iPhone Ultimate

I'm writing an Ultimate game for iPhone. I'll blog my progress here.

Monday 8/24: Project setup. Basic graphics init stuff. Made a simple Frisbee class.
Tuesday: Set up view coordinates. Simple representation of both player and frisbee. Start processing touch events.
Wednesday: Hook up touch events to player movement and frisbee throwing. Some simple math for frisbee flight and player running.

Screenshot:
Yellow triangle is player. Red square is frisbee.

Jump Rope

For July, I'll be on a pretty strict Tues / Thurs jump rope schedule. Here is my workout, and some current times:

Definitions

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Single jump: jump with both feet simultaneously, one turn of the rope

Sprint: alternate feet, one rope turn per foot; basically running in place. 1 'sprint' is two rope turns, one for each foot. knees should come up high

Double bounce: jump twice in a row on each foot. 1 double bounce is two rope turns, so double bounce x 8 is RRLLRRLLRRLLRRLL (16 total turns). keep legs straight, feet should barely leave the ground

Combination (120 total turns):

Single jump x 8

Sprint x 8

Double bounce x 8

Sprint x 8

Single jump x 8

Sprint x 8

Double bounce x 8

Sprint x 8

Single jump x 8

Warm up

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Jump at a relaxed pace. I do mostly single jumps, but I mix it up to keep it from getting boring

1 minute on

1:15 rest

1 minute on

1:00 rest

1 minute on

:45 rest

1 minute on

:30 rest

1 minute on

Rest a few minutes, catch your breath, stretch, drink water

Long intervals

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These should be fast, but don't kill yourself. save that for later. Each takes me around 43s-50s

Combination

:30 rest

Combination

:30 rest

Combination

Rest a few minutes, catch your breath, drink water

Tabata intervals

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4:00 total of short intervals. Every second sprinting should be as fast and hard as possible.

:20 sprints

:10 rest

Repeat for 4:00 total.

Rest, catch your breath, drink water

Cooldown

------------

1 Combination at a relaxed pace. I'm pretty tired for this one.

I think it takes about a half hour total, maybe less.

First Madcow Tournaments

A week ago, we won No Surf in Cleveland, going 8-0. Last weekend, 7-0 to win Scinny in Cincinnati. Both were fairly local tournaments, but we did beat some pretty solid teams, including Haymaker, Forge, and LouEvil. There are some more detailed write-ups on the tournaments at madcowultimate.com

These were basically my first tournaments playing with a 'big team', by which I mean big enough to have O and D lines and big enough that fatigue wasn't a factor. I certainly felt tired and sore after No Surf, but I was at top speed even in the finals. I was an offensive line cutter and played an average of around 7 points a game.

Scinny was a different story. I had a heel injury, and so didn't really play until the finals, when my parents came to watch.

It felt great to have a specific role (offensive cutting). It allowed me to narrow the focus of my game. I didn't have to be "the man" so I could be more creative with my cutting, and just assume that everyone else was doing their job. Although I didn't play as many points as I usually would in a tournament, I was free to put all of my effort into each one, without any thought for saving energy for later. Some points I would run into position after the pull, make a couple cuts, catch and throw once, and then we would score. It felt almost artistic when we executed the offense well.

What will happen when we face better competition? Will our offense break down? Will we get upset and start assigning blame? Or will they push us to new heights? Some of both? I'm excited to see it happen.

By the way, it's early in the season, but Central Regionals looks to be a fight between Madcow, Prairie Fire, Machine, Madison Club, and Sub Zero. At least we're guaranteed three bids.

Poultry Days

My first real tournament of the year. Injuries were no problem, excepting a small amount of shin splints at the beginning of Saturday.

In pool play Saturday, we went 3-2. I played solidly, with a couple turnovers coming on errant hucks and a couple more on miscommunications. I had a cool layout catch, but no real highlight plays. I never got winded, although we (the team) never properly warmed up.

I realized Sunday morning (after my own warm up) that there was an extra gear I hadn't hit the entire previous day. I see now that warming up (jog, plyos, sprints, drills?) enables the proper competitive mindset. However, you do need a certain level of conditioning.

My worst showing came at the end of Sunday's only game. I got tired in a long point of a handling in a zone and became very inaccurate.

While holding the disc, I need to put myself in a more dangerous position to break the mark. People mark me very flat, but I never punish them for it.

Jumpin

I just completed my first Tabata workout on jump rope at full speed, which is 20s sprint / 10s rest intervals for a total of 4 minutes. This somewhat noteworthy landmark suggests the following things:
My ankle is fairly strong (with brace)
My adductor is fairly strong (with wrap)
My forearm muscles have adapted to jump rope (or, my form has improved)
I am in some basic state of conditioning

So, that means it's time to push myself. I'm no longer injured and I can't use that as an excuse.
Effective immediately:
Hell point after practice, and hills if possible. (Tues. + Sat.)
Same for summer league, with the addition of sprint intervals (jog endzones / sprint field x 3). This is a good yardstick because I didn't push through it at practice last week. (Mon. + Wed.)
Thursday and Friday I jump rope or sprint intervals.
Sunday, predictably, is a day of rest.

First Practice

Just returned from my first Madcow practice. The first month or so of practices are basically "tryouts", with closed practices after that. Here's how I felt:

Groin: Good. My right leg definitely comes around slower when running, but no sharp pain.
Ankle: Fair. Definitely improved from before, but I planted hard a few times and felt sharp pain, and so I sat out a bunch of points.
Throws: Decent. No turnovers. One break. One okay flick huck.
Defense: Decent. I didn't guard anyone really tough. Bad handler D because I'm not conditioned. No D's.
Cutting: I got open enough, but didn't feel that confident.
Conditioning: Not too bad, but we didn't run any sprints or anything. Felt winded after the drills.

This week I'm jump roping every day, which I think is easier on my injuries. I will try to jump rope some HIIT.

Feelin good. :)

I'm back! Yeahhh!!!

As of this morning, I had gone roughly six weeks without playing ultimate. That last time was the finals of winter league. At one point in these past six weeks I played a game of goaltimate. At another I played a very grabass game of frisbee. Going further, I had gone roughly five months without feeling healthy while playing frisbee.

I've been sidelined with a groin injury, which I'd like to call 'adversity in a box'. If you think you need to work on will power and mental toughness, go out right now and strain your groin. I think it's a very interesting injury. You don't get the reality of seeing a cast on your arm, for instance, and yet it cripples your basic ability to move in an athletic manner. It's an injury to the very core strength that everyone raves about.

So, a month ago I saw a doctor and then made trips to a physical therapist. She taught me how to strengthen my lower abdominals and all my groin parts, to help the injured guy along. Day after day, I coaxed my body into a healthy state. Good for me, huh?

So, for all my hard work, I was rewarded today with a spring league double header.

My team lost both games.
I had fun.
I didn't hurt.
2 turnovers. I think I'll blame one on a slow teammate. The other I threw straight into the ground (who does that anymore?)
1/1 hucks. It was a forehand against a light upwind breeze. It started IO and turned OI, but remained flat enough. So, an economical but not attractive throw. The mark had prevented my prefered backhand look.
1 sick layout d. OI flick huck coming over our right shoulders. Batted the disc as it fell into his hands.