BPL Is Back

After spending the two month off-season meditating and creating JCVD-style training montages atop the rocky outcrops of the Dojo's hillside estate, the kenshi descended once again into the fray of Ultimate combat in the miasma-smothered marshlands of the AJFC fields.

Of course, making training montages doesn't actually mean doing any training, so those Kenshi that didn't take advantage of the excellent off-season training sessions ended up using the first four or five points of Game 1 to get back up to speed. Hence the early scoreline in the first Dojo outing of the season (against UQ Passion) being something like 0-4 Passion...

But once the first Dojo point was on the board, the opportunity to set up a defence wasn't wasted and the kenshi went straight into a choking Zone D formation. This yielded instant results with lots of cheap turnovers near the UQ endzone and easy goals for the Dojo. So despite that heavy early deficit, the Dojo took the first half by a couple of points. Okay - it's not exactly the first time we've seen that happen...

The halftime break gave Passion's maestro Johnny Mac a chance to talk his young chargers through the intricacies of breaking a Zone D, and Passion had a lot more success getting the disc into those little pockets behind the cup (via the traditional BPL zero-wind over-the-top route) and managed to force the Dojo D to adapt into different Zone formations and a few points of Man. By now however the Dojo offence was looking after things very nicely, and before anyone knew it had closed out the game 15-10.

Kudos to Passion for their phat new shirts (goes to show that if you have to rip off a logo you might as well make it a good one) and committed playing style. This is a team we can easily see becoming much stronger as the season progresses, especially if JMac can get them working as a solid, motivated unit - which we're sure he can.

But the Dojo can always depend on the depth of its roster, as was the case in this game. And that brings us to the first Above&Beyond poll of the season, which is ready for voting on the right. It's a bye for the kenshi this Thursday, so the next outing will be on August 27th against the other UQ team - the Lovers.

Going Way Back

Before we get underway with the first round of the brand new BPL season tonight, we thought it might be an appropriate moment to indulge in a little Dojo history. A short pictorial history, to be precise, showing the evolution of the Dojo jersey over the years...

Some say that there is a mythical "original" jersey design out there somewhere, perhaps under the pile of dirty clothes that Watto never gets around to taking back to his Mum's place for a wash, but as far as we're aware the chronology goes pretty much like this:



1. The Cobra Kai Frisbee Dojo (2001 or maybe earlier - 2004)

Very cheap cotton XL-only black & white shirts sporting hand-printed graphics that show an afro-touting, gi-wearing martial artist mid flight. Worn during what were primarily mixed weekend matches where Dojo was, of course, the dominant team. Other teams included The Collective, Boot Camp, and a few others we can't remember the names of right now.

Seems Liam and his buddies over at the fledgling Cobras team have pretty short memories as well, but that's to be expected from what appears to be a bunch of schoolboys (at least Mat and Jimmy still run around like schoolboys, although we can certainly quote Will Churchill as having said that the same isn't true of captain Wetnose...).



2. DojoMojo (2004-2008)

These quality VC Ultimate shirts first saw action at the 2004 National Ultimate Championships in Brisbane, where the Dojo team starred in the second-tier competition, blitzing the division and defeating the Div 1 Tasmanian team, then losing narrowly to the Div 1 Newcastle team early on the last day. DojoMojo went on to destroy their opponents in the Div 2 "Plate" final, a game which included the notorious behind-the-back cross-field throw from Ryan Black to Dave Watson (who appeared to have been the only person expecting it), Watto then throwing the game-winning huck. Dan Walls was holding the video camera at the time and managed to get none of it on film.

These shirts also saw tournament action in the 2006 Nationals in Sydney where Dojo finished a pretty superb 7th. Notable moments were Dojo winning a spectacularly tense local derby against the other Brisbane team in attendance (MBB), and then losing out via Golden Goal to a double-Dowle'd Fakulti team in the quarter final round.



3. DojoMojo (2008 - current)

Earlier in the year, many people voted for this jersey as the best in the world. And at least a small fraction of those people were real, not just fake Google identities that Stefan uses to vote for himself in the A&B poll each week...

Made from silky soft, lightweight Patagonia fabric, these things are an absolute joy to play in. Dan Walls even lays out in his and it still looks fresh. We can't see these being superseded for a very long time.

You'll Want to Buy the Company...

