It was a very long, very cold winter this year, and our blog posts pretty much dried up during that time. We could make excuses all day, but suffice it to say that primarily, there just wasn't much going on to write about.

Not that there wasn't any activity to speak of--LUDA commissioners spent the winter holed up in our houses, setting goals, working hard, and laying plans for the impending ultimate year. Here is what's happening in 2010:

LUDA Spring League
Spring League has actually already begun. We have four teams, and after the first night of games on Wednesday, it's clear that this will be a very competitive season!

Nebraskionals
2010 brings a lot of "firsts" to LUDA. The first of the firsts is Nebraskionals, Nebraska's first ever state championship for high school ultimate teams. The tournament will take place on Saturday, May 15th. (Further details pending.) If you have a high school team and would like to participate, please let us know (ludaleague@yahoo.com)!

LUDA Summer League
LUDA's vision for leagues has evolved to the point that spring and fall leagues will be shorter, while the summer league will be a much bigger deal. Partially, this is due to the fact that spring and fall offer limited daylight and more rigorous time demands on all players, while summer is...well, it's summer!

Therefore, while spring and fall leagues will run for about six weeks each, summer league will be about eight weeks long. The swag will be even better than usual, and we're planning to offer on-site child care so parents can bring their kids and play without having to babysit. 

As always, all skills levels and gender are welcome! Signup information will be available upon conclusion of LUDA Spring League 2010.

Cornhusker State Games
We are proud to bring ultimate Frisbee to the venerated Cornhusker State Games for the very first time in 2010! The ultimate portion of the festivities will take place on June 26-27. The categories are Open and Youth. If you have a team to bring, submit a bid today! If you do not have a team to call your own, you're not alone. Fill our team finder form, and we'll get you connected to others and form an ad hoc team (or two or three).

For more info, contact Ultimate Frisbee Tournament Director Tim Montgomery timo_monty@hotmail.com  or (573) 999-1711 or contact Assistant Director Chris Urbauer 402-601-7475.

And check out the ultimate page at CSG's website: http://www.cornhuskerstategames.com/games/sports/ultimate_frisbee.

Cancer Benefit
On a date TBA, LUDA will be hosting an event to raise awareness of and funds to fight breast cancer. For this event, moreso than any other, we need volunteers and community partners!

Nebraska Youth Ultimate Summer League
Details are TBA, but LUDA will host the first ever Nebraska Youth Ultimate Summer League in summer 2010. Players of all ages (under 19), skill levels, and genders are welcome. And like other LUDA leagues, you don't have to have a team; just register on your own, and previously selected captains will draft all registrants.

The biggest upside to the Nebraska Youth Ultimate Summer League, other than fun, friendship, and competition, is that league participants may have the opportunity to represent Nebraska at the Youth Club Championships in August!

Youth Club Championships
The Youth Club Championships (http://www.upa.org/juniors/championships/YCC), or YCC, is the UPA-sponsored youth ultimate national championship. LUDA will send a team of select players from the Nebraska Youth Ultimate Summer League to YCC in Blaine, MN on August 14-15. This is incredibly exciting, as it's a terrific opportunity for youth players to represent themselves and Nebraska at the national level.

LUDA Fall League
LUDA Fall League 2010 will be approximately six weeks long and will offer everything you've come to expect from LUDA leagues--including excellent swag!

LollapaLUDA
LollapaLUDA is our annual hat tournament. We're very excited for LollapaLUDA III in fall 2010, as players from increasingly diverse areas are coming to town for it. This year's Lolla will feature day-long games, great swag, and even more trophies.

*****

How on earth does LUDA expect to pull off all these events? With help from people like you! We're always looking for volunteers to bring their energy, insight, and voice to every LUDA project. To volunteer to help, fill out our quick form and we'll get back to you pronto.

And if you're interested in sponsoring any LUDA activities, which would be super, please let us know at ludaleague@yahoo.com.

See you on the field!

Love,
LUDA

Winter is rough for ultimate players here in the Midwest. Temperatures plummet and snow piles up so high that you can't walk in it, let alone run. (Layouts are pretty fun, though.)

During the Nebraska winter, there are no leagues to play in, club play dries up for the most part, and pickup opportunities all but vanish.

What better way, then, to shake off the winter blues (and see how fat everyone has gotten over the winter) than with a wintry hat tournament!

Sweet Justice is hosting Snowmaha, an ultimate hat tournament on January 24th at Memorial Park in Omaha.

