UQ Ultimate Lovers

New UQ Ultimate website

2009-06-25T13:45:00.006+10:00

(This blog still comes up in search results, so this message is for anyone who stops in here...)

If you're looking for the University of Queensland Ultimate club, the UQ Ultimate Lovers, our current website can be found at www.uqultimate.com.au

If you're looking for something else, we probably can't help much.

AUG '06

2006-10-01T11:06:00.000+10:00

The Lovers have gotten back from the '06 Uni Games in Adelaide. The afda had some articles reviewing the week, linked below:
Day 1-2:
http://www.afda.com/trashtalk/showarticle.php?articleid=383
Day 3-4:
http://www.afda.com/trashtalk/showarticle.php?articleid=384

The lovers put on a great display of ultimate, spirit, and party mojo. We went through the tournament undefeated making the final against Macquarie Uni. The final was hard fought by both sides with UQ having the lead 10-7. With some unlucky play and some nice Matt Dowle hucks, Mac took the lead 13 - 12 and we traded to lose 13 - 15. All in all, we set out with a goal and surpassed it. The Lovers put on a great show and should all be proud! I am proud of all of you and congratulate you on the Silver Medal. Also, The Lovers had 3 representatitives on the Green and Gold team, so congrats on this great achievement.

Also, on a side note, some of the inaugeral lovers are back in the US playing Mixed together in the Southwest region. Rahim Buckman, Anne Schott and a close friend, Becky Abe are all on the southwest mixed team, Pleasuretown, from San Diego as the number 1 seed in their region. They seem to have a great chance of making UPA National Championships and we would like to send them the best of luck from back here in Brissy where all Lovers originate from, UQ. Good luck guys and always remember, you are Lovers in our eyes!
http://www2.upa.org/scores/scores.cgi?div=68&page=3&team=5143

Great week Lovers of Aus, and Lovers from around the World! Keep going hard and spreading the Love!

Lovers - AUG champs 06/07?

2006-07-23T23:55:00.000+10:00

Sass and I were discussing the UQ team the other night, and came to the conclusion that we should win AUG. Just look at the list (hopefully I won't forget anyone).

Teegs
Genevieve
Jill
Kirstin
Sass (if she starts Med in '07)
Rena (possible, among many options)

John
Brett
Al
Piers
Chris

I think that's everyone. That's our core of "proven" players, I guess you could say, and then we've got the talent coming through Mon and Wed nights.
Hopefully most/all of these people will still be UQ in '07 when I'm around for AUG, and we can just go and win the thing.

John

Latest BPL

2006-06-16T15:24:00.000+10:00

I have not posted here before, but I figured it was appropriate to state that UQ Ultimate Lovers have started this recent Bribane Primier League undefeated, until last night, but are still at the top of the table (4-1). We are playing the best ultimate the team has ever achieved over its short lived existence of 3 years. I know we can still get better and thought everyone should know of our success and hopeful continued improvement. Also, below is a picture of the Ultimate Lovers at Mixed Nats after an amazing performance, finished 7th.

Good Luck Lovers!!!

Match report 9 Feb

2006-02-09T22:33:00.000+10:00

Matty was a really nice guy tonight, as well as being effective.

Oh, and we lost...

The end.

John

Semi report and season wrap-up

2005-12-14T23:57:00.000+10:00

Rubes mentioned his disappointment at the lack of post about our semi-final loss. I hate to see that man disappointed, so here's my brief report.

We went up 2-0 (they had 6 players for these two points).
They went up 7-2.
We took half 9-8.
We traded out of half until 12-10 us.
They scored 3 straight to win the game, 13-12.

The 3rd to the 9th point were terrible. We played awful, awful Ultimate.
Somehow, we hit a switch, and about the next dozen points were some of the best offensive points we played all league. Maybe because I decided to start concentrating on catching, rather than just sticking out a hand...
Let's not talk too much about the last few points though...

D for the game was not great, although had some good (and bad) individual efforts. Personally misread a throw to Matt E by a mile that resulted in him scoring an uncontested goal.
As a team, we continually allowed them to flow down the sidelines. Our old friend, the cut up the line from behind the disc, was once again in full force for the opposition as they caught us napping all night. They also scored 2 goals with it. Fortunately, I paid back one of those when Lee went to sleep.

After we pulled our fingers out at 2-7, we played a pretty good game in some damp conditions.
I think fitness and inexperience hurt us late in the game: at 12-10, 12-11 and 12-all, each time we dropped discs that would normally have been caught 95% of the time (two to the chests of almost stationary receivers). To make it worse, all were within 20m of our endzone...

