Meta tags:

Headings (most frequently used words):

2007, the, monday, june, of, july, no, ultimate, content, for, tarr, blog, being, bully, updated, approach, to, plus, minus, stat, time, saving, form, letter, august, 25th, importance, saying, stupid, things, behind, wall, cleats, nba, divisions, tournament, stratification, sounds, like, good, title, getting, hang, this, league, thing, 21, in, defense, handler, zone, offense, about, me, november, 19, tuesday, october, 16, wednesday, 25, 23, 02, 18, friday, 15, thursday, 14, saturday, 09, may, 07, links, archives,

Text of the page (most frequently used words):
the (354), and (113), that (82), was (53), they (53), for (52), this (51), have (43), team (42), are (41), but (38), league (35), not (33), you (33), game (32), teams (30), with (29), there (28), 2007 (27), play (27), than (26), #handler (26), more (25), one (25), out (23), points (21), efficiency (21), about (20), two (20), other (19), had (19), when (18), some (18), from (18), get (18), can (17), played (16), should (15), comments (15), expected (15), tarr (14), just (14), point (14), what (14), against (14), their (14), division (14), any (13), were (13), games (13), these (12), offensive (12), time (12), people (12), all (12), who (12), which (12), very (12), would (12), only (12), divisions (12), your (11), three (11), has (11), good (11), most (11), into (11), posted (11), player (11), cup (11), now (11), players (11), why (11), dump (10), zone (10), offense (10), been (10), really (10), break (10), know (10), because (10), men (10), pretty (10), lot (10), win (10), plus (10), minus (10), scored (10), disc (9), swing (9), think (9), set (9), like (9), will (9), last (9), few (9), want (9), top (9), score (9), blog (8), back (8), new (8), deep (8), playing (8), way (8), our (8), running (8), don (8), bad (8), how (8), tournament (8), them (8), patriots (8), rules (7), better (7), middle (7), look (7), popper (7), approach (7), then (7), many (7), before (7), field (7), using (7), second (7), mixed (7), got (7), going (7), well (7), june (6), may (6), 2006 (6), average (6), ultimate (6), traditional (6), pass (6), four (6), rather (6), throw (6), often (6), monday (6), first (6), leagues (6), finals (6), adjusted (6), both (6), made (6), call (6), playoffs (6), thing (6), make (6), each (6), after (6), overall (6), belichick (6), record (6), interesting (5), talk (5), defense (5), handlers (5), several (5), reasons (5), best (5), ideas (5), let (5), give (5), over (5), help (5), catch (5), run (5), things (5), too (5), winning (5), level (5), club (5), guys (5), thought (5), ratio (5), another (5), much (5), seems (5), could (5), elite (5), power (5), even (5), nobody (5), different (5), his (5), upa (5), july (4), reason (4), where (4), side (4), wing (4), hard (4), enough (4), take (4), basically (4), mean (4), having (4), full (4), place (4), defensive (4), position (4), cutters (4), less (4), short (4), such (4), sense (4), easy (4), either (4), third (4), far (4), sets (4), behind (4), same (4), late (4), fall (4), those (4), every (4), although (4), fact (4), man (4), turns (4), half (4), while (4), including (4), always (4), still (4), lost (4), didn (4), right (4), tournaments (4), div (4), idea (4), edge (4), nba (4), away (4), extra (4), year (4), total (4), without (4), did (4), say (4), positive (4), anything (4), stat (4), scores (4), divide (4), pats (4), starters (4), already (4), updated (3), content (3), rec (3), sport (3), title (3), effective (3), structure (3), key (3), given (3), based (3), stead (3), easier (3), around (3), yards (3), generally (3), job (3), relative (3), yes (3), making (3), plays (3), taking (3), furthermore (3), contrast (3), able (3), slightly (3), risk (3), inside (3), thrower (3), downfield (3), situation (3), close (3), off (3), count (3), championship (3), since (3), ever (3), high (3), experience (3), lead (3), managed (3), sure (3), couple (3), worse (3), teammates (3), probably (3), season (3), except (3), women (3), despite (3), calls (3), left (3), week (3), person (3), won (3), seriously (3), put (3), stratification (3), guess (3), pools (3), seeding (3), least (3), con (3), individual (3), number (3), however (3), volleyball (3), little (3), guy (3), said (3), need (3), care (3), obvious (3), favorite (3), seed (3), current (3), conference (3), winners (3), next (3), cleat (3), heard (3), down (3), argument (3), saying (3), consider (3), pointless (3), ways (3), criticism (3), letter (3), simple (3), here (3), 25th (3), whether (3), obtain (3), sockeye (3), expectation (3), manning (3), history (3), injuries (3), moss (3), november (2), october (2), march (2), february (2), usually (2), rule (2), profile (2), denver (2), location (2), post (2), arguing (2), poppers (2), wings (2), popularity (2), single (2), continuation (2), particularly (2), almost (2), personally (2), advantage (2), extremely (2), acting (2), similar (2), beating (2), idris (2), main (2), myself (2), non (2), cutter (2), makes (2), underneath (2), available (2), front (2), conservative (2), overheads (2), fundamentally (2), percentage (2), nearly (2), closer (2), catches (2), doesn (2), loss (2), relatively (2), looks (2), completed (2), original (2), grain (2), forced (2), becomes (2), find (2), crash (2), directly (2), fast (2), mark (2), move (2), outside (2), force (2), breaks (2), once (2), beat (2), area (2), opening (2), doing (2), keep (2), staying (2), losing (2), long (2), ago (2), tries (2), end (2), spring (2), fairly (2), novel (2), offered (2), morning (2), started (2), possible (2), line (2), masters (2), entirely (2), old (2), boston (2), came (2), big (2), pull (2), halftime (2), pulled (2), ahead (2), tired (2), goal (2), nice (2), stack (2), backhand (2), touches (2), goals (2), final (2), size (2), improve (2), corporate (2), together (2), open (2), talent (2), margin (2), victory (2), range (2), matchup (2), tall (2), yelena (2), emily (2), huge (2), part (2), wasn (2), obviously (2), ridiculous (2), speed (2), taste (2), order (2), her (2), though (2), ready (2), rest (2), screwed (2), setup (2), sounds (2), lunchtime (2), might (2), see (2), getting (2), wrote (2), thinking (2), maybe (2), lower (2), sometimes (2), cross (2), pro (2), pool (2), concern (2), result (2), preseason (2), results (2), oppose (2), anecdote (2), court (2), split (2), within (2), reasonably (2), ball (2), couldn (2), figured (2), looked (2), him (2), later (2), hand (2), variation (2), greater (2), absolutely (2), exception (2), anyway (2), worst (2), taken (2), yourself (2), strength (2), expectations (2), drastically (2), issue (2), conferences (2), guaranteed (2), portland (2), utah (2), minnesota (2), milwaukee (2), chicago (2), six (2), years (2), again (2), decade (2), wanted (2), cleats (2), subject (2), sweet (2), conversation (2), recent (2), also (2), days (2), looking (2), blatantly (2), breaking (2), intimidation (2), style (2), never (2), intentionally (2), being (2), matter (2), culture (2), convinced (2), older (2), aside (2), along (2), definitely (2), stupid (2), discuss (2), language (2), done (2), screw (2), sectionals (2), day (2), predicted (2), stuff (2), wish (2), does (2), considered (2), example (2), reporter (2), repeat (2), above (2), marginal (2), add (2), expect (2), gives (2), algorithm (2), argue (2), brady (2), plain (2), string (2), chance (2), question (2), legacy (2), shatter (2), wouldn (2), fan (2), loving (2), garbage (2), clearly (2), questions (2), bully (2), december, january, archives, claim, fame, rarely, links, view, complete, colorado, united, states, name, note, deeps, advantages, explained, steadily, gaining, plenty, swings, forth, sucks, come, windy, grown, lots, notably, used, provided, creative, principles, opinion, active, handful, examples, action, show, covered, proposing, philosophy, formation, fundamental, difference, additional, benefit, converted, calling, buzzing, encouraging, greedy, lose, trying, vets, starter, relief, worry, keeps, process, strike, figure, means, covering, leads, reliance, requires, passes, higher, completion, per, great, optimal, reward, oldie, goodie, yardage, receiver, fakes, quickly, moves, jumping, defenders, thread, throws, follows, receive, beyond, opportunity, hit, crashes, cut, options, sideline, moving, attempting, hole, trusts, overhead, curving, upfield, essentially, exploiting, overloading, create, crashing, jim, zaz, book, jubilantly, career, personal, neat, captured, experiences, supplemental, local, organization, sunday, double, dip, notable, capable, putting, opponents, eligible, seesaw, affair, jumped, early, efficient, patient, mismatches, generated, ironically, oldest, experienced, regularity, ourselves, energy, smarter, matchups, costly, unnecessary, cap, deny, comeback, styles, mix, straight, ran, exclusively, horizontal, hucks, yard, tied, fun, spirit, hope, mentioned, goes, overflow, model, increase, gender, clique, required, ostensible, link, registration, showed, spread, strong, pickups, exactly, gave, trouble, heavy, regular, missing, returned, favor, struggled, savage, normally, success, worn, gut, ugly, biased, stall, mouth, draft, wife, considering, threw, she, unfortunately, round, scheduled, across, previous, confident, doubt, sat, summer, partly, fields, workout, basketball, fighting, rush, hour, mediocre, join, somewhere, hang, saturday, wheelhouse, topics, meaning, wait, talking, devisions, pros, cons, formats, meaningful, handed, relies, initial, crucial, justify, bottom, pay, airfare, travel, unless, slate, requirement, lack, handedness, major, night, harder, path, 