The Huddle | Weblog | 2008

Saturday, December 20th, 2008

Back Home

Bogota to Houston, Houston to Sea-Tac Airport, Sea-Tac directly to work. It’s cold and I’m on a computer, perilously behind schedule on the job and massively jetlagged. As I manage to get these blog posts online (there was no easy-to-reach internet in my last 5 days) I couldn’t imagine a better reception, a better experience, or a better host than that in my short time in Colombia, and I owe a lot of thanks to a lot of people. Next year, we better bring a whole team.

Friday, December 19th, 2008

Colombia: Day 8

by Ben Wiggins

Bogota, and then heading home…

Nearing breaking point of exhaustion. A 4-day tournament, 8,000+ feet above sea level, speaking in a new language, away from home, sleeping 3-5 hours per night…I’m getting tired. The hospitality of my host family has me ready for a day of sight-seeing in Bogota, but for now, just to finish with some Ultimate-related thoughts.

The level of play here is very strong, and is ready to break into the World’s elite. Colombia has no shortage of excellent athletes, and speed/quickness are present on every team. While Colombian teams are unlikely to ever be considered tall, the jumping ability will help make up for this (and when is the last time you were on a ‘tall’ team and really felt like you could use these mismatches effectively? It’s harder than it sounds, since a 1-v-1 without separation (65% completion?) is usually less efficient than at least working for a little separation with your normal offense (at least, I hope this is true for top teams). That 1-v-1 probably gets worse when you go to the well several times.

Skills are there…but are they consistent. After seeing this tournament, I know very well that there are no throws that the Colombians do not have players than can make…but can they make them consistently? You have a long huck, both forehand and backhand, and against a mark. Now, can you hit it consistently enough that you will be more efficient than the other team’s O? Players can make straight, fast, claw-catching moves against a defender…but do they calmly take these catches 88% of the time, or 98%? That difference could be 3 turnovers, and against a top team, those are just as lethal as an opposing 6′5” defender skying for 3 D’s. That consistency will come IF the practices are focused, intense, and driven. Colombia does not have the every-weekend opportunities that some parts of the US do against top competition, and that difference will either be made up in practice, or it won’t. Colombia may be better served in sending single teams (like to Prague) than they would be if they sent a selection-based National team that can’t regularly practice, or at least doesn’t have one dominant system. Es mas importante tener una pagina que la pagina correcta (badly translated: It’s better to be on the same page, rather than the right one.).

Right now, the top three are Japan, US and Canada. Japan boasts a top 7 that might be the best in the world…but are they growing the next generation of talent to replace the Abes, the Masahiros, and the Kichikawas? If not, someone is going to look to move up. The UK, especially Clapham, is working hard (and making serious North American trips) to be that team, and eventually to dethrone the top two). Are European teams (like Sweden and Germany) on a downcycle due to talent, the victims of two straight World’s tournaments held far from Europe, or are these teams being pushed out by more aggressive teams from other parts of the globe? Prague will be interesting, and it remains to be seen how the Colombians will decide to develop. Hears hoping that scarce resources are not dealt solely for glory in Prague…the Colombian Juniors team that went to Devens was a great example of a group that did well internationally, but in a way that grew the game at home. Any advancements that help in Prague will be forgotten if they don’t help grow the Colombian scene.

Thursday, December 18th, 2008

Colombia: Day 7

by Ben Wiggins

Finally, the playoffs.

With games not starting til 1pm, almost the entire tournament was in attendance to watch the afternoon and evening playoffs. We started out against Mamoots, a very strong team from Bogota. Scoring early is a priority, obviously, in 50 minute games, and both teams were a bit nervous to start out. We forced 4 turnovers on the first point, but couldn’t cash in, and Mamoots hit a long strike to Nando (a quick receiver who led the Colombian Juniors way back in Boston). Nando would go on to take several Ds from us, and score 5 of Mamoots’ 7 goals.

