Boston Invite Preview- 2009

Nation,

Boston Invite Pools are up. This is a preview.

Open

No one wanted to go on record and rank the elite pool, so I guess we know how the tournament director feels. Seriously, it has to be tough to tell Philly Love that although they beat Brooklyn already this year, they are seeded lower. But one small example.

Pool A has hometown favorite Ironside, along with PoNY (NYC), Truck Stop (DC) and Phoenix of Ottawa. I think Ironside will take the pool, but the real question becomes who finishes 2nd and 3rd. Truck Stop will be looking for an upset over PoNY. Phoenix is comfortable with their seed, and will look to the improved play of cutter/handler Reynaldo "Rey-Rey" Arteaga to match day one opponents.

Pool B has GOAT as the top seed. Expect Toronto's best to put a stronger showing than at CUT. Bodhi (Mass based club) and Mephisto (Montreal) had better showings at CUT than expected, and will look to upset if GOAT doesn't bring it in pool play. Sons of Liberty was 1-5 at CUT, and will have to be better to survive the pre quarter final cross overs.

Pool C has local sentimental favorite DoG and two Washington/Baltimore based teams. Colt 45 had a miserable first tournament in Cazenovia and has to rebound in this tournament.

Pool D has three teams (Pike, Forge, and Brooklyn) who suffered early season failure and are paying for it in the seedings. Forge was very hyped (talked about is probably the better way of saying it) before the season started and I hope Pittsburgh sees results to meet expectations. Providence Pack Dogs round out the pool, and they could surprise.

Pool E is an interesting one. Philly Love and Run Silent Run Deep should be evenly matched in their head to head game. Red Tide has the ability to play above or below seed depending on the roster present. Magma from Montreal is reportedly much improved from last year, but might have a very daunting task in this pool.

Pool F has some strong Canadian content. Red Circus of Halifax is, in my opinion, often underrated every year in Canadian circles. Having seen the roster, I think Grand Trunk of Toronto might be the very best B team east of Vancouver this decade. Lots of depth and talent. I think the Metro Boston All Stars was a huge ringer team that dominated their pool games last year, so opponents should prepare accordingly. Roots of Rythym is a classic American team in this area of the bracket- Looks a little unorganized, has a guy with big dreads, and has some guys that can huck and play the deep game.

Pool G and H do not feature UPA finals candidates for this season, but these pools might show you how the game is developing for the good. Instead of pick up teams and unorganized chaos, one sees actual travel teams and teams that you want to see. Pool H features Montreal's Demon, Mephisto's B team that features ex Firebird revelation Phil Boisvert. He's a huge prospect that plays a great deep game already, very natural.

Wild Predictions

Final 8- GOAT, Ironside, Truck Stop, Mephisto, Pike, PoNY, Bodhi, Phoenix
Final 4- Ironside, Bodhi, Truck Stop, GOAT
Finals- Ironside over GOAT


Women

Still no pools or schedule up yet... but I'll venture some guesses..

Canadian Content

• Stella from Ottawa
• Storm from Montreal
  
• Lotus from Toronto
• Mystik from Montreal
• QUB from Quebec City
• Salty from Halifax

Final 8- Brute Squad, Pop, Ozone, Godiva, Stella, Storm, Lotus, Nemesis
Final 4- Brute Squad, Nemesis, Lotus, Storm
Finals- Brute Squad over Lotus

* Note that wild predictions were done on estimation.. not researched properly and aim only to start conversation.

Boston Invite 2009 Preview- Rank the Elite Pools

Nation,

Seedings and Pools for the Boston Invite have not been posted. In anticipation of my preview, I thought I would post the possible Elite Open and Women's teams and have readers rank them.

• If the tourney only has 8 teams in the power pools, which 8 teams should be in Saturday's power pools?
• Seeding?

Elite Women- Possible Teams

Bent

Brute Squad

Hatch

Havoc

Lady Godiva

Lotus

missCONNduct

Mystik

Nemesis

Ozone

Pop

QUB

Salty

Sauce

Scandal

Stella

Storm

Sugarshack

Elite Open- Possible Teams

DoG

Bodhi

Brooklyn

Colt .45

Forge

GOAT

Ironside

Medicine Men

Mephisto

Metro Boston All-Stars of New York

Philly Love

Phoenix

Pike

Pride of New York

Sons of Liberty

Truck Stop

Wiretap

No Surf 2009 Results, Northern Flights 2009

Nation,

This past weekend was the Northern Flights tournament. Flights is a great tournament in North Bay, Canada with a long history. The party has always been good, tournament central is buzzing on Saturday afternoon with games of Cups and field dinner action, and the level of play has always been buoyed by local teams, pick up squads of open/womens teams, and club coed teams.

