Sort by Date: November | December | January | February | March | April | May Feb 1, 2003 "Attack the Disc" When catching the disc make sure to attack it, especially as field and weather conditions worsen. If you watch a good shortstop, they will pick their bounce and then attack the ball when they want to. If you wait you are at the whim of the disc, which is not a good place to be. Also, if you learn to do this well you will almost never have someone layout past you for a D.       Feb 2, 2003 "Buddy Up" Find someone on your team, kind of like a buddy, who can remind you when you are falling into a bad habit or in a slight rut. For example, nathan always makes sure that I am having fun because he knows that I play my best when Im having fun. If you check in with this person both of you will be better players.       Feb 3, 2003 "Music" When you go to a tournament pack a CD that is composed of entirely instrumental (preferrably classical) tracks. This serves a great purpose. If you are trying to get homework done in a loud environment (such as a gate in the airport) then this will act as a nice sound barrier while not distracting you from your work like another CD might. My personal favorite is mozarts violin concertos 1-5.       Feb 4, 2003 "Eye Contact" A good cutter will often make eye contact with their thrower when cutting. This will sometimes help to know where a thrower wants the cutter to go, but I think more importantly is the opposite. If a cutters man is seriously overplaying him to the force side, then he can signal to the thrower that he wants to go for a break mark cut. This will allow the thrower to set up a break mark throw by faking and/or moving the mark.       Feb 5, 2003 "Playing Smart Ultimate" After asking tom and nathan my question the other night (why do you think you are successful at ultimate?) I thought more about why I think they are successful and came to one conclusion, which neither of them mentioned. Both nathan and tom are incredibly smart ultimate players. Not to shoot them down, but I dont think athleticism carries their game, although they are both better athletes than some of you might think. They think about ultimate in a very smart way and then go out on the field and do all the things they talk about. If you are a sick athlete and you are smart then you are unstoppable. Unfortunately athleticism cannot be taught, but smart ultimate can, and it begins by playing within your own bounds and the scheme of your team.       Feb 6, 2003 "Throwing to Open Space" As a thrower, if you have a good cutter then they will create space for themselves. If they have already gotten open, a good throw is to lay the disc out into space and let them run onto it; assume they will maintain the separation they have established.       Feb 7, 2003 "One Solid Fake" When you have the disc and are trying to fake your marker so you can get a break throw off, it is much more effective to do one, solid fake than five little jukes, none of which are really faking the marker out. A good marker will not simply respond to movement, they will only respond to movement that could lead to a throw. Practice your fakes in front of a mirror if you want to see whether or not they are believable. A truly good fake is one in which you do everything but throw the disc, forcing the marker to cut off that throw and then you beat them back to the place you actually want to throw it from.       Feb 8, 2003 "Lifting" I find that when I am lifting if I expect a set to be hard then it ends up being hard, whereas if I convince myself that Ive got it and its no thing, I pump it out. The same goes for every throw, game and tournament — it is only as hard as you make it. Convince yourself that you are ready, you are better, you know what you are doing and you can do it, and then you will.       Feb 9, 2003 "Throwing Up" If you throw up — whether it be because of sickness, exhaustion or drinking — go out and get yourself some gatorade/powerade. You lose tons of electrolytes when you boot, those little things in your body that make you good at whatever you do and sports drinks replenish these very well.       Feb 10, 2003 "Keep in Touch" Keep in touch with your friends from home. This semester I have found that I have sort of lost touch with some very good friends and recently getting back in touch with these people has made my life better. If you have trouble getting the go behind your actions, stop pepe anytime you see him, anywhere. He has guaranteed me that he will always have the necessary items (pen, postcard, stamp) on his person. He will also provide the materials and delivery to the PO free of charge, as part of his mission to keep good friends, good friends. I salute you pepe.       Feb 11, 2003 "The Two Elements of Throwing" Break your throwing motion into two separate parts. The first is the backswing — get the disc in a position where you are ready to make a throw and the only motion from there on out will be forward motion. The second part is the shot — arm forward, making sure to keep the disc parallel to the ground and follow through in a path also parallel to the ground. Wobbly, uncontrolled throws often occur as a result of there not being separation between these two elements.       