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.
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