Damn. Q wrote up Saturday’s goings-on… so I’ll throw in my 2 cents worth.

Played some disc golf with Billy in the AM, was running late… and got there in time to see Q there working the tables.

We warmed up, and I kept it close with Q, but he managed to beat me the first game. I didn’t want him to think he was better than I, so I dropped the hammer and clobbered him the next two games. I mean… my ego is fragile, after all. We then played a couple games of straights only… which is very good practice for both of us. I thought Q’s were a little easy to block.. mostly because of his drifts were of the back/forward variety, and not the side to side variety. Perhaps it’s just my opinion, but it seems important to try to get the defense out of position before trying to hit a straight.

Eric showed up, and after a little warm up, we played our game of winner stays, 3 pts for a straight, 2 for an over, 1 for everything else.. to 100. I started out a little slow.. but it was with purpose. I wanted to score bank shots first to get them worried about it. I remember playing this last week where I was overly concerned about scoring a straight and letting one go… so I just used that to score some easy points to set up my straights later on. Q got up to a quick lead, and he showed off his best shot – a right wall under from his left side. I’m going to clearly have to watch out for this shot… it’s got the best deception of any shot he uses, and if there’s anything that makes a shot work – it’s deception. Eric continued his struggles with scoring on himself, but has otherwise picked up the velocity of his shots and has always been patient on offense. I was hoping that this exercise in really trying to cut down on allowing people to score straights would help his defense… but I’m not so sure. I went on a couple great runs, jumping ahead a dozen points at a time… and it ended in a slaughter. Q edging out Eric – who had a slow start.

The real fun came when Q and Eric started to play. I really like Eric’s approach to his game. My god, if that kid could just stop scoring on himself, he’d be pretty good. The first game, Q balanced things out by scoring on himself as well… and I think Eric’s got the slight edge in this matchup (so long as he doesn’t score on himself). Eric took the first game. His defense looked good enough, and he picked when to use his right wall under – which is coming with some force these days. The next game.. Eric fell apart. I don’t really know what happened… Eric couldn’t find the goal, and his defense went to pieces. It happens. Q rode this wave of confidence through the next 2 games and went up 3-1 very quickly. Eric was killing himself with shots on his own goal and Q had really honed in on Eric’s offense. In the 5th game.. Eric calmed down, started reading Q’s offense much better and had enough control to come out ahead… and Q started exhibiting some bad habits… like not looking at the opponents defense and not setting up his shots. In the 6th game, both players seemed to really key in on what the other player was doing, and both player’s offense seemed to get stymied. This is the hardest part for a newcomer to overcome. When you’ve become predictable, how do you change up and go to another style of attack when you don’t have another one to go to? Eric was hitting straights from center left, and right wall unders from center right. Q wasn’t setting up his shots and wasn’t looking at Eric’s defense. The game lasted forever, but Eric was able to force a final game 7. I told both players that I’d really like to see nobody score on themselves in this last game… because it was happening too much to both players. Both clamped down on defense and came out swinging. Nobody scored on themselves and the game got tied to 5-5. Q had possession and did his best with it, and brought it to 6-5. I had been going back and forth all game, so I thought Eric would tie things up and make it really interesting… but instead scored on himself. Nail in the coffin. Great set to watch… great to see each player see their opponent and adjust their defense.

Afterwards, I practiced with Eric… I think it’s time Eric expand his offense past pump fakes and a cut/rwu. Eric can hit a decent cross, but without a lwu, it’s not a potent offensive shot. I showed him what I was taught and he seemed to like working at an offset. I’d like to see him work that into some practice games, and eventually into his regular game. I think Q was able to pick out what shot was coming after a bit… mixing in some new shots will keep it fun for Eric while giving him more shots to use. I think I find that some shots are easier to hit from certain spots on the table.. and mixing in a cross where a cut is expected gives the defense too much to think about. Eric said his mind was more in the games he was winning.. and that going into his ‘baseball mentality’ helped him. It really helps to think on defense.. and Eric was helped out when he was focused. I think Eric should mix things up a bit in all phases of his game. Charge at least once a game.. take a couple pot shots… rip a forehand every once in awhile.

For Q, I’d like to stress doing intentional drifts.. knowing what you’re going to do before you do it, and developing good habits. Looking at what the defense is giving him, and drift to the correct spot… not just “push it somewhere and hit”.

