The hype is real: My top 6 favorite Ultimate videos

Hey guys,

It's been too long since I've put out a post, as they say life got in the way. I am back now and I wanted to put together a post about one of my serious passions: Ultimate.

One of my favorite things to do when I started playing ultimate was to watch highlight videos of the best players from around the world. It helped me learn what a seriously competitive player looked like and what the pace of a high-level game was like. I've been playing for about 5 years now and I can still learn from pretty much any video out there.

On top of learning, these videos create so much hype. I'm not really one for pump-up music prior to games, I would much rather take a look at one of these videos to get myself in the mindset for a tournament. Take a look at the 6 videos that top my list.

6. Jay Clark: 2012 Ultimate Highlights

This video is absolutely full of hype. Jay Clark has absolutely no regard for his own safety, as evidenced by the egregious amount of layouts in this video. Regardless, Clark is a great player and he showcases a lot of talent throughout the video. I would classify this as less of a learning experience and more of a "I need to get outside and practice my layouts RIGHT NOW" type video.

5. The Janimal

Are you kidding me? This guy is like, 5 feet nothing (I just checked, it's more like 5"8 but whatever) and he's a MONSTER. He can get up with the best of them, skip ahead to :50 for an example. While the video is a bit corny and the production quality is slightly lower than other Callahan videos it gets me going. It's always great to see someone around my size dominate a field of players that could be anywhere form 2-8 inches taller. Jacob Janin is a hype machine with great athleticism.

4. Nick Lance: Callahan 2012

Nick Lance is one of the most talented ultimate players I've seen, and his Callahan video is a clinic on how to destroy hopes and dreams. You can see how effective his upside down throws are at breaking marks and finding the open man, his hucks are pretty pinpoint and he puts his body on the line. As far as the full package goes, this video has it all. The music is also a great complement to the shift in the video from dominating offense to defense. Jay Clark did a great editing job, and as far as production quality it's top notch.

3. 2009 UPA Club Nationals Ultimate Frisbee Highlights
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bv7-vq1ta0 (blogger wouldn't let me embed this one)

Unfortunately this video has lost a large majority of its hype due to the banned audio track. But let me tell you that when it was in its pure form this video was AMAZING. It had footage of the 2009 Club Nationals tournament and there was talent all over the field. Seeing the highest level of ultimate being played really made me work harder when I was starting out. I probably watched this video about 50 times during my first semester playing college ultimate, and each time I got more ready to play at a higher level. It's seriously a shame that the video quality is so poor and the music is gone, this one was one of the best.

2. Dylan Freechild - Callahan Nominee 2013

Dylan Freechild is an incredible Ultimate player, and this video is a showcase on how dominant he can be. The song in the video is also one of my all time favorites, I think it meshes with the video content really well. In terms of what you can learn, Freechild has really perfected a lot of the dump-swing moves as well as timing for strike cuts. He's innovative when it comes to creating space and getting open as a handler, something I worked on a lot when playing at college. He's also fast, really fast. His speed helps him dominate games and really puts an emphasis on how important conditioning is. Plus his layout at 3:52 is enormous, his game saving layout at 4:11 is RIDICULOUS, and his spikes are top notch. Also seriously, look at 4:26 and tell me your not impressed.

1. Arizona Men's Ultimate 2013 Highlights

This video is an absolute hype machine. The music, the editing, the skill, the disrespect, all of it comes together to form an amazing video. When I want to get amped up I watch this video. Fuck yeah Sunburn, you guys rock. Reach and go higher.

Tastes and preferences: Ranking the things I used to hate

Hello world,

You know how as a child you refuse to eat something simply because it looks gross? It could be the most delicious thing you've ever eaten, but because you're a stubborn kid you won't let that shit anywhere near your mouth.

I didn't have a whole lot of stuff I didn't eat as a kid, but there are some notable things that I absolutely used to detest that I now involve in my diet on a regular basis. There are in fact 5 things that I can name right now that I wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole as a child, but now gladly eat/drink them pretty much everyday.

Get ready for a wild fucking ride guys.