This event is a fundraiser for the Sweet Justice boys from Westside HS in Omaha. SJ has been tearing it up in recent months, taking on all comers, mixing it up against open club teams and college teams. They plan to travel to some tournaments out of state, and hopefully Snowmaha will go a long way to funding those journeys.

The tournament fee is $20--a small price to pay to enjoy competitive ultimate in the middle of winter, and well worth the cause of supporting Nebraska Youth Ultimate.

Even if you don't plan to play, come out and cheer everyone on!

For more information and to sign up, visit the event page on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=211683105795&index=1

If you're not on facebook, visit Sweet Justice's website: http://www.sweetjusticeultimate.com/index.html

See you on the field!

Sweet Justice is Nebraska's premier high school ultimate squad. This team from Westside High School in Omaha has started to make waves, competing well against older and more experienced open club teams and handing defeats to some college teams at tournaments. We recently spoke with Sean Rock and Billy Rafael, two of the Sweet Justice captains, to talk about the team and where it's heading.

LUDA: Give us a brief history of Sweet Justice. Who founded the team, and how long have you been together?

Sean: We decided to do a team in early August after a failed attempt to make one last year.  Most people on the team started our sophomore year in high school, so about two and a half years.

Billy: Last year we attempted to start a team (called Warmachine) but without a set practice schedule and full commitment from the players, we failed miserably.  We had a single game against another school, which we lost.  This year we met and decided we were going to rethink the entire process with hopes of being taken seriously.  That was in August, before school started.  We started practicing mid-August and are (obviously) still going strong. 

LUDA: How did the larger Nebraska ultimate community contribute to the inception of Sweet Justice?

Sean: I've played with Rigor [Rigor Mortis, Omaha's open club team] for about two years now. This was my first year going to tournaments though. They all have been very supportive of Sweet Justice.

Billy: Sean and his brother, Connor, are the only ones on the team who have played for Rigor. A handful of us played in SOUL (Summer Omaha Ultimate League) this past summer, and I (along with Sean and a few others) play on Wednesday nights at Memorial [in Omaha].  This shows we have a large range of experience, from Sean, who's played on a club team, to some people who never had played a full game of ultimate before.

LUDA: How did you come up with the name "Sweet Justice", and what does it mean?

Sean: Our original team name was going to be WHUT (Westside High Ultimate Team), but we decided that was lame and went with Sweet Justice.  The big fist represents "Justice" and the Ring Pop represents "Sweet".

Billy: It has sort of been an inside thing just around our school. To be honest, it dates back to a friend of ours, Chris (who is not on the team), who would sneak up behind people in the hall, try and pants them while he yelled "Sweet!" and not stop until they said "Justice." Kind of a weird thing, but it has stuck for years.

LUDA: What tournaments have you gone to, and how did you guys do?

Sean: We have been to CotC [Children Of The Corn, sponsored by Cornfed, UNL's ultimate team] and beat Drake and Benedictine. We also recently went to the Flatland Freezer in McPherson, Kansas and went 4-4, beating Emporia twice and both the high school teams, putting us in the top two in the nation in the youth division.

LUDA: Talk a bit about your practices; how often do you practice, and how do you structure them?

Sean: We practice twice a week after school.  I run our practices with the stuff I learned from Rigor along with some Sweet Justice freestyle plays, but it's usually half drill, half scrimmage.

Billy: Practice starts with just some tossing to warm up, sometimes we stretch, then we drill.  When we started, our drills were very simple, basic cutting drills, etc.  We slowly graduated to things like Zone D and different stacks, but we still find ourselves reviewing a lot of what we've taught.  We usually then do a familiar drill, like the huck drill or something, then we scrimmage.  As it gets colder, we are currently looking for an indoor place to practice to stay in shape over winter.  One of our major problems is conditioning, and we hope to change that this season. We also have club on Friday.  This is a pickup game for anyone at the school (and sometimes people who don't go to our school).

LUDA: How many active players do you have on your roster?

Billy: We've got about 30 listed right now, and we have anywhere from 15-30 at a given practice.  Some people show up that aren't on the roster, but these are people who we know won't be showing up for tournaments. We let them practice though. We figure if they want to try and get better, why not? 

LUDA: How long have you each been playing?

Sean: I've been playing for 3 years

Billy: I started playing in tenth grade in club. This past spring, I started playing pickup Wednesday nights at Memorial, which really increased my skills, but I'm nowhere near Sean's level.

LUDA: What's happening in the immediate future for SJ? As in, what tournaments are you planning to attend, what are you doing for recruitment, etc.?

