Year | Name | Location | Team | Notes |
2014 | Glory Days | Rockford, IL | NUT X/Y | Monstars |
2015 | Chicago Invite Plan B | Manteno, IL | Bolt | Played with 8 dudes. Scored 1 point on BYU (A) |
Great Lakes Dev. CC | Kalamazoo, MI | Bolt | Lost in finals to Michigan B | |
Great Lakes Dev Regionals | Rockford, IL | Bolt | 1-day round robin | |
Huck of the Irish | South Bend, IN | NUT X/Y | ||
Chicago Invite | Rockford, IL | NUT X/Y | ||
Missouri Loves Company | Columbia, MO | NUT | Break out tournament | |
2016 | Florida Warm Up | Tampa, FL | NUT | |
Bama Secs Beach Party | Gulf Shores, AL | NUT | 1st place! | |
Huck Finn | St. Louis, MO | NUT | Hair threw his cleats into the woods | |
Illinois D1 Sectionals | Rantoul, IL | NUT | 1st place! | |
Great Lakes D1 Regionals | Fair Oaks, IN | NUT | ||
Great Lakes Greatest | Traverse City, MI | Traverse City Pick Up | ||
No Wisconsequences | Milwaukee, WI | NUT X/Y/Z | Articuno | |
Windy City Invite | Rockford, IL | NUT X/Y | ||
Missouri Loves Company | Columbia, MO | NUT | ||
2017 | Florida Warm Up | Tampa, FL | NUT | Break out tournament. 3rd place game against A&M was strange. Half their team was putting it all on the line and the other half didn't seem to care at all |
Midwest Throwdown | Columbia, MO | NUT | Lost 4-15 to Purdue in final | |
Indy Invite | Indianapolis, IN | NUT | Greatest block of my life against Michigan: https://youtu.be/M_i9VNyK584?t=15m15s | |
Huck Finn | St. Charles, MO | NUT | Lost to Illinois in pool play | |
Illinois D1 Sectionals | Rantoul, IL | NUT | 1st place! | |
Great Lakes D1 Regionals | Fair Oaks, IN | NUT | ||
Eugene Summer Solstice | Eugene, OR | Union | Crazy heat index & very frustrating experience with a new team | |
Sea Plastic 2017 | Ocean Shores, WA | Soul Plane | Played with a group of random 5ive employees, great people | |
CBR Memorial | Lacey, WA | Union | ||
No Wisconsequences | Milwaukee, WI | NUT X/Y/Z | James P. Sullivan | |
Windy City Invite | Rockford, IL | NUT X/Y | ||
North College Mixed Regionals | Appleton, WI | NUGGET | 1st place! First real mixed experience | |
Missouri Loves Company | Columbia, MO | NUT | Got caught up trying to be a captain & played like shit, 0-6 | |
2018 | Queen City Tune Up | Charlotte, NC | NUT | NUT 2018 starts out 1-11. Another really good block against Virginia Tech: https://gfycat.com/LawfulSlightBushsqueaker |
Florida Warm Up | Tampa, FL | NUT | Break out tournament | |
Centex | Austin, TX | NUT | ||
Huck Finn | St. Louis, MO | NUT | ||
Illinois D1 Sectionals | Rantoul, IL | NUT | Bageled NIU in the game to go | |
Great Lakes D1 Regionals | Ann Arbor, MI | NUT | 1st place! | |
College D1 Nationals | Milwaukee, WI | NUT | Lived up to the hype | |
Sandblast | Chicago, IL | Crunkzilla |
Wednesday, August 22, 2018
Sunday, August 19, 2018
Practice Doesn't Make Perfect
I started playing violin when I was 5. The Suzuki method
starts ‘em young. One thing about learning an instrument as a child that is
often overlooked is the actual learning, the practice. How the heck does a 5-year-old
kid practice and actually get better? Suzuki’s answer is pretty simple: the parents are along for the
ride. A parent is expected to be present at every lesson & a parent is
expected to work with the child during daily practice sessions.
My mom practiced with me until I was in 10 or 11. When the
time came and I was mature enough (ha ha) to practice on my own, I more or less
knew what to do. Mom still sat in on lessons to take notes though, and she
constantly reminded me that practice doesn’t make perfect. Practice makes permanent. Practice something the wrong way 10,000
times and congrats, you’re a master at creating bad habits.
