Torontula Women 2007

Ok Tula Ladies!
On September 6th we will have a morning pickup practice starting at 8:30am on front campus. All are welcome!

The tryout dates for Torontula Women is set for September 10th from 7:15am to 8:45am and will run throughout the week until Friday September 14th, all taking place on front campus.

Stay tuned for our meet and greet BBQ, coming in early September!

-Lexi

The A Team - 2006

These are the pictures from our two Tournament wins...

Pictured Above: Top (Left to Right) Will Yan, Dante Reino, Adrian Yearwood, Marcius Extavour, Steve Tam, Malcolm Johnston, David Ng, Tim Chapman-Smith, Lowell Heppner, Tolya Vasilyev, Taylor Martin, Scotty Nichols, Kirk Nylen. Middle: Sasha Necakov. Bottom: James Fong, Nate Brown, Inian Moorthy, Alex Schneider, Peter Jamieson, Shawn Chua, Justin McComb, Norman Farb, Pat Dolan.

Bottom Left to Right: Norman Farb, Peter Jamieson, Pat Dolan, Dante Reino, Steve Tam, Justin McComb, Tim Chapman-Smith (behind), Shawn Chua, Nathan Brown (behind), Taylor Martin, Shimon Pokorny, Tolya Vasilyev. Back Row from Left to Right: Scotty Nicholls, Will Yan, Marcius Extavour, Inian Moorthy, Alex Schneider, Dave Ng, Adrian Yearwood, Kirk Nylen, Sasha Necakov, Malcolm Johnston, Lowell Heppner.

That's it

First off, that's one of the best seasons Torontula has had in a while. The A team took easterns and the Canadian National Championships, and the B team was the best of the B teams. Those are good signs for the future.

Now, let's talk about all the great things that happened along the way.

We practiced over roughly 25 mornings from 7AM until 9AM. This is the equivalent of 3 months of touring practice (2 times a week). Over this time we made 2 teams and learned individual skills, team plays, and 3 defensive zones.

We went to Easterns. Our A team fought through two tough games to become the top team in Eastern Canada. We then went to a tournament in New York with some A boys and some callups where, lucky for them, the Sunday was cancelled or we would have just added to our 4-0 first day crushing. The A team finished off with a perfect weekend at the Canadian University Ultimate Championship. The B team was the top B team in Canada which looks good for our future.

At each of these tournaments, we had good times including our own "Didn't get cut party", and some interesting times in Binghamton, Guelph, and Ottawa.

Some of my highlights for the season were:

• Winning it all!!!
• Watching Norm's handblock on Carleton deflate an entire team.
• Watching the group of seven taking points at Nationals.
• Seeing the general level of ultimate take huge steps over two months.
• Watching Tolya get some amazing grabs.
• Throwing a 40 yard blade to completion.
• Bringing in 7 fresh legs after our first 10 minute point against Queen's in the Semis.
• Playing a sportsman like game against McGill in the finals.
• Breaking the McGill 4-man cup with 2 no look passes.
• Playing with a team that supported each other through thick and thin.
• Going 18-1 record over three tournaments.

So, out of all of this I look like I knew what I was doing. The reality is the road was easy with all of you guys touring during the summer and improving your ultimate games. We just needed to gel as a very talented team and fight for what we wanted.

Sure there are no fans running out on the field and helping us celebrate. The reality is our championship is something that many ultimate players will never get. Remember this time; I will ;)

Peter

Couldn't ask for more

Picture: Inian, Kirk and Sasha are upward bound in the finals against Queens


Picture: Kim looks on as Chelsea and Robin go up on defense against Queense


Picture: Kirk and Peter ending 5 years of Torontula with a hug after winning Nationals. Where would we be without them.

Looking back on University Nats.

Well, it has been 5 years, but UofT has won the Canadian University Ultimate Championships again. For some of us, this win was almost 5 years in the making. Here's a brief re-cap of the weekend:

Friday
Win 13-4 over Carleton
Win 13-3 over UofAlberta
Win 11-6 over McGill A

UofA was a total unknown. They had a fairly new team at Nationals this year, but it was good to see that they came anyway- some teams don't like traveling a long distance unless they are likely to win the tournament, but I think the experience was invaluable to teams like UofA and Saskatchewan-- or should I say Sasketchewan. Carleton played below its potential. Exactly like UofT has done for the past few years. The curse of having a handful of experienced touring players and a lot of unexperienced green players. What turned the tides for UofT was that the majority of last year's UofT roster toured this summer. Between ROY, GT and Goat, we went from having 4 touring players to having 14. This made an obvious impact on the depth of our roster. Hopefully Carleton can season some of their players on either Firebird or Phoenix. I'll speak more about McGill A later, but they are probably one of the classiest teams in the game and they gave us 2 great battles.

Saturday
Win over Waterloo
Win over Western (Quarter finals)

Both of these games were closer than we had hoped as we played pretty flat on Saturday. Western gave us a good battle, as was to be expected. I think they are the team to watch out for in the next few years.

Sunday
Win 11-3 over Queens (Semi finals)
Win 12-8 over McGill (Finals)

After a meeting about some scheduling/seeding confusion, it was decided that UofT would play Queens in one semis, while UBC and McGill would face off in the other semis. We knew there wasn't an "easy" road to the finals, and we were happy to face Queens in the semis. There was a rich history between these teams this year and it wasn't clear to either team which was "on top". They had beaten us fairly easily in poolplay at Easterns. Then we ground-out a 1 point win in the finals at Easterns-- so needless to say, we felt some momentum against them, but it was clear that we needed to make adjustments. We had done exactly that and were looking forward to trying them out on Sunday. We applied a lot of pressure with exacting D on the first point. This was a really long point which pretty much killed everyone on the field. Come point #2, however, we were able to put on a completely fresh line while Queens kept pretty much the same line on. We got a few quick breaks and were feeling good. Then one of Queen's top receivers dislocated his shoulder on a layout and the wind was taken out of their sails. We went on to win the game fairly handily.

In the other semis, McGill faced an over-confident UBC. The combination of UBCs short roster, McGill's stiffling 4-man cup, and McGill's army-sized roster led to a 9-6 victory for McGill. Sweet victory for McGill. I predicted this win right after the captain's meeting that morning when UBC requested to play McGill instead of Queens (meaning semis were 1vs3 and 2vs4 instead of 1vs4 and 2vs3).

The finals saw us vs. McGill. We felt pretty good as we had beaten them in pool play on Friday. That said, McGill is a gritty, thinking team and we knew they were going to put up a great fight, which they did. They ran a 4-man cup which was a tough nut to crack in the windy conditions.
Their offense was led by excellent handling from Shaki and some relentless cutting by Sam Kennedy. We got a few breaks in the first half and felt good going into the half. Then McGill broke us right back after the half and we knew it was going to be a long battle. A few more breaks were had by both sides and points were traded. In the end, we got a few more than them and the final score was 12-8 for us.

Like I said before, this was 5 years in the making for some of us UofT guys. After losing all of the touring players from UofT in 2001, a long rebuilding phase started. Many thanks to Peter Jamieson and his excellent leadership, the team attracted a lot of talent over the past few years. This year was the culmination of the process and winning nationals was a great reward to all of us for our collective work/time/effort spent building the team. The win wouldn't have been possible without every last one of the dudes. Like I said above, it takes an army to win Nationals.

A note to any other teams that read this blog: How did you get the URL? Do you have a mole? an informer? is Inian selling intel for cases of pabst blue ribbon again? three things that really paid off for UofT were: 1) Having a solid core of touring veterans. Needless to say, having an experienced leadership is important. a lot of teams have this in place already- e.g. carleton, western, guelph (linky, the one-man gang); 2) Hard work. We practiced 7am-9am 5 days/week and held scrimmages vs. touring teams whenever possible; 3) Get your non-touring players touring. Whereas 3 years ago we had 4 touring players on the team, this year we had about 14 touring players on UofT. Last Spring we made a strong push to get dudes onto ROY, GT, Goat, or co-ed touring teams. A long summer of practices/touring made a huge difference to the overall level of skill. It's so nice to put on a fresh line of experienced players while your opponents are recycling the same 7 dudes each point.

Kirk.

Wednesday - Oct 11th - Review

Blogreads: 56
Guys: 19
A Absentees: Adrian, Sasha, Tim, Tolya, Scotty, Marcius, Malcolm, Steve (Lab), Lowell, Dave, Shimon, Shawn.

Pictured Above: Tim is stuck in the middle again. Taken at New York in the taxi.

