Ultimate Fryjol

Jim,

Let’s say you have to introduce yourself to a room full of new ultimate players. Go ahead!

Hi, my name is Jim Parinella. I’ve been playing ultimate since 1983. I’ve been playing on Boston club teams since 1989, most notably DoG (Death or Glory), which won 6 National titles and 3 World titles in the Open division, and last year won the Masters Nationals. What I do best is to get open downfield.

Now please, can you give us the very brief story of the DoG, How long was it before competing in a high level?, it’s historic relevance, your rivalry with NYNY? What else can you say about this subject for the newbie?

The top Boston team had always been one of the top handful of teams since about 1980, but won only one Nationals title in 1982 (the Rude Boys). The team would often change names, sometimes with a change in leadership or personnel or philosophy. DoG formed in 1994 with most of the core from the previous team which had lost many times to NYNY. That year, NYNY also split up into two. We beat one of the new teams (Cojones) that year in the semifinals of Nationals and that was the start of our dynasty. We went on to win six Nationals in a row, never losing a game at Nationals in that time.

What was the preferred style of game on DoG? Offense? Defense?

We did both well. Sometimes the offense would carry the team, sometimes the defense would. Our best games were when the defense was able to score consistently when they got the disc. (We had separate offensive and defensive squads, with only a few players playing both ways.) On offense, although we liked to throw long, we rarely forced it, and didn’t mind dumping it or taking a lot of short passes to score. On defense, we mixed up what we were doing, playing clam, zone, or man.

Are you currently playing in any team? I understand that you played in last UPA finals with a Masters DoG? Tell us something about the different experience between Open and Masters? Did you miss matching up with the big names of the game?

We won the Nationals (UPA finals) in Masters in October. We had about 15 of the old DoG players from the 1990s, and with the club team deciding to call themselves “Boston Ultimate”, we decided to call ourselves DoG again. The differences are about what you’d expect: it’s not as fast, less in-your-face, players are generally a little more skilled with the disc. I did miss playing against the top teams, yes. I haven’t had any personal favorites to play against in a few years, though.

Ok, let’s get in another topic, right now Ultimate as a sport is getting to intermediate cities. There are at least 6 or 8 teams trying to run a serious project. Every single one of those teams deals with the same kind of problems, recruitment, a very small number of players, and the worst of all, thanks to the cost of transportation, these teams are facing a season where their members just go to 3 tournaments per year, whereas other teams in Big cities play each other in a weekly basis. There is a very slow learning curve, what would be an advice for this?

That’s a hard one to answer. In the US, even where there aren’t a lot of club teams, there are summer leagues, so players get competition. Besides getting more games in, each of the serious players on a summer league team gets to play a more important role than they normally would on the club team. So if you could form recreational leagues with local players, that could be a solution.

Keeping in the New Teams topic, new players have a tendency to avoid fitness training and find boring fundamentals training. That is a problem with recruitment, besides having to explain and introduce people to a complete new sport, they have to go trough some training periods where they do not get game practice at all. How do teams in USA manage this issue?

Some colleges have to manage this when they are forming. I don’t know how I would go about managing this.

Jim, How can we handle the fitness training? It is clear this sport requires big time athletes, new teams here can be created without the presence of a physical trainer or someone who has academicals knowledge. Is it internet a good teacher?

Yes, you can learn from the Internet, but of course you can’t believe everything you read. Use it to get ideas, check out some good exercises, see what works for some other people. Remember that the person who writes it might not be in the same situation that you all are in.

I guess we share the same curiosity about tactics that many other teams all around the world, so why is there so little creativity with tactics. I mean, I can think at least 3 or 4 formations for a zone defense that I have never heard of, we just lack the number of game to test those. Is there any new macro tendencies coming soon? Or is it everybody happy with the sport as it is right now?

I’m not sure if the spread (horizontal) offense counts as “new” or not, but that is the biggest strategic change in the game the last few years. The Buzz Bullets from Japan had a new zone/man defense, although I’ve never seen it. People are always trying out new things, mostly small differences. Ben Wiggins from Sockeye gave a talk last year at the Ultimate Coaches and Players Conference in Boston in which he discussed changing the marking technique to fit an overall defensive strategy.

Another one for the new players, how many times a week did you practice when you started playing?

I started in a summer league when I was 18 and played one game two nights a week. I played on a club team that fall, two nights a week plus Saturday and Sunday. That’s been pretty much my schedule for the last 25 years.

In the Peak days of DoG, what was the over under for years of ultimate experience in the team? And in your concept, how long before a teams gets to it’s highest level?

Probably it was an average of 10-15 years. Most players began playing in college and we had an average age of about 30-32 for those years. For a team to reach its peak, even if you start with experienced players, you still need 3-4 years of playing together to really know each other.

How hard do a team should stress fundamentals in it’s first 2 years? And then after that?

I guess you always stress fundamentals, but what you mean by “fundamentals” changes. For a newer team, that includes just catching and throwing. Later on, it includes marking, cutting, and defending, and eventually more advanced concepts like field positioning.