Mamoots, like their Bogota counterparts Oso, are very good when moving forward. The dishy is a widespread tool for setting up huck looks, and as long as the cutters are not terribly distant, all options are available. Timing changes once a dump is forced backwards….Colombian teams, typically worried about long throws, often poach off of the dump. By adding some pressure on handlers, especially those in the middle of the field, we were able to get them moving backwards and have their handlers breathing a bit harder than they wanted to.

We end up on the good side of the pull for double-game point, and are patient in moving the disc down the field to take a great game, 8-7.

Semifinals: Vs Euphoria, another strong Bogota team.
The short of it is that we lost, to a team that played very well. Euphoria is a lot like our team; every player can handle the disc, making for some attractive offense. On this day, however, their best two players played great games, and the Mapache-led offense was tough to stop. Choco hit several amazing hucks; I counted 4 throws that I was glad to see him throw, and he hit 4/4. At least we lost to a team that played very, very well. For our part, we felt the pressure of a short game and, like the Mamoots game, would have loved to play it out to 90-120 minutes to see who really was the strongest on that day. Great game by both teams, and with a very high level of spirit.

Both Colombia and Venezuela came home from Worlds in Vancouver with very low Spirit ratings. I think that, on one hand, the Colombians need to demand great spirit of themselves in their own National games. This will be hard to do without some type of recourse and/or ramifications for poor behavior (currently there are none). I will say this, though: I played against European teams, Japan and North American teams at worlds…and I’d rather play against Colombia than many of those teams. I am sure that European teams rate each other’s sportsmanship, in general, more highly than they rate that of the South Americans…but how much of this is differences in how the game is played, and how much is actual behavior? Having been part of clashing-game-images in battles with other North American teams (see: differences in interpretations of the travel rule, Sockeye and Furious) I think that this has less to do with cheating and more to do with significant differences in how the game actually IS. This isn’t a sportsmanship thing, it’s a culture thing, at least to an extent.

Ok, that said….how many Colombians do you think had a rulebook with them at this tournament? It’s a trick question…because the rules are not available in Spanish. Imagine what US Ultimate would look like if there were no rulebooks available, in any form? ‘House’ rules exist, players are reluctant to make calls for fear of massive and irreconcilable arguments (because there is no written authority to go to), and the average young player is 100% dependent on the wisdom of older players to learn the rules.

I (and many others) believe this is totally unacceptable. Translation of the rules into every language is not practical, but for those languages that are dominant, a good translation should be a priority. WFDF takes money from every member country…what percentage of those dues from Spanish-speaking countries would it take to create a decent translation. Either the UPA or WFDF is going to translate their rules into Spanish first…and whoever does will be the dominant form of the rules in South America, as there is a ravenous appetite for hard information.

Wednesday, December 17th, 2008

Colombia: Day 6

by Ben Wiggins

A storm blew in overnight, which didn’t cause us much concern until we arrived at the fields and were informed that all games were cancelled, for the day at least. Previously, large tournaments had been held in Medellin, where backup fields were on sand…which was a major cause for complaint. Now, however, sand was looking good compared to the prospect of no games at all.

Just a question for myself…does UPA Nationals have backup fields? What about College Nationals? I assume they do…but then again, I am not sure that I know where they are. Perhaps I assume too much.

We were told to stay in touch with tournament directors, and we left for a touristy afternoon at the local salt mine…which doesn’t sound nearly as cool as it was. This mine goes down forever, is a massive foray into the earth, and has been transformed into a cathedral, with statues and a grand antechamber hewn out of the rock. Really, really awesome.

I got to talking with some of my teammates about the cost of the sport, and they mentioned ‘Inter’. Inter is a government agency that provides funding for any youth that want to play sports. They get practices, equipment, some travel money, uniforms…whatever they need. The catch is that they must go through the paperwork and have a coach signing off on them…and they have to go to and work well in school. This is a high hurdle for Colombians from families that historically work hard, go to school infrequently if at all, and who believe that early work is a more family-faithful activity than sports of any kind.

