Bad Weather, Good Practice

Even though the weather wasn't great, I was glad that some of us could still get to power soccer practice. I am continuing to learn how to use my spin, but now that I've seen what other players on other teams set their turn speed at, I most definitely need to turn my speed up again. However, improving my turn sensitivity as well as forward and reverse sensitivity was huge. It's kind of crazy how sensitive my chair is now, but it is much easier to move because it requires much less drastic movement. We were able to play three on three, and that is definitely a different dimension to the game. Normally, you'd have one player with the ball, one person supporting them, and one person on the opposite wing. The opposite wing was what got chopped. Therefore, we essentially played a two person game with a goalie. Of course, this eliminates much of the deception that can be achieved when three players run properly, but what else could we do? It was a lot of fun though! We have one more practice before we go to New Hampshire to play, so I hope that everyone can be there next week and that we will get ready to play our best.

New Right Field for the Phils

Well, there's only one way that the Phillies can't keep up with the Nationals. Unfortunately, they were able to hit Jayson Werth with a $127,000,000 deal over seven years which is a crazy amount of money. I know I read online on the Yahoo article about this signing that most people think that this is one of the worst signings ever. Apparently, they don't really understand how great Jayson Werth really is. He is a perennial 20-20 threat and sees more pitches than anybody in baseball. I forget the statistic numerically, but I do remember that he led baseball in pitches seen per at bat. Not only does he wear out opposing pitchers, but he also waits and has more of an opportunity to find a mistake. We will definitely miss him in right field, but at least we have Dominic Brown to fill in. He is a talented young player who will hopefully match Jayson's production eventually. The Phillies have high hopes for him and really fought to hold on to him despite all of the amazing trades that have been swung in the past few years. So, I will miss Jayson, but man did he break the bank because of his production with the Phillies.

Work Tomorrow Night

As is my recent tradition, here is my list of what I want to work on tomorrow night at power soccer practice. Incidentally, if you read this Sandy, yell at me if I don't follow them well.
• I guess this really isn't new, but I need to remember to play in reverse. My chair goes much faster in reverse, so that is one advantage as well as being able to more easily execute spin kicks.
• Hopefully, my one-on-one play will improve. I think programming will help with this issue by making it easier for me to turn to the right, but I still need to think about my moves to become a better offensive weapon.
• I want to think about the possibility of a better spin kick. Again, maybe this is a programming issue, but I know my technique needs improving as well.
• I need to develop chemistry with my teammates. I don't mean that I need to get along with them better. What I do mean is that I need to adapt my playing style without sacrificing any skills I have to enhance those of my teammates. If they do the same thing to enhance my strengths, we will be a great team. We are working on this, but of course it takes time since we all have our preferred playing styles.
Hold me to these goals tomorrow night so I can improve.

Aware of Slanting

So, I realized something very important today. It is important to play power soccer on a flat surface. Nothing overly dramatic happened, but I had a hard time lining up my 180° spin kicks. I managed to land a few sweet ones though, so that was definitely positive. The floor was slightly slanted toward the corners, so I had to chase down balls that kept rolling farther and farther away from me. Don't take this as complaining because I'm very lucky to have access to a place to play on my own during the winter, but it was kind of funny how it made me think about the floor and the ball. Maybe that is healthy. I had to think about two different things at once, so that was good. The only potentially unhealthy side effect of this is that I need to remember that once I hit a flatter surface the ball will act differently. However, with all of these thoughts in my mind, I am probably becoming a more aware player. Awareness of the ball and other players on both teams is incredibly important, so even though I didn't really plan to have a slanted floor, it will definitely help me develop.

Crazy Weather

Well, Cleveland was not a happy place last night. Not only were they beaten severely, but it was at the hands of Lebron James. I don't really love or hate the Cavaliers, but I wish they would have put up some kind of fight. Anyway, I would rather write today about the insane weather that we have had. 90 mph winds were seen in some places in Vermont. That is essentially unheard of. It makes me glad that it happened during the winter sports season. Of course they would have canceled the game, and I was visualizing trying to pitch a baseball and then having it fly off to the left with the entire crowd all of a sudden becoming the target. Or, punting a football and having it blow backwards instead of forwards because of a severe gust. Of course, I was not in Cambridge where the 90 mph winds were, but from the wind that I was in, I think that either of these situations could have happened except for the baseball would not go that far I guess. Now, I think that all of the rain that accompanied this storm is over. We have snow coming which at least brings with it the winter sports season.
Photo by phault on Flickr

UVM SGA Suggests Evaluation Boycott

Since it seems like this is a pertinent topic at UVM, I figured that I would throw my opinion in regarding the boycott of course evaluations. Sorry that it does not relate to sports. Honestly, I do not quite see the success that it seemed like the Student Government Association anticipated. Of course, with 769 votes in on Facebook (which is not a very large portion of the University of Vermont and possibly not very representative), there are more people who are not participating than those who are. That definitely will not make much of a difference for the administration. Do I think that they should be published? I do believe that it would be nice to see evaluations of a class. However, I think that a boycott is the wrong way to do it. As I have noticed on the Facebook event, it seems as if the SGA position is to boycott everything on the evaluation except for the comment section where students are free to answer in their own words. I guess my main problem is professors don't only read the comments. I would find it very weird if the professor did not look at the rest of the evaluation if he or she took the time to look at the evaluations at all. Perhaps some professors don't even look at or care about the evaluations. Giving us access to the evaluations will not change that. The evaluations will not change anything if the professors don't look at them. I do believe that most professors if not all do look at the course evaluations however. Therefore, I think that they are becoming a target to an issue that the SGA has with administration rather than with the professors directly. Most professors do not have a say over whether or not the evaluations are released. If I were a professor, I know any information that I could gather from my students, even those how much do you agree with this statement questions, would be coveted. And just one more sidenote I noticed on many comments, if ratemyprofessors.com is to polarized, go online and do something about it. Write your own reviews and make it a better site. Don't complain that other people have ruined it, make it better.
Photo by zappowbang on Flickr

How to Measure It

I have been doing a lot of thinking about efficiency and particularly how it relates to power soccer lately. Really, as far as I can tell from a pretty major search of the Internet, no one has ever tried to make some form of statistic that would explain how effectively a player has been playing. I have read articles about this for basketball, and I think it could definitely be applied to power soccer. Why efficiency you ask? Well, I feel like the ultimate goal for a power soccer player, although this can apply to any athlete, to have it every move he or she makes add value to the team. If everything you do during the game makes a positive impact, then it has been a successful game. Therefore, I want to measure this. I'm not sure how I want to do it, but I have a feeling it can be done. In basketball, relative weights are often assigned to points, rebounds, and every other normal basketball statistic. In power soccer, we don't have that luxury of having a bunch of different statistics to measure. Therefore, I think I will need to create some. I'll keep you posted if I develop anything worth mentioning.