5. Cheese (specifically blue)
As a kid I would only eat one kind of cheese: American. If you're not 100% sure what American cheese really is, read this:

That's some 'Murican cheese

"Today’s American cheese is generally no longer made from blended natural cheeses; instead, it is industrially manufactured from a set of ingredients such as milk; whey; milkfat; milk protein concentrate; whey protein concentrate; saturated oil(s); emulsifiers; and salt. Because its ingredients differ so much from those of "unprocessed"/raw/natural cheeses, American cheese can not be legally sold under the name (authentic) "cheese" in the US."

I ripped that straight off wikipedia, which is by far the most reputable source on the internet. Either way, it's kind of gross. Since then I've graduated to more natural cheese, specifically blue cheese. I hated it as a kid, it wasn't processed enough for my taste. It was too tart for me, so I stayed away from it. I cannot believe what I've been missing. Blue cheese is pretty much the best kind of cheese ever. Put it on ANYTHING and it will probably taste better. 

While blue cheese might be the holy grail of cheese, ricotta cheese is still something I detest (and I don't know why!). I've tried it so many times, but even as an adult (which I think I am at this point) I cannot stand ricotta. Unless it's cold and in a sugary cannoli, I will not eat it.

4. Most kinds of seafood
Something went horribly wrong with my palate as a child. I would eat all kinds of fish as a baby, but once I hit the ripe old age of 6 that stopped abruptly. Fish was disgusting to me at that age and I didn't know why. I just knew that I didn't like it and I wouldn't eat it. Eventually that went away and I would occasionally eat a fish plate if it was fried into oblivion or drowned in sauce, but now I actively enjoy and seek out the chance to eat fish. Haddock is probably my favorite, followed by salmon and halibut. It's soooo gooooood.

Might as well be ipecac 

Something that doesn't make sense however, is my lack of love for lobster. Growing up in New England I was exposed to lobster at a young age and it's followed me throughout my whole life. There's nothing like a Maine lobster according to anyone from New England, and yet it's not really my cup of tea. Don't get me wrong, I'll eat and enjoy it. It's just not far up the list of seafood that I enjoy (NEW LIST COMING SOON).

Also I hate canned tuna. That is all.

Shut up an eat it kid

3. Brussel Sprouts
This isn't really all that surprising. Find me a kid who liked eating brussel sprouts and I'll show you 5 that didn't. I wasn't much different, although brussel sprouts and asparagus followed the same pattern that fish did for me. I loved it as a baby (at that time it was "mini-cabbage" and "tubular-lettuce"), wouldn't eat it as a kid, and learned to love it over time. Asparagus is different because I adopted a liking for it at an earlier age, whereas I recently began to like brussel sprouts again. And now I think brussel sprouts are fucking delicious. Mini-cabbage is da bess.

How can you be so delicious?

2. Seltzer water
I really don't know why I started to like seltzer water. It's something that I tried over and over again and just recently acquired a taste for it. My office stocks up on those Polar seltzer bottles and one day I decided to try it and BOOM, it wasn't atrocious. It was in fact, quite delicious. Now I can't get enough of the stuff. It's a change that came on very quickly, where it felt like one day I hated it and the next day it was amazing and delicious. Go figure.

P.S. The mandarin orange flavor is amazing. I could drink a case of that stuff easy.

1. Oatmeal

Look at the variety! Fuck you regular flavored oatmeal

The cream of the crop, oatmeal is something I only recently began to enjoy after years upon years of hatred. The problem is I always wanted to like oatmeal, which I think is kind of weird. I just always saw oatmeal as something you should have for breakfast, but I never found appealing. I tried a bunch of different times and I could never get around the blandness of it. Then I found instant oatmeal. Not the cup based shit, I mean in the packet Quaker Oats instant fucking oatmeal. I cannot get enough of this stuff. It's my breakfast 4/5 days of the workweek. I eat it for a quick snack during the day, sometimes I eat for dinner. I love oatmeal. It's the rib-sticking goodness that gets to me, I just feel like it really fills me up and warms my whole body.

Where have you been all my life? Right in front of me. Only now did I finally see how truly amazing you could be. Oatmeal...I love you.