Rest and Refocusing

So I just realized something today. Sometimes, it's good to not play your sport for a while. This is going to be based on my experience with Ultimate in the last week, so bear with me.

Last Thursday was the single worst pickup experience of my life. People were disorganized, making cuts they shouldn't have been making, moving at the wrong times, making bad throwing decisions (me included), etc. I was getting incredibly frustrated. Offensively, anyway. Don't get me wrong, this was pickup. That's kind of what happens at pickup. But this was to a degree that I just couldn't handle. So, I decided to change my approach. I wasn't going to do anything on offense for the rest of the night. And I didn't. I literally walked up the middle of the field, either being in front and setting the stack, or just sitting in the middle. But I wasn't making any productive movements. No cuts of any kind. I just focused all of my energy on playing defense. And you know what happened? My line was successful. At one point, we scored 8 points in a row. I only touched the disc once, and that's because Uni threw some obnoxious break throw to me while I was standing still. I quickly moved the disc to someone else, and went on with my non-productivity.

Now, you might be thinking, "That's childish/immature." And you'd probably be right. On the other hand, my team ended up playing some pretty good offense without any of my help. And I ended up playing some pretty good defense. (I did get scored on twice, though. One was a break throw I couldn't do anything about, and the other was because I slipped and got beat open side. Stupid mud.) Along the way, I kept my mouth shut (literally, talking only when talked to, and even then giving just one-word answers) and did my best not to get upset directly with any one person.

After playing this way for a little over an hour, I decided I'd had enough. I left about 45 minutes before pickup usually ends, got home, showered, and went to bed.

Friday morning was spent getting ready for my weekend in Palm Springs with my fellow staff members for the high school group at my church. The weekend was an awesome getaway. Going in, I turned off my Twitter updates so I wouldn't be bothered incessantly. I barely ever checked my phone, and that turned out to be a pretty good feeling. Contrary to usually receiving texts every 15 minutes or so, the only texts I received all weekend were about the Rams game. I was truly able to relax (even though that's something I don't generally like doing). But, that's enough sidebar about the weekend.

We have practice every Monday morning, but I decided not to go. First off, I had to take my mom to work so that I could use the car later that day. I ended up getting home with enough time to make it to practice, but decided I still didn't have the right mindset to go and I just would have been a detriment to myself and those around me if I did. Plus I didn't want to worry about rushing to the meeting I had to go later in the day. Going into Tuesday, I still hadn't as much as thrown a disc with someone since pickup. For me, going 2 full days without throwing is very rare. Well, I just went straight to class and then straight home that day. So, That made 5 full days without any ultimate/disc activity. Wednesday practice got rained out, so we did a track workout (not including me, I have no running shoes) and threw a little. I didn't go to pickup on Thursday night because I went to a Los Al JV football game featuring one of my friends, and ended up hanging out at his place the rest of the evening. Pickup got canceled anyways. 

So, Friday comes around and I have officially had 7 full days of not playing Ultimate. I proceed to have one of the best practices I can remember. My body feels really good and my throws weren't adversely affected by the time off. Unfortunately, we're missing a few guys due to other engagements, and some people have to leave early. Meaning the rest of us had a lot more playing time, which can be difficult when you haven't run in a week. At any rate, Friday felt really good. 

The point I was trying to make (and ended up straying from a little bit) is that going that whole week without playing was incredibly beneficial for me. I wasn't sore, was in no pain, wasn't experiencing any type of discomfort anywhere on my body. I was able to run hard consistently and it made a huge difference. The same thing happened at beach pickup on Saturday. I still felt really good, and played really well. I felt like I was getting higher than usual when I jumped and I was way more aggressive because I didn't have to worry about my body holding me back. It is incredibly rare that I go even a couple days without some strenuous activity, just because I love playing everything so much. However, my eyes have been opened to the benefit of taking some time off every now and then to let my body recover. I definitely plan on doing that more as the season progresses.