Sean: Chicago invite in march, Kansas high school state championship in April, and then youth nattys in May.

Billy: We plan on going to an indoor tournament that Cornfed has planned in Lincoln, as well. We hope to be able to travel to that, but due to our lack of school sponsorship, a lot depends on whether we can get a place to stay, whose parents will chaperone, and how we can transport ourselves there.  We may be doing some sort of tryouts in the spring to weed out anyone without commitment.

LUDA: Any other tidbits or pertinent information you want readers to know about SJ?

Billy: The goal behind our team is, obviously, to play Ultimate competitively. However, we also hope to inspire other high schools to start their own teams. Even though a lot of us will be leaving for college next year, we care about the future of Ultimate. We want it to be take seriously as a sport, and being recognized in high schools would be a good step. After that: the Olympics.

Sean: Our jerseys are more orange than any other team ever.

LUDA: That is very true! Thanks for your time, guys--best of luck going forward.

Check out Sweet Justice's website at www.sweetjusticeultimate.com. Support youth ultimate in Nebraska!

It's official! We just received word that ultimate Frisbee will be on the slate of sports for the 2010 Cornhusker State Games.

More details will be forthcoming, but for now, start daydreaming about competing this summer for the first ever ultimate Frisbee championship at the Cornhusker State Games.

LUDA's second annual LollapaLUDA (free) hat tournament is just around the corner!

LollapaLUDA II will take place on Sunday, November 8th at Woods Park (33rd & O St.) in Lincoln, NE. We'll kick things off with the drawing of names to form teams around 10am or so and start competing shortly thereafter. Depending on the number of teams we end up with, we'll play until 4pm or so.

After a hearty day of ultimate, we'll declare a champion, eat huge burritos supplied free of charge by Chipotle, and adjourn to a local (all ages) establishment for further fellowship and the legendary awards ceremony.

The grand prize of course, presented to the tournament-winning team, is the coveted Bradford Franklin Award For Outstanding Achievement In The Field Of Excellence, but there will be other prizes and trophies given out, as well. These other honors may include but are not limited to the Spirit Award, Greatest Award, and any others the Minds of LUDA come up with.

Bananas, water, and bagels will be available at the fields. Come with a pair of cleats, sufficient clothing, and as many friends as possible.

Be sure to sign up online so we know you're coming! It'll just take a minute, we promise.

Feel free to visit the LollapaLUDA II page and/or the facebook event page.

A huge part of LUDA's long-term initiative for promoting ultimate Frisbee in Nebraska is supporting youth ultimate.

The time for Nebraska Youth Ultimate is now.

This is by no means a LUDA-exclusive endeavor; rather, making Nebraska Youth Ultimate the force that it can be requires the input and involvement of students, coaches, school sponsors, parents, and other volunteers.

In keeping with the Ultimate Players Association's (UPA) vision for youth ultimate nationwide, the following opportunities are available for our young ultimate players:

High School Teams & The State Championship (Nebraskionals)
Every high school is encouraged to form a team. A team requires players, obviously, but they also need a school sponsor and a coach. Parents are also strongly encouraged to get involved as assistant coaches and chaperones--even if they have no ultimate Frisbee experience. (They'll learn quickly.)

All high school teams will play a season of games against one another in the spring. Upon completion of the season in late May, the teams will compete in a tournament to determine the state champion. This tournament is called "Nebraskionals".

Nebraska Youth Ultimate Summer League
Following Nebraskionals, youth from 7th-12th grades will have the opportunity to play in the Nebraska Youth Ultimate Summer League from June to August.

Players do not need to have a high school team to participate in the summer league; in fact, instead of assigning teams based on school, all registered players will be drafted by captains and will play with the same team throughout the summer.

At the conclusion of the summer league, we will send a team of youth players from the league on to the UPA's Youth Club Championship series (YCC) in Blaine, MN. 

Resources
In the meantime, we need to hear from you. What's happening ultimate-wise at your high school? Do you want to coach or sponsor a team at your school? Are you interested in starting a team? Are you interested in volunteering in any way?

You can contact Seth Colaner, the LUDA Youth Coordinator, at ludaleague@yahoo.com with comments and questions.

Parting shot: Check out our newly-built Nebraska Youth Ultimate website, and please leave a comment or participate in a discussion on the forum!

If you see any of the Fatal Attraction (Lincoln/Omaha's mixed team) players this week, be sure to congratulate them on qualifying for regionals!

