So as expected the change from College Ultimate from Youth Club mixed has been a drastic one. From being the go to guy to becoming a pion, from being the best to being one of the worst, everything has changed. Yet my role on the team and my level of craptitute is not what leads me to blog. Attitude.
Attitude is the name of the game. For myself i have gone from being a very lazy, no-work ethic kind of kid to some one who busts his butt. It may have been the college change of atmosphere, ie courses and standards and all that business, but i blame it on En Sabah Nur. The fact of the matter is i have never been so behind in anything that i loved. I sit here a rookie on a chopping block surrounded by great players who have the knowledge, skills, and speed that i want to possess.
Practices have gone from being a social event to more of a burst your lung and break your hand event. Before, ie BlueREY, i would be one of few who attends practice mainly because i loved Ultimate and wanted more and more, and because i wanted to be the best. Here and now, i am one of many who has a passion for ultimate and one of many who are on a path to become great. Everyone i play with is better at me in one or multiple fields, usually the ladder. From simple drills to scrimmages the people who mark up on me and who i mark up on are impervious to me.
So I'm on Geoff. He gets the disc off the line and i put a stiff mark on him and get him to stall 9 before he dumps it. A quick background story; i have been sick for the last three weeks from a combination of strep cold? It feels like strep but doesn't make you sick enough to be one. Since i live in the freshmen dorms when one person gets sick everyone does. So the point was a long one. I was feeling like complete and utter shit. Jeffy was working my ass off from the handler position, after all he does have to keep his "Practice Player of the Week." I had alot of lame lunging hand bids but nothing actually worth anything. Finally i got a chance as a disc went over his head from a bad read and we both had big bids on the disc so i layed out and tried to knick it. No luck.
Here is the point of my entry. When you're playing against a national level player nothing matters; how sick i am, how many points i've played, how hard my workout is, nothing. You play as hard as you can. You grit your teeth and you lay it all on the line at practice. Practice is just that, practice for the game. What you do in practice is what you do in a game. I was tired all practice today, but i never did anything lazy i made my cuts as though i was fresh. I may not have been as fast or as threatening as before but i defiantly worked my ass off. Grit your teeth and work as though your life depends on it.
Time Killing
Since i have about half an hour to literally kill, before i begin a hardcore study session followed up by hardcore math test, i've decided to type out some stuff and recap the last tournament we (the rookies) had gone to. On a side note, that is what the picture is of; the rookie class of '11 that had gone to the Rutgers tournament.
How to begin, oh yeah. On a quick side note, the captain of the team sent out an email late the night before probably around 10ish or 9ish and told everyone to be at the buses a half our earlier then his original departure time; funny thing is most people had already left by that time to go out and party. We were leaving saturday morning, we had friday completely to ourselves, so what else are we going to do? Ah but back to when we left. We left around 8:30. Thank you hangovers.
So in all honesty van rides suck. We tried to get boobs, but boobs didnt want us. I don't know whether the order of the signs (Show titties, c'mon, please, be a legend, :( ) detoured the girls from showing us them or what, but we didn't get any.... The saddest part of the trip though was missing the Sheets that everyone was dieing for. Nick, no fault to him, thought it was the next exit in four miles, but it was actually off the exit and then four miles. We were all shocked and hungry, but none such as Mumbles. As we drove mumbling and grumbling in miles of construction and between two very high cement walls, Mumbles stared blankly at Nick and shouted, "Turn the van around, now!"
One stop at a wa-wa later and 300 miles between us and Pittsburgh we finally made it to the tournament. Our first game was against a NY team called Purple Haze, who i had oddly enough looked up recently because of my lingering thoughts about "what if i had gone..." As we played them i realized my choice.... let's put it this way: THANK GOD. I'd played these bums before at a previous tournament, in which literally a bunch of kids took them to universe point. But then again we were a bunch of kids who had played a lot of ultimate and played together for a long time. Sadly thats the two things we were missing, in this early morning game, chemistry and all around ability. We played well though, but no one knew anyone really, we didn't know what to expect from each other. But as the game got going people just began playing better, D-bands were handed like hotcakes (whatever that means). In the end it came down to universe point, after the NY team had rallied back two or three. We put a studly D-line out, but to no avail, they threw a swilly huck that floated out to a receiver, and no amount of laying out could stop him from scoring. On a postive note, they sucked the big one and went 1-2 in our pool, losing to the two teams we crushed...