Announcements:

• People in charge of rooms for Nationals are: Rahul, Tim Fowler, Shawn, Steve, Norm. Find a spot. We have some other rooms, but we might not need them.
• To pack ideas.

Practice Review:

• It Rained Plenty
• Run, ABCs, Stretch
• Lotto
• 45s
• Huck with a slash cut
• Reviewed plays
• About to review zones then lightning

A Team Corner:

• Read the plan I e-mailed out.
• Keep the chatter and comments flowing.

Peter

Tuesday the 10th!

# of Ladies: 19!

Picture: Malcom and Tollya send the Queens boys down at Easterns 2006

We have reached the final stretch! There was some great energy out on the field today. There were some tough points but overall it was a blast and we pushed through.

Practice:
-go to
-huck to score
-3 on 3
-endzone

Things to keep in mind:
-keep running through the disc even if you're afraid of dropping it
-stay calm and collected. Remember to balance yourself!
-talk on the field.

Tomorrow: We will be meeting in the AC at 7:15. Please meet in the field house which is on the second floor. We will do a team workout and then go over some plays.

Evening: We have a game so try and come out for it. One last game before Nationals could be a huge help!

Nationals!
-Make sure you double check with Alison about your ride.
-SIGN UP FOR CUPA!
-Mixed CD's will be collected tomorrow. Do no write your name on the disc.
-Set 3 goals for yourself for Nationals. Any throws you would like to throw? Anything you would like to focus on? Keep this in mind for our first games on friday!

great work everyone.
-Lexi

Tuesday - Oct 9th - Review

Blogreads: 32 (mon)
Guys: 32
A Absentees: Sasha, Marcius, Tolya, Adrian

Pictured Above: Tula boys at play.

Announcements:

• Organize rides to Nationals. E-mail Dante.

Review

• Run, ABCs, Stretch
• Lotto
• End-zone drill - good spacing and break throws
  
• Play Review
• Football - focused on play errors and adjustments.
  

A-team Corner:

• We will try to practice tomorrow even if it means playing 3on3 continuous in some small corner. Meet usual spot.
• I'll try and get a scrimmage for tomorrow night. Details soon.
• Like Inian said...the focus from now until Sunday is on just Ultimate and School.
  

PJ

Friday, October 6 - B corner

# of guys: 12
absentees: Sasha, Alistair, Ben, Colin, Jeff, Mark, Oliver, Sean, Tim, Tom

- jog, ABC + DEF
- mixed scrimmage - 2 turnovers max per point. only one point wasn't scored.
- A vs B, 5xO, 5xD. We asked the A guys to put a zone on us, and boy, they did. We managed to get a good flow going on a couple of the points, but we were defeated by our own mistakes (throwaways, drops, and bad decisions). Over all looking significantly better, but have to keep focused when on the field. On D, we got 3 turnovers, but didn't manage to capitalize on them to score (see above).

For next week:
There are only practices Tuesday and Thursday, so everyone should be there. Tuesday we will review ALL our plays - ho-stack, vert, and zone. Anyone who needs a ride/can give a ride should post on the BBS.

last chance to pay your CUPA fees!!! http://www.canadianultimate.com/

Ofer

Practice at last!

# of Ladies: 17!

Picture: Andy, Amy O, and Dwyer cheer on the guys at 2006 Easterns

Practice: second of the week, 4 more to go...
-3 WoMan
-dump drill
-leading square
-scrimmage with new offensive set.

Ladies, there was some really impressive work today with the new setup we're working on. We only have 4 more practices so it's really important that we're absorbing this.

We worked on a really good Ho W, or as we say in the States, "spread". With this new field positioning, our cutters need to really work hard to get that disc. Stay with your hard cut, a lot of people were getting open once they stuck with their cut and kept going until their defender fell behind them and we were able to get a great up field pass. There were some great continuation cuts as well. Remember to return to your sideline after you have made your cut.

Handlers: Our dump cuts need to be clear. Start with a hard cut in one direction and if that isn't open, plant and look for another solid cut. There is very little space and constantly faking and running around will only tired you out and confuse the thrower. Let's make it easy for each other and try and communicate to the person holding the disc.

Tid Bits:
-sign up for CUPA and keep your registration number handy
-start thinking about the Nationals mixed CD contest. The theme will be out tomorrow and all entry's must be in by Wednesday of next week.
*Note: people who are not going to nationals may also submit if a mix if they wish. (there will be a sweet prize)
-find a tossing buddy for this weekend.
-Try and make it to our evening game on Wednesday next week
-get pumped up

The flow and throws are looking better and better! Be confident in all the work you have accomplished this past month of practices.

-Lexi

Thursday - Oct 5th - Review

Blogreads: 65 views
Guys: 30

Pictured Above: After packing 14 guys in a cab (crazy) we spill out to the Binghampton house party.

Announcements:

• Official practices on Friday, Tuesday, and Thursday
• Nationals is on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday next week in Ottawa
• E-mail Dante (d dot reino at utoronto dot ca) about ride arrangements for Nats

Review:

• Run, ABC, stretch
• Lotto
• 45s + circuit
• D incut drill
• Three man continuous

A Team Corner:

• One more practice this week with lots of extra curricular options.
• The main issue is focusing on what we've gone through over the past little while.
• Weekend should be a great chance to recover.

Peter

Tuesday - Oct 3rd - Review

Rain and Lightning ... the only thing holding us back.

Peter

Looking Good

So this weekend, 16 of the guys (13 A and 3 callups) headed into New York to Binghampton for a tournament. Let's just say there were lots of stories and lots of pictures so party wise we had an amazing weekend.

Ultimate wise here's a breakdown of games. Note that the Sunday was cancelled, but I'm pretty sure we would have taken every team.

Day 1 - Game 1 - vs Stony Brook
13-4 Win - We came out strong and put our zones to work even in very nice conditions. They were about 2 players deep and couldn't keep up with us.

Day 1 - Game 2 - vs RIT A
13-3 Win - This team looked stronger, but again couldn't handle our depth and intense defense. We made quick work of this team.

Day 1 - Game 3 - vs Cornell B
13-0 Win - This team didn't have a chance. We put the fisherman on for the majority of the game, and this team couldn't really link up more than a few passes. Our offense was almost perfect with just 2 errors (one coming from myself).

Day 1 - Game 4 - vs Colgate (number one seed in our pool)
13 - 5 Win - These guys gave us a bit of a scare as they took the lead 4-2. We called a time out, pulled off our zones, and focused in on their hucker. We went on to comeback and win the game handily.

Overall, a good weekend for Tula. We improved our zones significantly and got a lot of experience for many of our guys. There were two teams that might have given us a run in the tournament, but I think we would have won without any major challenges.

PJ

the ladies take over

# of Ladies: 12 + Sticks <3

Practice:
-Three man into redemption.
GrandMaster: Lexi
Second in Command: Amy S
-Huck to score
-3 on 3 continuious

It was a solid start to the week, ladies. The throws overall are looking awesome and the confidence in our game has grown. The hadest part of this week is to stay active and intent on what we want out of practice and how we will utilize it later. Tomorrow is a manditory day for those coming to Nationals. All others not planning to come are welcome to join in, the focus will be placed on those who will be competing. However, it is always good to have numbers out so if you are still planning on playing in the spring, now is the time to continue honing your skills.

This week we will be doing less training and for game situations. Be ready to start at 7:15 so we can really use our time well.

Notes from this practice:
-When faking, make sure you stay balanced. If you start to fall over, check in and get your ground back. You have ten seconds so if you need to regroup, do it before you throw.
-Work on communication. If you have the disc you can decide what throw you're going to be releasing. Just because someone is cutting one way does not mean that it is the only direction they can go. Talk and work out a new plan of action
* Very impressive with the huck to score everyone! Really great work.
-Think of leading people and being led. When throwing, throw to the open space so that the cutting can see where they have to go and run the disc down. You can also get more distance this way by throwing a little ahead of them. When cutting, never admit that it might be out of reach. It is surprising how much ground one can cover if they push their speed at the last second. Never give up on a disc in the air.

Health: The deaded cold is going around so make sure that you take care of yourself and eat right. It's tough to get the right amount of sleep with early practices, but please try and find a way of allowing your body to crash when it needs to; I am still working on this myself. WASH YOUR HANDS!! Especially after practice. Thanks to those coming out who are sick but sharing a disc can spread some germs, be aware.

There is not much time left before Nationals so keep up the good work. Our goal for this week will be "pushing the pace". We have some good flow but now we need to bring it up to speed.

1: we are Toronto, 2: a little bit louder, 3: I still can't hear you, 4: more, more, more!
-Lexi

ready for anything!