9th, ending, judged, attached, finish, significant, realize, allow, meandering, self, indulgent, demonstrate, sand, formal, attempt, balanced, schedule, 4v4, consequently, describing, athletic, placed, subbed, decent, among, spreadsheet, quite, surprised, discover, story, applies, case, dunk, ease, former, varsity, stanford, between, served, noise, true, arguable, stable, attract, conclusion, room, crossover, whenever, overstratify, believing, defy, overrate, ability, predict, dusty, george, requests, thursday, various, sports, columnists, fix, lottery, happened, kooky, implemented, vogue, west, east, imbalance, amazingly, gets, actually, trash, altogether, randomly, determined, proposal, finished, rivals, brings, rivalries, realigning, allows, geographically, reasonable, pacific, seattle, sacramento, golden, state, southwest, phoenix, dallas, houston, san, antonio, midwest, indiana, detroit, cleveland, atlantic, toronto, york, jersey, philly, washington, southeast, memphis, charlotte, atlanta, orlando, miami, orleans, tell, twice, dumb, insanely, stacked, seeds, western, work, map, friday, pair, paid, buy, price, bid, fingers, discontinued, shows, mess, perfect, height, start, light, durable, comfotable, supportive, chances, pairs, share, fortune, blogged, recurring, rsd, threads, college, nation, reputation, aggressive, bending, widespread, trained, observers, gray, abuse, bigger, perspectives, curious, through, addition, yet, freely, admitted, enjoying, physical, occasionally, fouling, admissions, seemed, exceptionally, mellow, friendly, earns, hatred, somewhat, dishonest, jarring, tidbits, confirmed, hat, largely, unspoken, teammate, vocally, suppose, fouls, infractions, leaders, shocker, found, motivation, possession, control, pace, mood, told, layout, under, called, stood, broke, word, dissent, meeting, support, sotg, seep, tiny, degree, wall, counting, leadership, five, gotten, gradually, become, aware, affected, addressing, limit, detailed, absorb, huddle, oddly, important, face, gosh, working, error, comment, twofold, sorts, easily, understood, agreeing, helps, meaty, store, nothing, none, treat, individuals, understand, deal, failure, perfectly, willing, moment, leave, constructive, couched, common, dealing, male, female, walk, eggshells, icing, heel, ankle, clarity, couch, avoid, expressing, anger, frustration, straightforward, try, unacceptable, lapse, habit, screaming, someone, importance, service, community, providing, text, replacements, appropriate, entries, letters, posts, friend, somebody, roster, legit, page, deadline, needed, names, fault, site, slow, 24th, presence, series, carry, asterisk, loves, wrong, deserves, plan, send, until, 26th, search, replace, blame, luck, lodging, complaints, saving, form, august, wednesday, folks, familiar, wonky, statistic, turnovers, blocks, assists, data, compiled, bare, bones, sheet, updates, partially, motivated, suggestions, received, compare, absolute, summary, followed, comparing, instance, currently, predicts, 3ab, compute, subtract, multiply, 5abc, desired, divided, added, ripe, larry, efficency, giving, multiplied, 117, therefore, context, went, entire, weekend, ranged, skewed, toward, exceeded, negative, tend, debated, decided, character, unique, due, wind, effects, assume, splits, purposes, ideally, collect, fully, reported, future, weighted, rri, truest, measure, comparison, jam, tuesday, disclaimer, redskins, remember, indianapolis, argued, continue, endless, debates, hate, certainly, admire, everybody, water, cooler, topic, firstly, gotta, quarters, bullshit, smart, documented, behaving, unconventional, 4th, differing, schemes, special, cetera, problem, rolling, quarter, roll, reserves, further, arch, rival, colts, whose, derail, destiny, shattered, dwight, freeney, midfoot, tidal, wave, spectacular, 6th, tackle, barely, eke, victories, life, nfl, unimportant, skirted, earlier, incur, injury, blowout, imagine, jets, defender, diving, randy, knees, holy, crap, shit, storm, cause, reality, spite, choice, works, psychological, warfare, effectively, minds, aren, embarrassed, records, passer, rating, rice, receiving, heck, settle, resting, home, fanfare, titles, giant, stamp, books, forget, mention, discussed, greats, feel, toss, peyton, piled, tds, 2004, logs, blowouts, numbers, football, buff, himself, recognizes, exclamation, past, slightest, hilarious, press, tried, weren, piling, annoys, root, denials, dodge, minimize, scrutiny, media, invite, likes, supposed, stats, conscious, decision, dismantling, jacksonville, weeks, hey,

Text of the page (random words):