In the afternoon, we were called to tell us the location of the backup fields; two small fields with a grandstand in ‘downtown’ Cahiqua. Upside: we get to play. Downside: Games are now 50 minutes, and less if the previous game goes overtime (up to this point, DV was experimenting with 90-100 minute games, a first for Colombia). Upside: all of the teams are in one spot, and everyone gets to watch everyone else, which makes for a really fun atmosphere and a crowd for all of the games. Downside: Very little warmup space, no margin for error, and the finals would be played, Monday night, at around 9pm. Wow.

We played Aire, a team that loves to put the disc out in front of their athletes, in a very smooth game for our O-team. Fields are skinnier now, which means that traditional flat-stack teams absolutely must find a way to break through saggy 3-person defensive fronts, or it is going to be a long day of gunning forehands into tight windows. With only one short game this was almost a rest day, which was much appreciated.

Tuesday, December 16th, 2008

Colombia: Day 5

by Ben Wiggins

3 games today…starting out with a very strong performance against Disco Stu. Disco’s Esteban is an extremely talented cutter, and uses his lefty dishy very well to set up handlers for deep looks. If it doesn’t go through Esteban, it probably isn’t happening. We tell our defenders, who are doing a good job of preventing in-cuts, “if he does get past you to the disc, flair out and stop the dishy”. That is good for a block around half-time, at which point our 5 turnovers had propelled us to a 7-2 lead (half-time here is done right at the half-way mark of the time-cap, which seems bizarrely reasonable to me, although it requires another person to be watching the clock. Each field has a stat-person also performing this task.

Our second game is, at the moment, the likely pool-deciding matchup. Warao (probably spelled incorrectly) is the dominant Venezuelan team, and they are full of athletes that can throw, a very cohesive offensive handling group, and a very dangerous player (#4) that is exceptionally fast, talented, and plays with their D-team, making them a threat to score several D-point in a row very quickly. I know this because they opened the game with 3-straight D-points, and we immediately have a crisis of confidence on our hands. Can we score? Kie has never beaten Warao, and most of the Colombian teams have, at some point, taken a bad beating from this squad.

We crawl back into the game using a mix of zone and man, and an extremely patient little-ball offense when our D-team gets the disc. They (led by Idaho, Julian and Tragic) are very happy throwing 5-10 2 yard throws, just keeping the disc moving side to side and the occassional easy break. Eventually, they find the end zone.

Warao, on both sides of the disc, is lethal for the first 3-4 passes of every possession. Their defenders at full-speed are tough to shake, but forcing them to move for 10-15 seconds (and readjust) limits their effectiveness. Our O-team is considerably better when we start moving the disc sideways, instead of trying for early yards. Their O, likewise, does a nice job of getting the disc into a power position in the middle of the field within 1-2 throws, and then sending one of the hoard of jumpers deep. Against our zone, though, this is more difficult. Rotating defenses is keeping them guessing a bit more than I think they are used to.

Warao, like most teams here, uses 7-8 players on offense, and almost never rotates. As the temperature drops (remember, we’re at 8600 feet, and it gets cold) and the offense is forced to run on defense, we start to build momentum, eventually taking a great game 13-9.

Spirit level was very high in this game, which is significant. Many games here have problems with the overall level of sportsmanship, even given the generally fiery nature of the participants. Mauricio Moore (my host) has made Spirit a top priority for our team, and we resolved to keep our level high, regardless of our opponents. Against Warao, we started with a high level of Spirit…and I think many of our team were surprised to see that Warao matched it.

My take: Kie’s perspective is that Warao is the dominant team, and don’t respect Kie as a team. Warao’s perspective: Colombians in general don’t respect Warao, and incorrectly think Warao wants to cheat. End result: Both teams, suspicious of each other’s motives, usually lead with their (usually metaphorical) fists. In this game, however, Kie leads well and that diffuses the usual suspicion, and Warao is relieved to be playing in a game in which they are no longer afraid that they are going to be cheated. Result; bitter rivals play a very fair game, even given the stakes and a few calls either way which are close and contested.

