Frisbee

On Sunday the DC Current will host the New York Rumble. The winner will qualify for the playoffs and the loser will be done for the season. While both teams have games the day before, those games have no playoff implications, so both will probably rest their top players.  Sunday is the game that matters. The teams have already played twice this season, and they have split the series so far. May 18, at New York. Rumble 17, Current 14. The Current and Rumble entered this game 1-3, and with relatively full rosters. The game demonstrated the kind of star power that both teams rely on. Alan Kolick and Sean Keegan drove the DC offense, with Keegan throwing three assists and catching three goals, while Kolick caught one goal and threw five. New York had their own star power of course, with Chris Mazur having a spectacular game, catching four goals and throwing three assists. Dan Hejimen and Ben Faust also were major contributors, both catching two goals and Hejimen throwing three assists. Those three players have been key for New York all season. The big time playmakers played well in this game for both teams. Though important, there was more to the game than that. There were three main factors in the Rumble victory: 1. New York O-Line Hucks Chris Mazur releases a huck for the Rumble (Photo by Sean Carpenter-Ultiphotos.com) Naturally the New York O-Line is stacked. Mazur, Hejimen, and Faust all play on the O-Line, and are supported by players like Kevin Terry and Jody Avirgan. Most of the hucks (throws for 40 or more yards) from the Rumble O-Line come from Mazur as a handler, or Hejimen as a cutter. On May 18 they were 7 for 11. For a team that likes to air it out, 7 for 11 is a great result on such long looks. While the Current O-Line wasn’t unsuccessful on hucks, they were 4 for 7, they didn’t take nearly as many or convert at as high a percentage. DC doesn’t play the hucking game as much as New York does, so it’s not like they need to complete more hucks than New York to win. But they do need to ensure that New York doesn’t complete such a high percentage. New York was 64% on its hucks. The Current O-Line only converted 13 of its 31 possessions into goals, good for only 42%. If the Rumbles O-Line hucks are 20% more efficient than DC’s offense, it’s very unlikely the Current win. 2. The Current D-Line The Current D-Line is anchored by Markham Shofner. Though Shofner plays some on the O-Line as well, he is the go to handler on the D-Line. In addition to strong defenders like Dan Kantor, O-Line players Sean Keegan and Jeff Wodatch join him on the D-Line on occasion, more often in the second half. In this game the Current D-Line was very inefficient. Joe Anderson helped the New York D-Line execute better than their DC counterparts (Photo by Sean Carpenter-Ultiphotos.com) In their eight possessions, only once did they convert for a goal. That’s 12.5%, a truly terrible conversion rate. D-Line’s typically have lower conversion rates than their O-Line counterparts, but no matter how you slice it, 1 for 8 is just bad. The Current D-Line was 0 for 4 on hucks as well, not surprising given their low efficiency. This is what happens to the Current D-Line when Shofner has a bad game, as he did that day. The DC coaching staff distrusted their D-Line so much that the last two defensive points the Current played, they sent the entire O-Line on the field instead.  Meanwhile, the Rumble D-Line was 4 for 11. Not great by any stretch, but far better than 1 for 8. And New York did one thing far better on defense than the Current did, which brings us to the third factor. 3. Timeouts In the MLU each team has two timeouts per half, and after calling a timeout you can sub in a whole new line, and the stall count resets. This changes the nature of smart timeout calling. The best time to use your timeouts in the MLU is after the D-Line has forced a turn. This way a team can sub in its entire offensive line to do what it does best, after the D-Line has accomp