So a mostly good game to finish the season, except for a terrible 7 points early, and some pretty average D all game.

Season report:

Again, we're showing potential, but not really turning it into performance. Need to learn better fundamentals as a team, on both O and D. Could become the strongest team at MAL, but not without some work.

Had a good season, and most players improved a fair bit.
Matty B is learning more about coaching/captaining every time.
Dave had a top season, becoming a dangerous marker on D (several point blocks), a useful popper, and a handy cutter.
Rubes has found a backhand, and has decided to start using his throws, so that you can't just back him anymore.
Brett's uncle gave him a backhand huck, which I had the pleasure of receiving several times in different games.
Mike had a great first league - from being the rookie a couple of months ago to throwing a break forehand for goal in the semi.
Chris is playing some great Ulti, with some hot D in the semi as well as some great grabs. Hard to believe that this last pair have both been playing only since March...
Erhart has become a much more dangerous thrower. One memory sticks with me - can't remember the opponent, but a cross-field break forehand to win the game was hot.
Steve has become a good cutter, getting open underneath and scoring goals long, and is also starting to use his throws to become dangerous with the disc.
Did we have anyone else? Including me, that's 9 people... surely we didn't have anymore than that...

I'm done. Catch you all in 2007, when I'm back at uni.

Last round of MAL

2005-12-01T22:34:00.000+10:00

Well, the last round is over. I managed to play the whole game, and the knee felt good. I'm still out of shape from taking some time off though.

I think this game was quite typical of both teams.
Big City had Tony creating things as a thrower, Mike as an offensive focal point, a junk D most of the time, and Mat being both effective and an arsehole. Quite usual.
UQ have the ability to rip up any team in the league, and it showed, but as usual our lack of fundamentals let us down.

We don't stack straight
We don't stack short
We have either no cuts or multiple cuts to the same place
Our endzone O is crap
We keep getting broken
A couple of skills errors didn't help
And I get frustrated rather easily and throw a lot of turnovers...
Same old story for UQ as well...

It really frustrates me that a team with this much potential has not yet bridged the gap to performance...

Anway, semis next week, finals the week after. If we click, we can win both weeks going away. If we play poorly, we'll lose both weeks by half a dozen.

P.S. Rubes, you played great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I particularly liked that one where I got the intercept on their goal shot and then hucked it to you for the goal.

Time for a new post

2005-12-01T10:09:00.000+10:00

Well, we've all been a little bit quiet lately...

Last round of MAL tonight before the semis next week. I've returned to playing this week, and promptly managed to injure my knee last night, so I'm not too happy. It's not particularly bad, so I'm gonna try warming up tonight to see if I can play. I don't intend to push it though, as I'm playing the Melbourne Hat this weekend.

Likely movements in the UQ Lovers team for next year:

GAINS
Alistair Don - Al heard a couple of weeks ago that he'd been accepted into Medicine, starting next year. That's a BIG pickup - another genuine thrower for at least the next 4 years.
Piers Truter (likely) - Piers is from down south, currently in Canberra, and is a multiple Australian representative. He tried to get into Physio last year but was just short of the marks. This year, he got the highest possible mark in all of his subjects, so he's fairly confident. This would be another MASSIVE pickup for 4 years.
Rena Kuwahata (likely) - don't know whether she's certain yet, but is thinking about coming back to do a grad certificate in Economics. Only a one year deal, but she'd be very handy for next year.

LOSSES
Rueben Berg - after some ridiculously long time, I believe he's finally finished his degree. Rubes, what were your plans - you're in Qld in '06, aren't you? But not at uni?
John McNaughton - I'm sick of study, and have a lot of frisbee next year, so I'm deferring the year. Will get a job during the day and play/train outside of this. Back to uni in '07.

I'm looking forward to '07, when I'll be back playing with Piers and Al. But for now, I'm gonna go and stretch for a bit so I can hopefully play tonight.

Frustration... setting... in...

2005-11-10T23:05:00.000+10:00

I'm kinda having a break from Ulti at the moment, in theory. Some injuries to get over, uni exams to pass, and I also got back from Adelaide feeling a little jaded.
It hasn't really been too effective. Played last night because a Canadian mate was in town for 1 night only, and I wanted a game with him. Had lots of fun, threw some nice hucks.
Played tonight at MAL because UQ had 6, and with me they'd have 7. That's what I get for bringing my cleats to the field...

