues that if the Olympics were to have ultimate, they should have both men's and women's tourneys.  That the women waiting for the men's game's popularity to trickle down is problematic.  I agree with her.  Indeed, I am tempted to go a step farther: that the mixed (co-ed) game be the one that goes to the Olympics first.  This would be unique contribution to the games, keeping in the spirit of Ultimate to be deviant/path-breaking/socially just.  Are there any games in the Olympics that have mixed teams other than a couple of ice skating events?
• Tiina Booth argues that the priority of the ultimate community should be on developing high school ultimate.  There is heaps of high school ultimate in Canada, but I guess the US may be somewhat more hostile territory?  Anyhow, this seems to be a tangent, as Olympic Ultimate vs. High School Ultimate seems to be a false choice.  

So, where do I stand on this?  I think it would be very cool to have a sport that requires even less infrastructure than soccer, one that is currently played around the world and one that has a great attitude about itself and about competition to get a piece of the stage at the Olympics.  Yes, the Olympics have their own problems, but imagine the impact of seeing a truly mixed game televised---that winning teams are those that best utilize both the men and the women on the team!  Or, if my dream cannot be realized, that having men's and women's ultimate join at the same time, showing that the game is for everyone?  That would be pretty cool, too.


As we already have processes that send national teams to tournaments around the world,* ultimate is ready for this.  Maybe the Olympics are ready to have them.

* The US teams tend to dominate the current competitions, but that will change over time as ultimate spreads wider and deeper.

Professional Ultimate!

A very recent game between the Montreal team and the NY team:


I used to play against and with some of the folks on Montreal's team (and I did play on that field a few times), so it is especially fun to see where ultimate is going.  Olympics at some point?  Maybe as there are plenty of countries around the world where Ultimate is played.  However, the US tends to dominate the world championships, so that may serve to block it for the time being.

And yes, these guys used to burn me when I was on defense and blanket me on offense.  I, of course, enjoyed playing with them.... not so much against them. 

Fun stuff!

H/T to Andrew, my former teammate for posting this.

Thirty Years of Ultimate: Oh My!

Thirty years ago, I started playing competitive ultimate.  I had played ultimate informally before that--at high school and at summer camp.  In the fall of my frosh year, I took an Experimental College (EXCO) class in ultimate frisbee.  I could have started playing inter-collegiate ultimate that fall, but I waited until spring.  As a result, sometime this month thirty years ago, I began playing "serious" ultimate--first with a college team against other college teams and then on league teams against other league teams with some other kinds of tournaments along the way.

The specific date does not matter, but I am struck by the reality that I have had a longer relationship with ultimate than with my wife.  Sure, I have had periods of non-ultimate in my life (didn't play that much in grad school, hard to find in Texas, no time while in Virginia).

I will always be grateful that the folks playing ultimate when I started did not have the same kind of athleticism as the folks I encounter these days.  I would never have gotten as much playing time ... well, I did have one advantage in 1985 that might have guaranteed it--I had a car that could fit an entire team easily.

Why has ultimate meant so much to me?  Partly because I enjoyed playing a sport I could play well.  Partly because the people involved tended to be silly, sweet, fun, funny, and mighty sharp.  It is pretty telling that in my travels across North America, my friends usually came from two places: my department and the ultimate folks.  Only in Ottawa, my latest stop, has this not applied--I had friends via other sources.  But in Texas, our friends were exclusively from these two groups, and this was largely true in Montreal as well. 


Anyhow, I thought I would mark the anniversary by going through the digital pictures I have handy and noting some of the teams and moments along the way. 

I have a few pictures of my time playing at Oberlin. This one is handy:

It is on the baked fields of Ann Arbor, Michigan, as we played in the sectional tournament (we only made it to regionals one time during my four years and only because another team that was ahead of us could not make it).  One of my teammates had a couch in the back of his truck, and it was handy on these hard fields. 

