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 Post subject: Sunday Sunday Sunday
PostPosted: Mon Jul 21, 2014 12:55 am 
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OK, Pandas, I can see how things apparently are going to go this year.

I show up "early" and try to get games started. Pandas show up late, and Super Team it up. That will get you about 3 sets of 3 in a row. While I struggle to put some talent in front of you that can give you a challenge.

And I'll usually fail. Could tell it's starting to dawn on people that this may not be all that fun, or productive. I could see it in your eyes. Be advised, that psychological thing will affect your game.

Working one's way into BBGs is an art, not a science, people. So try to bear with me. I have the distinct honor of starting out most days with children and water wings, for goodness sake.

Remember, we need 6 good people on each side. How will we get them if we are not inclusive?

I will acknowledge that it is frustrating. I'll give a shout out today to Drunk Steve. He's better than I've seen him before. Some very nice blocks and net play. I'd say he went around 50% effective. Which... just isn't quite there yet when you've got a lotta talent assembled.

Attorney Kent went the distance today, and played at about 70-75%, which was an improvement from yesterday. Amusing that he stayed the course, and began to feel the pain that I feel most weekends as the sun goes down and the lights come on--it's a battle of skill, but also attrition! Who is still combat effective by day's end?

Gotta say, it's been a while since we played until dark at Riata:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iP8_Dbvpi-A

Where's the beef? It was there today. Games went to the big heavy fellas by and large (pun intended), rather than us lighter springier chaps. Well done, big boys.

Would've helped a little if Lee didn't set himself like 5-6 times in a row. After the first couple, I figured out how to run under him and let him try again.

This makes for a lotta chirpin, within teams:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mzcpr5fE018

Me, Mikey, Jess, Dub, Drunk Steve, and Lee won the last one, but I found it to be something of a phryic victory, or at least I will think so tomorrow.

Just pass me the ball, partners, I'll set it. I'm told I did my job today. Which is all I can do.

For any of you new people out there who might read this, we expect a lot. Everything you've got to give, in fact, and more. My "moment of clarity" was when I asked Pat Pants, "Do you really expect me to do a no-look 180 spin set, and be accurate?" And he said, "Yes." Well, there you go.

Takes some trigger time and mental toughness to figure out if you can do, or do not:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_QcRPNfUuE

Because try goes in the L column.

Stop me now, before I wax philosophical, but you have to be allowed to try before you can do. Which reminds me. Joe found his hops today. Nice when that happens. I can figure it out, maybe 1 time outta 10 these days! Jared's friend Jim surprised me more than once by doing the same. Jared found his serve again on more than one occasion. Bird bathed me once on a shot I was sure was out.

This game is kind of what I do. Win or lose. It's been a helluva summer so far!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-M1AtrxztU







I spent all day chasing a W

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PostPosted: Mon Jul 21, 2014 12:58 am 
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No place I'd rather be... except, when the season winds down, up in Dallas crossing swords with Sith lords!

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PostPosted: Mon Jul 21, 2014 9:44 am 
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a few comments

- the first ball. my god. if you can't field the first one there is no hope. our last team there was brutally raped by floating slow ass serves. all it takes is a buoy or two and a dwayne to serve to them over and over again. i counted 8 points per game we never returned as dwayne served to the thumbless over and over again. then the rest of teh team overcompensates and its downhill from there. have to trust your team. and to you thumbless folks - work on controlled passing. if you want sets, you want to play, you want to hit - great, first do two things. play net defense and stop fucking up the 1 ball on the other team's serve

- the bitching got out of hand. its makes us all play like shit. enough bitching. next team i am on we will vow to not bitch at each other. one fucking mistake the entire team is yelling for the ball. it is possible to make a mistake. it is possible to actually just miss. it is possible to try a set here and there and back to here without us all acting like fucking pussies. one fucking hit in the net or out, or just a bad play does not make the watervolleyball go away. we have to stop fucking lj'ing out there. its grating my soul

- i don't know if its the non-athletes or the beers or general retardation. but when the the other team serves, and they are finding holes over and over again, maybe we should think of where we are fucking standing.

- center front plays two things - he can jump t block the serve and he can turn and face his team to receive the two pass. the man behid him plays forward

- front wings play back, as do back wings

and for the love of fuck - the best hitting spots are not the front wings. they are the middle and back left. i feel like i am one fucking repeat over and over again.

i think thats enough. god dammit.

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PostPosted: Mon Jul 21, 2014 2:34 pm 
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yeah i'm not bitter or anything.

games were frustrating. we were two strong players away from making the day go. its amazing what can happen to the quality when we let the bad games (and players) go on.

but yes chief, you are doing work. and when i can get there early i also try to put in work.