On another note:

Throughout this process, Ultimate has become a little frustrating. Whether it's just me overreacting to little things that happen, or whether these are actually real problems that need to be resolved, I am not sure. All I know is, everything else I've done in the last two weeks has been fun and enlightening and I've been enjoying all of my time away from the field. I haven't been looking forward to Ultimate. It has more or less become something I need to be present for because I have a responsibility to the team. The importance of the game in my life has been relegated a bit as a result. Which I view as a good thing. My relationship with God has strengthened, and my relationships with non-Ultimate friends have also grown. I plan on that continuing to be the case. Not that I want to stop playing Ultimate, or that my friendships through Ultimate will be less important. That's not the case at all. I love the sport and those people too much. I just need to remove Ultimate from the lofty pedestal I had it on.

We'll see what happens.

Club 2009 - Monster

This year marked the first time I played in the Open division of the Club series. I had some exposure to Open Club last summer when I attended a couple of Monster's early practices, but that ended once they had their team together and I ended up playing Mixed, where we got our butts handed to us. (I had fun, but that story will come at another time.)

At any rate, this being the summer between my second and third year of Ultimate, I wanted to get involved with a good team and really get some good work in to get prepared for the upcoming college season. The season started with a hat tournament that was used as a tryout for the LA team that was being put together (named Strike Slip). The tournament was a lot of fun, as I was put on a team with a lot of people that I'd never played with before. Unfortunately, in our first game Scott Roeder put a disc that I had to awkwardly bid for, and it flared up a weird knee injury that I had incurred previously. I didn't play very well the rest of the tournament, having to sit out multiple games. If I remember correctly, our team won the tournament, or at least made it to the championship. Either way, we played really well and meeting all these new guys was one of the best things to come out of the weekend. (Half the fun I have at tournaments, in general, is hanging out with people and making new friends.)

Due to the fact I never officially signed up for the tournament, the people in charge of the team (from this point forward, the team will be referred to as SS) didn't have my contact information. No matter, I tagged along with a couple other Long Beach guys to a pickup game that SS was hosting. It was at this particular pickup that I really found out what playing Club was all about. Man, could these guys throw, and boy do they play hard. I'm thinking, Yes, this is exactly what I was hoping would happen. I held my own pretty well, though I got beat deep a couple of times because of my ignorance at the throwing ability of the other guys, and I had a couple uncharacteristic drops, but that's how things go.

The next two days were the official team tryouts, held at Cal State Long Beach. Mostly, the captains, Geoff and Bofa, talked about the offense they were planning on running, and we did a couple drills that helped us get a better understanding of it. We would drill, scrimmage a little, drill again, and scrimmage again. This is how a majority of the weekend went. On Sunday, I played possibly one of the best games of my life, just dominating all over the field. I felt really good. Really, really good. I was pretty sure I was gonna make the team, and was excited about the possibilities for the season.

The first tournament SS went to was Cal States, held in Santa Cruz, California. SS used this as a tryout tournament, as a last evaluation to see where we all stood as players and how we played in a tournament setting. Let's just say it didn't go well for me. I played pretty good defense, but I was terrible on offense. Things were way more chaotic than during the tryout scrimmage. I never had a cutting lane, hardly ever got open, it was HARD. I had a couple guys come over and tell me to just be more aggressive with my cutting and I'd get the disc more. That was encouraging and all, but I'm used to making a deep cut and the disc just being there. That's kind of how our college team works, because our guys aren't afraid of putting it deep and letting me do my thing. (It appears that that's going to change this year, much to my dismay, but that's also another story.) At any rate, I wasn't the only one not playing well, and we were playing some really good teams, so we ended up 0-5 in pool play, 1-6 (?) for the tournament.

We were told we'd be contacted during the week about our status on the team. On that Wednesday I received a phone call from Geoff. Immediately there was an awkward feeling, so I wasn't anticipating good news. The most important statement that was made was that the decision to not have me on the team was because I "wouldn't be able to contribute in the last games to go to Nationals." While I disagreed (as have a number of close friends in the Ultimate community), I could understand where they were coming from. I wasn't going to have any hard feelings about it. Plus, I just used it as motivation to work hard and get better moving forward. All the guys on the team are cool guys, and I made it a point to go out of my way to greet and chat with them whenever I saw them at other tournaments. SS eventually lost to Streetgang in the game to go to Nationals. Whether me being on the team would have made a difference or not, who knows? Maybe they don't even make it that far if I'm on the team, or maybe we go to Nationals. At any rate, I wasn't on the team and I had to figure out something else to do for the Club season. To this day I appreciate SS giving me the opportunity to play with them for the short time I did, and for taking me to the first Open Division club tournament I'd ever been to. I look forward to playing with/against all of those guys in the future.

