ultimate

The last Beware-o

Blog Written with a loving hand by kitt some time around 21:02 on 28 December 2006

Kris and I went up to San Carlos today to play in the tenth annual Beware-o the Sombrero tournament. We've been playing in the tournament since 1998, missing maybe two since then. The tournament was originally a high school only tournament, run by the group of high school kids on Christmas vacation, and morphed into a "you're home over Christmas break from college and have nothing better to do so comem play" one day tournament in subsequent years as the high schoolers moved on to college. They've since graduated and moved on to work or post graduate school or, as I found out today, the Peace Corps and missions and such. As a result of the inevitable march of time, this is the final year it'll be held, at least by under this name, with the ex-high school kids as organizers.

Good ideas last, so I expect another group to continue the tradition of the one day tournament the last week of December next year.

My team was led by Eric the Red. Eric managed all of three words before the experienced players (read: over 30) started talking over him. It was a little frustrating to see the toe stepping and hear the cacophony of the elders all wanting to be heard.

We played well as a team, familiarity and skill helping us along. I knew four people on the team (Dave, Sarah, Venga, Phelps), having played with them at various times before. We didn't have any beginners per se on the team, so people who had problems throwing in the wind were our weakest links; which is to say, we didn't really have any weak links.

We won our first three games handily, though not necessarily easily. The third game was against another 2-0 team in our pool. Oddly enough, we went up 9-0 on them before they scored their first point. They had four or five players on their team who played together at a local college, according to Emily who was on the team. Their coach was playing on my team. I suspect they intimidated themselves into playing poorly. The experience is going into my UCPC talk at the end of the month: "don't lose before you start playing."

Lunch of delicious peanut butter and jelly sandwiches was after our first three games. We started late, and came out flat. One of our players, Phelps from San Diego, left after lunch, and his loss was quickly felt. The game capped when we were on our comeback, but not back, so we lost 6-7.

I played well. I had two throwaways, but neither mattered, as they were in games we won. My ankle held up very well, for which I am quite pleased. At one point, Dave McClure (who is no longer at SimplyHired, and is currently waiting the birth of his second child) commented to me, "There's no shame in wearing ankle braces for the rest of your life, if it means you can play."

I thought about it, and, have to agree. I can play with the brace on, and that's what counts.

I can play ultimate.

Season over

Blog Yeah, kitt finished writing this at 18:56 on 17 November 2006

Well, this ultimate season is finally over.

The season is over, and I find myself struggling with how I feel about it. It's been a great season for the team, losing only six games the entire season, and winning Nationals: a season doesn't get much better than that.

But, it's been a not-so-great season for me. I'm struggling with injuries, my ankle at Labor Day, my back at Grub. I'm struggling with teammates, some I don't like, others whose style of play is the antithesis of our proposed team personality. I'm struggling with a marked lack of confidence caused by the injuries preventing me from maintaining the fitness and skill levels needed to participate fully in our games.

That one is the worst: the lack of confidence. It adversely affects every aspect of my game, from cutting to throwing to defense.

Part of me wants to be done with the sport, find another sport and move on. That part of me is tired of certain personalities on the team, and wonders if my thoughts of quitting ultimate entirely come from not having fun playing with ththose personalities.

Part of me wants to go out on top. I didn't fully participate at Nationals, but I'm on the team that did, and I contributed to that team's success at practice, and early tournaments before the injuries, and organizationally after the injuries.

The bigger part, however, wants to keep playing. That's the part that wants to see if I can double my current vertical jump, if I can learn to throw a baseball sidearm to help my forehand throw, if I can run consistently during the off-season, if I can throw enough to be confident, if I can learn to pivot with Kris-like effectiveness on my fakes.

That's the part that doesn't want to give up on the easy fitness that comes with ultimate, the part that screams, I'm not done yet!

I've talked to Kris about finding a mid-level team where I can be a big fish in a small pond, where I do need to be the go-to person, see if that will help my confidence, as the increased fitness and consistent throwing will.

