Bath Warm-up 2008

Skunks 1

Last weekend saw two equal(ish) strength teams of skunks descend on Bath. In the heart of the west country a total of 16 experienced teams and 10 beginners teams were playing some high quality indoors ultimate. Here are the results
Saturday
Skunks 1 v Holloway Ultimate (5-3 to Skunks 1)
This early game came (unfortunately) as a bit of a shock to the system. Skunks 1 really weren’t ready for the indoors season to start and decided to turn themselves a few too many times. Luckily, so did Holloway, and our superior discs and grabs ground out what could have been a disaster. Interesting Stories call!

Skunks 1 v Flying Aces (9-1 to skunks)
Maisey said after the game that it’s always easier to play better against a weaker team, and whilst this may be true skunks 1 really showed why they deserved to be seeded 5th. Only having one point scored against them and really shutting down the opposition on defense, this was the skunks team that I had picked.

Skunks 1 v BLT 1 (7-3 to BLT)
Playing against another universities first team was always going to be difficult but unfortunately Skunks made it even more difficult for themselves by turning with unforced errors. BLT capitalised on every single turn and took a 5-0 lead. Skunks then, after a time out brought it back to 7-3 but unfortunately due to the nature of schmindoors it was already too late, a definite learning experience.
Skunks 1 v Warwick Bears (unsure of the final score, skunks won)

We went out needing to prove ourselves and stay in the top 8. Warwick had brought a womens team but they were not to be underestimated. They were all quick and had good disc skills. But we were better. We beat them, showered and headed to weatherspoons for dinner.

Sunday

Skunks 1 v Not Bath (8-5 to Not Bath)
This was skunks 1 chance to get back into the top 4. Going into this game, we knew next to nothing about our opponents. They came out strong as a team of ex-Bath and Bristol and Cardiff university players, and from the beginning it was clear what their strategy was. Stick a hammer to their huge receiver who seemed to be able to grab anything. They took quite a big lead, but skunks 1 fought back and had a run of 3 points in a row right at the end but again it was too late.

Skunks 1 v Skunks 2 ( 4-2 to Skunks 2)
This was a big game, the winner would be in the 5v6 bracket and the loser would be in the 7v8 bracket of the tournament. At the start there was a mammoth (and very ugly) point which was dragged out by a lot of unforced errors on both teams behalf which we will be working very hard to cut out this season. It finally got to 2-2 and it seemed like it would go right down to the wire, skunks 2 got a score with about 1 minute to go after working it around the 4 on the line defense for what seemed like an age. With very little time left on the clock, skunks1 tried to get a quick score but were turned and scored against, and with very little time left, that was all she wrote. With the exception of the first point this was a great game.

Skunks 1 v Ugly Ducklings (11-1 to skunks 1)
They say when things go wrong they usually go wrong in every way possible. This game proved the opposite. Skunks 1 were on fire and absolutely shut down their opposition. A huge win to end the weekend and take 7th. Ugly ducklings will be quaking (or should that be quacking) in their boots when regionals rolls around after this simply crushing defeat.

Overall, with both skunks teams finishing in the top 7 and Skunks 1 taking the spirit prize, a very important part in ultimate this was a great weekend. MVP for skunks 1 goes to Lauren who really shone this weekend with great handling decisions, great cuts, sweet grabs and the kind of calm head that I was preaching about all weekend.

Skunks 2

So here is team 2's report, apologies for missing scores, I didn't think to write them down or commit them to memory...
Due to some cunning seeding tactics from smatt we ended 14th, which placed us last-but-one ignoring the pickup team. I said to the team that dump passes and safe calm play would be our biggest challenge over the weekend. This turned out to be correct, but generally we played very well and I noticed improvements in this area - good stuff.


Skunks 2 vs Disco (Win by lots...)

Disco didn't have their best team at the tournament due to dropouts and did not require much persuasion when it came to turning over. Even their better players were throwing hammers to undercuts on the open side when a simple backhand would have sufficed. We found offence easy when we took safe options, but at times we still fell back into taking unnecessary risks. Dump passes were ok, still room for improvement. As I said though, not too much pressure and an easy win


Skunks 2 vs High Voltage (3 - 7?)

Second game after the initial 'warm up' against the no. 1 seeds. These guys had a lazy zone that did not really pressure offence, but made scoring difficult. They used height and fast high throws on their offence though, which after fast turns left our D stood standing open mouthed as they put on fast scores. This said, we managed to prevent a few due to some shoulder to face D from Cryer on Merrick. I felt we did well to score the points we got, though it was early in the tournament/season to be playing against zone clinically and I felt there were a lot of unforced turnovers. These were largely due to unforced drops and risky throws being taken on where a safer option was, or should have been available. I'll say it again though - this was very much a 'thrown in at the deep end' situation to be in and we did very well considering.