Number of active players: 750 Notable beach tournaments: Bundesbeach, Ex-on-the-Beach (which has a flawless Swiss pedigree, despite being hosted in France, just south of Lake Geneva) Past participation in beach championships: WCBU 2004, WCBU 2007, ECBU2008, WCBU2011 Division participation at ECBU 2013: Open, Women, Mixed, Open Masters Switzerland makes up for the lack of a sea with some breathtaking beach views of Lake Geneva (photo by Adrasha on flickr) The Zeroth Law of Beach Ultimate (beach ultimate is played on sand) kind of puts Switzerland’s beach ultimate lovers in an uncomfortable position, as the country has just enough sandy beaches to make for a couple of decently-sized fields. It has been the case at least since 2009, when an ultimate-loathing storm swallowed the shores of the river Maggia, in Tessin, which had hosted 8 editions of the legendary Magic Maggia hat. The little remaining sand is now scattered along rivers and lakes throughout the country, only really hospitable three months per year and mostly packed with whole communities of non-ultimate-enthusiasts. But geography and bad climate certainly could not stand between the engaged and travel-ready Swiss ultimate community and the sandy world of beach disc sports. Swiss teams and players of all levels regularly attend all major beach tournaments in Europe (one highlight: the long-standing and quite successful relationship between the Swiss on UTI and SeXXXpensive at Paganello) and the country has sent national teams to all WCBUs and ECBUs so far. Switzerland even got a couple of medals with its Open team, and won Spirit twice (with Open in 2004 and Mixed in 2007). While there are no pure beach teams in the country, nor plans to start a Beach Ultimate National Championship any time soon, over the last few years Swiss teams have restarted organizing a couple of regular beach hat tournaments. The winterly indoor Bundesbeach, in particular, has revived the beach hype that had disappeared with Magic Maggia’s beach, and has allowed a number of non-elite/old-timers/aficionados to try the joys of sand, definitely leading to an increased interest for Beach Ultimate in the local ultimate community. With teams in 4 divisions, Switzerland’s presence at ECBU more or less mirrors the level of its teams on grass, with a strong Open team, a Women’s team with a lot of potential and relatively less competitive Mixed and Masters team. Let’s take a closer look at the teams: Open Switzerland Open, BUM 2013 champions FFINDR Roster A solid group of players from the country’s best open teams, the Swiss Open National will start ECBU 2013 as first seeded, definitely aiming to bring back home some precious metal. They are defending their 2008 European Champions title and have already confirmed their level at the 2011 WCBU. In Lignano, with a team based on the same core of players who will be playing in Calafell, the Swiss had some impressive performance, ending up 3rd, only losing to the US in the semis and giving the Americans possibly the toughest game of the tournament. Switzerland then proceeded to clearly beat Italy (12-6) for the bronze and to finally rank best European team. The team will be led by Captains Michael Martinec and Simon Achermann and is a remarkable mix of experience (Lorenz Stauffer and Dave Moser), talent (Mario Baumann and Basil Furrer) and physical presence (Armin Ambuhl and Harald Ohla). Even without the Migliorettos and WCBU team top-scorer Robin Brüderlin (gone west for the USA Ultimate season), the team only lines up players with years of experience in top-level European ultimate, who will make for tough matchups for virtually any player in the Championship. Under the name of SwissAir, Switzerland Open was able to get playing time and confidence at BUM, their preparation tournament, where they finished undefeated, beat Spain and Poland, and pulled off a universe point win after a tight final against Munich’s Zamperl. High expectations on the performa

The most important game to watch in Major League Ultimate is the New York Rumble versus DC Current game on Sunday, June 23 at 4pm ET in Arlington, VA. This game has playoff implications - the winner secures the 2nd spot in the Eastern Conference. :How They Match Up: (through 8 games) :Scores: :History: Rumble and Current have played each other twice so far this season; each winning one

As many of my Whitecaps teammates can attest, I’ve been in a continued love-hate relationship with the innova pulsar. For starters, I was definitely intrigued that the MLU was using a different Frisbee. At first touch, I was pleasantly surprised by the increased lift and smooth release of the disc. It was new and different, which was exciting -- like throwing a brand new disc golf for the very first time. This feeling lasted for maybe two weeks, before I had accrued enough touches to realize, that this pulsar was very different than the ultrastar. During the first practices and scrimmages, multitudes of throws careened out-of-bounds, missing their targets by 30 yards. During one particularly windy deep drill, there were at least 10 straight throws that floated, turned and veered away from their target.My suspicions grew.But after several weeks, the throws began to straighten out and play appeared almost normal again. Initially, I was definitely intrigued at the prospect of being able to throw the pulsar farther than the ultrastar – something that appealed to me greatly. For several weeks, I was whole-heartedly convinced that the pulsar was a superior Frisbee – a big boy disc that held its edge and was destined for max distance.However, it didn’t take more than a week or so to realize that this was also foolish thinking. Thus, my relationship had flipped-flopped and flipped again. I had to re-crunch the numbers. It wasn’t until I was able to get onto the turf with a bag of ultrastars and my 2-3 pulsars that I concluded several horrifying realizations. For most throws, ranging from 5-15 yards, the difference in flight is barely noticeable. Once the range hits 20-40 yards, there is a technique change, but nothing revolutionary, as long as there is enough spin. However, anything over 40 yards is completely reverse – and this is my biggest gripe.When maxing out the distance on an ultrastar (which is understable), the initial edge must be Inside-Out (IO or hyzer). But to max the distance on the innova pulsar (which is overstable), the initial edge must be Outside-In (OI or anhyzer). Splitting hairs on the angle of release sounds tedious, except when the flight plan is aimed at 80-100 yards. Even the slightest difference on the release, can yield a yardage difference anywhere from 20-40 yards. Still, changing the angle of release is normal in ultimate, depending on the target and distance – so nothing THAT revolutionary right? If you new to the basics, then this difference is minor, if not completely irrelevant to you.However, I make my money on big throws – rocket launcher with a sniper scope. I can huck it 80 yards, on the money, either way, boomheadshot. The key to my success is either way – upwind, downwind, crosswind, no wind. Despite almost any conditions, I had the biggest throws on the field – especially upwind. And here is the biggest difference and my main pet peeve. The innova pulsar was designed to max it’s distance as thrown like a disc golf. Anhyzer edge, laser straight, S curving and tailing left on the backhand. For going downwind, great – it goes 100 yards and floats forever!! I’ve been just killing it in the weight room. But that’s not the case. Try throwing the pulsar upwind. Go ahead – straight upwind. And… Oh, it only goes like 60 yards before it blades and dies. That is my issue. When throwing against the wind, the OI (anhyzer) edge is naturally pushed down – and therein lies the problem. The pulsar was designed to max out with the OI edge, which coincidentally doesn’t jive when going straight upwind. The difference for the ultrastar is the versatility and ability to turn/aim the disc – moving it around targets more effectively and the ability to control the flight plan all the way through the S curve. When throwing upwind with the ultrastar, the edge has to be severely IO (hyzer), which is the way to max the distance for an ultrastar regardless. Obviously, this is a big diffe