Feb 12, 2003 "Visualize" When you run, lift, swim or workout in some way that demands that you work hard, have some vision in your mind. Whether it be a guy beating you deep, you running past your man to the cone, or just looking at your man late in the game and seeing him with his hands on his knees, keep that picture in the front of your mind.       Feb 13, 2003 "Your Body" Take good care of your body, especially as the season gets more intense and demanding. you will play how you want to and feel good when you are not playing. This long weekend we will have a couple special guest zips tips where each aspect of staying healthy will be examined in greater depths by experts on the subject.       Feb 14, 2003 "Bring It" Bring the fire to practice. do whatever you need to get psyched up. If you bring it to practice, you will play better, the man you are guarding will have to play better, we will play better. It is extremely important that our practices are intense and hard fought, for this in turn will make them productive and fun.       Feb 15, 2003 "Eating Right" [from Jon Jay] Eating before practice: Try to eat 2-3 hours before practice, maybe even 4 hours before a track workout. Make sure you get some high-quality carbs (e.g., pasta, whole wheat bread, beans, bananas or potatoes — not fries, Kevin). These foods release energy slowly into your bloodstream instead of all at once, keeping you from "bonk"-ing. Have a little bit of protein, but understand that a hamburger doesn't provide any energy you can use during practice. Do not go on the Atkins diet, especially you, Ben Wiseman. Eating after practice: It is extremely important to eat well, and as soon as possible, after practice or working out; it will help your body maximize the benefits of the conditioning, recover and be ready the next day. If you're eating immediately after practice (within 20-30 minutes) you can go for some of the fast energy sources (juice, powerade, oranges) plus the smart carb sources and more protein. In this short window, your body replenishes energy quickly. If you're eating 1-2 hours after practice, go for a well-rounded meal. A small salad would be good here. It's important to eat well all the time — your body is constantly recovering from your last workout and preparing for your next. Be sure to eat fruits and vegetables (especially leafy green ones) every day. Drink a lot of water to stay hydrated. If you can, eat smaller meals several times throughout the day. Eating desserts, chicken carberrys, etc. are not terrible for you, but make sure they aren't replacing healthier foods in your diet. Don't think of Lucky Charms as a healthy breakfast option; however, it has been noted by B-Mo alum Kyle Weisbrod (an expert on getting lucky) that you may want to have some in small doses "to increase your luck intake."       Feb 16, 2003 "Hands" [from Josh Champagne] Healthy hands are crucial for playing comfortable ultimate. Having messed up fingers can hamper throwing and catching and affect how comfortable you feel with a disc. It's simple but sometimes challenging to keep your hands happy. 1) Never bite your finger nails or the skin on your hands. I have trouble with this. If you bite your nails as a habit while reading, develop a better habit. Mine is drinking water from my bmo/disco glass. 2) Moisturize when you get out of the shower. You heard me, chump, use lotion. In the case of cuts or splits, anything will heal in time; but you can help the process by cleaning and covering cuts when you go out, and by wearing gloves to class. Using Neosporin or BandAid Plus on a cut and then putting a little bandage on helps keep it clean. I hear vaseline is good to use in extreme cases. And isn't that just good to have around? NB: don't use lotion immediately before playing ultimate. It can make your hands slippery, which negates the positive elements of hand happiness. 3) If you're playing in the cold, try out a base layer with holes for your thumbs. This keeps the heat from your wrists from escaping, which helps a great deal. 4) Don't cut your fingers when slicing limes for the rim of your glass. That would be just plain silly.       Feb 17, 2003 "Stretching" [from CJ Hoppel] In addition to eating right and sleeping right, in preparing your body to play, it is essential that you stretch, and stretch well. Not only does stretching help prevent injury, loosening up directly benefits your play. And, unlike anything else I can think of, including eating, sleeping, sprint workouts, and even applying moisturizer, you can never "over-stretch". What I'm saying is that stretching more will never hurt you. That having been said, here are a few things to remember. Our stretch routine in our circle is pretty decent. But only if done right. It is important to make sure that you are actually stretching when we're doing it. You should stretch each muscle to its limits, nice and slowly. Feel the pull. This also applies to our after practice stretching. We don't do it just so that Ross has an audience for some jokes. Stretch just as well (if not more) as you do before the game. This helps with soreness afterwards and of course, overall flexibility. It is very important to stretch your hamstrings well. If you screw them up, it really sucks. Plus, as I think Zip added earlier, loose hamstrings greatly benefit play. When you're stretching your hamstrings (feet together, left over right, legs spread apart, or sitting leg out) try to keep your back straight. Bending your back does not help at all with stretching your hamstring. This is an unusual position for many people, so you may have to conscientiously arch your back backwards to accomplish this. Many people like to imagine their waists as hinges and bending forward like that. On a side note, bending your back in these exercises stretches your back. When you want to stretch your back out, don't bend down as far, just bend your back.       