#of ladies: 14 + Pam

Picture: D keeping Torontula ladies hardcore! Way to run through.

Scrimmage day! We got some great playing time in today and kept the fun up (I will never be able to look at Amy O the same again :sigh:). The flow was looking great and the communication was working very well. Keeping each other posted on whats going on is really important. Let's get used to those up calls and continue to talk to your teammates and let them know what you want done.

To the handlers: Remember when cutting up the line, stay on that 45 degree angle. If the up the line doesn't work, than drop back, staying on that angle, to get the dump pass.

To those dumping: Make sure that when you're looking at the dump you are looking to throw to them. Stay active and continue looking at them. Once you look dump, you can never go back. Last resort being at stall 9 you huck it.

We will work more on the flag play and other handler plays. Let's really work together and use our strength as having some of the best handlers at easterns!

Throwing practice for those who want will be on back campus from 3-5pm.

Get some sleep!

-Lexi

Friday - Sept 29th - Review

Blogreads: 62
Guys: 32
A Absentees: Taylor, Sasha, Justin, James, Scotty, Tolya, Adrian, William

Pictured Above: DGC favourites: Inian, Shawn, and Alison outside the Dance Cave.

Announcements:

• Stay posted, I'll try and up date folks on the NY tournament.
• A team will probably take Monday off. Women's are practicing. Not sure about B team.
  

Review:

• Run, ABCs, Stretch
• Lotto
• Incut drill
• Stop Hucks
• Reviewed 3-3-1 movement
• Reviewed 1-3-2-1 movement
• First look at the Fisherman
• Zone scrimmage with TB. TB looked pretty good with the disc. Our zone was on and off. Main goal is to get active and quickly transition into traps.

A team Corner:

• Let's have a good weekend both on and off the field.

PJ

TB Corner: Thursday

# of guys: 14 + 2 sideline

Excellent practice today guys!

D Drill: Very good cutting to the disk on O. The Defender needs to maintain a good 3-5 feet 'front' on their mark, and the throwers needed to be a little more chilly with their decisions.

Zone O Drill: Excellent today guys! The handlers kept the disc moving, and had the cup constantly running. The sit was quite effective, although the middle handler could look to hit the sit more often. Sideline cutters were doing a good job of making space, but need to be sure that they're communicating with each other. One more thing I'd definitely like to see on Zone-O is more chatter and communication. Remember 14 eyes are better than 2!!

R.

When in doubt

# of Ladies: 10

Picture: Ladies bring it on at Easterns 2006

Practice:
-3 on 3/distance
-mini continuous game
-cutting and catching

Today was a little slow with no real focus for the work. We need to work on zone so it is very important that we get the numbers up.

Tula ladies won their game against Eve last night. If anyone is free, I highly recommend that you try and make it out to the game. We don't have another tournament till Nationals so it is important to get as much team playing time as possible.

Tomorrow is scrimmage day!!!!!!!!! We will be pulling at 7:15 sharp so please be there on time. Let's play hard tomorrow and get a nice weekend off. I'll be holding a tossing session on back campus this weekend if anyone is interested.

"The toughest thing about success is that you've got to keep on being a success. Talent is only a starting point. You've got to keep working that talent". - Irving

Keep it up ladies!
-Lexi

Thursday - Sept 28th - Review

Blogreads:53
Guys: 33
A Absentees: Dave

Pictured Above: DGC fight. Chris and Inian pose for their upcoming battle. Appropriate with the quotes below.

Announcements:

• CUPA fees...get it done.

Practice Review:

• Run, ABCs, Stretch
• Lotto with new D incentive rules.
• Incut Drill. We talked about when to roll your body to stay with the defender. I thought it looked pretty good. We'll probably repeat again tomorrow.
• D drill double cone. Also looked good and practices denying incut, strong marks (don't let out the huck), and playing good defence.
• Reviewed movement in the 3-3-1.
  
• Reviewed the 1-3-2-1 and how we move in that zone.
• Played some short pulls to zone D
• Played scrimmage to 2. O wins 2-0 on a throw away by D.

A-team Corner:

• Kirk had some words of how we need to fight through these remaining practices with intensity.
• Practices left: Friday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Tuesday, and Thursday (maybe). That's 6 maybe 7 practices plus maybe a scrimmage against Goat or GT. Not much left, so every minute counts.
• Some inspirational Quotes from Muhammad Ali...a true champion and what we need to be:
  
• Champions aren't made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them-a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.
• Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even.
• The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses - behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.
  
• It isn't the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it's the pebble in your shoe.
  

Peter

When Bored ... Watch and Read this

This website makes some points with video demnstration. Not bad...

Peter

cutting with flags

# of ladies: 17!

Picture: Amy O with the disc, Robin stands as the dump

Great work today everyone. Thanks for all coming on time and getting started right away. Lets try and start tossing as soon as people are cleated.

Practice: Offense
Very impressive work today in our drill session. Starting off with the circling cutting drill, we looked very solid with both throwing and cutting. Great communication and the speed was fantastic.
-endzone: we really need to work on this. The endzone is not a place to freak out. We want to be there so enjoy the time spent and work on creating space.
-turning the page of "flip": remember to make a deep cut as opposed to an angled cut, get as much distance as you can.
Thrower: you are the one in control so communicate to your cutter what you want.
-scrimmage: Today looked pretty sloppy. Overall, just try and remember what we have gone over earlier in practice and try and put that in a game situation. Speak up if you have any questions or ask separately after practice

Things to do... (there always are)
-LETTERS GO OUT TOMORROW! BRING THEM OR YOU WILL NOT PLAY AT NATIONALS! (gerrrr)
-get your CUPA membership OR YOU WILL NOT PLAY AT NATIONALS! (double gerrr)
-Bring $20 for tournament fee and place holding for the team

It has been great to see how well we work as a team. Lets keep that fire burning and see how far we all can go.
Team Goal: That everyone reaches their potential this season.

-Lexi

Wednesday - Sept 27th - Review

Blogreads: 42
Guys: 31
A Absentees: Marcius (Driving), Malcolm (Reading), Justin, Adrian, Tolya, Scotty, Lowell

Pictured Above: From left to right, Jeff and Taylor at DGC party...or is it the other way?

Announcements:

• Tomorrow is last day to get letters from registrar in or not going to Nationals.
• Need to pay CUPA fees for Nationals.

Practice Review:

• Run, ABCs, Stretch
• Lotto with pushup punishments...tomorrow we'll incentive for Ds - Everyone starts with 20 pushups. Every D = -5 pushups, Every throw away = +5 pushups, Every drop = +10 pushups. 15 burpees for finishing late.
• Talked about mark. Everyone needs to pick their preferred marking style. For all balls of feet, bouncing, with active hands. Concept that moving up is faster than moving down.
• Worked on berkeley drill from two lines. Emphasis was on mark. Points afterwards was fakes need to be used effectively with the cutters movements.
• Huck drill with straight up mark. Emphasis was on stopping huck with active mark and moving hands. Completion rate was low.
• Three man continuous - more mark work under tired conditions. I was happy with the effort. The cutting distance was probably too far.
• Worked on 3-3-1 zone. Discussed the movement of the cup and the mids in both basic situations and trap. We will review for those who missed, but things started to look really good.

A-team corner:

• Prediction - under our current work ethic, we are getting soft and setting ourselves up for a poor Nationals. I understand that we've been practicing for a long time and we're all tired and injured, but most important of all is the need for focus during practice. Working on the fine details of our games will be the difference at Nationals. If you think any other team is going to fold under pressure after easterns you're wrong. We lit some fires for teams this weekend, and we need to light our own and keep on working to the ultimate goal.
• I was happy with our second half of practice focus. Let's make Thursday a little better, and we'll lighten up on Friday for those of us going to NY.
  

Peter

To B or not to B?

# of guys: 12 + 1 on the side lines
absentees: Rahul (injury), Sasha, Alistair, Ben (injury), Tingle, Mark W, Sean, Tack, Tim, Tom (injury).

Poor attendance yesterday and even worse today. We have a lot of work ahead of us and everyone should be coming, even if they can't participate.

Review:
- Jog
- Stretch
- ABCs
- Lotto
- Dump cut drill. Cuts are getting better, but can still be better. Throws are pretty bad - you have to lead the cutter, throwing a soft floater out to space and let them chase it down. I saw too many blades and thows behind the cutters today.
- 3 man dynamic. Have to throw earlier. The whole point is to get used to throwing and marking even when tired.
- Zone practice. We could only focus on the middle cutters due to lack of players. Timing is off - we have to time those cuts so that we are getting open just as the swings get the disc. Every
dump and swing should be followed by an upfield throw. The sitter strategy looked much better. Offense did a good job keeping the disc (for the most part)


2.5 weeks to nationals - we can beat Western A!

morning after the morning after

# of Ladies: 14

Picture: Sarah and Kelly hiding in my super big/awesome shorts

Great practice everyone. Sorry for the relocation but way to start right up and get into the practice as soon as we set our stuff down.