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PostPosted: Wed Jul 23, 2014 12:46 am 
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I doubt you'd be able to handle the frustration of early show, College.

Not kidding that I literally start with children in the pool. Which is fine. With age seems to come children. But I don't show up until 3, so kiddy time needs to be over by late afternoon, I would think. And, while I'm doing that, I have do a head count and remind people that there are enough people to play. Be it 8, 10, or 12.

I have not gone to the lengths yet to remind some of them that if they don't play now, they probably won't play later, or might not want to, when the bad guys come...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEp76ppPc8o

I will agree with Mikey, that unless there is an individual who is being extra lippy and can't handle the heat, serving a bunch in a row to that position is very 90's early Oughts technology. Hence, frowned upon.

I do try to mix up my serves. Think of it as a learning thing: Left, right, down the middle, heat, curve balls, change up droppers. Collect em all.

Not sure if Mikey would approve of smacking down less skilled players with the whole repertoire, but, if they're on teams that are otherwise BBG, what choice do you have?

Not sure if this adds to chirpin, but I have to keep saying that the back row is not a break room! There are quite a few new players who treat it as such, for whatever reason. When you have 3 of them back there, Lord have mercy. It means you did your lineup wrong.

Alternatively, if you screw around too much against less skilled teams while others are waiting, the big boys get mad at you for not killing quickly.

Ford, I'm looking at you, from a couple of 4th of Julys ago. Coach Ford is one of the most even tempered individuals in explaining things to the new people. Yet he doesn't often play with them. Probably helps with the even tempered thing.

I'm more apt to play with them, help them win against a similarly skilled squad, then tell them what's what when I see Pandas get in the pool in force--this will not be like the last game. In fact, this will not go well at all, unless we play very very well. And, for what it's worth, I'm not sure if the game film on Sunday is going to show the college boy to be the calm moral center of the teams we were on...

It's one thing to yell and new guys who are f'ing up. Its another to yell at Pandas. True, as far as it goes. But I bet they don't like it either.

Difference is, can they take direction, or are they locked into bad tendencies?

I think a lot of that will have to do with us as a group of players. I see movement and improvement from players out there who were previously "not us." Also, a lotta mistakes. We need to maybe try talking before games get going, rather than yelling during.

My rather twisted plan on occasion when games start to look a bit more competitive is to tell the new people that they will be facing a superior team--they will be targeted, and that is a fact, so the goal is to NOT be targeted. Hence, prove your worth, and don't be "that guy" who lost the game for his team.

Some will get it, most won't. But, being on the farm clubs more often than not this season, let me tell you this: helping a couple of them get to 9 rather than their usual 2-4 points made inroads. And I made it clear: "I'll fight just as hard with you as I will against you." Single out a couple of the good guys you lost with, and invite them into the next game you've got. Breaks up the knucklehead formations that will never win out there as things stand. Because their loyalty to failing teams frustrates the project of recruiting people with potential.

I often hear that I cannot condense my nonsense. Allow me to retort--in ball, as in life, there are a lot of variables. Moreso at the Riata resort community than the Argosy dirty Philadelphia gym in many ways. Pandas could always try to lend a helping hand, rather than hitting me with volleyballs all day!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kpHK4YIwY4

Until someone does something different, Riata is our home for this year, and the foreseeable future.

And we're at about mid-season now. So think about that as well, in terms of road-trippin.

Even battles you are supposed to lose can be won. That's why we play the games...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0DxK1ZEMcg

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PostPosted: Wed Jul 23, 2014 1:20 am 
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Mikey, apparently we speak at the same pitch, because no matter how loud I scream "Watch your deep" or "Step off the net" there are some people there who can't hear me.

What you're asking is already pretty high functional. Most of them can't hear me try to get a team in the pool, or call out the score.

Also, the concepts of "inside out," or "outside in," along with "left, right or middle" need to be explained to them in terms of matchups and play calling:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Em4-DyiAB2A

I was taught right from left with spikes to the face in a similar fashion.

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PostPosted: Tue Aug 05, 2014 3:36 pm 
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"LJ'ing"...Have done less lipping than any other season, which quite honestly affects my play and enthusiasm...Overall tho, I've even been nice to Creepy not mentioning planes crash, and there doenst have to be any conspiracies about it :) Oops, just mentioned that...


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PostPosted: Tue Aug 05, 2014 11:36 pm 
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I prefer an active Lip to a Zombie LJ.

Who comes in beat up, late, with a bad attitude, plays a couple of games, often half assed, then leaves.

This Sunday was Lip resurgence, to a degree. More of that, please.