Ottawa Juniors versus Dockers at Northern Flights 2009 (Photo courtesy Thom Ferguson)

It's not as wild as Blender. But it's a lot cheaper and probably has a equal/better level of play

After looking at the team list for this year, I am a little concerned about the lack of club teams signed up for the tournament. Why would so many good Ontario and Quebec teams be missing out on the NoBo experience.

I don't have any official results yet, but I can only assume Dockers finished first, Liquid second, and fun was had. (Note: Please post Results readers!)

No Surf- Open

No Surf is Cleveland's summer ultimate event. Never been, but I would probably like to experience the city and the tournament once in the near future.

On the open side, Canada was represented by Grand Trunk, Too Bad, and ROY. The pools were filled with a number of solid middle upper tier teams from the surrounding areas. For instance, Bear Proof is good team that we played at JazzFest last summer and really surprised us. One cutter from that team (great speed, huge ups for a smallish guy) still haunts our team. :)

Madcow won the open tourney, going 8-0 and beating Haymaker in the finals.

Too Bad went 2-4, beating Toronto rivals GT in Saturday play. Finished in the Top 8.
Grand Trunk went 1-5, but beat finalist Haymaker during Saturday pool play. Finished 10th
ROY goes 4-3, and finishes 19th.

No Surf- Women

On the women's side, Scarlett (Ottawa) and Lily (Toronto) represented Canada on the womens side of No Surf.

Lily went 1-2 on day one pool play and were able to beat Scarlett in the cross overs.

Scarlett went 0-3 in pool play, and lost a close 8-6 game to Lily in the crossovers.

Results of the quarters are not posted yet, but it looks like Scarlett has a very tough match against Karate Chop Action. Lily was set to face BUS, who went 3-1 on Saturday and had barely squeaked by Lily by one point in pool play.

The "Off Hand" Debate- Enough with the Stupidity!

Nation,

On my local league forum, there is a feverish debate going on from the "local experts" regarding off hand throwing. The original question was this.

Should I practice throwing with my less dominant arm? Submitted by XXXXX on June 19, 2009 - 8:09pm. Ultimate General Discussion Personally I think it's not completely beneficial, but still potentially effective. Is there anyone who feels that having the ability to throw with either arm essential?

I am very disappointed with some of the responses. Here is a snippet of the general conversation

• Someone who is not a doctor (even on TV) states that "A side benefit is that your left and right muscular development will be less out of balance and thus you will be less likely to suffer injury".
• "I've been working on my lefty throws for nearly 5 years. And though they look great in warm-up"
• Another post "I got great advice from a top comp handler many years ago when I was just starting to throw with both hands: master your throws with one hand first, then work on the other."
• Another piece of advice "If you're already great at more standard throws, work on your lefty throws"

Let me just state my case:

1. The number of players that are truly great at throwing in the world would be shockingly small. Many of us can hit general areas, but few of us have truly mastered throws on our dominant hand
2. As an ultimate player reading this (you), I can almost guarantee you that no one watches you warm up. And no one thinks throwing off hand is cool. They might think less seriously of you and the sport, but these watchers/fans probably don't exist in the first place.
   
3. People that are not doctors, or certified strength and training professionals shouldn't be giving tips on muscular development and injury prevention.
   
4. There is nothing, and I mean nothing, that you can't throw with your dominant hand in ultimate.
   
5. Do you see Quarterbacks throwing with both hands in the NFL? Do you see pitchers (who would actually utilize an asset in being able to throw with both hands) throwing opposite arms in MLB? No, because it's stupid and it doesn't help.

Why are people fascinated with using their off hand to throw? I don't know. Maybe this happens in every sport, where lots of decent athletes waste time on silly parts of the game (looking for enjoyment) instead of focusing on advancing as an efficient and valuable player.

There is a reason you have a dominant hand. Use it.