The second off-season training night is on at the AJFC fields this Thursday night from 7pm - here's the message that went out last night to every SEQ ultimate player that's old enough to shave:

Men of the Brisbane Premier League,

Our off-season training sessions got off to a truly spectacular start a couple of weeks ago, and I'm not just talking about the cone arrangements that would have made someone doing a PhD in fractal geometry proud. We had a truly huge turnout - I'd guess that at least half of Brisbane's BPL players were there (even a few Dojo players!) - and Mike and Al put us through a whole array of seriously worthwhile drills, with the title for most pushup penalties going of course to Stu Austin...

We covered a whole heap of stuff that I could rabbit on about for ages (and may very well do just that at some point, not now), and the response on the night was that it was all really interesting and highly exhausting - great for keeping up the off-season fitness, and great for plugging into real games once we get back into it in August.

So, as planned we're doing another session THIS THURSDAY NIGHT from 7pm at the usual AJFC location. Do you want to huck, break, hammer and generally cause defensive chaos like John McNaughton? And no, I don't mean learning how to be left-handed. John is in fact recognised as one of Australia's top Ultimate coaches, and he personally guarantees that you will go away from this week's session with your throwing game improved more than your shave would be by switching from a Gillette Mach3 to a Schick Quattro...

See you all for some serious Ultimate betterment at AJFC 7pm THIS THURSDAY July 16th.


Stephen
+Al, John & Stu

Because You're Worth It

For those that prefer not to subscribe to any of the many, many frisbee yahoogroups we have for our sport, here's a copy of an email that went out this morning about some upcoming off-season BPL events:

Men of the Brisbane Premier League and beyond,

The BPL is about to become harder, faster and better. How? Read on.

Starting this Thursday night July 2nd, and then on July 16th and 30th, three off-season BPL player development sessions will be held at our usual Annerley Junior FC location and everyone is invited, including guys who aren't yet playing BPL but would like to.

Now, some might find it surprising that the Sensei of the notoriously non-training Dojo is here promoting training nights, but I can't wait to get stuck into these sessions and I'm pretty sure you will feel the same. Why? Because the organising group of Al Don, John McNaughton, Stu Austin and myself have put together a series of themed training events with a list of local legends (no, really) running the show. Here's what we've got lined up:
__________________________________
July 2 - Playing better Man on Man Ultimate

Offence coach: Piers Truter
Defence coach: Al Don

What's involved? Better cuts, better options, better dumps, better marking, better teamwork, more mongrel
__________________________________
July 16 - Throwing better and Marking better

Coach: John McNaughton

What's involved? Better breaks, better hucks, better swings, better force marking, better dump marking
__________________________________
July 30 - Playing better Zone Ultimate

Offence coach: Chris Burwell
Defence coach: Mike Neild

What's involved? Better disc movement, better cup breakers, better above & around options, better long hucks (oh yeah), better cup setting, better zone teamwork, better deep D, better setups & strategies
__________________________________

Did I use the word "better" enough? Well, that's because the whole idea of these sessions is making the standard of BPL competition BETTER by offering every player the opportunity (thanks to some help with the funds from QUDA) to improve their skillset and knowledge base. And by every player I mean YOU! This is improvement-focussed training that we should ALL be taking advantage of.

So - be there starting 7pm this Thursday night at the AJFC fields for some kick*ss training that I personally guarantee will improve your game more than Loreal skin cream will reduce visible wrinkles.

Looking forward to seeing everybody there.

Spazzo Goes Above and Beyond

We interrupt our usual off-the-air mode between seasons to bring you two pieces of news featuring the Dojo's GC liaison Stefan "Spazzo" Rappazzo.

A quick scroll down the sidebar to the right will show you that the Above&Beyond standings for the season have been finalised after last week's Grand Final showdown, and as predicted it turned out to be very tight at the top! So tight that both Stefan Rappazzo and Andy McLean shared the #1 spot for overall votes gained. Sadly for Andy, he earned his votes playing in all ten games, whereas Stefan played nine for the same vote tally, leaving him with the title of DojoMojo Above & Beyond Winner for Season 1 2009, based on his higher votes-per-game stat. Stefan's name is now engraved for perpetuity on our Honour Board in recognition of his efforts in consistently pushing his game further and harder week after week.

