RETROSPECTIVE: Ultimate clinic

As we've moved our pickup sessions indoors (Wednesday at BCIS, 7 to 9 pm), we thought we'd look back at those summer days when we were still wearing t-shirts and shorts.




A persistent cold, like a smelly squatter, has settled into our Beijing homes. We anxiously wait for the central government to turn on central heating so that it no longer remains colder inside than out.

RETROSPECTIVE: Tianjin scrimmage and clinic 2009

From last September 2009's clinic in Tianjin:






We're off the bus in the last two pictures because a jam on the highway stalled us for an hour or two. Which reminds me of the clinic this past weekend, where it took about four hours (according to Jim) to get to Tianjin. Traffic.

WEEKEND ROUNDUP: Tianjin clinic

Big Brother traveled to Tianjin over the weekend to sponsor another clinic for our friends at the sports university.

WEEKEND ROUNDUP: The return of Liz Lin

After practice Saturday, Jim, Alicia and Tao hosted an Ultimate Frisbee event at a German Center festival. We were treated to free German beer and pretty decent sausages, though the place ran out of food too early and the lines were too long.

A good time all around though, sorta.

Afterwards, Ellen held a chill party at her place to welcome the return -- for a few weeks -- of Liz Lin, who has her own tag on this blog. Check out that crazy girl's antics.

More on her later, I'm sure.

WEEKEND ROUNDUP: Clinic success

About 30 people attended the clinic and most stayed for pickup afterwards. Thanks to Alicia for organizing and everyone else who helped. [UPDATE, 11/9: two pictures here.]

WEEKEND ROUNDUP: Beijing hosts an Ultimate Frisbee clinic

Backdated 10/21

Last month a group of Beijing Ultimate players traveled to Tianjin to put on a clinic (pictures, videos), which was so well received that Tianjin decided they wanted to do it again, this time in Beijing.

On an absolutely gorgeous autumn day, we hosted students from Tianjin Sport University and TEDA Maple Leaf, along with local players and newcomers to the sport. It was a success thanks to the efforts of Jeff Orcutt, Bill Aidan, Gareth Marshall, Alicia Lui, Jim Kirchhoff, Andrew Shen, Sandy Wang, Lauren Reed and several others, who found fields, drew up the schedule and organized drills for the beginner, intermediate and advanced.

In the end we went to our regular BCD restaurant and partied like we always do.

Videos to come later.

WEEK IN REVIEW: We are not philistines after all

Backdated 10/21

To prove that Beijing Ultimate people are cultured after all, a group of us, thanks to Ellen, went to see Midori perform at Beijing Concert Hall on Friday, i.e. today. Here's a review in the Beijinger's blog that includes Kevin, Hsing-Hui, Michael Chaitkin and yours truly. (If you haven't figured out this is backdated yet -- maybe the words at the top didn't give it away -- you will when you see the tbj post is dated Monday, 10/19).

PICTURES OF THE WEEK:


She signed my program! (Photos by Kevin and Michael, respectively)

GOOGLE GROUPS POST OF THE WEEK:

Bill Aidan, setting up a weekend Ultimate Frisbee clinic for Tianjiners and locals, 10/11:

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Beijing Ultimate Community,

Tonight, after a rousing practice, the team returned west for a convivial dinner party. Dishes were ordered in triplets and beers were bought by the dozen (mathematically sound). Although merriment certainly abounded, it did not prevent us from having an important meeting regarding this coming Saturday's Ultimate Clinic (SUC). Here's the plan:

*Saturday - 10/17 - 10am until late*
10am - Gather, warm up, practice stations
12:30pm - Lunch
1:30pm - Practice stations
3:00pm - Games
5:00pm - Leave, dinner, party

Many of the logistics have have yet to be determined; we hope to play at the ISB fields, but Jeff will found out more about that tomorrow. Depending on the location of the fields, we will determine the location of lunch, dinner, and the party. Look out for details from Jeff in the future.

