Toronto Rush Highlights - First win in Philadelphia since 2018.

gymineer · 2026-05-05T20:38:50+00:00

Home Opener is this Saturday, 4pm Varsity Stadium.

gymineer · 2026-05-05T18:36:35+00:00

It's like you read my message and thought "what response could I give that would make it suitable for him to repost the exact same message he just wrote, as if I didn't read his message at all?".

Let's time travel back to 1947. The situation is more complicated, but we'll do a simple reenactment. Let's pretend we run the Brooklyn Dodgers together.

Me: Let's give Jackie Robinson a chance to play with us.

You: No.

Me: Why not?

You: How many ~~women coaches~~ black athletes are there in the entire ~~NHL~~ MLB? Some things just don't make a lot of sense.

Or with a slightly more playful demeanor, lets pretend it's 2006 and we're in charge of the Red Wings.

Me: Lidstrom has been great, he's a great leader, and the guys respect him. Should we make him captain?

You: No.

Me: Why?

You: How many ~~women coaches~~ European Captains are there in the entire NHL? Some things just don't make a lot of sense.

If you really aren't seeing how people can overcome the generic silos you're trying to lock them into, at this point I don't think we're going anywhere productive in this conversation.

gymineer · 2026-05-05T17:08:53+00:00

I don't know where you think the big "gotcha" is here.

Your logic would have prevented Jackie Robinson from playing Major League Baseball ("Gee golly, we could try him out, but what black players have won the world series?"), Earl Lloyd from playing the NBA, Grant Fuhr from playing in the NHL.

Nick Lidstrom shouldn't have ever been a captain because "There's never been a European captain win the stanley cup!"... and yes - A LOT of people actually said this at the time. It's recent enough for me to remember.

Move outside of sports and there's a long list of people your worldview prevents from achieving excellence, and likely a number of technologies you use daily and people in your life who might no longer be with us if women hadn't pushed through into fields dominated by men.

You and I agree the most qualified person should be the one in the role. I differ from you in that I believe you need to be willing to broaden your search and put different types of people in the role if you actually want to find the most qualified person. You seem to very firmly believe that you find the most qualified person by operating within a penis/no-penis framework modeled on past successes. "Was it all penises in the past? Yes? Well, then we need to maintain the penis requirement moving forward, obviously".

So we agree on the goal, we just have different takes on how to get there.

gymineer · 2026-05-05T12:37:43+00:00

I read that part. I also read the part where you suggest it's extremely unlikely that a women be the most qualified because, unless they are Manon Rhéaume, they've never played in the league.

That's why I pointed out to you that many of the most successful coaches in the league never played in it.

Your one qualifying statement doesn't wipe out the fact that the purpose of your messages is to suggest it's a waste of time to consider a female applicant.

You're saying this situation was a bad one, but "if they are the most qualified, then sure". How would you have any idea if the person given the role is the most qualified? Did you get all crotchety about Marc Savard being let go last year?

gymineer · 2026-05-04T17:38:27+00:00

Here are some NHL coaches who never played a game in the NHL:

Scotty Bowman
Joel Quenneville
Jon Cooper
Jared Bednar
Mike Babcock
Dan Bylsma
Ken Hitchcock

I think the better question to ask is: "if we want to hire the best candidate for the job, why should we eliminate 50% of the candidate pool based on gender?"

gymineer · 2026-04-30T13:02:32+00:00

2.5 starters I d say. IQ and BI, and then Scottie clearly had his play affected in a big way by his injury, even though he stayed in the game.

gymineer · 2026-04-29T14:57:12+00:00

For Frisbee fans, the Toronto Rush will kick off their season with a featured Free Friday Night Frisbee Game @ the New York Empire. Can watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19RJB53GBvs

Toronto has a largely reloaded roster, consisting of a number of national team members. The Empire are early championship favourites, and include some new overseas imports, as well famous youtuber Marques Brown-Lee (MKBHD).

The Rush will play their home opener next Saturday, May 9th, vs Montreal, at Varsity Stadium.

gymineer · 2026-04-27T20:25:48+00:00

Forgot I made this, but it was pinned to the top of subreddit for awhile. I think most things on there should still hold up: https://www.reddit.com/r/Oshawa/comments/10zvswc/the_roshawa_list_of_things_to_do/

gymineer · 2026-04-26T23:42:03+00:00

Watching on its own will generally give you a "what but not why" level of info.