My response when I heard this as a young teenager: “Sure
mom, yeah mom.” Like I was going to practice today anyway.
8 years later and I hear Kevin start talking about the
importance of focused throwing, and something clicks.
Friday, August 10, 2018
Coaches
Disclaimer: This isn’t meant to be a review or ranking of my
coaches, but rather the lessons learned and general impact they’ve had on me.
Part of the reason I wanted to write this reflection is because I feel that
every coach that I’ve encountered in my athletic career has had a distinct
style and I’ve gained a lot from each one.
Dan Duclos – Dubuque
Senior Swimming (Varsity)
Duclos never really gave me much personal attention because
I wasn’t very good. However, the way he ran the team in general was hilarious.
Each year he introduced a new dietary restriction which was going to elevate us
to a new level of athleticism:
·
2010/11 – No sugar. This means, no soda, no
Gatorade, no cookies, no candy, none of it. This was fine and actually improved
my diet a lot, considering in middle school I arrived home from school every
day and immediately drank a root beer and 2 hot dogs.
·
2011/12 – Whole wheat only, no enriched flours
or pasta. This was also pretty sane
·
2012/13 – Protein loading. His recommendation
was that we cut down on the carbs, especially before meets, and really up our
daily intake of protein. He wanted us to consume at least one protein shake a
day & consume as much meat and poultry as possible. We all developed some really
bad farts & gastro-intestinal distress. This is also undoubtedly part of
how/why I filled out in high school
·
2013/14 – Gluten free! No carbs whatsoever. For
the whole season. When almost all of us eat lunch in a high school cafeteria. I
don’t think anyone actually took him seriously
·
Rumor has it that the year after I left he got
really big into coconut oil.
Despite being a sucker for dieting trends, Duclos was a
great coach. He exemplified the idea of changing your game when you’re at the
top of your game. We were already a successful program, but he was always
looking for ways to turn us into a 2nd place finish at state into a
championship team. Some other quirks:
·
He was really big into mental prep. We would
visualize for about 15 minutes about 3 times a week before practice starting 3
weeks before our last meet
·
He tried and succeeded in selling us these all-natural
energy shots which we were supposed to take before our races at the
end of the season
·
If you cramped during a workout and stopped in
the middle of the lane, he would often get a long stick and poke you until you
resumed
·
The lifts we did were absurd. The very first
workout every year was a set of 8x10 squats
Jesse Huff – Dubuque
Senior Swimming (JV)
Jesse is a cool guy. Very sarcastic & cynical. When I
asked him what we were doing for a particular practice, he would respond,
“swimming.” As a coach, I felt like he didn’t push me hard enough – he’d
frequently relax the interval or reduce the number of reps if we requested. But
he also made practice bearable.
Jesse also had to sit in the locker room with us after every
practice to make sure that we weren’t doing stupid shit to each other. In
retrospect that must have been absolutely awful. I hope they paid him overtime.
Actually, I have no idea if these high school coaching positions were paid at
all or if they were volunteers.
John Hearn – Dubuque
Senior Track
Hearn was intimidating. His coaching strategy was pretty
simple:
·
Warm up
·
Stretch
·
Running form/block work/exchanges/whatever
·
Stretch again
·
Run fast (some combination of 600s, 400s, 300s,
200s, 100s on an interval)
·
Lift
In my 4 years as a sprinter with Hearn the strategy didn’t
change. The practice plans were exactly the same for the each season. I can
attest their effectiveness – in 4 years my 400 time dropped from 59 seconds to
53, and in the 400 hurdles I went from a high 62 to a low 58. But I was never really satisfied with these
times and wonder if I could have been better if we tried something new or
different. We were never a particularly talented team and occasionally it seemed
as if Hearn had accepted that and was just going through the motions.
Looking back, I believe that he was deeply invested in our
development as young men, not just as athletes. All of his mantras revolved
around the fact that improvement starts with hard work. There is no secret
sauce & no easy path to success. “Nothing will ever be handed to you in
this conference, men.”
Kevin Yngve – Bolt
My first impressions of Yngve were not strong. Bolt 2015 was
a whirlwind for me as my thirst for ultimate quickly expanded and Kevin was
exceptionally patient. I was not a confident player and I often turned to Yngve
looking for feedback about whether I was making progress, doing the right
things, making the right cuts, etc. Looking back on this now and having been on
the receiving end of these types of early questions from rookies, Yngve did a
great job quietly laying the groundwork for me as a player.
