Illinois vs. Georgia Tech

I've been at Tech now for over month and I thought I'd shed some light on the similarities and differences between the two programs. -- Practice attendance is an issue at both schools. Just like Illinois, most of the players here are engineers and the busy schedules definitely hurt practice attendance. That doesn't stop us from scrimmaging though (more on that in a moment.) -- The team leadership is much more informal at Tech. Two weeks after Kennedy sent out the email about details for the fall season, I finally got an email from the Tech captains about practice times. Practice location and times vary from week to week, and now that we've moved off campus, there's even more uncertainty. For example, we were practicing at a park in the city and got booted by a fuckin' kickball league, so we had to find another spot to continue practice. Also, practices are run by a rotation of like 4 guys, so it's not just the 2 captains who make all the decisions (not saying that's good or bad, just observing.) -- They have a GroupMe group too. Troll city. -- GT drinks less than Illinois. As in no one goes out during the week basically ever. The physical benefits here will definitely manifest themselves later in the season, when we're all juiced thoroughbreads looking to seabiscuit on some skinny trucker-hat wearing ulti brahs. -- Throwing outside of practice is much more prevalent. There are multiple guys looking to throw after class almost every single day. As you can imagine, I love it. Repetition breeds mastery. It's also extremely convenient that there's a turf field and a grass field right in the middle of campus. -- Lifting on the Tech team is not mandatory or even organized for that matter, but most players seem to do it. -- Cuts are early. We're down to the A team now. That's basically unheard of at Illinois. Having a B team coach makes this a more successful plan. -- Scrimmaging is our primary source of conditioning. The common belief seems to be that the best way to build endurance for ultimate is to play ultimate, and I'm noticing the benefits when I go to tournaments with my club team. Even if we have 15 guys, we scrimmage non-stop. -- The playbook is simpler at GT. I think this is a disadvantage overall. The mentality of how to run an offense seems a little too cookie-cutter and simplistic (and potentially easier to shut down), possibly because of the Lance-dominated system they ran last year. -- There are way fewer injuries at GT. I'll let you know when I figure out why this is, but in the meantime I'll say it's awesome. -- The weather in Atlanta is hard to beat. We got rained out once, and that's the only trouble we've had with the weather. Otherwise, it's like 80 degrees every day. And it's usually not very windy. And we get to practice through the winter, instead of moving indoors from Nov 1st to April 1st. ATL weather >>>> Champaign cold and wind. -- Last similarity: both teams are funny. Although, there's less youtube/meme posting here, and more just making fun of each other. -- ILLINI for life, Jack