And, if you want to win a lot, find out when Jess, Dan/Creepy, Ford, and Dub are showing up, and come in at the same time. The southsiders tend to sit out/wait for each other to all assemble, but I'm not sure if they will wait for you!

And I know you don't like the alternative that I've faced the last couple of seasons:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F54dhf98qgg

However, it's what I've spent a healthy percentage of my career doing--developing new talent.

Even the current "Bad Guys," now in their mid to late 30's, will have to admit they didn't start out knowing everything. Ask Mikey!

Do you want your super team to go out like big TJ and Lloyd?

IMHO, despite the huge talent pool advantage, Riata's mistake was assembling a super team and crushing all day. I'm curious... before Argosy showed up, what was that, 10 years ago now??? What did Riata do to get good games? Who was willing to take the hit and play on a shitty team, rather than not play at all? Inquiring minds want to know!

Because we ran into a lotta people who were set in their ways, and had not seen Panda style ball:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12u1nA7bXzc

In water, rules some rules can be bent, others can be broken!

I've been teaching game many years. I would also like to play good game. Probably only got a couple good years left. But if my priorities are in conflict, I'll side with teaching. Because it's better for the league in the long run, if most of the rest of you would rather win.

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PostPosted: Thu Aug 07, 2014 9:01 am 
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10 years ago the Riata had a lot more athletic types because rent was much cheaper, and it was still a new complex, so good games were many just because of the percentages...Also, there was still TJ, Tinman, Jarrett (Purdue), Crawfish, Will, Edub, some top sanders that loved water partying aspect of vball, Linda who was kind of the matriarch organizer, some UT scholarshipers, Big John, Ronin Steve, Charlie, Dick was still doing his thing well in his 70s!, Terrell who was a beast, etc.

Rising apt rates, rising Indian population, becoming an older complex, people hitting that dumb get married, buy a house, have kids phase, all contributed to the state we have reached of a different Riata w/ quite honestly some people too old to really get good only playing once per wknd for 3 months or the party young adults who really arent that athletic or interested...

To answer your question!


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PostPosted: Fri Aug 08, 2014 12:51 am 
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There has been a great deal more turnover at Riata recently than I have seen in the past.

Don't know how long it took to build the great Riata teams of the golden age. Since we're telling war stories, it took Argosy at least 5 years from my inheritance of the court in 1992 to know our ass from a hot rock.

But it really took off from there. And it took about 2-3 years for me and mine to even get an invite to play at the exclusive resort community. Which kind of riled me... LJ, you can blame attorneys Kent and Big Shot Rob, former Riata denizens, for your demise.

Also, Ronin Steve, TJ, Lloyd, and Charlie, who we met and bested at the Preserve with vastly smaller and inferior teams--on paper.

Credit where credit is due, LJ--the initial Riata teams we faced were the best I've ever seen. Will when he was fast and skinny like Mikey was the only player who has ever really scared me. He was beating Mikey on the net and hitting harder (if not accurately), about 70% of the time.

Those initial games would always go 16-14. So well fought. If somewhat uphill. Showing my age, but those were Lakers-Celtics matchups from back in the day.

My memories of maven Linda were of a game rigger, rather than an organizer. Talk about home cooking! She was the progenitor of balls that skip and hit the wall being out, and of 100% of the calls going to the home team, and of arguing vociferously forever until it was so. And I thought Deto was a bad ref! We eventually just realized no call would go our way and won anyway.

And kept doing it, until, when given the choice, be thee Argosy, or be thee Riata, the high class play came our way. Can't beat em? Join em!

LJ deserves a great deal of credit for rallying his troops over and over to change the metrics. Didn't happen. Not with the classic rock Riata water players, and later not with sanders.

Something worth discussing--what was the key to Argosy style ball?

We were not tall. We didn't have anyone on our team who had any significant experience as a volleyball player outside of water.

My thoughts are that we turned these weaknesses into an advantage. Big TJ once said, "You play different. You move."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgN1sLcAQnw

Since we all learned in water, and only water, we didn't have bad habits to unlearn. Which allowed us to write the book, which I synopsized as this:

"Let me be first, fast and accurate, mobile, agile, and hostile. Let me serve my team well, and get to 15 before my enemy does."

That focus on consistent ball every weekend, without distractions, produced a certain esprit des corps, which is one of the intangibles in a game. But is quite tangible in other ways--branding, awards ceremonies, website, etc.

Being part of a group can be very powerful:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29Mg6Gfh9Co

No, I can't control them. My vision got way ahead of me. Pretty soon, Pandas wanted to play every day. Rather than leading and finding no one following, I found myself in a position of having to grab the reigns on the horses and yell, Whoa!