At this point, there were a few Long Beach guys who were still in the area and wanted to keep getting some work in. In addition, there were some Irvine and UCLA guys who were interested in doing some practices. So, Keegan decided he'd try to make this a team all on its own. We wouldn't be great, but we'd be pretty good while developing a little more team chemistry for the college team, and building camaraderie with the guys in the surrounding areas. We were having very productive practices every Tuesday, working through a couple drills before having some competitive scrimmages. We were getting pretty excited about playing together, looking forward to going to Chico and playing at Discos Calientes.

THEN there was a new development: Ed 'Biclops' Melo decided to resurrect LA Monster. He proceeded to recruit a lot of UCLA players, in addition to the Irvine guys who were coming to our practice. And a couple of us Long Beach guys. This team was obviously going to be much more organized, with a bit more talent and WAY more people to work with. So, we jumped ship. We still held our weekly practices, but the team we were putting together was no more. My focus had now shifted to playing hard for Monster and doing the best I could to improve and be ready for the college season.

It would take entirely too much time to list every person on the team and explain how awesome they all are individually. Instead, I will say that this team was truly fun to be on, with some of the most amazing personalities and attitudes I have ever had the pleasure of playing with. Guys would play their butts off on a regular basis, whether it be in important games or remedial drills. When we went to Arizona, I was more than willing to invite them to my aunt and uncle's house in Scottsdale. Knowing the character of the team I was supremely confident that they would represent our sport, ourt team, and myself well. And they didn't disappoint.

While we would run a vertical stack occasionally, particularly when things were going crazy or when we got close to the goal line, our offense was mostly through the horizontal stack. I hate this offense. Too many things can go wrong, in my opinion. Clearing out is difficult, cutting lanes are crazy, I just don't like it. Luckily, I was placed as one of the outside cutters most of the time, so I would end up just biding my time until I could make a deep cut. I wasn't hucked to as much as I would've liked, but that's obviously going to happen. Hucks are low percentage, for the most part, and our team was designed more for quick movement and moving the disc up the field on short in cuts. Thanks to our amazing handlers, this worked pretty well. We faltered a bit here and there (multiple turfs on our own goal line in the same game multiple times hurt us in a couple big games), but were pretty effective overall. And our defense was awesome. Everybody was running hard all the time, and our tight coverage caused more than a fair share of drops and bad throws by the other teams. Very similar to how important our defense is with the Stalkers.

A few specific highlights from the season:

-Our game against Strike Slip at Chico. Multiple players on Monster had been cut from SS, and we went into that game really fired up. They had no answer for our deep game as Stig and I spent the whole game dominating in the air. I have complete confidence that we would have won that game if we had scored our last goal BEFORE hard cap went off instead of AFTER. We lost 10-9, and that was the only time we got to play them all season.

-Ed eating fruit snacks WHILE he was playing a point. In the middle of a mark, even. AND commenting on it out loud. Hilarious.

-Matt Hennessey absolutely owning players on Seduction and Johnny Bravo. 

-Free breakfast sandwiches at the fields before gametime both days at Chico.

-Previously mentioned BBQ at my aunt and uncle's house

   -Domination by Penguin and Hennessey at Cornhole at said barbecue. ~30 wins in a row.

-Bishop hucking to Tommy 3 times in a row just to score 1 goal against Streetgang because there kept being calls during the same mark.

There's probably more that will come to me later, but that'll do for now.

All in all, the best teams we played didn't impress me that much. I'd always held club teams to a pretty high standard, but Johnny Bravo didn't blow me away (sidebar: I'm no longer a fan of Jolian Dahl, as good a player as he might be. But, Hylke Sneider impressed me a great deal), and I feel we were competitive (though the score won't show it) with Streetgang. These were some of the most competitive games of Ultimate I've ever played, and they were played at a higher level than I had ever experienced. I'm excited to see how my learning and experience will carry over into the college season, along with all my Stalkers teammates who were also playing this club season. 

Special thanks go out specifically to Ed for including me on this team. 

