Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Dear Diary ....


Firestorm completed its first full week of training last week, and Mike had the clever idea of getting a few people to write up a few reflections, and then of suggesting I post them here. Even if you have nothing to do with Firestorm, these are interesting reads to discover what all this 'training' thing is about.

First up we have the ever awesome Liam:

Tuesday 8 January saw the first training session of Firestorm for 2008, and the first training session ever for FS for some people. Although there were some new faces in the crowd, the mood was just the same. Everyone rocked up early, got in some early throws, and then the warm up was back on. The pace was surprisingly good for a first session, although the shock to the system was more than usual with the January heat, compared to the August “heat” of last years training sessions.

After a quick talk from Mike “Space Needle” Neild it was into a hundred throws drill. This drill didn’t have the same running and other rewards between throws as last year, but that will undoubtedly come with time. After this drill we were told that there would be no “reward” tonight for the completion of that drill but were told this would also come later, the rookies don’t know the fire and hell their legs are in for, look forward to it boys!

After some long huck drills (boys, remember to cut up the middle of the field!) and a few games of “3-points” it was determined that neither yellow or black had won, therefore no one deserved the rewards that were on offer, and everyone was resigned to doing 100 star jumps, a very aesthetically pleasing activity…NOT!

While the session make-up was very similar to last year’s sessions, the enthusiasm was higher than I had expected. This reflects the make up of the squad and, while we may not be the most highly skilled team in terms of Frisbee experience, we will certainly beat a number of teams based on raw heart, athleticism and height, lots of height.

Special mention to 2 “rookies” from the night. Ben “Beej” Blackman (who is only a rookie in terms of games played for FS) with a huge layout D that he later admitted he was trying to mack into the endzone (only about 20metres away) and Julian “Jules” Sacre with the only other block on the night.

FS is looking good, I’m feeling pumped and I think with the height and heart of the team, we can perhaps adopt Thong’s motto of “Too big, too strong”.

And then, from the Fantastic Jules:

So Mike has asked me to reflect on the first week of training from a “first-season” player’s perspective. I fear that this can only strengthen the “Rookie” tag that Spinner loves to throw at me, but anyway…here goes.

The first training of the year on Tuesday night saw a pretty impressive turnout. No doubt, people were pretty keen to feel a disc back in their hands – if you are anything like me, withdrawal symptoms from lack of frisbee were definitely an issue over the christmas and new year break and the prospect of getting back to playing some high level men’s ultimate was exciting. During a few warm-up laps, many of us took the opportunity to introduce ourselves to other guys on the team, and while most of us knew each other, it was good to finally put some names to faces we have previously only seen on opposition lines at BPL.

With almost all of my frisbee experience pretty much limited to our various nightly leagues during the week, it was a new thing to turn up solely for the purpose of training for frisbee, rather than going to play a game. And it became pretty clear that organised frisbee training is very different from your warm-up drill before league or going for a casual throw on the weekend. We completed an extensive throwing drill, a hucking/deep cutting drill and some gameplay. What I found really beneficial was being able to practice some skills that you normally wouldn’t try in a game. I guess being presented with a challenge forces you to improve, and that in turn makes you a better ultimate player which is what this is all about.

The night concluded with some gameplay – short games of 3 points from O and D. I think it was at this point that many of the guys were starting to feel the effects of the repetitive sprinting - and possibly regretting the indulgences of a few weeks of overeating and long periods on the couch watching cricket. Fatigue probably contributed to a few turns and some competition for spots on the sideline, but overall the standard was kept high with some impressive plays.

In case we 1st seasoners needed reminding that this isn’t YUFL, Thursday evening saw a bunch of us get together under some grey skies in the Roma St parklands to thrash out Beej’s ultimate fitness program. Very challenging, but there’s nothing like sharing some pain to promote a bit of team bonding. I was impressed with how specific the circuit was to ultimate – a lot of lunge-type power exercises and short sprints. It was good to do that stuff in a group too – I’ve always received some strange looks when I do those pivots with a disc on my own in the gym.

So, overall a great first week. I’m sure I speak for all the Firestorm ‘rookies’ in saying that I’m looking forward to training hard over the next few months, learning from some of the best players around and playing some high level ultimate.

Hopefully Jules and Liam will be able to keep up the diarising as the Firestorm campaign goes forward!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Jdr.

Completely off topic but there is nowhere to comment for the polls (yes i do admit to opting to call the yeam F*&K and S#^T but only for the immediate shits and giggles)

I too was thinking about names from history, but i think WWII is a little too recent and Dresden was pretty much wiped from the face of the planet.
Not sure about Tokyo but i know for sure that the fires in Dresden were only started by allied bombing raids to bring the manufacturing capital to its knees. So in truth, they weren't really fires.

I had a look through some history books at home and found some... well, firestorms. These events were FREAKIN huge and started from small events much like our club is starting to build up speed and ferocity.

The first was the Great Fire of London in 1666. Started mistakenly by the Kings Baker who forgot to douse his fire. The Firestorm burned non-stop for 3 days and nights destroying 13,000 homes and 87 Parish churches as well as St Pauls Cathedral. 70,000 of the 80,000 residents of London were left homeless. To give you a perspective of this firestorm, steel lying on the docks melted as well as the Iron Locks on the citys gates.

So i propose the following names for one of the firestorm teams.
"Bludder" (Sir Thomas Bludworth, Lord Mayor of London- the guy who failed to put the fires out)

"Farynor" (Thomas Farynor- Kings Baker who started it all)

"Pudding" (The name of the lane Farynor lived on)


Thats my first Suggestion for one of the team names. I'll do the other team in another post


Will
Firestorm #69

Anonymous said...

OK, so onto the names i thought up for the second team.

This firestorm is alot older but just as potent.

In 64.AD in the City of Rome several fires started in shops surrounding Romes massive charriot stadium. The fire spead incredibly fast due to the summer heat and dry winds and raged for six days then appeared to come under control but eluded firemen and continued to rage for another three days (i think that says something about refusing to die when your about to go out ie: the Fakulti game last year. Nothing says "im not going to go out like a 8-14 comeback to win the game)

When the smoke cleared in the city of 2 million the damage was 10 out of the 14 of the city districts had been completly destroyed by the firestorm.

So! to names.
2 come prominently to mind.
"Tacitus" A Roman Noble (a young man at the time) who recorded the event putting his suspiscions down on paper as to who was the perpetrator for this Firestorm and pretty much hit the nail on the head.

"Nero" (Not NEO you matrix geeks!) Nero was the Emperor of Rome at the time and was a real badass. Tacitus and modern Historians agree that Nero had his goons start the fires so he could bypass the senate and rebuild Rome the way he wanted it. After the fires Nero immediately built a set of Villas and a man made lake on top of burnt out districts all for himself. Its also written that Nero's thugs stopped citizens from trying to put out the fires and were responsible for the fire restarting. I like this name, basically the Mongrel attitude of Nero. If you want something bad enough, you damn well go get it, and if it takes a little fire, then all the better.


ok enough rambling from me.
But i think they are some really solid names for the teams (particuarly the Roman ones). They are all about fire and they all start from something small, just like us, we're about to errupt.


Will