Moving Indoors!!

Due to the present time of the year it gets dark earlier in the day. Sadly because of this ultimate Frisbee must begin to be played indoors. This can be great news for some fans of indoor ultimate. However, other players are not such huge fans of this inevitable move. The first thing an outsider of ultimate Frisbee has to know about indoor ultimate is that it is an entirely different way to play the game of ultimate. For one thing there may be, depending on how many players come out, multiple teams that rotate in after either team makes three points. Secondly, there are less people in active play for each team. Typically during outdoor we have seven people out on the field for each team, but during indoor we have four people out on the playing area for each team. Indoor is great for two reasons they are as follows: One, no one is allowed to hide behind their teammates because there are so few people on each team and in order for a team to score and do well, everyone on the team must be active and participate. The second reason indoors is great is because it makes players have to cut more often and harder. Since practices are held in the recreational gym, there is not a whole lot of space that can be used for cutting. Knowing this, cuts must be quick and back to back, they must also be hard sometimes a cut has to be made at even a 90 degree angle. Indoors I have found as a first year ultimate player is a fantastic time. It has really improved my skill in the game as a whole and I see this in all of my other teammates as well.

*Great things to look forward to: Next semester tournaments begin!!! Be on the lookout for these!! (: 

Leaf Raking 2011!!!!

So every year the Eastern Exiles have raked leaves in order to raise funds for our team. We have to raise money because, unlike sports teams we do not have a budge through the school. We have to raise our own money in order to participate in tournaments. Tournaments, I have only recently found out, are very costly. Each team must pay from around $45-$70. We also have to pay for transportation to and from each tournament. Knowing this we must work our butts off in hopes of raising enough money for the entire year. Luckily, with great Exile team members leaf raking can actually be a lot of fun! It is tons of hard work, but we do what's necessary. We raked leaves for two days Saturday from about 9:30am-5:00pm and Sunday for about the same amount. We rake leaves for great families, as an reward not only did they give us cash, but they gave us twixes!! Now that's a great reward we can personally get our hands on. That was a treat! I now as I am sure we all as a team have a greater love for twixes than we once have had.

Lucky for us Radnor township is quite wealthy so they were able to pay us well. However, this also meant that the members of this lovely community also had huge yards. This is why it requires so much time for us to move one house to another. I personally was unable to help out today, Sunday, but I do know on Saturday we raked leaves for about four different houses or so. In a single day we were able to raise $1,000, I know insane right?! I couldn't believe it either, but after that day I realized we definitely worked for it.... That's for sure.... Until next year leaf raking, until next year...

A Girls Night According to The Exiles

Laughter is fantastic, I think Molly and Diana can agree on that one

Well, the first step to having a good girls night is to have pizza and lots of it. With pizza and no boys around we get to eat as much as we want and we could careless to what anyone else thinks. Another thing that must be included in a successful girls night is a good movie. Lucky for us Rachel Andreason has fantastic movies, so we didn't have any trouble with this at all. Ahh... the girl's night. What great memories were formed and deepened friendships were made. For you, as my reader, to get a good grasp of the events that had occurred you must be able to view a few of the many pictures that were taken on this great night.

The upperclassmen, we follow their example 

             

I know right? Very attractive, we were told to try our best to look as sexy as possible. (I personally think this was a success on our parts. 

The Exiles, What's Behind the Name

When you hear the word exiles, what do you normally think of? Loners and outcasts perhaps? Well I know for me I thought this same thing. I wondered why do we have this name? I never understood this name for our team until we were kicked off the turf field due to "sports teams". Coaches and athletic trainers would sort of scoff at us, whenever we said "we need to practice". They would make sly remarks like, "we pay for this field", etc. They were very rude and did not hold us to the same standard as their particular sport. We truly felt in the moment exiled from even our school, the place that was supposed to accept us. As a club sport we are often behind all other "real" sports. We are not looked at twice. This is hard for us, we work so hard on a weekly basis training and playing our hearts out and sometimes we are just tossed aside with no place to practice. We often times have to practice on Doane hill, Doane hill is great in that it gives us an alternative place to play. However, there are a lot more injuries involved sadly. I actually personally pulled my hamstring because of playing in such an awkward non-leveled playing ground; this was challenging.
Even when we did have ownership to the turf soccer players would encroach on the playing area we had access to. They triumphed us in everything. Don't get me wrong, I love Eastern sports, but I still feel like when we are on the turf and you as a sports team are not scheduled to be on it, get off, it is our turn with it now. This is a little bit of behind the scenes, this is how I feel we have gained this name of "the exiles", and as a team we wear our jerseys proudly saying, "we are the exiles".