there s really nothing better to say there because too many ideas is just as bad as none at all in order to help people get better you really have to treat them like individuals what i mean is that you have to understand how they deal with failure and how they take criticism there are some people i am one of them who are perfectly willing to discuss the thing s they screwed up that point the moment they leave the field but there are other people who both need time away from the play and need for constructive criticism to be couched in positive language this is more common when i m dealing with women but it is not just a male female thing there are definitely women who want to discuss things right away and there are men who i really have to walk on eggshells with ok i m done icing my left heel and my right ankle so that s enough for now for clarity when i don t couch things in positive language i still avoid expressing anger frustration at them my non positive approach is a straightforward you did x this is why y is better particularly on a mixed team i try to make sure people know it s unacceptable to lapse into the pointless habit of screaming at someone when they screw up posted by tarr 7 23 2007 06 43 00 am 3 comments monday july 02 2007 behind the wall i had an interesting conversation at a recent tournament with a guy who played on a high profile college team around a decade back this was one of the top teams in the nation and it was also one of the teams that had a reputation for aggressive play and bending the rules this was before the days of widespread well trained observers and the gray area for rules abuse was much bigger he was in a very different place as a player now so he offered some interesting inside perspectives to me looking back on those days i ve always been curious about what it was like to be on those teams because they had to know on some level that they were blatantly breaking some rules and were winning through intimidation in addition to talent and yet while these teams had always freely admitted to enjoying a physical style of play and occasionally fouling as a result i ve never heard admissions of intentionally breaking the rules despite this these players have often seemed exceptionally mellow and friendly off the field this contrast nice guys acting in a way that earns them hatred and then being somewhat dishonest about it seems jarring to me a few tidbits i got from this conversation he basically confirmed hat there was a largely unspoken rule on this team that you back your teammate up no matter what the call or situation and you do it vocally that was just the culture of the team that s not too different from a lot of teams now i suppose although he couldn t be sure he was fairly convinced that many of the worst fouls calls infractions that the team leaders made were made intentionally that s no shocker but what i found interesting was that he thought the motivation was not to get that one possession but rather to control the pace style mood of the game most interesting to me was an anecdote he told about a bad call he made he had a layout catch that he got his hand under but the disc was down he called it up and stood by his call after a huge argument broke out nobody on his team said a word in dissent at the time over a week later however after a team meeting one older player on the team pulled him aside and said if the disc is down call it down so you get total support at the time of the call but on some level at least some players on the team wanted to win without making any obviously bad calls along the way so the culture of sotg did seep in to these teams if only to a tiny degree posted by tarr 7 02 2007 02 19 00 pm 0 comments monday june 18 2007 cleats sweet sweet yes i got two pair yes i paid the buy it now price rather than bid and cross my fingers when a cleat that s been discontinued for two years shows up in my size i don t mess around for me the perfect cleat is the 3 4 height speed td maybe they will start making them again and or i will find another cleat as light durable comfotable supportive and effective but i m not taking any chances i have four pairs now which should last me into the next decade i just wanted to share my good fortune idris has blogged about cleats more than once before and there are recurring rsd threads on the subject too posted by tarr 6 18 2007 04 41 00 pm 0 comments friday june 15 2007 nba divisions no ultimate content a lot of talk from various sports columnists about how to fix the nba when the lottery happened a lot of people wrote about how to improve it this was my favorite idea although it s too kooky to ever get implemented now the in vogue idea is to re seed the playoffs 1 16 that way the west east imbalance which amazingly looks like it is going to get worse before it gets better is not an issue i actually like this idea however if you re going to do away with the conferences for seeding why not trash them altogether let s look at it current nba 6 divisions of 5 4 games against each team in your division 3 4 against other teams in your conference randomly determined 2 games against the out of conference teams division winners are guaranteed to be a top 