Over 100 participants from across the country convened just outside Seattle on May 10th to form the largest Men's combined tryout to date. From this pool, 39 were selected to advance to the second round of tryouts. After 4 weeks of strategizing, refining fundamentals, conditioning and scrimmaging (and tube running!), the remaining fish hopefuls are poised for battletesting at the 3rd longest running Ultimate tournament: The California State Championships (June 6-7th, Santa Cruz, CA). This tournament marks the end of the tryout period, and Sockeye has traditionally sent split squads to give everyone more reps and looks. In each of the last 4 years one of the Sockeye split squads has made it to the finals, and 2 of those years that squad has taken home the title. With the usual suspects of Jam (defending National Champions), Revolver, Condors, Rhino and others in attendance, the competition will be fierce. On the line for each player is a coveted spot on Seattle Sockeye 2009!

The tryout season for 2009 has been quite different from years past. For starters, the talent pool in the Northwest is growing... fast. This is not unexpected if you're one of the many youth coaches in the region, who has witnessed an explosion in the amount of high school ultimate talent. Heads were turned last year when news came around that Matt Rehder, a 16 year old highschool student made the final 08 roster after an incredible performace against the nation's best at Cal States. This year another youth player (with tons of ultimate experience), Julian Childs-Walker was selected for the 2nd round of tryouts. In addition to the youth scene, Seattle continues to be one of the nation's premiere hotbeds of Ultimate, attracting many established and up and coming players to the area. The result has been the most competitive tryout season in recent memory, with the current 39 players all capable of playing for any of the nation's top Ultimate programs.

This tryout season also marked the beginning of an exciting partnership between Seattle Sockeye and Endzone Athletics (Kirland, Washington). Athletic performance specialists Joel Jamieson (Founder and Director of EZA) and Mike Seilo attended the Men's Combine on May 10th, using this event to gather preliminary data on all 100 or so tryouts. Joel summarizes the performance tests/measures and how they apply to Ultimate in the following paragraphs:

1) 40 yard Sprint

From this test we’re able to get three different measures of speed & acceleration. First, we can get the 0-10yd time and this is a great measure of starting acceleration speed. Next, we can get a flying 30yd time and thus calculate their average velocity over that 30yds. And finally of course we can get their whole 40yd time. While it would be interesting to do a more “ultimate centric” type test, there would really be no frame of reference for what a good time would be, and people all know about the 40yd dash and will be able to compare their times accordingly. I think in all honestly for this sport it’s probably actually a more appropriate and applicable test than it is for football really.

2) Laser timed 5-10-5 shuttle (3 cone drill/20yd shuttle)

This test measures cutting ability and change of direction and is a basic shuttle drill widely used.

3) Vertical Jump & Jump Squat

For this test we use a testing device known as the myotest to measure two things. First, we’ll get a countermovement vertical jump. This is a traditional vertical jump test. Second, we’ll have each person do a jump where they will pause at the bottom position of the squat--the myotest tells them how long to pause--then they will explosively jump out of it. From these two tests we can essentially determine what is called their “elastic utilization ratio” and get an idea of how much muscular elasticity they have based on the ratio between the countermovement jump and the squat jump. This might sound complicated but it’s really not, it’s just a way to measure how much of an increase they are getting through the full countermovement. A good explosive athlete will get 2-3 inches higher on their countermovement compared to a static start jump, whereas you might only see 1 inch or less on a less explosive athlete.

It is our goal to mainly get a good all around measure of these athlete’s explosiveness and acceleration abilities through these tests in a very precise, accurate, and practical manner. If an athlete performs well in all of these tests it’s safe to say he should also be fast on the Ultimate field because the acceleration that it takes to do well on these tests will transfer well into the game.

Ultimate rarely attracts the attention of performance specialists in a professional setting, and Seattle Sockeye is incredibly excited to work with EZA to bring an unprecedented level of sports science into this year's squad. For those who make the final 09 roster, an initial, comprehensive assessment from EZA will be conducted to benchmark the early season status of each player. Players will continue to be assessed by EZA during the course of the season, being able to gauge their athletic improvement leading up to the fall series.

Stay tuned for the final roster announcement, which will be released early next week!