Yet, I'm not sure. I do know this: I don't want another half-assed year. And there are personalities on the team that I don't want to play with next season. Negatives shouldn't necessarily be a guiding force in decision making, but they can give nudges, I guess.

We'll see. This season just ended. I have lots of time to figure this out.

Fifth day at Worlds

Blog Yeah, kitt finished writing this at 18:50 on 16 November 2006

Fifth day at Worlds, and, well, we're out of the running.

Part of me is disappointed, but another part of me is relieved. We as a team originally said we came here to have fun, but, in reality, we were playing to win: subbing in our top roster, getting snippy when we didn't play well, the usual.

We lost in the round of 16 to the Bombing Mad Fatties who, as a team, has pretty bad spirit (independently confirmed by teams that play the team on a regular basis). We didn't figure out how to defend against their big players until late in the game (the top receiver is one of their worst throwers, and their women were universally non-stellar), so forcing to the women and their top guy under (instead of allowing him to score in the endzone) worked effectively. Tragically, we didn't figure this out until the gusty game was too close to overcome, losing 16-17.

The worst moment of the game was 14-14, when Mark went out of the game with a level 3 separated shoulder, requiring x-rays, an MRI and most certainly surgery.

Then losing to another team nearly immediately after that, a team that was clearly inferior, but we lacked heart.

We're on our way to 13th at the rate we're going. We'll meet Joyride again tomorrow morning at 8:30, and play our final game at 12:30. I'm uncertain to play, having rolled my ankle (the "healthy" one) in the second game of the day.

Can't say this has been one of my best tournaments.

Or vacations.

Fourth day at Worlds

Blog Instead of being asleep at 19:03 on 15 November 2006, kitt created this:

Fourth day at Worlds and I'm remarkably stressed, but not from playing. We won our first game, against the Chad Larson Experience fairly handily, though I don't recall the score at the moment.

Our second game was against Whorshack, from Portland, and was interestingly less closer than the final score of 17-16 would suggest. We were up 15-11, when Foss and Adam adamantly suggested we throw the game to end up on the opposite side of the 16 teams bracket from Brass Monkey. I think it was less the Brass Monkey and more the playing three US teams that we've played before on the way to the finals.

Assuming we make the finals.

Part of me is hoping we don't make it, as that would mean the disasterous room situation would be more dire. But that part is the hestiant, fearful part. The other part of me is gearin' to go.

I'm playing okay at this tournament, but not great. I'm not playing much, trying to get back into playing in the first place. This season has been pretty awful in terms of fitness, skills and confidence. I think I'm ready for the season to be over, actually.

Two, maybe three days left.

Can't wait to be home again.

Second day at Worlds

Blog Instead of being asleep at 21:26 on 13 November 2006, kitt created this:

Second day at Worlds, and Mark is angry at me. What a sucky suck day, when Mark is mad at me.

We beat the China/South Korea team, 17-5, in an incredibly blustery, windy day. We're undefeated in pool play, and will play Joyride, a Vancouver, Canada, team, and I think Osaka Natto from Japan tomorrow, with the retarted 8:30 AM / 4:30 PM schedule.

First day at Worlds

Blog Posted by kitt at 11:49 on 12 November 2006

First day at Worlds here in Perth, Western Australia, and they keep booting me off the wireless internet.

Turns out that, in Australia, it's not uncommon to nickel and dime everyone to poverty. Oh, you want ketchup (sorry, tomato sauce) with that? That'll be another 20cents. Oh, you want a second room key? That'll be an extra five dollars a day.

Because of the nickel and dime culture, complimentary wireless internet at the hotel costs $30AUD a day (or about $24/day on current exchange rates).

It's kinda annoying.

The only free wireless is at the fields, and they keep bumping me off the connection. Must be the massive uploads I've been trying to do to Flickr. Sigh.

We won our first game 17-11, against Dis'chords, a Montreal based team. The next game is against Endzonis, a German team, so we expect the style to be considerably different. Should be fun.