Homework

"Man is a goal seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals."
- Aristotle

Everyone on BigFish was given some homework at the end of our practice last Tuesday. Since BF isn't heading to nationals, and because the goal of our team is player devolpment, we were to think of goals to work on during the remainder of the season. Tanya, a fellow practice roster player who has studied sports psychology gave us examples of short-term and long-term objectives, and how they should be linked, measurable, and acheivable. Even though I've been taking it easy on vacation for the past couple of weeks, I took the assignment seriously and thought I'd share the results with you.

Long-term goal: Make the BF roster next year.
Rationale: I'll level with you, even thought I didn't expect to make the team, getting cut hurt. More importantly, I got hooked on competitive ultimate at Regionals this year. I want to make the roster so that I'll have the opportunity to play every tournament with the team next summer (especially Regionals where we will totally dismantle Zen and Tundra and earn a trip to Winnipeg).

Short-term goal #1 (Defense): Do not allow any easy throws to my man.
Rationale: Even though my man-to-man defense has improved, I still get lazy sometimes and allow in-cuts, or dare the handler to throw deep on me. This isn't acceptable on a competitive team. All throws to my man will be discouraged and challenged.

Short-term goal #2 (Offense - cutter): Catch every catchable disc thrown to me.
Rationale: If I can get a hand on it, I should catch every disc thrown in my direction. I've proved to myself that I can string together no-drop games, now it's just taking it to the next level. A big part of acheiving this goal will be improving at reading high hucks. Reading the disc wasn't something I had worked on during the last year, mainly cause I've spent so much time handling.

Short-term goal #3 (Offense - handler): Only attempt 100% throws in games.
Rationale: In order to minimize turn-overs, I'm comitting to only trying throws that I know I have the ability to complete. No more hammers, push-passes, and difficult break-force throws until I can make them consistently in practice/warm-up.

Short-term goal #4 (Fitness): Be in better shape next year at tryouts.
Rationale: My hips, quads, and hamstrings were killing me this year during tryouts. After being injured the majority of last winter, I have to work hard doing preventative exercises, stretches, and cardio to keep healthy.

Short-term goal #5 (Fun): Have fun.
Rationale: This isn't a super serious sport. I need to keep things light in order to maximize my enjoyment, and that of my team-mates.

C'est toute mes amis. Of course time and circumstances might adjust the above goals, but I think they'll provide me with a good road-map over the next nine months. If I have time later this week, I'd like to post a little pre-Mixed-Up entry. For whatever reason, I'll be playing with BigFish during our last tournament of the summer, and am definitely looking forward to kicking some ass, and beating our seed. Until next time, happy hucking!