Looking ahead to next year, I will be attempting to start my own team. A blog explaining what I want that team to look like and how it will operate will be up in the near future. For now, I will leave you with this:

First Semester: Fall '07

Finding the Long Beach State Stalkers.

I was first introduced to Ultimate Frisbee during the summer of 2007 through friends at church. I'd watched a couple of their makeshift tournaments and played a little with them at the beach. This inspired a deeper interest in the sport for me, so I decided to search it out a little more. Using the ever-so-popular social utility I like to call Facebook, I found the Cal State Long Beach Ultimate Frisbee Club group. On the group page contained a little information about the team and sport, but more importantly was info about the Ultimate Frisbee class that was going to be offered during the upcoming semester. I decided I'd join the class and see what the sport was really about. The class was taught by Evan Cohen, a local player who played during his schooling at Cal-Berkeley. Coupling his well-organized instruction (focusing on throwing, learning offense and defense at an increasing rate) with the presence of a significant number of players from the team, the class was a lot of fun and I learned the most i've ever learned about a sport in that short of a time. During class I was encouraged to start attending team practices and the local pickup games held at school and at the beach, which I started doing shortly thereafter.

The Beginnings

Let's get one thing straight. I am determined to be good at whatever sport I play. It's not a "I want to be the best player no matter what" type of thing. It's more of a "I want to be competent so I can contribute and have fun" kind of thing. Ultimate is unique in this way: You have to be able to throw in order to contribute. In every other sport, you can get away with running around, playing defense, setting screens, and contribute in ways without using the object (ie: baseball, basketball, football, hockey). In Ultimate, when you get the disc, you have to be able to get it to the next person. Now, like most people, I had a backhand that was sufficient enough. It wasn't great, but I could get it to the next player even if they were a significant distance away. Not true with a forehand/flick. I had never (NEVER) been pulled aside during a sporting event and told to work on a specific skill due to its lacking in play, as was the case during a tournament when I threw 3 flicks away for a turnover in a row during one point. I was determined from that point on to play as much as I possibly could from there on out. I attended every Thursday night pickup game at school, every Saturday morning pickup game at the beach, every Friday practice, and whatever Tuesday practices I could manage to get to. I am confident in saying that I have thrown/played more than anyone on the team since that time (going on 17 months now). Throwing inabilities notwithstanding, I was given the opportunity to play a lot due to my size (being tall is a pretty good advantage once you know how to use it, which I'm still working on), athletic ability and quick study of the game (when you play a lot of sports, it's pretty easy to pick up new ones once you get through the vernacular).

Tournaments

There are probably holes due to the fact that my memory is generally horrible, but whatever. The 2 tournaments I remember the most were at UCLA and Irvine.

UCLA- To this day this tournament is one of the most fun times I've had at a tournament. I didn't play much, nor did I play well (the setting of the horrible flick sequence), and having to get ready for a game at 8 in the morning in the cold and fog is not something I was used to. But the atmosphere of an Ultimate tournament is hard to match. There are a few notable highlights from the weekend. Dan Wise had a ridiculous layout during his first point ever. The veterans played an awesome, intense match against a UCLA alumni team that was a lot of fun to watch even though the rookies stayed on the sideline the whole time. We ended up breaking seed and the weekend culminated with some of the best sandwiches ever, as UCLA had set up a couple tables loaded with sandwich ingredients. Awesome!

Irvine- I remember 2 things and 2 things only from this tournament. The first, I threw an awful flick to Marcos that went straight into the ground. Except it didn't go straight into the ground, but into his foot, which he awkwardly, haphazardly kicked at. Remarkably, it popped straight up into his arms. Everyone on the field that witnessed it stopped and stared in amazement, including Marcos and myself. After taking a second to realize what just happened, we continued play. To this day I still don't know how that happened. Secondly, our last game of the tournament, at night, against Irvine. I'm on a line with Rory and Dan. I make a deep cut that covers probably 3/4 of the field, to which Rory hucks the disc. It flies by me and I end up in the endzone unable to catch up with it. The point continues and I have to run back down the field to play defense. Not ten seconds later, they turn it over and all I hear is Dan yell "Jacob Go!" My first reaction is "You have got to be kidding me" (keeping in mind I am still not in shape, and the prospects of another near-full field sprint after having just done one was beyond what I was ready or willing to handle). Against my better judgement, I take off towards the endzone one more time. Dan throws a beautiful huck that I manage to barely catch up to for the score. That may have been the most tired after a point I have ever been. Thankfully, I am in much better shape now and it takes 3 full field sprints for me to be exhausted. :)

