Watched Guts.  Sometimes I think what we do is crazy in Ultimate.  What they do looks like a hoot in concept.  And then a crazy guy from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan throws a (thankfully) lightweight disc at you as hard as possible, like nearing 100 miles an hour.  And you’re supposed to catch it.

Some teams are very, very good at this.  Some teams a little less so, but they have a good time at it.  Ireland has boisterous fans, which makes it pretty fun.  In any event, It was pretty fun to watch.

The teams seem pretty darn nice to each other, always touching hands as the change ends and such.  Almost as if to say, “I may be trying to kill you with this piece of plastic, but I don’t actually hate you.”  The two US teams all seem to know each other, too, making for fun trash talk.  (One of the US teams is young and skinny.)

The picture is team Canada vs. Ireland, shot from the couch set up behind one fence around the “Guts Enclosure”.
As for us, we played France in the morning.  Came out sloppy, but put it together over the course of the game.  Played Japan in the afternoon.  We really expected it to be a tight, tough game, and it was in very many ways.  They are quick, skilled, and play with high intensity.  Fortunately, our D generated enough turns – gave a few too many back, but also scored a few.  Our O actually worked pretty well.  Not perfect, but cleaner than the last two days.  Connected on a few long throws.

Three quick observations, then sleep:

1. It’s too bad that the schedule and the dispersed field locations prevent us from seeing as much of the other teams as we might like.  As we were playing Japan on the Stadium fields, USA Open was playing Japan at the Jericho fields, which are 4 km away.  I only got to see the US Mixed team today, and that only for one half against Hong Kong (9-1 US at half).

2. Thanks to some organizing (by the US Women, I believe), we got to hang a little with other US teams at a bar/restaurant at Jericho Beach.  Mostly it was us and the US Women.  (The Men were there for a while, as well.)  Beautiful night.  Good hang.

3. Open, Women, and Mixed have seen a lot of blowouts to this point in the tournament.  I think they go into Power Pools (top teams only) after tomorrow, and then it’s really on.  Good luck.  While they’re doing that, we continue our round-robin with Australia in the morning and Germany in the afternoon, before hopefully I get to go shoot the US Open team in the Showcase game.  Will try to post pictures tomorrow night if I get to do that.

I’ll leave you with the team shot of us and Japan and another shot from the hang at the Galley.  The Japanese were generous with their gifts and their words, to go along with their hard play.

Onward.