Practice (3/28)

This was our first full outdoor practice of the spring, and the first practice any NYU ultimate team had ever held at McCarren Park in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. To my pleasant surprise, we had a full, let field for two-plus hours, which is unheard of in Manhattan without a permit. Granted, the field was mostly dirt, but after playing ultimate in the city for six years, I was thankful for the space.

After throwing and running, we ran the Carleton dump-swing drill for about 20 minutes. It's a good drill because, as its name suggests, players get to throw a lot of dump-swing passes, and there's a lot of running involved so it's a good workout as well. But it takes a while to get the hang of, especially for newer players, so after about 5 minutes of poor cuts and throwaways, Ken and I would stop each group if they made a single error and we would make them go to the back of the line. Once we started doing that, the players had a real incentive to pay attention and concentrate on the footwork and timing. Sure enough, the started improving a fast rate.

Next we worked on the footwork and timing of the butterfly cuts. We also threw in some continuations and dishies. Hopefully we cleared up some of the confusion regarding the cuts. The handlers were still shaky though Krisztina and especially Lisa got off some very nice hucks.

Our third drill was a simple huck drill since reading and tracking deep throws has been a problem for our cutters all year long.

With several players needing to leave early, we spent the last 15 minutes of practice reviewing our pull play. We had two teams of 6, and each team received 5 pulls. It was pretty sloppy, definitely not nearly as good as their capable of running the play.

Team Leaders -- Top 5 Per Category

For Atlantis, High Tide and Amish Paradise

POINTS PLAYED
Mia 253
Linh 249
Claire 233
Sarah 228
Krisztina 212

GOALS
Sarah 39
Krisztina 25
Linh 20
Claire 18
Ellen 17

ASSISTS
Mia 109
Linh 28
Krisztina 17
Lisa 14
Amanda 8

TURNOVERS
Mia 223
Linh 139
Lisa 82
Krisztina 69
Sarah 29

DEFENSE
Mia 117
Linh 50
Lisa, Sarah tied 29
Krisztina 20

EFFICENCY RATING
Mia 56.92
Sarah 38.60
Ellen 33.33
Amanda 28.33
Christine 22.73

Amish Paradise Recap (team listserve version)

AMISH PARADISE 2006 RECAP
Lancaster, PA March 25-26

4-2, 7th place out of 12 teams

SATURDAY
POOL PLAY

NYU 11, Messiah 6

We beat Messiah in the wind at Atlantis, and this weekend we beat them on the small fields at Lancaster. But they proved to be our toughest match up of the day. We started sluggishly, keeping the game unnecessarily close. With Messiah threatening to take a 4-3 lead, Veronica denied her girl a goal by stepping in front of her and getting a d in the endzone, sparking our 4-0 run to take half. Messiah scored the first two goals of the second half, but that was as close as they got. Mia had 8 assists and 4 d's. Krisztina led the team with 3 goals, and 8 different Femmes scored at least one goal.

NYU 13, Eastern 3

Eastern played a lot of zone d, and their offense wasn't good enough to punish us when we turned it over. We gained field position and forced them into turnovers, building a lead that was never seriously challenged. Between their weak offense and our strong marks, they continuously turned it near their goal. We had several opportunities for Callahans slip through our fingers. Mia had 6 assists, while Lisa threw 5. Linh scored 5 goals and Sarah scored 3. Krisztina tallied 4 d's.

NYU 11, Bucknell 3

This wasn't exactly the intense grudge match vs Bucknell we had anticipated. They only had 7 or 8 players and were forced to play a very loose zone all game. Despite being undermanned, they jumped out to an early 2-1 advantage. With her family watching from the sideline, Mia made a terrific layout d that fired us up. We took half 7-3, and we didn't let them score in the second half. Mia had 9 assists and 4 d's, Sarah caught 3 goals. Lisa and Claire each caught 2 goals.