The traffic jam continued in the minor placings as well, with Dan Walls, Stefan Schmidt and Sensei C all on 21 votes, Wallsy racking up the votes at the rate of 3.5 per game - the highest of anyone, trumping Spazzo's 3 per game. Perhaps we could change the ranking system next season to prioritise this stat over total votes? Comment below.

And of course, the beauty of the A&B system is that it reflects the regularity with which individuals perform above their own usual standard, rather than comparing players against each other. So it's intended as an incentive to constant improvement, and a means of gauging how people are progressing their own game. Who will earn their place on the Honour Board next season???

Oh yes, and the second BIG news item regarding Mr Rappazzo in his capacity as Gold Coast Ultimate Liaison (interpret that any way you like) is that he's just launched a brand new and very cool-looking website to promote the game in the town where even the parking meters are gold... Check it out.

Deja Boo Hoo Hoo

Haven't we heard this story before? A short-staffed Dojo team turns up to face a Neild-led Buggers squad that has been warming up for the game apparently since just after a carbo-loaded breakfast, the Bugs stretch out a big lead, Dojo stages a comeback, some Bug rookie crashes a kenshi or two out of the game, the lack of fitness from the we-never-train Dojo starts to show, and it all finishes with a flourish of hammers & hucks to Bug #1...

But don't think we're bitter, it was a great game with plenty for everyone (well, most people anyway - more on that shortly), and really the final difference between the teams was the number of offensive errors the Dojo made. The first five or six points of our video footage make for particularly unpleasant viewing if you're of a Dojo inclination, as do the last few.

There's no doubt that the Dojo missed Matt, Piers, Coopers and Goldie particularly as the legs started to get heavy in the second half, and that some extra numbers might have made the difference. But really, if the kenshi hadn't worn themselves out trying to get the disc back after all those first-half mistakes then the job still could have been done without the full complement. That wasn't the case though, and on the night the Messy team were convincing winners.

Here's something we found interesting, though. In putting all the footage together, we noticed something that, whilst not surprising, was something we'd always thought was only an impression rather than reality. So here's an amusing game to play while watching the video - keep a count of the number of JRay throwaways, and also keep a count of the number of times anyone other than Jason, Mike, Leon, Stu or Jangles touches the disc. We can't say for sure, but we reckon the JRay throwaway stat will be at least the same if not more. Now, no-one will be surprised to see Jason throwing some pretty wild stuff (or to see that he also throws nearly all the goals), but I think even Mike would be surprised to see how little disc the Bug rookies get during a game, especially when the pressure is high. There must be at least a couple of guys on that team who only touched the disc once or twice in the whole game!

But enough about that - what we've all come to see is plenty of sweet Ultimate action, so here it is, courtesy of the brilliant Marijke Walls and surprise cameraman Will Churchill (how he got hold of the camera we're not really sure):









"Thanks ladies" indeed. It was a real treat to have the 97.3fm ladies with their marquee, esky, fruit & drinks, and each Dojo player is now sporting brand-new cleat bags, water bottles, cold bags and cookies. Yes, cookies.

There's now a huge break of a couple of months between seasons, but the BPL will be back (will there be a new monkey at the helm???) with what will surely be a serious shakeup in the teams and perhaps administration. It can only get better (and hopefully bigger), so stay tuned.

And lastly, it's the final Above&Beyond poll for the season on the right. It's all up for grabs - will Dan Walls be able to get enough votes for his awesome efforts against one of the world's premier players to push him past current frontrunner Stefan Rappazzo? Will our German BPL MVP runner-up Stefan Schmidt sneak past them both? A place on the honour board is at stake!!!

ps Below the poll can also be found our latest blog addition - DojoMojo TV! Oh yeah.

Fifteen Seconds of Fame

If you happened to be listening to 97.3FM on the radio this morning at around 7.50am (and if you're female between the ages of 25 and 40 then the research indicates that you probably were!) you would have heard a little soundbite from the Sensei talking up tonight's big game at the AJFC fields. Yes - the Brisbane Premier League has really hit the big time, and some nice people from 97.3FM are going to be joining the huge crowd at the field tonight, bringing along plenty of freebies and giveaways with them.

And that's not all - even though our best efforts to make the audio of this morning's interview available here have failed, we should be on air again tomorrow morning giving a quick recap of what is sure to be a stupendous game of Ultimate tonight. The grandstand will be open from 7pm and the on-field action gets underway bang on 7.30. Our tip - Dojo to win 15-11.