Practice: DEFENSE!
Today we worked a lot on defensive positioning. We brought out the idea of placing yourself in a quadrant, some where between your person and the disc.
Things to remember:
-stay low and active
-check in with the disc/take snapshots of what is going on around you
-place yourself at a 45 degree angle so you are able to watch the disc and your person at the same time.
-use your body to cut off an area, angle your shoulders
-once your turn your hips the game is over on defense.
-you should always be readjusting yourself

Keep away: 3 on 3 and 4 on 4
There was some really great work in this drill. It is amazing to see how much room you can take up when the field is very small. However, your placement in the smaller size is about the same placement you should have on a normal size field. It is taking off the same lanes and the just about the same amount of room that we have to throw in. Plan your cuts according to where the disc is and where it will be. We will start with this at the beginning of next practice.

To do:
-Letters
-CUPA member ship (do this faster than you did your letters)
-$30 for the black Jerseys if you are still waiting for one

Awesome on the TULAD! ;)

Tuesday - Sept 26th - Review

Blogreads: 61
Guys: 35
A Team Absentees: Scotty, Tolya, Justin, James, Nathan, Sasha

Pictured Above: The girls stealing my hats. The funny part is I've never washed those hats.

Announcements:

• If you are going to Nationals you need to pay CUPA fees 15$ or 25$.
  

practice Review:

• Run, ABCs, Stretch
• Lotto
• Circle Cup competition. Even though this was fun there are many things to focus on. Good throws, setting up your throws with good fakes. Watching how the cup reacts to you fakes. As the cup the practice is on containing the throw as a group.
• Three-man competition. Shawn and Kirk are winners.
• Three-man continuous game. This is a good game, but we need to decrease the number of bad resets. Some of the germans I saw were nice.

A-team Corner:

• Let's ramp up things tomorrow and Thursday with a lighter Friday to setup for the tournament.
  
• Focus will be on defensive aspects of our game and fitness.

Peter

This needed to be posted...

Picture: Torontula Men's A team after winning Easterns

Great job guys!

a message from the leading ladies

yeah TOP 3!


Picture: Scottie putting in great effort to read the disc in some very wundy conditions. Great hustle Torontula A, B & Ladies!!

great tourney everyone, I can't say how pumped I am by this weekend.

There were some amazing plays and wonderful heart shown on the field this weekend. Here are some reasons why we had some great success...

Calm, cool and collected: As a team we stayed very focused and chill. We did not place added pressure on each other and really took whatever was thrown at us, good and bad. The energy we had for each game was very powerful and enabled everyone to feed off one another to gain support and drive for each and every point. Amy O mentioned this during our game against Mac, she said that it was our attitude that helped us through extremely long points and frustrating conditions. The other team can freak out, while we work on getting the disc back. Lets keep this mentality up. We have the intensity but we have always stayed in control.

DEFENSE!: As quoted in one of the best movies ever, Love and Basketball, the coach says "Offense sells tickets, defense wins games!" And that was completely true in our case. It was the defense that helped us get those upwind points and get ahead in the game. Great job on man and Zone. There was wonderful active communication on both sidelines that our team fully benefited from.

Communication: On the second day we started calling some Offense and it worked like a dream. Once we started to specify where we wanted the disc to go and who to, everyone busted out some of the best moves I have seen all tournament, to honer the call that was made and to complete it. AMAZING!

Practice tomorrow starts at 7:15 sharp. be there at 7 and warm up your body and throws with some 3 man.

some things to look forward to this week in practice: up field zone o passing, midfield zone o passing, new zone ds, endzone communication, deep OI passing, man d, and redemption with the grand master.

-Lexi and Dwyer

Monday - Sept 25th - Review

Blogreads: Fri - 52, Sat - 13, Sun 19
Guys: 0

Announcements:

• If anyone did not get their jersey from the order please e-mail me, so I can verify our records and fix the order.
  
• If anyone accidentally took a silver stainless steel water bottle, e-mail Shawn.

Review

We didn't practice this morning to give everyone a rest from the weekend. I'll recap the weekend for the A team.

• Game 1, Day 1, Queens B, Win 13-1
• This was our first game of the season, and we came out strong. We didn't have to show much, and more importantly, we finished the game efficiently and quickly.
• Game 2, Day 1, McGill B, Win 13-1
• Similar to the first game. Quick and efficient. Outcome as expected.
• Game 3, Day 1, Waterloo, Win 13-4
• Our first game against a top team. Waterloo looked greatly improved from past years, but didn't have the depth to play with us for more than a few points. Our stats showed a strong first half with a few too many turnovers in the second half which gave them their 4 points in the half.
• Game 4, Day 1, Carleton, Win 13-3
• Our toughest competition of the day was our last game. Carleton scored first and got two more points on the first half. We had plenty of errors and successes including a Callahan by myself. In the second half, we clamped down on their 3 main players and scored the next six points to win the game.
• Game 5, Day 2, Queens, Loss 5-12
  
• Our first view of the number 1 team in Canada. Queens attacked often and hard making us drop and throw away in windy conditions. Their defense played a strong trapping zone that cause many turnovers, and their hucks hurt us scoring about 10 of their twelve points. Our D didn't get one point in the game.
• Game 6, Day 2, Western, Win 8-5
• Not our best start, Western started off with a 3-2 lead breaking us twice in a row. We regained composure and started to make them pay for their huck and pin game by breaking their zone multiple times and by handing back some of their own medicine.
• Game 7, Day 2, Guelph, Win 7-6
• Another team that played a good zone against us. We started with 2 strong points, and started to trade back and forth for the rest of the game. Their best player played a strong game in the air, but our depth showed once again as we kept the pressure on and scraped out with a win.
• Game 8, Day 2, Queens, Win 11-10
• A rematch from the morning put us against Queens again. Once again, they had a strong start and put us in a 7-3 hole, but we clawed back 3 points before they closed the half (6-8 Queens). The remainder of the game was top quality high-level ultimate between two teams that gave it their all. We clawed our way to a 9-9 tie, and then broke to go up 10-9. We almost finished the game off, but Queen's made a big D and came down wind to score. Horn went and Universe point went on back and forth for about 5 to 10 minutes of drops, layouts, throw aways, and big grabs. We finally got a tight score to win the game and take Easterns for the first time in many years.

Great weekend with some good ultimate. There's still lots to work on, but we're heading in the right direction.

Peter

Tourney Review

Tournament weekend was just like any other job. Lots of hard work, getting up early, few breaks, and highs and lows. Everyone did their job, and a good job at that. Let's talk about some things, and we'll worry about what we've got to work on later. By the way...no practice Monday morning.

What I really want to talk about is the team, and more importantly, every player on the team. Sure the guys who played in the final game were a factor in the final result, but let's talk about the sideline.

I want to reemphasize how important all the guys who didn't play, or played a limited number of points on day two. On a team, everyone plays a key part, because a tournament is not about just one game. The sideline won that final game for us for two reasons. The support and extra eyes that was provided during Sunday was huge. Also, the amount of energy that we had during the last day was due to the amount of playing time that many guys had on Saturday.

Now that we've finished our first tournament, I open up any team member to write any of their opinions about the weekend to me.

Good job boys, next stop New York,
Peter

Friday - Sept 22nd - Review

Blogreads: 57
Guys: 36
A-Absentees: Tolya (school), Pat (presentation)

Pictured Above: A reminder to study your plays. Brought to you by the letter Q and Maytag, Morris, and Jeters.

Announcements

• Tomorrow is Easterns. Let's get all teams watching each other if there is any time.
• We will have Men's jerseys tomorrow. Each jersey is $30, and you don't get it unless you have the cash or cheque (so bring the money). Numbers were not guaranteed, and preference always went to veterans.
  

Practice Review:

• Run, ABCs, stretch
• Lotto
• Huck for scores
• Scrimmage A vs. B.
  

In the scrimmage, I saw lots of good things. On the A side, we had a great first half with one turnover. This is probably due to our defense generating lots of early turnovers near the end-zone. We pulled the zone and hardest off in the second half, and still got lots of Ds. Unfortunately, our offense wasn't as crisp as it could have been. Handlers had a few bad dumps, cutters had a few throw aways, and handlers weren't active enough.