Third game today: against Hermanos, a team that recently played their way up from the Open division into the Elite, which is a possibility for every team here, each tournament trying for that higher division in the next tournament. The chance for relegation is always there as well.

Monday, December 15th, 2008

Colombia: Day 4

by Ben Wiggins

After a high-speed-chase-style hour in the mountains, we made our flight last night and arrived in Bogota unharmed. We’ve left the home of Nando (Colombian international player, and currently with Mamoots) for the smaller town of Cahiqua, a quiet spot at the foot of the mountains with a polo complex big enough to house 8 fields.

This will be my first experience with a Colombian tournament, but I have already heard a lot about the tour here. There are a ton of tournaments, ranging from Disco Volador (this one) and Nationals to a myriad of smaller, more local tournaments. Ultimate is thought of as an expensive sport here, in large part due to the travel costs. The majority of our team will be meeting us after their 14-hour charter-bus ride through the central valley of the country.

Colombia is, like many emerging Ultimate scenes, feeling a bilateral pull regarding tournamnet and team rules. On one side, they have a rapidly growing community that feeds off of the easy tournament entry and informal team-management process. On the other hand, WFDF dictates that Colombia needs to push the pace into ‘legitimacy’, having rosters for teams and holding a tour from which teams can build points in order to qualify for World events. That rift of intentions has caught up, and the current strife is that the tournament decided that players, for this tournament, are only allowed to play for a team in a single division.

No problem, right? This is standard fare in the US, where only in special circumstances (like Wildwood) would anyone be expecting to play on multiple teams in a weekend. However, in the developing scene here there are many players that take this opportunity to play down into the ‘B’ open scene, or women that play on Open teams as well as Women’s teams.

Ramifications: In the long run, this is probably how tournaments here will end up being…but for now, this decision has forced the players that usually play more Ultimate now to make tough decisions. On Women’s team in particular, whose captain routinely plays high-level men’s Ultimate (seriously, she would be a major force for any women’s club in the US) has decided to forego this tournament, and instead avoid the situation (and take a deserved holiday after a long season). Tournament organizers recanted the decision a few days before the tournament (but well after the time necessary for this team to review their decision).

In the end, there is no perfect solution here. WFDF wants European organization now, and more formality means less playing opportunities. The tournament organizers are being pulled in two different directions: the one WFDF wants in order to fairly allocate bids, and the one more likely to grow the game at a grassroots level.

On the field: We are playing at 8600 feet, and trust me, you can tell the difference. The ability to throw end-to-end, even on these very large fields, is present even in the lowest level teams. You simple will not impress a Bogota team with large throws. Pulls are routinely floating down in the back, and based solely on hangtime and height I would say that the average pull here is better than at UPA Nationals. Leading throws are more difficult, because the air doesn’t seem to want to stay under the disc. Hammers are more difficult to float then I am accustomed to.

We play a Venezuelan team first, and they have some great athletes but run an offense with cutters at least 30 yards away from the throwers, leading to a lot of necessary 30-yard flat throws. When those inevitably float, we take advantage and hold a 4-point lead for most of the game. Handler-cutter separation is especially difficult to maintain in a flat stack offense, as all 4 cutters must equilibrate to a more useful (shorter) distance in order to be a threat cutting both ways.

The wind blows in for our game against Matanga (Bogota), and you can tell who bends at the waist (rather than the knees) when they want to throw low….those throws get tossed us into the air. Lots of injuries in this game for this reason. We are a bit more consistent (willing to huck) upwind, and ride this one out to a 3-4 point win.

Our team is exhausted, both by the change in air and the long bus-ride. This is going to be a strong night of sleep, and then three games tomorrow.