A survey of the table revealed that Bill, Gareth, Jeff, Jim, Ken, Mike, Sandy, Alicia, Tao, Joe, and Baby Girl will be there (11) and Ellen and Kevin may come too (2). Our hope is that all of the Beijing Ultimate Community will come (Big Brother, Bang, Air Kazak, Hang Time, and anybody else who is playing out there; tell your friends) in addition to Tianjin. If we do get all of these folks to come out, we could be looking at between 100 and 150 people. It will not be a small event.

We hope to separate this vast number of attendees into multiple general groups and (probably) one advanced group. The general groups will rotate through the following practice stations:

- Throwing
- Marking
- Cut-to Drill
- Dump Drill
- Elimination Huck Drill
- Horizontal Stack Flow Drill

...while some volunteers have expressed interest in running particular stations, we will wait to assign stations until Saturday. If you find one of these subjects particularly exciting, think about how to portray your knowledge of this skill to a large audience with varying ultimate abilities, varying language abilities, and short attention spans. Even if you do not end up volunteering at a particular station, you can still discuss the topic with whomever will.

The advanced group will focus on the follwing topics:

- Handler offensive and defensive tutorial
- Cutter offensive and defensive tutorial
- Zone - volunteers play different zones against the attendees and talk about strategies. Perhaps we can do this after lunch.

..and finally, after all of this practicing, we will play games for a couple of hours. We will keep people in their original groups and play two or three simultaneous games in accordance with the skill levels of the groups. There was talk of trying to get a women's game together too; do we want to do that? Any ladies want to spearhead this and discuss the world of women's ultimate?

After a long day of ultimate, we will have a giant dinner (details TBA) and glorious party to top off the event. Many attendees from Tianjin will probably want/need to spend the night in Beijing so, if you have a couch/space at your house, please consider hosting our guests.

So, in the mean time, things to consider:

- Logistics: field location (hopefully ISB for free), lunch location, dinner location, party location
- Practice station fundamentals and teaching techniques. Other ideas for stations?
- How to overcome language barriers?
- Party: where? bar? house party? what do drink? beer? liquor? Tibetan barley wine? what to eat? chuar? fang bian mian? bing? what to do? boat races? scavenger hunt? music? apparel? use your imagination.
- Can our guests from Tianjin crash at your place?
- Tell your friends to come.

...OK Beijing, that's all I've got for you. Stay classy.

Billllllllllllllll

Video of Tianjin-Beijing friendly

A two-part video from Saturday's event:


Also on Youku (accessible without a proxy): Part 1, Part 2.

WEEKEND ROUNDUP: Pictures from the Tianjin-Beijing friendly

Players from Big Brother, Bang and Hangtime were in Tianjin on Saturday to help run drills for the locals and play a few friendlies. We went to an international school called TEDA Maple Leaf in Tangu, about an hour outside of downtown Tianjin.







Tianjin has arguably the most developed Ultimate community in mainland China, in large thanks to the efforts of Edward Wang, Richie Liu and Nick Liu (no relation), all first-generation Ultimate players and graduates of Tianjin Sport University. In addition to being great athletes (Richie is a regional champion in the 400-meter dash), they are all enthusiastic Ultimate players and always welcome help and support. Although Beijing-Tianjin friendlies have not always gone as planned, Tianjin players have always been gracious hosts whenever we go.





The day couldn't have been more perfect. In the first game, Beijing X played an intense game against Tianjin Speed. The score was knotted at 7, going to 9, before Beijing scored on offense and won a hard-earned break.

Beijing Y had fewer problems, winning 11-2 against TEDA before using the rest of the time to organize a cutting/huck drill.




TSU is a cradle rich with Ultimate talent, as most of the students there train every day to become athletes. As advanced Ultimate Frisbee players, our job is to help them work on their throws, field vision and team play, including concepts like the cup zone.

Below, Gareth and Mike Shyu explain the trap to a very eager group of Tianjin Speed players.






Edward and Richie in the picture below...




After playing both Tianjin teams (Beijing Y beat Speed 11-6), we played a Beijing vs. Tianjin "all-star" game on a nearby grass field.

