3/16/2006 - CycHo (like Psycho) - Cycle Horizontal

Note: I was absent for the first hour of practice for not sure about conditioning.

Today was a very hard day of Ultimate, which started with an intense regime of conditioning. Each person on the team did 60-yard sprints (back of the endzone to the middle of the endzone). People who came late did an additional four 35-yard sprints (from the front of the endzone to the middle of the field).

The team broke up into two teams (not A and B) and ran endzone drill on each endzone. One side had record of 31 scores. With each score requiring four separate parts, this mean the team was able to go 124 consecutive catches and throws without a single drop or throwaway. That is a nice record to be proud of.

Note: There was probably more conditioning than I was aware of. Every person seemed really tired by the time scrimmage started.

Dark:
Iris, Kaitlin, Allen, Danny, Jamison, Bob, KG, Scott, Jerry, Eric T., Grad Mike

Light:
Jenn, Enway, SkinE, Raph, Alpha, Matt, Max, Box, Chrispy, Dash, Steve, Gable

*Dash switched from light to dark. Jerry switched from dark to light half way through.

The theme of today was horizontal offense. Although it was not mandatory the whole time, the team ran the horizontal stack every play. A new variation was added to promote more flow and movement. Instead of maintaining three constant handlers, once the throw was made to an incut, the farthest breakside handler would move and cycle into the stack, which would leave the two handlers and the receiver from the incut to handle the disc and restart the cycle. This offense was named"cyc-ho."
At some points, the offensive did look solid. However, the concept is there, but details still have to be worked out.
First problem:
Changes in the defenses force (or in some cases a straight-up force) confuse the offense by forcing them to change who is the first incut.
Second problem:
The H-stacks distance from the handlers needs to be worked out. Sometimes the H-stack is too far and the defense can easily catch up. This also eliminates the deep throw. Sometimes the H-stack will be too close and offense ends up clogging each other instead of cycling.
Third problem:
The handlers do not maintain a far distance for the dump. Unlike a vertical stack with one dump that stays close. The H-stack (or any 3-handler stack) requires the handlers to make a cut to the front of the handler or the back of the handler. This requires the handlers or dump to maintain a farther distance than saying close for a quick dump. And like zone, if the handlers are close together, it makes the swing far less effective.
Allen, Danny, and Matt were able to capitalize on the third problem. Allen poached off his handler and intercepted the incut because the handlers were too close together, which allowed for a quick score.

Player Highlights:
Danny had 3+ great backhand hucks for scores, which was surprising as they also had Bob on the team who ended up going deep and catching one.
Scott layouted for the score over Raph who slid under him and got injured. Apparently, Scott's layout caused him to land on a previous ankle injury of Raph's. Unfortunately, this took him out of play for the night.
Scott got 2+ no look D's. (He was able to D the disc when the up call was made without looking for the disc first.)
Grad Mike shows remarkable improvement as he makes great cuts, great catches and overall had a really good game today.
ANDREW'S FIRST HAMMER in a game, and it was for a SCORE! (Throw was to Matt over the defense from Scott)
Tired.... don't remember anything else. Everyone was pretty solid today. There were not that many drops, just a couple bad throws that resulted in D's by the other team. That is more just good defensive awareness.

Player Injuries:
Iris's shins acting up again.
Raph's ankles taking a hard hit from Scott.
KG gets knee pains that take him out of the game.
Meghan out sick with cold.