The cows, they are-a-mooin'

My weekend was full of Ultimate. This no longer qualifies as news. I think when my weekend is not full of Ultimate, that's when it's news. My A league team had our best tournament in recent memory and we still ended up fifth out of six teams. We won two games and lost one, but even though we held our own against the perennial champs and we knocked off a team that we haven't beaten in ages, the second team beat the champs and we lost out by point differential. The standings don't reflect our success, but I still want to focus on that. I think we saw improvement from previous years for a couple of reasons. The first was a little practice together. It doesn't seem like at this stage in our Ultimate careers after not practicing together for so long, practice would mean much, but judging by yesterday it still matters. It didn't change our game greatly, but the things we worked on in practice magically appeared as opportunities in the game. We'd spent time on them in practice, so it was more than just words saying "move the disc", it was a non-game Saturday afternoon reinforcing it. Our stack was still a bit messy, but there were some opportunities that came directly from a drill we did in that practice. Personally, this tells me that I need to continue to take practice agendas seriously for my other gig. The second factor was a big one, he was 6 foot 5 and a quite a player. His defense and presence were very helpful, but it was offense where he made the most difference. He liked to throw it deep and he took some pressure off our handlers. It's neat to see someone's immediate impact like that.

I felt like my impact just wasn't what it used to be. I'm still competitive, but I'm really struggling to get there on defense and make something happen. I need to play a smarter game and so far I'm not there. My highlights were hustle and awareness plays and I'm not sure what that says about me. The first was just an out and out sprint down the field on a pull. I swerved toward the path of the first throw and the thrower threw it away. That's the easy way to get a D. The other highlight was out of the stack. My defender was ready to poach the lane, so I just turned to the break side and cut deep. He had to follow. He was running around the stack and about the time he was in position, I cut back in for a big 20 yard gain on the throw. The other was from practice. Using my will power I begged and pleaded with my eyes to get a break side throw to me in the front of the stack. As soon as I had it, I turned and put a backhand deep. My cutter almost didn't go, but then he was on it and tracking it down. Just like we'd drawn it up.

Today was rec league and my legs (both calves cramped up on Saturday) and my heart weren't quite in it. We were a mess, like the ground and the round, and we couldn't get going. We traded points and struggled and eventually lost. I was really fighting to keep my cool. I finally started to wake up at the end and enjoyed getting my defender to panting, but it was too little too late.

From that loss, I made my way to catch the college team in the finals of C league. I wasn't worried about any coaching at that point. They were beyond needing me after already going 6-0 on the weekend . There were taking on a team that had obliterated them early in the season with a zone defense, but with most of the veteran corps there, they were rolling. The three speedsters were working it and it would be hard to find three guys that fast on any C league team. Everyone else was holding their own and playing solid as they could get involved. They ran away with the championship to the tune of something like 15-6. Continuation cuts are still an issue, as are throwaways, but we're seeing fewer drops, pretty good disc movement and a lot more intensity.

I'm happy to have a week or so off from Ultimate, but I'd be lying if I said I knew whether I was going to play this winter.