Post #150! 7/19-20: Ow My Knee, or: "Hey. Just so you know. We’re really good at ultimate."
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Loading ...And so it was that the 25th-seeded pickup team won.
What a great change of pace. After a long denouement to my ultimate career after regionals, with a brief, minor peak against Arizona at nationals, I’d found my passion for play fading (though my fascination with learning and teaching in this sport and otherwise continues as strong as ever).
But a glimmer of hope. Strangely, found it whilst tooling on some 15 and 16 year olds at the summer camp I was working at (perhaps you’ve heard of CTY? More than a few ultimate types got their start playing there, despite the camp ostensibly having nothing to do with ultimate). Somewhere in the flurry of terrible decisions and missed executions, punctuated by goals scored by yours truly (and staff accompaniment), I found it.
What was it? The joy of playing, of course! I had forgotten what it felt like. Those weeks of practice between regionals and nationals–they weren’t joyful. They were focused, they were dedicated to improving ourselves. They were work. Even at nationals, that sense of work stuck. Only when I could bring it all to fruition and really play in Colorado did it all mean something.
Similarly, I’d been tooling around with my throws, sure, thinking a lot about ultimate, yes, but I’d been missing the joy. The dam started leaking tooling on the teenagers, and the trickle became a river playing in Ow My Knee, tooling on dults.
Why lie. It’s a lot of fun to be good. It’s easy when you win. Playing this weekend, with a team of friends who not only played, but were damn good, was EXACTLY what I needed.
Particularly on Sunday, when we played legitimate mixed teams, that practice, and take themselves seriously, it was great to go and chill, pile together, and drink water during timeouts and halftime while our opponents huddled together and talked strategy. And then go back out and beat them (like our come-from-behind, universe point victory over 7 express in the final–we were down something like 7-10 when the cap horn sounded).
This is less a recap and more a rejoicing–this is why I play ultimate. I had my doubts about playing elite when I return stateside (and easing those doubts is not a guarantee that I’ll feel any more confident in a year’s time when I get back from Japan, where I’m teaching English next year), but my passion has been re-invigorated.
College is impossible to recapture–the people, the community, the commitment were all so different than anything I could hope to ever find again–but playing in OMK reminded me of the other aspect, that part that drew m to Dartmouth Ultimate in the first place–not the Dartmouth, but the ultimate. I love this sport.
funny, i was considering playing for 7ex this summer…
by the way, someone from random house publishing should ask you to write the inner game of ultimate. thinking back, i now realize that you (and a few others) really embody a lot of the tactics the author writes about
hah. i dunno about that. there’s a lot i still haven’t fully integrated. mindset-wise, i’m still at a point where i tend to consciously focus on keeping the right mindset–it’s not automatic.
hm, sounds like a good topic for another post…
you’d (have) be(en) good for 7ex. They’ve got some pretty athletic players, and a few decent handlers, but they could use more depth at the handler position especially.
I went to CTY, as did my fiancee (nerd alert), and she picked up ultimate there but I didn’t. So 50%’s not bad.
how can you say that you’re good at frisbee and then say that you play co-ed? that’s silly. those 2 statements are contradictory.