Little late on this one. As I’ll be writing about Thursday, and it’s Monday, already.

Me, Nick, Goran, and Billy were at the BZ – and instead of playing sets, we did played doubles. Goran/Dan vs. Billy/Nick. I remember scoring on the first face off and doing reasonable against Billy, and keeping him off the table. Since Billy is the best amongst us, keeping Billy from getting on a run is really important. It seemed as though we were able to trade off and keep the scores close, and Goran and I won 2 games. Since we were just screwing around, we played best of 3, so we switched teams. Billy/Dan, and Goran/Nick. We lost the first one of these before coming back – essentially because Billy got on a roll. Nick/Dan vs. Goran/Billy was a bit of a mismatch, and when it was 6-3 in G/B’s favor.. Goran switched to left hand play, and we were able to get it close before losing. Goran also brought out the left hand treatment earlier on – and scored on me, what seemed like at will. Pretty awful.

Then, we sat around and invented a new game for us to play. It turned out to be similar to what Brian, Mike, and I played last week.. but we kept a cumulative score. So, basically, 2 people would be playing, and when scored upon – you gave up the table and someone new would jump in. Our wrinkle was a scoring modifier… so, you’d get 3 points for a straight, 2 for an over, and 1 for anything else. We’d end the game when someone got to 100. It got to be very interesting..with people trying out different strategies and feeling out a flow to the game. I actually shot out ahead, and I managed to get straights on all 3 right off the bat. Then I ran cold. Pretty much, things would go in fits and starts for me. I’d get on a roll, or I wouldn’t be able to score for long stretches of time. Getting a straight and not giving up a straight became the single focus of our game… it was awesome to get a straight, and it was equally devastating to give up a straight… especially when you’re doing everything to stop it. The game got heated. We were yelling in frustration, and taking everything really seriously. This, amongst a *very* busy Brunswick Zone. Billy mentioned to me afterwards that had he been doing something… anything and saw a bunch of people yelling, hollering, and generally having a great time doing just about *anything* in a place like that, he thought he’d want to find out what the heck was going on. Either it’s because nobody finds air hockey interesting, or that someone taking air hockey too seriously on a Thursday night is so commonplace that it doesn’t deserve another look. Anyway – we had a pretty good game going… and there was a pretty good stretch that not only did I score on Billy – but I was scoring straights on him. He went through a slump while Goran surged. I can’t figure out why Nick lagged behind so much, as after the game, both Goran and Billy said he was probably the hardest to score on throughout the game. In the middle of the match, I changed my mindset. I figured I’d do my best to score a straight.. and I was reasonably successful doing so… and I was *not* going to give up a straight, and started charging everything. After it became obvious that I was charging everything.. I got scored on at will. An easy 1 point was something that I was willing to give up, and everyone else was willing to take. This turned out to be a pretty awful strategy. I lagged behind for quite awhile before stringing a couple 10 point stands… it got heated again when I jumped ahead of Goran. I’m pretty sure Goran finished with a couple points more than me… but when Billy got 100 points – it was like he ‘set the curve’… Goran and I were in the mid 80’s (earning B’s, I think)… and Nick got left in the dust posting a sub 60 score. Fun was had by all… I’m sure we’d do it again with 3+ people. Or mix up the rules, somehow.

Ok.. so it’s been fun looking at what people are saying about the IL tourney and how it’s not a real tourney or some business… and I’ve kept out of it because I simply don’t care. It did come around to “what one can do to advance the sport”… and I’ve mostly kept out of this as well, because I’m so damn new to it.

Here’s my idea: make it fun to watch. Take poker for instance. Holy fuck is this the most boring thing to watch… except for the few times where there’s “high drama”. Even football has commericals when nothing is going on. Air hockey would actually not be so bad to watch if you knew what the heck was going on… if someone explained to you the drama behind certain matchups. Mike vs. Geoff going down to the final point… fun, fun match. Watching Mark disassemble Mike with a cross… or Geoff overcoming Goran. I’d love, love, love to have a table set up with multiple cameras… with different angles, in high def (*not* the normally weak internet connection)… and have Don and Billy commentating. Giving a history lesson before the game and what each player will try to do – and then commenting on the action. Heck, edit it down if necessary (though I don’t think it would be). Edit it, so that you can talk about a certain attack a player is employing and not miss any action. The game could benefit from slowing it down in some cases…. get John Madden-like, and do a replay in slow-mo.