*For anyone who thinks ultimate Frisbee is not a sport, check out this video!! And I urge you to reconsider!

How To Read A Disc

Reading a disc can be very complicated, but in order for you (as my audience) to further understand "reading a disc", you have to know what reading a disc is. Reading a disc is when you can tell where a disc is going to go based on the angle of the disc in the air, the release, the wind, and the speed of it. You are a good reader if you can anticipate where the disc is going to be before anyone else does. Even if you are not as fast as someone else, if you able to read a disc you have a greater advantage over your opponent regardless of your personal speed. A disc that is flat will most likely go far and fast or slow depending on the power of the wind. Whereas the disc in which is slanted will fall fast and in the direction of where the disc is slanted towards. Reading a disc can seem like common sense, but this is usually because the player has had a lot of practice. Some discs are easier to read than others. It takes practice and experience to know where  a disc is going. There are many drills that can help a player develop these reading skills. Practice makes perfect!

To gain further understanding of how to read a disc click here!

Drills, Drills and More Drills!

Eastern's Ultimate Frisbee team just like any other club sports team have many drills. Some of our drills consist of  us practicing our "cuts" which is what we do when we try to get away from our defender in order to catch the disc. While some other drills help us learn how to "read" the disc. You "read" a disc well if you can tell which way it is going based on its angle, speed, and height.

During this week of practice we as a team all stood at the bottom of Doane hill preparing to read and to catch the disc. There were probably about a good thirty people at practice that day all ready to catch the disc at the same time. There was sprinting, pushing, jumping, and diving all involved in order to not be in the bottom three people left. If you were one of the three people left after everyone else had already caught a disc you were out. Then everyone before you who were able to successfully read and catch a disc came back until eliminating everyone except two people. Once we were down to two those two amazingly talented players would go up against each other in best two out of three. After the other person who had failed to surpass the other player won, he or she was crowned with glory.

There are some mixes in people who enjoy this drill and who absolutely despise this drill. Some people played their hearts while others scuffed in the background and said "Not this again". As it was my personal first time participating in this drill, I  rather enjoyed it, excited for the new challenge. We did this drill twice, the first time I did well, the second time not so much. But even so, as I watched my fellow team mates compete with each other a smile was constantly spread across my face and I was very proud of each and every member of my team. This weeks practice was a smashing success I can't wait to see what our team's captains next drill will be.

For more background on common Ultimate Frisbee drills Click here! 

Go Hard or Go Home

Time and again, I am constantly reminded of the dedication and perseverance of Eastern's Ultimate Frisbee club. As I reminisce back on Ted, oh Ted. Ted an incoming Freshman decided to participate in this fantastical club, but shortly after a few practices broke his collar bone. I personally did not witness this all I remember is hearing an ambulance and later finding out it was for someone on our team, and then that it was Ted. Ted is an example all players of Ultimate should follow. He sometimes still comes out to throw around or just to support us. He never stops his crazy nature. Ted participated in other activities such as "Humans vs. Zombies" a short game on campus. Ted was a zombie and laid an ambush for a group of humans, myself being one of them. He hid inside the pond! Inside of it! No exaggeration on this part and then chased after us until he was  stunned by a Nerf gun bullet. Ted I think is an example all of us Ultimate Frisbee players should take. So Ted,  I hope you enjoy this shout out as your fellow team mates I hope we will take strides to be more like you, we are to go hard or go home.