IAD Tryout Breakdown

"Sometimes when you win, you really lose, and sometimes when you lose, you really win, and sometimes when you win or lose, you actually tie, and sometimes when you tie, you actually win or lose. Winning or losing is all one organic mechanism, from which one extracts what one needs."

Gloria Clemente (Rosie Perez) - White Men Can't Jump

To echo the words of a wise (and undeniably hot) actress, tonight I didn't win or lose, but probably tied. My tryout was neither completely positive, nor completely negative. Below are some thoughts on the tryout.

The Positive
- During the two half-hour scrimmages, I got two D's, one of which was rather pretty.
- In the first scrimmage, I laid out and came up with a Berkley pass that I would have previously given up on. Props to Stu for teaching me never to give up on a disc.
- I handled reasonably smartly, moving the disc up the field the great majority of the time, dumping in lots of time, swinging it quickly when I was playing middle handler, and clearing when there were four back and I was on the far side.
- My pulls were suprisingly on tonight. All three flick pulls landed within 10 yards of the end zone, and one was even in the end zone. Since I don't pull often on EotM, this surprised me.
- I didn't play with any fear, despite being matched against some very talented players.
- Received some very nice compliments from various IAD, IID, and comp players that I respect.

The Negative
- I got mad at my team on one point for not calling an 'up'. This was a bone-head move, since I should have covered the breakforce cut closer, and not relied on people I don't know to hold a force.
- My mark was a bit crowdy tonight. I also got called for a fast count....but that's more subjective.
- I was giving away in cuts all night. Mainly because...
- My fitness, which I have been working on ridiculously hard, sucked donkey balls *sigh* Seriously, I was winded after the first point. I was totally in survival mode during the second scrimmage.
- My team was kind of meh. We had a couple of decent players (Pat, Josh, one lady from Scarlett)...but others were hesitant to call themselves handlers, and wouldn't lay out for discs. It was a weird mix. I would have rather played with either of the other two teams, both of which had many more cutters who weren't afraid to go long.
- Ok, so I let a couple of hucks fly tonight. People would get a few steps on their defenders, and shoulder check, make eye contact me....at which point I'd let fly....only to see them turn and come in....or jog after a huck that was catchable if they only LAID OUT! I don't regret any of my hucks...although they probably didn't look the best to some of the evaluators.
- I threw one pass away on an in cut....ah well...it happens.

The Strange
- I fell over while marking a girl on a sideline dump drill. In my defense, she was a lefty with a very convincing fake.
- I completely forgot the bread and butter break force drill (in particular which side to cut to). Odd since I did it about 50 times this summer.
- After handling for the great majority of the scrimmage, I was asked to cut for a few points by my evaluators (Spence and Sharpe). I was two for two on in-cuts, and got over thrown when I made a deep cut. On the bright side, at least both the evaluators know who I am.

In summary, some good, some bad, didn't exactly shine, didn't exactly suck. Most likely, I'll be in the familar confines of IID again this year, unless the evaluators were looking for a decent handler with awful fitness *tee hee*. Seriously, it was a good learning experience. I talked to Carl Sharpe briefly on the way out and am going to email him for some feedback on things to work on this winter. Since winning or losing is only an organic mechanism, I'll extract some tidbits to work on in IID, and bust my ass this winter to improve. There's always next year :(

Until next time, happy hucking!