I was reminded why the current Lovers team frustrates me so much.
There are some really good things about this team. We almost always look at dumps nice and early, and get good dump passes away. "Team Rule" is probably the thing that started this, and Matty B has done well there. No one tries to hit throws that they don't have... except Rubes, that is :-P

However...
STACKING
CLEARING
CUTTING
MARKING
GUARDING
ZONE O
could really use some work, y'know what I mean?

STACKING
We play both vertical and horizontal. Let's start with vert.
OK. Stack should be straight. Yes, that's right. Straight. No, not kinda crooked and lumpy. Sure the advanced teams do funky stuff like that, but let's crawl before we try to walk, yeah?
Next step. Do you understand the concept of "stacking short"? Mind showing me? No, no, no... 35 metres is too far from the back of the stack to the thrower, as is 20 metres to the front of the stack. Let's bring that in to, I dunno, maybe 25 and 12? Sure that's tight, but let's over-exaggerate until we can actually do it.
This heavily sarcastic writing style is taking too long for this time of night, so I'm going to switch to something more direct.
Vertical Stack: straight (like a ruler) and short. Back of the stack maybe about 25m from thrower. This means that we have open side, break side, and deep.
Horizontal Stack: again, straight is good (although a little less important than vert), and distance is even more important than in vert. In average conditions, maybe 15m from thrower and no more than 20m.
UQ's Problem: we're always, always too deep. This means we can't use deep cuts. We're also pretty messy, which makes even open side and break side tough.

CLEARING
Once you know you're not getting the disc, you don't slow down at all. Turn around and either cut elsewhere, or get into the stack. ESPECIALLY keep the endzone clear - make your cut, and then get the hell away from there so someone else has the chance.
UQ's Problem: people go deep, and then decide that since this isn't where most of the action is, they can rest. This kills our deep game.

CUTTING
A cut is not a sprint towards the thrower. A cut does not involve moving beneath top speed. A cut means considering the other 13 people on the field, the space available, your abilities and those of your defender, the weather conditions, your and your marker's current position... among other things.
UQ's Problem: make that problemS... but if I had to name the top 3, they would be: 1) trying to just sprint towards the disc to get open; 2) cutting off a better cut because people don't look before they cut; 3) not understanding how to time a cut (e.g. running deep when a weak thrower has the disc).

MARKING
Simple. We force one way. Don't let them throw the other way. Stay on your toes, forget about protecting the open side, and just stop the breaks.
UQ's Problem: we get broken. Lots. It's hard to know the actual problem because this is D, so I'm watching my man instead of the game like on O...

GUARDING
Sure. You'll get beaten sometimes. Every now and then, you're gonna get absolutely torched. It's the nature of the game - offence has the advantage. However... if they can walk it down the length of the field with open side cuts to the disc, and score in the same way... that's crap.
The other thing that I have a real problem with. Matty B has decided to introduce the call "One-Two". This means that you're marking the dump, and they're burning you forward up the line and you're asking your team mate to deal with your mistake by changing the force for a second (basically a strike).
How about this? Don't get beat up the line? Does that sound reasonable? Seriously... if you're playing tight D and trying to shut down the dump, every now and then you're gonna get schooled like this. That said, it just shouldn't be happening so often that we need a whole new call for it. That's just a sign that we don't stay awake on D.

ZONE O
Our zone O isn't too bad, but one simple thing could make it so much better. Downfield players, SPREAD OUT!!! Stop standing together where one defender can take you both!
That's all I've got to say about that...

So after a rant like this, it might be surprising to hear that we had our first real win, 11-6... maybe I'm just a tough man to please...

I'm honestly surprised my head didn't explode

2005-11-09T03:05:00.000+10:00

Contrary to my hopes Frisbee was not good this weekend. Okay some of it was good, but on the whole it was extremely frustrating. Yes I got to run around, something I haven't had the chance to do in about a week and a half (not counting last weekend's hour and a half lost walk through the ghetto), but damnit if I didn't want to kill every single member of my team at least once. Putting aside the discs that hit them in the chest/face/hands only to be dropped and the countless throw-aways due to wind or a complete lack of skill... putting those aside it was the stupidity that upset me most. Sure they're beginners and good under pressure decision-making comes with experience, but damnit if I didn't try to get some type of structure on the field. The problem was it worked maybe a quarter to a third of the time. During that time everyone did their jobs and did them well. We picked their defense apart, walking the disc up the field and scored easily. How's that a problem you ask? Well if they had just sucked completely I might have written the day off and just screwed around. But nooooooo! They showed just enough promise for me to stay invested in what ultimately (no pun intended) turned out to be a very lost cause. All I got out of it were sore muscles, a hoarse voice, and what I can only describe as a nearly exploding head. Gah! All I can say is thank goodness for ladies' laps and head rubs.