Basically.. I’d love to download a hi-def video with commentary and scores/stats… stats! of turnovers, # of shots taken, unforced turnovers, etc. etc… man would it be a lot of work, but the finished product would be awesome.

damn, I want a camera so bad… just a little flip camera would work. I got my eye on the Canon Zi8… 60fps at 720p… and at least then I could take video of myself… I mean – I’d love to break down my game on video… and see what it would look like to play me.

*sigh* too much espresso.

Saturday.

It felt like I hadn’t played Mike in a long time. Stupid Mike.

Anyway… Mike, Q, and I showed up to the ‘ol BZ for some air hockey action. I met Q at the change machine. I had a feeling he’d be there. I didn’t get a reply from when I texted him letting him know that I and Mike would be there… but I had that feeling. The man is hooked. I shared a quick story about the times I’ve been running a little late to air hockey and getting stuck in traffic… and how it made me angry. I feel like I know what Q is going through… wanting to get better… getting some success, but still not being good enough. Being blown away at how complicated the game can get. Laughing at how stupid someone is for getting faked out, thinking nobody could be that dumb… then going out there and moving that mallet even though you *know* what shot is coming. The physical part is really important early on… but it’s the mental part that makes the game addictive.

Playing a set against Mike and losing 4-0 was pretty frustrating. Y’know, since all but one game went to 6-6. That… and it’s Mike. Stupid Mike. The worst part was that he was playing stupid, and bad defense… and it didn’t seem to matter. Even worse, is that I know what it takes to beat him… and that is being accurate with my shots… and hitting the corner of the goal instead of trying to fake him out. It doesn’t work – because Mike uses a false rail defense. Mark’s shots against him at IL State were accurate.. they weren’t fancy.. just accurate. I beat Mike when my accuracy is good. It also drove me a little nutty because I should have been able to block his lwu better. Too many of his goals didn’t come in with a lot of heat… and I let too many go past. It wasn’t like he was blowing me out of the water… a tiny edge would have meant the difference.

Afterwards, the little smartass shrugged it off like it was no big deal to him to win. He was going off about how he beat Goran 4-1, and that he’s better than him, now. Simple as that. I had to look up the data… holy shit, Mike has beaten Goran 3 times out of the last 6. I had to go back to May to where Goran beat Mike consistently. This is very interesting.

I mean.. certainly, Mike turned some heads in Houston. Billy said a year ago, Mike may not have been in the top 10 IL air hockey players (I can’t remember exactly)… which is a pretty dramatic change. Could Mike be the next great player coming out of IL? Can he supplant Goran as the definitive #2 guy behind Billy? I think a challenge match is in order.

Shit. Just for giggles.

Ok.. so then Mike, Q, and I played a version of ‘winner stays’… where, instead of someone waiting a full game – we reduced it to a point. So, when you got scored on – the third would jump in. It was great in that you played both sides of the table.. you didn’t get a lot of time with just one person for very long… and we just played and played and played. All of us very active and not sitting around much. It took me awhile to even think to count how many people I sat down.. and then Mike made a rule that once someone goes 7 in a row, we’d end the game. I didn’t think this would happen, actually… but we were going to need *some* way for us to know when to stop. (It really creates one of those – just “one more point” kind of syndromes) Both Mike and I got to 6 points and faced Q… who managed to sneak one past us… and kept the game going. Then, since we had been playing solid for over an hour (maybe closer to 2)… we changed the rule again, such that the person who scores – gets possession after each score. We played like this for awhile.. and Mike started to fade. Instead of y’know… saying, “hey guys – I’m done…” he instead got very lax with his defense when he was up… so long as it wasn’t the final point. When I faced Mike after 6.. I knew he’d give me his best. I shot a pretty hard left wall over, and it sunk right off the bat. I saved that shot for him.

Now.. if one were to read that liberal-biased, non-fact checking blog (http://pucksnmallets.wordpress.com/), you would have read that Mike won this little pissing contest… but that would be wrong. I don’t know where Mr. Q got his journalism degree from, but it wasn’t the fancy, correspondence-only school of Burundi, where myself and my dog, Zoe got our degrees from (y’know, I’ve never been able to find that place on a map… I’m assured the campus is “amazing”, though).