This weekend is a huge one for Nebraska ultimate, with Fatal representing our state at regionals while the rest of us duke it out at the Children of the Corn tournament (hosted by UNL's Cornfed) in Lincoln.

Even if you're not playing with a team at Children of the Corn, come by to watch the action and support Cornfed by purchasing t-shirts and discs at the fields.

And as far as regionals is concerned--we're pulling for you, Fatal!

Children of the Corn, one of the premier local ultimate tournaments, will kick off its fourth year on Saturday, October 10th in Lincoln.

Always a fun tournament, Lincoln has UNL's own Cornfed to thank for organizing the event. Tournament games will be played at two locations: Whittier Fields (23rd & W St.) and at the luxurious Fleming Fields (29th & Leighton Ave) in Lincoln.

This year, there are 16 teams from several states, including Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, Colorado, and Kansas.

You can find out more about Children of the Corn at:  http://www.unl.edu/cornfed/cotc/index.html

Additional information concerning teams, pools, and game times can be found at: http://www.upa.org/scores/tourn.cgi?div=18&id=6659

Don't miss it!

In BSG vol.2, I discussed the Cut/Catch/Dump strategy for new players who aren’t yet confident in their throws. The first part of this strategy is cutting; if you don’t make a good cut, you’ll never get the disc and won’t get the chance to catch/dump.

There are lots of ways to make a terrible cut, and essentially only one way to make a really good cut. Here are some of the mistakes to avoid when cutting:

No Dancing
Almost every single new player I’ve ever seen does this (yours truly included, once upon a time), and it’s the exact opposite of what you should do. Instead of making a decisive, hard cut, a player will make about one hundred tiny little cuts right in the middle of the field, waiting for the handler to see you and throw your way. It looks like you’re dancing instead of cutting.

This is the worst thing a cutter can do; not only have you made it exceptionally easy for your defender to guard you, you’re clogging up the middle of the field, effectively preventing anyone else on your team from making a cut.

No Curved Cuts
This one is actually pretty self explanatory, as a “curved cut” is an oxymoron. This throw is extremely difficult to make. For one thing, the handler really has no idea where the cutter is going to end up. Remember, handlers don’t throw to people; they throw to area on the field where a cutter is going to be.

Predicting the arc of this curve is hard enough, but if the throw is actually made, the flight of the disc is almost parallel to the cutter’s path. That’s a tough catch to make for anyone.

No Horizontal Cuts
A horizontal cut is the easiest cut to defend; that throw is desperately hard to make for the handler, and it’s probably going to be tough for the receiver, too. If you make a horizontal cut, you’re not going to get the disc, and you’re more than likely clogging up the cutting lanes for everyone else.

A Good Cut
Although there are many ways to make a bad cut, every good cut looks about the same: A hard, straight line, likely preceded by a good fake. There are a couple of basic cuts you can employ to significantly improve the value that you bring to your team as well as garner more touches for yourself.

One is a simple straight cut. Another one is the upline cut. Upline cuts are often employed near a sideline, and if you get a step on your defender, they can help your team speed past a defense by generating better upfield opportunities. An upline cut looks about like this, with the cutter actually cutting away from the handler instead of towards him. Often, two handlers will play this give-and-go game with each other.

Juke! Juke For Your Life!
The difference between a terrible cut and a great cut, being covered and being open, is minimal. However, the players that figure out those minimal differences are the ones that get the disc and help their team.

One of the major components of a good cut is the fake. Think about it: Your defender is watching you, waiting for you to make a move. If you cut without faking, the defender’s job is easy—all she has to do is chase you, and chances are she’ll be right in your back pocket, preventing you from getting the throw.

On the other hand, a player who throws in fakes during most cuts will have her defender always on her toes. The defender can never fully commit to chasing you if she’s worried that you’ll cut in two steps and then bolt in the opposite direction, for example.

A good fake is one where you make your defender think you’re going in one direction and then end up going in another direction. The most difficult players to guard are the ones that employ fakes liberally.

One of the LUDA commissioners, who shall remain anonymous (let’s call him S. Frohn—no wait, that’s too obvious—let’s call him Scott F.), is a master at shaking defenders. What he’ll do is either cut in to the disc or out for a long throw, and he’ll really sell it by taking 2-4 full-speed strides. Then, he’ll cut back suddenly in the opposite direction, but by that time, the defender has committed to pursuing him in the original direction he was headed and ends up way out of position; OR…he’ll do a little double move (slowing down for a split second before accelerating again) while making that first cut, leaving you two steps behind; OR…he’ll cut hard one way, then the other, then cut back in the original direction, forcing you to bite on one of the fakes or else get burned; OR…

…you get the drift. He’s hard to predict, and that makes him difficult to guard. It’s quite annoying to cover him, really.