Feb 18, 2003 "Sleep" [from Kevin Loo] Today's guest zip tip of the day pertains to sleep. As many of you may or may not know, I take sleeping very seriously. Sleep is and should be an essential part of everyone's daily routine. Sleep can be incorporated into a number of daily activities, and I suggest you try any or all of the following activities in order to maximize your total sleeping potential. For instance, try catching a little shut eye during class by sitting at the back of the room. A strategically positioned arm used as a crutch for your limp neck will block your eyes from the professor's scrutiny as well as suggest deep thought, or concentration. Be wary though, for if in your moment of sleeping ecstasy your head should slip out from under your hand, you may awaken to find several of your peers jeering loudly in laughter and disbelief. Ultimate parties. They're long, and like any other activity in life they require patience and moderation. Try catching a wink or two at your next ultimate gathering. Couches are usually your best bet, particularly because you can count on your ultimate buddies to keep you from getting too much sleep, as can often be the case. If you're lucky enough, you might even have the pleasure of receiving a danza slap by your most esteemed colleagues. I got one when I was a freshman, and I can only say that it is something I will never forget. The Ratty. This, by far, is one of the least recognized environments for sleeping potential. Talk is cheap; you're gonna do a lot of it in your days. But how many times are we allowed to fall sleep to the soothing chatter of the Ratty dining halls? Do it after a long Saturday morning practice, when nobody's paying attention to you, that way nobody will notice. Everyone else usually looks like ass anyhow since they're just waking up from having partied all night. It's priceless I tell you. As you can see, there are a number of untapped moments in the day where traditionally one wouldn't think it appropriate to sleep. I'm not a scientist, no, but I've adapted this practice to my own lifestyle and have found it incredibly successful. Some call it narcolepsy, I call it time management. Because when it comes down to it, sleep is just as important as eating right, or exercising, or coming focused to practice. Get your work done, party if you have to, but make sure to get your sleep, because your body needs it.         "Sleep, Part II" [from Ross Loomis] I thought my guest zip tip would have been on the value of laughter, however all that needs to be said on that subject is it has value and if you need to laugh just read Kevin's e-mail, I know I'm going to keep it some place close when I need a chuckle. But Kevin does bring up an interesting point, sleep is important, college does not provide the best environment for sleeping, here are some sleep facts which you can use to adjust your respective sleep situations. People need sleep - everyone needs between 6 to 9 hours of sleep a night, individual variation for what this number actually is is great, so know thyself and try to hit it. In order to fall asleep quickly - during the day, don't drink caffiene after 5 pm, and do your pushups and crunches at least half an hour before planning to sleep, in bed, assume the most comfortable position as possible, and stay absolutely still. Every time you move you have to start falling asleep all over again, so get it right and stick with it. Sleep in a large block is better than napping - Due to the structure of sleep cycles (which are ~ an hour and a half in which you go through all stages of sleep, from NREM to REM), a full 8-9 hours of sleep gives you more REM sleep/min than a 3 hour nap, which has to be good for you. I would personally recommend trying to get to bed by 1 am every school night, guaranteeing yourself at least 7 hours of sleep a night (exceptions for nights before exams are acceptable, but if you have some reading you "should" be doing, put it down and hit the hay, your teacher will thank you for staying awake in class). If your situation (i.e. hockey player roommate) prevents you from going to sleep by one, comfortable ear plugs are available, and you can wear one of those airplane masks to block out light. One last addendum, and it has yet to be scientifically proved, but empirical evidence leads me to believe - time lost to sleep by hooking up with women or men is not actually lost to sleep, in other words, getting busy for three hours and sleeping for four is as good as sleeping for seven hours.       