Holy Sh*t.

The IL air hockey community is blessed as our new player Brian Q has started his own freakin’ blog… much like mine… but better.

Follow along as Brian increases his skill week after week here

Weekly roundup.

Thursday. Found out the only people interested in playing on Thursday night was Billy and I, so we went to the bowling alley on Western to play. It was odd being recognized. Some kid was there the last time we were there. He even played some other kid there and held the mallet correctly. I believe this is the extent to which I should influence any kid.

In my never-ended effort to find some sort of edge on Billy besides actually getting good – I bought some silly putty and was just playing with it in front of Billy – who desperately wanted it in his hands… and I teased him with it. I’ve begun to recognize a trend in air hockey players, in that they’re all have a serious case of attention deficit disorder. I thought Billy may be the lone standout as one who doesn’t suffer from it… but I was way, way wrong. Anyway, I was thinking I could get him thinking more about the silly putty than the game.. but once we started – he was all business. It was in between games that I was able to fuck with him.

We did have fun when we decided to play a handicapped set. I got a 3 point lead in each game… and it was tied up 3-3 going into the final game… and Billy destroyed me. Still.. lots of fun, and the handicap put pressure on Billy.

Saturday was exciting because we were to have a new player come out. It was pretty interesting to see my development over time, and Brian seems to have the same skills I had when I first started playing. Brian may even have a leg up, since he played with pros in the past. By the time I showed up, Brian was already playing with a triangle defense – and that made him a much better player, already. Billy was showing him a couple things, mostly about stance and some other basic things… I don’t think he even really got into offense, other than for Brian to take advantage of his height and shoot from the centerline. After a brief warmup – he played a set with Eric.

I didn’t get to see much of this because I was playing a set with Billy.. but I remember stopping because Briand was up 3-2 going into what could be the final game and it was at 6-6. I remember Eric having the puck and missing a shot, and Brian coming back with the sweetest rwu I’ve seen him shoot. In practice, Brian’s right wall under seemed pretty weak and I was able to defend it pretty easily – but this last one that finished the game was probably the best shot I’ve seen him take. Talking to Eric that night, he thought he should have won. He didn’t think Brian’s offense was anything special. Them’s fightin’ words. There may be blood on the table the next time they play.

I remember back when I was learning, and Billy had us paring down our offenses to a still puck offense.. and remember playing through that time. Eric’s offense stopped at ‘line attack’ and now that he’s recently added power to his game, I’d suggest he get some new lessons… 1st – would be defense. For instance – when I play Billy, my defense isn’t always good enough… and when Billy is killing me with fast unders/overs.. I’ll go into my shell (I forget the name of this defense).. but it starts when I’m in a triangle… and when Billy hits the puck, I go right to the rail, right in the middle of the goal… forcing him to hit either perfect shots on the corner – or hit straights on me. Billy has mentioned times when he’s gone to a rail defense to beat some elite players… and I think Eric could benefit if he realizes he’s not fast enough or if he realizes he can’t read a shot well enough… that he can use an alternative defense (though I wouldn’t suggest that against Brian). Eric’s got a decent cross.. but it would be a lot better if he hit it with a complimentary shot – like the left wall under. I’d like to see him practice that shot. Basically, I’m saying Eric may want to learn some new tricks – and it’ll be fun for him.

I got in some games with Goran.. and still lost my games.. but I got to trying some other shots against him. I had some success… I still have problems putting him away and winning games when I’m ahead.

After that, Billy, Brian, and I went and played some disc golf. It’s become our new fascination.

I need to write about this, sorry for not having any great pictures or videos or anything. I didn’t feel so much like an embedded reporter than just a simple participant.

So.. it was nice that it was at a Brunswick Zone that’s different from the one we normally play at. A little change of scenery was welcome. Directions are goofy, and I had 2 friends of mine go to the wrong BZ before finding the place.

My friend, Robb, whom I conned into participating showed up, and I tried to give him a brief 3 point lesson. How to hold the mallet, how to stand, and use the triangle defense. The only thing he seemed to pay attention to was the holding the mallet part. With some Canadian whiskey in hand, he didn’t seem to have the attention span to listen to any more of what I had to say. His whole perspective of showing up at all was that of Hunter S. Thompson in “Fear and Loathing”… he was interested in the “spectacle” of it.