If you add in a good fake, your cuts should look something like this:

Run All The Way Through The Disc
One more thing: A major reason why bad cutters get D’ed all the time is that once the disc is in the air, they slow down and wait for it to land safely in their hands. Thus, no matter how precise the throw, that inevitably allows a defender to catch up to you and pick off the throw.

You have to keep running full tilt all the way through the disc—you can never slow down and wait for it. Essentially, instead of waiting for the disc to come to you, you need to propel yourself on a collision course with the disc, and when that collision happens, that’s when the catch happens.

If you endeavor to develop good cutting habits, you’ll find yourself getting many more touches in every game. Furthermore--and most importantly--you will become an indispensable asset to your team.

LUDA is proud to welcome guest blogger Tim Hoarty. In addition to being instrumental in Omaha's Rigor Mortis and SOUL (Omaha's summer league), Hoarty organizes the annual Battle In The Bluffs tournament in Council Bluffs, Iowa every August. Because most of us LUDA folks were busy playing with Fire At The Circus at BitB instead of tracking the event as a whole, we asked him to break down the tourney for us.

Although we had aimed to attract more teams this year, we held strong at 9 teams for the second year. A lot of young tournaments die off, and I believe that with the work we've put in over the last two years Battle in the Bluffs has a strong foundation. The date of the tournament may change in the future to attract more teams, possibly on a weekend with no competing tournaments and earlier in the summer.

I thought things ran smoothly, although I realized this year that if the tournament gets any bigger I will not be able to run it alone. I received a lot of help from my teammates and friends of Nebraska Ultimate, including volunteers picking up fruit and water for the teams, transportation of tournament necessities, setting up and taking down the fields and Frisbee central area.

We really appreciate the generosity and hospitality of Diane and Rachael Green. For the second straight year they have allowed ultimate players to camp and swim at their house in Iowa, which is 15 minutes from the fields and a place that I have effectively used as home base for Battle in the Bluffs. Dennis Hopp is also an invaluable asset to our tournament, bringing his large tent and massage therapy for all players and spectators.

Council Bluffs Parks and Recreation treated us well again this year, and we had a great water setup and lined fields, which are two perks that I think may help draw teams back in the future. The party was a success, held at the Spillway Grill and Bar. Pulled pork and free cold beer are also two things I will not sacrifice - necessities of a successful tournament!

I was also happy with the way the storm on Sunday was handled. We played for as long as we could, and when we had to suspend play due to lightning concerns, everyone dealt with the inconvenience positively, and luckily we were able to get back underway within about 20-25 minutes and finish all games before the real storm rolled in.

Thoughts on different teams:

Rigor Mortis performed well, losing 15-12 in the finals to archnemesis Gnarwhal from Des Moines, IA. Rigor Mortis and Gnarwhal have an interesting history, going back to last year's Battle in the Bluffs I when Gnarhwal defeated Rigor in an epic 17-15 comeback victory. Rigor will most likely see Gnarwhal again next weekend at Cooler Classic in Milwaukee, which will be the third time in four weekends for the two teams. Gnarwhal had a few close games, but as expected returned to the finals and this time won, finishing 6-0.

Silage, UNL's alumni team, played well, as did Fire at the Circus, Lincoln's club open team. The depth at the club level in Nebraska is rising as there are now three legitimate club teams - Rigor Mortis, FatC, and Silage.

FatC had arguably its best tournament to date, defeating Cornfed but losing a heartbreaker to Stud Muffins to be eliminated from contention. FatC is now undeniably prepared to play against anyone in the region, and not a team to underestimate.

Cornfed played well, scoring plenty of points although it finished with a losing record. They played tough opponents all weekend, and lost several players to Silage and the other Nebraska teams.

Minor Offense, Nebraska's youngest team, got several new players' feet wet and was able to beat Atticus Flick, a new team from Kansas City, Kansas. Omaha Club was unable to knock off the higher seeds but held strong against the lower seeds, finishing around middle of the pack. Stud Muffins, from the Twin Cities, had a good first tournament together, reaching the Semifinals before falling.

-Tim Hoarty

Editor's note: BitB is a well-run tournament and is increasingly fun due to the many local and regional rivalries that play out all tournament long. If you have a team located anywhere within driving distance of Council Bluffs, you won't regret submitting a bid for next year.