Second game was against Franklin & Marshall. It was a blowout, i don't actually remember anything memorable, except for when i d-ed a guy, who called a foul... caused by his own player. His team mates were telling him it was his own guy, but he didn't want to hear it nor did he care. It didn't matter though, we scored that point. We won 15-6.
This was the highlight of the day. We were rolling. All i remember is hearing people yell, "GET THAT MAN A D BAND!" People were possessed everyone wanted a d and no one would let their man catch an easy throw. Everyone was running their asses off; whenever some one came off the field they were weezing and tired, yet still ready to play. This game was the contrapositive of our first game, we played stingy and shiesty defense and were rewarded. Nothing mattered and everyone was laying it on the line. Before the game started we were told that they, Salisbury, were going to play well and efficient and that we needed to really step up and prove ourselves. I guess people get fired up hearing that, and we went insane. 15-9 Win.
Weslyan was seeded second in our pool and had beaten both teams they faced that day. Apparently in their last game one of their stars was injured and their play really slowed down. We ended up beating them pretty swiftly, trading for a while before we broke them a few. The game really highlighted people's ability to catch anything and everything. One point i was on the sideline with some other guys and we watched as one of our guys send a huck on the opposite sideline, the first guy macked it out of his hands and then two defenders followed his lead, macking it to the ground. As it spiraled towards the ground a kid layed out grabbing it literally centimeters before it touched the ground. Brilliant! Overall it was a good game, we played well and everyone got to play. Win 15-9
The next day we played Princeton. Whether everyone was over stuffed from the feast at the Zettels house or what, we started playing real slow and painfully. We started real slow and got broken 3 points in a row before finally getting one off, but as the game went on the athleticism and true tenacity of the our team shined. Our d was playing great and our o was rolling. Final score 14-8.
Sometimes, only sometimes, can you say, "it doesn't matter if you win or lose, it's how you played." This may be one of those times. JMU comes from one of the top regions in the nation Atlantic Coast, they got fourth which is amazing considering their competition is Georgia, Florida and UNC. They started play off very well, they were big on D and even bigger on O; sadly that's not a good thing for us. The game started sorely as we went down early and we went down big. Four straight breaks for them had us begin playing a tighter rotation and made peoples heads slump. We picked it back up but they managed to take half 8-4. This is where people apparently said to themselves, fuck this shit? What the hell are we doing? We started playing harder and harder doing anything and everything to stop them from scoring. We came back to 11-9 and softcap went off; game to 13. They scored the next point making it 12-9. We knew we had to step up, we scored two gruelingly long points consisting of many turns, many ds, and lots of miscues on their part. We clawed our way back in 12-11 but it was too little too late. They managed to get the benefit of a rule we hadn't heard and had to end the game there. 11-12 lose.
We played really well, and i am super excited to play here and hopefully make the A team. I've been busting my ass learning from each thing a veteran has said to me, and been trying to improve my game with each passing day.
How to begin, oh yeah. On a quick side note, the captain of the team sent out an email late the night before probably around 10ish or 9ish and told everyone to be at the buses a half our earlier then his original departure time; funny thing is most people had already left by that time to go out and party. We were leaving saturday morning, we had friday completely to ourselves, so what else are we going to do? Ah but back to when we left. We left around 8:30. Thank you hangovers.
So in all honesty van rides suck. We tried to get boobs, but boobs didnt want us. I don't know whether the order of the signs (Show titties, c'mon, please, be a legend, :( ) detoured the girls from showing us them or what, but we didn't get any.... The saddest part of the trip though was missing the Sheets that everyone was dieing for. Nick, no fault to him, thought it was the next exit in four miles, but it was actually off the exit and then four miles. We were all shocked and hungry, but none such as Mumbles. As we drove mumbling and grumbling in miles of construction and between two very high cement walls, Mumbles stared blankly at Nick and shouted, "Turn the van around, now!"