Friday, December 5th, 2008

Colombia: Day 3

by Ben Wiggins

Uncoupled thoughts from camp today:

Middle cutting in a flat stack, and the inevitable question: why doesn’t our flat stack work? Often, I think the goals for the middle cutters start with “get the disc.” And where is the easiest place to get it? On the live side, coming towards the disc. The biggest problem is that this doesn’t meaningfully change the angles of defense for the other defenders on cutters. Their readjustments and vision are almost exactly the same. We’ve been discussing sending that first cutter, as often as possible, to the break side, or scorching across the field on a flat cut, so that the angle for defenders is changed and their readjustments are more difficult, allowing a better chance for continuation. This means we need to stop telling young middle cutters to get the disc, and start telling them to get the disc in the best position possible. And that is a lot to think about right off the bat, but I’d wager that the yardage gained on the next cut after the live side initial move is, absent a massive mismatch in speed or height or skill downfield, minimal.

I believe, and I am pretty sure Idaho does as well, that defensive fundamentals are going to change the game. I think this is most evident right now in zone D. Camp today was a long series of zone drills, and we avoided (wherever possible) teaching how a certain position should play in a certain system. This teaches a technique, but not a general and fundamental skill. We focused on seeing the field, especially behind us. We focused on communication lines, and how to respond (move, don’t check!). We focused on how to take risks, and where and when they can be useful, and how to communicate their need quickly and effectively. We focused on baiting and closing off angles to convince an offensive player that the 2 v. 1 they are looking at…it really isn’t for them, and they should check out some other part of the field (for as long as it takes for help to rotate over).

These are the kind of fundamentals that I (we, I believe) think go into the great zones, and do not change between teams; similar to the fundamentals that all great offenses share. And are equally important. The Buzz Bullet zone, and the seek-and-destroy of the old Squid teams, and the diamond that Rhino and Furious use, all are more dependent on a subset of fundamentals than on how they might be drawn onto a whiteboard.

Today’s chalktalk was a great experience. My most important thought of the day is that the questions we are taking in Colombia are incredibly precise, seeking, and get right to the heart of the matter. We haven´t heard, “What is the best _______?” Instead we are hearing, “Why do you do this, against this, in this situation, and how do I know how to choose between these options?” It has made for lively and engaging discussions.

A personal note: I was asked today for an honest opinion of a team, and I promised it to the player, though I asked for the weekend to make a judgement. I’ve been incredibly lucky to experience so much in this game (NOTE: I’ve been living and thinking in Spanish for several days, so I think I might be writing some pretty clunky phrases, for which I apologize). I feel like I owe it to my hosts, and to my experience (the product of some hard work and a lot of luck) to give an honest answer when it is asked for. I also feel like that is the kind of answer that might just go on my headstone. My mother has frequently warned me that one of my personality flaws is that I sometimes think what I do is the right thing, even when I know it is not the smart thing. Not that I think my honest opinion, in this case, is going to get me in trouble here, but I do think that frequent inability to exchange discretion and valor is, as it has before, not going to ingratiate me to many people. Even those people for whom my opinion might actually be valuable (that particular sentence just caused about 200 of my former teammates to roll their eyes).

For those that take an interest in ECC, big things are on the horizon, I hope.

Thursday, December 4th, 2008

Colombia: Day 2

by Ben Wiggins

TODAY’S ITINERARY
5:50AM: Flight from Bogota to Medellin, the site of the camp
10:00: Local team practice
2:00-5:00PM: Camp (with a mixture, both genders, ranging from raw young players to several of Colombia’s National team)
5:30-7:30: Chalk talk with the campers
8:30-10:30: Dinner
10:30-12:00AM: Strategy discussion for local team

Today’s camp was a mix of deep cutting, deep throwing, continuation, and clearing on offense, and a little bit of zone D. Later, in the local auditorium, we recapped the days work, went into several longer discussions with the 30+ attendees on spirit, designing practices, and planning a season, and then intros into tomorrow´s plan (all told, about 90 per cent was spanish with interpretation help).

It really doesn’t matter where you are, in my opinion, teaching Ultimate is fun when the players are motivated. While this is definitely a self-selecting group, the players were ready and happy to work hard. The language difficulties mostly affected me when I tried to describe the logic behind a particular drill, or description. Little words (the ’se’s, ‘te’s and ’su’s) can really change the meaning quickly, and logic is confusing anyway when it´s presented for the first time.