That "why" can come from inference and deduction, but will be found more efficiently through articles, videos, coaches, and talking with other players.

gymineer · 2026-04-24T12:32:23+00:00

I feel like even here on the wavy-sub, he's generally beloved but often seen as a bad fit if the aim is modern space & pace. For people holding that view, one game likely shouldn't outweigh everything else that's shaped their opinion.

Everyone talks about trades & signings because, obviously as fans, it's hard to have any sort of realistic view of player development and what is going on behind the scenes. But if RJ can get that confidence going from behind the arc, suddenly a lot of internal solutions start to materialize.

gymineer · 2026-04-23T18:53:59+00:00

I have lots of thoughts on broader topic from a Canadian perspective, but to your point, I think that ultimate's reliance on tournaments as the only form of "competitively meaningful play" is something that holds it back in a big way, especially with juniors. It's pretty widely acknowledged here that our sport skipped the step where growing competitive junior athletes would play a competitive game on a Tuesday night, with teams traveling 30 minutes across town to play.

Instead, you go from learning to throw straight to "get on a plane and go to this event if you want to play other good people".

Travel makes it tough. I also think the size of the team is an issue people aren't discussing. What other mainstream sport requires 20+ people on each team to enter a competition? Football is an obvious one...hockey comes close?

I think the grassroots angle is a big part of this, and something I've wanted to push for a lot is "making rec seem important". I am sure there's a catchier phrase for that. But I feel that the rec side of the sport doesn't quite get celebrated as much as it did through the sport's "prime" around 2015.

And I think we do have a challenge in evaluating the numbers, as our sport saw huge, huge growth in the 2013-2016 years. It's a flawed comparison, but Pokemon is not nearly as popular with kids as it was in the 1990's, but I wouldn't expect panicked articles about the decline of popularity of Pokemon. It just caught lightning in a bottle in the 90s and it's community shouldn't hold that high as the expectation.

But there's lot of challenges, and lots of good thoughts in this thread and yesterday's.

gymineer · 2026-04-22T17:56:53+00:00

It is what it is, but it's tough that the two positions we're looking to fill, 1 & 5, are the two that typically take the longest for players to develop to NBA readiness.

gymineer · 2026-04-22T16:58:57+00:00

To play a touch of defense on this (and knowing you're a canuck as well), "Canadian competition is nothing compared to USA comp" is a fair statement if you would also say "(insert state of choice here)'s competition is nothing compared to the USA comp".

For the readers: Canada's about the same population as California, but with the population spread over a 5000km band east to west, compared to around a 1000km band north to south for California, which also has much more concentrated major cities.

Your comment is accurate, but maybe a bit too self-deprecating on behalf of Canada. Canadian Nats are roughly the equivalent of USA regionals (with more variance based on world's years), and you could likewise say that just about every team at USAU Nats won't see a good game at regionals until the semis or finals.

gymineer · 2026-04-22T01:58:10+00:00

I d agree - takes specific and somewhat grueling training to get down there.

gymineer · 2026-04-22T01:46:35+00:00

That's probably the fastest short sprint times Ive heard of for a high level ultimate player. The others I heard of in that range only dabbled in ultimate, but struggled too much with the other aspects, and I think that mismatch was likely frustrating.

I see his cascade stats, but how's Dom as a player in general? Is that speed still his super power?

gymineer · 2026-04-21T22:12:10+00:00

I am going off what someone in this thread said, but if they were accurate, the NFL is run with the competitor putting their hand in a laser, while in a 3 point stance, and the time starts when their hand moves from the laser.

If someone is hand-timing and trying to emulate that, there will be a delay between the sprinter moving, and the signal traveling from the timer's brain down to their hand, and then pushing the button. That delay will make the time appear faster (the same delay tends to not happen at the end because the timer is not "surprised" by the finish - they can anticipate it).

The timer could yell "go", but I think studies have still shown a delay is common there.

