Doh!

Well, that didn't work. My goal of having no turnovers was dashed as I grounded my first pass.

All in all, a horrible game. We were well and truly beaten, and I was unable to contribute anything positive to the stats, which are looking more and more skewed towards receivers.

There were some positives to be taken from the game however. Firstly, I didn't really have any brain explosions and all of my turnovers came from basic skill errors instead of poor decisions. That's good because basic skill errors are easier to improve than decision making I find.

My defense was once again my strong point. Although the other team was scoring at will, my man really wasn't getting the disc. I got scored on twice. Once because I stopped 3 or 4 cuts by my man in short and he eventually gave up and went long where his significant height advantage meant he was always going to catch a hammer. The second time I held off a bit on my mark to set myself up for a D and then didn't even attempt the layout. Probably a good thing given the context of the game and the hardness of the ground. I don't really need another injury.

The ankle was much better. Shin pain was replaced with ankle pain again which I count as a positive. I should see physios and do my rehab more often.

The team played really poorly last night. Pressure on the mark was very good and we were lacking in handlers, meaning I had to handle which I'm really growing to dislike. I started as a defensive receiver and I really think that's the best position for me.

Stats...

So here in Adelaide we've been playing Super League. Super League is kind of a hat league but not quite so random, with four captains picking their teams from the list of available players according to their own strategies. It's been good, and one of the good things about it has been some stats keeping during the games. We're recording Goals, Assists and D's, but we're also recording Throwaways and Drops. 

I've not been doing well. Part of this is my ongoing ankle injury. My ankle is seized because of scar tissue and limited rehab which is causing pretty bad shin splints, and stopping me from running as much as I would like. This probably results in reduced stats overall, but I can deal with that.

My contribution in terms of goals, assists and d's is alright. 13th out of 44 players. My contribution in terms of errors is terrible, 4th most errors per point played. That puts me below average in overall terms, 25th.

I've noticed that I play quite well at the start of the game, conservative but safe, and still managing to throw and catch some goals. Towards the middle of the game I lose my mind and have a lot of throwaways. At the end, I seem to reel it back in and finish things off pretty well.

Tonight, I'll attempt to have a no turnover game, consistent throughout and I'll see how that works for me.

Improvements

Last night we played a derby semi final, with both of the mixed teams from my club clashing in an epic battle of missing players. At least four people were missing from the two teams, which actually evened them up a little I think and a good game was had.

The team did really well. One of our girls was sick and really shouldn't have been playing. As a result, she took a couple of points off which left us playing with only two girls on the field and therefore down to six. As a result, we pretty much had to play a zone.

The zone was really good. We've been developing a new zone which we've dubbed Diamond Power which tries to minimize the amount of running the cup has to do while stopping the quick forward movement through the middle and it's working really well at times, and not so well at others. We adjusted it several times during the game and tried some different things which was good for the team.

Offensively the team needs to stop looking to score. Sounds a bit weird to say, but when we get close to the endzone, we look to score too hard instead of moving the disc around and creating space. Everyone wants to throw the assist and it ends up with a bad throw after holding onto the disc for too long. It's something I need to work on as well.

Personally I was happy that some of the throws I've been working on worked out well in a game situation. I didn't have many throwaways and I had quite a few nice puts which worked out. On this team I'm one of the stronger players, so I feel like it's my responsibility to make good plays. In actuality, what I should be doing is working with the team so that the team makes good plays.

Defensively I was a little hampered by my ankle. It's fine stability wise, but I've lost explosiveness from it which slowed me down on D. I wasn't going to run much at all, try and make myself a wing but I ended up running in the cup most of the night. I got a bit tired as I haven't run for 3 weeks, but generally I did pretty well. Still managed a few intercepts. The ankle feels great today. I think I broke up some scar tissue and it feels less stiff.

One more game of this league and then it's summer hat league and Wednesday night beach pickup. I can't wait to play beach again.