The NexGen Tour starts today! Per heir published schedule, the 2013 tour will have 13 stops in 29 days. As NexGen travels counterclockwise on their U.S. trek, they play the same teams from 2012 except for Washington DC (Truckstop) & Colorado (Johnny Bravo). :2013: Schedule [13 games] June 18 vs Revolver (San Francisco, CA) June 22 vs Doublewide (Austin, TX) June 24 vs Chain Lightning (Atlanta,

Number of active players: 300 Notable beach tournaments: Sandslash (D?bki), Baltic Beach Contest (Gda?sk) Past participation in beach championships: WCBU 2011 (mixed division) Division participation at ECBU 2013: Mixed, Open, Women Although Poland is one of the youngest established ultimate countries in Europe, origins of the sport date back to the late 90s, when a group of foreigners started to throw around a disc in Pozna?. The boost to the development of ultimate was given in 2005 when the first teams were formed. During the last 8 years, Poland has experienced not only staggering progress from its oldest teams, but also a substantial growth in the number of new players. Each year, more and more tournaments are organized in cities all over Poland. There’s quite a funny story about the Polish National Team tryouts, which were supposed to be held in Warsaw in the end of March. Unfortunately, spring had not yet sprung and the whole town was covered with snow. The captains of the three teams and other organizers waited as long as they could for the weather to change, but it didn’t until the deadlines of sending the rosters and paying fees approached. Needless to say, there was no field or beach where the tryouts could have taken place, so three captains were left to decide on their own. It took them a few days, and all the people that made it to the National Team had very little time to celebrate, because they were urged to pay the money within just a few days! As the above story shows, Poland’s location doesn’t give too many advantages for playing beach ultimate. Although Poland borders on the Baltic Sea in the north, there is only one team from Gda?sk that could train on the beach regularly (most players live quite far away from the seaside). But the distance is not the biggest problem; in order to fully enjoy oneself playing beach ultimate one thing is required that gives the most energy – the sun. That is why one can only truly enjoy Polish beach ultimate in the mid to late summer, because during most of the year the conditions are not quite as pampering. There are 2 beach tournaments held in Poland annually: Sandslash (since 2008) and Baltic Beach Contest (since 2011). Both take place at the Baltic Sea. Apart from playing at these tournaments in Poland, players and teams often attend international beach tournaments. The mixed division is still the core of Polish ultimate. When the teams started in 2005, they were formed as mixed teams as there wasn’t yet any possibility to play open and women. A few years back, everything started to change. There were several ups and downs forming the first open and women teams (naturally, girls had more trouble forming one). The name, jerseys and roster changed several times over the last 3 years, but finally a group of girls from Warsaw managed to establish Troubles. The second women’s team, named Whatever, provides great competition to Trouble and consists of experienced girls from all over Poland. As for the open teams, there is currently Uprising – a group formed by guys from Warsaw and Pozna?, Girls Stay Home (formed by guys from various cities) and the Warsaw Open Team (which is making its debut this season). For the first time ever, open and women national teams will represent Poland at the European Championships, and in July, Poland will have its first Open and Women National Outdoor Championships. Let’s take a look at the three Polish teams in the ECBU contingent this year: Mixed The Polish Mixed Team (Photo by Ewa Ba?bu?a-Dyda) A strong team with experience from WCBU 2011 led by captain Miko?aj Smogór (aka Smok – pol. dragon) – a skillful player from Grandmaster Flash (mixed, Warsaw). During the World Championships in 2011 they finished 7th and now (with a few changes in the roster) the goal is to beat the rank. Preparing for ECBU 2013, they took part in a weekend-long training camp on a beach near Warsaw and went to the Goldstrand tourn