One stop at a wa-wa later and 300 miles between us and Pittsburgh we finally made it to the tournament. Our first game was against a NY team called Purple Haze, who i had oddly enough looked up recently because of my lingering thoughts about "what if i had gone..." As we played them i realized my choice.... let's put it this way: THANK GOD. I'd played these bums before at a previous tournament, in which literally a bunch of kids took them to universe point. But then again we were a bunch of kids who had played a lot of ultimate and played together for a long time. Sadly thats the two things we were missing, in this early morning game, chemistry and all around ability. We played well though, but no one knew anyone really, we didn't know what to expect from each other. But as the game got going people just began playing better, D-bands were handed like hotcakes (whatever that means). In the end it came down to universe point, after the NY team had rallied back two or three. We put a studly D-line out, but to no avail, they threw a swilly huck that floated out to a receiver, and no amount of laying out could stop him from scoring. On a postive note, they sucked the big one and went 1-2 in our pool, losing to the two teams we crushed...
Second game was against Franklin & Marshall. It was a blowout, i don't actually remember anything memorable, except for when i d-ed a guy, who called a foul... caused by his own player. His team mates were telling him it was his own guy, but he didn't want to hear it nor did he care. It didn't matter though, we scored that point. We won 15-6.
This was the highlight of the day. We were rolling. All i remember is hearing people yell, "GET THAT MAN A D BAND!" People were possessed everyone wanted a d and no one would let their man catch an easy throw. Everyone was running their asses off; whenever some one came off the field they were weezing and tired, yet still ready to play. This game was the contrapositive of our first game, we played stingy and shiesty defense and were rewarded. Nothing mattered and everyone was laying it on the line. Before the game started we were told that they, Salisbury, were going to play well and efficient and that we needed to really step up and prove ourselves. I guess people get fired up hearing that, and we went insane. 15-9 Win.
Weslyan was seeded second in our pool and had beaten both teams they faced that day. Apparently in their last game one of their stars was injured and their play really slowed down. We ended up beating them pretty swiftly, trading for a while before we broke them a few. The game really highlighted people's ability to catch anything and everything. One point i was on the sideline with some other guys and we watched as one of our guys send a huck on the opposite sideline, the first guy macked it out of his hands and then two defenders followed his lead, macking it to the ground. As it spiraled towards the ground a kid layed out grabbing it literally centimeters before it touched the ground. Brilliant! Overall it was a good game, we played well and everyone got to play. Win 15-9
The next day we played Princeton. Whether everyone was over stuffed from the feast at the Zettels house or what, we started playing real slow and painfully. We started real slow and got broken 3 points in a row before finally getting one off, but as the game went on the athleticism and true tenacity of the our team shined. Our d was playing great and our o was rolling. Final score 14-8.
Sometimes, only sometimes, can you say, "it doesn't matter if you win or lose, it's how you played." This may be one of those times. JMU comes from one of the top regions in the nation Atlantic Coast, they got fourth which is amazing considering their competition is Georgia, Florida and UNC. They started play off very well, they were big on D and even bigger on O; sadly that's not a good thing for us. The game started sorely as we went down early and we went down big. Four straight breaks for them had us begin playing a tighter rotation and made peoples heads slump. We picked it back up but they managed to take half 8-4. This is where people apparently said to themselves, fuck this shit? What the hell are we doing? We started playing harder and harder doing anything and everything to stop them from scoring. We came back to 11-9 and softcap went off; game to 13. They scored the next point making it 12-9. We knew we had to step up, we scored two gruelingly long points consisting of many turns, many ds, and lots of miscues on their part. We clawed our way back in 12-11 but it was too little too late. They managed to get the benefit of a rule we hadn't heard and had to end the game there. 11-12 lose.
We played really well, and i am super excited to play here and hopefully make the A team. I've been busting my ass learning from each thing a veteran has said to me, and been trying to improve my game with each passing day.
Blog
Eh.... what do i say? Hi. Welcome to my blogo-life. It's honestly not going to be a crazy and hilarious journey. I might use this to update on my day to day Ultimate experiences, mishaps, workouts, thoughts and all the other nonsense. So many ideas bubble in my head right now but, i don't actually have the time nor care to type them down. I'll get to it though: one day... soon... i swear.
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