The B side looked shaky at the beginning. The hard defense might have shocked them early, and the zones required that all handles needed to be strong. In the second half, things got much better. On one point in particular, I was impressed by how long the handlers reset and moved the disc. Cutters on the other hand need to be more aggressive. Cut more! Use your lane in the horizontal since it is yours in the first place. It's somewhat better than sitting around for too long.

Overall, the B team should have improved confidence knowing what they are going to see, and knowing that they can play at that level. The A team should also feel good about some great defense and some nice O other than a few execution errors. Decisions were on par.

A-team Corner:

• We talked about improving our dumps, playing a tighter wall, defending a man in a zone area, and keeping the focus. I'm happy with this weeks progress, and excited to see what we can do at easterns.
  

Peter

TB: Friday

Hey boyz,

1. Flying V is certainly improving - only 20 drops in 200 throws!
2. Excellent scrimmage against A today! When we put our stronger lines on, we really took it to those guys!
3. Make sure you get plenty of rest tonight, and have a good breakfast tomorrow morning!

Our Mission this weekend: Torontula A vs Torontula B Final!!

R.

Paper deadline. T-minus 24 hours

Hey Boys and Girls,

I thought I'd address some random points to get in your head (not as if they aren't full already) :

• The T is not the only end-zone option. Many teams will play a vertical endzone stack. The focus is to not let the open side cut, and prevent the full dump swing to the break side. If a team tends to break and score using this offence, then a clam is a viable option to slow down this attack. Clam means put someone in front and a guy to both sides of the stack. Once a cut starts in your direction you are responsible unless flooded.
• Rainy day ultimate is tough to play in, so every comfort is a benefit to your team. Dry socks, clothing, umbrella, tent, warm food, towel, baseball cap, etc. Each is a luxury item which makes you feel better and play better. Be prepared. We have one tent, and we're trying to get more.
  
• Some of you may be feeling pressure. We all feel some pressure to perform, but have confidence in yourself and your team. You've made remarkable catches and you've made great throws and decisions (I've seen it at practice). Your team has confidence in you, and even if you make a mistake they are there to dust you off and throw you back in the fire. Goldfish ultimate (forget the errors) will make you a better player since you can just focus on what's in the future. I've never dropped a disc.
  
• If you make an error, then the worse thing to do is get angry about that error. Don't make a drop or a throw away worse by getting down on yourself and letting the opponents get a free score because you weren't playing defense.
• Captains like getting information, but remember that they are at capacity dealing with not only their own play on the field, but trying to watch what is going on. It's a bit like chain of command, talk to the middle vet over an issue, and they might pass it on. Otherwise, you might just be hurting your own team.
• Sideline players provide extra eyes. As extra eyes, provide information for the most part, and let the field player decide. You are not their brain.
• Drink water even if you feel you're not sweating that much.
• Teams that poach need to be punished. When someone leaves you to poach run away from them and ask for the disc. Only yell poach if you are sure you are being left alone so that your defender can clog up lane. Try and receive a pass when poached where you can either huck the disc or throw a break throw. That's punishment.
• Have some fun this weekend regardless of what happens. The best thing about a weekend is hanging with a team through the good, the bad, and the funny.

Peter

TB: Thursday

Good Intensity guys!!

Pay attention to Pete's blog! Tomorrow we show these A guys what we're made of!!

R.

In the Zone

# of ladies: 13


A sweet CUP provided by triple S (Sarah, Steve and Sticks) at Goosebowl 2005

Today we worked on a traditional zone. The weather is not looking promising this weekend so we will most likely be seeing other team throw this, or we will be setting one up ourselves.

-Talked and walked through Zone as O and D.
-CUP tossing circle

Things to remember:
On defense- CUP moves together as one unite. Remember to contain upfield throws by cutting off the swing and then close in.
Wings- Keep butts to the sideline and take away the back cut. Give them shorter throws that we can close in on.
Short Deep- Cut any throws that might go through the CUP. Look for possible holes. Also, be prepared to drop if the Deep needs help.
Deep-NO ONE GETS BEHIND YOU!

On Offense: It is all about better field position, not the amount of distance you can get.
Cutters on each side work together so there will be a 2 on 1 for that up field pass after the swing.

Homework: With X's and O's, draw out what the zone should look like. Plan out where everyone shoudl be if the disc is on the left/right/middle of the field.

Tomorrow will be an extra help session going from 7-7:45. This is the perfect time to get all your questions answered. Meet at the fields for Ladies breakfast at 7:45, Lisanne is doing breakfast research.

Great work today, the timing was pretty amazing!

Lexi

Thursday - Sept 21st - Review

Blogreads: 56
Guys: 35
A-Absentees: Malcolm (paper), Justin (sick), Sasha, Dave

Pictured Above: On the way to the dance cave at the DGC 2006 party.

Announcements:

• A vs B. A is dark, B is light. Game starts at 7:45. Both teams warm up separately.
• Easterns...
  

Practice Review:

• Ran (2 laps since so cold), ABC, Stretch
• Lotto with hardest
  
• Ran new drill to focus on cuts, handler iso, remembering lots of things, and line bonding. Rough cut for the first time we've run it, but not bad. Still need to keep on working on knowing the plays.
• Scrimmage. Back and forth. Decision making was excellent. Execution could have been better.
  

A-team Corner:

• Sleep and health are major factors over the next few days. I ate salad yesterday.
• Start getting excited.
  

Peter

TB: Wednesday

# of B guys: 17 + 1 sideline

Excellent practice today guys! Intensity was definitely up, and everyone was running hard!

45's: 63 drops! Everyone's on throwing homework: 50F/50B everyday! Imagine you have a mark on you, and you're aiming the disc between head and waist height.
Lane drill: Much better! Communication is improving, and the throw and go is becoming more natural!

Scrimmage: Intensity was MUCH BETTER today!
Handlers: your responsibility is safety of the disc, and making space for each other.
Cutters: your responsibility is to cut HARD up and down your lane, making space for yourself and for your fellow cutters.

Tomorrow:
Handlers: Dumping to each other till it's a 100% throw
Cutters: Running the lane and running an iso.

R.

Wednesday - Sept 20th - Review

Blog Reads: 42
Guys: 36
A Absentees: Tolya, Scotty

Picture Above: Shawn Chua at Easterns 2005.

Announcements:

• Friday is A vs B scrimmage with breakfast after at Sick Kids
  
• Everyone should have a ride, place to stay, letters in by today
• AC fees due friday.

Review:

• Ran, ABCs, Stretch
• Lotto
• 45s - important points and emphasis. Aggressive marks, throw early, try and throw to chest and above.
• Lane Drill - 5 reps each. Continuation even if huck is key. This is a big advantage if we get an early run at the score. Germans on our sides looked good until the end.
• Play Review - we went over all the plays. A few errors were made, so we need to review again. When you review, you need to visualize the cuts or it won't stick.
  
• Scrimmage - Very intense. D line needs to work on their Offensive cutting in general flow. Transition from zone to man was good except for one time. In cuts were minimized. O line looked better with some long possessions of the disc and scores.
  

A-team corner:

• Inian was mentioning how you need to take care of your body over the next few days and during the tournament.
• Policy at Easterns will be: Partying is encouraged and we will. However, if we see reduced performance the next morning we will enforce a curfew for Nationals. Therefore, party responsibly.
  

Peter

TB: "Take One"

# of B guys: 18 + 2 sideline

Great work today guys!

Flying V: Unfortunately there were 23 turnovers in 180 throws. Need to concentrate on RUNNING THROUGH the disc.
Dump Drill: Handlers responsible for safety of the disc.
Endzone Drill: Cutters responsible for lane awareness, and cutting HARD!!!

Scrimmage: O vs D line: 4-1. Good work O line.
O&D: Need to work on HARD CUTS & INTENSITY!!
Anyone caught with insufficient intensity tomorrow gives us 20 pushups on the spot!

"Why am I not moving?"

# of ladies: 16!


Jane shows that Hydration is sexy! Keep on bringing those Nalgenes!

We had a great number come out today with some amazing energy. Even the mud patches didn't dampen our spirits :)

Practice:
- 3 WOman: We should start this drill as soon as the cleats are on. If you see two girls tossing, or even two guys, jump in as a defender. Let's get practice going earlier!
-Redemption
Winner/ Grand Mater: Lexi
-warm up run and stretch
-lunges
-crab walk
-high knees into squats, make sure that you're moving ;)
-butt kicks
-forward lengthened leg run
-backward lengthened leg run
-shuffle
-shuffle into sprint
-inchworm
-back peddle into sprint, changing sides

Defensive work:
focus on staying on the balls of your feet, marking is not a time to rest.
Hands low
Drill: 1 min. marking without arms x2 rotations

Scrimmage:
Focus was on the swing pass, rule was no up field passes from the dump.