UPA Club Nationals Results

2005-11-08T06:38:00.000+10:00

Not that I've been following it but here are the results for this year's UPA Club Nationals:

Open: Furious George 15 - Sockeye 13
Women: Riot 15 - Backhoe 9
Mixed: Brass Monkey 15 - Ror$hack 11
Masters: Old And In the Way 15 - Above & Beyond 9

For more info go to: http://www1.upa.org/index.php

Austrian nationals

2005-11-03T02:04:00.000+10:00

Alright, first things first, I finally have my new computer! I’m currently bashing away at my keyboard on a high-speed german train enroot to my girlfriends place which is near Duesseldorf. My old lappy could no longer handle such difficult circumstances, the battery’s ability to hold charge long ago faded.

Anyway, back on topic. It’s been a helluva week ulti-fans. Back home in Oz they just held mixed-nats, and just before my customary sprint to the train station I had an email in my inbox from Al telling telling my that Bootius Maximus got 3rd place and the Lovers had pulled 7th! I was so stoked to hear this!!!! I guess all that training for worlds next year is beginning to pay dividends.

Well, while my mates back home were running around fields in Adelaide, I was running around fields in a town called Ried, which is a bit more than a drivers huck from the city of Linz in Austria. I was playing at the Austrian nationals with my city’s team, The Flying Circus. The Circus had managed to rustle up an open and a womens team for the tourney. I met a bunch of nice people at the tournament. I met Heidi-Marie, who was an American playing for the “Spin” women’s team. She was a lot of fun and tried to keep my spirits up a bit when my team was busy getting pasted (I especially liked the “Go on. Show me something special”. Then she missed a great layout-d of mine at a pivotal point of one match!). I also got to catch up with the team from Graz, “Catchup”. Those guys are always fun to hang out with and I absolutely love watching them play. They remind me a lot of the teams back home.

I also had a great time with many players on my team. They really are a friendly bunch of people. The party was super. It took a while to get going, but once a sufficient amount of booze was downed the dancefloor was packed with hot’n’sexy ultimate folk looking to boogie. Arno, our captain was kicking it till the wee hours showing all us young-uns how it’s done. Oh yea, me and Kris (a new Canuck in our team) had a great drunken layout session using some gymnastic mats and a trampoline (actually, that’s how we met Heidi-Marie, she thought it looked like fun. She was right!).

Well, I’d love to say that during the tournament we totally kicked ass, but we didn’t. The open team won 3 out of 7 games and placed 11th of 15. Though the women managed to pull 4th place, I was really happy about that.

I had a good time, don’t get me wrong. I like my team, they are a great bunch of people. They are fun to party with (especially the lasses), and they all really care about each other. The problem is, that we don’t have anything like the depth of the teams back in Oz, or for that matter the teams from the other cities in Austria. At a really good training session we’ll pull 20 or so people, that’s guys and girls. The skill level ranges from absolute beginner, to the ridiculously experienced. It is so hard to run a training session, talk tactics and even practice skills in such a way that can keep everyone happy. Normally, the sessions are pitched low, with the hope that the more experienced types won’t get too frustrated by this. Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to work. Well, at least it isn’t working for me anymore.

At the moment I feel like my skills are beginning to stagnate. I’m not feeling pushed at all. When I’m playing in Innsbruck, I find that if I want to throw a break, I throw a break. If I want to make a cut, I get the disc. If I want to huck it, I can huck it. There aren’t a whole lot of experienced, or even intermediate players playing against me and pressuring me to play harder and better.

This was killing me on the weekend. Our level of tactical play was barely above the beginner level. Our intensity was a smidgen above that of a funday arvo pick-up. In the easy games, this wasn’t a problem.

Our team’s skill level is pretty high, there are a lot of good throwers and the fitness isn’t too bad. In the hard games, things turned haywire. Suddenly, the intermediate/experienced were being pushed (and, in reality, rarely by players that were any better than they were) and they began to panic. We started to throw the disc away a lot. We would try to switch-up the tactics only to find that we either all weren’t on the same page or the level of ulti-knowledge in the team was too low to implement the required changes to our game.

For me, things hit there worst when we were playing against Spin (one of the teams from Vienna). They weren’t too bad, they are also a really nice team (both the girls and the guys). We were getting pasted pretty much because our team didn’t know how to play zone offence. For those of you who played with me in Bris-Vegas, you would know that this would kill me. I used to live for zone. I don’t know why, it probably has something to do with my past life as a Rugby player. Anyway, I was totally pissed at my team. I was pissed with the experienced players because we were all disagreeing on what to do. I was pissed with the beginners because they had no idea what they were doing. I was pissed at myself because I was spitting the dummy.