But those times are past. Argosy is dead. LJ thinks Riata is dying. And, compared to what it was, I would have to concur.

So what do you do when that's happening? Try harder to recruit and prostheletize, dammit! It starts right here: "I like watervolleyball. Do you like watervolleyball?"

I for one will not repeat the mistakes of the teams that we found and killed back in the day--ossified, never play anyone different or capable of beating them, and therefore comfortable in their abilities. To a fault.

Everything comes to an end. It will not always be fun for you when it happens--see when Jesus & Mr Tasty lost their first 2s game, and when the Grizzlies beat the Vets.

What I can tell you is that it's better if your loss comes from within, meaning people you've trained and brought on board, than if it comes from without.

Wouldn't you agree, Lippy?

Which means that, when we go to Dallas to play the Sith Lords, and we will, this year, we run the risk of losing. I'm not getting a lotta love from the project--these days there are sooo many other things pandas have to do:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLJ8ILIE780

To quote a Sec St who lost a war, or at least didn't win it, "You go to war with the army you have."

We WILL fight Dallas this year, with whoever decides to go. If we lose, there can be no excuses that we didn't have our best players. Those who show up to play, by definition, are the best. Because they are the only ones you have.

Broken freaking record:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAvmLDkAgAM

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PostPosted: Fri Aug 08, 2014 11:00 am 
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Well said Chief...I personally was one of the first Riatians to venture to the Obstacle because there was no ball one day at Riata...I still wish I could remember who told me to go over there probably circa 2006...Obstacle games were great, but I still debate whether a better talent pool...I dont think we ever technically got a Riata vs Obstacle match in because of libations, logistics, debate over a few players that qualified for both classifications, security, more libations, etc...

I still pine away for the summer we all roamed the earth safari to safari because of Obstacle and Riata restrictions...That rainy restricted summer will always be my favorite...


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PostPosted: Sat Aug 09, 2014 1:28 am 
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Ah, the good old days of animosity!

Here's the one I really remember, from back when the Vets (me, Mikey, Pat Pants, Navy) were dominant, and Jess, T2, Dan, Wescott, OJ, and many others, were up and comers:

Sun was just about down (back when we used to play starting at 1 or 2!!). I'm packing it in, as are the rest of the Vets, but the aforementioned "new" guys want to keep going. OK, let em. I'll come back and check on them and make sure things are done by curfew (10:30! Can't believe we did that, but we did, a lot!).

And what do I see coming across the parking lot? LJ and a full squad of Riata "bad guys":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppXHfW3vtGQ

If memory serves, LJ, Tyrell, Fish, TJ, Lloyd.

And I thought to myself, LJ, you tricky bastard. You're gonna try to come down here and find us all busted up, catching us with our pants down (pun intended, Pants) and get a win when our best guys have packed it in. I considered rallying the Vets to get them back in the pool to defend the the Obstacle.

But I didn't. I figured my younglings deserved the right to defend the honor of the court all on their own. I was trepedatious, but didn't even come down to watch. Just went up to the HQ, and waited.

Well worth the wait. Their joy in their victory was contagious. From that day forward I trusted them.

And since I'm quoting history here, it strikes me we had another advantage on our side 10-15 years ago that no longer exists--youth!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv6dMFF_yts

By Vietnam standards, I was somewhat old when I started playing (25).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3LdMAqUMnM

But I'm 5-10 years older than most of the rest of the crew. Which makes me wonder, Lip, how you got like 4 guys on your squad that ancient?

While I still think it would be fun to have an over 40 Masters (where's my green jacket?) team take the field, TJ, Lloyd, and Charlie retired before I could make it happen for real.

No matter. Scott is green jacket material, Pants and Navy, too, if memory serves, and in 3 short years, I think Jethro, Mikey, and Dub hit the big 40... et tu, Lippy?

Focus, Chief! What's your point? Oh yeah, my point is that I really love that secret BBG is so popular. It also gives me a sad that my whole good will offensive at Riata is so unpopular.

C'mon boys! Do you want to teach the new generation nothing, and leave them nothing, when you're gone? If you go down that road, who will take your place in the phalanx when you stumble, and who will mourn you or bury you when you fall?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72uwmHsFSAg

My institutional memory is longer than anyone else's currently involved with this league. And I gotta admit how scrub-tastic Argosy was back in the day, myself included. We did not start out as perfect little snowflakes/Spartans.

We bring in new talent, or we die. It's that simple. That being said, I'm looking forward to the sanctioned BBG!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Nhcv6Ho3ic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWXxRQOapns

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5Zk2vUmjpk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjEE7ES0iME

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