I wasn’t really excited about this tourney, because I figured I’d play all the people I play on a regular basis. There were 2 new faces there that day, and my first set was against one of them. Brian had pretty much the same exact game I had when I started playing out at the BZ. Slow drift, hard, accurate straight shot. Little to no deception. He played a back rail defense, though – and I just hit straight shots on him. I may have attempted a bank shot of some kind 3 games into it… but against a rail defense, banks are unnecessary. I won this one, 4-0.

My next game was against Mark Robbins… and I’ve yet to crack his manic/random style. I imagine I’d do better against him if I had a semblance of a decent defense. I took a game off of him, but that was it.

In this round, Mike played Goran, and upset him (I won money on this, too. Billy and I had some very low stakes betting on the side).

Of course, this meant that I had to play Goran. Me beating Mike in a single set is like 50/50… against Goran… I’ve yet to beat him. I took a game or two from him by getting really vanilla with my offense – doing the super, super slow drift and cocking back for a huge swing. Add some delays, some fakes, and then just hit it home. Again… my defense let me down. Everything scores on me – and I really need to pick a shot to defend and just stick with it. And with that – I was out of the double-elimination tourney, and I never got to play my ‘peers’.. Nick, Mike, and Geoff. Instead I had to play Sean in the spinoffs.

I’m pretty confident against Sean.. and we had some defensive battles going on, but I surprised him with an accurate and powerful forehand, as well as my hard bank shots. I don’t worry about Sean hitting a bank against me, so my defense held up reasonably well… and I beat him fairly easily. There were a couple moments where he gave me a good game, but overall – I didn’t really feel like he had the same tools to use as I. He mentioned that I was a completely different player than what he’d last seen… and he’s right.

With that win – 4 sets, 2-2, I was done, and finished 8th. I beat those I felt I should beat, but didn’t upset anyone. Bummer.

There were a couple sets that were classics. The first, of course, is Mike vs. Goran. Mike plays so well when he wants to give his all. If there was a way he could have that mindset all the time, he’d be great.

An even better match was Goran vs. Geoff. Geoff being Goran’s project… who taught Geoff how to play. Both are capable of a chase game, both are analytic with their game playing. Goran has a bit more power than Geoff, but this time Geoff was able to pull the upset. Instead of Goran in the finals where may would have predicted him to be, he fell out early. Billy thought it was cool that the student beat the teacher… and I told Billy in a few weeks, I’d do the same to him.

Even better than that was Geoff vs. Mike. Mike was winning even with a suspect defense all day. When Geoff was able to hit right wall overs, he was very successful against Mike. Mixing in crosses (Mike’s bane) was also a good strategy. Mike’s offense was on fire, though – and the games were a tossup. In game 7, it was for all the marbles, and both came out with attacks that were working throughout the set. The game got tied at 6-6 and the next point would determine the winner. Geoff came out charging! And everyone around were shaking their heads for doing such a risky move. Both had possessions and both failed to score as Geoff kept going for the right wall over, until finally Mike ripped a nice straight and ended it.

Mike had little time to rest, as he had Mark Robbins to play next – with the winner playing Billy in the finals. We all gathered around to cheer on Mike. Not that we dislike Mark – but because he was a big underdog. I’m pretty sure Mark took the first game before Mike came back and took the next 3 that involved Mike coming back from big deficits. And then something happened. Mark started hitting crosses… and Mike couldn’t block them. It got ridiculous… there was one game where Mark hit nothing but crosses. Inbetween games, we tried to tell Mike to just stop that shot and he’d win. He didn’t think he was flinching, but he was. Mike didn’t appreciate the advice for some reason because he “knew” what was going on… but he was pretty helpless to stop it. In the end, Mark just pounded that shot home – at least 11 times in a row for easy scores… and Mike was done… losing both of his sets to Mark.

…and then Mark played Billy in the finals, and besides a game when Mark just blew Billy out of the water – it was all Billy.

So.. congrats to Billy for doing what was expected and winning, and to Mike – who was involved in the best games… it was great to watch. And thanks to my wife for coming out and putting up with it for a couple hours.