Our team has been on the slide for a while. The beginners and intermediate players have never played in a good ultimate team. They have good players around them. Some of the experienced people here are as good as or better than anyone I ever played with in Brisbane. The problem is, that the experienced players are aging and can’t commit as much to the team as they used to. When you combine this with our small-player base it is no wonder that we are struggling.

This has been getting me down for ages. I have felt completely powerless to do anything at all about this. Part of the problem is that I don’t speak the language, and for this reason I feel like a lot of what I say is completely lost on people. For a long time I’ve just been resigned to play in a team that isn’t so great and to deal with getting pounded at tournaments – maybe I could just focus on winning the party? On the weekend though, something changed. At some point during that game against Spin I made up my mind. Either get better, and drag this team with me. Or get out.

For the time being I’m going with the first. I’m going to try to get better at my ulti, and I’m going to try to improve the level of play in the players around me. The only way I can think to do this is to start small. Many of the players will be a bit frightened of big changes. But they might barely even notice the small ones.

I already do a lot of fitness training on my own. Maybe I should start emailing the team list to tell them when I’m going for a run and invite others to join me? Maybe I could do the same with the gym or maybe initiate some small-group sprint workouts? I think maybe just organizing to go and have a throw (even in winter!) in the park regularly might change people’s mindset a little. Maybe I can talk to the more senior people in the team about contributing more to the training sessions?

I guess what I’m trying to say is that I think the only way our team is going to get better is if a few of us take the initiative to get it better. Personally, I know I can do more and that maybe I have to if I want to continue to develop as a player.

Pickup and daylight

2005-11-01T03:24:00.000+10:00

So my pickup scouting, although fruitful, was ultimately in vain. Yesterday marked the start of daylight savings time, which means all pickup without lights (all of them I can get to) are cancelled due to the fact that it gets dark at 5:00pm. Meaning of course Frisbee is now restricted to weekends. Which would be fine, but there is no winter league, and fall league ends next weekend. Crappy! There's talk of basketball court indoor, which I despise, and getting a team together for next season, which isn't until January or February (at the earliest). I have to say DC you're really letting me down on the Frisbee front. Oh well, looks like I'll have to hibernate like a big ol' Frisbee bear and go to my artificial rock cave climbing gym this winter. Let you know how it goes...

Back again

2005-10-19T02:06:00.000+10:00

Hello Lovers! So I played my first game semi-competitive of Ultimate in quite awhile this past Sunday. Just my pre-game comments caused my team to put me in a place of importance as middle handler against zone defense on a really windy day. Going upwind no less. Being rusty and already a little nervous on how I might perform this didn't help. I should really learn to keep my mouth shut. I threw a handful away, dropped one, and completely misjudged a huck that I could have easily run down. To top it all off I was being completely ineffective as a popper because my fitness is, well almost nil.

After taking myself out and watching a few points I started to pick up what we were doing wrong and reinserted myself again as middle handler. Calmer and a little more tired I threw out our huck and defend offense (who plays that way honestly?!) and got us working it up the field slowly. What do you know? It worked! We came back and took half and the rest of the game I restricted myself to two jobs: 1) get open for the dump and 2) direct. By playing a controlled zone offense we ran the other team into the ground and ended up wining easily. I even got a layout block as short deep. Can you tell I'm excited?

The moral of the story: Discipline. Have the discipline to not get caught up in the other team's pace and style. That way you can play your own game and instead of frenzied and sloppy you end up being effective. Discipline, write that down.

Alright enough preaching. Checking out some different pickup games all over DC this week, so look for a review in the near future. Cheers!

Trends in Innsbruck Ultimate

2005-10-18T22:40:00.000+10:00

Following on from Johnny Mac's post I thought I'd do a style list for the state of play here in Innsbruck.

IN

German (it's called 'isoliert' here, or something like that anyway).
Box, with a few variations (this is a sweet offence, especially with the right variations).
2-3-2 zone defence (hmm, jury is out on this defence. It works well sometimes...).
Force middle (way, way too much of this.).
Puppy-fence (can anyone guess who the puppy is?).
Straight up textbook 1st year stack. ie first in the stack cuts, then second,.... (again WAY too much to much of this).
Hammers, lots of 'em.
A lot of focus on flow (too much I think. We lose a lot of disc midfield due to people pushing passes. We also lose a lot of disc because people are so focussed on downfield throws that the dump comes way too late.).
Good throwing. Lot's of high and low release everything, good windy-weather throwing, good break throws, and lots of stuff over the head.
Stacks on the open side - with the cuts to the break side (is this the J-offence?)