Reflecting

My first semester playing Ultimate was awesome in so many ways that putting it all down would take ridiculously too long (this has already gone way too long). It is critical that I mention how pivotal having awesome teammates and knowing awesome people in the Ultimate community made me want to keep playing. I didn't have to keep going to practice and tournaments, I could've played basketball or something else I was actually good at to fulfill my competitive desires. But why wouldn't I want to hang out with these awesome people as much as possible? I don't go to parties very much, but the Halloween party was a lot of fun, even if I did still end up being a wallflower most of the time (sorry, that's just how I am at dance parties). And then the community members who come to pickup at school and to the beach, they provide an amazing, positive, loving atmosphere that I was just drawn to and try to draw other people to as much as possible. Alas, winter break was upon us, and my amazing semester had come to an end. Lei-Out and the Spring semester are to follow.

Why I Play

There's a reason the sport is called "Ultimate" Frisbee. Actually, there's a couple. Let's examine:

A) It is truly the "Ultimate" sport.

Ultimate Frisbee has everything that an athlete would love about sports, with one exception (which I will get to). It incorporates speed, agility, size, ability, awareness, strategy, and intensity, among other things. There is no lack of scoring, as most games are played to 11 or 13. It has the game speed of basketball (with constant movement up and down the playing field). It's played on a football-sized field (almost, the same 120 yards long, but only 40 yards wide versus 53, and with 25-yard endzones instead of 10). The 7-on-7 play leaves a lot of room to move around but not so much that it's ridiculous. If you are short and fast, you are an awesome weapon underneath. If you are tall and slow, you are an awesome weapon deep. If you're in between, then you can switch between both. Heck, you could be practically immobile, but as long as you can catch and throw, you can be useful. What other sport does that? Lastly, it is the ultimate team sport. When you are in possession of the disc, you can't move. Do you realize the implications of that? YOU CAN'T MOVE! You have to have teammates moving and getting open so you can throw them the disc, and you have to do likewise when they have the disc. I love the freedom that comes with putting my trust in other people. Give me a team sport over an individual sport any day of the week.

B) It has the "Ultimate" sportsmanship.

Ultimate Frisbee was founded on the principle of "Spirit of the Game" (SOTG). It is predominantly self-governed. No other sport comes even close to this. Ultimate relies solely on the respect and honor of the individuals playing it to make calls and progress in gameplay. Sure, discrepancies occur. But not as often as one would think. Most of the time, calls are worked out really well on the field. Some games get out of hand (namely high-level competition at the top college and club levels) with the number of calls being made. But for the most part, things are handled very well without many arguments.

C) It has the "Ultimate" community.

Ultimate Frisbee has the best community members of any sport I have ever played. Let me elaborate. Ultimate Frisbee players are the most amazing people on the planet. It doesn't matter what skill level you are, you are always welcome on the field and everyone is always willing to offer advice and help you get better. Especially at pickup games. This would never happen on a basketball court. "You don't have skills? You ain't gotta go home, but you gotta get the heck up outta here." Additionally, no matter what happens on the field, everyone is friends off of it. It's bound to happen that you play against someone you've never met before, have a huge disagreement on the field, then become really good friends in postgame activities. I guarantee you, if you play Ultimate, this will happen to you if it hasn't happened already.


You know what the sad thing is? Not enough people know about Ultimate Frisbee yet. More often than not, when I introduce the sport, people think I'm talking about Disc Golf. No, I'm talking about a sport that will kick your butt physically, stretch it mentally, and expand it emotionally (uh, let's just go with that). I have met some of the most amazing people I know, have been a part of some of the most rewarding team accomplishments, and have experienced some of the most remarkable personal highlights that I have ever had in my life, and I have no intention of slowing down anytime soon. Ultimate Frisbee will definitely be a big part of the rest of my life. Hopefully it will be a part of yours, too.