The other great set was Geoff vs. Goran. Geoff defeating Goran in the losers bracket

Big, big Saturday of air hockey. It’s funny – what I consider a really big day of air hockey is probably a pretty awful day in Houston. We had Danny, Billy, Goran, me, Nick, Mike, Eric, and Brianna show up for a tourney. 8 people.

Due to me losing to Mike, my ranking has tanked. I had to fight off Goran in the first round. Goran always has some kind of voodoo against me. I can’t really figure it out, but I’m starting to see holes that I can exploit. As I’m getting comfortable shooting out of a circle drift, I’ve noticed that I can emulate Donovan’s shots. I think it’s more surprising to see it come from me – but I’ve gotten some pretty easy points off of Goran and Geoff lately. It’s an effective attack that’s not fancy or really too different from what I’ve done in the past. Anyway – in my first couple games against Goran – I was incredibly accurate with my shots. I was hitting straights against him that I normally don’t get. I got it tied up 2 games to 2 games, when I let Goran hit his cross against me. He mixed in just enough lwu’s to get me thinking.. and hit a couple crosses from different parts of the table. He did a good job of catching me not recentering… thus Goran worked his magic against me once again and took the set. Still, it was probably my best set against Goran. Something must’ve clicked in his brain after playing me, because he killed Billy 4-0.

So, I headed into the loser’s bracket, and played Eric. I normally plow right through Eric… and even though it doesn’t feel like he’s getting better – the scores would indicate that he’s making great strides. He’s not scoring on himself like he has in the past, and he’s able to rip a pretty good rwu sometimes. His defense is still a little rough, but everything is getting slightly better. He even took a game off me this set. I think he just needs to get fast… just work on hitting everything harder and get used to a puck moving really fast. Like, he should just spend a day playing the chase game with a goal blocker until his arm hurts. Kid played baseball.. if he can hit a fastball, I’m sure this will start working for him. Real shame he may not make the tourney.

So, with my win, I was slated to play Nick, who beat Mike, then lost to Danny. In our first game, I got caught up in his bullshit. Nick was playing very fast, but enough in control that he was getting goals past me… I made too many stupid mistakes, and Nick won the first game. The 2nd game, I went into slow motion. I took my sweet old time, and hit lots of offgoals… either cut shots that miss left and come back to me, or off-goals that hit the corner and come back. Nick got incredibly impatient. My attack consisted of cuts and right wall unders… that’s it. I hit so many off-goal cuts, it really set up my right wall under. It made it unstoppable. I’d dribble the puck.. drift it over the middle.. cut-shot. Repeat. Should Nick get the puck – he was being so impatient that he would hit pot shot after pot shot… rarely, if ever, setting up his shot. I won the next 2 games handily, and in the 3rd – Nick started shagging more of my pucks… kind of expected since I didn’t alter my strategy… but in the 4th game – tied 6-6, I just got pigheaded about it, and won the game. The last game, Nick got even more desperate and tried to get transition shots every chance he got. He’d usually miss and I’d get the puck back – and I’d take my time… and I knew I was driving Nick nuts. When the set was over, he blew up. He was just really pissed off.

…after a cigarette, Nick came back in and Danny had some words of wisdom for him. Now, Danny isn’t going to lecture anyone…. When Danny talks – it’s like he’s dumping wisdom on people… more of a “Hey, by the way…”. He talked to Nick about being a good loser. How losing is an experience in learning, and that losing makes you better… and this isn’t just in air hockey – but permeates your life. Losing is a part of winning. If you’ve ever seen Danny play… he’s not blowing smoke up your ass when he says this. Most players when they make a mistake, will sometimes yell at themselves for making a mistake. Danny’s play is a string of compliments. “perfect shot” is what he’d say most times. It’s like he loves to see the game played at its best, even if he isn’t the one doing it. I wonder if Nick will take what Danny said to heart. Danny, Eric, and I watched Nick play Mike. After awhile, Nick didn’t set up a single shot. Danny thought most of his drifts were out of control and that it was unlikely he could hit out of many of his fancy drifts. Everything Nick did against Mike was rushed and run on pure instinct.

Oh yeah, and then I met Billy in the loser’s bracket. Yeah.. that was fun. Billy was pissed about losing to Goran, so he pretty much walked all over me. Not much to talk about there. So, I got kicked out of the tourney by Billy… not the worst way to go.