Feb 19, 2003 "Alcohol" Do not drink alcohol in large amounts in the week leading up to a big tournament; it is a poison and it is not good for your body. I will not be drinking until stanford, although i do intend to toast ben and cj with a pint of guinness at their celebration.       Feb 20, 2003 "Thinking" For each practice, try to keep the things we worked on that day in drills or chalktalk in the front of your mind. Some people say that when you play in a game you should always be thinking; I say you should very rarely be thinking. The best players do all their thinking at practice and while walking from class to class and while eating ice cream with their girlfriends and even while sleeping. If you can constantly practice very good ultimate habits, then you will naturally make the correct cut or move your body into the correct position without thinking — because sometimes that extra millisecond is all a good opposing player needs.       Feb 21, 2003 "Cuts" Make your cuts run parallel to the sidelines as opposed to parallel to the goal lines. You will make your throwers job much easier and with one juke you can go from an out cut to an in or vice versa. Players that do this well are unarguably the hardest to guard.       Feb 22, 2003 "Rec.Sport.Disc" Do not read rec.sport.disc, especially as tournament time starts to roll around. If you do not know what rsd is, even better. Anything that is important or that will psych us up, wicks will surely relay along to the listserv.       Feb 23, 2003 "When Poached" When you are poached by your man immediately do one of two things. 1) Cut deep. If there is open space and a good thrower, this is the best way to burn your defender for leaving you unguarded. 2) Instead of standing in the stack or waiting for your turn to cut, go get the disc. If there is a lot of action on the force side, go to the break side and call for the disc and your thrower should be able to find you. You know what they call it you have the disc on the break side, unmarked and smiling because you just made your man pay — the power position.       Feb 24, 2003 "Hydrate" Go start drinking water right now and dont stop until you go to bed on friday night. When I play in a tournament I can barely drink any water, otherwise I feel sick and slow. If you are like this (or even if you can drink while playing) it is important that your body be extremely well hydrated and this cannot occur overnight or in a couple of hours. If youve ever poured water into water, youll notice that there are no little bubbles. Theres a goal for you, go and get it.       Feb 25, 2003 "Vitamins" Calcium and potassium are two very important nutrients for muscle performance and are sometimes hard to find at a tourney. K: theres a chance that the tournament food box will have some bananas, but it also might not. Either way, its a good idea to find a little grocery store while you are driving around the night before a tourney and split a bunch of bananas with a teammate (that is 1 bunch not "a bunch"). Ca: make your way over to CVS before leaving for the weekend and pick up a container of tums. If you pop a couple of tums between each game, eat a banana before you start and during the bye and get some salt in you, you will be free of muscle cramps all weekend.       Feb 26, 2003 "Long Flights" [from Will Arnold] When you fly a long distance, the cabin conditions subject your body to significant stresses. 1) You are in an environment of low pressure, dry, recycled air; it is very dehydrating. One should drink at least a pint of water for every hour spent on a plane. 2) The seats are very uncomfortable and force awkward posturing. Especially if you are tall, they put stress on your low back and restrict circulation to your extremities. One should not sit still for more than 45-60 minutes at a time, but should take advantage of the aisles and the space in the back of the plane for walking and stretching. 3) Airplane food is neither very palatable nor very filling. Pack at least a sandwich for every meal you will miss. Get ratty to go. Throw in a banana or two. Here is what I recommend for a flight: 1) When you board the plane, drink four to six airplane cups of water. The steward/ess will be happy to oblige and soon you will have developed a friendly, comical rapport. 2) In about 45-60 minutes, you will have to use the rest room. Take this opportunity to drink another 4-6 cups of water, flirt with the steward/ess, move your legs around a bit, and stretch. Stretch seriously for at least ten minutes. There is enough space in the back of the plane to loosen up your hamstrings, quads, calves and groin. Not only will stretching make you feel better the next day, but it will also relax your muscles and make you more comfortable when you return to your seat. 3) Repeat 2. 4) Repeat 2. Note: If you can somehow get your hands on an entire aisle affording you the opportunity to lay down, do so. Note1: Many would say that they would prefer to spend the time on a plane sleeping. I would say you will feel better the next day if you keep your muscles loose and body hydrated. Note2: If you have ever travelled with me, you will notice that I follow this routine religiously. You get used to the dirty/quizzical looks from other passengers. Trust me. Lastly, and arguably most importantly: carry your cleats and jersey on the plane with you regardless of whether or not you check a bag.