North Bay or Bust

"Like a virgin
Touched for the very first time."
Like a Virgin - Madonna

With North Bay only a few days away, I'm quite nervous. Not only is this my first tournament as part of a competitive team, it's my first two day tournament as well. As with all new experiences, there's a fear of the unknown. The fact I had an awful practice on Tuesday doesn't help. I'm thankful that Glenn was defending me physically during the scrimmage, since I can usually get away with only using my finesse game during league play. He mentioned he was trying to get me ready, and like all things Glenn does at practice, I appreciate that.

Without getting too far off the ultimate theme of this blog, there's also the fear of not really fitting in with the team on / off the field. On the field, I'm going to have to step up my level of play, make smart decisions, and put it on the line physically. After four weeks of practicing with the team, I'm starting to believe I can do that. Off the field, I have to make more of an effort to be part of the team. As anyone who knows me can attest, I'm a quiet, easy going, laid back guy. Most of the BF'ers or more extroverted, fun loving, and younger (on average) people. Keeping up with them in terms of partying, and off field antics will be a huge challenge for me. To be honest, I'm not sure I'm up to it…

The nerves are also related to trying to impress the captains / veterans on the team. Since every practice is basically an extended clinic for me, with some of the best players and coaches in Ottawa giving me tips, I feel the need to show them how I'm incorporating their feedback into my game. My "practice journal" contains every tip that I remember from practicing with the team, and rest assured it's reviewed regularly. This is probably a good location in the post to semi-hide the fact that the nerves are also in part due to the two open spots on the roster. Although I feel the three (Tron is apparently heading back to Open) other guys who practice with BF are all more deserving / knowledgeable / experienced than yours truly, there's a splinter of hope that if I play well enough in North Bay, it might lead to something. Having said that, it's probably best to re-affirm for the hundredth time that I'm totally happy busting my ass this summer in practice since I'm learning so much.

As usual, when I feel overwhelmed or lost when it comes to something related to ultimate, I thought asking someone who's been through a two-day tourny with BF would be a good idea. A former team-mate of mine, and ex-BF'er was kind enough to give me a half page worth of tournament survival tips. I won't post them here, since the tipper is on my FB list, and might link through, but needless to say they were all very helpful. Along with the informative tips, there were also some funny ones like "Don't get involved in anything with the words 'boat race' in it". If this is the equivalent of a basketball rookie 'boat race', I'll keep my distance ;-)

Anyway, I'm going to focus on having a good practice on Thursday in order to get some confidence back in my game. Since more people have been mentioning they read this blog to me (I still say you should read Steve's instead, it's far superior to these incoherent ramblings), including some pretty awesome ulty players (shameless sucking up), I'm quite open to more tournament survival tips. Until next time, happy hucking!