The overall field positioning looked really good today. A lot of the space was really clear which made room for great cuts. Dividing up which side the cutters were going too not only helped the handlers know who to look for, but also was great for the cutters to communicate. LOVED the "you're hot" calls from the handlers! Who doesn't like to hear that?!

Remember:
to be confident in your throws and your cuts
you will always have a dump
to scream if a person is cutting you off
to GIVE ME YOUR LETTERS! (gerrrrrr)

Dwyer says "Best cutting I've seen all week!"

T-minus three more days!
-Lexi

Tuesday - Sept 19 - Review

Blog Reads: 55
Guys: 37
A team absent: Lowell (sick), Sasha, Tolya (married...congrats)

Pictured Above: Me. Either a really good or really bad play. It's looking good.

Announcements:

• e-mail Ofer about rides
• BBS post about accomodations
• Letters due tomorrow
• AC fees due friday

Review:

• Ran
• ABCs
• Stretch
• Lotto
• Flying V - Looked good. Cut through the disc and threw well for the most part. 6 turnovers over 200 throws in our group cost us 30 pushups.
• End-zone Scrimmage - Ups and downs. One of the real challenges for handlers is how much cutting versus how much break time. I like, throw and go. Receiver looks at go, then looks at break, then looks for reset. Also throw and swing is another nice one. Defensively, we need to figure out how to poach against the T. Inian was mentioning offside defender in the back corner comes and helps. We'll try this tomorrow.
• Three man dynamic - Our focus here was working on marking when we get tired. It's really tought, but worth it. Also, I feel we need to setup the throw earlier, so start faking earlier so you can throw right at the cut point.
• Scrimmage - O vs D - looked much cleaner on both sides. A few unneccessary drops and throw awyas die to execution, but they were the right decision. The people throwing them are almost there. We'll say tomorrow is still green light, but Thursday and Friday we're into amber/red light Ultimate. Defensively, marks were much more active. My biggest complaint is too many incuts allowed. However, we didn't let too many go up the line with handler cuts, so that's good.
  

A-team corner:

• Much happier with the intensity.
• Review your plays.

Peter

Just another manic Monday

# of ladies- 9


Kelly and Lisanne with the amazing duplicate of the Torontula for our practice jerseys

Practice:
-Warm up and stretch
- 3 WOman (from now on this is what we will be starting with at every practice)
-Americanized 3 WOman aka REDEMPTION!!!!!!
Winner: Mary
-dump drills: "once you look dump, you can never go back." ;) and "there is no shame in dumping!"
-scrimmage
-three's company sprinting game

Easterns is coming up in only 4 more practices. Get ready for hot new jerseys, sweet playing and smores! Yes, I did say smores!

Lexi

Monday - Sept 18 - Review

Blogreads: 48 Fri, 29 Sat, 28 Sun
Guys: 38
Absentee A guys: Justin, Sasha, Tolya

Pictured Above: Kirk at Easterns

Announcements:

• Easterns this weekend - Going up Saturday morning, staying Saturday night.
  
• Letters from registrar due Wed morning
• AC fees due this week - pays for Easterns

Practice:

• Ran
• ABCs
• Dynamic stretch
• Lane drill (A team) - Five throws each. Focused on throwing germans and continuation. My line was a little weak on the continuation (mainly when the disc was thrown long). Other line looked like they were setting up the stack a little deep.
• Huck drill (B team) - noticed lots of throws were turning. Need to work on I/O release.
• Continuation drill (A team) - Forced upfield making dump harder. Working on timing cuts, moving disc off the line, and generating flow. With a push up the line, the berkeley reset needs to adjust their position.
• Three on Three continuous (B team)
• Ran through our plays
• D line played D against O line. D line needs to have more actice marks. O line needs some time to click.

A team corner:

• We are going to NY on Sept 30/Oct 1. 15 guys are in by the signup sheet. We will bring 5 guys from the B team to fill out our numbers.
• Tomorrow we will start a huddle cheer every time we are about to do a drill to help with focus and intensity.

Week 3 - Focus

DGC party was a blast.

Now its time to get ready for easterns.
The focus at practices this week will be on team offense and defense. We will be running through our plays (especially offense), so take the time to study the playbook tonight and every night this week. Also, we will establish on-field units (i.e core handlers, cutters, defensemen, etc.) this week.
The objectives for this week are:
- understand and be able to execute the offensive plays
- understand your individual role in each play
- learn to adapt when/if a play breaks down
- learn simple defensive zones
- physically and mentally prepare yourself for easterns
- take care of logistical issues regarding easterns.


morris
p.s. who has my lunch?

Our Warmups

Here's what I've come up with for our different warmups. We will practice the 60 min warmup this Friday.

Drill rules:
Run - double file

60 min

• Run - 5 min
• ABCs - 2 min
• Dynamic Stretch - 10 min
• Lotto - 10 min
• 47s - both directions - 10 min
• 45s - 10 min - 5 sec/throw - 2 flicks and 2 backhands / person
• Slash cut plus huck - 10 min - 1 huck/person - 10 sec/huck - both throws

52 min

• Run - 5 min
• ABCs - 2 min
• Dynamic Stretch - 10 min
• Lotto - 10 min
• 47s - both directions - 5 min
• 45s - 10 min - 5 sec/throw - 2 flicks and 2 backhands / person
  
• Slash cut plus huck - 10 min - 1 huck/person - 10 sec/huck - both throws

42 min

• Run - 5 min
• ABCs - 2 min
• Dynamic Sretch - 10 min
• Lotto - 10 min
• 47s - both directions - 5 min
• Slash cut plus huck - 10 min - 1 huck/person - 10 sec/huck - both side throw

30 min - minimal warmup time

• Run - 5 min
• Dynamic Stretch - 10 min
• Half Lotto - 5 min
• 47s - both directions - 5 min
• Slash cut plus huck - 5 min - 1 huck/person - 10 sec/huck - one side throw

20 min - Assumption is game soon

• Half Lotto - 5 min
• Slash cut plus huck - 10 min - 1 huck/person - 10 sec/huck - both throws
• 47s - both directions - 5 min
  

10 min - Assumption is game very soon

• Half Lotto - 5 min
  
• Slash cut plus huck - 5 min - 1 huck/person - 10 sec/huck - flick or backhand
  

Friday - Sept 15 - Review

Blog Reads: 76
Guys: 31 - The classic drop
A team absentees: Scotty, Tolya, Adrian, Will, James, Sasha, Pat ... everyone has a reason other than Pat.

Announcements:

• "Didn't get Cut" is on tonight. 1023 Bathurst. There will be awards. There will be discs to buy $12. There will be dancing.
• Get your letters in from your registrar
• Get your AC fees paid - Will go to eastern fees and subsidizing jerseys
• Easterns next weekend. Let's get some threads up on the BBS with rides/accommodations

Practice Review:

• Ran
• ABCs
• Stretch
• Lotto - One group slow
• 3 man continuous - A side Lowell was the winner. Focus was on intensity on D, small little throws to reset, germans in the endzone. Also, one of the big keys was learning each other by getting lots of touches in. I was really happy with what I saw.
• 3 man endurance - 15 cuts with 3-man throws. Note how hard it is to mark as you get tired. That was a tough drill.
• Scrimmages

A-team corner:

• Homework 50+50 throws every day
• Homework - track workout (see BBS). Do if you're healthy.
• We know what we have to do next week. This is all about efforts and focus. Visualize your execution.
  
• Let's have fun tonight and get to know everyone.

Next weeks focus from Inian:

Week 3 (Sept 18 – 22)

Focus: Team offense/defense

• drills that emphasize offensive game situation and work on our offensive system and plays
• establish on-field tandems/units (i.e. core handlers, cutters, defensemen, special teams, etc.)
• introduce some simple zone defenses (3-3-1 to transition)
• team/individual preparation for easterns
• logistics for easterns (travel, accommodation, etc.)