Mazda is not the first company to use Frisbees in their advertising; nor, the first auto company. In this Volkswagen ad, the flying disc is replaced by a coiled snake. "Just because it fits, doesn't mean it'll work" [SOURCE]

Ten pro ultimate games were played this past weekend. Compare to last week. NOTES: AUDL games have 12-minute quarters; MLU games have 10-minute quarters One AUDL game [Phoenix v Hammerheads] went into OT [MLU] Boston Whitecaps are undefeated at 9-0, with one more game (at home) to play in the reg season. [MLU] 7 games = losses in a row for Spinners (2-7); the longest losing streak in the MLU.

That moment when you catch the game-winner in the final (Fieldston at the 2013 New York High School Championships). The Montana State Rum Runners release their highlight reel. Thought-provoking blog with a female perspective on an age-old issue: not passing to women in mixed leagues. The Texas vs. Colorado final at South Central Regionals. Come for the ultimate, stay for the running count of fantasy points and heckling. For all of you patriotic Americans out there itching to represent your country at your foreign bucket list tournament of choice, Five Ultimate has released the Wings of Glory Hydro Shorts. Inspirational story of the decade: Haru Ohkawa introduces ultimate to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, travels to over 20 cities to spread the sport, and gets ultimate recognized as an official national sport in only six months:

Ask most ultimate players about their tournament bucket lists, and you’ll hear about Lei Out, High Tide, Wildwood, and Potlatch. But one lesser-known tournament in small-town Ohio has been slowly growing in fame: Poultry Days. It’s lack of proximity to traditional tourist destinations on the east or west coast may be hurting its chances as a tournament destination. But while Poultry Days may lack the costumery of Potlatch or the wildness of Wildwood, it makes up for it with an overabundance of as many American-as-apple-pie type events can possibly be fit into one weekend. Miss Chick 2012: Kelly Murphy and Mr. Cluck 2012: Steven Hightshue. Image Courtesy - Lesa Nelson (Ultiphotos.com) Poultry Days is a place to find the ultimate community at its finest and to participate in the small town USA experience (international players, take note!). At what other tournament can you find a fair with rides, chicken BBQ, a kiddie tractor pull, camping in the park, swimming at the community pool, a Miss Chick pageant, an all star game (where Miss Chick makes an annual appearance), and an egg eating contest all in one place?  Between the town and the tournament, all of this activity is packed into two fun filled days and nights.  With all of the options, and too many things to possibly see and do in the time allotted, every Poultry Days you attend is a different experience.  Do you want to go to the pool this year or measure the speed of your hammer at the radar gun booth? Do you want to watch the kiddie tractor pull or get in more games of cups before it gets dark? Poultry Days occurs every year on the second weekend of June in Versailles, Ohio (with the “ll” of “Versailles” being pronounced phonetically, not the French way).  The tournament takes place in conjunction with the town’s Poultry Days Festival, hence the name of the tournament. To learn more about the Poultry Days, I asked tournament director Roger Oakes a few questions: Can you tell us a bit about the history of Poultry Days?  When did it begin and why?  What kind of changes have taken place over the years? The Tournament started in 1982 with just 2 teams, the local Blue Meanies and the Dayton Diamond Dogs.  From stories I’ve heard, the local players in Versailles had been playing for a few years and decided to invite the Dayton team up for the festival to play at the old park in town.  It was such a great time, they invited some more teams the following year…and pretty soon, it became such a great mix of players and small town Americana that players started One hip rooster. Image Courtesy of Lesa Nelson (Ultiphotos.com) adding Poultry Days to the Bucket List of Tournaments to attend.  I think the success of Poultry Days can be pinpointed to the love of ultimate that the original tournament directors possessed.  The number one goal, despite any costs, was to provide the best tournament possible for the players invited. The biggest change is the size of the tournament.  It really is a festival of ultimate, coinciding with Versailles Poultry Days Festival.  There have been small changes throughout…at first, Miss Chick was a reluctant participant, now it is one of the highlights of her pageant. The fields have moved a couple times as the schools in Versailles have adjusted.  And, of course, the major change was the shift to the fundraising aspect of the tournament starting in the 80s and 90s. How did you get involved in running Poultry Days? About how many volunteers does it take to make things go smoothly every year? I had been playing ultimate for about 5 years, when I got fixated on the idea purchasing land to create ultimate fields. Being from Ohio, I had played out in Versailles many times.  I met Dale Wilker, one of the original TDs, and we started talking. We share a common love for the sport, a love that I’m sure many people have. But, as the community grows, there are lots of differing opinions on the best way for ultimate to progress.  Often ti