NYU 12, Brown B 1

Brown was completely overmatched, yet we managed to play our longest, most frustrating point of the season against them. Leading 3-0, playing in minimal wind, we played a 30-minute, 20-turnover point, which mercifully ended when Krisztina hit Claire for a goal. Mia had a team-record 11 assists, throwing a goal in all but one of the points she played. She also led the team with 5 d's. Sarah scored 3 goals, while Linh and Marley each scored 2. Once again, 8 different Femmes scored.

SUNDAY

QUARTERFINALS
Northeastern 9, NYU 7

Due to an error in the tournament format, we played a very solid Northeastern squad, rather than Haverford, in the quarters. The wind wasn't overwhelming, but it was strong enough to be a major factor, putting upwind goals at a premium and making zone Northeastern's defense of choice. With the score knotted at 2-2, we worked it all the way upwind against Northeastern's trap zone, and Amanda threw a push-pass goal to Mia for the game's first upwind break. We extended our lead on the next point when Linh hit Mia on a perfectly executed dwarf play. But a few points later we had a costly turnover at midfield and didn't get our defense set quick enough, allowing Northeastern an uncontested huck goal, tying it 5-5, and more importantly giving them back their wind advantage. Northeastern frequently punted and set up a trap zone, not unlike ours, which gave us fits. Tied at 7 with the cap on, we managed to move the disc to the upwind goal line again, but failed to score. Mia had 3 assists and 4'ds, and Linh had 2 assists, while Sarah notched 3 d's. Zac had one thrown clipboard (as a result of a shockingly bad call by a Northeastern player -- sorry).

CONSOLATION
Haverford 10, NYU 2

Several of our experienced players were tired and/or were dealing with minor injuries, so we rested them in this, our last game before Sectionals. The scoreline didn't yield many notable individual stats, but our newer players made some hard cuts and and got some big d's. In one of the weekend's highlights, Frantzen threw a gorgeous flick huck to Krisztina who laid out, fully extended, for the grab. The huge flick huck in a game was the result of lots and lots of practice by Frantzen -- great work!

OVERALL

As Ken preached several times throughout the weekend, we cannot afford half-hearted dump passes. You must turn around, fully engage your dump and make a strong pass -- not a high release or push pass -- but a good, strong backhand or forehand. The dumps must be locked in on the handler and cut hard into open space. If the dump is unguarded (poached), handlers must hit them right away and not wait for a fake. At the same time, the dump must recognize the poach and let the handler know.

When cutters receive the disc on short in-cuts, they must look immediately for the dishy. On deep cuts and longer in-cut receptions, they can take a look upfield before they turn for the dishy. We also need to work more on our secondary cuts and on reading hucks, but we'll talk about that at practice.

Our zone offense looked good at times, but we need to make tighter, lower throws with more snap. Handlers should swing the disc more quickly and for more positive yardage, and our handlers need to fake the cup harder. Also, poppers receiving throws through the cup should look upfield for the other popper and the deeps before looking back to the handlers. We often did that well, but other times, especially against Northeastern, we didn't. Also, against the trap zone, we need to swing it away from the trap side more quickly. And when the side handler is trapped, the apex handler can crash the cup to get a pass to reset the stall count.

Finally, it was an odd tournament because we only faced one team, Northeastern, that was as good or better than us. And while we lost that game, it was by far the most productive of the weekend -- remember, it's all practice until Sectionals, so anytime we can learn and grow as players and as a team, it's a good situation. We've played a lot of close games like that this season and we've come out on top in most instances. As Ken said afterward, we learned that in those games, the smallest lapses can make the difference. But it was a good weekend overall -- our newer players got a lot of valuable experience and we know what we have to work on now in these last few weeks before Sectionals.

Thoughts on Handlers and Efficiency

The largest problem about this team is our lack of quality handlers. We have one relatively solid handler (Mia) who throws over 50% of our goals (70 assists out of 134). Our next best handler has 22 assists. Excluding Mia (who doesn't have great TO numbers herself), the assist-to-turnover ratio for our handlers is pretty bad.

Zac and I are very impressed with the Femme's ability to consistently beat teams with superior handlers. How do we do this?