Skunks 2 vs Ugly Ducklings (7or9ish - 1or2)

Swansea are a new uni team and it is good to see these teams springing up. It would good to see every uni with a team, as long as we are still in the top 4 or 5 in the region (preferably 3...). This is their second year and are doing well. I can't remember what they did, but we took our victory with relative ease from what I can remember. I have this image of us being a team that doesn't turn over against teams like this, though we did not do so. Really there is not enough pressure from their D to turn us and I felt turn overs were due to our throw-aways still, but that's what warm-up tournaments are for. The score line speaks for itself really...


Skunks 2 vs No Frills (4 - 7)

Cryer is adament the score was more in favour of Cardiff, it may have been 4 - 8 or something - ballpark, yeah? It kinda sucked to have such a hard cross over, but to be fair, all the top 4 teams were pretty strong. Our D in this game was SMOKING hot! I don't think we managed to make Frills turn in previous years, but this time round we were forcing turnovers on them. For me, the difficult task when it comes to beating them at regionals will be to score our offences. They play hard, fast man D and a tricky Dice zone (msg. me if you want to know how this works) with a lot of pressure on the dumps. I seem to remember most of our turnovers being dump related and I think the key here is to keep the disc moving, which means we will need a bit more organisation in the mids next time. There were still a few turns from poor throws/decisions. I felt this game went very well though and cant wait to play them with a full strength team - bring it on!


Skunks 2 vs Skunks 1 (4 - 2)

This game was a bit scrappy really and was not the show the crowd were looking for. For me it was due to both teams D knowing what people wanted to do, but more worryingly I think peoples heads went out of it a bit. Repeatedly players took on ridiculous throws that were incomplete time after time. I think over the year people should look to control their trigger finger in these kinds of situation and develop discipline when it comes to throw selection. In the end we won and I think this was due to our utilisation of our aerial game. I think both teams will agree that their best play was not observed in this game, but again, it is all useful for learning experiences.


Skunks 2 vs Uriel (4 - 3)

Though I didn't say it to the team, I saw our final standings to be 6th and 7th going into this game. Skunks 1 would have little difficulty against Swansea, and Uriel would beat us on height and choke our offence with their well drilled zone. I talked the team through a slightly different way of marking their Iso play which paid dividends in the game. They turned over again and again looking for risky passes as we marked out their dumps and the Iso. Furthermore, our play against their zone was awesome! We were chilly, everyone was able to get the disc to free players and generally the teamwork was very good. Even when we got to the zone and I was in the endzone, players who do not normally handle moved the disc about with little concern and in the end most of the points were scored by Ellie and Russell. I think the key to breaking a zone is to ensure everyone is comfortable catching knife throws. If everyone is a threat on the pitch then the offence should score every time, or at least keep possession until the buzzer! The key is to get your hand in front of the disc rather underneath. I learnt that from Sicko, who is kind've expert at this and it makes all the difference. We exhibited this in the Uriel game and won with a sweet hammer from Cryer to Russell in the closing seconds of the game. This felt goooood!


So that is it, awesome weekend with a few things to take away, bear with me...
Forces. This is tough indoors as you can get away with wanky shit. However, it is important you are as intimidating as possible when a player is looking break side. There were a couple of points where a team managed to string together a series of break side throws which isn't good enough really - work at it! (Keep mobile on your toes and move your whole body side-to-side, not just from the waist)

Know your place on the team. If there are 3 big play makers on the line, you are not required to throw big hammers and low release backhands. If you are a weaker player on a team then work hard on D, shutting down your players cuts and preventing breaks. Get free on offence and take safe passes. Work at dump passes and be dissatisfied if you turned over.

Be aware of space indoors and outdoors. Cutting is a very dynamic process and both teams suffered from messy cuts in the mid areas. This is tough to resolve, basically you need to look around you and think where the space will be when you get to where you are running, not where it is at any one instance. This kind've translates to defence too. Where does your man want to cut to? What is the biggest threat. If you know this, he/she has lost the element of suprise and you are left with a simple leg race...

So in summary - great weekend. Everyone contributed and I think we are going to have a fun year provided we work hard and make the most of it. For those players that don't make the first team, chin up. Take what you have learned from this and re-evaluate your position on the team. It may turn out you are more of a play maker and have a chance to work on harder throws. Always know your limits though, a shit throw is a shit throw regardless of which team you are on, sometimes you get away with it...

We didn't nominate an MVP, and I am going to stick with that. Great moments from everyone and roll on regionals!