Peter

Over the hump

# of ladies: 14 (including coach Dwyer)

Training day round 2:
-1 lap warm up
plyometric warm up:
12 yards
butt kicks, fwds, bkwds
skips, drive the knee, fwds, bkwds
falling leaf side shuffle
high knees, fwds, bkwds
carioca
carioca w high knee spike
bkwds run quick feet, bkwds run straight leg back
walking lunge open side twist, closed side twist 45 degrees over shoulder on way back, eyes follow hands
side lunge, side lunge w hamstring on way back
inchworm - this is not a race, take your time with this stretch!
Frankenstein
Frankenstein skips back
jog sprint up to top speed, jog back
side shuffle, sprint, both directions
backpedal, turn and sprint (turn over both shoulders)
jog, sprint, backpedal, sprint
Spiderman - stretch forward using opposite arm and leg
stretch 5 min.
*Note: take your time with these! We are using these exercises to become loser and really get a nice stretch, we are not racing.

Speed flow:
throwing with commands
throws: flat backhand & forehand, OI backhand and forehand
penalties: 5 push ups for a drop after the first throw in a new sequence
We did really well getting some flow with our throws. I would like to see the more confident throwers get more throws off at a faster speed, push yourself!

Scrimmage:
focused on timed swing cuts and specific roles for the handling positions

One more practice and then we PARTY!
-Lexi

My Buddy, My Buddy, My Buddy and Me

Torontula's Buddy system is one of the most important systems we have in place, and probably, the only thing we truly enforce. We all need to be concerned about safety, and this safety will not only benefit us being healthy on the field, but also your general well being.

Pictured Above: Buddies don't shake hands, Buddies hug.

Here is an exert from an upcoming The Cultimate Opinion blog (3 weeks):

The rules of the buddy system include:

1. Tell your buddy if you are going somewhere, and if that means leaving then you need to find a new buddy for them.
2. If leaving you need to provide a telephone number or address where you can be reached.
3. You should be in eye contact or roughly know where your buddy is.
4. Buddy's are honest and tell how inebriated they are including how many drinks.
5. Buddy's respect their buddy's opinion and will listen to their opinions.

Basically, the buddy system is an adult method of having that extra safety check. This system is good for college teams, but it is even useful for us older folks. The reason we came up with this system is partly in relation to the tragic death of Chris Powell last year at our Canadian University Ultimate Championship and partly because of various poor decisions we (my teams) have made in the past . So, the buddy system is a very serious thing, and hopefully, it will help keep us all safe.

That's what Torontula does to try and keep each other safe. We, as a team, have lots of fun, but this is the one serious detail that we all need to take whenever we are at a party or tournament. Consider adding the system to your daily lives. Buddies are great things to have.

Peter

Thursday - Sept 14th - Review

Blog Reads: 118 (We only have roughly 80 people on both teams...did some of you get your moms to read this...I'm looking at you Kingston ;)
Guys: 35
Missing A players: Justin (had reason), Alex?, Dave?, Scotty (has class)

Pictured Above: Good old mornings (courtesy of the X-factor).

Announcements:

• Get your letters in to Alex
• Pay your AC fees
• Party 1023 Bathurst St. - Friday starting at 6:00 PM - spin the ringer on the door - BYOB and food - Buddy system active (see next post) - girls will meet us after there team dinner.

Practice Review:

• Ran
• ABCs
• Stretch
• Lotto - starting to do this drill with teamates so we can get familiar with each other.
• Lane Drill - working on throw to a horizontal player. Rules of cutting are stand for german or straight in and straight out cuts. No bananas or circles. Thrower throws and then gos.
• Dump drill - practicing our dump cuts to the middle of the field. Practice on leading dump and making hard dump cuts. Key is floating disc out to space.
• Huck with communication - cuts deep with option in cut based on communication with a thrower fake.
• Scrimmage: A vs B. B had some unfortunate turnovers, but looked good. A was almost 100% O other than 2 throw aways. Both were deeper leading throws that tailed. B got the final point on a nice throw by their captain.

The A team round table:

This is a new section where I'm talking directly to the A team. Obviously, anyone can read and implement.

• James, Adrian, Tim, Nathan, Will, Norm, Dante, and Taylor - you are on 50 flicks, 50 backhand homework. Post on the BBS when you have completed them today. Focus on chest and above throws, throwing in a low stretch position, and faking before throwing. Everyone else should be doing this.
  
• Tomorrow we will run an O vs D scrimmage.
  
• A team needs to post on the BBS when and why they are missing a practice.
• Everyone needs to develop some ritual they do before entering the huddle or going to the line to play. This ritual will be a point in which all other distractions are eliminated and the focus is on playing. Mine will be a rubbing of the hands and a single clap.

PJ

Men's Teams

Start off by saying once again Tula has improved both in numbers, commitment, and quality. Picking 23 guys for our top team was as difficult as it has ever been. Note that nobody has a permanent spot on the A team or B team (last 3 years there have been moves). All choices are made based on the tryouts and previous experiences with each player; touring in the summer had a significant impact on improving players.

On the current A team, there are many players who are in a specific roll. These rolls may not include significant playing time or primary activity. Playing time will not be equally distributed on either team (more even on the B team). Playing time will always be competed for, meaning practice commitment and general quality of play on the field. Also, lines will be tightened depending on who we are playing against.

Finally, I understand that some of you will be disappointed with being on a B team. I'll remind you that I spent 3 years on the B team captaining 2 of those years. I wouldn't be where I am today without that experience, and the opportunity to play a bigger roll in a smaller pond can outweigh the benefits of the small fish in the big pond.

Torontula A
1. Peter - Captain
2. Kirk
3. Inian
4. Steve Tam
5. Alex Schneider
6. Shawn Chua
7. Scotty
8. Tolya
9. Sasha N.
10. Marcius
11. Malcolm
12. Lowell
13. Dave Ng
14. Pat
15. Adrian
16. William Yan
17. Tim C-S.
18. Norman
19. Justin
20. Taylor
21. Dante
22. Nate
23. James Fong

Torontula B
1. Ofer Shai - Captain
2. Rahul Sarugaser - Captain
3. Mark Williams
4. Tim Fowler
5. Chris Piattelli
6. Adam Bak
7. Billy Wyttca
8. Tom Walsh
9. Tack Lee
10. John Tebutt
11. Adam Rodgers
12. Colin Stewart
13. Alistair Scott
14. Aleks Lukac
15. Jeff Sham
16. Jeff Fynn
17. Sean Williams
18. Mark Kowgier
19. Shimon Pokorny
20. James Kim
21. Richard Mills
22. Kieran Bol
23. Tim Chua
24. David Lee
25. Dave Tingle
26. Ben

Sorry about the guys I missed. I thought I checked the list thoroughly.
If I missed anybody it is because you are not on my list...please e-mail us ASAP.

See you all tomorrow.

Peter

Wednesday - Sept 13th - Review

Blog reads: 56
Guys: 30

Pictured Above: Tula ladies at 2005 Easterns.

Practice Review:
- Ran
- Dynamic Stretch
- Scrimmage = picked strong and weak lines to match up against one another to see what was going on. Lots of rain scared of 15 guys.

Peter

Tuesday - Sept 12th - Practice Review

Pictured Above: Nate, Lexi, and Dave showing off their new jerseys at Nationals last year.

Blog Views: 69 - looking good
Guys: 40 - 7 absent from Monday

Pictured Above: Torontula boys working hard on the field

Announcements:

• Get you letters in from the Registrar (give to Alex)
• Pay AC fee
• Party 1023 Bathurst St. - "Didn't get Cut" details sometime today or tomorrow

Tryout Day 2:

• Ran
• ABC
• Dynamic Stretch
• Lotto
• Huck for scores with D
• Flying V
• Challenger - Marcius wins again
• Scrimmages - Biggest comment was lack of D intensity. Spacing looked much better.

Peter

A solid start

# of women: 23!

The ladies are off to a running start with a fantastic showing for the first early morning practice of the season. Cleats were on the feet around 7:15 so we were able to get some drills and a solid scrimmage in.

What we did:
-warm up: run 1 lap and stretch
-speed flow: Throws were flat flick and backhands, IO flick and backhands, OI flick and backhands, hammers.
We will be working on this drill more and more over the season so we can get as many solid throws off while listening for commands and picking up the disc after doing some other physical activity.
-Go to: We set a pretty good goal of 15 in a row right off the bat and managed to reach it within a reasonable time. Remember to set yourself before a throw is released, if you are running as you are throwing it will be called as a travel.
-Scrimmage: The best way to learn about your game is to play a game. I saw a lot of people step out of their comfort zone and because of that made some very impressive plays.

A few things to remember for tomorrows scrimmage
1) be aware of your defender. Wherever you go they will be with you so make sure to clear out just as hard as you cut in.
2) use the whole field! A cut does not have to be forward.
3) If you make a cut and do not have the disc in your hands before you come into 5-10ft. of the thrower, you are not getting the disc and therefor must clear out!