1. Our defense focuses on shutting down throwers rather than cutters

We force straight up and deny deep throws. We put our strongest marks on the opposing teams handlers rather than cutters. We can afford to do this because we have several quick and tall defenders (Amanda, Beth, etc) who we can stick on opposing deeps while we put Mia, Sarah, and Linh on the other team's throwers.

2. Our offense minimizes cutter decisions thus limits cutter turnovers

Our offense's goal is to put the disc in the hands of our better throwers as often as possible. Just take a look at the numbers we had for last fall and this spring. The personnel was virtually the same:

2005 Fall
Turnovers Per Point (Handlers) - 3.43
Turnovers Per Point (Cutters) - 3.34

2006 Spring
Turnovers Per Point (Handlers) - 2.49
Turnovers Per Point (Cutters) - 1.31

Other than our team just having less turns in general, our turnovers per point per cutter dropped dramatically. Most of our handlers' turns are also on deep throws as well, while our defense forces plenty of turns that are not deep throws (point blocks, turfed hucks, contested in cuts).

Right now, our cutters do not consistently throw upfield and rarely have tough decisions to make. We will need to change that when we make a run next year at Nationals, but this year that is one of the big reasons (as the numbers show) why we're a better team. If you examine our game with Iowa State, where virtually everyone on their team had vastly superior throws to our team, we were at 7-7 with them due to playing hard defense and smartly limiting turnovers.

Next year, if we can slightly improve our strengths (team speed and defense) and dramatically improve our weaknesses (inexperience and throwing) it is scary how good we could be. It really depends on how many of our players join a club team this summer. Not many people remember how Mia became so good--it was her stint with Blackout, and we weren't even close to an elite club team.

High Tide Recap (team listserve version)

HIGH TIDE 2006 RECAP
Savannah, GA March 14-16


6-2, 3rd place out of 16 teams

Sorry for the delay in sending this out and for my inability to remember a lot of the details. I relied heavily on the stats...

TUESDAY
POOL PLAY

NYU 12, Oklahoma 8

The morning rainstorm moved on, clearing the way for a sunny week of ultimate. Oklahoma was an athletic team with lots of height, speed and ability to make acrobatic layout grabs. We built an early lead and held a 7-4 half-time advantage thanks for excellent energy on D, but Oklahoma didn't roll over. In the end, our pull play clicked for several perfectly executed goals. Mia had 2 goals, 8 assists, and 6 d's. Linh had 2 goals, 2 assists, and 7 d's. Sarah and Frantzen each scored 2 goals.

Bucknell 7, NYU 5

We might have been guilty of taking Bucknell lightly, after rolling them at Atlantis. But with much calmer winds in Savannah we needed to be more patient on offense and rely more on our own D, not the elements, to create turnovers. The quick cap didn't help either. Bucknell jumped out to a 4-0 lead before we knew it. We can't just turn it on midway through a game and think we're going to beat a good team like Bucknell. We'll face them again in Lancaster, where we'll need to limit the damage that Holly can do by denying her the disc and getting the mark on more quickly when she does get it. Mia tallied 4 assists and 7 d's, and Kristina had 2 goals.

NYU 13, Bowdoin 6

Lisa threw 5 assists and Krisztina threw 3. Ellen, Linh and Sarah each had 2 goals apiece. Christine had 3 important d's early when the game was close. Nobody on the team had more than 5 turnovers for the first time all season. With a little more confidence in our offense and improved throws, hopefully it'll happen a lot more in the future.

WEDNESDAY
RESEEDED POOL PLAY

NYU 11, RPI/Buffalo/New Hampshire 9

We were once again plagued by inconsistency, as our 7-2 lead evaporated to a 9-9 at the cap. At halftime we pointed out how we nearly had an ideal ratio of fewer turnovers than points played. Unfortunately we were much sloppier in the second half, allowing the RPI/Buffalo/NH combo to mount their comeback. Again, we have to approach every point with 100% concentration and effort, no matter the score. The harder and smarter we play, the quicker we'll win and everyone will be fresher as a result. Mia had 7 assists and 6 d's. Sarah had 5 goals and 3 d's. Krisztina notched 4 goals in her first game as a cutter, and Ellen had 2 goals. Linh added 3 d's.