4 seed in their half of the playoffs my proposal 5 divisions of 6 6 games against each team in your division 2 against every other team except an extra game against the 4 teams that finished the same place last year in their division so if you win your division you play 3 games against the other four division winners next year 5 division winners are guaranteed a top 8 seed both are 82 games 6 game sets against your division rivals brings rivalries back to the nba realigning to 5 divisions allows for more geographically reasonable divisions pacific seattle portland sacramento golden state la la southwest utah denver phoenix dallas houston san antonio midwest minnesota milwaukee chicago indiana detroit cleveland atlantic toronto boston new york new jersey philly washington southeast memphis charlotte atlanta orlando miami new orleans seriously look at the current map and tell me that setup doesn t make more sense minnesota plays portland and utah twice as often as they play chicago and milwaukee dumb the only issue there is that the new sw div is insanely stacked the top six seeds in the western conference playoffs but with 1 16 seeding this can still work out posted by tarr 6 15 2007 07 18 00 am 0 comments thursday june 14 2007 tournament stratification sounds like a good title i m doing requests it seems i mean really when he wrote that he may as well have put it as tarr should blog about tournament stratification i guess he could have been thinking of george or maybe dusty but this is right in my wheelhouse i have 3 4 other topics i ve been meaning to blog but they can wait we re talking about tournaments that have elite and lower devisions sometimes these divisions cross into one another sometimes they do not let s lead right out with the main pros and cons of formats with power pools like these pro teams get more meaningful games which is the point of playing con fundamentally not even handed relies more on initial seeding that pro is crucial and is enough to justify power pools a lot of the time the bottom line on power pools is that the elite club teams are not going to pay airfare to travel to a tournament unless they know they are getting a full slate of games against other elite teams so having at least a power pool or two or four on the top is basically a requirement of any top tournament the first con i e lack of even handedness is not a major concern you night have a harder path to win the tournament or only be able to place 9th but nobody s season is ending as a result the point of preseason tournaments is to play and teams should be judged by individual game results as oppose to the number attached to their finish the second con however is more significant than you might realize allow me a meandering self indulgent anecdote to demonstrate my point my new job has a sand volleyball court outside and there is a formal lunchtime volleyball league rather than attempt to make balanced teams and a full schedule the league is split into 8 person divisions and each league game is a different 4v4 matchup within that division there are 56 players and consequently 7 divisions after describing myself as tall and reasonably athletic but with very little v ball experience i got placed in div 5 this week one of my teammates couldn t make the game so a player from another division subbed in he was decent i thought he was about average among the players on the court i figured he was a good 6 or a bad 4 but when i looked him up on the league spreadsheet later i was quite surprised to discover that he was div 2 what was the point of that story that applies to ultimate most people drastically overrate their ability to predict the relative strength of teams players in the case of the v ball league the idea to have divisions is a very good one div 1 has a guy who can two hand dunk with ease and a former varsity volleyball player at stanford but with 7 divisions the variation within a division is far greater than the variation between divisions the league would be well served by 3 or 4 divisions the rest is just noise the same is absolutely true in ultimate the only arguable exception is the few elite men s teams which are pretty stable as i said you need to have a power pool at the top anyway to attract the top teams but even there the worst elite teams usually have very little if any edge over the best open teams in conclusion some stratification in preseason tournaments is a good thing but there should be some room for crossover whenever possible and care should be taken to not overstratify it s easy to talk yourself into believing that there are several big obvious breaks in team strength but the results will often defy such expectations posted by tarr 6 14 2007 07 32 00 pm 4 comments saturday june 09 2007 getting the hang of this league thing 4 for 21 not too long ago i posted jubilantly about winning