OUT

Good zone offence.
Safety, lots of turnovers.
Standard zone.
Low stall-count dumping (this is driving me totally nuts).
Reset plays.
Agression, people here normally play with a lot of smiles.
Piston cuts.
Popping.

question for all you aspiring/current captains and coaches

2005-10-17T08:57:00.000+10:00

how do you deal with having to coach experienced and very new newbies all at once? I want to push the veterans to build mental toughness ect., but I don't want to discourage the new women at all. I find myself getting frustrated at practices with noone to really turn to. any suggestions??

Pam

ps i'm very jealous because its freezing and rainy (soon to be snowy) here and i know it is beautiful in brisbane

Trends in Brisbane/Qld Ultimate

2005-10-12T10:10:00.000+10:00

Strategy Trends in Brisbane/Qld Ultimate

Continuing along the “trends” line… here’s my take on the current trends when it comes to on-field strategy in Brisbane and largely in Queensland.

Puppy-fence

German

Vertical stack (traditional)

“Standard” zone (traditional)

Force one-way

SOME USAGE

Ho stack (not enough usage, but that’s another post…)

2-3-2 (too much usage, but again that’s another post…)

Pull plays

Endzone plays

OUT

Pommie

Clam

Split stack

Strong-side

Force return

Vertical stack, force one-way and standard zone are always going to see a lot of use, because they’re the first things you learn.

German is fairly popular at the moment, and I suspect it might be because we’ve got a handful of good dots and a lot of small cutters at the moment. These small cutters are less effective in normal play compared to a two-on-two situation using half the field. At the moment, German is played fairly well in Qld.

Puppy-fence is also popular, I think because of the same small cutters. We have plenty of fit people who can cover ground well to go as the puppy or fence, and then a few of the taller or more explosive ones on the wings and deep.

SOME USAGE

Ho stack is used occasionally, but not very well, and should be used more and better. Another post on that coming soon, I expect…

2-3-2 was made popular in Brissy about 2 years ago by the team that won Dog Cup. It’s really a pretty crap D, but because they had a tall team they were able to put big markers and big deeps, which worked. Doesn’t suit most teams, and should be dumped.

Pull plays get called occasionally, but experience is too mixed to be calling them regularly. Would be good to use more often.

Endzone plays don’t get used much because we don’t have any audibles (code words) for them. If a time-out is called near the endzone, we use them.

OUT

Pommie hasn’t ever really seen much use in Brisbane. When it’s been called, people play it more like a puppy-fence. Al is trying to bring it back though – it’s a useful junk D to have in your arsenal.

Clam is interesting. See Alex de Frondeville’s blog for more info, but basically it had a period of popularity in Brisbane, and I haven’t played it in years. Should be resurrected.

Split stack has been experimented with once or twice in the form of a Box play, but never had great results. With more work, could be a highly effective option for a few points (Deathstar used it in NUFL).

Strong-side (also called the J, I think). I reckon I’ve played this offence maybe half a dozen times in my life? Again, it had a brief period of popularity and then died out. I’m guessing that most people who read this won’t even know what it is.

Force return was another fad that has now passed on. I really think this can be an effective D, but we need to learn to play tighter man D first.

I think that we’re in danger of restricting our playbooks too much because we’re not teaching these things to newer players. Maybe there should be one training per week/fortnight devoted to the learning of new/different strategies, or the reviewing of old ones? Might have a chat to Al about doing this on Sat mornings after Mixed Nats is over…

Lovers' tactics for this MAL

2005-10-11T10:41:00.000+10:00

Here, in brief, are the tactics and strategies that I anticipate the Lovers will be employing this MAL season.