NYU 8, Minnesota-Duluth 7

Like Oklahoma, Duluth was tall and fast. They tied it 7-7 with the cap on, but we responded with a perfect pull play ending with a huck from Mia to Sarah for the game-winner. Mia had 6 assists and 6 d's. Sarah scored 3 goals and Amanda had 3 d's.

NYU 13, Fordham 3

Our superior conditioning was a big difference against a tired Fordham squad. We showcased our depth with every Femme contributing to a drubbing of our Sectional rivals, proving that our preseason scrimmage triumph was no fluke, in spite of the hype. Mia had 6 assists and 5 d's. Sarah had 4 goals and Amanda had 3 assists. Emily Westlake scored a key goal to spark a second-half run that put the game away.


THURSDAY

QUARTERFINALS
NYU 10, Wooster/Wash U. 9

The Wooster/Wash U. combo team had several very good throwers and a lot of height. Trailing 7-5 at halftime, we reiterated the sense of urgency of the single-elimination situation. We were still behind 9-8 when the cap went on. With the men's team cheering us on, we rallied for two goals, including a Mia-to-Amanda huck for the game-winner. Mia had 6 assists. Linh had 5 d's. Frantzen and Amanda each scored 3 times.

SEMIFINALS
Iowa State 13, NYU 7

We held an early 4-3 lead, and we scored the first goal of the second half to tie it 7-7, before we ran out of gas. We had far too many mental mistakes -- missed defensive assignments, poor dumps, careless drops, etc. -- to beat a team as good as Iowa State, who is #23 in this week's UPA rankings (we dropped to #52). Mia had 5 assists and 8 d's, and Linh had 4 d's. Amanda and Ellen each scored twice.

Iowa St. beat Skidmore by a lot in the finals. The other semifinal loser was Duluth who we beat in pool play, thus giving us 3rd place.

OVERALL

We're still going into Express mode too quickly in some instances. Part of it is a lack of confidence with our throwing and catching, so everyone should take every opportunity to throw between now and Regionals.

The endzone plays aren't as efficient they should be. We need to be patient. If the first option isn't open, don't force it. Remember your dump. The endzone drill is a fine default offense (dump, swing, cuts from the back to the cone). On the dwarf play, the cutter is wide open 9 times out of 10, so you can be super patient and make a nice soft pass.

Our conditioning is a big asset, which is why these next few weeks of track workouts are especially important. That, coupled with our competitive spirit, helped us in all the tight games we had throughout the week. Everyone should savor the thrill of the double-game point wins... How good it felt to pull out a nail-biter and mob the field with your teammates. That said, some of those teams had no business being close to us. We can't become complacent no matter the opponent, whether its Swat or Little Sisters of the Poor's C-team.

Finally, spring break is as much about bonding as a team as it is about improving on the ultimate field, and I think we achieved our goals on both accounts. Thanks once again for your commitment, effort and good spirit.

March 8 UPA Rankings

From the official UPA Website:

"For Immediate Release
March 8, 2006
Stanford Takes Over No.1 Spot in Women’s College Ultimate Rankings

BOULDER, Colo. – Stanford moved into the top spot in this week’s Ultimate Player’s Association (UPA) Women’s College Ultimate Rankings. Previously ranked No.2, they moved ahead of Colorado based on their performance at last weekend’s Stanford Invitational. Taking full advantage of home field, Stanford ran their
record to 12-0, punctuating the tournament with a 10-5 handling of former No.1 Colorado in the final. British Columbia moved up three spots to No.3, while North Carolina positioned itself in the top-10, jumping up twelve spots to No.6.

Previously unranked Texas made the biggest move this week as they debuted in the Top-25 at No.13. Also moving into the rankings for the first time this season were NYU, Tennessee-Chattanooga, and Elon. Tennessee, Buffalo, Oregon State, and Northwestern dropped out of the rankings. A complete list of the UPA College Ultimate Rankings can be found at www.upa.org/college/top25."

Atlantis Recap (team listserve version)

ATLANTIS 2006 RECAP
5-2, 3rd place out of 13 teams

Thanks to the captains for remembering a lot of the details. Sorry for any that we missed...