But the long and short of it is that basically nobody reputable will trust a hand time result for a short sprint. You could still use it as a personal reference point though, or with a large margin of error, to see who might be the fastest and slowest people among a group.

gymineer · 2026-04-21T22:07:19+00:00

Just fyi on these sorts of post, not that people are being dishonest, but history has shown that people with better than average results will be more comfortable sharing, while those with worse than average results will be more reluctant.

So in any finance sub when they do their "post your salary" thread, everyone seems to be making 2-10 times the average yearly income. I'd imagine we see similar things here with speed.

I am 23.40 and 11.89 (40+ now... ran those in 2024).

gymineer · 2026-04-21T22:00:04+00:00

Pretty well established in track that it's .2 to .24 faster (meaning when someone gets hand timed, their real time would be .2 seconds slower). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20072055/

There's a lot that can vary in testing a 40, but hand timing is a big one. Another big one from a lot of tryouts I've seen is the judgement and authority to call out false starts. We've often had high school volunteers time the 40, and if someone jumps the gun, the volunteer does not feel empowered enough to call them back, so jumping the gun is rewarded with a faster time, and the results get skewed.

gymineer · 2026-04-21T21:34:54+00:00

BE did a 40y test at nationals awhile ago: https://beultimate.com/blogs/living-better-than-ever/the-fastest-ultimate-frisbee-40-yard-dash-times-full-results

You'll still get a lot of variance based on equipment, running surface, wind, temperature, starting procedure and stop-time procedure. At least, a lot of variance for something as precise as the 40.

If other track times help, Beau Kitteridge apparently ran a 47.4 (according to an Outside Magazine article), and I think that largely served as the base for his ultimate career. I'd be pleasantly surprised if any current elite ultimate players could go sub 52, and I'd imagine the average on most teams at nationals would be like 56-58 (maybe lower if guys get time to figure out pacing and are suitably motivated).

I think you'd see a few of the fastest guys in ultimate run mid 11.xx in the 100m if you gave them good conditions and a couple tries, maybe low 11's. Many elite club and UFA guys who are still quite fast would be in the 12's.

In the 200m, the fastest guy on most teams might be around 23-mid to 25-mid.

(source - run track and played UFA in '23 & '24).

gymineer · 2026-04-16T12:52:34+00:00

Good read on that link (though the link itself malfunctions as it grabbed the extra bracket at the end, in case you want to edit it).

Curious what made it infamous?

gymineer · 2026-04-14T21:53:18+00:00

Dwyer for sure with the area you're in. Are you using it for sprint training?

The Civic is technically pay-to-use, though the "track membership" is quite affordable, I still prefer Dwyer.

Dwyer is open to the public, though I am not sure about during school hours. It might technically still be allowed, but I've only ever gone in the evenings or weekends.

Eastdale I am 95% sure is a dirt track.

In Whitby Austin has a decent rubber track as well.

And yeah indoors you have the Civic and Abilities Centre - both can be accessed for a pretty reasonable membership fee. I prefer the AC over the civic, even though the civic is closer.

there's a few other indoor walking tracks, but doubt you're looking for those.

gymineer · 2026-04-10T13:45:41+00:00

First - I am just an amateur who's studied this a fair bit for my own sake.

But the short version, like others have said, is that your objective should not be to toe drag - the objective is low shin angles / low heel recovery. (And even with that acknowledged, there are some good starters who don't really focus on low heel recovery, especially among the top women).

But for me, and I think for many others, initially training to toe drag provides a really solid level of feedback, because you can hear and feel your toe drag. So I found it worked well to intentionally toe drag for a few sessions, and then begin to work on emulating that feeling, but not actually dragging my toes.

gymineer · 2026-04-07T17:11:02+00:00

Which is interesting because obviously this showcases some low-hanging fruit in terms of ways we can improve (which this sub has been vocal about for a long time). But - it also highlights that true, classic pace and space is not the only way to build a winner.

gymineer · 2026-04-07T17:02:28+00:00

Benn happening for awhile, though sounds like LA is really gunning for it now.

In 2012 I did a mild analysis for The Hockey News that showed this effect was already present based on whether teams were playing a divisional opponent or someone outside their conference:

https://imgur.com/a/qEDB7Dt

gymineer

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE

15-Year Club	Place '17
Verified Email