Side note: I think that B team coaches have a much harder
job than A team coaches. The A team coach:
·
Is working with the top 21-26 guys who really
want to be there
·
Can set significant practice attendance
expectations without being overbearing
·
At tournaments, you will have most of your
roster there & can have a well defined plan going into the weekend
·
Is usually expected to coach
games/tournaments to get the best results (Performance over results baby)
On the other hand, the B team coach:
·
Is working with a wide variety of talent,
ranging from guys who were in the last round of cuts from the A team to rookies
who have not touched a disc until this evening. You have to figure out how to
teach the new guys while keeping the more experienced players entertained.
·
Cannot or should not set a high bar for attendance.
You walk a fine line between trying to get more guys to come to practice and
seeming overbearing
·
At tournaments, a bunch of people who haven’t
been coming to practice will come out of the weeds and show up without knowing
any of the stuff you’ve been drilling for the last 4 weeks
·
At tournaments, you have to balance the
development of your entire roster to keep everyone engaged, invested, and
having fun while also trying to get results, because losing 7 games isn’t great
either
·
Is responsible for the molding & development
of young players and giving them their first impressions of the sport.
Very heavy stuff! B team coaches are dealt a very difficult
hand & are often the least experienced coaches. Kevin did an excellent job
balancing all of these concerns. His blog is also a great read &
reveals a lot about the amount of careful thought that he puts into all his
coaching decisions.
Kevin Bruns
Bruns is very insightful. During a season where I was
struggling to find confidence on the field and within the team itself, Bruns
got me thinking a lot about how I could maximize every minute that I was
putting in, as well as challenging & expanding my ultimate perspective. The Movement
is obviously a large inspiration for what I’m doing here.
Jeremy (I think) and I were talking about Bruns once and
Jeremy said that he was a “players coach”. I wasn’t quite sure what he meant by
that. Jeremy: “He’s the kind of coach who the players really gel with. We were
all just pretty good friends with him.”
Yiding Hou
Yiding taught me how to play good matchup defense downfield
& developed my footwork. Yiding also represents my aspirations as a player.
He is very good at Tetris.
Alex Champe
Champe is one of the most passionate guys I’ve ever met
& a model for grit. His enthusiasm on the field is palpable and as a
captain I attempted to recreate the intensity that he brought to NUT as a
player.
As a coach, Champe shows a good amount of patience that I
know he works hard to achieve. His composure at Centex, Regionals, and
Nationals was impressive. He also called out Jay, Kyle and I for being babies
when we were considering skipping Centex for Midwest Throwdown.
Kevin Yngve – NUT
Getting to know Kevin was one of my absolute favorite parts
about being a captain. I loved learning the logic & reasoning behind his
coaching decisions and getting to hash out the finer details. At this point I
think it’s clear that I admire Kevin for many reasons:
·
He donates a great deal of time to the program.
Between GIFs, practice planning, throwing feedback, meetings, tournaments, etc.,
Kevin is pouring his heart out for NUT.
·
He understands how to motivate players without
being overbearing. Yngve has a well thought plan about how to raise
expectations without disillusioning the roster.
·
He breeds excellent culture. Kevin makes a significant
effort to get to know people on a personal level & others follow suit.
·
He is reserved but brings the energy when the situation
calls for it. Kevin’s cool and calm presence on the sideline is quite welcome
when your team finds itself in the game to go to Regionals. We also have good
footage of Kevin freaking out.
·
He understands the impact that a captain’s or
coach’s words and body language can have on the players around them.
I’m very fortunate to have had as many positive coaching as
I’ve listed here. Coaches can make or break your experience, yet they are often
taken for granted.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Listen / Use your voice
I'm not sure where to start or if this will add anything that hasn't already been said. Listen Please listen to these voices that...
-
I started playing violin when I was 5. The Suzuki method starts ‘em young. One thing about learning an instrument as a child that is ofte...
-
I'm bored/procrastinating and Kenneth is blogging about jerseys so without further ado: ( Source )
-
I'm writing this before tryouts are actually over. As of right now, I'm awaiting decisions from the final round from Lights Out and ...