Quality over Quantity

I've always liked the idea of quality over quantity. I feel that a small group of very talented players should nearly always beat a larger group of semi-talented players.

This seems to be the reality that LPC tries to achieve. The past couple years, this team has had a real strong core of players and a relatively inexperienced secondary string. We tend to enter each tournament with a tiny roster and then go up against teams like Stanford and Cal who both have rosters with 25+ guys who know how to throw and cut. How do you beat that? How do you beat that when you only have 12 guys?

One word:

Effort.

Bob says it very nicely. We are in a race. We race against teams like Cal and Stanford. We race against all the other teams in the nation. Regionals is not that far away. How quickly are they going to improve? The only way we can beat them, is to beat them in that race.

We don't have 25 guys to work with. We can't cut anyone from out team. We've got to work with what we've got to the best of our ability. The fruits of our labors show though. Teammates who would've never gotten a chance on other A teams now dominate on our team. I'm proud to have them as teammates.

Stanford, Cal and Santa Cruz might have us beat on the quantity, looks like we'll have to beat them with quality. Our top guys have to be better than their top guys. And have to last longer. Our middle tier guys have to be better than their middle tier guys. And have to run for days. Our bottom tier guys have to get better. If they don't everyone else has to get better to compensate.

As fun as it is to play 90% of all the points played for your team in a tournament, it sucks to never be full of energy past the first two games. It sucks to hear the coach of Cal tell my defender that he's guarding a guy with nothing left in his tank. That just makes me want to run him into the ground. Then I score and I wonder again if I'll have anything for the next point. Barely enough energy to trash talk the coach too.

We're going into Vegas in a couple weeks with maybe as many as 16 guys. That's assuming the two teammates on crutches right now will be fully healed in two weeks. Three days of hard ultimate with fourteen to sixteen guys? Looks like we might have to save a couple roster spots for some of our ladies.

Dispelling the Illusion

I had somewhat of an epiphany the other day while driving home. I was talking with Davin about my life and future and ended up talking about the future of some of my teammates. It suddenly hit me during out conversation. It hit me and it hurt. Exactly, how many of my teammates will graduate college? With more than an associates degree? Ouch.

It might be due to the fact that so many of my teammates work. I am curious how many people on Cal's A team have part time jobs. How many of those people (with part time jobs) work more than 10 hours a week. Just off the top of my head the following people on LPC have part time jobs: Ernst, Zip, Charlie, Josh, Bob, Travis, Sticks, Geoff, Harry and Tim. That's more than 50% of our total roster. Ouch.

It might be because of ultimate (the thought makes me cringe). I sacrifice a lot for ultimate as do many of my teammates. It would not surprise me if all of our grades suffer due to ultimate. I probably won't be in tip-top studying shape after santa barbara this weekend. I imagine returning to the bay area sick, hungover and exhausted. Prime studying conditions indeed.

I'm not saying that all LPC players are doomed to never attain a bachelor's degree or higher (that is, in something more useful that a degree in World Religion). But I find it interesting and somewhat depressing that so many LPC players are struggling to do in their 5th year, what many other college students did in their 2nd.

I am in my 5th year of eligibility. And I am still at a community college. I am not the only one. I often wonder, what career will I hold? What career will half my teammates hold? I have heard that Alex Nord works at a Costco so that he might be able to more fully play ultimate. An interesting concept. Sacrificing more pay, more financial stability in order to play a game you love. But his story is different (assuming it's true), he chooses to sacrifice the higher paying job for a job that allows him to compete. I wonder how many of my teammates will have that luxury. Will I?

The New Year Approacheth

The New Year is still a couple of days away, but I have been thinking over my New Year's Resolutions for the upcoming year with plenty of determination. I improve my game each season and at the end of each season I see so many areas in which my game can improve more. Will I ever be completely satisfied with my playing ability? I hope not. I hope I always have this drive to improve myself and a player, as a college student, as a person.

Ultimate Goals for the Year

- Improve my deep throws

- Increase my acceleration

- Increase my vertical leap

- Alter my bids to cover more horizontal distance (get rid of the "rainbow layout")

Non Ultimate Goals

- Study with fervor

- Get to sleep at an earlier hour (and wake up earlier)

What Drives You?

I have been playing ultimate since my sophomore year of high school. In the beginning, that is the first two years, I showed up to practice every once in a while. I threw with my friends and played in the occasional scrimmage. I was decent for my age. I did not have any drive or desire to improve. I played to have fun and to socialize.

My first tournament came the end of my junior year. It was in Grass Valley, California. A little tournament called Grassburn which consisted of some high school teams and a few club teams consisting of high spirited, but not very talented adults. A very fun and high spirited tournament, it was truly a great tournament for my first experience. It was at this point, I suddenly had the desire to become a better ultimate player. I wanted to be better because we enjoyed winning and I loved our rivalry with the neighboring high school teams of Castro Valley's Red Hand and Alameda's Dark Meat.

My high school ultimate career ended on a pretty high note. We were the dominant team from our rivalry(s) and a good number of my close friends were looking into the ultimate programs of colleges they planned to attend. It wasn't until my second year of playing at LPC that I took my next step.

I certainly improved from when I first started playing to that second year at LPC, but my rate of improvement was low. My throws were still weak, my knowledge of offense and defense was below average and even my speed and fitness level, which have always been pretty high, were only average. That second year of LPC I experienced a minor epiphany. I had always been around better players than myself, but this was the first time I realized I could become a significantly better player. I suddenly felt a burning hunger inside of me. I wanted to become better. I had to become better. The next time I stepped onto an ultimate field, I would want to be the best player on that field.

Since that year, I have worked hard. I show up to nearly every practice. Play hard during every practice. Throw inside and outside of practice. Workout inside and outside of practice. I play ultimate. I then go home and dream of ultimate. And every morning I wake up and know that in the not too distant future, I will be a dominant ultimate player. I will make this a reality.

In the beginning I played to have fun, I played to socialize. Now I play for more. I play for my teammates, for my friends, for myself and for ultimate. This game has given me plenty of happieness. In return I give it the best respect I can in the only real form I can think of, working my ass off to become a better ultimate player.

What drives me? The love for the game and for all it has given me. That's more than enough for any one man.

Trial and Error

I am not without my faults. I make plenty of errors, both mental and physical, in ultimate as well as in life in general. I will have to hold off and see if starting this blog will be one of those mental errors that I am so prone to make.

Every time I step out onto a field, I must be prepared to make mistakes. No matter how good of a player one is, that player will make mistakes. A good player makes less mistakes than most, but more importantly will not let those mistakes hinder him. In football, they say that a good quarterback has a short memory. You do not want to be thinking of the interception you threw for the entire game. You do not want that bad play, that mistake, distracting you from playing your top game.

The same could be said about ultimate. I see lots of players in college ultimate who will make a mistake and then stand there for a second with their heads down while their defender is now running down the field calling for someone to throw the disc. During a point is not the time to feel sorry for your mistakes. Forget about the mistake, play defense and when you do get the disc back, play your game. Just like that quarterback, you do not need anything distracting you from playing your top game.

Like I said at the beginning, I am not without my faults. Neither are you. Both of us will make mistakes. When I make my next mistake on the field though, I will not be spending any time with my head down during the point. I will not be berating myself for it. I will be playing my game, focusing on getting the D and then focusing on scoring the goal. What will you do when that next mistake hits you?