USC Men's Ultimate

Here are the videos from the Chalk Talk with Okaya on Wednesday. Check em out!

Part 1- Field Vision

Part 2- Throwing Lanes

Part 3- Rotation of Throwing Lanes

Part 4- Video Example

Part 5- Ghetto video examples

Part 6- Nationals example

Part 7 (last)- Nationals example and Joe McKnight move

The Ghettobirds took their first day success into the Championship Bracket on Sunday at the Pres Day Invite, and we didn’t disappoint.

We drew Chico State as our first match of the day at 9am. Chico finished last in their “power pool”- the tournament was designed with 2 power pools consisting of the 10 best teams, and then 2 other pools of everybody else. Every team in the power pool made it to the Championship Bracket but only the top team of each of the other 2 pools made it in, so we were one of those 2 top teams. Long story short, Chico was seeded higher than us.

We came into the match sore from the day before, but fired up.

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The Ghettobirds were seeded the first in their pool at the Pres Day Invite in San Diego. And we lived up to our expectations.

For the first time in recent memory, the Ghettobirds went undefeated in the first day as we went 4-0 to finish first in our pool and move into the Championship Bracket. We outscored our opponents 52-17 on the day.

First up was Long Beach B. The Ghettobirds came out hard and destroyed their zone defense they threw enroute to a 13-2 win. For his stellar offense, Souren was name King of the Game.

Next up was Arizona State. They put up a fight and had some physical play, but we prevailed and won 13-7. Matty Ice took home King of the Game honors here.

After the bye game, we came out against Cal-B and former Ghettobird (and Jeopardy winner Shadd) and shredded their zone to cruise to a 13-5. For his fantastic pulls and great enthusiasm in his first Ultimate tournament in 6 months, V-Neck was named King of the Game.

Lastly, we played San Diego (USD). We’ve had trouble with them in the past but they lost a lot of seniors and we prevailed 13-3. For his great pull that nobody knew he had, Thomas was named the King of the Game.

Overall, a great day for the Ghettobirds as we move into the Championship Bracket tomorrow. Stay tuned…

The Ghettobirds traveled to Las Vegas last weekend to play in the mega tournament, Trouble in Vegas.

It was cold. It was rainy. It was windy. It was awesome.

The Birds were placed in a pool with Notre Dame, Whitworth and UConn to play on Friday. All of these teams come from climates with much more weather than Los Angeles, which is a good thing most of the time but not so much during Ultimate tournaments.

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We didn’t have a game until 12:30 on Sunday afternoon, which was a bit odd. Usually we have to wake up before the sun and get to the fields before our 8am game. But with the unusual starting time, we didn’t know what to do with ourselves in the morning. Most of us were exhausted from the day before and went to sleep around 10:30, so even though we are college students, waking up at 9 didn’t seem so bad.

After getting breakfast (breakfast burrito at Whole Foods=$7/pound, Kyle and Kenny got $10 burritos- not the smartest choice as we later learned) many of us watched the Hellions play. They went 4-0 on the first day and had to play at 8am. We went 1-4 and our first game was at 12:30. I think there is a lesson somewhere in there and they can learn a thing or 2 from us (they did finish 2nd though, which is very good).

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It turned out to be a great weekend for Ultimate in San Diego as the Ghettobirds played the last tournament of the fall at UCSD.

We played our first game against Arizona-B at the bright and early time of 8am, and we got off to a blistering start. We took the first 4 points, which were highlighted by a sick Callahan from Kyle. As an Arizona player dumped the disc in his own endzone, Kyle came storming in from out of nowhere to catch it centimeters off the ground for the score! Brian Ball also had a nice deep forehand to Jas for a score. However, Arizona came back and we held a slim 6-5 lead at half. But after halftime, we came out with the energy we displayed in the first few points and won handily 11-7. It was the first time in a while that the Ghettobirds had won the first game of the day!

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Sometimes when things aren’t going right, it helps to have a parent or two around to get things back on the right track.

That was the case on November 7, as the USC men’s ultimate team looked lost in two early defeats to San Diego State’s T and J teams. But during the bye game, Ethan Thompson’s parents came through in the clutch and delivered the motivation that the Ghettobirds lacked: orange slices and subway sandwiches.

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The USC men’s ultimate frisbee team recently played in the Irvine Huckfest over Halloween weekend.

This was the first tournament that the Ghettobirds brought rookies to and they didn’t disappoint. In fact, this was the first tournament in memory in which the Ghettobirds brought 2 teams because of the high numbers that have expressed interest in playing for USC! This was great news, and while it meant less subs for each team, it also meant more playing time, which is all you can ask for in the fall. [Read more →]

Guys–

We’re making great progress at our practices.  We can get even better if we start thinking and learning more about ultimate outside of practice.  Luckily, there are a number of resources online that can help.  One very useful site is The Huddle, an online magazine written by some of the best players in the country. They have 25 issues up currently, all of which go into a lot more detail than what we’ve covered so far. The Huddle also has an annotated video up of the 2007 UPA Club finals (Seattle Sockeye vs. Boulder Johnny Bravo). Watch a few points or all of them, and be sure to read what the players have written. While you’re watching, try to look for some of things we have talked about in practice. [Read more →]

It was a solid weekend for the Ghettobirds and we traveled down to Long Beach to play in Club Sectionals. Despite the fact that many of the players we played against were older, at the end of their season (read: in shape), and more experienced, we were able to move the disk and play some shutdown defense as we looked much better this weekend than we ever have at the start of a season.

The first game Saturday was a brutal one, as we drew the eventual champions, Strike Slip, which featured USC coach ATM- so they had some inside knowledge on how we run our team. It was a tough game, as Ghetto lost 11-1, but we did manage to put on an effective zone defense that even the most experienced players said they had trouble reading and breaking. Sophomore Alan Hsieh pulled down the lone score for Das Bird in the game. [Read more →]