the second league championship of my career and the first in 17 tries now my personal winning percentage since the end of last fall is a neat 75 as i captured the championship in two of the three spring leagues i played in two of these leagues were fairly novel experiences for me the first of those two was the first men s league i have ever played in this was offered as a supplemental league to the mixed leagues by the local organization the games were played on sunday morning before the mixed games started so it was possible to double dip this league was notable for a pretty high level of play every team was capable of putting out a full line of players with club experience although a lot of these were masters players in fact one team our finals opponents were entirely masters eligible the finals game was a seesaw affair the old guys jumped out to an early lead they were running very efficient offense using the boston 4 man play staying patient and using any mismatches they had on defense they generated some key turns with their zone ironically most of our turns came from our oldest and most experienced players we adjusted and started beating their zone with regularity and got a few big d s ourselves and managed to pull close at halftime we came out in the second half with a lot more energy and we got a lot smarter about matchups we pulled ahead late in the second half and then both teams got tired and we had some very costly and unnecessary turns i was pretty sure the cap was going to deny us a comeback but we managed a four goal run to close the game out and win by two the game was a nice contrast of styles with the old guys running a mix of zone and man and a straight stack offense while we ran almost exclusively force backhand man defense and a horizontal stack offense personally i had a pretty good game two turns including one of my three hucks but a couple d s a lot more touches than my man and several goals including a 60 yard backhand that tied the game in the final run i thought the experience of a men s league was a lot of fun i don t think the spirit level was any worse than the mixed leagues and the level of play was really high i hope that as i mentioned a while back the league goes to a overflow men play men s league model which will both increase the size of the men s league and improve the gender ratio of the mixed league the other novel league i played in was a clique league i ve played in a corporate league before but it s been a long time and other corporate leagues i ve played in always required some ostensible link other than we want to play together this league was entirely open registration and it showed in the talent spread my team which had several of my club teammates as well as some other strong pickups probably had an average margin of victory in the 2 1 range there was exactly one team that gave us trouble another club heavy team that had a couple of my teammates as well in the regular season matchup where we were missing all our tall guys except me they beat us by 1 in the finals we returned the favor we struggled in finals since our women had to play savage normally yelena and emily are a huge part of our success but yelena was worn out by halftime and emily wasn t there still we managed to gut out the win despite a pretty ugly final few points i m obviously biased but i thought they made two very bad calls in the last three points including a ridiculous speed up stall call on a goal the game left a bad taste in my mouth despite the win and it would have left a much worse taste had we lost the third league the only one i didn t win was the draft mixed b league i played the b league in order to play with my wife considering how many goals i threw to her this spring though i think she s ready to play in the a league unfortunately i wasn t able to play in the playoffs of this league as the first round of b league playoffs was scheduled across from the men s finals the rest of the men s league playoffs had been played over the previous week i was the only player in the finals of men s league who was in b league so i was the only person screwed by this setup while i m very confident my b league team would have won their opening game with my help they lost by three i seriously doubt we would have won the league so i will count this as a loss still 4 21 sounds a lot better than 1 17 which is where i sat last fall i m not playing any summer leagues partly because my new job is really far from the fields and i can get a good workout with lunchtime basketball in stead of fighting rush hour to play mediocre ultimate i might join up late to a league somewhere though we ll see posted by tarr 6 09 2007 10 49 00 pm 0 comments monday may 07 2007 in defense of the 3 handler zone offense note the title of this post is not in defense of the traditional dump swing zone offens...