The most common question from the players: How does Colombia stack up against other countries? Having played against and watched the Colombian teams in Canada, I can safely say that the athleticism is there, and the skills are very strong. I was surprised by the level of flexibility in some of the skills today: changing a drill, or a balance point, didn’t confuse the player as much as it might were they more rooted into some dogma without reason. The hurdle for Colombian Ultimate is, first and foremost, the consistency of those skills. Can these players go hard into a catch and come up into a balanced pivot against a good defender? Absolutely. But can they do it 88 times out of 100, or can they do it 96? In my estimation, this means that practice habits will be crucial. If these teams can conjure the focus and planning to design and run difficult, high-level practices then that consistency will absolutely come.

We didn’t get to as much defense today, though Idaho covered some serious ground in terms of defensive footwork and anticipation yesterday. There is confusion about how much contact is permissible downfield, which we also plan to address tomorrow.

Talking about Ultimate in a lecture hall is an experience that I never would have thought I would have, but the furious notetaking tells you that there is some serious good coming of it. Whiteboard, again, was crucial to make things visible from a different angle. Those drills we ran and later drew really stuck home, and I hope that the opposite direction (drawing tonight, running tomorrow) will be equally effective. If I could make them model some of these concepts in PLAY-DOH, I absolutely would. Whiteboard drawings also slice through the language issues pretty quickly.

Is the future of a country’s team in it’s high school, university, or elite-aged players? I’m starting to think that the answer is rather irrespective of the time frame you are talking about.

Which is more effective to teach first, a defensive plan, or an offensive? D-first is frustrating for the O while learning, but builds from the solid side of the ball, and quickly eliminates bad offensive habits. O-first may be more reliable winning mindset, but encourages reactionary defense.

I expect to write about this more, but Colombian Ultimate is something like 14 years old. Where was American Ultimate at the 14-year mark? Are they comparable? What would be the methods for comparison…for instance, I think it would be difficult to argue that 14-year-old Team Colombia would beat 14-year-old Team USA, but then again, approximately 30 of the universities here have teams (out of 200 total). Did the US have 15 percent? To what degree did the earlier development of the game in the US help development here? As something of a political junkie, these are the questions that I like getting into with the sense that the methods can be applied well beyond this small sport.

And what is the first step in trying to raise funds to pay for interpretation of a small subset (maybe 1 per issue) of Huddle articles. At roughly 15 ($US) per article (which is a massively rough approximation, and assuming that an interpretation-savvy Ultimate player might give us a little deal) we would need 15×13= roughly 200 dollars for 2008. Would this be useful? From the bilingual readers here, it sounds like the answer is affirmative. Siempre buscamos mas dinero…

Tomorrow: practice, butterflies, camp, lecture, plane, Bogota, sleep.

Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008

Greetings From Colombia

by Ben Wiggins

As part of an ongoing project under the direction of Colombian Ultimate organizer Mauricio Moore, I am in Bogota, Colombia. I will be here until December 10th, and in that time I will join with several other coaches to put on a clinic in Medellin and attend (and play in) the Colombian National Tournament.

Colombian Ultimate burst onto the scene in the last 4-5 years following a bronze medal in the World Junior Open Championships in Devens, MA. A strong showing in Vancouver this past August saw all divisions of the Seleccion improve their performances over past World tournaments.

While I am here, I hope to talk to as many players and coaches as I can, and get a sense of how this community is progressing, and where the next steps might be. Based mostly on background reading—I’ve been in the country for four hours now, and all but a little of that time has been spent talking Ultimate in my excited, but broken Spanish—the Ultimate players of Colombia form a diverse and often fractious population. And like Colombia itself, the understanding of global Ultimate would be incomplete without a picture of the history, talent, drive, and potential of this country.

I hope to be able to write-in daily; internets abounds, but opportunities may not necessarily be available each evening. My goal is to give a complete and objective sense of what Colombian Ultimate is, and what it might be. Keep checking back throughout this week, and with any luck I’ll be able to return with a full recap and pictures when I am back in the States.

Until tomorrow…

Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008