Beijing took half 7-2 before deciding, as Richie and Nick were gone buying us beer, that we'd start over. The second game was a lot closer, though Tianjin could never get the break they needed. Final score: 9-7 Beijing.









Dinner afterwards: lots of dumplings

Ultimate has come a long way in Tianjin, which is saying something considering it started at a decently high level. In the first-ever China Nationals in 2007, Tianjin Speed finished second, to Air Kazak. It was the same result the year after. Richie, Nick and Edward graduated afterwards and formed their own team, which lost in semis this past year to eventual champions Hong Kong. Speed, meanwhile, is rebuilding its empire, with some of the fastest players this side of Shanghai. If you haven't watched them, do try sometime: they rely on quick cuts from all their players and quick throws, often telling one another, "Kuai yi dian'r, kuai yi dian'r" -- faster, faster.

Of course, their game has a ways to go as well. But in Asia Ultimate, Tianjin is a sleeping giant: in two or three years, when Richie and Nick have developed into huckers (Edward already has a nice deep throw), Tianjin will be a team to contend with, and not just at China Nationals. This past year, Tianjin won its pre-quarters game in Shanghai and finished tied for 5th, their best result ever in an international tournament. They can do better.

Tomorrow, expect two videos showing our clinic and games [update: here]. Thanks go out to Five Ultimate for partially sponsoring the trip.

WEEK IN REVIEW: Return of the...

Tianjin, here we come! Beijing Ultimate is leaving the confines of Sixth Ring Road tomorrow for a friendly at TEDA Maple Leaf International School in Tangu, Tianjin. Details about the trip after the weekend.

This is your week in review.

PICTURE OF THE WEEK:

Welcome to Beijing, Amy and Liz. (The guy on the right is Justin.) And welcome back, baijiu game!

A few minutes after this video, Jehan would say "baijiu" on his own accord, without prompting, to much laughter. Poor Jehan. Um, I mean, bai wine. I didn't say it!

GOOGLE GROUPS POST OF THE WEEK:

Ever wanted to live in a hutong? Contact Missy Rock:

Hello all –

If you know of anyone looking for housing over the next few months, please pass along my information.

I'll be leaving Beijing around mid-November and would love to sublet my place to any interested parties.

My renovated pingfang home in a hutong neighborhood south of the Drum & Bell Towers, east of Houhai and west of Nanluoguxiang, is complete with its own yard and rooftop scenic patio. The place would be perfect for 1-2 people, a couple, good friends, and so forth. There is a main bedroom that gets great sunlight, has a queen sized bed, dresser and closet. The living room is also furnished with a couch, coffee table, small bookshelf, two end tables, two smallish sofa type chairs, and some other wooden chairs. There is a third room that is somewhat a cross between an office and a bedroom and can serve as either or both depending on your needs. Right now my roommate has a single twin-sized futon bed in there along with a couple other pieces of furniture. Blankets, sheets, pillows, etc… are also available if you need them.

There is a good sized kitchen (fully furnished with pots, plates, water and wine glasses, medium-sized oven & blender) and bathroom (western style toilet and shower curtain that separates the shower from toilet and washing machine area of the bathroom). The yard is totally quaint – complete with date tree. A ladder leads up from the yard to the roof where you can watch the neighbors across the alley exercise their pigeons on a daily basis.

My place is centrally located – and close to bus and subway stations. There are veggie markets, fruit stands, small mom & pop restaurants, and bigger shops all nearby as well.

The place is officially available starting November 15th. But it's possible I can find someone to sublet for 1 month (into mid-December) if this timing would better suit your needs (however I would need to set that up ASAP, so contact me right away if you are interested but can't move in until mid-December). Or, conversely, if you're in need of a place somewhat earlier, I can arrange to move out by November 1st.

Rent is 5000 rmb/mo + utilities (which include electric, water/sewage and internet).

Please feel free to contact me if you're interested!

Cell: 13717760232

Missy