After Danny beat Billy in the finals, I got the chance to play him. I think I did pretty well. I think it was 7-5, 7-6, and 7-3, and I did a really good job of blocking his off-speed shots, but that’s not really good enough to beat the best. I’m pretty sure I led in each game at some point. The third game was worst.. I gave up the puck and lost control. Danny was also reading my shots like a book, putting his mallet in places where he anticipated I’d shoot – and did so with clairvoyant accuracy. It was weird.

Mark showed up as I was leaving… predictably, 4 hours late. I imagine I’ll see him next week.

Last night I went out for what I intended to be a ‘defense only’ night to save my elbow – which has been bugging me. I should be fine, either way, but the extra rest is good.

Played a couple games with Eric, snagged a lot of pucks, really read what Eric was doing and noticing his tendencies – which gave me good reads on when to charge. After snagging the puck, I’d do a couple circle drifts – which I’m happy to say, I’m getting *much* better at. Sometimes I’d do an L drift, contemplating different places to take a shot, and even practiced a straight tap-tap drift – adding spin to the puck… which gives me the idea I could hit some wicked overs with the spin I’ve added. But… instead of taking shots.. I’d just give the puck up and do it again. I was either reading Eric as well as I’ve ever done, or he’d gotten a bit too predictable… because our scores were pretty close – as Eric would score on himself, or in the process of snagging a puck – would score accidentally. Eventually, not shooting got boring, so I mixed in some forehands.. which are pretty easy on my arm. I really get too much satisfaction by hearing the sound of scoring for me to not try to mix in a couple shots.

I played Nick the same way.. and after awhile we played a real game. I still wasn’t about to hit a cross or a left wall under.. and mostly kept it to forehands. Nick was using a ‘new offense’ – which amounted to a bunch of fancy tap-tap drifting… it’s Wil Upchurchlike, but I think Wil uses the forward/back motion to create angles in which to hit overs/unders. Nick was just adding wrinkles to an offense that already has enough wrinkles… in fact, Nick may be well served by toning back his offense and getting a little more vanilla. I think it’s useful for him to change the pace of his game… but adding even more stuff to his offense – I dunno if he’s getting what he needs out of it. Then again… Nick was just having fun last night. Basically, we were pretending to be different players than we were.. me with a mostly forehand attack, and Nick with his fast tap-tapping.

Then Geoff showed up.. and I played 2 real-ish games with him. In my first game, my offense consisted soley of shots from the circle drift. I’ve noticed in myself and in others that defenses don’t want to recenter too much while someone is going through their drift… which leaves a quick cut shot open. I killed Eric with this last week, but it even worked on Geoff. The other shot I liked to take out of the circle that worked on Geoff was straight out of Donovan’s playbook. In the circle drift, where the puck is closest to the goal, and you’re hitting the left rail, instead of hitting a catchable open V, you just hit it hard for an over. It’s an off speed shot, it’s difficult to hit hard when you’re shooting from close to your goal, but because it’s an over – and a surprising one – people are late to see the shot coming, and then follow it to the rail to block – and miss. I don’t know how many of those Donovan scored on me before I caught on… and now it’s another attack. I think I beat Geoff the first game, something like 7-3. The 2nd game, I took it easy and hit almost all forehands again… and Geoff was being goofy going with a rail defense… and my forehand straights aren’t that accurate.

I don’t think I’ll be using the circle drift too much in the tourney next week.. I’m still working on perfecting more basic stuff.

Ok.. so, what are we at? 2 weeks, pretty much before the IL tourney?

I think I need to tone down the amount of air hockey I’m playing, because my elbow/muscles have been bugging me a bit. I need to make sure I’m still ready to go without my arm falling apart on me.

So.. went in last night. Eric, Nick, and Billy were all there. I recall playing some ’straights-only’ games with Eric and Billy. I think it was a good exercise for me. Not only did I need to work on setting up my straight shot, but defense. Especially after what Mike did to me with his stupid cross that I should have blocked about a hundred times more than what I did. I find that I can block straights pretty well when that’s the only thing I have to worry about.