This picture is of the Lubbock crew (I forget our name), playing in a distant tourney.  All of our tourneys were distant, as there were no other teams in town, and no nearby towns with ultimate.  I didn't play in many tournaments as I had a young kid at home at the time, but I did make it to one in Austin, one in Los Alamos (Atomic Blast--I still have the shirt), and one in Colorado (a costume tourney, which meant I had to get a cow costume that I have kept wearing on occasion [see below]). 

Lubbock ultimate, at Atomic Blast

In Montreal, I played with a few teams.  I played indoors at first, and found out that the Montreal frisbee community was chock full of silly folks, as you can guess from this picture.  Lindsay made an immediate impression on me.  She was not alone in making me welcome to this vibrant frisbee community.  I played ultimate three to four seasons a year for ten years, even as some of the winter leagues (displaced by youth soccer) required a 45 minute or more drive on late winter nights to get to the field.  Only at the end, with the league growing so big with so many games being played off the island, with resulting rush hour driving through the choke points, did I start shedding my ultimate commitments.  

Lindsay Bales, whose hammers are almost
as silly (and effective) as her gear.

Still, the teams I played with made quite an impression.  I played with BMFHard, which stood for Break Force, Mark Hard.  I could only do the former, not so much the latter.  But the team did let me indulge in my favorite throwing tactic, which is throwing to the side of the field the defense was seeking to deny me.   I didn't always see eye to eye with my captain, but Bobby did teach me a lot about tactics and strategy.  As a result, like Bill Belichick, I seek to start on offense in the second half. 

I played several seasons with Ultimate Angels.  A very silly team indeed.  A largely Francophone team that tolerated/made fun of/welcomed the unilingual guy.  After all, he provided some company to the oldest players on the team (yes, UA was one of the few teams after college where I was not the oldest player).  

This pic was from one of my last seasons with UA and shows an old man to old man pass as Mike K was one of the few players with whom I played with and against in Montreal who was older than me.  He was also much fitter... damn it.  This also shows that I can run and cut long, something that surprised many teams since I tended to hang back and be one of the handlers (qb/point guard)

Playing with the Grandmaster's team of Montreal, Olde Ville (or something like it) was a pleasure and an honor.  And beer from a championship cup is delightful.

In my entire career, one team stands out: General Admission.  I played steadily with them in the fall and spring every year as we helped to take over the  Concordia frisbee league.  Eventually, they developed a winter league, and I joined GA in that as well.  The team was so much fun, with so much silly, so much good ultimate, and just terrific people.  

One of my first seasons with GA

Fall games near Halloween always brought out the moo in me.

I was so very touched when they threw me a surprise game on my way out of town.  The pictures here are from before and after that game.  I laughed a lot that evening.  Not just GA players but also those whom I played against over the years.  

The start to a special night.

I really felt the love that night.  I miss those guys

Phil (on the left) overlapped with me for several years at Oberlin
and Chris (on the right) is the grandfather/godfather of
Oberlin Ultimate.

It was great to go back to Oberlin for various Reunion games including the 30th anniversary of Ultimate at Oberlin.

I have had fun bringing ultimate to the International Studies Association! 

ISA San Diego 2012

For a year or two, I had great fun watching and sometimes playing with my daughter.  Seeing Jessica play was quite a hoot.  And I am thrilled to report that she now plays with her college team. 








I ended up playing on the Junior team with Jean-Levy, the tall guy on the right in this picture--a fantastic player who has played with the the Canadian national team and on teams that have won at the national tourney.  The kids, he, and I won the C/D bracket during the end of the season tournament.  One of the older teams complained about J-L and I playing, but we were playing with 14-16 year olds against 20-40 year olds.... hee, hee. 






Finally a few pictures of highlights along the way.  I could never jump that well, so I always took pride in my ability to jump down/sideways: laying out for many disks.

Evidence I can leave the ground ... yet the other player
got the disk!

Mighty proud of my ability to throw any kind of throw accurately,
unlike many players, I remember that I have a backhand throw.

And thanks to my daughter and her keen editing skills, we have this video from 2014 proving that I may still have it.