OFFENCE
1. Vertical stack - Stanford O: 3 handlers, 2 mids, 2 longs
2. Horizontal stack: 3 handlers, 2 left side cutters, 2 right side cutters
3. German (Feldrenner): 4 handlers, 1 focus, 2 deeps
4. Zone offence (traditional): 3 handlers. 2 poppers, 2 wing/deeps
5. Zone offence (better): 2 handlers, 2 poppers, 3 wing/deeps

DEFENCE
1. Man, forcing home/away, and maybe some middle or return
2. "Standard" zone: 3 in cup, 3 across the middle, 1 deep
3. Puppy-fence: 1 puppy, 3 in fence, 2 wings, 1 deep
4. "Skyscraper" D or 2-3-2: 2 chasers, 3 across the middle, 2 deeps

OFFENCE
1. Vertical stack
We don't play it particularly well, but everyone knows it, so we'll use it a lot. We don't have any training at all, so we don't really have the chance to teach our less experienced players the other offences very effectively, and consequently the vertical stack will get a good work out. Who knows - maybe by the end of the season we'll even be calling primaries and secondaries??
2. Horizontal stack
If we all show up, we've actually got a pretty good team to play horizontal. Now, if we could only all learn to play it... we have several cutters with a decent amount of height, speed and throwing ability (myself, Brett, Steve, Rubes among others). Doesn't help that me and Brett usually have to handle, as we rarely have a strong enough line-up to put 3 other decent handlers back. We play this with 2 pairs of cutters, one each on the left and right side. In theory, the strong-side pair at any given time should be the primaries and the weak-side the secondaries, but we've hardly even discussed how to set up the offence, let alone the mechanics of it...
3. German
Couple of good dots on the team (Rubes, myself, and Steve is also getting there). Usually it's me and Brett as the central handlers, so Rubes will probably be our dot most of the time. Again, we have a good team for this O, it's just a matter of sorting it out.
4. Traditional zone offence
I'm not a big fan of the traditional offence - see below for my preferred option. However, everyone knows it and the rules are simple, so we'll most likely keep using it. Dumping and swinging, looking for the continuation pass off the swing or else trying to hit the poppers through/over the cup, and flowing from that. Me or Brett usually as the axis. Rubes has become a decent handler when we need him, although I'd still prefer to have him downfield catching goals. Matt B is a good popper, and Dave and Steve are both becoming reasonably effective in that role.
5. Two handler zone offence
I'm pretty sure the first time I heard of this offence was an article by Jim Parinella on the now-defunct Ultylife.com. I'm now a big fan, and I think it's the way to go in the future. As opposed to the traditional zone offence, which is based around making lots of 100% passes and hopefully getting downfield, this offence looks for one or two higher-risk passes during the point and then trying to gain yardage by flowing from that. By overloading the downfield defenders with 5 O players, there should be at least one relatively unmarked option downfield. The handlers need to throw over or through the cup to get it there (the higher-risk pass), but the idea is that they should have enough space that it shouldn't be too difficult. The wing/deeps and poppers then look for the fast-break downfield. More to come in a future posting, eventually...

DEFENCE
1. Man
We're not great at it, and need to improve to win in the finals. Good zone/junk D will only get you so far - the best teams almost exclusively have strong man D.
2. Standard zone
Again, not our greatest defence, but everyone knows it. We don't use it much though, preferring the puppy and 2-3-2.
3. Puppy-fence
Probably our best D, and the one that we use most often (except maybe man). It's a pity, then, that the conditions in Brisbane at night make it really easy to beat. Wind or rain are pretty uncommon, meaning that throwing conditions are great. Brett is usually puppy, now that Matt E has gone back to the Dojo. Dave also has a go sometimes. I'm usually stuck deep, which really isn't my best position. Would be nice to have a genuine deep on the team - Rubes also takes it sometimes, but he prefers wing.
4. 2-3-2
I really don't know why we still use this D as often as we do. It's crap... sure, Skyscraper won the Dog Cup using it a couple of years ago, but it's a little different when you've got easily the tallest team in the comp. We can't stick Mike Nield back deep, and don't have some big units on the mark. Anyway... we use it occasionally to "mix it up", which rarely has too much effect. Can you tell I don't like this D?

So, overall: vert stack as default O, some ho and the occasional German to mix it up, and probably the traditional zone O most of the time. Man and puppy on D, with some zone and a bit of 2-3-2.
We could be a lot better if we just devoted a bit of time to making sure everyone was on the same page with all our tactics, but it's not happening, is it? We should change that...

I'm done. Playing Big City this Thursday. We'll see how we go. Maybe this week we won't be savage!

Quick one...

2005-10-06T23:00:00.000+10:00

Would've put this in the comments of the last one, but that might not get read...

Just letting people know that I also have a blog, so can someone add a link in the sidebar? Ta. My blog is here - http://frisbeeboy.blogspot.com

I discuss things happening in my life, things happening in Brisbane Ultimate, and also some purely frisbee posts (strategical, tactical, organisational, or other)...
Check it out and make comments - that'll make me feel good.

From comments to post...