If you were in a team, and you could only choose one of these things to rely on that and win a game, what would you choose between, fundamentals, tactics, and athleticism?

It wouldn’t be tactics, since other teams can always adjust. Between the other two choices, it would depend on where you would put “field sense”. It’s very important to know when and where to cut, how to position and reposition yourself on defense, and anticipate what is going to happen next.

Man defense or zone defense?

Man, but not just seven one-on-one matchups. The team needs to be able to trust the mark and to provide help from each other and the sidelines where needed.

Quick passes or hucks?

Whatever is open. But look for the huck first, take it if the receiver has good separation from his defender, and go short if not.

Flow or scripted plays?

Flow with a structure. You can’t just have seven guys running around randomly. Near the end zone, scripted plays or a more formal structure are good.

Happiest moment on ultimate?

No single moment stands out. Making Nationals for the first time in 1989, winning it for the first time in 1994, or winning Worlds in Scotland in 1999 when we weren’t expecting to are all good ones.

Saddest moment on ultimate?

Again, lots of moments to choose from. 1992 finals loss to NYNY, 2002 semis loss to Furious George (Vancouver).

Best match ever played?

Teamwise, the 2002 semis loss to Furious. We had three turnovers, they had two. Individually, the best I played was in 1995, the finals against Sockeye, I was wide open everywhere against their best defenders. The most emotional game I was involved in was the 1998 semifinal against Ring of Fire, where we were losing 10-4 before coming back to win 17-15. I made some mistakes that game, but felt so in control and dominant.

How different is the international game from the UPA?

I haven’t seen much of it lately. There seem to be different (but not necessarily better) attitudes about what is acceptable or what is spirited. I’m looking forward to Worlds in Vancouver to check out what’s been going on lately.

How different is the international player from the UPA player?

Probably the same at heart, but the US player is probably more battle-tested and maybe a little stronger mentally. Teams are bigger here, so the US player is probably more of a specialist, while international players might need to be more well-rounded.

Best team ever?

It’s hard to compare across eras. NYNY was great, we had our run, and Sockeye now has a lot of great players and has won some titles. Both NYNY and DoG were more dominant than Sockeye, but maybe there are more top-level teams now. Our best teams were 1996 and 1999, I’d say.

Best team ever played against?

Those old NYNY teams were tough.

Toughest guy to defend?

These days, anyone under 30.

How do you guys define spirit of the game inside your team?

Even within a team, everyone has a different definition. O players and D players look at it differently. But everyone is mindful of the rules and tries to avoid deliberate violations while accepting that sometimes playing hard will result in fouls.

How do you guys regulate that in game situations?

Mostly, it doesn’t get regulated. If someone goes over the line (either with a bad foul or just a bad call), teammates will usually just let it happen. If a player has a history of it, it will also come up in practice and someone will say something to him, either in anger during play or on the sideline or away from the field. Once in a while, teammates will overrule a player’s bad call because it’s the right thing to do. Even more frequently, players will call teammates out of bounds or rule a disc down. For the most part, everyone is most concerned with getting the call right, but you also have to support your teammate. Also, you try to avoid having to regulate during the game by stressing during practice what is ok and what is not. Teach players to work hard on the mark and not to grab with the arms, and you have fewer problems with arm-grabbing during the game.

Is it possible to be a great ultimate team while having a great spirit of the game?

Absolutely. At its core, spirit is simply good sportsmanship. Play hard, play fair. Even on the “bad” teams, most of the players play fair, and even on the nicest teams, some players make bad calls or play with disregard for the rules.

Let’s talk about Vancouver next year, who is your favorite to win it all? What strong teams do you see?

Masters is too hard to predict. I like our chances, but I don’t know who’s going and whether any of our opponents will have a lot of 33 year olds who really should still be playing Open.

Name the world’s top teams?

Sockeye should be the favorite at Worlds. Buzz Bullets won Worlds in 2006, although none of the top US teams were there, and so the Japanese team will probably be the 2^nd favorite. Furious George still has a lot of top players despite their bad finish at Nationals. JAM also has a lot of great players but still hasn’t won it all here so they are a step below. The full Australia team is good but they are on different teams in their regular season.

Can you make a top10 of ultimate players?

I don’t see enough of the top players to say who really belongs.

Finally and seriously, what would it take for your compete in a tournament here in Colombia? Or maybe give a conference? Chase Sparling from sockeye came here earlier this year, ha gave some clinics and played in a national tournament.

That is very nice of you, but it’s really just too hard for me to make the time to come down, especially with Worlds in 2008. I hope you can continue to get others to come, though. I’ve heard very nice things about Chase, so I am glad he was able to spend time with you.

Thank you very much, you are being part in building the Colombian ultimate Community, we will remember that forever, you have now a home in Colombia, you are welcome any time you want

Thank you. I had the pleasure of playing against the Colombian team at Worlds in Minnesota in 1999, and saw some of you briefly at Junior Worlds in 2006. Good luck with your development.

Andres Felipe Angel C

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