For starters, a little perspective... here's a comparison of how we fared last year vs some of the same teams we played last weekend.

LAST YEAR:

Duke 11, NYU 1
Bucknell 13, NYU 2
GW 12, NYU 1
Cornell 13, NYU 0

LAST WEEKEND:

NYU 5, Duke 3
NYU 11, Bucknell 5
NYU 9, GW 6
NYU 12, Cornell 10

POOL PLAY

NYU 9, GW 6

We were the top seed in our pool, yet oddly we opened play vs the second seed. With the high winds dictating the style of play, it was a back-and-forth game. We came out strong, 2-0, then GW scored 4 unanswered. As we began to realize that we couldn't afford to turn it over on our own half of the field, we became more effective with our Express play, and we hunkered down on D, both the trap cup and the force straight-up man. Lisa skyed the crap out of someone for a goal, and Amanda made a ton of key grabs and D's on deep passes.

NYU 5, Duke 3

By the score, you wouldn't realize that Duke isn't as good as GW. After going ahead 3-1, we struggled to complete passes in the wind. Duke, realizing they couldn't move the disc against our D, hucked it early and often to gain field position. After a 30-minute point, we found ourselves up just 3-2 with the cap on. We responded by holding serve on the down-winder. And finally, after a long, sloppy game, we ran a perfect in-cut, dishy, huck play for the game-winner, giving us something positive to build on. Mia and Lisa had several handblocks. Unfortunately we lost captain Amanda to a sprained ankle, but not before she pulled down a ton of swill to ensure the win.

NYU 13, Messiah 5

Messiah is a fairly new team, but they had a few throwers. The wind was still a force to be reckoned with, but it lessened slightly, allowing us to get our man offense flowing with several pretty goals. Everyone contributed and we soundly beat a team that could have given us a closer, more tiring game had we let them. Krisztina, Mia and Lisa had some nice puts. Our newbie, Veronica, got her feet wet in her first ever tournament. Yon ran hard in the zone, keeping the Messiah handlers trapped.

CROSSOVER GAME
UDel 11, NYU 5

UDel, a Nationals contender, used their pinpoint throws, speed, and explosive transition game to build an early lead. They were running a spread offense, swinging the disc and exploiting the gaps in the middle of the field (as our busdriver astutely pointed out), so we called timeout for a refresher of the lane-poach defense we practiced. Sure enough, we totally stymied them, shutting down the passing lanes and getting the D's to tie it 4-4. Krisztina had the catch of the tournament with a fully extended layout goal (one of her many layouts on the weekend). Kristin had a great D in the endzone. Claire was knocked loopy for a few seconds, but managed to tough it out and play through several different injuries throughout the weekend. We might have taken half if not for a few drops in the endzone and botched endzone plays... Lesson learned: We must execute our goal-line offense, take a timeout if necessary -- the hunger for goals is great, but we need to be patient, not in Express mode. Unfortunately the cap went on, cutting the second half short. Otherwise we were capable of coming back. UDel is good, but we can play with them.

Undefeated in pool play = first-round bye on Sunday. What more reward for your hard work do you need than two extra hours of sleep!

SUNDAY

QUARTERFINALS
NYU 11, Bucknell 5

Based on their pregame chatter, Bucknell apparently thought they'd have no trouble beating us. With a name like Peace Frogs, they deserved a thrashing. A lot of teams would have been sluggish in the first game of the day, after a first round bye, but we came flying out of the gates, particularly Ellen who caught our first 3 goals. After taking half 8-2, the game was ours. Bucknell tried to run a spread, but we were ready for it.

SEMIFINALS
Swat 15, NYU 4

If you're going to lose, you hope it's at the hands of the eventual champs. Swat played us like champions, and sure enough, they romped on UDel in the finals. They have speed, throws, depth, and smart players. But we showed flashes of the same things. Again, we have to take advantage of our goal-line opportunities against good teams who won't just give us the disc back. There was minimal wind, so we needed to work it up more patiently. In our previous games, we didn't get burned when we turned it over on hucks because we knew we'd get the D, but against a team like Swat who can score from anywhere on the field, we have to value the disc on O. We also have to recognize poaches on the pull plays and swing the disc back to the #1 handler. In general we need to look to our dumps more. Bethany, who had been making great cuts all weekend, was sidelined the rest of the day with a muscle pull.