I played a couple games with Eric. He’s getting dangerous. There’s just a couple things holding him back. Most notably, puck control. I think my puck control is pretty bad, but Eric’s is worse. He just gives up the puck too much. Unforced turnovers will cost games… but Eric’s defense has gotten a bit better – still not great, but better… but most notably, his offense is getting good. Eric has added some zip to his RWU’s, and when he combines that with pump fakes, delays, and off-goals… and the fact that he doesn’t go to that shot every time makes it particularly dangerous. Eric has begun to win games against me – even as I improve.

Then I got into a set with Nick. We’ve played so much that I pretty much know what to expect with his game. I just need to see how he reacts, what he’s focusing on, and make small adjustments. One thing that caught me off guard was Nick’s ability to snag pucks. If he gets it in his head that I’m going to hit an off-goal, he will get his mallet out there to snag that puck. I generally start out using my cut/cross attack using a simple diagonal drift… I dunno if it’s just because it’s easy – and if you can score with it consistently, it’s a very good sign – or if it’s pretty much Billy’s standard attack. There were a couple things I worked on against Eric… and that was tap-tap drifts and diamond drifts. I don’t think I’ve done a diamond in a game better than what I did last night. The best part was that I was able to shoot out of it. I use the open-V quite a bit, so it didn’t seem like it was such an adjustment.

Anyway… Nick was playing very good. He was controlled, he was hitting his RWU well and setting up his shots – and made fewer unforced turnovers than I. Our games were very close. If I recall, there were 3 7-6 games in our set, with Nick taking the first 2. I knew Nick had learned to use the cross against me from my match with Mike, so I really tried to focus on not letting him hit in a straight. I got down 3 games to 1. I wasn’t even playing bad.. but Nick was finding the goal a bit more than I, and got me with 2 7-6 wins. Taking a page out of Mike’s book – I stormed back and took the next 2 games… mostly using my cross/lwu attack. I even mixed in a little bit of my tap-tap drifts… trying to summon Wil Upchurch as much as I could… but I didn’t go to this too frequently. In, I believe, the 5th game – I made what Billy thought was my best shot, ever. I did a diagonal drift and did a double delay, which allowed the puck to really go over to the left a bit – and then I hit a perfect cross shot that looked like it was going to be a lwu, but perfectly hit the right side of the goal. Another factor in my comeback was that Nick started charging more – and I was able to get a couple easy goals in and Nick abandoned using straight shots. Throughout the set – Nick was getting me with straights when I thought I was centered… I wasn’t falling back on my defense, but Nick was still finding the goal – which was frustrating. I don’t know if Nick’s accuracy just waned a tiny bit, or if I started blocking those shots… but Nick got away from it enough for me to come back and force a game 7.

I played game 7 incredibly well. I probably played the best offense of my career. I smashed left wall unders and followed it up with a couple crosses. Then threw in a quick cut which really got Nick to move. Nick started overplaying his offense, and I quickly got up 4-0. Nick came back a little bit, I believe scoring the next 2… but I didn’t let up, and went on to hammering that left wall under. That was the shot I went to when I needed one. I finished the set, and came out the winner. 4-3, and it couldn’t have been much closer. Billy said that we both played a very good game.

I don’t know what it is, but I’ve played Nick incredibly well since the big Texas Tourney… having won 7 out of 9 sets. I had no idea it was that lopsided. It doesn’t even seem like that’s real.

Billy and I played next. In this set, I really, really focused on hitting overs, and it seemed like a pretty good strategy. It got to the point where I’d miss overs on purpose – just to get him thinking of it. I didn’t realize it, but it’s not a bad way to set up an under. Get him thinking about blocking that over… and I managed to sink a number of them… especially left wall overs. In the first game, I managed to get a couple cheesy points… where the puck is blocked – but somehow manages to bounce off the side and off his mallet into the goal… and even one medium speed double bank. I got it to 6-6, but he managed to get the final point. Game 2 was similar, but only managed to get 5 points.. and then in game 3, I totally went into the tank on overs – and I got beat pretty bad. Game 4 was pretty awesome – because I won it.. I know I got a couple transition points and managed to score a couple cuts against him – which is rare to do against Billy. I forced a game 5 – where I completely shit the bed and lost 7-0. Brutal, but that’s how I get better.

So.. I’ll see what happens tomorrow. I don’t think I want to play too long.. rest up and then have a good lead-in to the tourney the Thursday before. That’s my plan, anyway.