Approximately 35 tryouts converged on the soccer fields at CSU-Northridge in LA this past weekend. This West Coast tryout was the first of two, as the tryouts finish with the East Coast edition next weekend in Sarasota, FL.

Tryouts were closed to the public after much thought by the UPA directors. This was done to create a small, manageable, and safe environment for the athletes to go all out. The UPA thoroughly thought this decision through, and they were right; the somewhat private setting kept the focus on the field and was extremely helpful for the athletes (and I can only imagine for the coaches as well). As one of the athletes, I felt very well provided for.

9am start, and almost every player was there by 8:30am, and certainly cleated and throwing, if not sweating, by 8:45am. Is there a lesson here?

Here’s the nuts and bolts of what we did:

SATURDAY
- Initial huddle with Head Coach Greg Connelly

- Active warmup, led by assistant coach Ron Kubalanza

- Personal time, then directional talk with Coach Connelly.

- First drill; simple vert stack cutting and throwing. First line, from the front of the stack, made a lateral cut. Continuation to the second (back of the stack) line. Progression to away-leading initial throw and deep continuation look.

- Split into 4 groups. Groups went to 1 of 4 stations:

• Station 1: Triangle sliding drill, testing marking/sliding position and quickness.
• Station 2: Sprinting, each tryout getting two chances at a timed 70-yard dash and a timed 40-turn-40.
• Station 3: Brian Doo’s tennis ball quickness drill. We ran a double circuit of this exercise, which meant a 40ish second conditioning drill…brutal on the quads. Everyone got 2 chances.
• Station 4: Each player got a quick 1-2 minute talk with the Coach.

- Initial scrimmaging: We broke into 4 teams, and played 2 games to 2 against 2 of the other teams, and then a game to 3 against the third. Breaks in between each game kept the level of play high, as there was only 1 sub, per gender, for each team.

- Lunch (a 1-hour break for a welcome rest and welcome boxed lunch)

- Short active warmup w/ Ron

- ‘Triangle of Death’ throwing drill. Each player got one chance to make 20 cuts and throws in a row. A diagonal, 5-yard out-in cut, a short dish, and then 10 throws to cutters coming under in a vert stack. Immediately thereafter, 10 throws to cutters going deep from other sideline.

- Triangle Marking drill. Groups of 4. Each player rotated through, marking the other players in a triangle, no hands, for 60 seconds. Second rotation through hands-allowed.

- Scrimmaging. Split up into 3 teams. Each team pulled for a point, then received for a point, then rested. The level of play was extremely high; solid defense benefited from throwers and cutters that didn’t know each other well, but the turnover numbers were very low. If your team turned it, you could not expect to get it back.

- 1-v-1 Marking Drill. 3 Groups of 12-13. A pair would be marker and thrower, while the rest were cutters from a vertical stack. The marker would have a disc, and give it to the thrower after they ran a 7-yard out-back cut. Thrower would try to break the mark to the first cutter. Then another out-back, then another cutter, repeat through the stack of cutters. Then thrower and marker switch. Continue until each person had a chance to be in the marker/thrower pair once.

- More Scrimmaging. Again, 3 teams. This time with special rules for the games to work on specific strategy points.

- Conditioning: Ron’s GPP routine (15 seconds of a calistenic, sprint 40 yards, then rest for the remainder of 45 seconds total).

- Cooldown.

SUNDAY
- Active warmup with Ron

- Horizontal stack cut warmup. 3 cutters across the field. Live side cutter initiated action by sweeping across the middle and turning deep. The other two cutters were live, and finishing with a deep throw to the first mover.

- Hucking drill. A simple sideline hucking drill, using a light mark and cuts from the dump position heading deep.

- 1-on-1 defense. Simple 1-v-1 cutting from the stack, with an open thrower catching a swing. Coaches arranged specific matchups that they were looking for to compare specific players.

- Scrimmaging. Again, 3 teams. This time rotations were three points, so your team would be on D and then O for 6 points total each time up. Points were longer, and fatigue brought more difficulty cutting (and the expected greater number of turnovers).

- Footwork and Deep 1-v-1. -A football-derived footwork drill to look at sliding and balance, ending with throw players being sent for a high, floaty disc. Again, coaches arranged the matchups.

- Scrimmaging

- TRC Competition (to take the edge off a very competitive and draining weekend)

- Final set of scrimmaging in three teams

- Final set of conditioning (staggered sprints of increasing distance, with intermixed pushups)

- Cooldown.

All in all, and extremely difficult weekend (physically and mentally) that the coaches said showed good resiliency and focus. The drills were varied to the point where weaknesses could not be hidden as a thrower, marker defender or reciever. Having been involved in the Team USA Boys tryouts, I would say this was a singificantly more comprehensive tryout over more areas of the game than we performed back in 2004.

From our friend Yoshio Leeper in Japan, we get word of Japan’s Worlds Roster.

JAPAN
Yohei Abe
Kei Sasakawa
Satoru Sameshima
Satoshi Senda
Mizuho Tanaka
Masahiro Matsuno
Shoji Kurono
Yuki Mori
Fujioka Ayumi
Eri Hirai
Sachiko Sameshima
Moe Sameshima
Ishizu Ayumi

Six of the seven men on the roster are from the Buzz Bullets, and the women are spread among MUD, HUCK, and Uno. Missing from the roster is Japanese star Yohei Kichikawa of the Buzz Bullets.

Apparently this Mixed team entered an Open tournament recently and dominated the competition. They met the remaining Buzz Bullets in the finals and won 8-6.

The competition for the World Games in Taipei gets stiffer and stiffer.

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.

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.

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.