There was some great energy out today and I would like to keep that up for the rest of the week.
-Lexi

Monday - Sept 11th - Review

Blog Reads: 55+
Guys: 36 cleated, 4 resting
Girls: Time for them to post their own details

Pictured Above: Tula is famous for the games we've invented. This game is called lime to mouth. Left to right is Inian, Julie, Shawn, Steve, and Peter (me).

Announcements:

• Party this Friday "Didn't Get Cut" (1023 Bathurst St.) for all Torontula team members and alumni (schedule TBA)
• Need to pay fees (AC) and get letter from registrar A.S.A.P.
  

Tryouts Day 1:

• Ran
• ABCs
• Stretched
• Lotto = 3 combined drills. 2 groups finished late
• Fitness 1 = Pistons. 4 sets of 15
• Fitness 2 = pushups, split jumps, burpees, situps plus runs
• Scrimmages = People need to focus on leaving greenspace open for hard cuts. This means clearing out quickly after making a cut. Resets looked good, and general intensity was high. Defensively, we probably want to shutdown more incuts.

Homework:

• Read the playbook - www.tuc.org -> Go to the BBS -> Go to user groups -> request signup
  
• Read all past posts if possible
• Rest

Good work today guys,
Peter

Friday - Sept 8th - Review

Blog Views: 50
Guys: 24
Girls: 7
Announcements:

• Friday Sept 15th at 1023 Bathurst starting at 7:00 going until 10:30 then for those of age we continue to the Dance Cave. "didn't get cut party"
• Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday is tryouts. 7:00 AM until 8:45
• Signup sheet is online. Fill it out and e-mail to me (jamieson dot peter at gmail dot com) or fill it our on Monday
  

Practice Review:

• Ran
• Stretched
• Lotto - Remember to space yourself from the dump. One group was slow.
  
• 45s - still looking week. Need to throw early and need to set up throw early.
• Cutting Races. Idea is that the disc is for anybody. Works on cutting form and racing against an opponent. X-factor won the day.
• Huck for scores. 50% completion rate was poor. Need to focus on throwing for completion over throwing for distance.

Good to see everyone other than two people brought a disc. Punishments will be given out

Homework:

• Get some sleep
• Get a run in on Saturday
• Get throws in all days

PJ

Thursday - Sept 7th - Review

Blogreads: 33
Guys: 21 - low
Girls: 8?

Pictured Above: The Tula team we took to UPA Sectionals last year.

Announcements: - Tryouts Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. A and B team selection Wednesday night. - Party Friday (next week TBD) - Everyone bring a white Discraft disc to practice. Disc checks will happen. Punishments will be handed out.
- Breakfast tomorrow after practice.

Practice:
- Run
- Stretch
- Lotto - 3 groups didn't finish on time = 15 burpees each. Effort needs to be made to reset the drills quickly.
- Fitness Shuttle Discs = 4 stages of cuts. Flick, Backhand, and Hammer
- 45s with situps and pushups. Kirk reported that our flick is significantly worse than our backhand.
- Cut runs - Good intensity everyone
- Scrimmage - Game one 5-3 win for white. 8 turnovers and 3 Ds with 2 of those being weak go tos by offense. 2-1 for black. One drop, one turnover. Good intensity and smart playing throughout the scrimmage.

Tryouts:
I'm just going to tell you what I'm looking for on the A team. From practices so far we have about 20 guys that I've seen good things from that merit A team potential.

Characteristics =
- Athleticism: General athletic skill
- Consistency: Catch and throw with consistency
- Decision: Make good decisions
- Focus: Pay attention and understand
- Commitment: Missing one of the three tryout dates shows lack of commitment. Missing these pre-practices also concerns me. We need to know which weekends you'll be free over the next month.
- Attitude: Hustle, Heart, working hard, and helping other people.
- Skill: Ultimate skill level
- Other valuable qualities: Respect, Leadership Qualities, Fitness etc.

Next, the reality of choosing a team is you have to look who your up against. For example, if you're a defensive handler then you need to be better than other people who would take that roll. Try and figure out some niche positions you will fit in, and assess your competition.

On Monday, expect to run for about half an hour+ and then play in scrimmages. Expect to get a playbook on Monday night and be expected to run those plays for Tuesday. On Tuesday, we will run, then play mini games (3 on 3), football style play run, and then full scrimmage. On Wednesday, we will run and then scrimmage while moving players.

PJ

Wednesday - Sept 6th - Review

Blog Views: 37
Guys: 28
Girls: 0

Picture Above: Some of us in Montreal train station spelling "TULA"?

Announcements: - Breakfast after practice on Friday - Tryouts Mon, Tue, Wed ... A and B for easterns announced Wed night. - "I didn't get cut" Party Friday the 15th (place/time TBD)
Practice Review:
- Ran
- Stretched
- Lotto = Emphasis was placed on reading the dump situation. Emphasis also on keeping spacing good for both dump and berkeley. We had atleast 4 turnovers in the scrimmage due to dumps. Poor !!!
- 45s with situps and jumping jacks. Inian wanted you to determine how good your throws are. As for the mark wanted you to be on the balls of your feet and moving instead of committing with lung marks. Intensity was a little low, and expectations for some people were not met.
- Huck for Scores with D. The base huck looked okay accept we weren't focusing on completions. Then we moved into a staight up mark with a communicated cutback. Inian talked about choice of cuts. My concern was I saw lots of Hucks directly at the cutter as they were going out instead of throwing into space.
- Scrimmage. Probably a little lopsided, and dark won 5-1. Saw some poor dumps (already discussed). Also, I saw some weak cutting by white. Instead of running hard deep and then hard in I saw some more single direction cuts with holiday secondary cuts. Dark made white pay for these weak attempts, and this left white handlers scrambling back and forth to maintain possession. We need hard in and out cuts.

PJ

Tuesday - Sept 5th - Practice Review

Total Blog reads: 26
Total Guys out: 27
Total Girls out: 5

Announcements:
- Practice tomorrow is at 7:00 AM ... warmup run at around 7:15 AM

Pictured Above: Three little monkeys jumping on my bed.

Practice:
- Run
- Stretch
- Lotto = 3 drills combines into one in less than 10 minutes. Focus needs to be on learning the people you throw with.
- Cutback drill - My group had 5 drops. Kirks had 7? People need to focus on running through the disc. I saw a few turns in the scrimmage because of not running through the disc.
- Huck for scores - Looked okay. Focus on completing throws regardless of distance.
- Fitness - 20 pushups, run, 20 Split jumps, run, 15 burpees, run, 25 situps, run. Man that was tough.
- Scrimmage ... Black wins 2-1.

PJ

FOUL!!

There is an increasing trend towards very aggressive, physical (read: fouls galore) marking these days. A less experienced player can become very flustered by this, and he will usually throw as a result of the pressure. Even worse, a lot of times these players don't know to call "foul". Against a more experienced thrower, however, fouling marks are sweets treats, indeed. Why? Because it gives you a free throw. a foul upon releasing the throw is either completed (in which case you "play on") or it is incomplete and the disc comes back to the thrower-- ie, it's a free throw). Here are a few scenarios to consider...
1. you receive a pass and your marker decides to bodycheck you as he initiates stall couting .
in this case, i'll generally NOT call the foul. why? because calling a foul here stops the play and can ruin any flow that the cutters may have (this is often the reason that some players bump into their marks- because it kills the offensive flow). there is also no benefit to calling "foul" in terms of lowering the stall count, as it is only at 1 or 2 by this point. if you fall from the contact, or the contact ruins your chances of throwing for the next 2 or 3 seconds, then call the foul so you can reset. otherwise, ignore the contact and continue looking for the best throw.
2. your marker is grinding you like an axe (ie, there is either consistent or repeated points of contact between you and your marker).
when your mark is doing this, you should try and take the free throw by throwing through the contact and call "foul" upon releasing the disc (if complete, say "play on"-- if not, it comes back to you). *caveat* if you call the foul before you initiate the throw, then don't throw it. if you do throw after calling foul, then (if completed) it comes back to you -or- (if incomplete) it is a turn-over.

3. your marker chops your hand when you are releasing the disc (ie, before the disc has left your hand).
this is easy. call a foul everytime you feel contact on the release.

calling "foul" is something that doesn't come naturally. oftentimes the thrower may not realize he has been fouled until after the play has finished (ie, when pumped up, contact often goes unnoticed). as such, it is important to incorporate fouls (over-aggressive marks) into some of your drills so players can practice making the foul call.

kirk.

Photo: Inian Moorthy marking up vs. Phoenix at Cdn.Nationals in Halifax 2006. (note to reader: this was not a fouling mark)