2005-10-05T14:17:00.000+10:00

This is all in relation to the points raised by John concerning how to get a team (namely us) that hasn't played together/meeting for the first time, to play well and form some kind of cohesion rapidly. In the general sense this is extremely difficult, almost impossible for the early games and will more then likely continue to be a problem during entire tourneys. These fractures are most apparent when the pressure is turned on (eg Lovers v Melbourne), leads to further disruption an individuals game, see point 4, and with the team, 2 & 3 = frustration = turnovers = lost games = no love for anyone. The solution to this is difficult, especially for the Lovers. I made mention to the fact that as a team we are too often forced into a situation where to play we need pick ups (see upcoming Mixed Nationals 2005 and the back catalogue all the way to early 2000). Some of this comes from a tendency to rely on our imports that often play for only a semester. The core of the issue however is that we have never had a large enough player base that we can draw upon for high level games/events. Highly competitive and successful teams (using uni games as an example) such as UNSW will consistently train and play together well before a tournament. They have enough players to field A and B teams and when playing hot are pretty to watch. oohhhhh we are a long way from this yet and to alter the situation is going to take time and bucketloads of effort. It impresses me how well we can perform without the recognisable benefits of actually training/playing together. The new PBL league helps, but again we actually have to play together during competitions. To answer the actual question I guess the best thing you can do is run a few decent drills before game time, look at who you've got and call lines and positions appropriately. I think there is a natural feeling to include the pick ups in play which is great for the soul and appropriate for leagues and pick up. But this shouldn't be the case for high level ultimate, 1. We shouldn't have to pick up and 2. We shouldn't have to deal with the generated problems, remember you aren't actually on the team to begin with so we are fulfilling our karma quota by letting you on the field.

Just a further question, are the Lovers a viable future university team?

Lovers at AUGs

2005-10-03T23:37:00.000+10:00

Hey boys and girls - it's a pleasure to join the esteemed list of contributors to this blog. Well, on with the post...

Last week, UQ played at the Australian Uni Games in Brisbane. It was the biggest ever, with 19 teams easily eclipsing the previous record of 14. Somehow Roger Church, TD extraordinaire, managed to run the whole tourney on just 4 fields. Amazing.
We came 5th overall (from 10th seed), which we were very happy with. We were a very hot and cold team during the week, but fortunately won most of the important games. Upset wins over Flinders, Adelaide and ANU were handy, although it would've been nice to avoid collapsing against Melbourne and Sydney (we were up by 5 early in both games).

There were a few questions to come out of the week that are worth some discussion, I think.
1. How do you get a new team, where some players are meeting each other for the first time on the opening day of the tourney, to gel quickly and win early crunch games?
2. How do you stop the rot? When you've been up by a few, but then you start collapsing and the other team starts gathering momentum, what do you do?
3. Why, oh why, do people constantly insist on using dump-swing offence against a loose/wide fence and a puppy that's trapping on the sidelines???
4. As a captain, when you get frustrated with your team (especially semi-experienced players making very simple mistakes), how do you get your head back into the game and lead from the front?

I'm sure I could come up with more, but that should be enough for now. Let's get some discussion happening on this one.
Will post again soon about tactics for this upcoming MAL season...

yeah lovers

2005-10-02T09:29:00.000+10:00

what the fuck is up everyone its been a year since I've played for the lovers. and I missed the intensity greatly. Just a brief overview on my ultimate life...going to regionals next weekend for a local co ed san diegan team called bucket....a bid to nationals is obtainable but we'll have to work hard for it. I'm going to play for san diego state for one more year our rookies are looking great, check ultimate reals out on our website at www.sdsultimate.info. Anyways I'd love to hear how everyone is doing so if you want to stay in touch shout me an email....or just give me a ring 619 203 2221

Spreading the love.

2005-09-30T23:20:00.000+10:00

The UQ Ultimate Lovers are an ultimate frisbee team based out of the University of Queensland (UQ). The team is normally comprised of students, staff, and assorted hangers-on from the university.

The idea of this blog is to have an online environment where past and present "lovers" can talk about ultimate. Essentially, there will be a bunch of contributors who will write articles covering everything from game tactics to trashy team gossip. Hopefully this website will become a valuable resource for ultimate players to read and discuss all things ultimate related.

What makes this site different from the oodles of other frisbee sites out there?

Ex-lovers (including me) live all over the world (a side-effect of UQ's out-of-control exchange program), so contributors to this site are playing ultimate at all different levels in all sorts of different conditions. As a result of this, the contributors can contribute a wealth of different perspectives on any different issue. Hopefully this will make for some interesting and useful discussions.

With some luck this will actually work...