Injury !

I have pulled a muscle in my back playing in the Random Hat tournament on Monday 02/05/11.

So no ultimate for me the rest of this week. I could not even stand-up properly for a couple of days. So may take more time off.

A-Grade: Jem and the Holograms vs Road Runners

13 - 20

Fun game, team clicked well, played almost savage again, Mash got fired up and played quite a lot and quite well.

I did better on offense, running better and getting free on cuts, I had several quick plays scoring with cheeky blades. I let myself get flustered by Carson a little bit and threw the disc away twice.

Overall very fun game, Nita picked up for us again.

Got beaten on a long run few time, managed to put pressure on runner every time but once.

Once I had a couple of points off I was feeling fine, but there was a run in the middle where i slacked off.

Got some Nice D with poaching and anticipation, I am still misjudging my reach for stopping line throws, need to get further round really stop it. I also need to get lower against some players to stop the under curve break, Only really a problem against Marty and Carson this game who are always going to be hard to stop.

Will be interesting to see how the game goes with all our players back next week.

B-Grade: Faery Creature vs Penultimate Warriors

17 - 14

Great game, out at the new venure (SouthWest Stadium) Lots of fun to play on the nice big courts out there. The game went point for point for 3/4 of the time. We pulled away towards the end for a solid win.

Team clicked much better this week, moving the disc quickly, throwing and cutting for space. We worked the disc flat around the zone and got a lot of good patient points.

The warriors relied a little bit too much on high throws, blades and hammers to work around our force. This meant they gave away a lot of turnovers.

Best Moment of Game: My ankle height catch at the top of the zone to score when marked by Martin who got a hand to disc.

C-Grade: Imperial Creature vs Warriors Apprentice

26 - 7

Fun game against a very new team. They had a lot of energy and spirit but no court sense and no forehands. Very easy to put pressure on and get a turn-over. We played down a little bit, letting go a lot of loose throws.

A-Grade: Jem and the Holograms vs Stickmen

9 - 22

We were missing players because of Easter, so I played savage (mostly*). This was a very fun game. Once again we had no answer to Jaws long play, particularly as he has selected an extremely tall team.

We were competitive on offense when we showed enough hustle and moved the disc aggressively. We tried out a quasi-zone defense that had some potential but we lacked the feel for each others play and capabilities to make it really work.

Overall very fun and tiring, it highlights how much I need to work on my fitness. In the social grades I can play a low energy game and still be really effective, not so much in A-grade.

Ash took some youtube videos, so I have had a look at those. The first thing it highlights to me is that my posture is crap. I need to be up on my toes and more controlled, this will help with my acceleration. I also have a tendency to flail my arms, I am not sure why, I will have to investigate.

The second thing highlighted is that as noted before my fitness is crap. I was walking too much, standing too flat.

I have a tendency to avoid cutting straight into the top of the zone. I am not sure why, several times during this game I shied away from a straight cut into the top of the zone, to go around behind my mark.

B-Grade: Faery Creature vs Wednesday Crew (2)

14 - 19

Not as good a game as C-Grade, the team didn't click, so we spent too much time throwing past each other, or into empty space. Crew had Jaws along and we had no good answer to his pin-point long puts and blades. Generally a fun game but dissapointing, There are enough good players on this team that if we can start anticipating each other we will be very competitive.

Left this too long, so I don't have a particular good moment.

C-Grade: Imperial Creature vs Sex Panther

16 - 13

Awesome game for the first week. We were down Lloyd and Renee, so we only had couple of subs. Sex Panther got out to an early lead, we were able to drag that back as we adjusted to their offensive style and started anicipating their moves. Dan had a great game on D using his size to put heaps of pressure on disc and to compete in the air.

The Panthers had a distinct height advantage that they used to good effect, shutting down our long game, and getting a lot of points with long puts. Early on they had a very effective give and go with leading passes up the middle they got out an early lead of 3 or 4 points, once I moved agressively to cut that option off, they didn't adjust very well and we were able to mostly shut it down.

When this happend we were able to put a lot of pressure on the disc and start getting turn-overs. We also calmed down our offense and started to make the most of our increased possession, this let us get a big uninterrupted run of points to take the lead, which the Panthers weren't able to get back.

The team clicked really well, It has a nice range of playing styles which worked well.

Moment of Game: First play in which I agressively shut down leading pass on their give and go, Pete put it but I had anticipated Mike B's acceleration and was able to stay between him and disc and slam it to the ground.

A-Grade: Week 1: Jem and the Holograms vs Thundercats

9 - 16

Fun Game with new team in the draft league. Our team name is now Jem and the Holograms and I will be wearing hot pink twice a week.

We lost this game, mainly due to new team jitters and a comms error so we were down a player. The team had three players I had not played with before, Bron, Corrie and Byron. They were all competent and Bron seems like she is very good and will be a great asset.

Our opposition was Adrian's team. Adrian was his usual calm and collected self, controlling the play. Pete scored by receiving high discs over me couple of times but there was not much I could do except put some pressure on.

I didn't feel terribly uncompetitive, but I was easily the weakest player there, particularly on Defense.

At the start of the game, I could cut and get free enough on offense and I was close enough on defense to keep some pressure on. I got worse as the game went along and my lack of fitness started to tell.

On offense I felt somewhat frustrated as I did not click very well with the team. I suspect this is due to people not expecting much from me. I threw into space that I thought was being cut into several times, only to find the player had come back for the dump, and it wasn't until the very end of the game that anyone was willing to put a long put to me (In fairness this probably actually a credit to Pete who played great on defense and moved very quickly to shut down these options).

I suspect I am actually less open than I think in these situations so my frustration is somewhat unwarranted.

Moment of Game: Probably catching that last long put to score, as I seem to have surprised everyone. Also I had a very nice give and go with Corrie, where I beat Adrian on an inside cut and she put a lovely flat pass ahead of me into the zone.

Ultimate

In an effort to make sure I can remember something about the ultimate I have played, I plan to start chronicling my efforts here. Check back shortly for actual game reports.

Ministry of Space

Ministry of Space written by Warren Ellis and drawn by Chris Weston Which is a neat little comic book with an alt history take on the space race. At the end WW2 an enterprising air force commander takes it on himself to get the german rocket scientists so that Britain gets to space. The coolest parts of this comic are just that it is about getting to space properly and colonising the solar system instead of the nothing much we are currently doing in space. Much recommended but quite short. more of a series of vignettes highlighting the future history.

Things to do on a boring day

Exercise stolen from Walter Jon Williams blog.

Here are your instructions:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
5. Don’t search around and look for the “coolest” book you can find. Do what’s actually next to you.

Here is the sentence from my current book.

Two hours had never stretched out to such an eternity before in all Max's life.

Jokes

Here is the best Blonde Joke ever.

Mount & Blade

For the last few days I have been obsessed with a new Game called Mount & Blade. Made by a husband and wife couple somewhere in the dull bits of Europe there isn't much too this game, A CPRG of sorts, as it is still in development. But what is great in the game is it's founding focus on mounted combat in the early medieval period. They have created a combat system that is mainly skill based making it much more involving. Unlike most computer games of this type combat isn't abstracted and distant. It has combat of the sort that has become popular in third-person action titles like Ninja Gaiden, but is missing from CRPG's which tend to rely on deadly dull translations of Pen and Paper systems. Damage remains a little bit random but other than it's down to my skills and strategy's to lead my warband to victory It has a world map like Pirates! where you can trade goods and town where you can update you equipment and get quests. The heart of the game is the combat simulation which is just lots of fun. Check it out here. It has and unlockable free trial version