3RD PLACE GAME
NYU 12, Cornell 10

We were so proud of the effort here. Cornell, like us, had suffered a few injuries earlier in the tournament, but they're still one of the top teams in the Region. The NYU men's team gave us a boost with their vocal support on the sideline, and we seemed to catch our second wind. At times the offense was a thing of beauty, including one dishy pass to Mia who hucked it to Ellen in stride for the goal. Claire somehow caught a total blade over her shoulder, wide receiver style, for a goal. Linh and Mia ran several awesome Broadway plays, including one to take half 8-6 coming out of a timeout. The game was capped at 12 with us leading 11-7. We got a little over-anxious and Cornell showed the resilience characteristic of a good team to cut our lead to one before we finally put it away 12-10. The game was a fitting way to end the tournament, because it required us to execute almost everything we've learned to this point, and we had to keep our composure and gut it out. Everyone was sore and tired, but we out-hustled Cornell (that's why we do so much conditioning... it's worth it!) Sarah, ran... and ran... and ran, tirelessly playing nearly every point, bidding left and right, constantly wearing out the defenders, like she did all weekend long. And Mia deserves special props for making one amazing layout d/catch after another. Taking your game to another level in big games is the mark of a special player.

OVERALL

Again, we were very proud of the effort, mentally and physically. Everyone is starting to really grasp the offense. It's just a matter of playing more games. Think of how much we've progressed since the Fordham game a week ago! And think of how much better we'll be by Sectionals!

Handlers, way to step it up and take charge -- a big improvement from last week. Franzten was especially good at setting the stack as the Ace, and making sure everyone was where they need to be. Our hucks still need a lot of work. Also, as we work it upfield, we must look to our dumps more, especially when they're poached. Remember to cut after every throw, and use two hands to catch whenever possible.

Cutters, as we get more comfortable with the offense, you'll get a better sense of when to look upfield for a continuation throw and when to look for an immediate dishy or dump. Sarah and Bethany were especially good hitting the dishy or being patient while the dumps got open. Generally, there were a lot of great cuts. It's tough to practice reading discs in the gym, then doing it in windy conditions. Ellen has quite a knack for scoring goals, and setting Sarah or Claire in the lane on the trap sets worked well. Our newer players need to be more aggressive when going for the disc. When we get a D, someone needs to break long for a quick-strike transition option.

Defense, very nice. As we said, the D vs the spread was terrific. And our straight up marks gave most teams fits. We need to call a force side near the endzone. We also need MORE UP CALLS! When the person you're marking makes an upfield throw, yell "UP!" and the sideline should echo it. Conversely, the upfield defenders need to keep an eye on the handler so they know when and where the disc is being thrown. Our players on the sidelines need to be more active at all times. Mia got a ton of handblocks and Linh, who played more points than anyone, did an awesome job of shutting down the opposition's dump.

Meeting (2/28)

Ken and I went over the Fordham scrimmage with the team. We emphasized the positives and noted how the lack of experience with our brand new offense was acceptable. But we pointed out that there were some mistakes -- poor dumps, easy throwaways, etc. -- that we need to improve on this weekend. We also cleared up some questions about the rules, because we didn't call many fouls or picks last weekend.

In Ken's post on this blog about the meeting, he wrote about the discussion that he and I had with the captains regarding the complaints of a couple of the rookies (see Ken's post for a summary of that complaint).

My take: first, Ken and I never intentionally laughed about the team's play or individual players, nor were we intentionally negative, nor do we have any memory of doing so. On the contrary, I thought we were positive, and our criticisms were appropriate. We have a ton to work on, and the players know it, because they seem to be happy to win but far from satisfied with the way we played. That's a healthy and appropriate attitude.

The problem might have stemmed with the players' not knowing Ken enough to understand his sense of humor (I say Ken, because apparently the laughing complaint was mostly about him, though I was with him so both of us will have to increase our sensitivity). Mia said that one of the complainers admitted exaggerating her initial report of Ken and my behavior, so that indicates that player may simply be taking the criticism about her play personally. There might have been a few occasions -- like when we messed up multiple end-zone plays in a row -- where we expressed the inherent humor in the situation (though I don't remember laughing), while also being frustrated that we were missing easy chances because Ken and I didn't spend enough time going over the plays in practice yet. Had it been a club team or the men's team, Ken and I would have expressed those feelings much more, as would our teammates. Those are the types of teams with whom we're used to playing and being around. Whereas several of our rookies have never played in a competitive team sport environment. That's always an inherent problem at NYU, where the ultimate teams are comprised of a mix of players: serious competitive athletes with lots of team sports experience, and non-athletes or casual athletes who play just for fun or for the social aspects of the team. The trick for the captains, and now coaches, has always been to reconcile the divergent attitudes of those groups. The Femmes are trying to be more competitive and organized than they've ever been before, and the majority of the players like it.

I agree with Ken's point, which he made in his post, about how it's disappointing that at this point in the season, those making the complaint see us as outsiders who would maliciously laugh at them. Ken and I have invested a lot of time, energy and emotion in this team and the things we say on the sidelines are said with the best interest of the team and players in mind. For better or worse, we're a part of this team now.

In the end, it's only a minor problem at this point. Ken and I will be more sensitive, and the players in question must understand that they can't take criticism about their play personally. But it sounds like it's an isolated issue, and certainly not a problem for the majority of the team.

02/28/06 Playbook

We didn't introduce anything this meeting, but instead went over what we saw during the scrimmage versus Fordham and what we needed to work on, like fully committing to the dump, correct handler movement, etc. We also made sure to say that the effort was a positive one (we won) and covered basic rules questions so that the newer players will be better prepared for our first spring tournament this weekend.

The other notable thing was that there were a complaints by a few rookies and perhaps a returner regarding Zac and I's (mostly my) sideline criticism. The complaints were voiced through a returner who told one of the captains. Someone felt that we were "laughing at them" and "being too negative" at times. While I'd rather address it with the player specifically to let them know our intentions and compromise about it, since we do not know who it is, we're just going to have to be more sensitive in general.

It's clearly not Zac and my intent to make anyone feel badly. We certainly do not remember laughing or being extremely harsh at any point during the scrimmage. In fact, we've toned down a lot of our criticism and tried to be extra-careful and positive. It seems like this is just one of those differences between Women's and Open, as some of these girls have never been in a team sports environment. It is difficult for them to understand that we are criticizing their play rather than themselves as a person. If this were a real varsity team with a real coach, he'd be exponentially worse than Zac and I have been in the criticism department.

When we laugh or joke after messing up something like 12 endzone plays in a row, or our trap zone has 3 marks (it did at one poitn during the scrimmage, and no double team was called) can we really help it? We clearly don't think Women's ultimate is a joke, we're coaching it. Even though we may have looked down upon it a little in the past, we consider ourselves a part of this team now. We do not see mistakes as "wow we taught them this stuff, and they fucked it up" but rather "shit, we didn't allocate enough practice time to it or we didn't stress it enough at meetings." The Femme's play is a reflection on us. When the captains say to Zac and I that someone complained about "you guys" making fun of "us" there is an implied separation. The person(s) that complained believes there's "the team" and there's "Zac and I." That is not how we see it and the main reason why these complaints are somewhat troubling or hurtful. We are part of this team, for better or for worse.

Nevertheless, I understand this is club sport. Nobody is being paid to be here. We have to treat this seriously, and as Zac said, the absolute worst nightmare for us is for someone to quit because we were being too harsh. While we need to work on focusing on positives and being more sensitive, some of the players need to receive criticism better and have thicker skin. What Zac and I say already is toned down to a level far below a normal sports coach.

I'm glad however that the majority of the Femmes like the way we're coaching, and I'm sure we can put this issue behind us.